SpaceX Dragon capsule splashes down in Pacific with a crew of mouse astronauts

Why it matters to you

Experiments and research aboard the International Space Station continue to provide valuable benefits back here on Earth.

After a month at the International Space Station, the SpaceX Dragon capsule has returned to Earth with nearly two tons of cargo aboard. The payload includes 20 live mouse astronauts, part of a NASA study examining biological changes in blood vessels and eyes caused by the zero-gravity environment of space.

The Dragon capsule was launched back in August with more than three tons of supplies for the International Space Station, including the Hewlett Packard Spaceborn Computer that may someday help humans reach Mars. In addition to the live mice, the delivery also included a special treat for the space station astronauts.

The mice are part of NASA’s Rodent Research-9 study, enacted to find ways to help humans cope with the effects of a zero-gravity environment. The study may also help arthritis sufferers back here on Earth.

.@Astro_Paolo and @AstroKomrade released @SpaceX #Dragon with Canadarm2 at 4:40am ET today for return to Earth. https://t.co/5rHQlLLgWo pic.twitter.com/PhQkutEWdN

— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) September 17, 2017

Live Science reports that scientific experiments onboard include lung tissue that was grown in space and protein crystals created in microgravity that may help combat Parkinson’s disease. The Michael J. Fox Foundation is supporting the research, helping scientists design optimized therapies to find a cure for the disease.

The Dragon capsule from SpaceX is currently the only vehicle capable of ferrying cargo to and from the ISS (when the rocket doesn’t blow up during launch, that is). Russia’s Progress and Cygnus spacecraft can deliver supplies, but both capsules are designed to burn up during reentry into the atmosphere. The Soyuz can bring human astronauts to and from the ISS, although there’s not much room for cargo onboard.

This was the 12th cargo mission for the SpaceX Dragon program, and it’s also the last time SpaceX plans to use a brand-new capsule for the assignment. From now on, the company plans to launch used and refurbished capsules for future missions. They may be facing some competition soon however, as Boeing’s Starliner space capsule is poised to begin providing transportation service into space.

After their month-long excursion in space, the 20 intrepid mouse astronauts don’t have much to look forward to. After splashing down in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Long Beach, California, the mice will be flown to the lab where they’ll be euthanized and dissected for research.

AI and Sophia Genetics could be the key to diagnosing your illness

Why it matters to you

Doctors have a new tool with which to diagnose your illnesses — artificial intelligence.

If Dr. Gregory House were a real person, he might’ve finally met his match in the diagnostics field in the form of Sophia Genetics. The Swiss company employs artificial intelligence to help doctors and other medical professionals diagnose and treat patients by way of genomic analysis. And now, the firm has raised $30 million to continue on its life-saving quest.

Though just six years old, Sophia Genetics has already made quite a name for itself in the health world. Its technology is employed by more than 300 hospitals across 53 countries, and is said to have conducted analyses of more than 125,000 patient genomic profiles. Promising to be “the most advanced artificial intelligence AI for data-driven medicine,” Sophia Genetics takes the genomic profiles to improve upon diagnostic abilities across oncology, hereditary cancer, metabolic disorders, pediatrics, and cardiology.

“Since inception, our vision has been to develop innovative technological solutions to help patients equally, wherever they live,” Sophia Genetics CEO and cofounder Dr. Jurgi Camblong, told Venturebeat. “Sophia acts as a real disruptor by breaking down the information silos in health care, meaning that the information from a patient in London or Paris can, for instance, help better diagnose and treat a patient in Lagos or Rio.”

But bridging those silos requires quite a bit of capital, and this latest cash injection should help the company continue refining its technology, and more importantly, increase hospital adoption of genomics testing. This is especially crucial to Sophia Genetics’ success because, like other AI technologies, its platform improves with further usage. That means that the more patient data the company can collect, the better its algorithms will be.

“Sophia Genetics is a company at the forefront of two rapidly changing technologies: genomic medicine and artificial intelligence,” Balderton Capital partner James Wise, one of Sophia Genetics’ newest investors, noted. “Giving every health care professional a standardized, straightforward, and fast way to analyze these complex data sets is an essential step to unlocking the potential of data-driven medicine. As diagnostic kits and sequencers become cheaper and more powerful, we believe that there is an opportunity to build the defining software layer on top of these technologies in genomics, just as Windows did for PCs and Android has for smartphones. And Sophia is already leading in this field.”

