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In 1990, being close to the shore of lake Karachay would give you a lethal radiation dose in a matter of minutes. The lake was polluted from the Mayak Production Association, the largest nuclear reactor in the Soviet Union, which was built secretly in the late 1940s. Lake Kyzyltash was the largest and closest source of cooling water, which was essential for cooling the reactors. However, it was also used to dispose radioactive waste. Lake Karachay , was also used as rubbish bin for hazardous waste. The Russian- Soviet government kept Mayak entirely secret until 1990. According to reports, there was a 21 percent increase in cancer incidence, a 25 percent increase in birth defects, and a 41 percent increase in leukemia in the surrounding region of Chelyabinsk. The Techa river, was also contaminated resulting in an epidemic local radiation illness. Lake Karachay is now full of concrete, however underground water contamination in the past or even now remains a possible nightmare scenario, as the hazardous waste has only been covered not eliminated. The radiation emitted from Lake Karachay was extremely strong, even stronger than Chernobyl, especially in terms of density from unit mass. An hour being close to the shore would give a radiation of 600R to a human, enough to kill him. Raising global awareness in terms of the dangers of nuclear facilities (especially in the wrong hands) is vital. The intelligence of those who discovered the theoretical scientific foundations of atomic energy release, or even the pioneers of technology of nuclear reactor technology does not mean that those who will use it will have an equal level of mental awareness.

Voyager 1 was launched on the 5th of September 1977, exactly 42 years ago! Let us celebrate the anniversary of the lunch of our most distant cosmic representative with a theoretical article about the possibility of interstellar travel. First of all, the spacecraft is at a distance of 146.74 AU from Earth at the moment, and has passed the heliopause. After exploring the gas giant planets Jupiter and Saturn, as well as the Moon of Saturn: Titan, the spacecraft begun a journey without return, which may last for millions of years. Even today the spacecraft is sending back to Earth invaluable information about the nature of interstellar space with 4 instruments still operating: Cosmic Ray Subsystem (CRS) Low-Energy Charged Particles (LECP) Magnetometer (MAG) Plasma Wave Subsystem (PWS) Voyager 1 is currently one of a total number of 5 missions heading for the interstellar space. The other 4 spacecrafts are: Voyager 2 Pioneer 10 Pioneer 11 New Horions Due to the strong gravitational assistance from Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 is also the fastest among the other 4, as it travels with a speed of 17 km/sec (with respect to the Sun). In comparison New Horizons has achieved a speed of "only" 14 km/sec. Voyager 1 also carries a copy of the "Golden Record" that includes selected greetings in 55 languages, pictures and music. 5 Key Dates: Sept. 5, 1977: Launch March 5, 1979: Jupiter flyby Nov. 12, 1980: Saturn flyby Feb. 17, 1998: Most distant human object Aug. 1, 2012: Interstellar space entry Important Findings: Voyager 1 discovered 5 new moons (Thebe, Metis, Prometheus, Pandora and Atlas), and photographed Saturn’s moons: Titan, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, and Rhea. Titan was found to have liquid on the surface, and the presence of nitrogen, methane, and other hydrocarbons indicated a possibility for life friendly environment. Because of the close Titan flyby, the spacecraft was not directed to Uranus and Neptune, as was Voyager 2. A famous picture taken from Voyager 1 is the first "portrait" of our solar system as seen from far away: Voyager 1 revealed to us details about the volcanic activity of a very active moon of Jupiter called "Io": It is believed that Jupiter's strong gravity, and the elliptical orbit of the moon, is the energy source of the multiple active geological features of Io. Finally, Voyager 1 sent us important information about Jupiter's active atmosphere and discovered new rings in Saturn. Voyager 1 also reminds to us how easy is interstellar travel: once you have achieved the escape velocity there are no energy requirements in space! Even a spacecraft with a smart energy source, could achieve very high speeds even with a low but continuous thrust. From the human perspective, such interstellar trips would have meaning only if we could achieve velocities near the speed of light, since they would allow sufficient time dilation that would keep the astronauts alive for the duration of the journey. Such a trip would require a really intelligent energy source more than a truly advanced