Scientists Are Planning To Make ‘Star Wars’ Moisture Farms A Reality On Mars

Scientists have recently discovered that the soil on Mars is practically bursting with water molecules. Well, maybe not bursting, but data from NASA’s Curiosity Rover indicates that up to two percent of the red dirt is water. It might go even further than that. According to Swedish scientists who have been poring over the environmental data being sent back by Curiosity, liquid water may exist on or in the first five centimeters of Mars’ soil in the winter.

Okay, there’s water in some form on Mars, so how will we get our grubby mitts on it? Well, those Swedish scientists I just mentioned are working on a “proof of concept” device that could harvest water out of the Martian atmosphere. The plan is to send this instrument up with the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Rover in 2018.

Tattoo Removal Is Now As Simple As Rubbing On A Cream

Alec Falkenham, a 27-year-old PhD student in the university's pathology department, is developing a topical cream that he says will make tattoo ink eventually fade away.

How it works

During tattooing, ink is injected into the skin. The ink initiates an immune response, and cells called "macrophages" move into the area and "eat up" the ink.

The macrophages carry some of the ink to the body's lymph nodes. But some of those macrophages that are filled with ink stay put, embedded in the skin. That's what makes the tattoo visible under the skin.

Falkenham's topical cream works by targeting the macrophages that have remained at the site of the tattoo. New macrophages move in to consume the previously pigment-filled macrophages and then migrate to the lymph nodes, eventually taking all the dye with them.

There's no injection and no inflammation, and Falkenham says the tattoo should fade away.

Falkenham is working with the university's Industry Liaison and Innovation office to patent his technology. He and the ILI office have secured funding through Springboard Atlantic and Innovacorp Early Stage Commercialization Fund for his research.

"Alec is a trail blazer in tattoo removal. He came to ILI with an idea, tangentially related to his graduate research, that had real-life applicability," said Andrea McCormick, manager, health and life sciences at ILI in a news release.

"His initial research has shown great results and his next stage of research will build on those results, developing his technology into a product that can eventually be brought to market."

He doesn't yet know how many applications will be required to completely fade a tattoo. He's testing the cream on tattooed pig's ears.

Falkenham says it will be much safer than laser tattoo removal.

He's not sure when the cream will be available commercially.

Falkenham estimates a tattoo removal treatment will cost four cents per square centimetre — a 10-by-10-centimetre area would cost approximately $4.50 per treatment. The cream will work best on tattoos that are more than two years old, he adds.

A Teen Was Charged With Murder After Uploading A Selfie With The Victim’s Body To Snapchat

A Pennsylvania teenager has been accused of murdering a classmate and posing with the victim’s body for a “selfie,” according to news reports.

Authorities say 16-year-old Maxwell Marion Morton of Jeannette, Pa., fatally shot 16-year-old Ryan Mangan in the face before taking a photo with Mangan’s body and uploading it to Snapchat, a smartphone application that allows users to send images that are deleted a few seconds after they’re received, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Morton sent the image to a friend, who saved it on his phone before it was deleted, according to Fox News. The friend showed the photo to his mother, who turned the image over to police, according to Fox News.

Jay Z splashes out $56 million on Spotify rivals WiMP and Tidal

Jay Z must be in a digital music empire state of mind.

The hip-hop mogul has made a $56 million bid for Scandinavian company Aspiro, which operates streaming music company Tidal in the U.S. and elsewhere including Canada and the U.K., and the WiMP music service in Norway, Sweden and other parts of Europe.

Both services offer high resolution audio -- the equivalent of the quality of CDs -- beyond that of typical services such as Pandora and Spotify. Subscription fees are a bit higher, too, at $20 monthly.

Whitney Houston's daughter, Bobbi Kristina Brown, found unresponsive in the bathtub!

Bobbi Kristina Brown, the daughter of whitney Houston and Bobbi Brown was found unresponsive in the bathtub in her Georgia home, US.
She is now taken to the hospital. for more see the link.

