The Trump administration wants to make artificial intelligence great again. Or, maybe, great for the first time. We&#8217;re not really sure — the administration just announced a new AI task force that will promote American artificial intelligence efforts, but it&#8217;s not yet clear what exactly this group will do.
The Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, an effort of the National Science and Technology Council, was announced at <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/05/08/white-house-will-host-amazon-facebook-ford-and-other-major-companies-for-summit-on-ai/?utm_term=.d0fc3cc0c96c">a May 10 White House event</a> that hosted representatives from tech giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook. The announcement by Michael Kratsios, deputy chief technology officer and the president&#8217;s deputy assistant, was thick with aspiration, describing how robotics efforts that have seen success — such as <a href="http://triblive.com/local/allegheny/11989147-74/robotics-building-strip">&#8220;Robotics Row&#8221; in Pittsburgh</a> — could be used as models to spur job growth for workers hurt by automation. Yet it was thin on details of how the task force would help accomplish that.
<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/artificial-intelligence-american-people/">A press release</a> by the White House on &#8220;Artificial Intelligence for the American People&#8221; notes efforts the Trump administration has already made to bolster the AI industry and prioritize research and development, as well as take steps to ensure that American workers are <a href="https://futurism.com/experts-automation-jobs/">ready for the automation revolution</a>. The AI task force isn&#8217;t mentioned.
Kratsios did note the White House&#8217;s Office of Science and Technology Policy will soon release a five-year plan to improve STEM education, including steps to grow the number of students working in AI research.
The U.S. is already making significant investments in artificial intelligence; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/05/08/white-house-will-host-amazon-facebook-ford-and-other-major-companies-for-summit-on-ai/?utm_term=.d0fc3cc0c96c">according to the </a><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2018/05/08/white-house-will-host-amazon-facebook-ford-and-other-major-companies-for-summit-on-ai/?utm_term=.d0fc3cc0c96c">Washington Post</a>, the White House estimates that the U.S. government spent over $2 billion in 2017 on unclassified AI development programs, plus an unknown amount on AI for <a href="https://futurism.com/u-s-air-force-ai-intelligence-gathering/">classified uses like defense</a> or <a href="https://futurism.com/how-the-cia-is-using-artificial-intelligence-to-collect-social-media-data/">intelligence-gathering</a>. Additionally, private investors in the country are spending more on AI startups than any other industry, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-artificialintelligence/eu-to-invest-1-5-billion-euros-in-ai-to-catch-up-with-us-asia-idUSKBN1HW1WL">spending around $21 billion</a> on AI ventures in 2016 alone.
Kratsios said that the current administration will continue those investments: &#8220;To realize the full potential of AI for the American people, it will require the combined efforts of industry, academia, and government.&#8221;
He also added a curious nugget of information for the paranoid, suggesting that AI research could be improved by &#8220;opening access to the government’s vast troves of taxpayer-funded data in ways that don’t compromise privacy or security.&#8221; Taxpayer-funded data is a pretty broad category, including everything from national scientific research to city infrastructure to healthcare spending; for <a href="https://futurism.com/2-expert-thinks-ai-will-undoubtably-wipe-out-humanity/">those that are worried</a> about the potential for AI to turn on its creators, thats a lot of information that it could use against us.
So best case, this new AI task force helps usher in a new era of investment and research that make our lives easier. Worst case, it gives a digital super-intelligence the keys to our downfall. Just another day living in the future.

The Trump administration is emphasizing their commitment to helping the US lead this field.

The White House just started an AI task force

Artificial Intelligence

Announced at an event hosting industry leaders like Google and Facebook, it's unclear wat the new AI task force will seek to do for this booming industry.

The White House Just Started An AI Task Force

Make...AI...great? Again?