Get out your headphones — autoplay sound is coming to Instagram, too

Why it matters to you

Once you’ve indicated to Instagram that you’re alright with sound when playing videos, the app will autoplay sound for the rest of your session.

Google Chrome might be helping you mute unwanted noise during your browsing session, but it looks like Instagram is taking a different approach when it comes to volume on autoplay. The Facebook-owned photo sharing platform is taking a middle of the road approach to autoplay video sound, effectively remembering your preferences during any given Instagram browsing session, and keeping that preference consistent during your time on the app.

What does that mean, exactly? Basically, if you open up Instagram, the default will still be for videos to play sans sound. However, if you turn sound on in any given video (whether it’s an ad or organic content) by tapping on the speaker icon in the bottom left corner of a post, Instagram will remember that choice and play all your subesquent videos with sound on. Of course, if you decide that you don’t, in fact, want sound on for the rest of these videos, you can tap the speaker icon again to shut everything up, and the whole app will reset one you close out of it.

Instagram confirmed to TechCrunch that this marks a “new update [that] rolled out recently,” and seems to be an attempt to make it easier for you to enjoy your Instagram experience with the sound on. After all, if you’re well-aware that all those cute cat videos you come across are oh so much better with the volume up, it can be a bit annoying to have to toggle the sound on every single time you scroll past such a video. But with this new update, Instagram assumes that if you’re comfortable watching one video with sound, you’re comfortable watching all videos with sound. And hey, if they’re wrong, you can always make adjustments as necessary.

That said, Instagram Stories videos will not be affected by this new change — they’ll only play with sound on if your smartphone is unmuted.

It only seemed like a matter of time before Instagram made this switch to having more sound with its videos. After all, parent company Facebook announced earlier this year that it would be moving away from muted autoplay videos (much to some users’ chagrin). So get your headphones ready, friends. You may be hearing a lot more from Instagram in the coming weeks.

After Math: Planet smashers

It was a bittersweet week for the folks at Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Lab. One one hand, their $3.4 billion Saturn orbiter plunged to its mechanical demise in the suffocating atmosphere of the planet it spent 13 years studying. On the other, their $3.4 billion Saturn orbiter sampled the suffocating atmosphere of Saturn for the first time on its way down. So, pretty much a wash. Numbers, because how else can you appreciate how just dang ginormous our solar system really is.

‘Battleborn’ is winding down months after going free-to-play

Battleborn’s move to a free-to-play model doesn’t appear to have helped its chances. Gearbox has revealed that it’s winding down work on the hero-based team shooter as the studio shifts its focus to a “highly anticipated” (but unnamed) project. There isn’t any more planned content after the upcoming Fall Update, creative director Randy Varnell says, including skins and balance patches. The servers will stick around “for the foreseeable future,” so you can still play — it’ll just remain relatively static.

The decision is bound to frustrate you if you liked Battleborn’s take on a familiar game concept, especially since the game is only 15 months old and has been free-to-play for a mere 3 months. However, it’s easy to see why this happened — simply put, Overwatch happened. Blizzard’s own hero-focused title received massive amounts of hype (both critically and marketing-wise) that quickly overshadowed Battleborn, even though Gearbox’s game launched a few weeks earlier.

Battleborn certainly has a loyal fan base, but it was going to be difficult to justify long-term support for the game between its dwindling small player count (a peak of 12,000 on PC versus 31,000 Overwatch streams on Twitch as of this writing) and limited developer resources. Gearbox may have decided that it was wiser to move on than to pour its effort into a game unlikely to enjoy a renaissance.

