American researchers develop durable coating that kills Covid virus

New York, Aug 27 (IANS) There may soon be a new weapon in the battle against Covid in the form of a durable coating, thanks to Indian-American researchers, that can quickly kill bacteria and viruses on surfaces, and keep killing them for six months or longer.

The coating, which is clear and can be brushed or sprayed on, gets its durability and germ-killing power by combining tried-and-true ingredients in a novel way.

It uses antimicrobial molecules derived from tea tree oil and cinnamon oil, both used for centuries as safe and effective germ killers that work in under two minutes, according to the study led by Anish Tuteja, a professor of material science and engineering at University of Michigan, published in the journal Matter.

"Disinfectant cleaners can kill germs in only a minute or two but they dissipate quickly and leave surfaces vulnerable to reinfection. We do have long-lasting antibacterial surfaces based on metals like copper and zinc, but they take hours to kill bacteria. This coating offers the best of both worlds," said Tuteja.

The research team included associate professor of materials science and engineering and biomedical engineering, Geeta Mehta and materials science and engineering PhD students Abhishek Dhyani and Taylor Repetto.

The coating's durability comes from polyurethane, a tough, varnish-like sealer that's commonly used on surfaces like floors and furniture.

The coating proved deadly to SARS-CoV-2 virus, E. coli, MRSA and a variety of other pathogens.

It killed 99.9 per cent of microbes even after months of repeated cleaning, abrasion and other punishment on real-world surfaces like keyboards, cell phone screens and chicken-slathered cutting boards.

The coating could be a game changer in traditionally germ-laden public spaces like airports and hospitals.

"The antimicrobials we tested are classified as 'generally regarded as safe' by the FDA, and some have even been approved as food additives," Tuteja said.

"Polyurethane is a safe and very commonly used coating. But we did do toxicity testing just to be sure, and we found that our particular combination of ingredients is even safer than many of today's antimicrobials," he mentioned.

The coating could keep killing germs for six months or longer before its oil begins to evaporate and reduce its disinfectant power.

But even then, said Tuteja, it can be recharged by wiping it with fresh oil; the new oil is reabsorbed by the surface, starting the cycle again.

Tuteja estimates that the technology could be commercially available within a year, as it has been licensed to Hygratek, a spinoff company that Tuteja founded with assistance from Innovation Partnerships at the university.

The University of Michigan has applied for a patent based on this technology.

(Except for the headline, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

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NASA detects carbon dioxide in exoplanet atmosphere in 1st clear evidence

Washington, Aug 26 (IANS) NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured the first-ever clear evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system.

The finding, to be published in the journal Nature, offers hope that in the future, Webb may be able to detect and measure carbon dioxide in the thinner atmospheres of smaller rocky planets.

This observation of a gas giant planet named 'WASP-39 b' which is orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light-years away provides important insights into the composition and formation of the planet, the US space agency said in a statement late on Thursday.

"As soon as the data appeared on my screen, the whopping carbon dioxide feature grabbed me. It was a special moment, crossing an important threshold in exoplanet sciences," said Zafar Rustamkulov, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University.

WASP-39 b is a hot gas giant with a mass roughly one-quarter that of Jupiter (about the same as Saturn) and a diameter 1.3 times greater than Jupiter.

Previous observations from other telescopes, including NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, revealed the presence of water vapor, sodium, and potassium in the planet's atmosphere.

Webb's unmatched infrared sensitivity has now confirmed the presence of carbon dioxide on this planet as well.

"Detecting such a clear signal of carbon dioxide on WASP-39 b bodes well for the detection of atmospheres on smaller, terrestrial-sized planets," said Natalie Batalha of the University of California at Santa Cruz, who leads the team.

Understanding the composition of a planet's atmosphere is important because it tells us something about the origin of the planet and how it evolved.

"Carbon dioxide molecules are sensitive tracers of the story of planet formation," said Mike Line of Arizona State University.