California is already a beacon of renewable energy in the United States: the state has a law that at least 50% of all electricity shall come from carbon emission-free by the year 2030. On May 9, 2018, the state upped the ante, with the California Energy Commission unanimously approving a plan that mandates all new homes and apartment buildings must have some form of solar power. That, in a word, is historic.
Sure, similar mandates have been <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2016/0420/San-Francisco-to-become-first-city-to-require-solar-panels-on-new-buildings">passed by U.S. cities</a>, but this one&#8217;s the first of its kind for a state. According to a <a href="http://www.energy.ca.gov/releases/2018_releases/2018-05-09_building_standards_adopted_nr.html">press release from the California Energy Commission</a>, these new requirements will reduce greenhouse gas emissions to the same degree as taking 115,000 cars off the road.
It&#8217;s a development that certainly seems like good news given current <a href="https://futurism.com/co2-emissions-sea-levels-centuries/">concerns about climate change</a>. But there are still questions, and if the idea of a requirement for how people get their electricity initially gave you pause as well, we&#8217;ve got some answers.
<h3>What, actually, is this law? </h3>
The &#8220;law&#8221; is actually a set of standards, which mandate much more than just solar panels on every newly-raised roof. The<a href="http://energy.ca.gov/title24/2019standards/rulemaking/"> 2019 Energy Efficiency Standards</a> will also require new buildings have better insulation and better ventilation, and require energy-efficient upgrades to lighting for non-residential buildings. The standards also encourage &#8220;demand-responsive technologies,&#8221; such as battery storage systems and heat pump-based water heaters, which, respectively, will allow residents to store electricity when they generate too much and use less energy on heating.
And yes: Every. New. Home (and every new apartment building of three stories or fewer).
They&#8217;ll be required to have some form of solar power. Builders can either add panels to individual homes, or create shared power systems for a group of homes. These homes will still be hooked up to the traditional power grid, for times when the sun isn&#8217;t shining. And don&#8217;t sweat it, cave-dwellers — the mandate also includes an exception for homes that simply can&#8217;t use solar, such as those that are completely in shade.
<h3>So, when’s this all happening?</h3>
New homes don&#8217;t have to frantically start installing solar panels tomorrow. The new standards first have to be approved by the Building Standards Commission, which the BBC reports should make a decision by the end of the year. If that happens, the standards will take effect on January 1, 2020.
<h3>What are people saying about it?</h3>
The mandate&#8217;s been a divisive one, with critics claiming that all it really does is make housing more expensive and harder to find for lower-income Californians, who are already struggling in a<a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2018-04-03/is-there-hope-for-californias-housing-crisis"> costly and over-saturated market</a>.
&#8220;This is great for wealthier homeowners, but for everybody else it&#8217;s one more reason to not go to California or to leave ASAP,&#8221; Jimmy Pethokoukis, American Enterprise Institute economic policy analyst, told CNBC. &#8220;What [California governments] should focus on is affordability and lowering the cost of living for Californians.&#8221;
Fair, but some would argue that the solar mandate does just that. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/09/business/energy-environment/california-solar-power.html">According to the New York Times</a>, even the construction industry is pleased about the mandate — despite the increased costs it introduces — because they now see solar as a selling point for environmentally-conscious buyers.
Proponents also emphasize that while the mandate will raise the cost of building a home, it&#8217;ll also save homeowners money on energy bills; the California Energy Commission estimates that the standards will add $9,500 to the price tag of constructing a new home, but save $19,000 in energy bills and maintenance over the course of 30 years. (Or, about $633 per year; that means it would take a homeowner about 15 years to recover the extra cost of going solar.)
<h3>What’s the upshot? </h3>
California&#8217;s economy is the fastest-growing in the nation, performing better than the U.S. economy altogether. Economic growth is normally <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/3/16/8224915/economic-growth-carbon-emissions">followed by rising carbon emissions</a>, as a bustling economy encourages people to toss frugality out the window: they drive more, travel more, and use more electricity, among other fun carbon-emitting activities. But in recent years, California&#8217;s growing economy <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2016/12/08/decoupling-economic-growth-from-emissions-growth/">has been &#8220;decoupled&#8221; from its emissions</a>: between 2000 and 2014, the state&#8217;s CO2 emissions dropped by 6.3 percent even while its economy increased 28.2 percent.
If California&#8217;s climate-friendly energy policies, and its massive housing market, can continue to support a healthy economy, they pretty much shoot down the claim that climate regulations stifle economic growth. That&#8217;s a claim that current President Donald Trump has made many a time. (For example: “I am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on American energy, to reverse government intrusion and to cancel job killing regulations,&#8221; Trump said in March 2017, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-energy-idUSKBN16Z1L6">while signing an order</a> to revoke the previous administration&#8217;s Clean Power Plan.)
California could prove to the nation, and the world, that investing in solar infrastructure is worth the investment. And if it goes according to plan, that is, yes, a pretty sunny outlook.

If California proves that this works without hurting the economy, other states might be encouraged to follow suit.

California's new solar mandate could change electricity in America

Earth & Energy

A new set of energy standards, recently passed by California state, require solar panels on any new buildings. But this solar mandate has been divisive.

California's New Solar Mandate Could Change Electricity in America

The new, groundbreaking law is a game-changer for green energy.

How California’s Incredible New Solar Panel Law Is Historic for Green Energy

A biotech startup wants to Benjamin Button your dog. If all goes well, you might be next.
The startup is Rejuvenate, run by famous Harvard geneticist George Church — yes, that <a href="https://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/44919/title/Credit-for-CRISPR--A-Conversation-with-George-Church/">CRISPR-pioneering</a>, <a href="https://futurism.com/4-we-could-see-woolly-mammoths-resurrected-within-two-years/">mammoth-resurrecting</a>, <a href="https://futurism.com/crazy-startup-scientists-crypto-buy-genetic-data/">crypto-gene-sequencing</a> guy. Rejuvenate plans to use gene editing techniques to tweak the &#8220;DNA instructions&#8221; given to cells, restoring some biological markers to youthful levels, and perhaps even reverse aging altogether. As <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611018/a-stealthy-harvard-startup-wants-to-reverse-aging-in-dogs-and-humans-could-be-next/?utm_source=newsletters&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=2018_05_09&amp;utm_campaign=the_download">MIT Technology Review </a><a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611018/a-stealthy-harvard-startup-wants-to-reverse-aging-in-dogs-and-humans-could-be-next/?utm_source=newsletters&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_content=2018_05_09&amp;utm_campaign=the_download">reports</a>, the lab has already tested some of these techniques on mice and were able to reverse a degenerative heart condition. The next stage of the research will continue along these lines, targeting specific age-related conditions like kidney and heart failure, obesity, and diabetes in rodents.
Tech Review&#8217;s investigation suggested that the company had also completed similar preliminary tests on beagles, though Rejuvenate has not announced if the procedures worked or not.
Since the techniques aren&#8217;t ready to be used on humans yet, de-aging man&#8217;s best friend seems like a good place to start. And given the <a href="https://futurism.com/clone-dog-barbra-streisand/">popularity of cloning dogs</a> among the rich, there&#8217;s very likely to be a market, which makes this a smart way to raise capital for further research. (If celebrities are willing to pay as much as $50,000-$100,000 per attempt to clone copies of their pets, just think how much they might pay to keep them as puppies for a lifetime.)
So, naturally, if Fido is living longer, so should his owner, right? Well when it comes to applying that research to humans, things become a little thornier.
Bioethicists are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2652797/">already debating the ethics</a> of medicine that may allow humans to achieve near-immortality. These ethical questions usually take into account the inherent disparity of the technology (it will likely be very expensive, so the wealthy would be able to stay healthy forever while the poor continue to suffer disease and die young), as well as the planet&#8217;s already-troubling <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-the-worlds-population-is-accelerating-towards-collapse/">overpopulation</a> and resource inequality.
These are issues that Rejuvenate and its ilk will certainly have to address, but many ethicists say that it doesn&#8217;t justify treating nobody with medical technology just because it can&#8217;t go to everybody. 
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But apparently, Rejuvenate also plans to reverse aging as its treatments prolong life. One presentation about Rejuvenate includes a picture of Church (who says he plans to volunteer for human trials) from decades ago labeled &#8220;2117.&#8221; Church has also described the technology as putting the experience of a 130-year-old in a 22-year-old body.
Such plans raise questions about our persistent obsession with youth. This shared cultural phenomenon is one <a href="https://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/november/youthful-book-harrison-111914.html">that sociologists trace</a> back to the era following World War II, after which young men, and youth&#8217;s innocence, became a rare commodity. Fast forward 70 years, and that has transmuted into a culture where anti-aging cosmetics <a href="https://www.reuters.com/brandfeatures/venture-capital/article?id=11480">make up a $250 billion industry</a> (as of 2016), and where some are <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/young-woman-beat-wrinkles-preventive-botox-thermage-treatments/story?id=15905464">getting &#8220;preventative Botox&#8221;</a> in their 20s to stave off signs of the passing years.
&#8220;The young have become a model of emulation for the older population, rather than the other way around,&#8221; said Robert Harrison, a professor of Italian literature at Stanford, in<a href="https://news.stanford.edu/news/2014/november/youthful-book-harrison-111914.html"> a press release</a> about his book Juvenescence: A Cultural History of Our Age. &#8220;Culturally speaking, be that in terms of dress codes, mentality, lifestyles and marketing, the world that we live in is astonishingly youthful and in many respects infantile.&#8221;
That&#8217;s not in any way to argue against treating age-related disease. Medicine that reverses painful, debilitating, and hard-to-treat health conditions is one thing; undoing aging is another thing altogether. There is value and wisdom that comes with growing older, and beauty to be found in how the human body adapts to the passing of time.
There&#8217;s still much to do to ensure our increasingly longer lives continue to be <a href="https://futurism.com/living-forever-will-only-benefit-humanity-if-were-also-healthy-forever/">healthy through to their ends</a>. But if we truly want to be a society in which people regularly celebrate their 120th birthday, perhaps we can also be one that values the signs that they lived the years that got them there.

