Technology
SpaceX fires up Starship engines ahead of fifth test flight
SpaceX has just performed a static fire of the six engines on its Starship spacecraft as it awaits permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for the fifth test flight of the world’s most powerful rocket.
The Elon Musk-led spaceflight company shared footage and an image of the test fire on X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday. It shows the engines firing up while the vehicle remained on the ground.
Six engine static fire of Flight 6 Starship pic.twitter.com/fzJz9BWBn6
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) September 19, 2024
For flights, the Starship spacecraft is carried to orbit by the first-stage Super Heavy booster, which pumps out 17 million pounds of thrust at launch, making it the most powerful rocket ever built.
The Super Heavy booster and Starship spacecraft — collectively known as the Starship — have launched four times to date, with the performance of each test flight showing improvements over the previous one.
The first one, for example, exploded shortly after lift off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, in April last year, while the second effort, which took place seven months later, achieved stage separation before an explosion occurred — an incident that was captured in dramatic footage. The third and fourth flights lasted much longer and achieved many of the mission objectives, including getting the Starship spacecraft to orbit.
The fifth test flight isn’t likely to take place until November at the earliest, according to a recent report. It will involve the first attempt to use giant mechanical arms to “catch” the Super Heavy booster as it returns to the launch area. SpaceX recently expressed extreme disappointment at the time that it’s taking the FAA to complete an investigation that will pave the way for the fifth Starship test, and has said that it’ll be ready to launch the vehicle within days of getting permission from the FAA.
Once testing is complete, NASA wants to use the Starship, along with its own Space Launch System rocket, to launch crew and cargo to the moon and quite possibly for destinations much further into space such as Mars. NASA is already planning to use a modified version of the Starship spacecraft to land the first astronauts in five decades on the lunar surface in the Artemis III mission, currently set for 2026.
Science & Environment
Climate change is making days longer, according to new research
Climate change is making days longer, as the melting of glaciers and polar ice sheets causes water to move closer to the equator, fattening the planet and slowing its rotation, according to a recent study.
Research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences used both observations and reconstructions to track variations of mass at Earth’s surface since 1900.
In the 20th century, researchers found that between 0.3 milliseconds per century and 1 millisecond per century were added to the length of a day by climate-induced increases. Since 2000, they found that number accelerated to 1.3 milliseconds per century.
“We can see our impact as humans on the whole Earth system, not just locally, like the rise in temperature, but really fundamentally, altering how it moves in space and rotates,” Benedikt Soja of ETH Zurich in Switzerland told Britain’s Guardian newspaper. “Due to our carbon emissions, we have done this in just 100 or 200 years, whereas the governing processes previously had been going on for billions of years. And that is striking.”
Researchers said that, under high greenhouse gas emission scenarios, the climate-induced increase in the length of a day will continue to grow and could reach a rate twice as large as the present one. This could have implications for a number of technologies humans rely on, like navigation.
“All the data centers that run the internet, communications and financial transactions, they are based on precise timing,” Soja said. “We also need a precise knowledge of time for navigation, and particularly for satellites and spacecraft.”
Technology
Google’s NotebookLM evolves: What IT leaders need to know about its enterprise applications
Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More
Google’s research tool NotebookLM made waves recently for a new feature that lets users generate what sounds a lot like podcasts. But while the company has been adding new features, it’s also seeing more and more use cases in the enterprise arena.
NotebookLM lets users upload PDFs, websites, Google Docs, Google Slides and paste text into a notebook keeping information in one place. People can also ask Gemini questions about the documents inside the notebook. First launched in July 2023 and generally available in the U.S. since Dec. 2023, NotebookLM has slowly expanded the kinds of files it can read.
However, one use case that has seen an uptick is through corporate teams sharing research and information on NotebookLM.
Raiza Martin, product manager at Google handling NotebookLM, told VentureBeat that they’re seeing corporate teams take advantage of the product’s organizational capabilities that let people find the information they need in one place.
“We saw students using it to accelerate their learning and understanding and analysis, but we also know that the same thing students are doing is the exact same things that professionals are trying to do,” Martin said, adding that over months, Google has seen “an equal, if not larger amount of professionals using NotebookLM.”
Make a podcast to explain your research
Since launching NotebookLM, Google has slowly added new capabilities to the platform. The newest update allows users to generate audio explaining information in the notebook, with two speakers discussing the topic.