(Except for the headline, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

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US judge rejects Musks absurd demand to give all Twitter users data

San Francisco, Aug 26 (IANS) A US judge has rejected Elon Musk's absurd demand to ask Twitter to hand over all data for approximately 200 million user accounts for the last three years.

Judge Kathaleen McCormick said no to Musk's legal team's "absurdly broad" request, saying that Twitter must hand over the 9,000 accounts it reviewed for its audit in the fourth quarter of 2021, reports The Verge.

"Plaintiff (Twitter) has difficulty quantifying the burden of responding to that request because no one in their right mind has ever tried to undertake such an effort. It suffices to say, Plaintiff has demonstrated that such a request is overly burdensome," the judge ruled late on Thursday.

Twitter will now need to hand over "a small additional set of data from its review database", said the judge.

In addition, the judge also agreed to Twitter's request for documents from Musk's side, like the data analysis Musk performed before he announced to terminate the $44 billion takeover deal.

Musk and Twitter will get engaged to a proper courtroom battle from October 17 for five days.

Musk's team has also submitted a subpoena for evidence from former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

Meanwhile, Twitter's former head of security, Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, has claimed that the Parag Agrawal-led platform lied about the actual number of bots on its platform and misled federal regulators about users' safety, creating a storm.

(Except for the headline, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

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Apple has revealed major security flaws in its iOS and macOS devices

This week, Apple issued a pair of security checks, including warnings about critical vulnerabilities affecting some of the company's best-selling products. Apple believes the flaw may provide an attacker "complete administrator access," meaning the attacker could assume the identity of the device's owner and install the software in their stead, as reported by Bloomberg.

Apple has issued a warning about a major security flaw that may enable hackers to take control of iOS and macOS devices and is recommending users upgrade immediately. 

Full control over the device

Webkit, the technology behind Safari and other applications, and the kernel, the core of the operating system, were both stated to have flaws by Apple. The iPhone 6S and newer products, as well as all iPad Pro and iPad Air 2 models, as well as Mac laptops running macOS Monterey, would be vulnerable. Some iPod models are also susceptible to flaws.

According to the business, "there has been word that this vulnerability may have been actively exploited."

Users of the iPhone 6S and other models, as well as the iPad 5th generation and later, all iPad Pro models and the iPad Air 2, have been urged by security experts to upgrade their devices.

Several iPods are also impacted

In a tweet, Rachel Tobac, the CEO of SocialProof Security, said that activists and journalists in the media spotlight are most likely to be spied on by smart nation-states.

Companies that specialize in commercial spyware, like Israel's NSO Group, are adept at finding these flaws and leveraging them to create malware that can stealthily infect a smartphone, then monitor and take data from the device while keeping the target user completely unaware of the infection. The US Department of Commerce has issued a blacklisting order against NSO Group. Its malware has been used to target journalists, dissidents, and human rights advocates in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. The statement came only days before Apple disclosed the iPhone 14 on September 7. Yet, Apple has not responded to any requests for comment.

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Facebook sees massive drop in teen usage in last 7 years

New Delhi, Aug 12 (IANS) A new survey of American teenagers (ages 13 to 17) by the Pew Research Center has revealed a worrying trend for Mark Zuckerberg-led Facebook as the share of teens who use the social media platform has plummeted from 71 per cent in 2014-15 to 32 per cent as of now.

Chinese short-form video platform TikTok has rocketed in popularity and is now a top social media platform for teens on Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat.

Some 67 per cent of teens say they ever use TikTok, with 16 per cent of all teens saying they use it almost constantly.

Google-owned YouTube tops the 2022 teen online landscape among the platforms, as it is used by 95 per cent of teens.

TikTok is next on the list of platforms that were asked about in this survey (67 per cent), followed by Instagram and Snapchat, which are both used by about six in 10 teens.

After those platforms come to Facebook with 32 per cent and smaller shares who use Twitter, Twitch, WhatsApp, Reddit and Tumblr, the Pew Research Center survey found.

This is the top reason why Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has placed his energies in making its platforms more like TikTok, and Instagram Reels now has a higher annual revenue run rate for ads ($1 billion) than Facebook/Instagram Stories at identical times post-launch.