If Fido can live to 50 and still look like a puppy, why can't you be 130 with the body of a 22 year old?

De-aging doggo: Harvard startup wants to give goodest dogs longer lives

Health & Medicine

George Church's startup Rejuvenate will seek to reverse aging in mice and in dogs, with the goal of doing the same in humans one day.

De-Aging Doggo: Harvard Startup Wants to Give Goodest Dogs Longer Lives

All dogs are good dogs. But, at least for now, not all dogs are young dogs. 

Current U.S. President Donald Trump, like all candidates, made a lot of promises before the election. One of his biggest was directed towards coal workers, to whom he vowed to end the &#8220;war on coal,&#8221; and bring back the &#8220;beautiful&#8221; coal industry. Trump <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/10/debate-and-energy-donald-trump-ignores-why-coal-is-on-the-decline.html">claimed that</a> &#8220;clean coal&#8221; would ensure that &#8220;coal will last for 1,000 years in this country.&#8221; (We won&#8217;t get into the fact that clean coal doesn&#8217;t exist the way Trump thinks it does. That&#8217;s a topic for another day.)
The problem with all of these promises? As any energy expert will roundly tell you, coal is on its way out. Though coal saw <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/1/4/16848650/trump-coal-industry-2017">a slight jump in exports</a> in 2017 (thanks to demand from Asia), coal consumption in the U.S. has declined every year for the past decade. It&#8217;s largely being replaced by cheap natural gas. China, which has taken over as the globe&#8217;s biggest coal consumer, is working to <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/5/15/15634538/china-coal-cleaner">make its coal-fired plants more efficient</a> and to <a href="https://futurism.com/china-is-stepping-up-efforts-to-eliminate-coal-usage/">eliminate coal usage</a> altogether <a href="https://futurism.com/china-takes-serious-anti-coal-stance-cancelling-104-new-coal-plants/">in the long term</a>.
That suggests coal workers are being set up for failure. And Trump&#8217;s coal-friendly policies simply postpone the inevitable end of this industry.
New research by researchers at Indiana University seeks to address exactly this problem: how can we buoy communities that rely on jobs in fossil fuel industries so that they can transition into a future of green energy?
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&#8220;The energy transition will bring many benefits to society,&#8221; said Sanya Carley, Indiana University (IU) associate professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs, <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-05/iu-vcm050318.php">in a press release</a>. &#8220;But the benefits, as well as the costs, will not be dispersed proportionately across society.&#8221;
Carley and her co-authors used a tool called the Vulnerability Scoping Diagram, which has previously been used to identify communities susceptible to the impacts of natural hazards and climate change, to identify geographic areas and individuals that will feel the brunt of the clean energy transition.
Unsurprisingly, they found that the most vulnerable communities were those places where fossil fuels play a large role of the local economy, as well as places where individuals cannot afford the increased costs of cleaner energy. For example, the researchers found that counties in Texas, California, Hawaii, and New York would face the greatest financial difficulty from renewable portfolio policies, in which states require a certain portion of electricity to be generated from renewable sources.
The authors suggest that the tool could be used to target these populations for special programs, such as job retraining, or financial assistance.
&#8220;It is important to document adverse effects of policies, not in an attempt to undermine their credibility or efficacy, but to better understand their limitations and unintended consequences,&#8221; said co-author David Konisky, an associate professor in the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs, in the press release.
It&#8217;s definitely better for everyone in the long run to handle the end of the fossil fuels with compassion for the people whose work relies on them. Helping those who are the most affected by the switch could even speed up the transition. It might even identify towns with workers that might be good candidates to employ in the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/04/solar-power-renewables-international-energy-agency">rapidly-growing</a> renewable energy sector.
Promises aside, coal&#8217;s heyday is indisputably over. And given the adverse affects coal had on both <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/dec4/great-smog-1952/">human health</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/story/what-happened-to-acid-rain">the environment</a>, that&#8217;s a good thing. If policy-makers take vulnerable populations more into account and help them move towards a future reliant on renewable energy, maybe they&#8217;d be on board, too.