Via: Kotaku

Source: Gearbox Software

California shelves law barring internet providers from sharing data

If you were hoping a state legislature would effectively override the federal bill rolling back internet privacy rules, you’ll have to keep waiting. California’s legislature has ended its session without voting on a bill that would have prevented internet providers from collecting and selling data without permission, or charging you extra unless you gave up that data. The bill isn’t dead (it was only introduced late in the legislative session), but it’s shelved until 2018 at the earliest — you’ll have to hope your ISP prefers opt-in data sharing until at least then.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation claims that the legislature “kowtowed” to lobbyists from telecoms, advertisers and other companies that stand to benefit from ISPs selling your data without explicit consent. They waged a public campaign against the bill claiming that there would be security risks if they couldn’t share data on their own terms. Whether that’s true or not, it’s clear that those companies got what they wanted, and that people across the country will have to live with the looser federal regulation unless California or another state passes a bill restoring tougher safeguards.

Via: Ars Technica, Mercury News

Source: EFF

Hinckley’s all-electric Dasher yacht demos its floating high tech

Why it matters to you

What Hinckley launches today may be standard for yachts of tomorrow.

The first all-electric Hinckley yacht continues the American custom boat-builder’s tradition of innovation. The 28-foot Dasher blends electric power, lightweight composite structural components, and 3D printing in a class-defining day boat or tender.

Carrying on a tradition with roots in Maine’s lobster coast 90 years ago, Hinckley continues to innovate, according to president and CEO Peter O’Connell. “From the early use of fiberglass in the Bermuda 40 in the 1960s to the adoption of jet drives on the category-defining Picnic Boat, we’ve always worked to combine the latest technology with cutting-edge naval architecture to do what has not yet been done,” said O’Connell continued.

Dasher‘s name comes from Hinckley’s first Picnic boat, a vessel style Hinckley debuted in 1994. With Dasher, Hinckley’s focus is on electric propulsion — all other technology on board and used in the yacht’s construction supports the implementation of green energy.

Two BMW i3 lithium-ion batteries power Dasher’s Whisper Drive propulsion system. The shock-resistant, waterproof i3 batteries are compact and cool efficiently. Two zero-emission, 80-horsepower electric motors can power Dasher to fast cruising speeds of 18-27 knots and a most efficient cruising speeds of 10 knots. The stated range on fully charged batteries is 40 miles at 10 knots and 20-25 miles at the faster speeds. Dual 50-amp dock charging cables let you fully charge the electric boat’s batteries in less than four hours, according to Hinckley.

Dasher achieves its super-lightweight construction with a carbon-epoxy composite hull, carbon stringers, trim, minimal modern styling, and 3D-printed Titanium hardware. The decks may look like teak, but Dasher has hand-painted Artisanal Teak decking for significant weight savings.

At 28 feet, 6 inches long, with an 8-foot-7-inch beam, the 6,500-pound displacement Dasher has an extremely shallow 2-foot-4-inch draft. Hinckley’s full yacht lineup features shallow drafts that allow much greater access to spots other yachts cannot reach.
The captain’s console has a retractable screen and an LED touchscreen for easy navigation.

Many of the smaller Hinckley yachts from the lineup of 29- to 55-foot vessels are in service as tenders for superyachts. The Dasher’s open deck design lends itself to various seating configurations including transporting guests to and from a large vessel in quiet luxury.

Dasher can serve as a picnic boat, but don’t expect to see one pulling water skiers. Watersports’ required acceleration and high speeds would chew through battery power quickly.

Hinckley only builds yachts to order. The company is accepting reservations now for summer 2018 delivery.

The Navy will soon use Xbox controllers to operate its attack submarines

Why it matters to you

The U.S. military is embracing video game technology for some of its most advanced systems.

The Virginia-class submarine is one of the Navy’s most sophisticated weapon platforms. Designed for stealth, the nuclear-power attack submarine is armed with Tomahawk missiles, Mark 48 torpedoes, and boasts the latest in intelligence gathering tech. And sailors on board will soon be using an Xbox controller – just like the one in your living room – to operate it.

The periscopes in the submarine are not like the ones you see in the movies. Periscopes on the Virginia-class subs have two photonic masts that can swivel through 360 degrees. High-resolution cameras display their images on several monitors in the state-of-the-art control room. The helicopter-style joysticks the Navy is currently using just aren’t cutting it.