"Changes in the social media landscape since 2014-15 extend beyond TikTok's rise and Facebook's fall. Growing shares of teens say they are using Instagram and Snapchat since then. Conversely, Twitter and Tumblr saw declining shares of teens who report using their platforms," said the survey.

Two of the platforms the Center tracked in the earlier survey, Vine and Google+, no longer exist.

"There are some notable demographic differences in teens' social media choices. For example, teen boys are more likely than teen girls to say they use YouTube, Twitch and Reddit, whereas teen girls are more likely than teen boys to use TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat," the findings showed.

In addition, higher shares of Black and Hispanic teens report using TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp compared with White teens.

This study also explored the frequency with which teens are on each of the top five online platforms: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.

"Fully 35 per cent of teens say they are using at least one of them 'almost constantly'. Teen TikTok and Snapchat users are particularly engaged with these platforms, followed by teen YouTube users in close pursuit," the survey showed.

A quarter of teens in the US who use Snapchat or TikTok say they use these apps almost constantly, and a fifth of teen YouTube users say the same.

When looking at teens overall, 19 per cent say they use YouTube almost constantly, 16 per cent say this about TikTok, and 15 per cent about Snapchat.

Since 2014-15, there has been a 22 percentage point rise in the share of teens who report having access to a smartphone (95 per cent now and 73 per cent then).

"While teens' access to smartphones has increased over roughly the past eight years, their access to other digital technologies, such as desktop or laptop computers or gaming consoles, has remained statistically unchanged," the report noted.

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NASA is now offering a million dollars to keep astronauts well fed in its Deep Space Challenge

As we’ve stated many times, space travel is hard, like incredibly hard. The human body isn’t meant to be out under the stress of space travel…yet. In the past few years, scientists and researchers have looked at innovative and clever ways of keeping astronauts well-fed for long periods of space travel. Remember that in a spaceship, food is going to be limited, so how we make these resources last longer is paramount. To that end, NASA has just announced that the agency will pay upto a million dollars to anyone who comes up with the most ingenious and practical way of feeding astronauts in deep space. Basically, the project requires teams to think up ways of food production that can actually be replicated on a spaceship or another planet!

What's cookin'? Seriously, we want to know. Phase 2 of the Deep Space Food Challenge offers up to $1 million to teams who demonstrate food production technology for future long-term space missions, potentially benefitting people on Earth. Ready? Sign up: https://t.co/SYr3lbqkVq pic.twitter.com/zIBnnuAdKp

— NASA (@NASA) January 20, 2022 NASA tweets out its Deep Space Challenge 

In an official tweet, the agency states, “Phase 2 of the Deep Space Food Challenge offers up to $1 million to teams who demonstrate food production technology for future long-term space missions, potentially benefiting people on Earth.”. It is a bold plan and one that in tier words, will help streamline food production here on Earth. In a statement to the media, Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate stressed that “Feeding astronauts over long periods within the constraints of space travel will require innovative solutions. Pushing the boundaries of food technology will keep future explorers healthy and could even help feed people here at home.”.

The real issue here is keeping food fresh and retention of nutritional value. Contestants will have to figure out how to streamline clean food production in space, all while maintaining taste, nutrition and hygiene. These technologies will also lead to a better understanding of how to manage food production here on Earth. As we race into the vast unknown of outer space, a man’s still gotta eat!

Also Read: Top NASA scientist says that we could terraform Mars using a magnetic shield

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Elon Musk thinks that we could realistically transport humans to Mars in 5 years

Planetary space travel has always been an idea that has lingered in the realm of sci-fi. Sure, we may have set foot on the moon, but that was only once and has never been replicated again. But, with billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos investing heavily in rocket technology, we could potentially experience space exploration in our lifetimes. In a recent interview on the Lex Friedman podcast, Musk talked about a wide range of topics such as AI, technology etc, but one thing that he stated really struck out. He mentioned that we could, in a best-case scenario, transport actual humans to the surface of Mars in about 5 years!

