Jeff Bezos blasts 80‑year‑old adventurer into space in latest Blue Origin launch
Footage shows the rocket blasting a crew, which included seasoned world traveller Arvinder 'Arvi' Singh Bahal, into space for a 10 minute journey on Sunday (3 August).
Joining Bahal were five other passengers, including cryptocurrency billionaire Justin Sun, who bid $28million for his seat back in 2021.
The space tourism mission — known as NS-34 —was the 34th flight for the New Shepard program, and it set off from a private launch site in West Texas at 8.30am EDT.
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The Independent
11 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ozempic could be hurting your gym gains — with potentially dangerous consequences
The popular weight loss drug Ozempic has been used by millions of Americans for years. Now, researchers warn that the drug has shown some concerning impacts to muscle mass and strength in mice. New findings suggest muscle mass is altered less than expected while taking the diabetes drug, but that muscles may still get weaker over time. Ozempic-induced weight loss decreased lean mass — or muscle mass without fat — by around 10 percent, the University of Utah Health team said. Most of that weight loss was from tissue and the liver; the organ shrunk by nearly half its size. Some skeletal muscles, which are attached to bones and responsible for movement, also shrank, while other muscles remained the same size as before Ozempic. "In clinical trials for Wegovy or Ozempic we did not specifically study the medicine's impact on muscle mass. In a sub-study of 140 patients with a BMI of 40 or less conducted as part of the STEP 1 trial, dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) analyses suggested that treatment with Wegovy® was accompanied by reductions in both fat mass and lean body mass, with a greater reduction in fat mass than lean body mass," a spokesperson for Novo Nordisk told The Independent on Tuesday. "We recommend that any patients experiencing side effects while taking Wegovy or Ozempic contact their healthcare provider," they said. Muscle and strength loss in human aging, also known as sarcopenia, can result in trouble with balance and walking, according to the Cleveland Clinic. It's a condition often linked to obesity, osteoporosis, arthritis, and chronic diseases, including cancer. Still, the study was done in mice and not humans. More research needs to be done to understand if similar changes to organ size could happen in humans and if there are any associated health risks. Notably, loss of organ mass, including the liver, is expected as a part of healthy weight loss, without affecting the organs' function. loss of fat can also result in loss of muscle without affecting the overall quality of life, the researchers noted. 'If we want to really help the individuals who may be losing muscle mass, then we need to know that they're actually losing muscle mass,' Dr. Katsu Funai, an associate professor of nutrition and integrative physiology in the University of Utah College of Health, said in a statement. 'We have data in mice that suggest that things are not as straightforward as they might seem.' But, it's not just muscle mass that was affected. In tests of force and strength, some of the mice muscles' strength decreased as they lost weight — even without losing muscle mass. But, in others, strength was unchanged. Why this happens is not yet understood, but in older humans, losing strength while taking Ozempic could be particularly worrisome. 'The loss of physical function is a strong predictor of not just quality of life but longevity,' Funai said. Of course, previous research has found Ozempic to have more beneficial side effects, in addition to helping address the nation's obesity epidemic. A new study linked Ozempic to slower rates of aging, according to New Scientist. That builds on similar research released last year. The drug has also been tied to a reduced risk of dementia in people with type 2 diabetes, and protection against heart disease. Ozempic has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Regardless of their findings, the researchers warned people not to draw hasty and unfounded conclusions. In people, for example, obesity is associated with less physical activity, whereas mice don't become less active. Humans also become overweight for a multitude of factors, including genetics and age. For mice, it was because they ate a diet that was high in fat. 'There remains a significant need for validation in humans, especially concerning muscle strength,' Dr. Takuya Karasawa, a postdoctoral researcher at the university's molecular medicine program, said.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Mysterious interstellar object aiming at Earth 'not natural' as scientists rule out comet theory
The appearance of a mysterious interstellar object has reignited debate over whether extraterrestrial technology could be hiding in our solar system. NASA detected the object, dubbed 3I/ATLAS, on July 1, sparking a flurry of scientific analysis to determine its origin. While more than 200 researchers have concluded it is likely a comet, Harvard physicist Avi Loeb has raised doubts in a newly released pre-print paper, pointing to one glaring omission: 3I/ATLAS has no visible tail. 'There were claims of a tail,' Loeb said, 'but since 3I/ATLAS is accelerating and its current size is not much larger than the angular resolution of Earth-based telescopes, it is not easy to avoid fictitious elongation of the image as a result of the object's motion.' He also questioned the object's unusual lack of gas emissions and its precise, retrograde trajectory, which aligns suspiciously well with the inner solar system. Loeb has developed what he calls the 'Loeb Scale', a ranking system to evaluate the likelihood that an object is artificial, and gave 3I/ATLAS a six out of ten. That suggests it is more likely than not to be engineered, though he emphasized that this score may change as more data becomes available. Among his more provocative theories, Loeb suggested 3I/ATLAS could be an alien mothership releasing small probes to intercept Earth. 