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Showing posts with label Science & Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Science & Technology. Show all posts
Breast augmentation may be a comparatively pricy procedure.
As a part of the decision-making regarding the operation and therefore the right Dr. for yourself you furthermore may got to build a call on the prices of the operation and the way to pay money for it. sometimes it is done by direct debit or credit to your bank.
Similar to different plastic surgeries, within the space of breast augmentations there's important assuming to the standard of materials and therefore the procedure of the Dr.. Therefore, the worth for the operation are set supported the name of the clinic, the sort of implants that may be used for the procedure, the prices of the operating theater and therefore the work of the cosmetic surgeon.
It is vital to notice that the high price of operation doesn’t guarantee success and on the opposite hand a comparatively low price of operation mustn't characterize palmy surgeries or less professional!
Details of the disbursement elements
Additional elements within the mixture of analysis are:
Where the operation is allotted (nursing home or public)?
What style of physiological condition is employed (local or general anesthesia)?
Who is that the doctor in-charge of the physiological condition (dedicated anaesthetist or anaesthetist provided by the in operation room)?
Cost of the operating theater employees (dedicated nurses)?
Will you be hospitalized for observation once surgery?
Type of implants used?
Reputation of the in operation surgeon?
Your satisfaction is another vital issue to be thought of.
When you’re selecting your Dr. for breast augmentation surgery bear in mind that his expertise with breast implants and your comfort with him or her square measure vital moreover because the price of the surgery.
It is counseled before creating your final judgment on the clinic to gather and compare at-least three offers from clinics therefore you have got an honest benchmark regarding the market.
The average price of breast augmentation surgery on 2014 was $3,708. Removal of implants was $2,330.
Those costs don't seem to be together with operating theater facilities, anesthesia, and different expense we’ve mentioned earlier...If you’re a breast augmentation willdidate bear in mind that prices can vary.
Type of implants and their prices
On your analysis you may find out about the 2 styles of breast implants called:
Saline
Silicone
The Saline implants square measure shells fabricated from silicone polymer full of sterile salt water.
The Silicone-filled implants square measure constant shells full of a plastic gel.
Women say that the silicone polymer have higher feeling and that they square measure a lot of just like the real breasts examination to the saline however they are doing have a lot of risk just in case of a leak.
In the past the authority ceased the sale of the silicone polymer sort implants attributable to safety considerations.
After reviewing with a lot of reasearch the implants regarding ten years agone the authority allowed sure silicone polymer implants to travel back on the market
On average the silicone polymer implants square measure dearer than the saline implants as a result of they feel a lot of natural and last for years while not losing kind and size.
As breast augmentation may be a reconstructive surgery and typically is finished just for physical improvement so insurance plans in most cases won't cowl the surgery, connected complications from it or another surgery to alter the looks look or form of your new breasts.Note that some insurance carriers would possibly even exclude breast diseases at intervals patient’s arrange World Health Organization have breast implants!
We extremely recommend that you simply fastidiously scan your personal insurance policy before performing arts the surgery and contemplate that as well!
Due to the high price of the surgery, several clinics currently provide to their patients the choice of paying the surgery in many installments.Some clinics can provide the surgery payment up to ten payments interest-free and a few would possibly worship to twenty four payments.
Breast Augmentation by Direct Debit
Similar to the credit payment lyric poem, some clinics can allow you to pay money for your surgery by setting direct debit to your bank, here moreover the payments are from few payments and up to twenty four payments.
Animals square measure cellular, organism organisms of the dominion Animalia (also referred to as Metazoa). it's a basal apoikozoan biological group as sister of the Choanoflagellates. The Porifera emerged as a basal biological group in Animalia. Animals square measure motile, that means they will move impromptu and severally at some purpose in their lives. Their body arrange eventually becomes fastened as they develop, though some bear a method of metamorphosis afterward in their lives. All animals square measure heterotrophs: they need to ingest different organisms or their merchandise for sustenance.
Most known animal phyla appeared within the fossil record as marine species throughout the Cambrian explosion, concerning 542 million years agone. Animals are often divided broadly speaking into vertebrates and invertebrates. Vertebrates have a backbone or spine (vertebral column), and quantity to but 5 % of all delineate animal species. They embody fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The remaining animals square measure the invertebrates, that lack a backbone. These embody molluscs (clams, oysters, octopuses, squid, snails); arthropods (millipedes, centipedes, insects, spiders, scorpions, crabs, lobsters, shrimp); annelids (earthworms, leeches), nematodes (filarial worms, hookworms), flatworms (tapeworms, liver flukes), cnidarians (jellyfish, ocean anemones, corals), and sponges. The study of animals is termed zoological science.