“The conversation style is the first one that we picked because we thought it was novel, and in our early test, it was very engaging. The double speaker dynamic helped people sort of latch on to the content in a totally different way than a single speaker,” Martin said.
Google observed users and teams have used NotebookLM to bring together research and analysis, even some other information employees may need to know. One way enterprises can use NotebookLM is as a shortcut to store data that ultimately makes its way to retrieval augmented generative (RAG) search queries. Martin said NotebookLM itself is a RAG tool that benefits from Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro.
I got to use the audio generation feature early and was able to point it to one of my notebooks. I had given NotebookLM several documents about global AI regulations, such as the text of the European Union’s AI Act. The audio it generated summarized the act, but since the other file in the same notebook was an analytical blog post, the discussion took sides. To me, it sounded a lot like the tech-related podcasts I regularly listen to, without the personal banter between hosts.
Some users have begun posting how they’ve used the audio feature, including explaining code bases.
It can be used to summarize blog posts as well.
“This is the first of many formats, but in the future, we’ll give you knobs so you can change the number of speakers, the types of voices used and the content altogether,” said Martin.
Different use cases for NotebookLM
Part of the growth of NotebookLM has been users exploring different use cases for it, and Martin said it means it’s usually up to users to figure out how to make it work for them. Some use cases have been very interesting, including a Dungeons and Dragons dungeon master using it to keep track of a campaign.
“I think there’s still a lot of education in terms of connecting users on how to use the tool and why this type of tool might be valuable, but I would say that I’m really encouraged by the rate at which people are seeing that value and have used NotebookLM,” Martin said.
Martin said NotebookLM will remain, for now, a standalone tool. However, some of the learnings from the tool could make their way to other Google productivity platforms.
Source link
Science & Environment
The Buck Moon is almost here. Here’s when and where to see July’s full moon.
The next full moon is arriving just in time for the weekend. According to NASA, the Buck Moon will make an appearance for three days, from Friday evening to Monday morning, reaching its peak at 6:17 a.m. EDT on Sunday.
The moon is also known as the Thunder Moon, given its overlap with thunderstorm season.
NASA advised viewers to stay safe from the lightning that comes with the storms, but also to indulge in a little fun as the Buck Moon arrives: “As usual, the wearing of suitably celebratory celestial attire is encouraged in honor of the full Moon.”
Why is it called the Buck Moon?
The name stems from a tradition established by the Maine Farmers’ Almanac in the 1930s, according to NASA, when the publication started listing the names of full moons. The Algonquin tribes of the Northeast reportedly called this month’s moon the Buck Moon – a nod to the deer that emerge this time of year.
“Early summer is normally when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur,” NASA said.
Other monikers for July’s full moon include Thunder Moon, Asalha Puja, Guru Full Moon, Hay Moon. and Mead Moon.
When will the next full moon take place?
August’s full moon — known as the Sturgeon Moon, according to the almanac.com — will peak on Monday, Aug. 19. This will be the first supermoon of the year, which means it will appear brighter and larger than other full moons.
Another event for stargazers to look forward to is a meteor shower on Saturday, July 31. Those on the East Coast will have to rise early if they want to catch the spectacle of light. According to NASA, the best time to see the shower from Washington, D.C., will be around 2 a.m.
Technology
UPchieve, an online tutor app for low-income students, launches a free tool for teachers
UPchieve, the free, 24/7 online tutoring and college counseling app for low-income students, announced Thursday it’s giving teachers in Title 1 middle schools and high schools a new tool to ensure their students get the academic support they need.
The new offering, called “UPchieve for Teachers,” allows teachers to offer 1:1 support to their students. They can invite students to sign up for tutoring, create classes, and monitor students’ platform usage. Previously, students had to sign up for tutoring services themselves, but with this new product, teachers can now recommend students for 1:1 tutoring at no cost. In the coming weeks, they’ll also be able to assign tutoring sessions to entire classes.
UPchieve for Teachers is available to educators working in Title 1 middle schools and high schools. Title 1 is a federal aid program provided to K-12 schools with the highest number of low-income families within school districts. Approximately 43% of public schools qualify for Title I funding, with fewer than 50,000 schools benefiting from the program.