The Navy commissioned feedback on the control systems from several junior officers. “What can we do to make your life better?” Lt. J.G. Kyle Leonard, the USS John Warner’s assistant weapons officer, asked. “And one of the things that came out is the controls for the scope. It’s kind of clunky in your hand; it’s real heavy.”

Lockheed Martin tested various control systems at its super-secret research lab, dubbed Area 51, near Washington D.C. It’s not just video game joysticks – Lockheed Martin has been experimenting with off-the-shelf technology like multi-touch tables, tablets, Kinect, and Google Earth to advance the systems already aboard a submarine

It turns out that many of the sailors, intuitively familiar with using a video game controller, could figure out how to operate the periscope within minutes. The current photonic mast system and imaging control panel costs approximately $38,000. An Xbox controller? About thirty bucks.

“That joystick is by no means cheap, and it is only designed to fit on a Virginia-class submarine,” said Senior Chief Mark Eichenlaub. “I can go to any video game store and procure an Xbox controller anywhere in the world, so it makes a very easy replacement.”

Video game controllers are one of many innovations the Navy is using as it transitions into the 21st century. It’s already using virtual-reality simulators to train sailors, and exploring technology like 3D printing and robotic underwater drones. “They want to bring in sailors with what they have at home on their personal laptop, their personal desktop, what they grew up with in a classroom,” said Eichenlab.

Or perhaps what they grew up with blasting aliens, scoring touchdowns, and exploring dungeons as a teenager.

Zelle’s instant money transferring will make you rethink those other apps

App Attack is a weekly series where we search the App Store and Google Play Store for the best apps of the week. Check out App Attack every Sunday for the latest.

Ah, money — the one topic most people find extremely uncomfortable to talk about. Thankfully, it’s become easier than ever to send money back and forth via your smartphone this year. And this week, we have an app that will make it even more convenient.

Zelle is a payment service app that allows you to send money directly between most U.S. banks within a few minutes. The service first launched in June and, depending on which bank you have, you might’ve already seen it integrated into your banking apps. But Zelle is now its own stand-alone app available for download on iOS and Android.

After downloading the app, all you have to do is set up your profile by filling out your basic contact information, email address, and phone number. Lastly, you’ll be asked to add your Visa or MasterCard debit card (which can only be U.S. based, since Zelle won’t be able to accept international deposit accounts or debit cards). Within the app, you can send money, request it, or split a specific amount between a group and receive the money within minutes.

Zelle is currently compatible with over 30 different banks, such as Bank of America, TD Bank, PNC, and Wells Fargo, among others. Practically every bank on the list will allow you to use both the standalone app and the integrated app. Upon download, you’ll receive a message letting you know you can use either the Zelle app or through your mobile banking app.

Chase, on the other hand, has Zelle baked in. If you have Chase, Zelle will still notify you of the same message but will then take you to its official mobile banking app.

Then there’s PB&T, which doesn’t have the integration at all, leaving you with no other choice than to use the standalone Zelle app.

We know what you’re probably thinking — if each bank already has Zelle integrated into its app, than what’s the point of downloading it? With the standalone app, it’s only connected to your debit card, which means you’re restricted to transferring money from that one account. If you decide to use Zelle through your banking app, then it’ll give you the option to switch between different accounts like your Checking or Savings.

Linking to your debit card is also the reason Zelle is a lot less of a hassle when it comes to setting up your card through the app. With Venmo, you have to go through the process of adding your routing number on top of your debit card — and let’s be honest, who really has their routing number on hand?

Zelle also does a great job of making sure all of your information is secure. Similar to your banking app, you’ll be locked out for inactivity after a certain amount of time. It will then ask you to enter your password to log back in, or you can set up Touch ID for quicker access. If you forget your password, you can easily reset it after receiving a verification code. For extra security, you’ll also have to re-enter your three-digit CVV code in case the password is changed by someone else.

Another feature pulling Zelle ahead of other money transfer apps, such as Google Wallet and Square Cash, is the ability to receive the apps the money right away. Back in June, PayPal announced it was rolling out a feature where users could also send money in a matter of minutes — but it will cost you 25 cents per transaction. While it doesn’t sound like a lot in theory, every cent counts for us millennials, especially with how common P2P become.

