NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Chemical Building Blocks For Life On Mars

NASA’s Curiosity Rover Finds Chemical Building Blocks For Life On Mars

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Two rock samples taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover were found to contain organic molecules.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS


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Two rock samples taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover were found to contain organic molecules.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

For the first time, scientists say they have clear evidence that the chemical building blocks of life exist on Mars.

What they can’t say yet is whether there is, or ever was, life on the Red Planet.

The new evidence comes from a pair of rocks. NASA’s six-wheeled Curiosity rover drilled into the planet in late 2014 and early 2015. The two rock samples, from sites named Confidence Hills and Mojave, are at the bottom of Gale Crater.

Powder from the rocks went into an analyzer on the rover called SAM that can determine what they were made of.

But the SAM results were hard to interpret — there were a lot of extraneous signals that didn’t make any sense. So NASA astrobiologist Jennifer Eigenbrode at the Goddard Space Flight Center spent the intervening years figuring out which signals were clearly junk and removing them.

Then she looked at the analyzer results again. “There were signals there that were telling us that we had detected certain types of organic molecules,” she says. Organic molecules contain carbon, the chemical element central to life.

That raises the obvious question: Where did the carbon come from?

“We don’t know,” Eigenbrode says.

She sees three possibilities.

“It could have been from meteorites,” she says. Meteorites are constant pummeling Mars, and many of them contain carbon.

“It could be from rock processes,” processes that have been going on during the billions of years since Mars formed.

And then there’s the most intriguing possibility. Eigenbrode says the analyzed rocks came from the bottom of what was once a lake at a time when Mars was a much warmer, wetter place.

“Because this lake had everything that organisms needed to be happy, maybe there was life in the lake,” she says. If there was, then that life would have left behind organic molecules when it decayed.

Penn State astrobiologist Kate Freeman agrees the new evidence makes that interpretation possible, but “it’s not standing up and waving a flag and saying, ‘I’m life.’ “

She isn’t ruling out that possibility, however.

“I don’t believe there’s life on Mars at the present,” Freeman says, because Mars is very dry, very cold and lacks much of an atmosphere. “Whether there was in the past or not is certainly an open question.”

Freeman says finding organic molecules only a few centimeters below the surface of Mars is an encouraging sign for finding possible life. That’s because the surface of Mars is constantly bombarded with radiation that can break down organic compounds. There may be more material buried deeper.

“There’s a new mission in the planning where they’ll be able to drill much deeper than the Curiosity rover can,” Freeman says. “That gives me great hope because we can perhaps get past these surface environments that are so harsh and maybe [go] a little deeper and find better-preserved materials.”

In addition to finding organic molecules in the rocks in Gale Crater, rover scientists are reporting another intriguing finding.

The rover has been seeing seasonal changes in the amount of methane in the Martian atmosphere. Methane is another organic molecule.

“We were kind of shocked to see that with the seasons, the signal changes by a factor of three, which is a huge change and completely unexpected,” says Chris Webster, a rover scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

He and his colleagues think the methane is coming from underground.

“It’s coming from sub-surface reservoirs” and then seeping up to the surface, Webster says.

“Once it’s on the surface, the temperature on the surface regulates the way in which it holds on to the methane through ‘stickiness,’ or surface adsorption as we call it,” he says. “So it holds it in the winter time and releases it in the summertime as temperatures get warmer.”

Webster says the rover results don’t say whether the methane being released has been trapped for eons or is being generated now.

The results also don’t indicate whether the methane is being created by chemical processes involving rocks alone, or whether some living or formerly living bacteria generated it.

Clearly, there are more questions about Mars that need answering.

The studies on methane and on organic molecules were published Thursday in the journal Science.

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June 7, 2018 at 04:16PM

Amazon’s new Fire TV Cube turns Alexa into your remote

Amazon’s new Fire TV Cube turns Alexa into your remote

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“Alexa, turn on Bravo.”

Continuing its quest to eliminate the mundane tasks of life, you can now tell Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa to change the channel without a remote. The company unveiled on Thursday its newest TV streaming device, the Amazon Fire TV Cube — part Amazon Echo smart speaker, part Fire TV.

