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STUART GARY: This is Spacetime series 26 episode, 100 and 16
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for broadcast on the 27th of September 2023. Coming up on
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space time. A new study warns that black holes are actually
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eating faster than previously expected. NASA's ingenuity.
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Helicopter sets a new altitude record on MARS and Rocket lab's
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electrons suffers a catastrophic failure during launch all that
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and more coming up on space time.
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GENERIC: Welcome to space time with Stuart Garry.
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STUART GARY: A new study is changing the way astrophysicists
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understand the eating habits of supermassive black holes. While
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previous researchers have hypothesized that black holes
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eat slowly. New computer simulations are suggesting that
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black holes actually scaff down food faster than conventional
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understanding suggests.
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A new study reported in the Astrophysical Journal is based
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on high resolution three dimensional computer simulations
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which are showing that spinning black holes twist up the
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surrounding space time process called frame dragging in the
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process.
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This is ripping apart the violent whirlpool of gas, the
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accretion disk that encircles and feeds the black hole. Now
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this process is resulting in the accretion disk being literally
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torn into two separate discs, inner and outer.
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The black holes then devour the inner disk afterwards, debris
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from the outer disk spills inwards to refill the gap left
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behind by the now wholly consumed inner ring. And the
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eating process repeats one cycle of this endlessly repeating eat
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refill eat process can take just a few months. And that's a
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shockingly fast timescale compared to the hundreds of
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years.
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Researchers had previously proposed. The new findings could
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help explain the dramatic behavior of some of the
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brightest objects in the universe quasars which can
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abruptly flare up and then vanish without explanation.
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The study's lead author Nick Cas from North Western University
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says classical accretion disc theory predicts that the disc
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evolves slowly but some quasars which result from black holes
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eating gas on their accretion discs appear to drastically
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change over timescales of just a few months.
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Classical accretion disc theory simply can't explain this
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drastic variation but the phenomena seen in the
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simulations could explain this. That's because the quick
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brightening and dimming are consistent with inner regions of
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the disc being destroyed.
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Accretion disks surrounding black holes are physically
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complicated objects making them incredibly difficult to model.
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Conventional theory has struggled to explain why these
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discs shine so brightly and then abruptly dim sometimes to the
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point of disappearing completely.
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Previous researchers have mistakenly assumed that
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accretion disks are relatively orderly in these models of the
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gas and particles swirl around the black hole in the same plane
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as the black hole itself and in the same direction as the black
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hole spin then over timescales of hundreds to hundreds of
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thousands of years, gas particles gradually spill into
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the black hole.
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The feeder has says that for decades, people made the very
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big assumption that accretion disks were aligned to the black
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hole's rotation. But he says the gas that feeds these black holes
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doesn't necessarily know which way the black hole's spinning.
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So why would they automatically be aligned and changing this
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alignment drastically changes the entire picture. The new
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computer simulation, which is one of the highest resolution
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simulations of a Christian disks ever carried out indicates that
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the regions surrounding the black hole are much messier and
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more turbulent than previously thought using summit.
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One of the world's largest supercomputers located at the
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Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The authors carried out a three
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dimensional general relativistic magneto hydrodynamic simulation
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of a thin tilted accretion disk.
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While previous simulations weren't powerful enough to
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include all the necessary physics needed to construct a
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realistic black hole. This new model included gas dynamics
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magnetic fields and general relativity to assemble a more
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complete picture.
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Caz says black holes are extreme general relativistic objects
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that affect the space time around them. And so when they
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rotate, they physically drag space time with them. And this
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creates a really strong effect close to the black hole that
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becomes increasingly weaker with distance from the event horizon.
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The point of no return beyond which matter falls forever into
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the black hole's singularity frame dragging makes the entire
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creasing disk wobble in circles similar to how its gyroscope
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processes. But the thing is the inner disc wants to wobble much
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more rapidly than the outer disk.
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This mismatch of focus causes the entire disc to warp, causing
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gas from different parts of the disc to collide. The collisions
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create bright shocks that violently drive material closer
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and closer to the black hole.
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As the warping becomes more severe, the innermost region of
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the accretion disk continues to wobble faster and faster until
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eventually it breaks apart from the rest of the disc.