Aristotle divided the living world between animals and plants, and this was followed by Carl Carl von Linne, within the 1st gradable classification.[4] In Linnaeus's original theme, the animals were one amongst 3 kingdoms, divided into the categories of Vermes, Insecta, Pisces, Amphibia, Aves, and class. Since then the last four have all been subsumed into one phylum, the Chordata, whereas the varied different forms are separated out.
Time evolution
Time evolution is that the modification of state caused by the passage of your time, applicable to systems with internal state (also referred to as stateful systems). during this formulation, time isn't needed to be a continual parameter, however is also distinct or maybe finite. In classical physics, time evolution of a set of rigid bodies is ruled by the principles of Newtonian mechanics. In their most rudimentary type, these principles categorical the link between forces performing on the bodies and their acceleration given by Newton's laws of motion. These principles may also be equivalently expressed a lot of abstractly by Hamiltonian mechanics or Lagrangian mechanics.
The conception of your time evolution is also applicable to different stateful systems further. as an example, the operation of a computer is considered the time evolution of the machine's management state along with the state of the tape (or presumably multiple tapes) as well as the position of the machine's read-write head (or heads). during this case, time is distinct.
Stateful systems typically have twin descriptions in terms of states or in terms of discernible values. In such systems, time evolution may also talk to the modification in discernible values. this is often significantly relevant in quantum physics wherever the Schrödinger image and nuclear physicist image area unit (mostly) equivalent descriptions of your time evolution.
CSS, short for Cascading vogue Sheets, area unit rules (or “styles”) that outline however content ought to look on an internet page. to grant you associate degree example, if your web content contains a table, you'll use CSS to specify the thickness of the border and also the color of text within that table.
Learning CSS is straightforward. There area unit a embarrassment of excellent on-line tutorials or, if you favor the standard route, get a book. My favorites CSS books embrace hypertext mark-up language & CSS by John Duckett and CSS Secrets by Lea Verou.
You should conjointly watch the YouTube series by Travis Neilson and Guy Routledge, most likely the simplest free video resources for learning everything concerning CSS.
I recently stumbled upon one or two of net resources that take the assistance of cats and notepaper notes and create learning CSS even additional fascinating and amusive.
CSS Basics with notepaper Notes (link)
Designer Kaylan takes the assistance of colourful notepaper notes for visualizing the the fundamental ideas of CSS.
CSS Selectors Explained with CSS (link)
If you've got discovered the way to write selectors in CSS, 0.5 the battle is one. electro-acoustic transducer Borsare uses #cats to assist you learn the fundamental CSS selector syntax.
CSS dining table (link)
If you recognize the fundamental of CSS selectors, use the dining table to apply your CSS skills. Here you've got plates and fruits placed on a dining table and your task is to pick out the varied parts victimization selectors.
Fighting superbugs with technology and lightweight
A new tool is rising within the fight against antibiotic-resistant microorganism unwellness. on the far side the world efforts to limit overuse and abuse of antibiotic medication, nanomedicine is finding extra ways in which to attack these
superbugs.
Nanoparticles, 1,000,000 times smaller than a metric linear unit, square measure proving to be stable, simple to deliver and pronto incorporated into cells.
In recent work, a bunch of researchers at the University of Colorado, of that i'm a member, has used nanoscale quantum dots – minuscule semiconductor particles with specific light-absorption properties – to kill drug-resistant superbugs while not harming the encompassing healthy tissue.
Once introduced into the body, the quantum dots do nothing till they're activated by having a lightweight shined on them. Any actinic ray supply (a lamp, light source or perhaps sunlight) is used for this. to date our analysis has centered on topical infections on the skin; deeper within the body, brighter lights or a lot of nanoparticles is also required.
When activated by light-weight, the quantum dots begin generating electrons that attach to dissolved O within the cells, making radical ions. Those ions interrupt organic chemistry reactions that cells believe for communication and basic life functions. during this method, we are able to target and kill terribly specific microorganism cells that cause diseases.
The poinsettia strain threat
Antibiotics square measure used not simply to treat active microorganism infections; they're additionally habitually given to patients undergoing surgery, and folks with compromised immune systems from diseases like HIV and cancer.
Bacteria that square measure proof against over one antibacterial drug – or “superbugs,” as they're ordinarily referred to as – infect over a pair of million Americans a year, and kill twenty three,000 of them. Globally, they kill over 700,000 individuals annually.
Projections by a uk government analysis panel recommend that if unbridled, superbugs might kill over ten million individuals annually by 2050. that may so much surpass all different major causes of death – together with polygenic disease, cancer, looseness of the bowels and road accidents. The economic value is calculable at US$100 trillion by 2050.