Policies that help fossil fuel workers could actually help ease the transition to clean energy.

Green energy: good for the planet, bad for fossil fuel workers

New research investigates how researchers can identify the communities that will feel the greatest impacts of the end of fossil fuels.

Green Energy is Good For The Planet, But Bad For Its Most Vulnerable Populations

Campaign promises aside, coal's heyday is over. Policies can help ease the transition.

Green Energy: Good For The Planet, Bad For Fossil Fuel Workers

The Moon and Mars are <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-has-a-plan-to-get-humans-to-mars-but-can-they-survive/">not hospitable places</a> for human explorers. The temperatures fluctuate between impossibly cold and boiling hot; there&#8217;s no breathable atmosphere, food or drinkable water; and we&#8217;re separated from these destinations by the dangerous vacuum of space.
These are big causes for worry, no doubt. But the biggest health risk for extraterrestrial explorers might actually be something tiny: dust.
Since they&#8217;ve got no water and have had billions of years for their rocks to break down, both the Moon and Mars are absolutely chock-full of dust. During the Apollo missions, the astronauts were constantly tracking this extraterrestrial dust back into the ship after sojourns on the lunar surface; when astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean came back from an eight-hour moonwalk, the inside of the Apollo 12 lander was so dusty they called it &#8220;a coal mine.&#8221;
Several lunar explorers told doctors that moon dust made them sneezy and watery-eyed. <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/2017GH000125">In a recent study</a>, scientists found that it could do a lot worse: simulated lunar dust caused cell death and DNA damage in human and mouse cells in the lab. The researchers aren&#8217;t really sure why the dust caused harm, <a href="https://gizmodo.com/simulated-moon-dust-kills-cells-and-alters-dna-signali-1825754439">though they speculated</a> it might be something to do with the shape of the tiny pieces.
Mars, meanwhile, is famous for its dust storms (you might remember, one served as the catalyzing event for the plot of the book and film &#8220;The Martian&#8221;), which have been known to <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/the-fact-and-fiction-of-martian-dust-storms">cover areas the size of Earth&#8217;s continents</a> — and even, on occasion, the entire planet — for up to a month at a time.
But the problem with extraterrestrial dust isn&#8217;t just its abundance. It&#8217;s its size: Moon and Mars dust is much, much smaller than dust found on Earth, so small that it threatens to make its way into astronauts&#8217; lungs. It&#8217;s also so dry that it flies everywhere at the slightest disturbance (the lack of gravity isn&#8217;t much help there). And that dryness also makes it electro-statically charged — meaning it sticks to everything. Perfect.
This makes moon dust incredibly persistent. Apollo astronauts found that moon dust was able to slip past suit filters and zippers, and collect on instruments, causing them to overheat.
“You realize they were only there a couple days and many of their systems were near failure,” Greg Gentry, a Boeing engineer who worked on life support for the International Space Station, <a href="https://medium.com/@adammann930/the-problem-with-dust-on-the-moon-and-mars-2a916162b864">told Medium</a> about Apollo 12. “A big reason was the dust environment.”
<figure id="attachment_130697" style="width: 2000px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img class="wp-image-130697 size-full" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2018/05/dusty-astronaut.jpeg" alt="Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan covered in extraterrestrial dust, which makes his white suit look black with dirt from the waist to the shoulders. " width="2000" height="2000" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Eugene Cernan, an Apollo 17 astronaut, covered in moon dust. Image Credit: NASA</figcaption></figure>
&nbsp;
Research on Mars dust has yielded similarly worrisome results. The state of Mars rovers after dust storms shows that the stuff is just as sticky and pervasive on the Red Planet as the Moon; equipment for the planet had to be specially designed to keep moving even as dust settles on it. (In the future, dust will also be a <a href="https://futurism.com/nuclear-reactor-space-waste/">serious consideration</a> if astronauts plan to use solar power — the panels would be constantly need to be cleaned and would not be functional during dust storms.)
Mars rovers investigating the planet&#8217;s geology have also found the dust <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2015/04/perchlorate_in_martian_soil_the_chemical_that_could_be_dangerous_to_astronauts.html">likely contains perchlorates</a>, a chemical known to harm the human thyroid, as well as minerals like gypsum that can build up in the lungs — on Earth, similar particles cause serious conditions for coal miners. Rovers have also found traces of even more dangerous heavy metals, like carcinogenic hexavalent chromium.
So how will future astronauts cope? The good news is that technology has certainly advanced a lot since the Apollo missions, and the sort of high-tech ionizing and filtration systems we see in Earth-bound laboratories and clean rooms could be used in Moon and Mars habitats to keep them dust-free. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alfonso_Davila/publication/242525435_Perchlorate_on_Mars_A_chemical_hazard_and_a_resource_for_humans/links/0deec51cdddcc71c6b000000.pdf">A 2013 paper</a> also suggested that future astronauts should take the same precautions as heavy metal miners when dealing with Mars dust, spraying down their suits in a specialized room to remove the stuff — and regularly monitoring their blood levels to test exposure.
In the distant, distant future, we may no longer have to deal with extraterrestrial dust if we can <a href="https://www.popsci.com/terraform-mars-climate-change#page-2">figure out how to terraform</a>, the process by which many people hope to eventually make Mars a lot more like Earth. Terraforming would warm up the planet, thicken the Martian atmosphere, and allow liquid water to remain on its surface, which would moisten Martian dust and — with the help of plants and other organic material — help transform it into a thick soil more like that which we see here on Earth.
And if that fails, we could probably just <a href="https://www.theonion.com/nasa-s-mars-roomba-begins-mission-to-clean-dust-from-pl-1819580347">invest in a giant Roomba</a> to suck all that dust away.