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Now, according to the new simulations, both these sub
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disks then start evolving independently of each other
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instead of smoothly moving together like a flat plate
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surrounding a black hole, the sub disks independently wobble
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at different speeds and angles sort of like the wheels of a
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gyroscope. And when the inner disk finally tears off, it
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processes independently.
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Paz says it processes faster because it's closer to the black
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hole and because it's smaller, so it's easier to move. Now,
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according to the new simulations, the tearing region
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where the inner and outer subs disconnect is where the feeding
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frenzy truly begins. Well, fr tries to keep the two disc
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segments together.
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The twisting of space time by the spinning black hole wants to
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rip it apart. So there's competition between the rotation
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of the black hole and the friction and pressure inside the
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disc. It's the tearing region where the black hole wins, the
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inner and outer discs collide into each other.
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And the outer disk shaves off layers of the inner disc in the
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process, pushing it further inwards. Now the two sub disks
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intersect at different angles. The outer disk pours material on
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top of the inner disc. And this extra mass pushes the inner disc
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towards the black hole where it's eventually devoured.
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Then the black hole's own gravity pulls gas from the outer
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disk towards the now empty inner region in order to refill it.
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Caz says these fast cycles of eight refill eight potentially
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explain so called changing look. Quasars.
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Quasars are the brightest objects in the universe. So
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extremely luminous, they can be seen more than 13 billion light
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years away literally from the other side of the universe.
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They're actually made up of extremely luminous jets of
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energy and matter generated by feeding black holes and then
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beamed out at close to the speed of light.
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They're so powerful. They can emit thousands of times more
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energy than the entire milky way's 400 billion stars and
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changing look quasars are even more extreme. They appear to
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turn on and off over duration periods of just a few months.
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Now, that's a tiny amount of time for a typical quasar.
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Caz says the inner region of an accretion disc, which is where
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most of the brightness comes from can totally disappear. The
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system simply stops being bright and then all of a sudden it
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brightens up again and the process repeats and that can be
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done over just the space of a few months. Conventional physics
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doesn't have any way to explain this.
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They can't explain why it disappears so quickly in the
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first place and they certainly can explain how it refilled so
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quickly. So not only do these new computer simulations
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potentially explain quasars, they could also answer ongoing
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questions about the mysterious nature of black holes. How gas
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actually gets into the black hole to feed it is the central
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question in a CRE desk physics.
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If you know how that happens, they'll tell you how long the
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disc lasts, how bright it is and what the light should look like
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when we observe it using telescopes. This is space time
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still to come. NASA's ingenuity. Helicopter sets a new altitude
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flight record and Rocket lab's Electron explodes during launch
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all that and more coming up on space time.
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NASA's MARS Ingenuity Helicopter has set a new flight altitude
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record reaching some 20 m above the red planet's ancient desert
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landscape. Now that's 2 m above its previous record. The tiny
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tissue box size twin rotor chopper was on its 59th flight.
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The 142.59 2nd sortie was simply designed to hover with no
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horizontal travel. It's described by NASA as a pop up
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flight.
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The 1.8 kg Roto craft arrived on the red planet back in February
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2021 attached to the underbelly of the car size six wheeled
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MARS, perseverance rover ingenuity was built using simple
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off the shelf components and it was originally only intended to
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undertake five proof of concept test flights on MARS in order to
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determine whether or not an aircraft really could
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successfully fly on the red planet.
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Remember, MARS hasn't got Earth's thick atmosphere density
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on MARS is just 1 99th that of Earth. Now, with its 59th flight
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successfully completed, the chopper has proven itself to be
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a valuable companion for perseverance scouting the trail
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ahead of the rover in order to find interesting geology and
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warn of hazardous terrain over the course of its 59 flights.
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Ingenuity has now traveled some 13 m and it's stayed aloft
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for 106 minutes, 30 seconds.
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Its single flight distance and duration records are 704 m set
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in April 2022 at 169.5 seconds achieved in August 2021. The
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primary goal of the perseverance mission is to search for
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evidence of past microbial life on MARS.
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The landing site was the floor of the 45 kilometer wide Jezero
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crater which billions of years ago harbored a large lake back
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in the day when MARS was a warm wet world before it transformed
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into the inhospitable freeze dried desert.