Focusing on a target
There square measure different nano-scale medicines for fighting infectious microorganism. once exposed to light-weight, they heat up, killing all cells around them – not simply the disease-causing ones. They so need special tools like proteins or antibodies that by selection follow desired cell varieties, to deliver them to terribly specific locations. That successively needs the power to accurately establish target cells.
Our technique is AN improvement as a result of it permits a lot of specific targeting of cells to be treated. Quantum dots with completely different|completely different} sizes and electrical properties will facilitate produce different troubled ions. that may permit doctors to decide on disruptors to kill invasive microorganism while not harming near healthy tissue.
The activated quantum dots upset the balance of chemical processes, referred to as “reduction-oxidation” or “redox” for brief, in disease-causing microorganism so as to kill them.
Using this technique and solely a standard light-weight bulb, we tend to were able to eliminate a broad vary of antibiotic-resistant microorganism. The microorganism were provided to United States within the sort of actual clinical samples from the University of Colorado faculty of medication. They enclosed a number of the foremost dangerous drug-resistant infections: methicillin-resistant staph aureus; extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing enteric bacteria pneumoniae and enterics typhimurium; multi-drug-resistant escherichia; and carbapenem-resistant enterics coli.
We were additionally able to create nanoparticles with completely different reactions to light-weight, together with having no response or perhaps rising cellular copy. Increasing the expansion of superbugs isn't fascinating, however this discovery might permit United States encourage the expansion of helpful microorganism, like in bioreactors, which may facilitate manufacture of biofuels and antibiotic medication.
Taking subsequent steps
So far our work has been in take a look at tubes in controlled labs; our next step is to check this system in animals. If self-made, this technology might boost the fight against multi-drug-resistant microorganism within the short term and stream into the longer term.
It might, for instance, spur the creation of a replacement category of light-activated medication, cause development of special materials with junction rectifier lights for radiation, and even kind the premise of self-disinfecting surfaces and medical instrumentality.
And whereas the microorganism can still evolve to hunt survival, our ability to regulate the particular reaction of the quantum dots once activated might allow us to move a lot of quickly during this fight wherever defeat isn't AN possibility.
Science must find out how to Fail therefore It will Succeed
SOCIAL SCIENCE IS nice at creating wacky, marvelous claims concerning the means the world—and the human mind—works. faculty students walk a lot of slowly when being exposed to words concerning older folks. Elections area unit determined by the end result of faculty soccer games. avoirdupois is contagious, you'll have business success by standing in AN expansive “power create,” baseball players with a K in their name area unit a lot of possible to strike out, and hurricanes with lady names area unit a lot of dangerous than hurricanes with boy names.
What do the higher than claims all have in common? They were revealed in revered scientific journals, they were heralded within the print media, their publication was dependant on finding a “statistically significant” comparison from little samples. and that i don’t suppose there’s smart proof for any of them.
It seems that it’s simple for researchers to seek out vital effects by manipulating data—perhaps not with aware intent. Outside researchers have tried to duplicate a number of these studies and didn't return up with an equivalent results, as incontestible in psychology’s dependability Project. several pixels are spilled within the previous few years explaining why scientists and voters shouldn’t believe plenty of revealed and heralded analysis.
People have began to return to terms with the actual fact that a probe team, or maybe a complete subfield of science, will get unfree in an exceedingly loop of confirmation of reedy findings. meaning you can’t take revealed, peer-reviewed studies as a right. applied mathematics significance doesn't mean what most of the people suppose it will. which offers US the luxurious to travel on the far side shaping the problem—and get thinking about solutions.
Institutional reforms like post-publication review will facilitate, beside the a lot of outstanding publication of replication studies, which generally get unnoticed in favor of splashier results. however on the far side this, researchers would like the liberty to fail.
In business, the liberty to fail offers folks the liberty to succeed. financial obligation and bankruptcy protection give a secure place for risk taking, a social safety internet permits individual resources to be invested with instead of hoarded, and a versatile education system with second and third probabilities offers students the chance to experiment. In distinction, a aggressive atmosphere with intolerance for failure encourages followership and cautious selections.
That’s what the scientific community appears like currently. If you go in experimental science, your advisers and tenure committees expect publication when publication, success building upon success. however those expectations area unit a direction for less than the foremost trivial of successes. what's given as daring, outside-the-box thinking usually seems on nearer review to be nothing however empty theorizing among knowledge analysis which will notice “statistical significance” out of noise.
Statistics is difficult, and there’s no sin in creating a slip-up. however not admitting a slip-up, even when your error has been shown each through applied mathematics analysis and non-replication … well, if you've got that perspective, you’re doomed to walking in a circle forever.