The device, available for purchase starting June 21, lets users adjust the volume on compatible TVs, switch inputs, change the channel and power on and off by using their voice.

Fire TV users could use their voices to make requests by holding down on the remote, but this is the first time it’s entirely hands-free.

After making a request for, let’s say, the Real Housewives of New York, the Cube will respond by serving up the user’s cable, satellite box or some streaming apps.

The Cube, which is available for purchase starting June 21, will cost $119.99. But Amazon is offering it for $89.99 for Prime members until Friday.

Taking a cue from its name, the square-shaped device is neatly packaged — standing 3.4 by 3.4 by 3 inches — and supports 4K Ultra HD. The gadget features an always-on Alexa speaker supported by eight microphones and has 16 GB of storage for apps. It comes with a remote in case you’d rather not announce the name of the show you’re watching to other people at home.

Related: Amazon and Best Buy partner to sell smart TVs

Similar to Amazon’s existing Fire streaming sticks, the Cube supports popular video apps, such as Netflix and Hulu. Amazon (AMZN) tweaked its Fire TV user interface for the Cube to make it a “more natural way to navigate,” the company said in a statement.

This means you can ask Alexa to find sci-fi movies, play movie trailers or show more results. Also, because it’s an Echo speaker at its core, it’ll tell you the weather or let you re-order toothpaste on Amazon.

Patrick Moorehead, a principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, told CNNMoney consumers will likely “eat it up” due its attractive price point and capabilities. It will also “put pressure” on its closest competitors, such as the Apple TV, to add similar capabilities for a lower price.

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June 7, 2018 at 11:01AM

Facebook bug set 14 million users’ sharing settings to public

Facebook bug set 14 million users’ sharing settings to public

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For a period of four days in May, about 14 million Facebook users around the world had their default sharing setting for all new posts set to public, the company revealed Thursday.

The bug, which affected those users from May 18 to May 22, occurred while Facebook was testing a new feature.

After Facebook employees discovered the bug, the company went back and changed the privacy settings for all posts shared by those 14 million users during that time.

Facebook changed every post by those users during the affected time period to private, including posts that people may have meant to share publicly. The company told CNN it took five days to make those changes.

Affected Facebook users will get a notification on the app or website starting Thursday. They’ll see a message from Facebook urging users to “Please Review Your Posts” and a link to a list of what they shared on Facebook while the bug was active.

Related: Facebook faces new regulatory backlash over data privacy

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Facebook posts typically default to the last “audience” a post was shared with, such as family members, friends, or friends except their boss. That default was changed to public for the 14 million users, but if affected users noticed, they could have manually switched the setting themselves.

“We recently found a bug that automatically suggested posting publicly when some people were creating their Facebook posts,” said Erin Egan, Facebook’s chief privacy officer. “We have fixed this issue and starting today we are letting everyone affected know and asking them to review any posts they made during that time. To be clear, this bug did not impact anything people had posted before — and they could still choose their audience just as they always have.”

A Facebook spokesperson said the notification is the start of new proactive and transparent way for the company to handle issues going forward.

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June 7, 2018 at 02:04PM

Uber wants to patent a way to use AI to identify drunk passengers

Uber wants to patent a way to use AI to identify drunk passengers

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Uber may be able to tell when you’ve had a few too many drinks.

The ridesharing giant has explored identifying drunk passengers with artificial intelligence, according to a patent application published Thursday. With the technology, Uber could better tailor its ride options for customers.

The patent application describes a system that learns how you typically use the Uber app, so that it can identify unusual behavior. The system relies on an algorithm to weigh a variety of factors, including typos, how precisely a user clicks on links and buttons, walking speed, and how long it takes to request a ride. The time of day, and where a ride is requested may also be considered.

For example, it’s a good bet that a person walking down a street at 1 a.m. Saturday in a nightlife district while clumsily typing probably isn’t sober.

The patent also says that the service Uber provides to the user could change, as a result. Drivers may be warned of their passenger’s state. And riders in an especially unusual state may only be matched with drivers with relevant experience or training, the patent application says.

Passengers also might not be given the option to partake in a shared ride, based on their state.

For Uber drivers, dealing with drunk passengers is a drawback of the job.