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It's become today next to the perseverance landing site is an
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ancient expansive river delta fan of sediments, they contained
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material washed down from further upstream and which would
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be a likely place for life to thrive had it ever existed on
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the red planet? As its mission proceeds, perseverance is
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collecting samples that will eventually be sent back to Earth
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for more detailed scientific examination.
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Meanwhile, as ingenuity continues on its extended
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mission of aerial exploration mission managers back on Earth
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are looking at the next generation of aircraft to fly on
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MARS. This report from NASA TV.
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NASA TV REPORT: Two years ago, ingenuity proved that we could
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do the impossible we can fly on. MARS. Let's talk about what's
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next.
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Here at the surface. Robotics. Lab testing is being done on
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future MARS helicopters. Teddy Santos is here with us today to
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talk about the helicopter that started it all ingenuity. Teddy,
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what's the latest.
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Ingenuity is doing great. Our baby is still flying on the
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surface of MARS. Our rotor system, our little cell phone
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processor on board are off the shelf. Lithium ion batteries are
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all doing fantastic. One area that we're looking very closely
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at is our solar panel.
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You can imagine after two years of flying on the surface of
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MARS, you'll get some dust on top, but we still have an ample
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margin and ample energy to keep up our flight operations and the
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extended mission of continuing to scout and push the flat
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envelope of what's possible.
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The testing being done in this room is part of the next
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helicopter mission of MARS called the sample recovery
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helicopters. The goal is to be a back up to get these samples
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back to Earth but simply perseverance, collects the
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sample tubes.
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The sample return lander will retrieve those samples directly
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for perseverance and then there's a Rocket inside of that
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lander that's actually going to send those samples back to Earth
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as a backup to getting those sample tubes from MARS back to
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the lander. We're designing the next generation of helicopters
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to not only be able to pick up and carry a sample tube but also
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drive around on the surface.
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Are there any other ways ingenuity is influencing future
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MARS exploration.
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We're looking at a research concept called MARS Science
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helicopter. It's a helicopter. So six rotors and a ring around
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a central structure.
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It's about the size of the rover. And you can imagine in
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the future, you will have fleets of these MARS Science
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helicopters flying around bringing important payloads to
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areas of MARS that we've never been able to access before.
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What's next for ingenuity?
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We're trying to fly faster, trying to fly higher. We've
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added new software capabilities. We can now detect landing sites
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airborne. Those sorts of winds are coming from the surface of
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MARS directly into the design of the new sample recovery
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helicopters. And she's done a fantastic job. We surpassed any
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sort of metric of success that anyone on the team could have
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ever imagined for this little tiny £4 spacecraft.
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STUART GARY: This space time still to come. Rocket lab's
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Electron explodes during launch and later in the science report,
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scientists begin phase one trials of a new HIV vaccine. All
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that and more coming up on space time you come.
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Rocket lab have grounded all Electron missions following the
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failure of its latest launch from New Zealand. The we will
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never desertion mission from launch complex. One on the North
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Island's Maa Peninsula was to add a second Acadia Earth
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imaging synthetic Ava radar satellite to CAPELLA. Space's
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current constellation.
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The spacecraft was to be placed into a 635 kilometer high orbit.
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The launch had already been placed on hold at T minus eight
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minutes due to an anomaly. It was then resumed some 125
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minutes later with a countdown clock reset to T minus 14
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minutes and 35 seconds. The countdown and launch proceeded
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smoothly with a spectacular night time lift offload is
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complete.
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COMMENTATOR: The system is in recirculation. Anti gay is
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disabled.
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Stage one and stage two tanks are pressed high flow engine
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purge enabled 10 987654321 flipped off the T plus 30
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seconds.
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And our 41st Electron has lifted off from the pad at Rocket lab's
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launch complex one Electron powering its way to orbit for
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CAPELLA very soon. We will approach Max Q or maximum
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aerodynamic pressure. The moment that the Rocket experiences the
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most stress as it climbs.
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Electronic personic, approaching Max Q, high voltage battery
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discharges nominal Max Q an Electron has cleared Max Q, the
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Rocket is performing nominally so far now up to 16 kilometers
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in altitude as it reaches speeds of more than 2300 kilometers an
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hour. Next up are three events and electrons as sent that will
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happen in quick succession.