The true heroes of science don't seem to be the technicians United Nations agency area unit ready to run AN experiment on fifty folks and squeeze out applied mathematics significance, a book contract, and a tough guy speak. Rather, they're the people that refuse to require affirmative for a solution, United Nations agency check out their theories on arduous issues and area unit willing to admit failure. you'll with confidence ride that horse as long as you’ve initial learned what it suggests that to fall.
Whether your child or an elderly parent who disappears, it can be daunting until they are found. But the old technology is used in a modern way to save a lot of trouble.
Nicholas is only 8 years old. He loves math and jumps at the chance, a problem to work with his teacher. But Nicholas is occasionally inclined to wander out of the house.
This is not an unusual thing to happen with childr
en who have autism, but that does not make it easier for a parent to get used.
"My heart is breaking not knowing what was going on," Purvis Shatoria-McKinney said, Nicholas' mother.
After the first time Nicholas was removed from the house, knew that her mother had to find help because they did not know it would take.
"So that's when I started looking for something on the Internet," said Pervis-McCinney.
What needed Nicholas, was monitoring a program called "Project Lifesaver." A person with a cognitive impairment door all the time. If the caregiver is the missing person, the police can find them a lot easier.
"It is an old technology, but we have to use today in a position, and it's just as effective, if not better than anything," Cpl said. Kirby Bradley.
It's old technology, the hunters have used for years to monitor their hounds. Add some updates, and now it provides security for families.
"If there is a little thing that I can do to try to make it easier, or do you feel a little better, so I will do it," Kirby said.
Nicholas was the first person in County Durham for the device. The next time he left, he was found quickly.
"It is important that you do not want your family to leave the home and did not know where they are, you know you do not want to disturb them," said Pervis-McCinney.
"Project Lifesaver" is primarily funded by grants. The only real costs are the batteries. The monitoring device is also encouraged for people with dementia or Alzheimer's.
Scientists have developed a new technique, a 3D image in real time of cells or single molecules under the skin of a living animal, showing intricate details of the lymph and blood vessels to provide.
The technique, called MOZART (for molecular imaging and characterization of tissue non-invasively cellular resolution) could one day allow scientists tumors of the skin, colon or esophagus, or even recognize, see abnormal blood vessels that occur in the early stages of macular degeneration - a leading cause of blindness.
could allow the technology doctors to monitor how an otherwise invisible tumor under the skin in the treatment responds, or to understand, to break as individual cells of a tumor-free and travel to remote locations, Adam de la Zerda said assistant professor at Stanford University.
In other forms of microscopy, the researchers created tags that lock to molecules or structures of interest to shed light on these structures and to provide a detailed view of where they are in the cell or organism.
Tiny particles called gold nanorods to organ pipes are similar because most tubes vibrate at lower frequencies to provide a low depth, Elliott said Sorelle, a graduate student at Stanford.
Nanorods at lower frequencies of light oscillate longer. These vibrations diffuse the light, detects the microscope.
Researchers from more nanorods that were non-toxic, stable and very bright. To filter the frequency of nanorods of the surrounding tissue, they have developed computer algorithms that can separate the frequencies of the scattered light from nanorods of different lengths and differentiate these surrounding tissues.
The resulting images in three dimensions, high resolution were so great - the order of gigapixel - that the team additional algorithms for the analysis and storage of such large images to develop that necessary. The team tested its technology in the ear of a living mouse, where they observed that the nanorods were taken into the lymphatic system and transported through a network of valves.
They were able to distinguish two different sized nanorods that resonated at different wavelengths in separate lymphatic vessels, and they were able to distinguish between these nanorods into the lymphatic system and blood vessels.
In one study, they could open at the individual valves in the lymphatic vessels and to close the Browse to fluid flow in one direction to control. Having demonstrated that the gold nanorods can be seen in the living tissue, the next step is to show that these nanorods can to particular cell types, such as skin cancer or abnormal vessels to the top tie of macular degeneration stage.
Then could the technology used, to learn more about how these diseases at the molecular level, the progress and also to evaluate treatments in individual patients, which was not previously possible.
Scholarly research suggests that the best problem-solving doesn’t come from a group of the best individual problem-solvers, but from a diverse team whose members complement each other. That’s an argument for leadership that is varied in every way — in gender, race, economic background and ideology.
The truth is there’s actually no adequate scientific basis for these newsworthy assertions. And this lack of scientific evidence to guide such statements illustrates the troubled relations of science to advocacy and policy, that I have analyzed in an article in the current Journal of Social Issues.
A chasm between research findings and advocates' claims
I began to think more deeply about these issues during my recent service as president of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. This organization has worked since 1936 to join social science findings to responsible advocacy and effective social policy.
This goal is laudable, but the task is supremely challenging. As I’ve come to realize, different camps have varying goals. Scientists aim to produce valid knowledge. Advocates work to promote their favored causes. Policymakers hope to efficiently deploy resources to attain social and economic ends. And they’re all assuming their claims are supported by the same body of social science research.