This new offering is expected to help UPchieve expand its user base by reaching students who may not be aware of free services like this or who may not be actively seeking additional assistance.
“The product is going to be really valuable to teachers because it’s going to help them accomplish some of the hardest parts of their job,” founder Aly Murray told TechCrunch. “Students are coming into the class with different gaps in their foundational skills. Teachers have to try to support all of their students, but there’s not enough time to support each student individually, so that’s a natural place where a tutor can help. We’re really excited about launching a product that’s going to give teachers more control.”
UPchieve was founded in 2016, shortly after Murray graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. As a former low-income student herself, she struggled to access academic support services throughout her schooling and wanted to make it easy for other students to be able to get help whenever they needed it, even when working on homework late at night.
“I was raised by a single mom, and as an immigrant to the United States, she often wasn’t able to help me with schoolwork and with my college applications. And so that had a big impact on my life. It made things very difficult, and I found that I often needed help late at night when there was really nowhere I could turn to for support,” Murray said.
UPchieve says it has matched over 190,000 tutoring requests from more than 20,000 students across all 50 states. Its 24/7 online tutoring sessions are conducted in the in-app messenger or via voice chat on the web or mobile app. UPchieve covers over 30 subjects, including math, science, English, history, humanities, and more.
Tutors can volunteer by signing up on the website. Volunteers can even be students themselves; however, they must be in 9th grade or higher. UPchieve currently has around 2,400 tutors active on the platform.
“All of the volunteers on UPchieve go through a background screening, training, and certification process to become a volunteer tutor. Before they’re ever going to work with a student, they have to pass a quiz in every subject that they want to help students with,” Murray explained.
Similar to other edtech companies, the company utilizes OpenAI’s GPT-4o to assist tutors in providing AI-generated feedback and progress reports to students after the sessions are over. In the future, the company also plans to use AI to help tutors create practice problems and offer AI-generated summaries of student sessions through its Teachers product.
“We have no plans to replace our human tutors with AI tutors anytime in the near future,” Murray added.
As a nonprofit organization, UPchieve relies on charitable donations, grants, and paid partnerships with schools, districts, and corporations. Donors include Atlassian, AT&T, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Guggenheim Capital, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, the Skyline Foundation, and Verizon.
UPchieve has partnered with over 50 schools, and each school or organization pays a $10,000 partnership fee per year or is sponsored by a donor or corporation who pays the fee on their behalf. The company also graduated from Y Combinator’s Winter 2021 batch.
In 2023, UPchieve raised over $4 million through philanthropy and earned revenue from paid partnerships. The company claims its annual recurring revenue (ARR) is currently $840,000, which comes solely from paid and sponsored partnerships.
Science & Environment
Secrets of the elephant – CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Technology
Netflix adds Civilization 6 and Street Fighter 4 to its games lineup
Netflix’s newest games are actually a bit old. During its Geeked Week 2024 presentation, the streaming service revealed it’s adding Civilization VI and Street Fighter IV: Champion Edition as well as a host of other titles to its ever-increasing and legitimately impressive gaming lineup.
For Civ 6, players will have access to all the game’s expansion packs that were a part of the Platinum Edition version of the game. Meanwhile, Netflix will host the Champion Edition of Street Fighter IV featuring all 32 fighters released over the game’s lifetime. Also, iOS and Android users will be able to compete against each other online exclusively via Netflix. Neither game has a launch date just yet, with Netflix saying both are coming soon.
Street Fighter and Civilization will join the other games announced for the platform, including Don’t Starve Together, Stardew Valley-with-Hobbits simulator Tales of the Shire, Lab Rat, Carmen Sandiego, Monument Valley, Spongebob Bubble Pop F.U.N., and Battleship.
-
Sport12 hours ago
Joshua vs Dubois: Chris Eubank Jr says ‘AJ’ could beat Tyson Fury and any other heavyweight in the world
-
News1 day ago
You’re a Hypocrite, And So Am I
-
News13 hours ago
Israel strikes Lebanese targets as Hizbollah chief warns of ‘red lines’ crossed
-
Sport12 hours ago
UFC Edmonton fight card revealed, including Brandon Moreno vs. Amir Albazi headliner
-
Technology11 hours ago
iPhone 15 Pro Max Camera Review: Depth and Reach
-
Science & Environment15 hours ago
How one theory ties together everything we know about the universe
-
Science & Environment23 hours ago
Sunlight-trapping device can generate temperatures over 1000°C
-
News10 hours ago
Brian Tyree Henry on voicing young Megatron, his love for villain roles
-
Science & Environment1 day ago
Quantum time travel: The experiment to ‘send a particle into the past’
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
2 auditors miss $27M Penpie flaw, Pythia’s ‘claim rewards’ bug: Crypto-Sec
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Bitcoin miners steamrolled after electricity thefts, exchange ‘closure’ scam: Asia Express
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Cardano founder to meet Argentina president Javier Milei
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Dorsey’s ‘marketplace of algorithms’ could fix social media… so why hasn’t it?