Human cells exposed to lunar dust didn't fare well in a recent experiment.

The biggest health risk to Moon and Mars Explorers: tiny dust

Off World

A recent experiment found that lunar dust altered DNA and killed human and mouse cells. The Moon and Mars are both coated in extraterrestrial dust.

The Biggest Health Risk for Lunar and Martian Explorers: Tiny Dust

No amount of vacuuming is going to help with this stuff.

Here&#8217;s a relationship that is becoming clearer by the day: environmental issues disproportionately <a href="https://futurism.com/new-technology-benefits-elite/">impact the poor</a> and communities of color.
Consider the crisis in Flint, Michigan. In 2014, the city captured national attention when it was revealed that the city&#8217;s water system contained high levels of lead, at levels that may <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/147066/flints-water-crisis-damage-kids-brains">already be impacting the mental development</a> of children who consumed it. It&#8217;s no coincidence that more than half of Flint residents are black, and 40 percent live under the poverty line.
Civil rights advocates have called this an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/22/us/a-question-of-environmental-racism-in-flint.html">example of environmental injustice</a>. And while Flint may have been one of the most publicized recent cases of this flavor of injustice, it wasn&#8217;t the first — and it <a href="https://futurism.com/drinking-water-violations-45-million-americans-annually/">won&#8217;t be the last</a>.
North Carolina wants to prevent such injustices from happening, and to rectify them if they do. On May 2, the <a href="https://deq.nc.gov/news/press-releases/2018/05/02/deq-announces-creation-secretary%E2%80%99s-environmental-justice-equity-board">state unveiled</a> its first-ever Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory Board. The board will assist the state&#8217;s Department of Environmental Quality and its secretary, Michael Regan, in creating policies that &#8220;elevate the voices of the underserved and underrepresented as we work to protect the public’s health and natural resources,” Regan said in a press release.
North Carolina is a fitting place for a committee like this; <a href="https://earther.com/north-carolinas-new-environmental-justice-board-is-a-bi-1825783390">as Earther reports,</a> the state was crucial to the founding of the environmental justice movement; <a href="https://www.energy.gov/lm/services/environmental-justice/environmental-justice-history">in the early 1980s</a>, widespread protests prevented a hazardous waste landfill from being installed in a predominantly black community. The protests also led to <a href="http://archive.gao.gov/d48t13/121648.pdf">a groundbreaking study</a> that showed such sites unevenly impact black communities, and eventually led to an <a href="https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-executive-order-12898-federal-actions-address-environmental-justice">environmental justice bill</a> signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton.
Though this movement has been around for 30 years or so, North Carolina is only one of three U.S. states that have some official body to address the problem; <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-becerra-establishes-bureau-environmental-justice">California recently established</a> a Bureau of Environmental Justice, and the city of Providence, Rhode Island has <a href="http://www.providenceri.gov/sustainability/equity/">a Racial and Environmental Justice Committee</a>.
You won&#8217;t be surprised to hear, however, that these three states aren&#8217;t the only places where environmental injustice is happening.
For proof, just take a look at the Environmental Justice Atlas, a map run by the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology (ICTA) at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. It&#8217;s positively swarming with data points: <a href="http://ejatlas.org/conflict/plutonium-production-near-native-american-reservations-usa">radioactive waste polluting the lands</a> of Native American tribes in Washington state, hazardous waste <a href="http://ejatlas.org/conflict/emelle-nations-largest-hazardous-waste-landfill-usa">contaminating soil and groundwater</a> in one of the poorest regions of Alabama, and <a href="http://ejatlas.org/conflict/shintech-pvc-plant-in-the-cancer-alley-usa">the infamous &#8220;Cancer Alley&#8221;</a> linked to chemicals released by manufacturing within impoverished black communities in Louisiana. And that&#8217;s just in the United States; all over the world, this problem is just as bad, if not worse.
North Carolina&#8217;s actions are a great step towards righting some of the wrongs of environmental injustice. It ensures that the government considers environmental justice while making any policy decision, and doing so at the state level seems to be a <a href="https://futurism.com/state-suing-trump-vehicle-emissions/">much more productive way forward</a> in the current political climate.
The span of environmental injustice internationally, however, suggests that the issue needs much attention on a much broader scale. After all, many scholars believe that having clean water, air, and food are <a href="https://futurism.com/is-a-healthy-environment-a-human-right-testing-the-idea-in-appalachia/">a fundamental human right.</a>

A new advisory board will address the uncomfortable fact that environmental problems disproportionately impact the poor and minorities.

North Carolina's new committee will combat environmental injustice

North Carolina's new advisory board will address environmental injustice, in which environmental issues unevenly effect the poor and minorities.

Environmental Problems Go Hand In Hand With Social Injustice. North Carolina Wants to End That.

These problems disproportionately affect minorities and the poor. 

