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Archive for the ‘government’ category: Page 156

Dec 28, 2018

Bad Plumbing Helped Cause a Strange Outbreak of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria at a Maryland Hospital

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, government, health

In 2016, a mysterious illness spread inside the National Institutes of Health’s Clinical Center, the U.S. government’s most prominent research hospital, in Bethesda, Maryland. Patients were somehow being sickened by an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria that practically never causes disease in humans. Two years later, a new study seems to finally have confirmed where this bug likely came from: the hospital’s own plumbing.

During a six-month period in 2016, six patients came down with infections caused by Sphingomonas bacteria. Four of the patients had an antibiotic-resistant strain of a particular species, Sphingomonas koreensis, which was first discovered in some of Korea’s natural mineral water spots in the early 2000s.

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Dec 27, 2018

NASA Plan for a Potential Government Shutdown

Posted by in categories: government, space

- National Aeronautics and Space Administration will still continue supporting the operations of the International Space Station despite government shutdown.


NASA has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget its plan for an orderly shutdown of operations if there is no budget in place. During a shutdown, most NASA operations would cease and most employees would be furloughed, with the exception of operations and personnel needed to protect life and property.

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Dec 25, 2018

Why the U.S. Should Provide Universal Basic Income

Posted by in categories: economics, government

The government should consider giving out monthly Social Security checks—no strings attached.

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Dec 23, 2018

President Trump has signed a $1.2 billion law to boost US quantum tech

Posted by in categories: government, law, quantum physics, supercomputing

This new law was signed just as a partial US government shutdown began.


The new National Quantum Initiative Act will give America a national masterplan for advancing quantum technologies.

The news: The US president just signed into law a bill that commits the government to providing $1.2 billion to fund activities promoting quantum information science over an initial five-year period. The new law, which was signed just as a partial US government shutdown began, will provide a significant boost to research, and to efforts to develop a future quantum workforce in the country.

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Dec 20, 2018

Congress Passes $1.2 Billion Quantum Computing Bill

Posted by in categories: computing, government, quantum physics

Next stop: the desk of President Trump.


The U.S. is ready to invest big in quantum computing.

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Dec 20, 2018

This Drone Seamlessly Transitions Between Swimming and Flying

Posted by in categories: drones, food, government

It isn’t unreasonable to think of drones as pesky technological nuisances. Our modern digital ecosystem regularly infringes on traditional notions of privacy and bombards our limited attention spans with stimuli. A swarm of drones hovering overhead seems like the physical manifestation of these intrusions and distractions. But we shouldn’t swat them away just yet. Drones still have practical utility and the potential to change industries.

An Expanding Market

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Dec 17, 2018

Gene-edited farm animals are coming. Will we eat them?

Posted by in categories: food, genetics, government, sustainability

Society and the government aren’t sure what to make of new techniques for animal breeding.

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Dec 17, 2018

Next-generation of GPS satellites are headed to space

Posted by in categories: government, satellites

DENVER, United States — After months of delays, the U.S. Air Force is about to launch the first of a new generation of GPS satellites, designed to be more accurate, secure and versatile.

But some of their most highly touted features will not be fully available until 2022 or later because of problems in a companion program to develop a new ground control system for the satellites, government auditors said.

The satellite is scheduled to lift off Tuesday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. It’s the first of 32 planned GPS III satellites that will replace older ones now in orbit. Lockheed Martin is building the new satellites outside Denver.

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Dec 14, 2018

China’s Social Ranking System Will Now Target Rule-Breaking Scientists

Posted by in category: government

To tackle widespread scientific misconduct, the Chinese government has expanded its controversial social credit system to include infractions made by research scientists. The plan could scare some scientists straight—but the potential for abuse is very real.

“Researchers in China who commit scientific misconduct could soon be prevented from getting a bank loan, running a company or applying for a public-service job,” reports science writer David Cyranoski at Nature News.

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Dec 13, 2018

Aubrey de Grey – Clinical Trials in Five Years

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cryonics, government, life extension

In November, Dr. Aubrey de Grey, a graduate of the University of Cambridge, was in Spain to attend the Longevity World Forum in the city of Valencia, and he gave a press conference organized by his friend, MIT engineer José Luis Cordeiro.

Dr. Aubrey de Grey is the scientific director (CSO) and founder of the SENS Research Foundation. In Madrid and Valencia, Dr. de Grey reaffirmed for Tendencias21 one of his most striking statements of 2018: “In the future, there will be many different medicines to reverse aging. In five years, we will have many of them working in early clinical trials.”

The Longevity World Forum is a congress on longevity and genomics in Europe. It is heir to the first congress in Spain, the International Longevity and Cryopreservation Summit, which was held at the CSIC headquarters in Madrid in May 2017, and Dr. de Grey also participated in that event. In Valencia, his presentation was recieved with interest, and Dr. de Grey explained to this select audience that aging will be treated as a medical problem in the near future. Rather than treating its symptoms using the infectious disease model, the root causes of aging will themselves be treated.

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