“It would be cool if drivers got extra money for picking up drunk passengers. It’s not a big deal, but it definitely gets old after about the 25th time,” Harry Campbell, author of The RideShare Guy blog, told CNN Money.

Related: 103 Uber drivers accused of sexual assault or abuse

Other things can go wrong too. A recent CNN investigation found at least 103 Uber drivers in the United States who have been accused of sexually assaulting or abusing their passengers in the past four years. Many of the police reports and court documents involved passengers who were inebriated or drinking before getting into an Uber.

The patent application’s authors are current or former members of Uber’s Trust & Safety team, which works to make the company’s products safer.

Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CNN reporter Sara O’Brien contributed to this report.

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June 7, 2018 at 02:26PM

Uber wants to patent a way to use AI to identify drunk passengers

Uber wants to patent a way to use AI to identify drunk passengers

https://ift.tt/2xR47sl

Uber may be able to tell when you’ve had a few too many drinks.

The ridesharing giant has explored identifying drunk passengers with artificial intelligence, according to a patent application published Thursday. With the technology, Uber could better tailor its ride options for customers.

The patent application describes a system that learns how you typically use the Uber app, so that it can identify unusual behavior. The system relies on an algorithm to weigh a variety of factors, including typos, how precisely a user clicks on links and buttons, walking speed, and how long it takes to request a ride. The time of day, and where a ride is requested may also be considered.

For example, it’s a good bet that a person walking down a street at 1 a.m. Saturday in a nightlife district while clumsily typing probably isn’t sober.

The patent also says that the service Uber provides to the user could change, as a result. Drivers may be warned of their passenger’s state. And riders in an especially unusual state may only be matched with drivers with relevant experience or training, the patent application says.

Passengers also might not be given the option to partake in a shared ride, based on their state.

For Uber drivers, dealing with drunk passengers is a drawback of the job.

“It would be cool if drivers got extra money for picking up drunk passengers. It’s not a big deal, but it definitely gets old after about the 25th time,” Harry Campbell, author of The RideShare Guy blog, told CNN Money.

Related: 103 Uber drivers accused of sexual assault or abuse

Other things can go wrong too. A recent CNN investigation found at least 103 Uber drivers in the United States who have been accused of sexually assaulting or abusing their passengers in the past four years. Many of the police reports and court documents involved passengers who were inebriated or drinking before getting into an Uber.

The patent application’s authors are current or former members of Uber’s Trust & Safety team, which works to make the company’s products safer.

Uber did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CNN reporter Sara O’Brien contributed to this report.

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June 7, 2018 at 02:26PM

GE wants to be a traffic cop for drones

GE wants to be a traffic cop for drones

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General Electric, the company that brought you the light bulb and the toaster oven, wants to be a traffic cop for drones.

GE (GE) formally launched a company on Thursday that plans to reinvent traffic management for unmanned aircraft.

The venture, called AiRXOS, was created by GE about a year and a half ago and had been in stealth mode until now.

GE is a pioneer in aviation: It developed autopilot in 1943 and eight years later introduced the first American jet engine. Even today, GE engines are among the most popular in commercial aircraft.

Now GE is trying to solve problems created by the explosion of drone use in recent years. AiRXOS is supposed to help government agencies and private companies navigate the safety challenges posed by autonomous vehicles in the already crowded skies.

“We’re excited for AiRXOS to help set the standard for autonomous and manned aerial vehicles to share the sky safely,” Alan Caslavka, president of avionics at GE Aviation, said in a statement.

GE may be known for making light bulbs and locomotives, but it’s struggling as a conglomerate. It plans to exit those century-old businesses and focus on power, health care and aviation.

Related: GE can’t get rid of its light bulb business

This isn’t GE’s first foray into drones. Last year, GE launched Avitas Systems, a venture that uses drones, autonomous underwater vehicles and robots to inspect factories, refineries and power facilities.

GE said that AiRXOS has been selected to provide services for several Transportation Department programs that focus on how drones are used in cities, at night and at long distance.

AiRXOS is also partnering with programs run by NASA, the state of Ohio, and a regional drone research program in the Northeast.

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June 7, 2018 at 03:16PM