Fusion Energy: These Promising Projects Are Set To Revolutionize Our World

There’s finally a Tesla that’s priced like a normal car

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The geniuses at MIT have created a Wi-Fi network so high-tech it doesn’t need a password

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology want to change how we connect to Wi-Fi. To avoid the cumbersome network login process, a team has come up with a way to grant computers access to a Wi-Fi network based on their proximity to a router. But what about security?

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What’s Up for September 2016

We won’t have a solar eclipse until Aug. 21, 2017, but observers in central Africa will see an annular eclipse, where the moon covers most but not all of the sun, on Sept. 1. Observers always need to use safe solar eclipse glasses or filters on telescopes, binoculars and cameras.

Also this month, there are two minor meteor showers, both with about 5 swift and bright meteors per hour at their peak, which will be near dawn. The first is the Aurigid shower on Sept. 1. The new moon on the first means the sky will be nice and dark for the Aurigids. 

The second shower is the Epsilon Perseids on Sept. 9. The first quarter moon sets on the 9th at midnight, just in time for the best viewing of the Perseids.

There are many nice pair-ups between the moon and planets this month. You can see the moon between Venus and Jupiter on Sept. 2, and above Venus on the 3rd, right after sunset low on the West-Southwest horizon. On the 15th the nearly full moon pairs up with Neptune, two weeks after its opposition, when the 8th planet is closest to Earth in its orbit around the sun.

Watch the full September “What’s Up” video for more: 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

We normally post our tech news roundups on Fridays, but due to turkey, football, and lots of napping, we’re publishing it today instead. Enjoy!

1. The right drones for everyone this holiday season Love is in the air, and here’s a list of UAVs you can use to catch it. There’s never been a better reason to sit around while your relatives drone on and on. Really. With gifts like these the holidays will fly right by. via: Quartz

2. New tech can wirelessly charge your electronics with a standard Wi-Fi router There’s a good reason your Wi-Fi router is always shooting dirty looks at your laptop’s power cord. But rather than stoop to their level, routers everywhere are taking up the slack. Try to be sympathetic when your power cord finally winds up jobless. It’s bound to come as a shock.         via: BGR 3. The Pickle Index is a Delightfully Weird, App-Driven Novel Like No Other Immersive multimedia experiences are becoming more and more advanced every day, but there are plenty of people who still use monomedia to get their virtual realities. With The Pickle Index, techies and bookworms will finally have something to talk about if they’re both forced to interact with other humans. via: WIRED

4. Circuit Board Tattoos That Actually Work Will Make Your Cyborg Fantasies Come True Do yourself a favor and only get tattoos in languages that you understand. Otherwise you might end up with a bunch of spurious output, and it’s going to take forever to find that missing comma. via: Gizmodo

The techniques used to find and study exoplanets

We’ve hit peak drone everyone. 

Introducing: The delivery drone for humans.

Report: A host of common chemicals endanger child brain development

In a new report, dozens of scientists, health practitioners and children’s health advocates are calling for renewed attention to the growing evidence that many common and widely available chemicals endanger neurodevelopment in fetuses and children of all ages.

The chemicals that are of most concern include lead and mercury; organophosphate pesticides used in agriculture and home gardens; phthalates, which are used in pharmaceuticals, plastics and personal care products; flame retardants known as polybrominated diphenyl ethers; and air pollutants produced by the combustion of wood and fossil fuels, said University of Illinois comparative biosciences professor Susan Schantz, one of dozens of individual signatories to the consensus statement.

Polychlorinated biphenyls, once used as coolants and lubricants in transformers and other electrical equipment, also are of concern. PCBs were banned in the U.S. in 1977, but can persist in the environment for decades, she said.

The new report, “Project TENDR: Targeting Environmental NeuroDevelopment Risks,” appears in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The group also has a website with information about each of the chemicals of concern.

“These chemicals are pervasive, not only in air and water, but in everyday consumer products that we use on our bodies and in our homes,” Schantz said. “Reducing exposures to toxic chemicals can be done, and is urgently needed to protect today’s and tomorrow’s children.”

Schantz is a faculty member in the College of Veterinary Medicine and in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the U. of I.

“The human brain develops over a very long period of time, starting in gestation and continuing during childhood and even into early adulthood,” Schantz said. “But the biggest amount of growth occurs during prenatal development. The neurons are forming and migrating and maturing and differentiating. And if you disrupt this process, you’re likely to have permanent effects.”

Some of the chemicals of concern, such as phthalates and PBDEs, are known to interfere with normal hormone activity. For example, most pregnant women in the U.S. will test positive for exposure to phthalates and PBDEs, both of which disrupt thyroid hormone function.  

“Thyroid hormone is involved in almost every aspect of brain development, from formation of the neurons to cell division, to the proper migration of cells and myelination of the axons after the cells are differentiated,” said Schantz. “It regulates many of the genes involved in nervous system development.”

Schantz and her colleagues at Illinois are studying infants and their mothers to determine whether prenatal exposure to phthalates and other endocrine disruptors leads to changes in the brain or behavior. This research, along with parallel studies in older children and animals, is a primary focus of the Children’s Environmental Health Research Center at Illinois, which Schantz directs.

Phthalates also interfere with steroid hormone activity. Studies link exposure to certain phthalates with attention deficits, lower IQ and conduct disorders in children.

“Phthalates are everywhere; they’re in all kinds of different products. We’re exposed to them every day,” Schantz said.

The report criticizes current regulatory lapses that allow chemicals to be introduced into people’s lives with little or no review of their effects on fetal and child health.

“For most chemicals, we have no idea what they’re doing to children’s neurodevelopment,” Schantz said. “They just haven’t been studied.

“And if it looks like something is a risk, we feel policymakers should be willing to make a decision that this or that chemical could be a bad actor and we need to stop its production or limit its use,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to wait 10 or 15 years – allowing countless children to be exposed to it in the meantime – until we’re positive it’s a bad actor.”

Astronomers Have a New Tool in the Search For Habitable Exoplanets

The quest for habitable alien worlds may get a whole lot easier. http://futurism.com/astronomers-have-a-new-tool-in-the-search-for-habitable-exoplanets/

Last Minute Geeky Gifts for the Science Lover in Your Life

Once again, the holiday season is upon us. Unfortunately, this leaves a lot of us at a loss. First, it’s easy to get bogged down by the commercialism that surrounds the season. Second, it’s sometimes difficult to find something that is really meaningful. To that end, here are some science themed gift ideas that you can get your loved ones (or maybe use as a treat for yourself). Some are educational, others are science based charitable contributions, all of them are pretty awesome.

Read more about the fascinating gifts at: http://futurism.com/links/geeky-gifts-for-the-science-lover-in-your-life/

A New Era in Astronomy: The James Webb Space Telescope is One Step Closer to Completion

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was just seen the installation of the first of its eighteen flight mirrors, marking the beginning of the final assembly phase of the successor to the 25-year-old Hubble Space Telescope.

The significance of this project cannot be overstated, as Hubble is arguably one of mankind’s greatest inventions, and the James Webb is set to be 100 times more powerful.

Indeed, this telescope will be more sensitive by a factor of about 100, than all the other telescopes that came before it. It could help us see some of the first stars forming in the universe. It could allow us to image planets orbiting alien stars. It will open up a world (a universe) of possibilities.

We will be able to see farther and deeper than ever before, and completion is coming ever closer.

Know more at: http://futurism.com/links/a-new-era-in-astronomy-the-james-webb-space-telescope-is-one-step-closer-to-completion/