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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 5 declined, 7 accepted (12 total, 58.33% accepted)

Submission + - Joe Engle, the last living X-15 pilot, passed away July 10 at the age of 91 (nasa.gov)

Submitted by clovis
clovis writes: Engle received his astronaut wings in a ceremony on July 15, 1965, for his flight in the hypersonic aircraft, reaching an altitude of 50 miles above the Earth. At 32, he was the youngest man to become an astronaut. Later, he entered the Apollo program and eventually commanded the STS-2 flight of the Space Shuttle.

Here is an interview from 2004.
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fhistorycollection.jsc....

I thought it was interesting that they used the F-104 as the chase plane and for training because the flight characteristics were so similar, which says a lot about the F-104.

Anyway, the X-15 project was a big deal for us science/geek types back when I was a kid.
I wonder if it's something today's generation is even aware of.

Submission + - Converting our trains from diesel to electric (nature.com) 1

Submitted by clovis
clovis writes: From Arstechnica, Can we use big batteries to power our trains? https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Fscienc... Right now, most freight in the US is moved by diesel-powered locomotives. In a typical year, these locomotives produce about 35 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, and the rest of the pollutants they make are estimated to cause 1,000 premature deaths and $6.5 billion in health damages. In the US, the typical freight car travels an average of 241 kilometers per day when in operation. So the researchers created a battery big enough to move that distance as part of a large freight train (four locomotives, 100 freight cars, and about 7,000 tonnes of payload). They found that lithium ferrous phosphate would let each of the four locomotives be serviced by a single freight car configured as a giant battery. The battery would only occupy 40 percent of the volume of a typical boxcar and would be seven tonnes below the weight limit imposed by existing bridges.

The full study is here, https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticle...
Our analysis is based on a representative Class I train operating in California, with four 3.3-MW locomotives pulling 100 boxcars and 6,806 revenue-tonnes (or tonnes of payload). A standard 14.6-m boxcar has a rated payload capacity of 114t, although some heavy-duty cars can carry up to 337t . We use lithium ferrous phosphate (LFP) batteries because they have a longer cycle life and lower temperatures than do lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) batteries and are more economical given the distances travelled by freight trains (2.4millionkm over 20years). Furthermore, LFP batteries require negligible service maintenance, have a recharge rate up to 4C, are cheaper than lithium titanate oxide (LTO), are not sensitive to unpredictable price fluctuations in cobalt or nickel and can operate over a wide range of temperatures.

The study also compares the battery solution to overhead catenary electrification.
"Electrification via catenary is widespread in Europe and Asia. However, the context is not directly transferable because US freight trains tend to pull ten times more payload than European freight trains, dramatically increasing the average electricity infrastructure requirements."
and
"Furthermore, the frequent use of double-stack containers in the United States makes catenary requirements problematic; infrastructure would need to be 7m higher than the tracks to accommodate such train."

Here's some general info about diesel-electric locomotives. http://edisontechcenter.org/Di...
And some detail on the AC-DC-AC drive. http://www.republiclocomotive....

Submission + - Genetically modified mosquitoes released in Florida Keys (nature.com)

Submitted by clovis
clovis writes: https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticle...
Aedes aegypti makes up about 4% of the mosquito population in the Keys, a chain of tropical islands off the southern tip of Florida. But it is responsible for practically all mosquito-borne disease transmitted to humans in the region, according to the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD), which is working closely with Oxitec on the project. In late April of this year, project researchers placed boxes containing Oxitec’s mosquito eggs at six locations in three areas of the Keys. The first males are expected to emerge within the first two weeks of May. About 12,000 males will exit the boxes each week over the next 12 weeks. In a second phase later this year, intended to collect even more data, nearly 20 million mosquitoes will emerge over a period of about 16 weeks, according to Oxitec.
There is the usual opposition of the "It's GMO, so it should not be done" variety.
As for ecological food chain considerations, one should know that aedes aegypti is not native to the western hemisphere. It is believed to have been imported from Africa during the slave trade era.

Submission + - EPA Grants First Permit to Test Genetically Modified Mosquitoes (bloombergenvironment.com)

Submitted by clovis
clovis writes: The EPA on Friday granted permission for genetically engineered mosquitoes to be released into the Florida Keys and around Houston to see if they can help limit the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses.

British biotech company Oxitec Ltd was granted an experimental use permit to release a genetically engineered type of the mosquito species Aedes aegypti, which is a known vector of Zika virus and viruses that cause yellow fever and dengue fever, the Environmental Protection Agency office of Chemical Safety and Pollution announced.

Submission + - More "LSD can be good for you" news (cnn.com)

Submitted by clovis
clovis writes: From the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jsad.com%2Fdoi%2F10.15... comes three case studies on people who benefited from LSD overdoses including one woman who took a dose of 55 milligrams of pure powdered LSD, oops. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2020%2F02%2F27...

"The 49-year-old woman, known as CB, had contracted Lyme disease in her early 20s, which damaged her feet and ankles and left her in "significant pain." In September 2015, she took 55 milligrams of what she believed was cocaine but was actually "pure LSD in powder form." The authors defined a normal recreational dose as 100 micrograms — equal to 0.1 milligrams. The woman blacked out and vomited frequently for the next 12 hours but reported feeling "pleasantly high" for the 12 hours after that — still vomiting, but less often. According to her roommate, she sat mostly still in a chair, either with her eyes open or rolled back, occasionally speaking random words. Ten hours later she was able to hold a conversation and "seemed coherent." Her foot pain was gone the next day and she stopped using morphine for five days. While the pain returned, she was able to control it with a lower dose of morphine and a microdose of LCD every three days. After more than two years, in January 2018, she stopped using both morphine and LSD and reported no withdrawal symptoms, although the case report said she did experience an increase in anxiety, depression and social withdrawal."


Submission + - US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died (theguardian.com)

Submitted by clovis
clovis writes: US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has died in his sleep while on a hunting trip near Marfa Texas.
http://www.theguardian.com/law....
Justice Scalia was an Constitutional originalist and textualist.
He did not believe that the Constitution was a living document to be interpreted with the evolving standards of modern times.

I, for one, am very interested to see what happens next.

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