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SpaceX launches a new crew of astronauts for NASA
⇨ This brief comes from an article written by Miriam Kramer that was published by Axios.
NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker, Victor Glover and Japan's Soichi Noguchi are on their way to the International Space Station.
The Falcon 9 carrying the four crew members is the first American-made spacecraft able to bring astronauts to orbit since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011.
The Crew Dragon capsule is expected to dock with the space station Monday night.
During their flight to the station, Hopkins, Walker, Glover and Noguchi are planning on testing out what kind of choreography is needed to make sure that everyone is comfortable during their trip to the station.
When astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley flew on the Crew Dragon for SpaceX's first crewed flight, there was plenty of room in the capsule because only two of them were flying, this time around, space will be at a premium.
The four crew members will stay onboard the space station for about six months before heading back home.
This crewed launch marks the second time SpaceX has launched people to orbit for NASA and the mission is expected to be the first of many regular flights like this to the space station.
Riding on a Magic Carpet of Bubbles
⇨ This brief comes from an article written by Chris Baranuik, and published in Hakai Magazine.
For more than a century, gigantic steel vessels have been ploughing the oceans, generating seemingly unavoidable—and surprisingly costly—friction between ship and sea. But this friction can be reduced in an innovative way, with the help of millions of tiny bubbles, each just a millimeter across.
With the push to make shipping more efficient, ship owners are looking for new ways to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. One contender is UK-based Silverstream Technology’s eponymous Silverstream System, a device installed in a ship’s hull near the bow that generates a carpet of air bubbles flowing all the way to the ship’s stern.
The concept underpinning the device—air lubrication—is not new, but advancing technology is allowing the company and its competitors to retrofit existing ships with air lubrication systems, or include them in new vessel constructions.
Air is less dense than water, which means that the bubbles reduce the resistance between the ship and the sea around its hull. It’s a bit like gliding your hand through a gently bubbling hot tub versus a still bathtub.
Noah Silberschmidt, founder and CEO of Silverstream Technologies, says that, over time, air lubrication can reduce fuel consumption by five to 10 percent. Fuel savings of a few percent might not sound like much, but Silberschmidt says shipping firms can spend between US $5- and $10-million on fuel for a single average-sized vessel every year.
Cruise lines Norwegian and Carnival have already installed Silverstream’s devices on some of their vessels, and more installations are due to be announced soon, says Silberschmidt.
Link Between Alzheimer’s Disease and Gut Microbiota Is Confirmed
⇨ This brief comes from an article published in Neurosciencenews.com.
Scientists have discovered a link between the intestinal microbiota and the quantity of amyloid plaques in the brain of patients with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.
Amyloid is a general term for protein fragments that the body produces normally. In a healthy brain, these protein fragments are broken down and eliminated. Amyloid plaques are hard, insoluble accumulations of beta amyloid proteins that clump together between the nerve cells (neurons) in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia. Still incurable, it directly affects nearly one million people in Europe, and indirectly millions of family members as well as society as a whole. In recent years, the scientific community has suspected that the gut microbiota plays a role in the development of the disease.
“Our results are indisputable: certain bacterial products of the intestinal microbiota are correlated with the quantity of amyloid plaques in the brain,” explains Moira Marizzoni, a researcher at the Fatebenefratelli Center in Brescia and first author of this work.
The discovery of this association opens up the possibility for a range of new therapies for Alzheimer’s disease that will focus on altering the gut microbiome of patients.
Asia forms world's largest trading bloc after years of talks
⇨ This brief comes from Walt Hickey's Numlock Newsletter.
On Sunday, 15 countries signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement in Singapore, a multilateral trade deal that aims to unite the nations of the Pacific in a post-pandemic economic engine.
The framework — between the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, and China — is an accord uniting around 30 percent of global GDP and roughly the same percent of population.
This is the first free trade agreement to connect Japan and China, and will eliminate tariffs on 86 percent of Japanese goods exported to China.
It’s the first time China has entered into a multilateral free trade agreement of this scale, and the largest since the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was the 11-member version of the U.S.-orchestrated Trans-Pacific Partnership that the other countries did after the U.S. yanked itself out of that agreement.
Australia has never been secure or comfortable for me: Atong Atem
⇨ This brief comes from an article written by Kerrie O'Brien that was published in The Age.
Atong Atem makes extraordinary art: playful, joyous and inherently political. Her self-portraits and photos of her friends and family, often wearing striking, surreal makeup, raise questions of identity and fantasy, truth and belonging.
Growing up on the south coast of New South Wales, the Ethiopian-born former refugee from South Sudan says she always existed outside the margins in this country, which may account for why her art is "bold and loud".
“In the 20-plus years I’ve been in Australia, there’s never been a space of absolute comfort or security for me – or people like me who don’t fit in,” she says. “If I’m going to be uncomfortable, I may as well be uncomfortable and honest because there’s already an expectation that [my work] won’t be approved of or liked.”
After escaping the second civil war in her parents’ home country, South Sudan, they spent time in Kakuma refugee camp in Nairobi, Kenya, arriving in Australia when she was six years old.
Her star is on the rise, with her work showing as part of the NGV's Triennial and her involvement in both MPavilion and the program for Rising, Melbourne's new winter arts festival. A show of Atem's solo work was held at Messum's Gallery in London in July; she has been exhibited at Red Hook Labs in New York, Vogue Fashion Fair in Milan and Unseen Amsterdam art fair. In Australia, she has shown at Monash's MUMA, Gertrude Contemporary and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA).
For more on the life of Atong Atem and her stunning new large-scale photos on show at Melbourne's Immigration Museum, check out Kerrie Obrien's article.
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