'The more likely scenario from an engineering perspective involves a mothership that releases mini-probes which perform a reverse Oberth maneuver to slow down at perihelion and intercept Earth,' Loeb wrote. This type of maneuver uses the sun's gravitational pull at the object's closest approach to adjust the trajectory efficiently, enabling the probes to reach Earth without large amounts of fuel. According to Loeb, these hypothetical probes could arrive between November 21 and December 5, 2025, based on 3I/ATLAS's expected position behind the sun in October, an ideal window for a covert approach. 'It may come to save us or destroy us,' he said. 'We'd better be ready for both options and check whether all interstellar objects are rocks.' Chris Lintott, an astronomer at the University of Oxford, dismissed Loeb's theory as 'nonsense on stilts,' calling it 'an insult to the exciting work going on to understand this object.' However, Loeb said his analysis remains rooted in observational data. His latest paper, based on ground-based telescope readings between July 2 and 29, revealed reddening colors in 3I/ATLAS, usually interpreted as surface dust or organic compounds. He noted that spectroscopic data from this and three previous studies show no signs of atomic or molecular gas in a coma, a feature typically expected in comets. While the reddening may suggest dust, it could also mean the object simply has a naturally red surface, much like D-type asteroids or other ancient space rocks. 'Continued monitoring around perihelion is necessary to track changes in activity and color,' the study concluded, 'which will provide insights into the evolution of interstellar materials under solar radiation.' Loeb has authored four scientific papers on 3I/ATLAS and recently proposed using NASA's Juno spacecraft to intercept the object near Jupiter in 2026, calling it a rare opportunity for 'interstellar archaeology.' He also believes governments should already be forming task forces, including scientists, policymakers and even psychologists, to determine how to respond and how to break the news to the public without triggering panic. If 3I/ATLAS is more than just a rock, he said, Earth is woefully unprepared. 'The visitor,' he warned, 'is already in our backyard.' Even if the object turns out to be artificial, Loeb admitted there's little humanity could do. At nearly 60 miles per second relative to Earth, it's moving far too fast for any of our current rockets to reach. Loeb has remained adamant that something about 3I/ATLAS does not add up. He said its retrograde orbit, meaning it's moving against the flow of the solar system, is oddly aligned with Earth's path 'If the hypothesis that 3I/ATLAS is a technological artifact proves correct, there are two possible implications: either its intentions are entirely benign, or they are malign, said Loeb. 'In the first case, humanity needs only to wait and welcome this interstellar messenger with open arms. It is the second scenario that causes serious concern.' He added that because the second possibility has serious consequences, we can use the idea behind Pascal's wager. 'Blaise Pascal argued that it's smarter to believe in God because the possible benefits of believing are much greater than the losses if you're wrong,' Loeb explained. 'Similarly, in our case, it makes sense to warn humanity about the risk from 3I/ATLAS, even if it turns out to be just a theory. 'The cost of not warning could be much worse than the cost of being wrong.'
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
General Matter signs lease with US energy department to enrich uranium
Aug 5 (Reuters) - General Matter, a U.S. startup hoping to enrich uranium for fueling nuclear reactors, signed a lease with the Department of Energy on Tuesday to build a facility at a former federal plant in Kentucky. The $1.5-billion project will be at the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant. The U.S. built the site in the 1950s to produce enriched uranium, initially for nuclear weapons. The facility later produced enriched uranium for nuclear reactors, but closed in 2013. Construction is expected to begin in 2026, with operations planned for 2034, the DOE said. The plant is expected to create about 140 permanent jobs, the company said. General Matter CEO Scott Nolan said reactivating the site would "power a new era of American energy independence." General Matter held a ceremony in Paducah attended by Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, U.S. senators and representatives, and DOE officials. The company did not say how much enriched uranium it will produce. While UK-based Urenco has the capacity to supply about a third of U.S. commercial reactor needs of enriched uranium from a plant in New Mexico that is expanding, the U.S. is heavily dependent on foreign suppliers, including Russia. Former President Joe Biden put a ban on Russian enriched uranium imports that allows waivers until 2028. General Matter is one of several companies that have received DOE grants to produce both low-enriched uranium, or LEU, and a special fuel called high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU. The companies need to get licenses from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. HALEU could be used in high-tech reactors that plan to start operating around 2030. General Matter did not reveal the technology it plans to use to enrich uranium, nor the funding of the project. It said this year it was "incubated within" Founders Fund, a venture capital fund, in which Nolan is a partner. The DOE said the lease provides General Matter with at least 7,600 cylinders of uranium hexafluoride to supply fuel that can be enriched into reactor fuel. The process will save Americans about $800 million in avoided disposal costs, the DOE said. Global Laser Enrichment, a company owned by Silex Systems ( opens new tab and Cameco ( opens new tab that is one of six that won initial U.S. contracts to produce domestic uranium fuel, also plans to enrich uranium in Paducah. It plans to use lasers to enrich rather than centrifuges. "From a standpoint of technology readiness, from the regulatory timeline, no one's going to get an NRC license quicker than us," Nima Ashkeboussi, GLE vice president of government relations, said in an interview. GLE plans to enrich tailings, or waste byproducts left over from the DOE's enrichment programs. General Matter said the "vast majority" of the uranium it will enrich will be from domestic sources. The DOE is reserving tailings for it to enrich in the event of supply shortages, it said.