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Low users, sex predators kill Korean metaverses, 3AC sues Terra: Asia Express
-
Business11 hours ago
How Labour donor’s largesse tarnished government’s squeaky clean image
-
Science & Environment15 hours ago
‘Running of the bulls’ festival crowds move like charged particles
-
News12 hours ago
Freed Between the Lines: Banned Books Week
-
MMA12 hours ago
UFC’s Cory Sandhagen says Deiveson Figueiredo turned down fight offer
-
CryptoCurrency11 hours ago
Ethereum is a 'contrarian bet' into 2025, says Bitwise exec
-
Science & Environment15 hours ago
Rethinking space and time could let us do away with dark matter
-
Science & Environment12 hours ago
We may have spotted a parallel universe going backwards in time
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Arthur Hayes’ ‘sub $50K’ Bitcoin call, Mt. Gox CEO’s new exchange, and more: Hodler’s Digest, Sept. 1 – 7
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Treason in Taiwan paid in Tether, East’s crypto exchange resurgence: Asia Express
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Leaked Chainalysis video suggests Monero transactions may be traceable
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Journeys: Robby Yung on Animoca’s Web3 investments, TON and the Mocaverse
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Louisiana takes first crypto payment over Bitcoin Lightning
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Are there ‘too many’ blockchains for gaming? Sui’s randomness feature: Web3 Gamer
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Crypto whales like Humpy are gaming DAO votes — but there are solutions
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Help! My parents are addicted to Pi Network crypto tapper
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
$12.1M fraud suspect with ‘new face’ arrested, crypto scam boiler rooms busted: Asia Express
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
‘Everything feels like it’s going to shit’: Peter McCormack reveals new podcast
-
Science & Environment15 hours ago
Future of fusion: How the UK’s JET reactor paved the way for ITER
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
SEC sues ‘fake’ crypto exchanges in first action on pig butchering scams
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Fed rate cut may be politically motivated, will increase inflation: Arthur Hayes
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Decentraland X account hacked, phishing scam targets MANA airdrop
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
CZ and Binance face new lawsuit, RFK Jr suspends campaign, and more: Hodler’s Digest Aug. 18 – 24
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
CertiK Ventures discloses $45M investment plan to boost Web3
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Memecoins not the ‘right move’ for celebs, but DApps might be — Skale Labs CMO
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Telegram bot Banana Gun’s users drained of over $1.9M
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
DZ Bank partners with Boerse Stuttgart for crypto trading
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
RedStone integrates first oracle price feeds on TON blockchain
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Bitcoin bulls target $64K BTC price hurdle as US stocks eye new record
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
SEC asks court for four months to produce documents for Coinbase
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
‘No matter how bad it gets, there’s a lot going on with NFTs’: 24 Hours of Art, NFT Creator
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
Blockdaemon mulls 2026 IPO: Report
-
Business12 hours ago
Thames Water seeks extension on debt terms to avoid renationalisation
-
Politics12 hours ago
The Guardian view on 10 Downing Street: Labour risks losing the plot | Editorial
-
Politics11 hours ago
I’m in control, says Keir Starmer after Sue Gray pay leaks
-
Politics11 hours ago
‘Appalling’ rows over Sue Gray must stop, senior ministers say | Sue Gray
-
Business11 hours ago
UK hospitals with potentially dangerous concrete to be redeveloped
-
Business10 hours ago
Axel Springer top team close to making eight times their money in KKR deal
-
News10 hours ago
“Beast Games” contestants sue MrBeast’s production company over “chronic mistreatment”
-
News10 hours ago
Sean “Diddy” Combs denied bail again in federal sex trafficking case
-
News10 hours ago
Sean “Diddy” Combs denied bail again in federal sex trafficking case in New York
-
News10 hours ago
Brian Tyree Henry on his love for playing villains ahead of “Transformers One” release
-
News10 hours ago
Brian Tyree Henry on voicing young Megatron, his love for villain roles
-
CryptoCurrency10 hours ago
Coinbase’s cbBTC surges to third-largest wrapped BTC token in just one week
-
Technology3 days ago
YouTube restricts teenager access to fitness videos
-
News14 hours ago
Church same-sex split affecting bishop appointments
-
Politics2 days ago
Trump says he will meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week
-
Politics1 day ago
What is the House of Lords, how does it work and how is it changing?