In politically sensitive areas, advocates may eagerly invoke social scientific data that support their objectives but ignore nonsupportive findings. They may highlight politically congenial findings that are unrepresentative of the available scientific knowledge.
Researchers, in turn, may fail to communicate their findings effectively. Communication is challenging when study outcomes are more complex and less affirming of advocates' goals than what they desire and expect.
These issues often arise when research addresses controversial questions of social inequality. That’s where social science myths can and do emerge.
To illustrate these problems, consider two prominent social science myths about diversity.
One concerns the effects of the gender diversity of corporate boards of directors on firms’ financial performance. The other pertains to the effects of the gender and racial diversity of workgroups on their performance. Advocates for diversity generally maintain that the addition of women to corporate boards enhances corporate financial success. And they hold that diversity in task groups enhances their effectiveness. Abundant findings have accumulated on both of these questions – more than 140 studies of corporate boards and more than 100 studies of sociodemographic diversity in task groups. Both sets of studies have produced mixed outcomes. Some studies show positive associations of diversity to these outcomes, and some show negative associations.
Social scientists use meta-analyses to integrate such findings across the relevant studies. Meta-analyses represent all the available studies on a particular topic by quantitatively averaging their findings and also examining differences in studies' results. Cherry-picking is not allowed.
Taking into account all of the available research on corporate boards and diversity of task groups, the net effects are very close to a null, or zero, average. Also, economists' studies that carefully evaluate causal relations have typically failed to find that women cause superior corporate performance. The most valid conclusion at this point is that, on average, diversity neither helps nor harms these important outcomes.
Given these overall findings, further studies are needed to identify the conditions under which diversity has positive or negative effects. And there is some progress here.
For example, research suggests that diversity tends to make decision-making groups more effective if their members create norms that foster personal ties across the races and genders as well as the exchange of ideas. Also, a positive and inclusive mindset about diversity increases the chances of favorable effects on group performance.
But such conditions are often absent. Diversity can create tensions within groups, and the newly introduced female or minority group members may encounter resistance that makes it difficult for them to gain a foothold in decision-making. It’s hardly surprising that the results of empirical studies are inconsistent. These kinds of interpersonal relationships are messy and complicated – it makes sense that upping diversity, on its own, wouldn’t be a magical key to success.
A worthwhile social outcome
What’s the harm in journalists announcing false generalizations about diversity if such statements help increase the number of women and minorities in important roles? After all, most people would agree that it would be an egregious violation of equal opportunity and antidiscrimination laws to exclude women and minorities from opportunities merely on the basis of their sex or race. Isn’t any and all support for inclusion valuable? My answer to this question is no.
First of all, social science myths make a mockery of evidence-based advocacy and policy. In fact, an unusually large body of social science evidence has emerged in tests of the effects of diversity on corporate success and group performance. Advocacy and policy should build on this research, not ignore it.
Myths also set people up to expect that corporate financial gains and superior group performance follow easily from diversity. Of course they don’t. That expectation could sideline people from understanding and overcoming diversity’s challenges.
Finally, false generalizations can impede progress toward better science that may disentangle the causes of diversity’s varied effects on group and organizational success.
Social scientists should freely admit that diversity science doesn’t have all the answers. At the same time, they should not silently tolerate distortions of available scientific knowledge to fit advocacy goals. Ideally, researchers are honest brokers who communicate consensus scientific findings to the broader public. Only then can social science make a meaningful contribution to building sound social policy.
There are other reasons to value diversity in the group.Table image via www.shutterstockcom
Social justice goals are valid on their own
Many advocates and policymakers share the admirable goal of producing a more just society. But they’re narrow-minded if they focus only on whether diversity and inclusion foster outcomes such as business profits or effective group problem-solving. The more fundamental gains from diversity pertain to social justice. Diversity and inclusion can serve social justice goals by countering discrimination that may have put women and minorities at a disadvantage.
Beyond countering possible discrimination lies an even more fundamental social justice consideration – that of equitable representation. This principle holds that citizens in democracies should have equal access to influencing the decisions that shape their lives. To the extent that women and minorities are not represented in decision-making groups in proportion to their numbers in the population, they are unlikely to have their interests fairly represented.
As political scientists have pointed out, the ideals of democracy are violated if decision-making is dominated by the rich, the white and the male. Then the needs of the poor, the minoritiesand the female likely are neglected.
