47% of jobs are at high-risk of being automated in the next decade.  Is yours one of them?

Will Automation Steal My Job?

<figure id="attachment_43770" style="width: 700px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/09/M96.jpg"><img class="wp-image-43770" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/09/M96.jpg" alt="M96" width="700" height="513" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Messier 96 (M96), as seen by Hubble (Image Credit: ESA/Hubble &amp; NASA and the LEGUS Team (Acknowledgement: R. Gendler)</figcaption></figure>
Really&#8230; what can you say? This incredible image would leave even the most well-versed stargazer with an overwhelming feeling of euphoria.
Called M96 (short for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_96">Messier 96</a>), the featured galaxy is located around 35 million light-years from Earth toward the Leo constellation. It is roughly the same size as the Milky Way (between 100,000 and 120,000 light-years across), with roughly the same mass—meaning, it may have as many as 400 billion stars.
Otherwise known as NGC 3368, M96 is an intermediate spiral galaxy, but not your average, run-of-the-mill example. It has an asymmetric quality to it, which is apparent in this <a href="http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1535a/">new image</a> of its lopsided central core. Instead of residing in the dead center of the galaxy, it is offset a bit, and the disordered spiral arms weakly (and unevenly) sweep back and forth. Ultimately, these attributes suggest that M96 was recently disturbed by one of its neighbors.
<figure id="attachment_42041" style="width: 700px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/07/Messier-96.jpg"><img class="wp-image-42041" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/07/Messier-96.jpg" alt="Messier 96" width="700" height="699" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">Another view of Messier 96 (Image Credit: ESO/Oleg Maliy)</figcaption></figure>
Since it is the &#8220;anchor&#8221; of the M96 group—a small cluster of at least 10 (maybe 20) galaxies, including Messier 95 and Messier 105—there are plenty of suspects. Perhaps no single galaxy is to blame, rather, the complex gravitational happenings within the group impact each of the galaxies in their own way.
Finally, although it was originally added to the <a href="https://futurism.com/best-beautiful-messier-objects/" target="_blank">Messier Catalo</a>g in 1781, it was not discovered by its namesake, Charles Messier. It was discovered by someone who may have worked with him closely, a French astronomer known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_M%C3%A9chain">Pierre Méchain</a>. (See a larger image <a href="http://cdn.spacetelescope.org/archives/images/wallpaper2/potw1535a.jpg">here</a>)

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FromQuarkstoQuasars

Really… what can you say? This incredible image would leave even the most well-versed stargazer with an overwhelming feeling of euphoria. Called M96 (short for Messier 96), the featured galaxy is located around 35 million light-years from Earth toward the Leo constellation. It is roughly the same size as the Milky Way (between 100,000 and 120,000 light-years across), with roughly […]

Astronomy Photo of the Day: 9/1/15 — Storms Brew in Turbulent Core of M96

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<li>Components of the camera are being built by an international collaboration of universities and labs, including DOE’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and SLAC. Starting in 2022, LSST will take digital images of the entire visible southern sky every few nights from atop a mountain called Cerro Pachón in Chile. It will produce a wide, deep and fast survey of the night sky, cataloguing by far the largest number of stars and galaxies ever observed.</li>
<li>During a 10-year time frame, LSST will detect tens of billions of objects—the first time a telescope will observe more galaxies than there are people on Earth – and will create movies of the sky with unprecedented details.</li>
<li>The telescope’s camera – the size of a small car and weighing more than three tons – will capture full-sky images at such high resolution that it would take 1,500 high-definition television screens to display just one of them.</li>
</ul>

Off World

The Department of Energy has approved the start of construction for a 3.2-gigapixel digital camera – the world’s largest – at the heart of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST).