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First up, we have Miko the moment when all nine Rutherford
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engines on the first stage throttle down and then shut off
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completely very quickly. After that, we'll have the separation
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of the 1st and 2nd stages followed by the ignition of the
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single Rutherford engine on electrons second stage as the
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mission continues to orbit stage.
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One propulsion holding nominal stand by for Miko at 15 seconds
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to staging, entered burnout detect mode, Miko confirmed
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stage separation successful.
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STUART GARY: However, just after first stage separation at two
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minutes, 38 seconds after liftoff, elementary data
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suddenly showed the velocity of the Electron upper stage
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decreasing rapidly as its single Rutherford vacuum engine was
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supposed to ignite and all stations.
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SPK_4: We have experienced an anomaly. Please remain on
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station and we will investigate and action. The anomaly plan.
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STUART GARY: The failure has broken a string of nine
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consecutive successful launches. The last failure was way back in
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May 2021. The mission was Rocket lab's 41st Electron launched and
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its ninth flight this year, a full investigation to determine
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exactly what happened is now underway. This is space time and
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time there to take another brief look at some of the other
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stories making news in science.
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This week with the science report, scientists have begun
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phase one trials of a new preventative HIV vaccine
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candidate in the United States and South Africa. The research
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which is supported by the National Institutes Of Health
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will evaluate a novel vaccine known as VR 1003 88. They'll be
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looking at its safety and its ability to induce an HIV
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specific immune response.
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VR 1388 is designed to instruct the body's immune system to
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produce more T cells that can recognize HIV and signal an
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immune response to prevent the virus from establishing chronic
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infection. VR 1388 uses a cyclo mela virus vector to deliver the
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vaccine material to the immune system without causing disease
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to study participants.
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A cytomegalovirus vector remains in the human body for life that
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suggests that it has the potential to deliver and then
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safely help the body retain HIV vaccine material for a long
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period, potentially overcoming the waning immunity observed in
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or short lived vaccine vectors. Initial results from the phase
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one trials are expected in late 2024.
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The human immuno deficiency virus HIV is the infection that
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attaches to the body's immune system causing acquired immune
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deficiency syndrome or aids. It's thought to have originated
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from infected primates in western central Africa. And was
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first identified in humans in May 1981 when a large cohort of
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otherwise healthy young biological males suddenly began
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dying from a range of unusually rare diseases.
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Hiv targets the body's white blood cells, things like helper
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T cells, specifically CD four plus T cells. It also targets
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macrophages and dendritic cells weakening and causing the
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progressive failure of the immune system.
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Thereby allowing a wide range of opportunistic diseases such as
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tuberculosis and several types of cancers to become critical,
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eventually killing the patient HIV is spread from patient to
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patient through body fluids. Early symptoms include fever,
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fatigue and headaches, skin rashes, swollen, lymph nodes,
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aching muscles, joint pain, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea,
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night sweats, a sore throat and a dry cough.
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Right now, the only known treatments for HIV involve
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powerful drug cocktails known as anti retroviral therapy or art.
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The World Health Organization estimates that up to 52 million
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people have been killed by the AIDS virus and another 40
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million are currently living with HIV.
00:20:48
In the latest example of the ever increasing power of
00:20:51
artificial intelligence. A report in the journal of the
00:20:54
annals of emergency medicine has found that Chat GPT can suggest
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the most likely diagnosis for emergency department patients
00:21:01
every bit as well as a trained doctor. And it could one day
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support emergency doctors.
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The study involved the team entering details of 30 Dutch
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emergency department patients into both Chat GP T 3.4 and chat
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GP T 4.0 included were all their medical notes. The authors found
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that the emergency department doctors had the correct
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diagnosis within the top five most likely diagnoses in 87 per
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cent of cases.
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By comparison, chat GPT 3.5 had a 97 per cent accuracy rate and
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version 4.0 had the same 87 per cent accuracy rate as human
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doctors, Facebook has blocked the Royal Melbourne Institute Of
00:21:46
Technology's fact lab fact checking operation from policing
00:21:49
content on its platform. After Sky News, Australia
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investigations uncovered a secret foreign funded bid to
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influence an upcoming referendum.