Most advocates, policymakers and social scientists may not be aware of sharp divergence in their claims about diversity. Yet, policy based on sound social science should be a shared goal. Without understanding the causal relations in society that this research helps identify, policymakers lower the odds they’ll reach their targets. Policy based on myths and hunches has little chance of success. To achieve evidence-based policy, all parties should take a close look at what diversity research has produced so far. Rather than selectively featuring congenial results, they should work together to untangle diversity’s complex effects on group and organizational performance. Alice H. Eagly, Professor of Psychology; Faculty Fellow Institute for Policy Research; Professor of Management and Organizations, Northwestern University
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Passwords, privacy and protection: can Apple meet FBI's demand without creating a 'backdoor'?
H V Jagadish, University of Michigan
The San Bernardino terrorist suspect Syed Rizwan Farook used an iPhone 5c, which is now in the possession of the FBI. The iPhone is locked. The FBI wants Apple to help unlock it, presumably so they can glean additional evidence or information about other possible attacks. Apple has declined, and appears to ready to defy a court order. Its response is due February 26. So what’s the technology they’re fighting over?
The code to unlock the phone is known only to Farook, who is dead, and any confidants he may have shared it with. Even if he were alive, it would probably be difficult to get him to reveal it.
But phones are typically locked with a very simple personal identification number (PIN) of only four to six digits. That means, at most, there are a million possible PIN values. It’s straightforward to write a computer program that would methodically walk through all these possible values, trying each in turn until the correct one is found. Indeed, there even are products on the market that will do just this. Given that modern computers can execute over one billion instructions every second, even a conservative estimate says testing all one million PIN possibilities would take only about a second.
Ways to ward off attack
One way to defend against this kind of break-in attempt is to do something drastic after multiple failures. For example, Apple deletes all data on the iPhone after 10 incorrect unlocking attempts in succession, if the user has turned on this feature. We don’t know if this defense is activated on Farook’s phone – but the FBI doesn’t want to gamble that it isn’t, turn out to be wrong, and watch the phone be wiped clean after 10 incorrect guesses.
Apple’s security will erase a phone’s contents after a certain number of failed attempts – something the FBI wants to avoid.janitors/flickr, CC BY
A second approach is to force a delay after each failed attempt. If the real authorized user accidentally types in the wrong code, she won’t mind waiting 60 seconds before the phone will let her try again. But for a computer that wants to try a million possibilities, the time required to try all possibilities has gone up by a factor of a million or more.
The FBI, of course, should have no difficulty programming a computer to try all possible passwords. It simply wants Apple to turn off the defenses.
What the FBI is and isn’t asking for
The feds aren’t demanding Apple create a “backdoor.” In encryption, a backdoor is when someone has a means to access protected content outside of the normal (frontdoor) process. For example, there could be a skeleton key built into the encryption mechanism. The National Institute for Standards and Technology is reputed to have built such a facility into a random number generator, a function used in the heart of most encryption techniques. Encryption with a backdoor is technology explicitly designed so that a third party – in most cases, law enforcement – can gain access to the protected data when the need arises. But it’s very hard to build a backdoor into encryption, while still making it hard for an attacker to defeat. I don’t believe anyone is calling for such encryption anymore.
In a letter to customers, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that it will fight the FBI’s request because it would make all users' data less secure.Carlo Allegri/Reuters
Rather than tinker with its encryption, the FBI says it has asked Apple only to modify the defense mechanism built into iOS, its operating system. It’s presumably easy for Apple to create a version of iOS where the delay and data erase features are turned off. This would be a new, less secure version of the standard operating system.
This less secure operating system could be loaded on to the Farook phone, which the FBI could then access more easily. Other iPhones would not be affected.
Software piracy is a major challenge here. Apple has to worry that copies of this insecure operating system may get out and become easily available – and not just to the good guys, but also the bad guys. It’s common practice for software to require that a license be verified explicitly with the software vendor. If the license is not verified, the software will not function. This mechanism can block the insecure operating system from normal use.
But if the insecure operating system is installed for the purpose of data theft, then this normal license protection may not help – even if it doesn’t allow normal use, it may not stop data access. In other words, it could be problematic if copies of this insecure operating system proliferate. However, it doesn’t seem that hard to make sure that a one-time use operating system never leaks out.
It therefore appears there are no major technical barriers, or even immediate consequent difficulties, that prevent Apple from complying with the court order. Furthermore, it is hard to imagine a stronger case for law enforcement to gain access to encrypted data. In fact, a survey finds only 38 percent of Americans side with Apple and agree that they shouldn’t unlock the terror suspect’s phone. Nevertheless, there remain issues.
Our secure systems already fail all the time
It’s not easy to build a secure system. We have so many breaches reported every day, in spite of the best efforts of so many. And the defenses that Apple has been asked to remove have already been violated, at least for some versions of Apple’s products. Every additional wrinkle in the system design makes it more likely that new exploits will be found.
