Category Archives: Futurism

In Brief Contraceptives represent a billion dollar market. While contraceptives for women are readily available, male contraceptives are hard to find, until now. Sujoy Guha has developed a cheap, fast, and 98% effective contraceptive for men. The Cost of Contraceptives

The contraceptive market is growingwith no foreseeable end in sight. In fact, a 2015 survey of nine countries measured the total revenue of contraceptives at around $19 billionwith a projected growth of 6 percent over the next few years.

When those profits are analysed, there is a clear distinction in contraceptive methods by comfort, cost, and sex. While 52 percent of contraceptive-device revenues (excluding the pill) come from condom use, the rest comes from female contraceptives that are known to be accompanied by side-effectsand higher costs. But this paradigm may be about to shift with the introduction of a new male contraceptive medication.

In many developed countries it is women who bear most of the responsibility for using contraceptives and braving their side effects, which can include nausea, weight gain, and mood changes.In2015, data suggestedthat 60 percent of women in spousal relationships used oral contraceptives while only 8 percent of male partners in spousal relationships relied on condoms. And while it does seem thatsocial stigmas initially perpetuated this gender role, it actually may be the current economic pressuressurrounding female contraceptives that is stagnating efforts to investigate a potential male contraceptive. That was until Sujoy Guha, a 76-year-old biomedical engineer from a startup in India, did it himself.

Over the past 30 years, Guha has developed a method that is fast, safe, and 98 percent effective paralleling the effective rate of condoms while requiring just a singleshot.

The shot contains a positively-charged polymer gel that can be injected into vessels in the scrotum that carry negatively-charged sperm. The positive charge acts as a buffer that hinders the sperms components, rendering the reproductive cells infertile. The method is also reversible, allowing Guha to dub it as Reversible Inhibition of Sperm Under Guidance (RISUG). A second shot directed at the already-injected polymer would break down the gel and allow the sperm to fulfill its destiny. If thats not enough, the whole procedure could cost as littleas $10 in developing countries.

To Guhas dismay, however, pharmaceutical companies have been reluctant to invest in his male contraceptive. While he believes the actions are rooted in sexism, pharmaceutical companies might be off-put by the long-term investment required for such an endeavor, which could burn through $100 millions in funds over the course of 10 years. Although Parsemus Foundation, a non-profit in the U.S., has paid Guha to license RISUG in markets outside of India as Vasalgel.

When tested on Rhesus Monkeysfor a period of two years , Vasalgel proved to be an effective contraceptive, and it is now in human trials. RISUG, which is at end of phase III of its clinical trials in India, is reportedly 98 percent effective after analyzing data from 282 volunteers. RISUG will enter the Indian market in two years.

This advancement may change the lives of the 225 million women in the developing world who have limited access to contraceptiveswhile breaking new boundaries in global socioeconomic progress.

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A New $10 Male Contraceptive Is 98% Effective After Just One Shot - Futurism

In Brief Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeff Bezos, recently revealed the interior of its New Shepard space capsule. The company plans to send tourists into space aboard this suborbital space capsule by 2018. Ticket To Ride

While SpaceX just successfully launched a reused rocket for the first time Thursday,Blue Originhas done it before. Jeff Bezos private space company has reused one of its rockets twice, in fact. Just this week, the West Texas-based space tourism company gave a preview of its reusable space capsule.TheNew Shepard passenger capsule and rocket, according to Blue Origin, will be the companys tour bus for brief trips into space.

The sneak peek images from Blue Origin show the interior of the New Shepard, which boasts the the largest windows ever in space as Blue Origin described them. The seats showcase a sleek black design embossed with the companys feather logo. During take off, the seats are tilted back so its six passengers are facing up. Once in space, passengers can experience weightlessnessin the roomy cabin.

The New Shepard is scheduled for human test flights by this year, according to Blue Origin. Itsexpected to carry out its first consumer flights by 2018. Our New Shepard flight-test program is focused on demonstrating the performance and robustness of the system, Bezos said in a mass email update sent to their websites subscribers.In parallel, weve been designing the capsule interior with an eye toward precision engineering, safety and comfort.

While SpaceX and Blue Origin may be competing for who could launch the first fully reusable rocket, the goals of the two space companies differ slightly. For SpaceX, the ultimate goal is to bring humanity to Mars by the 2030s, with an immediate goal of sending two private individuals around the moon. Blue Origin, on the other hand, is developing their rockets for space tourism.