Humans on the surface of Mars in 5 years? 

We currently have 5 rovers on the surface of Mars. Called Sojourner, Spirit and Opportunity, Curiosity, and Perseverance, the rovers have been collecting data and sending back images of the red planet to earth. Technically, we humans already have a presence on Mars, so a future like the show The Expanse isn’t too far off in the future. As of right now, NASA has scheduled the Artemis 3 mission to the moon to launch in 2025, but with the state of the world, as it is, we’re not sure if the proposed launch will be able to stick to the deadline. But, travelling to the moon and to Mars are two very different undertakings. With the difference being, oh about 225 million km. Let that figure sink in. 

We currently do not have the financial means of actually sending actual humans to Mars but according to Musk, if there are no delays or mishaps with the building of his Starship variant, we could see humans leave for Mars in the year 2026. But again, this isn’t as simple as strapping astronauts into a spaceship and letting it rip. The coordination, money, engineering, design, management and logistical systems all have to be ready to undertake a literal 225 million kilometre journey. Well, as the old saying goes, if we never try, we’ll never know. 

Also Read: Space Tourism Just Got It’s Newest Destination: The Moon!

 

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Top NASA scientist says that we could terraform Mars using a magnetic shield

Sometimes we tend to forget that we live in an amazing time. Apart from the pandemic and all, but even then, the explosion of technology, ideas and commerce has led to a world where a lot seems possible. It’s one of the few keys to progress, the drive to explore and discover. Well, according to Top retired NASA scientist, Jim Green, we could even begin terraforming planets like Mars and even Venus. As the director of Nasa’s planetary science division. Green has been at the agency since 1980. In fact, he was even one of the people that came up with a scientific proposal on how we could verify and detect alien life. 

Terraforming Mars? Use a magnetic shield says NASA scientist

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Green proposed that we could currently even terraform a dead planet like Mars. He talks about using a magnetic shield to prevent the sun from stripping away the ozone layer of the planet, bathing it in radiation. A magnetic shield would shield the planet and allow it to trap more heat and slowly begin to develop a climate that is habitable to humans. It’s not as simple as it sounds and requires a massive undertaking, but realistically, it could be done, according to Greene. He even goes as far as to say that we could conceivably terraform Venus as well by using the same magnetic shield method. 

This may sound like science-fiction but do remember that we shot billionaires into space just a few months ago. Sending a team to Mars is tough but that could realistically happen in our lifetimes, the way things are progressing. Green is also keen on exploring the Jupiterian moon, Europa. Many researchers have theorized that Europa could be the one place in our solar system where we find life, other than Earth. The moon is said to contain a large amount of water that is located miles beneath the satellite's icy surface. Who knows what the future hold, but it does look like we’ll find out, sooner or later. 

Also Read: Here’s how NASA will let you know if aliens exist

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New Covid-19 breathalyser test can detect the virus much quicker than a nasal swab

As the world continues to grapple with the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers at Brown University have now developed a test that could help easily detect Covid-19. The test is a sort of breathalyzer called the Bubbler. Patients have to blow into a tube for about 15 seconds, after which a combination of enzymes then reverse transcribes the RNA into DNA, making it much easier for healthcare workers to detect an infection. The test essentially measures the viral particles through a patient's breath without the need for an invasive nasal swab. In fact, we earlier reported that Researchers have developed a chewing gum that could possibly prevent Covid-19. You can read more about that here. 

We’ve all gone through a nasal swab and know how uncomfortable it can be, so something like this could make detection easier and less traumatic. Measuring the particles in a patient’s breath could also be more meaningful as Covid-19 is generally transmitted through an airborne method. Testing a patient’s breath may also provide more information on issues with the lower respiratory tract, which could lead to more serious symptoms such as pneumonia. William G. Fairbrother, a researcher from Brown University stated, “Involvement of the lower respiratory tract is often a precursor to severe COVID-19, so there is an argument for a more direct sampling focused on the exhaled breath. Such technology could be useful in restoring service to industries such as hotels, cruise ships, and casinos. There is also an epidemiological benefit to routine testing of air at early warning sites such as transportation hubs and hospital emergency departments.”

