NASA releases the first coloured image taken by the James Webb space telescope, Amazon is developing cancer vaccines, and Meta creates new citation AI for Wikipedia.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Tuesday, July 12, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
As promised, NASA released the first coloured image taken by its $10 billion James Webb Space telescope yesterday. The image is a composite made from data collected in a 12.5-hour timeframe. Although the observed frame is comparable to a grain of sand held at arm’s length, the sliver of space still held thousands of galaxies. Specifically, the image showcases a galaxy cluster as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. What’s even cooler is that NASA said the combined mass of the galaxies acts as a gravitational lens that magnifies the objects behind it. The image released yesterday is only the first of a set of pictures that will be released today.
Source: NASA
Amazon is developing cancer vaccines and they’re looking for patients to participate in a clinical trial. The vaccines, which target skin and breast cancers, are being researched in partnership with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. The early phase one clinical trial, which has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, seeks 20 patients. An Amazon spokesperson told Insiders that the company is contributing scientific and machine learning expertise in the partnership, and may be open to similar projects down the road.
Source: Business Insider
Meta has created a new AI model that can help check citations. The new model, called Sphere, is already being tried by Wikipedia, which, according to Gizmodo, sees 17,000 new articles being added per month. The Meta researchers said Sphere could support the volunteer editors who rigorously comb through the archive. The model is released open-source on Github. Eventually, Meta researchers hope to refine the model to help Wikipedia volunteers to better recommend citations and accurate sources.
Source: Gizmodo
Huston-based Nanoracks has created a new way to help dispose of trash from the International Space Station. Currently, trash generated on the station is carried out by visiting cargo spacecrafts, or even occasionally tossed out by astronauts on space walks. Nanoracks solution uses an airlock trashbag ejection system that launches the trash into the earth’s atmosphere, burning up as it descends. Each container holds up to 600 pounds of trash and helps ensure none of them stay in low-earth orbit.
Source: Newsweek
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Tom Li.