In fact, the New Shepard isnt meant for spaceflights beyond the Earths orbit. It is capable of suborbital flight that would bring it high enough to see space, but not high enough to completely loop around the Earth. The New Shepard also presents an opportunity for further microgravity research by serving as a laboratory in space, the company said. Bezos wants to offer higher altitude flights to space tourists eventually, using an orbital rocket now in production called New Glenn.

Space tourism is an exciting new frontier, and Blue Origin isnt the only companyworking toward it. Other companies include Virgin Galactic, which has been testing its own spaceplane VSS Unity for a glided space tour. Recently, the company has also started selling tickets for a trip aboard one of its spaceplanes. It has also received an FAA license for its SpaceShipTwo. Another company called World View is even using high-altitude balloons to bring tourists to space.

For now, space tourism plans are limited toa trip around the world and themoon. But eventuallyas NASAs space tourism posters show we may be able to book a ticket for a ride into the far reaches of space.

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Blue Origin Just Released Images of Its Sleek Space Tourism Capsule - Futurism

In BriefWhile taking the deepest X-ray image of our Universe to datefrom NASA's Chandra Observatory, researchers detected a mysteriousexplosion in a galaxy about 10.7 billion light-years away.Scientists know of no astronomical phenomenon that can explain theevent. Mystery Explosion in Space

For a few minutes in October 2014, a mysterious explosion occurred in a galaxy about 10.7 billion light-years away from Earth. The magnitude of the explosion was so intense that it produced 1,000 times more energy than all of the stars in its entire galaxy for the space of a few minutes.

We learned about this event after scientiststook the deepest X-ray image of our Universe to date fromNASAs Chandra Observatory.Researchers narrowed down the source of the blast with the help of data from the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes. The small galaxy is relatively faint and unremarkable, located in a piece of the sky referred to as the Chandra Deep Field South.

Over the past 17 years, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory has watched this far-flung galaxy for a cumulative total of 2.5 months, and it has never detected any evidence of similar events before this unique explosion. Since the event passed, the galaxy appears to have receded into oblivion once more. Capturing it at all may have been a lucky break.

Now, the researchers are poring through the Chandra archive for evidence of similar events and painstakingly searching data from NASAs Swift satellite and the European Space Agencys XMM-Newton telescope for the same kind of evidence. The brief duration of the event means that missing other cosmic cataclysms would have been easy to do. Of course, researchers will also follow up with more Chandra observations of the galaxy.

Scientists know of no astronomical phenomenon that can explain the behavior. We may have observed a completely new type of cataclysmic event, said researcher Kevin Schawinski of ETH Zurich in Switzerland. Whatever it is, a lot more observations are needed to work out what were seeing.

Although they dont yet have all the answers, researchers do have a few possible hypotheses that could explain the strange explosion. Of the three primary ideas, two focus on gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the brightest known electromagnetic events that occur in our Universe.

These super high-energy explosions are released when two neutron stars collide, when a neuron star and a black hole merge, or when a massive star collapses. When GRBs are pointing in our direction at the time they occur, they spew a jet of gamma-rays that later taper into weaker forms of radiation, like X-rays. Thats how were able to detect them.

One theory to explain this mystery explosion is that weve simply picked up a GRB that was pointed in a different direction, and we dont recognize what were seeing. Another possibility is that weve detected a GRB that is actually past the galaxy were observing. A third idea is that we witnessed a black hole shredding a white dwarf star.

None of the theories seems like a perfect fit yet. More data will help explain the strange explosion, and new technologies like the James Webb Space Telescope, which will replace the Hubble and collect seven times more light than its predecessor, should help us explain unique cosmic events like this one.

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A Strange Explosion in a Galaxy Billions of Light-Years Away Has Scientists Stumped - Futurism

In Brief In addition to boasting a number of other innovative features, Samsung's forthcoming Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus smartphones will be the first to come equipped with Bluetooth 5.0, which should improve their range and speed.

As useful as Bluetooth is, it can also be annoying. The tech is great when you can get it to work, but because its connection is largely dependent on its compatibility with other devices and the surrounding environment, it can be an unreliable alternative to wired headsets and cords.

The arrival of Bluetooth 5.0 could change that.

Bluetooth 5.0 istwice as fast as the current standard (4.2), and it offers four times the range. That means it canconnect to compatible tech like smartwatches or smart home devices that are up to 240 meters (800 feet) away. Bluetooth 5.0 is expected to further advance the internet of things (IoT) experience, and Samsungs Galaxy S8 will be the first phone to offer it.

Apart from providing users with improved connectivity and performance, theGalaxywill also have a Bluetooth Dual audio feature.That update allows the phone to stream audio to two Bluetooth headsets or speakers simultaneously, while still allowing the user to independently control each device.