Streetlights that can <a href="https://futurism.com/smart-led-streetlights-watching/">monitor your every move</a>. Crosswalks<a href="https://futurism.com/facial-recognition-china-social-credit/"> that shame you</a> if you jaywalk. <a href="https://futurism.com/combining-ai-cctv-make-easier-police-catch-criminals/">Artificially intelligent CCTV systems</a> that can catch criminals in the act.
The &#8220;smart cities&#8221; of the future seem like places where somebody&#8217;s watching all the time. Smart cities certainly have potential to help keep their residents safe; as the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/specials/connected-world/government.html">BBC points out</a>, cities are booming, and law enforcement often can&#8217;t keep up with the amount of policing needed. AI and smart systems, meanwhile, can watch for crime in action 24/7.
But it comes at a cost: citizen privacy. And several cities in California aren&#8217;t ready to give into this Orwellian fever dream just yet.
On May 1st, the city council of Oakland <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ne98nb/oakland-proposes-strongest-anti-surveillance-regulations-in-the-country">moved a bill forward </a>that would require a specialized council to approve any new surveillance technology that a municipal agency has proposed for the city. The agency interested in that technology will be required to submit a &#8220;technology impacts report&#8221; to the Privacy Advisory Commission, a civilian-led organization, before it can be implemented. If the commission doesn&#8217;t approve the technology, it won&#8217;t be used. Neighboring cities <a href="https://www.eastbayexpress.com/SevenDays/archives/2018/03/14/berkeley-council-approves-surveillance-technology-oversight-ordinance">Berkeley</a> and <a href="http://www.capradio.org/articles/2018/03/21/davis-to-regulate-hi-tech-surveillance/">Davis</a> already have similar laws, which requires formal reporting of how surveillance technology will be used.
The bill will get an official vote later this month.
Lawmakers and <a href="http://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/03/13/opinion-era-trump-ice-will-berkeley-city-council-right-thing">privacy advocates</a> in all three cities have good reason for limiting how these sorts of technologies are used. They have called out the roles that these surveillance technology plays in perpetrating racism and discrimination, particularly in an era in which raids and arrests <a href="https://psmag.com/social-justice/ice-agents-arrested-over-200-people-in-los-angeles-in-a-five-day-span">targeting undocumented immigrants in California</a> (and elsewhere) are on the rise. This is especially important to Oakland, Berkeley, and Davis since they, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/8/17091984/sanctuary-cities-city-state-illegal-immigration-sessions">along with many other California cities</a>, are declared <a href="https://americasvoice.org/blog/what-is-a-sanctuary-city/">Sanctuary Cities</a>, which offer only limited cooperation with federal authorities to identify and deport undocumented immigrants.
In the current political climate, California privacy advocates say it is &#8220;more critical than ever that the amount of surveillance and personal data collected be the bare minimum, to ensure the safety of our community from unlawful and inhumane targeting,&#8221; as Brian Hofer, a member of the citizen group Oakland Privacy who served on the subcommittee that drafted Berkeley&#8217;s ordinance, wrote<a href="http://www.berkeleyside.com/2018/03/13/opinion-era-trump-ice-will-berkeley-city-council-right-thing"> in a March opinion piece</a>.
Hofer <a href="http://www.capradio.org/articles/2018/03/21/davis-to-regulate-hi-tech-surveillance/">told Capital Public Radio</a>, a Sacramento-based station, that he wasn&#8217;t so much concerned about your &#8220;local chief&#8221; using surveillance technology, but rather was worried that the federal government might gain access.
His worries are not unfounded: in February, several California cities postponed plans for automated license plate reader systems when lawmakers learned the company that makes the tech, Vigilant Solutions, had an contract to <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/7/16988058/ice-license-plate-reader-backlash-alameda-deportation-aclu">share data with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement</a> (ICE). Definitely sketchy.
People living in &#8220;smart&#8221; cities have been promised safer, better lives in exchange for their privacy. But it&#8217;s seemed as though governments all over the world have had the liberty to use these technologies unchecked and without oversight.
What&#8217;s happening in California may signal a change, making cities accountable as they become smarter. That seems like a truly smart move.

Berkeley, Davis, and now Oakland have civilian-led committees to approve any new surveillance tech.

California laws seek to keep smart city surveillance tech in check

City Network of Beijing Skyline

Future Society

The city of Oakland is the latest California municipality to enact a law that requires a civilian committee approve any new surveillance technology.

As "Smart Cities" Come Into Focus, California Laws Seek To Limit Surveillance Technology

Oakland is the latest city to give surveillance tech more oversight.

As “Smart Cities” Come Into Focus, California Laws Seek To Limit Surveillance Technology

This articles has been updated to include details from the 5/5 launch
There&#8217;s been <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-is-officially-sending-humans-to-mars-in-2024/">so much hype</a> around future <a href="https://futurism.com/its-official-humans-are-going-to-mars-nasa-has-unveiled-their-mission/">human missions to Mars</a>, you might have not heard that we&#8217;re already going to Mars. Like, now.
NASA&#8217;s InSight Mars is slated to launch tomorrow morning from Vanderberg Air Force Base, in California, atop an Atlas V rocket at approximately 7:05 AM EDT.
If all goes according to plan, InSight should reach our dusty red neighbor by November 26th, 2018. Once on Mars, the lander has a packed <a href="https://futurism.com/weve-seen-less-one-percent-mars-nasa-sending-lander-explore-rest/">two-year itinerary</a> of science to conduct. Unlike other Mars rovers like Curiosity, InSight will stay in one place — <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA17357">a site close to the equator</a> called the Elysium Planitia, close to where Curiosity landed in 2012 — for its entire mission. That&#8217;s because its focus is not on the features of the planet&#8217;s surface, but instead what&#8217;s going on beneath it.
<figure id="attachment_130575" style="width: 2400px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-130575 size-full" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2018/05/insight_surface_operations.jpg" alt="An artist's conception of the Insight Mars lander carrying out surface operations. " width="2400" height="1350" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">An artist&#8217;s rendering of the InSight Mars lander carrying out surface operations. Image Credit: NASA-JPL</figcaption></figure>
The Mars lander&#8217;s suite of instruments will include: a probe that will burrow 16 feet into the planet intended to determine how much heat is moving through Mars&#8217; interior, and a seismometer that will look for vibrations of meteorites hitting the planet&#8217;s surface, along with the tremblings of &#8220;marsquakes.&#8221; Together, these tools will hopefully provide new insight about Mars&#8217; composition. The research team hopes to learn more about the formation of Mars and other rocky planets in the neighborhood — including the spinning blue marble we live on.
“Earth has plate tectonics, so its initial crust is essentially gone, it&#8217;s all been recycled,” InSight deputy principal investigator Suzanne Smrekar told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/05/03/marsquakes-are-a-thing-and-this-nasa-spacecraft-will-go-look-for-them/?utm_term=.977774c5a9b6">The Washington Post</a>. “Mars gives us an opportunity to see the materials, the structure, the chemical reactions that are close to what we see in the interior of Earth, but it&#8217;s preserved from the first 10 million years [of the solar system]. It gives us a chance to go back in time.”
<a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cubesat/missions/marco.php">Two small satellites</a>, each about the size of a briefcase, will launch alongside the InSight Mars lander. These two little satellites, officially dubbed CubeSats because of their shape and small size, are set to detach from the Atlas rocket and go their separate ways from InSight once they all leave Earth&#8217;s atmosphere. Once they arrive at Mars, CubeSats will go into orbit around the planet to monitor InSight for a short period around its landing. They&#8217;re not needed to communicate with the InSight mission (for that, the <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/mission/communications/">lander will use</a> the larger communications satellites already orbiting the planet), but will test how CubeSats fare as they travel through deep space and have to communicate back to Earth from another planet (so far, CubeSats have only ever been put into orbit around Earth).
If InSight succeeds, it will help us answer one of the most fundamental questions we have about our solar system: how did this all get here? And as our species pushes towards becoming multi-planetary, learning more about where our solar system has been could help us, no matter where we&#8217;re going.
<figure id="attachment_130622" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="wp-image-130622 size-large" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2018/05/Screen-Shot-2018-05-05-at-7.05.03-AM-1200x683.png" alt="" width="1200" height="683" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The Altas V rocket awaiting launch. Screenshot: Alexandra Ossola</figcaption></figure>
Update May 5, 2018, 8:55 AM EDT:
On a dark, misty California morning, NASA&#8217;s InSight mission, plus the two CubeSats, successfully launched on top of the Atlas V rocket. The rocket launched on time at 7:05 AM EDT (4:05 AM PDT).
Each phase of the orbit, burn, and separation went according to plan. The CubeSats separated from the rocket; they will travel to Mars in a &#8220;loose group&#8221; with the InSight lander. All three are now on their way to Mars. The three are slated to arrive in Mars&#8217; orbit in November.

