Astronauts in space have trouble sleeping because of work conditions, the stress of their missions and the feeling of weightlessness can also make it quite difficult to fall asleep. As a result most of them take sleeping pills for some rest. A study was conducted in 2011 when the last US Space Shuttle flew, to calculate the sleeping patterns of astronauts. The results showed that astronauts in the space shuttle had less than six hours of sleep on average and astronauts at the International Space Station had a few more minutes of sleep. About 75% of the astronauts took sleeping pills which, more often than not, was Zolpidem (Ambien).

Laura Barger, a research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and instructor at Harvard Medical School in Boston confirms that sleeping less than six hours is associated with performance deficits. Apart from the lack of sleep, the high use of sleeping pills is quite alarming as well. Laura Barger suggests that if the astronaut had to be awakened in case of an emergency in the middle of the night their performance could be impaired because of the sedative effect of the drug. Apart from that, even the drowsiness caused by the drug the next morning holds some risks to missions and to astronauts themselves. Furthermore, Zolpidem is also associated with sleep-driving. This is a condition similar to sleep walking, except the person starts driving and has no recollection of the following events the next day. In the case of astronauts, this could be alarmingly dangerous considering that they have to deal with such expensive equipment and work in such a precise manner.

While the researchers in the study did not collect data on the performance of the astronauts, they claim to have evidence for the astronauts being sleep deprived because once they got back to Earth, they slept more, like many sleep deprived workers on weekends. Christopher Winter, a sleep medicine specialist who was not involved in the research points out that the methods for quantifying sleep were not as precise as they are in lab studies and says that people in new and stressful environments have a tendency to underestimate their sleep. This obviously doesn’t mean that the study is wrong about astronauts being sleep deprived, it merely points out a methodological flaw which challenges its validity.|

NASA rules say that 8.5 hours of sleep must be included in the astronauts schedule. Working conditions obviously get in the way like noise and heat or cold. Barger says that solutions need to be found for these problems especially as future missions will be longer, including an eventual trip to Mars.

Corning Inc. freely donates $1.8 million for an amazing space telescope project that is hoped to be launched into great action and service in the middle of the 2020s. BoldlyGo Institute, a non-profit unit, hopes that Astro-1 will be on space service by mid-2020s.

This fabulous project is well-supported by Corning Inc. as Jon Morse, the CEO of BoldlyGo Institute have observed. He said that this donation became a great step forwards in their efforts to raise for this highly expensive project. Corning’s donation was primarily used for the 6 feet diameter of the primary mirror of the said telescope.

 

Morse, a former director of astrophysics at NASA headquarters that Corning Inc. Has indeed made BoldlyGo to stay more active in seeking funds to sustain its higher technological innovative project that will even surpass the Hubble Space Telescope’s performance and durability for up to 10 times. He is hoping that this project won’t go beyond $1 billion and as he sees it, sources would mainly come from private funding to maintain the project’s proposed quality and integrity.

It can be recalled that BoldlyGo Institute was being founded just last year with its aim to increase space science missions with private funding. Astro-1 is expected to aid in the study of the Milky Way’s neighboring galaxies together with the planets that orbit around nearby stars. BoldlyGo Institute even hopes to sponsor unmanned mission to Mars.

On record, the $1.8M worth of components from Corning were actually intended for a certain NASA program. However, it was cancelled so Corning decided to use it for BoldlyGo Institute’s project. Corning Inc. is well-noted for its major contributions in various NASA projects including the primary mirror for the Hubble Space Telescope, the International Space Station and the NASA’s manned spacecraft missions.

The extinction of dinosaurs has been founded to be mainly due to colossal bad luck as Stephen Brusatte states. Brussate is an evolutionary biologist and a verterbrate paleontologist from the University of Edinburgh. He led the international team in is study about the extinction of dinosaurs and the asteroid hit as published in Biological Reviews’ latest issue.

As stated from his interview with the Discovery news, he said that the asteroid almost did it, wiping dinosaurs but it happened on a bad time when the dinosaurs’ ecosystem weakened due to diversity loss. He further said that the dinosaurs would have survived if the asteroid hits million years earlier than its actual timing, then the extinction would have not happened.

It was noted that years before the asteroid hit the Earth has been undergoing extreme changes in sea level and temperature, huge volcanic eruptions and many other interconnected changes. Mountain formation and other tectonic events even led to the large seaway disappearance that covered much of North America’s interior during the Cretaceous.

These changes led to the extinction of the plant-eating dinosaurs that leaves the ecosystem imbalanced. When this asteroid hit the Yucatan Peninsula 66 years ago, it hit a paradise-like static world where dinosaurs live and caused them to become extinct in nature as what Stephen Brusatte states further.

Richard Butler from the University of Birmingham’s School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, even reminds that many bird species have become extinct about 66 million years ago. So, Butler and Brussate both agrees that if no asteroid impact and other environmental changes have happened, dinosaurs would still survive up to the present time. Yet they have also pointed out that humans won’t be here on earth if dinosaurs have not perished or came into extinction.

Chromecast now turns one year old but its amazing effects still creates a fab fad and craze among its competitors and even its major users all over the world. What makes this great streaming stick so fantastic and highly sought after by various companies, competitors and other tech experts or even business professionals? What makes it so unique above other streaming gadgets ever released in the global market?

Chromecast has been so popular that in just a year from its release, its usage to cast media to TVs has been over 400 million times. Its ever growing popularity is now creating a revolutionary change in the way people conceptualize televisions and even the media itself.

Google’s Chromecast is a tiny device that lets you perfectly stream files and videos from Netflix, YouTube or any other online media services directly to your TV. The fact that this product revolutions the global concept of TV and the digital media processes, makes this gadget even more unique and highly in demand.

Here are some of the best features that one can get from the fabulous deals and streaming services that Chromecast has to offer you.

So Cool Yet Affordable

Price is a great driving force that determine a product’s marketability and capability. Once you get the grips of what Chromecast has in store for your digital needs and experience its seemingly endless advantages, you can surely say that this product has all the value-added services yet very affordable in relation to the features it shows and serve you. Compared to its two major counterparts, Apple and Roku related gadgets, Chromecast price of $35 is indeed very cost effective for the great deals and fantastic features that you can avail.

400 Million Casting Sessions in Just a Year from its Release

The popularity of Google Chromecast makes it even more indulging for users from other parts of the globe to take the plunge and join the craze. This is a record-breaking update that Chromecast and even Google should be really proud of.

Competitors Imitative Behavior and Trendy Business Outlook

The best thing to determine of the product is very much appealing or not is to take a look at how its competitors react to the competition. The competition here is so tight that Roku and Apple are constantly looking for ways to create a highly creative and innovative product that will beat Google Chromecast fever forever.

There are so many other factors that make people love the unbeatable Chromecast that truly lasts.

Google consented on drooping almost 50 percent of search result after the launch of legislation of “right to be forgotten” from European Union.

Google received almost 90,000 appeals to be forgotten from its search engine, immediately after this law has passed. The company has approved half of these requests and it has inquired more details from the rest of 50percent applications.

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Consequently, Google eliminates 2,300 links par day which makes 16,500 every week. The company has also uploaded an online form for the removal of link which any one can fill effortlessly.

On the other hand, European Union is not yet satisfied with Google’s strategy of removal of links since the company is only throwing out links from European websites instead of the entire Google.com. People, who want to check out the details which have been removed by Google, can easily find it on Google.com.
European Union has asked Google to provide more details on the procedure they are following in order to get rid of these unwanted links. EU data protection experts are planning to provide some principles to the company which will be essential for Google to obey. This step has been taken due to the inadequate process of Google.