Hello, and welcome to The Edge, the newsletter that brings you groundbreaking stories from the frontiers of technology and science.
We’ve got some great stories for you today, including a new neural interface, Pokémon earbuds and Virgin Orbit’s progress towards spaceflight. As always, we’ve added extra stories under each article should you find yourself in a curious state of mind.
Mind meets machine
A Neural Interface Could Last up to 6 Years Inside the Human Brain
Creating a durable neural interface that reads brain signals is a real challenge. Other ways of reading brain signals exist, like electroencephalography, but the consensus is that capturing any brain activity in detail requires implants into the brain’s surface. This involves invasive procedures and devices which, until now, haven’t been able to last long in the brain’s hostile environment. Now, in a paper in Science Translational Medicine, scientists reveal how they have created a new neural interface which could last up to six years on the surface of the brain. The developments bring us one step closing to letting mind and machine interact.
Elon Musk’s approach.
Like a Virgin
Image Credit: The Verge
Small satellite launcher Virgin Orbit conducts dress rehearsal ahead of its first test flight
Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit has completed an intricate test run of its rocket launch procedure, albeit with no rockets being launched just yet. Virgin Orbit is different from other space companies in that, rather than launching their rockets vertically from the ground, they launch their LauncherOne rockets in midair from under the wing of a giant 747. Nicknamed Cosmic Girl, the 747 is designed to climb to 35,000 feet, after which LauncherOne falls, ignites its main engine and makes the rest of the way to space.
In preparation for actual launch, Virgin Orbit has been running vigorous tests, with incremental increases in complexity. This dress rehearsal moves them one step closer to an actual test flight sometime this year.
Virgin Galactic wants to take you to space.
The new space race.
Apollo 13 in high definition
Image credit: NASA/Andy Saunders/Stephen Slater
Apollo 13: Enhanced images reveal life on stricken spacecraft.
First things first - Jack Swigert said “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here”, not “Houston, we have a problem”, as Tom Hanks would have you believe. With that out of the way, let’s get to it. Image specialist Andy Saunders has taken low-quality 16mm shots from the almost-catastrophic Apollo 13 mission and rendered them crystal clear. The mission celebrated its 50th anniversary a few days ago.
On Apollo 13’s 1970 journey to the moon, an explosion on board caused oxygen to leak out into space. Thanks to quick thinking, the crew on board and NASA’s mission control back on Earth were able to devise solutions that stretched supplies on board to last longer so the astronauts could return home. Saunders’ retouched images show the crew, calm and collected, fighting to get back to Earth.
Apollo 13 as it happened.
Poké…buds?
Image credit: Zing Gadget
Take a peek at Razer’s Pikachu-themed earbuds with Pokéball charging case
From April 16 onwards, buyers in china will be able to buy a Pikachu-themed variation of Razer’s Hammerhead buds. Coming in at ¥999 (around $141 or €130), the earbuds feature an image of Pikachu on the back and are stored in a Pokéball charging case. The case provides the buds with an additional 13 hours of use, while the buds themselves provide three on a full charge. If the Pikachu-themed buds are anything like their Hammerhead big brother, they’ll come with a 13mm driver unit, input latency of 60ms (which is quite low) and an IPX4-rated design. No doubt Ash Ketchum would fork out for a pair.