World’s Most Powerful Digital Camera Will Map The Universe

To many, Richard Feynman is an inspiration. Without a doubt, he was the same caliber of man, as well as scientist, as Carl Sagan and many of the other greats that we have all come to known and love. If you aren&#8217;t familiar with him, you&#8217;ll want to take a moment to get to know him a little better.
He was a scientist, a teacher, a musician, and an icon. In the physics community, he is heralded as one of the most prominent theoretical physicists ever known. Modern science owes a lot to Feynman, for both his work and the encouraging words he left to the next generation of scientists.
Through the power of reading, he was able to teach himself concepts and subjects far ahead of what he was learning in school. In an interview, Feynman credits a book series “Algebra for the practical man” with much of his learning. You can still find these books online and can<a href="http://www.aproged.pt/biblioteca/mathematicsforthehowe.pdf" target="_blank"> download PDF </a>versions of some of them.
Feynman went to Princeton University, where he got a perfect score on the entrance exam in mathematics and physics (this is no easy task). During his time there, he took classes with scientists such as Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli, and John won Neumann. For his doctoral work, Feynman – along with his thesis adviser John Archibald Wheeler – laid the groundwork for “path integral formulation” as well as “Feynman diagrams.” He would continue this pioneering work throughout his career.
Feynman was also one of the scientists assigned to work on the Manhattan and Trinity projects during World War II. He was a junior scientist, but even then, Feynman helped to solve difficult equations, including the formula for calculating the yield of a fission device.
He also won the <a href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1965/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Nobel Prize</a> for developing the mathematical explanation of the electromagnetic force, and this turned out to be one of the most precise models in the history of physics.
Some time ago, the Nobel Prize winning physicist was asked how magnets work. You might think that he would respond by talking about the magnetic field or Maxwell’s equations. But you would be wrong. Instead, he discloses something remarkable that cuts straight to the heart of what is being asked. And in the end, underscores the importance of asking good questions.
<iframe width="500" height="375" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wMFPe-DwULM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hard Science

To many, Richard Feynman is an inspiration. Without a doubt, he was the same caliber of man, as well as scientist, as Carl Sagan and many of the other greats that we have all come to known and love. If you aren’t familiar with him, you’ll want to take a moment to get to know […]

Feynman Answers “How do Magnets Work?”

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The &#8220;<a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FantasticVoyagePlot">fantastic voyage</a>,&#8221; where scientists shrink down, suit up in some type of submarine or robot, and enter a patient&#8217;s body, is a common trope in popular culture. In The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Archer, Dexter&#8217;s Lab, Futurama, Invader Zim, and (of course) The Magic School Bus, characters all shrink down to explore.
<figure id="attachment_43746" style="width: 511px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><a href="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/08/1410907947_1.jpg"><img class="wp-image-43746" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/08/1410907947_1.jpg" alt="1410907947_1" width="511" height="287" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text">The Magic School Bus, &#8220;For Lunch&#8221; </figcaption></figure>
Now, Professors Shaochen Chen and Joseph Wang of the Nano Engineering Department at the University of California, San Diego, are using tiny <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcochiappetta/2015/08/28/3d-printed-micro-fish-robots-may-soon-join-the-fight-against-disease-inside-our-bodies/">3D printed</a> robots in a similar way. While they&#8217;re not shrinking down to pilot the technology, the scientists will still be using the robots to target microscopic ailments, much as Ms. Frizzle set out to do. Chen and Wang will just be doing it from the safety of the lab.
<figure id="attachment_43747" style="width: 308px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/08/microfish.jpg"><img class="wp-image-43747" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/08/microfish-724x1024.jpg" alt="microfish" width="308" height="436" /></a><figcaption class="wp-caption-text"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcochiappetta/2015/08/28/3d-printed-micro-fish-robots-may-soon-join-the-fight-against-disease-inside-our-bodies/">Source</a></figcaption></figure>
Micro-Fish
Thinner than the width of a human hair, these robots called &#8220;micro-fish&#8221; may one day be prescribed by your M.D. Why the name micro-fish? Well, they&#8217;re actually designed to look like fish.
The fish-shape isn&#8217;t achieved using a typical 3D printer. You can&#8217;t head over to Home Depot, grab a Makerbot, and start printing these guys. The fish were printed using a high-resolution 3D printing technology called &#8220;microscale continuous optical printing,&#8221; or μCOP. This was actually developed by Chen.
The printer uses 2 million tiny mirrors that function and aim individually. As a beam of UV light is projected, the mirrors direct the light at a photosensitive material. The material solidifies when the UV light hits it.
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The fish are essentially a &#8220;delivery vehicle&#8221; for nanoparticles that Chen and Wang attached to their tails. The platinum particles react with hydrogen peroxide, which propels the fish. The fish even have magnetic particles attached to their heads, which help them steer.
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Mini-Robots With Guns
These aren&#8217;t the first <a href="http://www.popsci.com/tiny-self-assembling-magnetic-robot-gun-inside-body">mini-robots</a> designed for use with magnets. Researchers from Boston&#8217;s Children&#8217;s Hospital and the University of Houston invented &#8220;millirobots.&#8221; These small magnetic robots are designed to swim through a patient&#8217;s bloodstream and spinal fluid. Once inside, they are programmed to assemble into an electromagnetic gun.
The whole time, the doctor mans the controls, guiding the bots to the fluid build up or blocked passageway. They then use them to inject drugs directly into the area. The scientists on the project are still working to scale down the robots appropriately.
Special Delivery
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Speaking of scales, the next step for our fish was to figure out what it would try delivering first.
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Chen and his team <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcochiappetta/2015/08/28/3d-printed-micro-fish-robots-may-soon-join-the-fight-against-disease-inside-our-bodies/">installed particles</a> to the fish that react with toxins such as bee venom. When they met, the particles glow red. In the experiment, the fish was placed in a solution with the toxin. The fish then, &#8220;swam through the solution and nabbed the toxin along the way.&#8221; Throughout the experiment, the scientists monitored the intensity of the red-glow.
The fish are able to remove substances, but they can also deliver them as well. Chen and his team hope to attempt using the fish for &#8220;targeted drug delivery or as sensors.&#8221; The fish seems to be doing exactly what the <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-test-out-tiny-robots-meant-travel-inside-human-body-180953937/?no-ist">scientists intended</a>, delivering &#8220;treatment to an otherwise difficult to access part of the body without causing ill effects.
Our bodies won&#8217;t be full of fish any time soon. The technology is still in development, but has been backed by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Which means that, soon, this technology, which seems only possible in fiction, may be coming to a doctor&#8217;s office near you.