New Covid-19 test could speed up detection

So, what do you guys think about this new test? Could we actually see a breathalyzer test for Covid-19? If this test does make it to the mass market, we could see it being used in airports and other areas where a ton of people gather. And, even though we’re still going through the pandemic, new innovations like this test could propel us into a brighter, virus-free future. 

Also Read: Researchers have come up with a chewing gum that could potentially reduce and prevent Covid-19 infection

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LG Ultra Gear Gaming Laptop Revealed With Intel 11th-Gen Core i7 CPU and Nvidia RTX 3080 GPU

The LG Ultra Gear 17G90Q is the first gaming laptop from the brand in a long time. LG isn’t a brand known for making gamer-focused products. They’re mostly known for making the thin and light “Gram” series and their value for money TV sets. Beyond that, LG generally focuses on manufacturing home appliances. However, times are changing and now eSports gaming tournaments could very well see sponsorships from LG, the makers of your favourite fridge. Nonetheless, here’s everything you need to know about the LG Ultra Gear 17G90Q. 

LG Ultra Gear 17G90Q Specs and Features

First and foremost, the LG laptop comes with an Intel 11th Gen Core i7 Tiger Lake processor. Our best guess would be an Intel Core i7-11800H featuring 8-cores and 16-threads along with 4.60GHz max turbo frequency and 24MB Intel smart L3 cache. In terms of GPU, the LG Ultra Gear G17G90Q will feature an Nvidia RTX 3080 Max-Q graphics card. This particular GPU features a massive 16GB GDDR6 of visual memory, which should be enough to handle the ever-increasing requirements of modern AAA gaming. At the time of writing this article, no word is available on the TGP of the GPU. 

The LG Ultra Gear 17G90Q features a 17-inch 1080p display with support for up to a 300hz refresh rate. I guess the screen response time would also be close to 1ms as well. In terms of RAM and storage, the laptop features 32GB DDR4 RAM and 1TB SSD storage. Considering how LG packs its products, like the LG Gram 2021, the storage will most likely be upgradable via a second M.2 slot on this gaming laptop.

The LG Ultra Gear 17G90Q also comes equipped with all the necessary ports like a USB Type A, Type C, an RJ45 Ethernet port, an HDMI slot, a microSD port alongside a Thunderbolt port as well. Gaming is power intensive and that’s why LG Ultra Gear comes with a massive 93Wh battery. It is a little less than the 99Wh battery that comes with the likes of the MSI GE66 Raider gaming laptop though. 

Packing all these components and keeping them cool takes a lot of space hence the LG Ultra Gear 17G90Q is 21.4mm thick, which is slightly thicker than the Alienware X17 which measures 20.99mm. The latter does a great job at keeping its internals cool thanks to four powerful fans and a special thermal paste compound. In terms of weight, the LG Ultra Gear 17G90Q is surprisingly light thanks to an overalls weight of 2.6kg, much lighter than the Alienware X17, another 17-inch laptop with a weight of 3.19kg.

The LG Ultra Gear 17G90Q will hit the shelves in the USA and South Korea in early 2022 with more details coming out soon at the upcoming CES 2022.

Also Read: Would you buy a 42-inch LG OLED TV?

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OmniVision unveils the worlds smallest sand-grain sized camera

As the world moves towards smaller and smaller electronics, it looks like OmniVision Technologies Inc may have just hit the ball out of the park with the world’s smallest medical camera. It's actually the size of a grain of sand. The tiny camera measures in at a whopping 0.65 x 0.65 x 1.158mm. The OmniVision OV6948 has also just entered the Guinness Book of Records as the smallest commercially available image sensor in the world. Although it outputs a 40,000-pixel image, the resolution of the camera isn’t anything to write home about. But, for medical professionals who require a closer look at the human body, these cameras are a godsend. 