There is little question that this particular request from FBI will not be the last one. In all likelihood, Apple would be asked to use the desired insecure iOS in other future situations. With every use, the possibility increases of the software being leaked.
It’s also worth noting law enforcement does have access to the data in encrypted form without any help from Apple. These encrypted data look like gobbledygook and must be decrypted before they make sense. (In contrast, if they had, or could guess, the PIN, they would directly have access to the data in the convenient form ordinary users see.)
The point of encryption is to make decryption hard. However, hard does not mean impossible. The FBI could decrypt this data, with sufficient effort and computational power, and they could do this with no help from Apple. However, this route would be expensive, and would take some time. In effect, what they’re requesting of Apple is to make their job easier, cheaper and faster.
Ultimately, how this matter gets resolved may depend more on the big-picture question of what privacy rights we as a society want for the data we record on our personal devices. Understanding the technical questions can inform this discussion. H V Jagadish, Bernard A Galler Collegiate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Michigan
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Never mind SpaceX's Falcon 9, where's my Millennium Falcon?
Fredrick Jenet, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Volker Quetschke, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Last week, SpaceX held another successful launch of its Falcon 9 rocket. Unfortunately, its landing was not quite as successful as the one in December (it crashed into the ocean).
SpaceX isn’t alone in trying to develop reusable launch vehicles. Other private companies such as Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic are also in the race to achieve the dream of consistently landing a rocket after hurtling it into the heavens. Each success – and failure – gets us a little closer.
But how significant is the creation of reusable rockets? And where will we go from here? Are we finally close to the future once promised by the Jetson’s FX-Atmos “flying car” or Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon: a world of personal, space-bound transports that can leave your garage, reach orbit and beyond, and return home in time for dinner?
What else stands in the way?
The final frontier
The “democratization of space exploration,” spurred by NASA encouraging private companies to develop and manage complete launch systems, is igniting a new age of space development and awakening a spirit of exploration and technology innovation that’s been absent from our culture for far too long.
This resurgence of interest is reflected in NASA’s latest call for astronaut applications: 18,300 hopefuls applied for just 14 positions.
And in the private sector, venture capitalists are showing the same enthusiasm by investing US$1.8 billion in space startups in 2015, compared with an average of $193 million a year over the previous 15 years. The increased demand for space access is further spurring on private companies to develop more efficient reusable rocket launch systems.
Today’s space companies aren’t the first to set their sights on such a rocket. This great feat of engineering was originally achieved in 1993, when McDonald Douglass tested the Delta Clipper Experimental (DC-X), a prototype single-stage launch vehicle. NASA later canceled the project.
Now, it seems, the conditions are ripe once again to pick up where the DC-X left off. The private sector has started to take up this challenge, and the race is on to enhance all our lives with cheap space travel.
This future begins with the reusable rocket.
What does a reusable launch vehicle get us?
Imagine what life would be like if, after each trip to Grandma’s, we had to throw away the car. Even with the benefits of mass production, the cost to an individual would be prohibitive, especially if there exist reasonable alternatives like horses or walking. Such automobiles could be employed only by governments, extremely wealthy enthusiasts or perhaps by a few skilled specialists who lived for the challenge.
This is pretty much the situation with current spacecraft technology. Not even the Space Shuttle program achieved the lofty goal of reliable reusability, although it tried very hard. The shuttle was such a complicated system that every time it returned to Earth, intense maintenance had to be performed and systems rebuilt or overhauled, making it three times as expensive as that of an expendable rocket. For example, a shuttle launch cost $450 million to $1.5 billion, compared with $110 million for a Russian Proton rocket with about the same lift capacity.
Truly reusable launch vehicles would significantly reduce the cost of getting material and people into orbit and enable new uses of space with far-reaching socioeconomic consequences that will ultimately reduce our impact on Earth’s environment, such as space-based energy collection, mining and manufacturing.
In order to get an idea of the savings, the retail price of a Falcon 9 rocket is around $60 million to build and launch (including fuel). Given its total lift capacity of 13,150 kilograms to low-Earth orbit, this translates into a price tag of about $400,000 to ferry a 90-kilogram (198-pound) person into space. But if you had to pay only for fuel, about $300,000 a launch, the price tag drops drastically to just $2,000 for the same person. That’s not far from the cost of flying from New York to Sydney, which makes a future family vacation to a Bigelow B330 Space Habitat a viable alternative to Disney World.
At the pace things are going, we project that within 10 years the space industry will achieve the goal of a fully reusable launch vehicle. Companies and municipalities, small and big, are all starting to look into ways of taking advantage of this complete disruption in, or better yet creation of, the commercial space market.
So our next question is this: what do we need to make the Millennium Falcon – that is, a single-stage-to-orbit completely reusable spacecraft – a reality?
A little physics can help us see exactly what needs to happen and exactly how far we are from this goal.