00:21:59
The investigation dubbed the fact check files revealed that
00:22:03
the university's fact checking director was campaigning for one
00:22:07
side in the upcoming Australian referendum and rearing slogans
00:22:11
and images created by the side.
00:22:12
He supports the investigation claims his team were responsible
00:22:17
for several misleading fact checks which led to a censorship
00:22:20
of journalism related to the referendum meters says the
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allegations contained in the fact check files led to its
00:22:28
decision to suspend RMIT from its global fact checking
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operation.
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RMIT could also be in breach of section 2.2 of the international
00:22:37
fact checking network's code of principles which doesn't allow
00:22:41
fact checking operations to unduly focus on one side of
00:22:45
political debates. You see an audit of RMIT referendum fact
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checks showed 17 referendum checks between May the third and
00:22:53
June the 23rd this year, all of which were targeting opinions or
00:22:57
views opposed. And this case wasn't unique.
00:23:01
Two years ago, the highly respected British medical
00:23:04
journal Slam Metta over another Facebook fact checker lead
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stories, they allege that its fact checking was inaccurate,
00:23:12
incompetent and irresponsible after Facebook refused to admit
00:23:17
that its fact checkers were wrong over an investigation into
00:23:20
poor clinical trial research practices at a contract research
00:23:23
facility helping carry out vaccines trials.
00:23:26
Meanwhile, when they were forced to defend themselves from a
00:23:29
lawsuit by an American journalist back in 2021
00:23:32
Facebook's senior management testified under oath that the
00:23:36
fact checks used to police what people could read or watch are
00:23:40
just opinion.
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And the judge agreed us district court judge Virginia Demaci
00:23:46
found that Facebook couldn't have to fame the journalist
00:23:50
because its fact checking program reflects a subjective
00:23:53
judgment about the accuracy and reliability of assertions made
00:23:57
in the content of what's being checked.
00:24:00
The judge said that simply because the process by which
00:24:03
content is assessed and a label applied is called a fact check
00:24:06
does not mean that the assessment itself is an
00:24:09
actionable statement of objective fact.
00:24:12
In simple terms, fact checking is just the opinion of the fact
00:24:16
checker. Nothing more new figures suggest there could be
00:24:21
over 58 broadband internet satellites orbiting the Earth by
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2030. With the details. We're joined by technology editor Alex
00:24:31
Zaharov-Reutt from Tech Avis start live.
00:24:34
ALEX ZAHAROV-REUTT: Yeah, look, some experts are predicting that
00:24:36
there'll be 58 satellites orbiting the Earth by 2030.
00:24:39
That's nearly 725 per cent more than this year. And Starlink is
00:24:44
doing very well. Their speeds are going up in most countries
00:24:47
and people are preferring it to fixed broadband services, but
00:24:50
they're not the only ones.
00:24:51
Amazon plans to have half of their 3236 Leo satellites up by
00:24:58
2026. And they're going to spend $120 million on a huge facility
00:25:04
to process satellites at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
00:25:08
And these first prototype satellites are going to launch
00:25:11
in September. Now, China, they also want to provide internet
00:25:14
connectivity to over 362 million of their people.
00:25:17
That's nearly one in every four people in China because those
00:25:20
people living in rural or remote communities. And of course, you
00:25:23
know, light is a great savior there. You don't have to have
00:25:26
cables running across the country, very expensive to
00:25:29
either put under the ground or to put up on poles.
00:25:32
And they're looking to have their own satellite
00:25:35
constellation with potentially over 12 satellites. So you
00:25:38
can see, I mean, Elon Musk wants to have 30. China wants to
00:25:41
have 12. Amazon wants to have nearly 3.5 1000. So there's
00:25:44
going to be a huge number of satellites orbiting the Earth
00:25:48
giving us effectively ubiquitous connectivity and the phone
00:25:51
companies.
00:25:52
They also have to partner with the satellite providers, not
00:25:55
just for five G but for future six G as well. And already in
00:25:58
Australia, for example, both Telstra and Optus, the two
00:26:01
biggest carriers for mobile and NBN internet services have done
00:26:05
deals with spacex. So there's going to be a lot of activity in
00:26:08
the sky.