What can the OmniVision camera be used for?

These cameras can be used in a variety of medical use cases such as helping with delicate surgery and even delivering a more precise diagnosis since doctors are able to get a better look at the problem. It even comes with a 120-degree FOV and an aperture of f/2.8. The camera also produces significantly less heat than its larger counterparts and can be implanted in the human body for a longer period of time. Specialised fields such as brain surgery, Haemotology, neurology etc will definitely benefit from the imagery that this camera produces. 

In a statement, Aaron Chiang, marketing director at OmniVision stated that, “Previously, procedures in the body’s smallest anatomy were performed either blind or using low-quality images from fiberscopes, as existing cameras were too big and reusable endoscopes were not cost-effective. The OVM6948 wafer-level camera module offers a compact, high-quality solution for disposable guidewires, catheters and endoscopes, which are experiencing growing demand because of their ability to reduce cross-contamination risks, downtime inefficiencies and costs associated with the repairs, preprocedural testing and sterilization of reusable endoscopes. In addition, these compact disposable medical devices can improve patient comfort and shorten recovery time.” 

Also Read: Scientists have developed the world’s first living robots, bringing us one step closer to a sci-fi future

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Scientists have developed the worlds first living robots, bringing us one step closer to a sci-fi future

As if autonomous robots weren’t enough, scientists have now unveiled the worlds first living robots. What are living robots you ask? Living robots are essentially artificially created organisms that have the ability to reproduce and create more copies of themselves. And no, they’re not just clones that are replicating but are actually reproducing. Researchers have noticed that these living robots can jumpstart a bunch of single cells, building them into an approximation of the parent robot. Within a few days, these ‘offspring’ even start looking like their parents. It’s a breakthrough discovery that has major implications in the medical world and further. 

What are 'living robots'?

Called a Xenobot, the organism is built using organic material and not the usual metal robots that we’re used to seeing in popular media. Although a nanobot swarm is somewhat similar to what these Xenobots can achieve. But, not to fear though, most of these robots will be used to clean microplastics and administer precise medication. These are but just a few uses of these Xenobots. The researchers also stated, “If we knew how to tell collections of cells to do what we wanted them to do, ultimately, that’s regenerative medicine — that’s the solution to traumatic injury, birth defects, cancer, and ageing. All of these different problems are here because we don’t know how to predict and control what groups of cells are going to build. Xenobots are a new platform for teaching us.”. 

In terms of new medical technology, these Xenobots could change how we view modern medicine in terms of medication delivery and monitoring. It could also speed up healing in wounded patients and such. The applications of this kind of tech are limitless and if anything, the future is going to be rather strange and quite amazing. 

Also Read: A huge asteroid is moving toward Earth's orbital path

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A huge asteroid is moving toward Earths orbital path

NASA is known for tracking dangerous space objects to ascertain whether any are heading towards Earth, and whether they have the potential to cause major damage. The agency recently warned that a huge asteroid is moving towards Earth’s orbital path. This asteroid is said to be twice the size of Big Ben, with the potential to cause damage akin to a nuclear explosion. Thankfully, that’s not actually going to happen as the agency says it’s not colliding with Earth. 

What kinds of damage can an asteroid this size cause?

According to NASA, this asteroid has the potential of producing 77 megatons of TNT, and is comparable to some of the largest nuclear explosions tested by man. In fact, NASA believes that the energy an asteroid like this can release will be 1.5 times that of the biggest nuclear weapon ever tested, Tsar Bomba. The Tsar Bomba was a bomb tested by the Russians, and the force was 3,333 times that of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima during the Second World War. So, you can imagine the level of damage that this asteroid can cause if it hits Earth.

How likely is it for asteroids to hit Earth?

Asteroids can hit Earth in the future, if they happen to be on the right collision course. Sometimes, smaller asteroids break into smaller pieces when they enter the Earth’s atmosphere (this happens because of the friction with the air) and hardly make an impact when they hit earth. Some dissolve entirely. However, the likelihood of a large asteroid hitting earth and causing widespread damage is not something NASA can rule out. It is believed that a large asteroid hit Earth millions of years ago, killing dinosaurs. 