-
Politics1 day ago
Keir Starmer facing flashpoints with the trade unions
-
Health & fitness2 days ago
Why you should take a cheat day from your diet, and how many calories to eat
-
Technology13 hours ago
Fivetran targets data security by adding Hybrid Deployment
-
Science & Environment1 day ago
Elon Musk’s SpaceX contracted to destroy retired space station
-
Science & Environment19 hours ago
Quantum ‘supersolid’ matter stirred using magnets
-
MMA12 hours ago
Diego Lopes declines Movsar Evloev’s request to step in at UFC 307
-
Football12 hours ago
Niamh Charles: Chelsea defender has successful shoulder surgery
-
Football11 hours ago
Slot's midfield tweak key to Liverpool victory in Milan
-
Science & Environment15 hours ago
Hyperelastic gel is one of the stretchiest materials known to science
-
Science & Environment15 hours ago
How to wrap your head around the most mind-bending theories of reality
-
Technology2 days ago
Can technology fix the ‘broken’ concert ticketing system?
-
Fashion Models11 hours ago
Miranda Kerr nude
-
Fashion Models11 hours ago
“Playmate of the Year” magazine covers of Playboy from 1971–1980
-
Science & Environment20 hours ago
A new kind of experiment at the Large Hadron Collider could unravel quantum reality
-
Health & fitness2 days ago
11 reasons why you should stop your fizzy drink habit in 2022
-
Politics11 hours ago
Labour MP urges UK government to nationalise Grangemouth refinery
-
Science & Environment19 hours ago
How Peter Higgs revealed the forces that hold the universe together
-
Technology2 days ago
What will future aerial dogfights look like?
-
Science & Environment13 hours ago
Odd quantum property may let us chill things closer to absolute zero
-
Science & Environment21 hours ago
Quantum forces used to automatically assemble tiny device
-
Entertainment10 hours ago
“Jimmy Carter 100” concert celebrates former president’s 100th birthday
-
CryptoCurrency12 hours ago
SEC settles with Rari Capital over DeFi pools, unregistered broker activity
-
News10 hours ago
Joe Posnanski revisits iconic football moments in new book, “Why We Love Football”
-
Health & fitness2 days ago
How to adopt mindful drinking in 2022
-
Health & fitness2 days ago
What 10 days of a clean eating plan actually does to your body and why to adopt this diet in 2022
-
Health & fitness2 days ago
When Britons need GoFundMe to pay for surgery, it’s clear the NHS backlog is a political time bomb
-
Health & fitness2 days ago
The maps that could hold the secret to curing cancer
-
Health & fitness2 days ago
Covid v flu v cold and how to tell the difference between symptoms this winter
-
Science & Environment1 day ago
Physicists determined the paper most likely to give you a paper cut
-
Politics1 day ago
Will pension increase make up for loss of winter fuel payments?
-
Science & Environment1 day ago
Quantum to cosmos: Why scale is vital to our understanding of reality
-
Business3 days ago
Billionaire investor Ray Dalio warns of threat to democracy
-
Science & Environment1 day ago
How to wrap your mind around the real multiverse
-
Technology3 days ago
Trump says Musk could head ‘government efficiency’ force
-
Technology2 days ago
Tech Life: Athletes using technology to improve performance
-
Science & Environment2 days ago
Particle physicists may have solved a strange mystery about the muon
-
Science & Environment1 day ago
Time may be an illusion created by quantum entanglement
-
Science & Environment1 day ago
How the weird and powerful pull of black holes made me a physicist
-
Politics1 day ago
Is there a £22bn ‘black hole’ in the UK’s public finances?
You must be logged in to post a comment Login