If you’re planning on trying Zelle — specifically because you want to send money instantaneously that day — you might want to plan ahead. The website does state that in order to verify bank accounts, it’ll take up to three business days. If the person you’re sending money to isn’t enrolled in Zelle, they’ll receive a text message or notification guiding them through steps to start their own profile.

When I tried it with a co-worker, I sent money from the app to his phone number and after two business days, it was still pending. But when I sent it to his email address instead, it was sent to his account right away. This could also be because he has Chase, however.

When you do send money, you can keep track of your transactions through the Activity tab. Within the section, it’ll show you pending payments as well as past ones as well. If you are planning on using Zelle to send money right away, try to plan ahead by sending money a few days earlier, just in case it requires all three business days to process. Once you’re verified, future money transfers should be instant.

Overall, the Zelle app is enough for me to delete any other payment services I’ve used in the past. I’ve depended on Venmo for the last few years, but having to wait one business day — let alone the entire weekend — isn’t ideal, especially if it’s a large sum of money. And I must admit that I will definitely miss scrolling through the Venmo newsfeed.

Zelle is as easy to navigate as any other app and all you need is your debit card. Even though it’s been integrated into my Bank of America app this entire time, it required logging in and taking a few extra steps. With the standalone app, all you need to do is log in, type in the amount of money, and send it over to your contact. I also appreciate Zelle doesn’t remind me of my bank account balance each time.

Optical vs. Laser: What kind of mouse will work for you?

Whether you’re using it for work or play, our hands are generally cradling a mouse each day  –a mechanical mouse, that is. They scatter onto store shelves in all sorts of sizes, some of which are geared for the right-handed crowd, while a sprinkled few may sport an ergonomic design for the right-minded lefties. Of all the features and form factors, you’ll find two base designs — one using an optical sensor, and one based on a laser. Which is better? Let’s have a look.

Guess what? All mice are optical

Modern mice are basically cameras. They constantly take pictures, although instead of capturing your face, they grab images of the surface underneath. These images aren’t meant for posting on Facebook, but instead are converted into data for tracking the peripheral’s current location on a surface. Ultimately, you have a low-resolution camera in the palm of your hand, that is only meant to track the peripheral’s X and Y coordinates thousands of times per second.

All mice consist of a tiny, low-resolution camera (CMOS sensor), two lenses, and a source of illumination. All mice are optical, technically, because they take photos, which is optical data. However, the one marketed as optical models rely on an infrared or red LED that projects light onto a surface. This LED is typically mounted behind an angled lens, which focuses the illumination into a beam. That beam is bounced off the surface, through the “imaging” lens that magnifies the reflected light, and into the CMOS sensor.

To take the step a little further, the CMOS sensor collects the light, and converts the light particles into an electrical current. This analog data is then converted into 1’s and 0’s, resulting in more than 10,000 digital images captured each second. These images are compared to generate the precise location of the mouse, and then the final data is sent to the parent PC for cursor placement every one to eight milliseconds.

On older LED mice, you will find the LED pointing straight down, and shining a red beam onto the surface that’s seen by the sensor. Jump ahead years later, and the LED light is projected at an angle, and typically unseen (infrared). This helps the mouse track its movements on most surfaces.

Laser mice won’t burn out your eyes

Meanwhile, Logitech takes the credit for introducing the first mouse to use a laser in 2004. More specifically, it’s called a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser diode, or VCSEL, which is used in laser pointers, optical drives, barcode readers, and more.

This infrared laser simply replaces the infrared/red LED on “optical” models, but don’t worry: it won’t burn your eyes out. That’s because it emits light only in infrared, which the human eye can’t see. That’s a major advantage, because it allows the laser mouse to use a higher intensity beam, which enables better imaging and, ultimately, enhanced sensitivity.

At one time, laser models were believed to be far superior than “optical” versions. Over time, though, optical mice have improved, and they now work in a variety of situations with a high degree of accuracy. The laser model’s superiority stemmed from having a higher sensitivity than LED-based mice. However, unless you’re a PC gamer, that’s really not an important feature.