NASA is preparing for the eventuality. One of the experiments the agency is working on is called the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART). The idea is to crash a spacecraft into an asteroid with enough force to knock it off its path. 

Also Read: NASA releases awe-inspiring image of a spiral galaxy taken by the Hubble Telescope

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Indian Parliament summons Facebook India officials to discuss citizens rights and Womens safety

Last year, former Facebook data scientist, Sophie Zhang, published a memo detailing the way Facebook is used to influence global politics. She spoke about sophisticated systems in place in India that were used to try and influence the 2020 Delhi Elections, along with similar systems in other developing countries throughout the world. Now, on the heels of her memo and a recent controversy surrounding Facebook’s policies and impact on politics, the Parliament has summoned officials representing Facebook India to discuss citizens’ rights and womens’ safety. 

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology (IT) will be held on November 29, with Congress leader Shashi Tharoor appointed as the Chairman of the same. 

"To hear the views of representatives Of Facebook India on the subject safeguarding citizens rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space," the committee agenda read.

Treating Social Media as Publishers

Currently, our laws treat social media platforms as intermediaries of content, and this approach has not done much to regulate the kind of content that is published and distributed. With hate speech and fake news being credited for countless communals incidents across the country, the Parliamentary Panel set up last week to examine the ramifications of such platforms concluded that they need a separate regulatory body, similar to the Press Council of India.

Doing so will make the platforms more liable for user-generated content - something that companies like Facebook and Twitter refuse to take any responsibility for. Additionally, with more and more consumers across tier-2 and tier-3 cities adopting smartphones and setting up social media accounts, data protection itself has become a widespread concern for the government. With this in mind, the Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019, may be revised to protect non-personal data from being misused by such companies.

What about the Metaverse?

While the Indian government is moving in the right direction as far as protecting its citizens goes, there is certainly a much larger threat on the horizon - the Metaverse. With people entering virtual realities and building lives there, the data protection and privacy laws of today may end up holding no meaning. Imagine curating actual experiences that sway public opinion, transforming people from subscribers to one political ideology to completely opposing ones. Now imagine this happening so subtly, that you barely have time to reassess your values. 

If companies like Meta are to make virtual worlds accessible to Indian citizens, they need to offer transparency regarding how they will use customer data. 

Also Read: Facebook to Protect Famous People, While Stomping on the Masses

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NASA to equip ISS crew with Augmented and Virtual Reality tech to help with repairs and maintenance in space

Augmented Reality is still in its nascent stages of development, but even at such an early stage, the applications and uses of this technology are moving beyond even the boundaries of the Earth. In a new report on the official NASA website, the space agency has stated that the astronauts aboard the International Space Station could soon be using AR to actually repair and perform maintenance on the space station. This will essentially bypass the need for astronauts to be in constant communication with ground control, freeing them up to focus on the task at hand. 

From what we can see, the applications of this kind of technology are boundless as maintenance is a key component of space travel since you’re essentially stuck in the cold darkness of space with little to no real resources. So, keeping your spacecraft intact and function will be of utmost importance. Without the need for communication with ground control, astronauts will be able to make decisive and necessary decisions when it comes to repair or maintenance work. NASA's T2 Augmented Reality project will fit the astronaut with a pair or AR glasses that will display precise instructions on how to best navigate the problem. It will display 3D cues and could even display blueprints, giving astronauts a deeper understanding of the problem. 

In fact, on the official NASA blog, you can actually read all about how NASA is looking at taking AR and VR tech forward on the ISS and how the agency uses it in various ways. With space travel being a major leap for mankind, we can only hope that these new technologies ease our transition to a space-faring race of explorers. But, for now, we have to live vicariously through the brave men and women on the ISS. 

Also Read: NASA releases awe-inspiring image of a spiral galaxy taken by the Hubble Telescope

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