00:26:08
STUART GARY: Lots of launches, the French government have put a
00:26:10
ban on iphone 12 S. What's the story?
00:26:13
ALEX ZAHAROV-REUTT: Well, the French are saying that the
00:26:14
iphone 12 is exceeding the eu limits of a specific measure
00:26:19
known as the absorption rate, the specific absorption rate,
00:26:22
that's the amount of radiation that the phone is sending out.
00:26:25
And you know whether it's in your hand or if it's in your
00:26:27
pocket and obviously, if ther is too high, then certain
00:26:30
authorities want to ban it.
00:26:32
France has done that even though other countries are quite
00:26:35
comfortable. Now, Apple is scheduled to go to issue some
00:26:37
sort of a software update to keep the French happy. I mean,
00:26:40
the iphone 12 isn't really being sold in huge numbers although
00:26:43
Apple still does sell it. But it's interesting to note that it
00:26:46
was only the iphone 12. They don't have any concerns with any
00:26:49
of the other phones on the market.
00:26:50
STUART GARY: Logitech's come out with a new webcam. Ok.
00:26:52
ALEX ZAHAROV-REUTT: This is called the Logitech Reach and
00:26:54
we're actually launching it on Kickstarter. So it's going to be
00:26:57
a crowd funding project, but they're going to make it no
00:26:58
matter what? And this is dubbed the most flexible show and tell
00:27:02
camera.
00:27:03
It's a two in one full actually webcam and it's an overhead
00:27:06
camera. And what you can do is you can swivel it, move it
00:27:10
around, grab it by the lens, point it to yourself, point it
00:27:13
to a board game. It's like a.
00:27:14
STUART GARY: Camera on a, isn't it? That's right.
00:27:17
ALEX ZAHAROV-REUTT: It's like a boom mic. But instead of a
00:27:18
microphone, it's a camera. And of course, most of the log tech
00:27:21
cameras do actually have microphones in them, but it's
00:27:23
really flexible and cool. And it's amazing that nobody ever
00:27:26
thought of this before. Even though we've had the idea of
00:27:29
having boom mics for decades. There's no official prices yet.
00:27:32
I did a survey. They were talking about a 399 US price and
00:27:36
a 2 99 discounted price.
00:27:37
If you go to reach camera dot lodge dot com, I'll have the
00:27:41
link on my website, then you'll be able to sign up to be alerted
00:27:44
when the price is officially announced and you'll be able to
00:27:47
get an exclusive discount. But it's definitely something that a
00:27:50
lot of influencers and content creators have gone. That looks
00:27:54
very cool. I'd love to get one of those.
00:27:55
STUART GARY: And what else is on the website?
00:27:56
ALEX ZAHAROV-REUTT: One of the stories concerns iphone
00:27:58
Protective covers for the new iphone 15. There's one from zag
00:28:02
areas that have some sort of a graphene element inside the case
00:28:04
which they say makes it tougher than diamonds, but they have a
00:28:07
new blue light screen protector, anti blue light screen
00:28:10
protector. They say it's the most blue light of any of the
00:28:13
screen protector on the market.
00:28:14
And you've got antibacterial options which of course is now
00:28:17
all the rage. And on the back of the case, you have that ring,
00:28:20
which is the Magsafe ring that allows you to magnetically
00:28:23
attach a charger or a camera mount or rechargeable battery
00:28:27
packs or even fans to keep the device cool when you're doing
00:28:30
gaming.
00:28:31
But this particular ring on the back of the case, you can
00:28:34
actually take it out and it's got a little in there and then
00:28:38
you can use it as a phone. So it's quite clever because
00:28:41
normally that ring cannot be moved at all. This is the first
00:28:44
time I've seen somebody decide, oh, let's make the ring movable
00:28:47
on a hinge and then it's a built in.
00:28:49
So it's quite clever and it's always good to see innovation
00:28:52
because normally the cases are just better protect your phone
00:28:55
and nothing else. But now we're seeing cases that do a lot more
00:28:58
than just keep the phone clean and I'll have all the details on
00:29:00
that and plenty more at tech Advice Dot Life. Please come and
00:29:03
have a look.
00:29:03
STUART GARY: That's Alex Sahara Royd from Advice dot live and
00:29:23
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