Enhanced Humans

The “fantastic voyage,” where scientists shrink down, suit up in some type of submarine or robot, and enter a patient’s body, is a common trope in popular culture. In The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Archer, Dexter’s Lab, Futurama, Invader Zim, and (of course) The Magic School Bus, characters all shrink down to explore. Now, Professors Shaochen Chen and Joseph Wang of […]

A Fantastic Voyage: 3D Printed “Micro-Fish” May Soon be Cleaning Your Bloodstream

They don't look like Raquel Welch, but they promise to revolutionize healthcare.  

New Horizons may have completed its <a href="https://futurism.com/everything-we-just-found-out-about-pluto-courtesy-of-new-horizons/">fly-by</a> of Pluto but its mission is not yet over. NASA has found an object, called 2014 MU69, in the Kuiper Belt that New Horizons could reach with the fuel it has left. 
MU69 is considered Potential Object #1 (PT1) and is “a great choice because it is just the kind of ancient KBO, formed where it orbits now, that the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_Science_Decadal_Survey">Decadal Survey</a> desired us to fly by,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons Principal Investigator. MU69’s orbit is about a billion miles past Pluto and it is a different type of Kuiper body than the dwarf planet. It is estimated to be almost 30 miles wide—the span the city of Los Angeles covers in latitude. This distance is 10 times the size of typical comets. MU69 is 1,000 times more massive than its typical comet neighbors yet only about 1% of the size of Pluto.
<a href="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/08/NewHorizonsKBOencounter.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-6337" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/08/NewHorizonsKBOencounter-1024x576.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="576" /></a> 
Illustration of a KBO encounter 
NASA/JHUAPL
The New Horizons team will officially recommend their target in their mission extension proposal to NASA, scheduled for review in 2016. However, the spacecraft, still <a href="http://www.theplanetstoday.com/new_horizons_flight_path.html">shuttling</a> through deep space, needs to be put on a trajectory towards its target before the year is up to maintain the integrity of any future objectives. New Horizons will move into place by early November to reach MU69 by the expected date of January 1st, 2019. Significant delays from this outline could seriously risk the success of the mission.
The New Horizons spacecraft was originally fueled for travel beyond Pluto, the main concern is that it has enough for the scheduled path and any <a href="https://futurism.com/new-horizons-recovers-from-anomaly-ahead-of-pluto-flyby/">unforseen anomalies</a>, should they occur. The craft should be able to power itself for several more years and was also developed to function in even less light than available at the distance MU69 is from the Sun. The added distance should also be no disparate issue for the communication system put in place.
The <a href="http://www.space.com/16144-kuiper-belt-objects.html">Kuiper Belt</a> is an elliptical region at the edge of our solar system containing trillions of icy, small objects and dwarf planets. Dwarf planets, the most famous of which is Pluto, are larger than comets but too small to be considered planets. At the conception of the mission, researchers had hoped to study not only Pluto but also reach a Kuiper Belt Object as they are considered to offer a frozen, and so well-preserved, portrait of to the solar system’s formation 4.6 billion years ago.
<a href="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/08/kuiper3.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-6336" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2015/08/kuiper3-1024x879.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="879" /></a>
In the meantime, New Horizons is (and has been) sending back data from the Pluto encounter and will be for some time, given the great transmission distance and that it is equipped with technology that was state-of-the-art 10 years ago.
Source: <a href="http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20150828">Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory 
</a>Images: <a href="http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/news/pictures/NewHorizonsKBOencounter.jpg">NASA/JHUAPL</a> <a href="http://solarviews.com/raw/comet/kuiper3.jpg">Solar Views</a>

Scientists will soon put New Horizons on course to a recently found object in the Kuiper Belt.

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/ Artificial Intelligence