To complement what Samsung calls its new infinity display, the phone will have a resolution of 2960 x 1440 and run on either Samsungs Exynos or Qualcomms newest Snapdragon 835 on a 10nm chip, which will allegedly lend itself to better battery life. The phone also comes with an iris scanner and a face detect system to unlock it, as well asBixby, a new kind of virtual assistant thats reportedly more intuitive than any other in phones today.

Both versions of the Galaxy S8, the 5.8-inch and the larger 6.2-inch S8 Plus,are now available for preorder and are expected to hit the U.S. market on April 21 at a cost of $720.

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Samsung's Galaxy S8 Will Be the World's First Phone With Bluetooth 5.0 - Futurism

In BriefA man with quadriplegia was able to use a system combining abrain-computer interface (BCI) and Functional ElectricalStimulation (FES) technology to move his arms again just bythinking. Movement Lost and Found

Eight years ago, Bill Kochevar was paralyzed in a cycling accident. Since then, he hasnt been able to move anything below his shoulders until now.

As part of a trial at Case Western Reserve University,two tiny, 96-channel electrodes were implanted in the motor cortex of Kochevars brain. Essentially, the electrodes register the actions of his neurons and respond by signaling a device that stimulates his arm muscles. The system has given him the ability to grasp and lift things the same way he used to, by simply thinking the command to his body. He can now drink through a straw after raising a mug of water to his mouth and eat mashed potatoes with a fork.

Kochevar prepared for the trials by learning how to move a virtual reality (VR) arm on a computer using his mind. He practiced this for four months, after which 36 electrodes were surgically implanted into his right arm. The electrodes were strategically placed to control the movement of his upper and lower arm, elbow, hand, shoulder, and wrist.

Now, when Kochevar thinks about moving his arm, the brain signals travel to the brain-computer interface (BCI), which decodesand translates them into commands for intended movements. Those commands are then converted again into patterns of electrical pulses by the Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) system in his arm. The pulses stimulate the electrodes, which move the muscles.

This successful trial, which wasthe first of its kind in the world, was part of the BrainGate2 study, which is researching the feasibility and safety of using BCI systems to help paralyzed people.

The research team says that advances needed to use the technology outside of a lab setting are not far from reality.

The brain implant would need to be wireless, but work on that is already underway. The movements themselves would also need to be more precise. That will be achieved once the investigators improve the stimulation and decoding patterns. FES systems that are entirely implantable are already being tested in other clinical research, as well.

Every day, most of us take for granted that when we will to move, we can move any part of our body with precision and control in multiple directions, and those with traumatic spinal cord injury or any other form of paralysis cannot, Case Western Reserve School of Medicine associate professor of neurology Benjamin Waltertold The Daily Case. By restoring the communication of the will to move from the brain directly to the body, this work will hopefully begin to restore the hope of millions of paralyzed individuals that someday they will be able to move freely again.

For somebody whos been injured eight years and couldnt move, being able to move just that little bit is awesome to me, said Kochevar. Its better than I thought it would be.

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Brain Implants Have Allowed a Quadriplegic Man to Move His Arm - Futurism

In Brief SpaceX made history by successfully relaunching and re-landing a used Falcon 9 rocket booster for the first time today. SpaceX's orbital rocket system is already the most affordable in the world, but reusability could save companies more than $18 million per launch.

SpaceX has long said it would like to make its entire Falcon 9 rocket reusable.Today, Elon Musks company madehistory by successfully relaunching and re-landing a used Falcon 9 rocket booster for the first time.The SES-10 mission marks a historic milestone on the road to full and rapid reusability as the worlds first re-flight of an orbital class rocket. Falcon 9s first stage for the SES-10 mission previously supported the successful CRS-8 mission in April 2016.

In an interview after the launch, Musk called it a huge revolution in spaceflight.

The recycled rocket carrieda satellite into orbit for SES, a Luxembourg-basedtelecommunications company, which will provide internet and television service for Central and South America.

In order for commercial space travel to be viable, companies like SpaceX have to make it more affordable. Currently, the Falcon 9 costs about$62 million. However, Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceXs COO, says reusing a rocket booster could result in a30 percent discountper launch, saving companies more than $18 million.

This is an amazing day for space as a whole, said Musk post-landing, for the space industry it means you can fly and re-fly an orbital class booster, the most expensive part of the rocket.

This is potentially revolutionary, John Logsdon, a space policy expert and historian at George Washington Universitys Space Policy Institute, told Business Insider. Reusability has been the Holy Grail in access to space for a long, long time.

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SpaceX's Historic Launch Proves Recycled Rockets Are the Future of Space Exploration - Futurism