If InSight succeeds, it will help us answer one of the most fundamental questions we have about our solar system: how did this all get here?

A new Mars lander just took off for the red planet (updated)

The InSight Mars lander will launch from California tomorrow morning. When it reaches Mars, it will probe the planet's geology and composition.

A New Mars Lander Just Took Off for the Red Planet (updated)

By probing Mars' interior, this mission could teach us about how our solar system's planets formed.

That stuff you use to keep your skin healthy in the sun? Yeah, it&#8217;s terrible for the health of coral reefs. As if they <a href="https://futurism.com/australian-waters-are-cooking-coral-to-death-causing-worst-ever-die-off/">didn&#8217;t have enough problems</a> to deal with lately.
Fortunately, Hawaii lawmakers are stepping in to help. The Hawaiian state legislature just passed a bill that would ban the sale of sunscreens containing the chemicals oxybenzone and octinoxate. <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00244-015-0227-7?wt_mc=Affiliate.CommissionJunction.Authors.3.EPR1089.DeepLink&amp;utm_medium=affiliate&amp;utm_source=commission_junction_authors&amp;utm_campaign=3_nsn6445_deeplink&amp;utm_content=deeplink&amp;utm_term=3987228">Research has shown</a> these chemicals are toxic to coral (as larvae and once they&#8217;ve grown to adults), and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2291018/">can promote viral infections</a> that cause coral bleaching — even in small doses. And the amount entering the oceans is far from small: <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00244-015-0227-7">according to one 2015 estimate</a>, some 14,000 tons of sunscreen assault the world&#8217;s coral reefs annually.
The bill now goes to the desk of Hawaii governor David Ige, who has <a href="http://www.statescape.com/resources/legislative/bill-signing-deadlines.aspx">45 days </a>to sign it. He has not yet indicated whether he will. But if he does, this bill would be the first of its kind in the world. It would take effect on January 1, 2021.
While a sunscreen ban indeed doesn&#8217;t do much to combat the serious impacts of <a href="https://futurism.com/australia-great-barrier-reef-climate-change/">polluted, warming, and acidifying oceans on reefs</a>, it absolutely could make a difference. Reefs are more sensitive to the impacts of these larger changes when they&#8217;re stressed, and the research evidence so far suggests that chemicals in sunscreen can at least act as a serious stressor.
Unsurprisingly, sunscreen manufacturers aren&#8217;t too excited about the bill. <a href="https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/Session2018/Testimony/SB2571_TESTIMONY_WTL-AEN_02-07-18_.PDF">In their opposition to it</a>, the Hawaii Medical Association also said they wanted more research into the link between sunscreen and coral bleaching before removing products that are shown to prevent skin cancer. In August, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a trade group, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/19/opinion/sunday/sunscreen-poisoning-ocean-reef.html">highlighted in their own opposition statement</a> that other factors, such as climate change, were a more significant factor than sunscreen for reef decline.
If you&#8217;ve ever had a sunburn, you may be inclined to agree with the opposers; there&#8217;s nothing quite like the chills-inducing, hot-shower-forbidding, can&#8217;t-find-a-comfortable-position-anywhere pain of a bad sunburn.
But the ban doesn&#8217;t mean you&#8217;ll have to forego sunscreen altogether; there are lots of brands that don&#8217;t use oxybenzone and octinoxate but still provide good protection from the summer sun. (There may even soon be an option that gets its protection <a href="https://futurism.com/bacteria-produce-greener-sunscreens/">from marine algae itself</a>!) Lots of travel magazines and environmental advocacy organizations online have lists of them — just Google &#8220;reef-safe sunscreen.&#8221;
It&#8217;s also worth noting that prescription sunscreens for people with serious skin conditions would still be permitted by the Hawaii ban.
We&#8217;re all in favor for scientifically rigorous legislation, but <a href="https://futurism.com/how-researchers-hope-revive-floridas-dying-corals/">given the fragile state of coral reefs today</a>, it would probably be better safe than bleached.