ASAP YAM R.I.P

Rocky and Ferg broke the news but the label has now released an official statement confirming Yams’ passing. No word on the cause, but we will update when it is revealed. Many people don’t know that Yams started the A$AP Mob in 2007, and Rocky came along later in 2008. Read the label’s statement, and then the industry’s reaction to his death after the jump.

RCA:

All of us at RCA Records are shocked and saddened to hear of the death of A$AP Yams. As one of the creative forces behind A$AP Worldwide, Yams’ vision, humor and dedication to the members of A$AP Mob will always be remembered. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.

'The X-Files' to return to TV?

We want to believe! Fox executives are in talks with series creator Chris Carter, along with original actors Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny, to bring back the sci-fi drama to TV.

World’s Greatest Husband Used A 3D Printer To Save His Wife’s Eyesight

Brain tumors are rare, but terrifying. Not least because they’re difficult to diagnose and harder to treat; when you start cutting into brain matter, there are going to be compromises. Fortunately for Pamela Scott, her husband Michael Balzer was on the case.

Scott was diagnosed with a mass behind her left eye, which was dismissed as common and just to be looked at a year later. Balzer, a 3D graphics expert, requested her medical files, mostly to keep them on record. Then, a few months later, another MRI said Scott needed immediate surgery: The growth had suddenly jumped in size. The surgery in question, however, involved lifting her brain out of the way. Balzer decided instead to get a second opinion:

Balzer [created] a 3D volume rendering from Scott’s DICOM images, which allowed him to look at the tumor from any angle. Then he uploaded the files to Sketchfab and shared them with neurosurgeons around the country in the hope of finding one who was willing to try a new type of procedure.

Balzer also used the models to print out a section of Pamela’s skull for doctors to test out the procedure. That model allowed them to better plan the surgery, and Pamela had her eyesight saved with a far less invasive technique.

It’s a pioneering technique but one that’s going to become more commonplace. As 3D scanners become standard for medical technology, and as 3D printers become more ubiquitous, surgeons and doctors will use more custom-fitted plastic models to plan out procedures before they cut anyone open. This is just the most dramatic demonstration of that… and an argument, for many, that we need this technology in hospitals sooner rather than later. See the link for more.

Meet Easton LaChappelle, The 19-Year-Old Luminary Building A Cheaper, Better Prosthetic Limb

Easton’s prosthetic arm came about because he met a little girl using a limb that cost $80,000. That struck him as far too much. So Easton taught himself robotics and combined open source designs with 3D printing to create a completely functional prosthetic arm. Even as Easton refines his designs, he’s using new and morepowerful tools such as the HP Sprout to post his designs online for anyone to refine, repurpose, and use. He’s not just creating one thing, he’s giving everyone the ability to be their own engineer, to take what was once an involved, arcane process and make it one anyone can do.

GWEN STEFANI & PHARRELL – SHINE

The duo of Gwen Stefani and Pharrell team up once again for a new feel good track titled “Shine”.

You May Be Able To Touch People And Objects Over The Internet By 2035

In perhaps 20 years, we could have a wireless network that would send and receive vast amounts of data in less than one millisecond. At that speed, we would be able to match the reaction speed the human body has to touching something, meaning we could control objects anywhere in the world, in real time, from a mobile device and get the sensation that we were controlling something right in front of us.

Gerhard Fettweis, a professor at the Dresden University of Technology, believes that 5G, the next generation of wireless technology, could be fast enough to create a network of instant-reaction internet devices, mimicking the experience of real life.

World leaders gather in Paris for the unity march

As a solidarity with the people of france, where 17 people died within 3 days due to terrorist attack, leaders from 40 countries are participating in the Paris rally (with about 1 million people). Some of the leaders present are:
President Mali, Gabon, Ukraine,
British, German, Italian, Spanish, Israeli, Tunisian prime ministers,
King Abdullah II of Jordan,
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas,
European commission president,
European Union president,
European Parliament president,
Russian, Israeli, Algerian foreign ministers,
Italian Prince.

Je suis Charlie!

Light will always reign over darkness! Victory to press freedom!