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Futurism | SpaceX Plans to Launch Its Massive Falcon Heavy Rocket This Summer

In Brief SpaceX tweeted a video of a test firing of its heavy duty rocket, Falcon Heavy. The full launch is expected to happen sometime this summer. The rocket has the ability to launch 54 metric tons into orbit. SpaceX has bounced back in a big way since the infamous setback in June of 2015. Since…

Futurism |Norway Just Added 50,000 More Seeds to Its “Doomsday Vault”

In Brief A shipment of 50,000 seeds have made their way to a vault in a mountainous area of Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago. The vault serves as the Global Seed Vault and stores virtually every kind of seed to ensure biodiversity. Buried in the side of a mountain in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago between mainland Norway…

Futurism |Controlling CRISPR: Researchers May Have Found An “Off-Switch” for Gene-Editing

In Brief Researchers have uncovered two distinct anti-CRISPR proteins — AcrIIA2 and AcrIIA4 — that worked to inhibit the ability of SpyCas9 to target specific genomes in bacteria. The discovery could lead to an “off switch” for CRISPR that would give scientists greater control over the gene editing tool when using it in human subjects….

Mashable | Somebody creates VR shoes and it is as weird as it sounds

When you think of accessories to use in virtual reality, shoes are probably not what comes to mind. But that hasn’t stopped one company from creating a set of sensor-enabled kicks from VR.  Part controller, part accessory, the Taclim shoes (created by Cerevo, the same company behind the app-enabled snowboard bindings) allow you to use…

Futurism |Newfound Comets to Help Ring in the New Year

In Brief A newly-discovered comet has arrived just in time to help us celebrate the New Year—and you might even be able to see it with the naked eye. Meanwhile, NASA’s NEOWISE mission has discovered another curious object, one that seems to muddle the distinction between comets and asteroids, that’s newly-arrived in the Earth’s neighborhood….

Grobo features smart technology designed to simulate ideal growing conditions.

 

Science Daily | World’s smallest diamonds made into wires three atoms wide

~Science Daily An illustration shows the basic nanowire building block – a diamondoid cage carrying atoms of copper and sulfur – drifting toward the growing tip of a nanowire, center, where it will attach in a way determined by its size and shape. The copper and sulfur atoms wind up on the inside, forming a…

Science Daily |Engineers create programmable silk-based materials with embedded, pre-designed functions

~Science Daily This image shows examples of engineered 3-D silk constructs. (Silklab, Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Engineering, Tufts University) Tufts University engineers have created a new format of solids made from silk protein that can be preprogrammed with biological, chemical, or optical functions, such as mechanical components that change color with strain, deliver…

An extra second has been added to 2016 on December 31

On December 31, 2016, a “leap second” will be added to the world’s clocks at 23 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). This corresponds to 6:59:59 pm Eastern Standard Time, when the extra second will be inserted at the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Master Clock Facility in Washington, DC. Historically, time was…