A ground-breaking study has shown it takes a matter of hours for billions of minute plastic nanoparticles to become embedded throughout the major organs of a marine organism.
The research, led by the University of Plymouth, examined the uptake of nanoparticles by a commercially important mollusc, the great scallop (Pecten maximus).
After six hours exposure in the laboratory, billions of particles measuring 250nm (around 0.00025mm) had accumulated within the scallop’s intestines.
Fuel is heavy. And when launching a satellite into space, the amount of fuel you give it determines how long it can stay operational. That is, unless you can refuel at a space gas station.
The news: Startup Orbit Fab is scheduled to launch an experiment to the International Space Station on board a SpaceX Dragon cargo mission tomorrow at 1:38pm EST. Its goal is to test the company’s method of fluid transfer in space. It’ll be launched alongside other scientific experiments to be performed by astronauts on board the station in collaboration with the ISS US National Lab.
The challenge: Refueling and repairing satellites in space requires some expert wrangling, as well as well as the launch of large quantities and types of fuel into orbit. Also, pumping new fuel into a satellite doesn’t work in microgravity the way it does on Earth. Fluids are harder to measure and float around their tanks unpredictably.
Amazon is testing out its cashierless checkout technology in bigger stores — with one eye on Whole Foods, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Sources told the Journal that Amazon is testing out the futuristic tech — which tracks and charges for the items shoppers take from the shelves — in Seattle, in a space formatted like a large store.
Over the next year, OSIRIS-REx will survey the asteroid using five scientific instruments on board the spacecraft. These instruments will help it determine a safe location from which to collect a small sample from Bennu’s surface that will be returned to Earth in September 2023.
“Bennu’s low gravity provides a unique challenge for the mission,” said Rich Burns, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “At roughly 0.3 mile in diameter, Bennu will be the smallest object that any spacecraft has ever orbited.”
A huge, gaping cave has been discovered hidden in the remote Canadian wilderness, and despite the overwhelming scale of this stunning natural void, researchers suggest it may never have been seen by human eyes before.
Nicknamed the ‘Sarlacc Pit’ after the monstrous pit-dwelling beast in Star Wars, the giant cave – concealed amidst the rugged terrain of British Columbia’s Wells Gray Provincial Park – is so vast its effectively unbelievable, explorers say.
“My immediate reaction was that there can’t be a cave there, it’s impossible,” geoscientist Catherine Hickson, who conducted an expedition to the site in September, told Global News.
Commercial Chambers Building the first to be scanned.
What if Waterford Manor, Richmond Cottage, and Belvedere orphanages could have been digitally preserved before they were destroyed?
What if their exact dimensions and details were recorded as historical record, with possibilities for virtual tours, or even replicas, long after the buildings are gone?