Some evidence suggests that sunscreen causes reefs serious stress.

Hawaii sunscreen ban will attempt to protect struggling coral reefs

The Hawaii legislature has passed a sunscreen ban that would ban the sale of creams containing two chemicals that research suggests harm coral reefs.

Hawaii Sunscreen Ban Will Attempt to Protect Struggling Coral Reefs

Fortunately, there are reef-safe alternatives.

Hawaii’s Sunscreen Ban Will Attempt to Protect Struggling Coral Reefs

If the power goes out in your home, you can usually settle in with some candles, a flashlight, and a good book. You wait it out, because the lights will probably be back on soon.
But if you&#8217;re on Mars, your electricity isn&#8217;t just keeping the lights on — it&#8217;s literally keeping you alive. In that case, a power outage becomes a much bigger problem.
NASA scientists think they&#8217;ve found a way to avoid that possibility altogether: <a href="https://www.space.com/40479-space-nuclear-reactor-kilopower-passes-big-test.html">creating a nuclear reactor</a>. This nuclear reactor, known as Kilopower, is about the size of a refrigerator and can be safely launched into space alongside any celestial voyagers; astronauts can start it up either while they&#8217;re still in space, or after landing on an extraterrestrial body.
The Kilopower prototype <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/demonstration-proves-nuclear-fission-system-can-provide-space-exploration-power">just aced a series of major tests</a> in Nevada that simulated an actual mission, including failures that could have compromised its safety (but didn&#8217;t).
<iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DcdfMcjUy_U?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This nuclear reactor would be a &#8220;game changer&#8221; for explorers on Mars, Lee Mason, NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) principal technologist for Power and Energy Storage, said in a November 2017<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/feature/Powering_Up_NASA_Human_Reach_for_the_Red_Planet"> NASA press release</a>. Just one device could provide enough power to support an extraterrestrial outpost for 10 years, and do so without some of the issues inherent to solar power, namely: being interrupted at night or blocked for weeks or months during Mars&#8217; epic dust storms.
&#8220;It solves those issues and provides a constant supply of power regardless of where you are located on Mars,&#8221; Mason said in the press release. He also noted that a nuclear-powered habitat could mean that humans could land in a greater number of landing sites on Mars, including high latitudes where there&#8217;s not much light but potentially lots of ice for astronauts to use.
Nuclear reactors are not an unusual feature in space; the <a href="https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/status/">Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft</a>, now whizzing through deep space after departing our solar system, have been running on nuclear energy since they launched in the 1970s. The same is true for the Mars rover Curiosity since it landed on the Red Planet in 2012.
But we&#8217;d need a lot more reactors to colonize planets. And that could pose a problem of what to do with the waste.
<figure id="attachment_130527" style="width: 1500px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="wp-image-130527 size-full" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2018/05/stmd_kilopower.jpg" alt="An artist's depiction of the Kilopower nuclear reactor, with a mushroom-like shape, working in concert with others on a reddish surface, presumably Mars." width="1500" height="843" /><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">An artist&#8217;s depiction of a series of Kilopower reactors, working in concert to power an extraterrestrial outpost. (Image Credit: NASA)</figcaption></figure>
<a href="https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a20127140/nasa-tests-mini-nuclear-reactors-for-moon-and-mars/"> According to Popular Mechanics</a>, Kilopower reactors create electricity through active nuclear fission — in which atoms are cleaved apart to release energy. You need solid uranium-235 to do it, which is housed in a reactor core about the size of a roll of paper towels. Eventually, that uranium-235 is going to be &#8220;spent,&#8221; just like fuel rods in Earth-based reactors, and put nearby humans at risk.
When that happens, the uranium core will have to be stored somewhere safe; spent reactor fuel is still dangerously radioactive, and releases lots of heat. On Earth, most spent fuel rods <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-power/nuclear-waste/safer-storage-of-spent-fuel#.Wuteh4gvw2w">stored in pools of water</a> that keep the rods cool, preventing them from catching fire and blocking radiating radioactivity. But on another planet, we&#8217;d need any available water to, you know, keep humans alive.
So we&#8217;d need another way to cool spent radioactive fuel. It&#8217;s possible that the spent fuel could be stored in shielded casks in lava tubes or designated parts of the surface, since the Moon and Mars are so cold, though that introduces the risk that someone might accidentally bump into them.
Right now, all we can do is speculate — as far as we know, NASA doesn&#8217;t have any publicly available plan for what to do with spent nuclear fuel on extraterrestrial missions. That could be because the Kilopower prototype just proved itself actually feasible. But not knowing what to do with the waste from it seems like an unusual oversight, since NASA is planning to <a href="https://futurism.com/making-moon-space-gas-station/">go back to the Moon</a>, and <a href="https://futurism.com/its-official-humans-are-going-to-mars-nasa-has-unveiled-their-mission/">then to Mars</a>, by the early 2030s.
And in case you were wondering, no, you can&#8217;t just shoot the nuclear waste off into deep space or into the sun; <a href="https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19780015628.pdf">NASA studied that way back in the 1970s</a> and determined it was a pretty terrible idea. Back to the drawing board.

Kilopower could keep the lights on for Mars explorers for 10 years. But what happens when the reactor is spent?

We now have a working nuclear reactor for other planets

NASA's Kilopower nuclear reactor just aced a series of tests showing it can be safely used on space missions. Yet its unclear what will happen to its waste.

/Author

Claudia Geib

Associate Editor

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Earth & Energy

Environmental Problems Go Hand In Hand With Social Injustice. North Carolina Wants to End That.

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As “Smart Cities” Come Into Focus, California Laws Seek To Limit Surveillance Technology

Off World

A New Mars Lander Just Took Off for the Red Planet (updated)

Earth & Energy

Hawaii’s Sunscreen Ban Will Attempt to Protect Struggling Coral Reefs

Off World

We Now Have A Working Nuclear Reactor for Other Planets — But No Plan For Its Waste

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