In recent years, the issue of pensions has become one of the most debated issues in society. Sometimes we think that our pensioners live on the edge of poverty, barely making ends meet. But what if this is not the case? What if there are pensioners who have found a way to enrich themselves? That’s the question our reporter asked when he went on a survey of pensioners’ homes in various parts of England. The aim of his report was to shed light on the real living conditions of the elderly and the possible problems they face.
Hunter Eaton
Chris Tarrant will host the new season of the primetime game show, ITV announced today.
The Colour Of Money features cash machines which can deliver “life changing” sums of money – if contestants can keep their nerve. Chris Tarrant is going to host an edgy game show. Chris said: “When I saw The Colour Of Money, I thought it was brilliant. It’s a simple format and creates such tension.”
The U.S. has issued the world’s first-ever fine for space debris
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has accused Dish of violating agreements on satellite regulations and fined the company $150,000. Dish, a satellite TV operator, is accused of neglecting to dispose of its old EchoStar-7 satellite after the end of its operational life. This caused the satellite to become space debris and now potentially threatens other spacecraft.
EchoStar-7 was launched in 2002, operated until 2012 and then had to be moved to a “graveyard orbit” where unused man-made space objects are located. This was necessary to free up a working orbit for payloads. It was required to raise the satellite 300 kilometers above its current position, but the company’s operators overspent the fuel and managed to raise the satellite only 120 kilometers.
The robot that will build the lunar station was shown at Star City
As part of a conference held in Star City, a sample of a robot that will help Russian cosmonauts and their colleagues from other countries to explore the Moon was demonstrated. Work in this area is being carried out by specialists of Android Technics with the support of the Alpha Robotics Venture fund.
It is also specified that this “lunokhod-builder” will begin construction of the station on a natural satellite of the Earth before the arrival of astronauts, and it will be controlled by an operator using a VR-helmet, as well as exoskeleton, whose movements will fully repeat the machine, although also provides for the possibility of fully autonomous operation.
Scientists have come up with a new way to search for water and life on exoplanets
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Birmingham have proposed a new tactic for searching for the basis of life on distant worlds. As a basis, they took the Earth, where carbon is the basis of life, but the content of carbon dioxide is only 0.04% of the atmosphere. By comparison, Mars and Venus have about 95%, but there is no life there, and it is directly correlated.
The low concentration of CO2 on Earth is due to the fact that this gas is absorbed by the huge volume of water on Earth. The higher the CO2 concentration, the less water on the exoplanet, and vice versa. But the presence of water alone does not guarantee the origin of life on a cosmic body. This is only a basic marker, for example, because the James Webb Space Telescope is very good at measuring CO2 levels on exoplanets.
Navajo Indians said the moon missions were a desecration of her
The United Launch Alliance has taken the Vulcan Centaur launch vehicle to the launch pad, whose launch is scheduled for January 8. The launch window is limited and the alliance plans to have 5-6 more launches this year alone, so the launch is certain to happen. This means that US authorities have ignored Navajo Indian demands that the moon be recognized as a sacred place for Native American peoples.
The rocket’s payload is the Peregrine lunar module from space contractor Astrobotic. It fulfills a contract with Celestis and Elysium Space, which offer services for the burial of human ashes on the Earth’s natural satellite. Due to extensive publicity about the service, the Navajo Indians found out about it and filed a collective protest.
The essence of the protest is that in Navajo culture the Moon is a place with a special, sacred status. Visiting it is not forbidden, but intentionally leaving there what can be interpreted as “waste and garbage” is not allowed – it is considered desecration. Human remains clearly fall under this definition, so the head of the Navajo tribal alliance, Buu Nigren, filed a formal protest with NASA and the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Solspace orbital mirrors will increase energy production on earth
Serial launches of SpaceX’s reusable Falcon 9 rockets have reduced the cost of putting cargo into orbit to $1500 per 1 kg. When the larger Starship rocket starts flying, the price will drop by another third, and when these rockets can be used on a permanent basis, the price will drop to $232 per 1 kg. This is the threshold that makes various bold experiments in space cost-effective and the launches themselves affordable for small private entities.
The Solspace project from scientists at the University of Glasgow is focused on this price factor. They intend to build a full-fledged orbital constellation of sunlight reflectors to transmit it to Earth.
Laurent Formery, a biologist from Stanford University, published the results of a study of sea stars, which poses a new mystery for scientists. Most living things on planet Earth have bilateral symmetry, and at the larval stage sea stars in this respect do not differ from other animals. But then, for unknown reasons, they take the form of radial symmetry, growing what people mistakenly call “legs” or “rays”.
RNA tomography works wonders, for example, it can be used to trace which genes take part in the creation and development of certain parts of a living creature’s body. In the case of starfish, it turns out that their entire body has genes for “head”. In other words, these creatures have no body, per se. All we see is a very strange sprawling head, which has also for some reason split into several offshoots.
Chinstrap penguins “go to sleep” up to 10,000 times in a 24-hour period
Studying chinstrap penguins, employees of the Lyon Neurobiological Research Center found out that these birds sleep quite differently from humans. If for people a short-term dip in sleep indicates serious fatigue, then for penguins it is completely normal. It turned out that during the day these birds fall asleep up to a hundred thousand times, indulging in sleep for an average of 4 seconds. This allows them to “gain” physiologically necessary sleep duration of 11 hours.
The article about it was published in the journal Science. The authors of the study believe that such “sleep tactics” in penguins due to the need to always be vigilant. Penguins have to keep an eye on laid eggs while their partners are foraging for food. They may be absent for several days, and during this time the nest must be reliably guarded – neighbors can easily encroach on the materials from which it is made.
During the experiment, 14 penguins in the King George Island colony were implanted with special electrodes. Sensors recorded electrical activity in the muscles of the neck and brain, and accelerometers gave an idea of the birds’ location and movements. By comparing the data with video recordings and live observations, the scientists revealed a host of curious features inherent in penguins – including their special sleep tactics.
Nanotyrannus lancensis: nanotyrannosaurs did exist in nature
Since the discovery and classification of Tyrannosaurus remains, scientists have been troubled by the question: why are very similar but very small carcasses found around the world from time to time? Are they Tyrannosaurus cubs or a separate species of ancient reptile? A new study by scientists from the University of Bath and the University of Chicago points to the second option.
The creatures were named Nanotyrannus lancensis, an example of scientific humor. “Nanotyrannosaurs” were up to 5 meters long and weighed 1500 kg, but that’s only 15% of the size of an adult Tyrannosaurus, so they really did look small. About 150 differences in the bones of these two species have been found, revealing their main difference. Nanotyrannosaurs had long, tenacious, functional forelimbs, rather than rudimentary offshoots like the larger Tyrannosaurs.