The boxing match begins

So what’s the big difference between using an optical mouse, and a laser mouse, if the only difference is illumination?

For starters, both methods use the irregularities of a surface to keep track of the peripheral’s position. But a laser can go deeper into the surface texture without burning the material. This provides more information for the CMOS sensor and processor inside the mouse to juggle, and hand over to the parent PC.

For example, although glass is clear, there are still extremely small irregularities that can be tracked by a laser, enabling the host mouse to move across a glass table, but not perfectly. Meanwhile, we could place the latest optical mouse on the same surface, and it can’t track any movement. Place the glass surface on a black desktop, and the mouse still can’t track movement. Remove the glass, and the optical mouse works just fine.

Of course, the chances of your need to use a mouse on a glass surface are extremely rare, but it illustrates how the two illumination processes differ in performance. An LED will track the anomalies found on the upper-most layer of a surface, while a laser can go deeper to dig up extra positional details. Optical mice work best on non-glossy surfaces and mouse pads, while a laser mouse can function on just about any glossy or non-glossy surface.

Accuracy vs. sensitivity

The problem with laser-based mice is that they can be too accurate, picking up useless information such as the unseen hills and valleys of a surface. This can be troublesome when moving at slower speeds, causing on-screen cursor “jitter,” or what’s better known as acceleration.  It’s simply incorrect 1:1 tracking stemming from useless data thrown into the overall tracking mix used by the PC. The result is a cursor that wont’s appear in the exact location at the exact time your hand intended. Although the problem has improved over the years, laser mice still aren’t ideal if you’re sketching details in Adobe Illustrator.

That said, jittering has nothing to do with the number of dots per inch a mouse can track per second. Instead, jittering is tied to everything that’s scanned by the laser, collected by the sensor, and handed over to the parent PC’s processor for on-screen cursor mapping. To alleviate some of the jitter, you could ditch cloth-based surfaces, and place a hard, dark surface underneath, so the laser isn’t picking up unnecessary junk data.

Another option would be to turn down the sensitivity. The CMOS sensor resolution in a mouse is different than a camera because it’s based on movement. The sensor consists of a set number of physical pixels aligned in a square grid. The resolution stems from the number of individual images captured by each pixel during a movement of one physical inch across a surface.

Because the physical pixels can’t be resized, the sensor can use image processing to divide each pixel into smaller pieces. That said, all mice have a set physical resolution, and the increased sensitivity stems from an algorithm within the sensor to increase the cursor movement on-screen even though your physical mouse movements remain unchanged. Thus, the closer you get to the base resolution, the less junk positional data the sensor in a laser-based mouse collects.

To put it more simply, lower sensitivities also result in more accurate movement.

Which is better?

That depends on the application and surrounding. If you look at the Logitech G brand, you’ll notice that Logitech mostly focuses on LED-based mice when it comes to PC gaming. That’s because the customer base is typically sitting at a desk, and possibly even using a mouse mat designed for the best tracking and friction. PC gamers simply don’t want any errors in precision, present company included.

Yet laser-based mice aren’t exactly out of the picture. Logitech offers a handful that aren’t exactly gamer oriented, while its biggest competitor, Razer, currently lists five gamer-specific laser-based mice on its online store. Razer prefers laser technology because it offers higher sensitivity for lightning-quick movement in games. Overall, we don’t think that optical or laser technology is, by itself, enough to recommend any particular mouse for gaming.

Our recommendation is more definitive in mainstream and office use. A laser mouse might be ideal when you’re in a hotel room, in the living room lounging on the couch, trolling Facebook in Starbucks, stuck in a board meeting, and so on. The performance might be sporadic given the surface underneath, but with a laser mouse, you definitely have more surface options. Laser-based mice come in handy if you need to use your leg as a tracking surface, or when the office has nothing but shiny furniture that your LED-based mouse absolutely hates. Most high-end mice use a laser as a result.

However, it is generally more expensive. While laser is the more versatile technology, a decent optical mouse can do the job for less, so long as you plan to use it on dark, level, non-gloss surface.

Looking into picking up a new mouse? Lucky for you, we’ve rounded up the best wireless mice available.