The Shuttle came close to being reusable, but it still required expendable rockets to get into space and significant maintenance after every use.Space Shuttle via www.shutterstock.com
Rocket Science 101
Space travel is all about speed. The old adage, “What goes up must come down,” is true only to a point. If you throw something up fast enough, it won’t come back down; it will have escaped Earth’s gravity. The question is, exactly how fast is fast enough?
A simple application of Newtonian gravity theory tells us that if we achieve a speed of 11 kilometers per second – the equivalent of a plane flying 25,000 mph straight up – we are not going to fall back to Earth. Scientists and engineers refer to this speed, which depends on the physical properties of the Earth, as our planet’s escape velocity.
A rocket tries to achieve that speed by taking mass and throwing it out the back as fast as possible. Thanks to Newton’s third law – which states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction – this propels the rocket forward.
The ratio between the change in velocity needed to escape the Earth’s pull (known as delta-v) and the speed at which the rocket sends stuff out the back (exhaust velocity) is the most important number in rocket science. It determines how much mass needs to be expelled and how much energy is necessary to get to space. The smaller we can make the ratio, the better.
Private companies like SpaceX are democratizing space exploration.Reuters
In addition, the propellants and fuels are themselves massive, and the rocket needs to carry these things with itself, making it heaver and harder to accelerate.
So we need propellants and fuels with a high energy content and low mass.
Now we can begin to appreciate the enormous feat of engineering that private companies and governments have achieved by not only launching a rocket but learning to land it as well.
The maximum achievable exhaust velocities for the rockets we’ve been using since the dawn of space travel are much less than the Earth’s escape velocity (about 4 km/s or 9,000 mph), forcing us to come up with ingenious and costly multistage launch techniques to get even a modest payload into space.
In summary, in order to leave the surface of the Earth with the grace and apparent effortlessness of the Millennium Falcon, we need to achieve speeds in excess of the escape velocity, 11 km/s. In order to do that without carrying a fuel tank that far exceeds the size of our ship, we need to achieve exhaust speeds significantly higher than the escape velocity, something not possible with the chemical fuels we use.
So where do we go from here?
So in order to make the Millennium Falcon a reality, we need a new type of fuel, as chemical-based engines are severely limiting.
Thanks to Albert Einstein, we know that there is energy stored in mass itself. Using his famous E = mc² equation, we know that exhaust speeds up to the speed of light are achievable, and way more than necessary to escape Earth’s gravity.
A sustainable exhaust speed of 1,000 km/s, less than 1 percent of the speed of light, would pretty much enable our dream ship. Its fuel-to-mass ratio would be about the same as that of your typical car.
The next question is: how do we get access to the energy stored in the mass (fuel and propellant) sufficient to achieve those speeds? The answer lies in nuclear reactions or, better yet, matter-antimatter reactions. In short, we need to put a mass reactor, nuclear or matter-antimatter, on board our ship. Think of the Enterprise’s “warp core,” for all those Star Trek fans out there.
Nuclear rockets may seem farfetched, but various versions have already been proposed and prototypes have even been built. The Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) project, a joint NASA-Atomic Energy Commission program, developed a flight-certified nuclear-based rocket engine that meets all the requirements for a manned mission to Mars.
What is interesting, and perhaps a little sad, is that this was done in 1968, over four decades ago! The NERVA engine achieved exhaust velocities pretty close to Earth’s escape velocity, around 10 km/s. The program was tied to NASA’s manned Mars exploration program and, since it was unable to justify the expense of going to Mars, was scrapped in 1972.
More recently, NASA has been developing electric propulsion systems that can generate large effective exhaust velocities that are limited only through the strength of the electric field. Effective exhaust velocities of 90 km/s are already achievable. But this is just the propulsion part. The solar panels, batteries or fuel cells that are currently used as power sources for these engines limit their usefulness. Electricity generated from nuclear power could solve this problem.
Who needs Disney World? How about a trip to the International Space Station?ISS via www.shutterstock.com
Back to the future
With the renewed interest in space exploration and innovation, we challenge inventors and entrepreneurs to consider looking at advanced nuclear/antimatter-powered rocket systems. This could enable us to achieve the dream of a space car in our garages in half a century.
The key to all the recent advances in space exploration technology has been combining older proven technologies with modern computing capabilities, materials and fabrication processes. NASA’s push to get technologies into private hands will accelerate this process.
Back in 1972, we were at 1 percent of the needed exhaust speed. It’s not too much of a stretch to propose that, after 40 years of advances, we need only revisit the designs with fresh and entrepreneurial eyes to make it possible for a Han Solo – or, to be more contemporary, Rey Skywalker – to jump into the Falcon and speed off to somewhere far, far away.