technology overall. The thrust would have to be low enough at all times though, otherwise the huge accelerations would kill the astronauts! Our guess is that by the time the travel towards an other galaxy will become technologically possible, humans will also have achieved advances in terms of artificial intelligence (it is a matter of time, that our brains will be programmed into a silicon computer), and extended lifespan, and thus the trip will be easy! After all a computer is much more elegant than a biological machine: it does require energy but it has much lower maintenance needs: There will be no need for oxygen, sleep, sex, food or physical exercise or even taking care of huge accelerations. An intelligent computer may hibernate forever and it can live forever! Even emotions themselves, although they might be regarded from some people as something that belongs to the sphere of higher mentality, these people are in fact wrong. The most developed creatures use their logic in place of their emotional reactions. I have always questioned myself what would entertain God. Perhaps the ideal intellectual happiness is in being able to understand the truth, and have the mental power to get rid of all bugs out of the brain that cause emotional distress. After all, all human misery is at the end of the day caused by ignorance, and not being able to understand the ultimate truth.

Since the very beginnings of the 20th century, American Physicist Robert Goddard noticed the possibility of accelerating electrically charged particles to very high velocities without the need for high temperatures. The term ’ion propulsion’ today refers to an engine which accelerates ions at very high speeds, (using a voltage difference). According to Newton’s third law this creates a ‘thrust’ towards the opposite direction. These ‘ion thrusters’ are an important novelty in space technology, with many advantages over conventional chemical rockets. An ion thruster relies on the same simple equation as any other rocket engine. The thrust (F) it produces is equal to the mass (m) of fuel moved times its acceleration (a). Thus F = ma. While conventional chemical rockets accelerate their fuels at 6,000 miles per hour, achieving more thrust requires more propellant, however accelerating that propellant requires even more propellant. An ion thruster's solution to this unpleasant cycle of adding too much mass to the spaceship, as it uses electricity to accelerate ions. It can accelerate ions at 60,000 miles per hour, thus achieving high thrust, with much less fuel. The biggest novelty of an ion thruster is its source of energy. Chemical rockets store energy in the chemicals, but ion thrusters work with electric energy, which can be taken from solar cells, which make the electricity for the electrostatic field that moves the ions. It is important to note, that the thruster will push the spaceship as hard as a piece of paper pushes a human hand. It will take one whole day to accelerate the craft as fast as it would accelerate after dropping in Earth's gravity for one second. After a few months of operation, that tiny force will speed the craft up by 8,000 mph. Spending only a few milligrams of fuel per second ion engines can operate over much longer periods of time than chemical rockets. However, ion propulsion cannot be used to launch a spacecraft from the earth’s surface; the secret is in the ability of ion space crafts to accumulate acceleration over months of ejecting ions. For missions outside the asteroid belt a nuclear power source, might be a better option (solar energy becomes weak enough at some point). An important aim of this article is to uncover the advantages of ion propulsion over the ordinary engines, using liquid fuels. The modern history of rockets starts at the early 20th century, with the famous attempts of the American physicist Robert Goddard, to launch rockets containing liquid fuels and oxygen. This was an innovative idea at the time, and many people thought he was mad. However even as early as 300BC Gunpowder-filled bamboo tubes were used for fireworks in China. Almost 1000 years later we can witness the use of military rockets in China. However nobody could imagine how would be possible to make a rocket move in space. In 1895 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, set the foundations of rocket theory by deriving the fundamental rocket equation. Goddard, applied that theory. He launched the first model rocket of a new age in 1926. Old, modern, and at least, the vast majority of science fiction rockets rely on the very elementary Newton’s third law. Chemical rockets were used in world War II by Wernher von Braun's team, and 15 years later, they were used to launch the first Earth’s satellite. Today of course the launch of chemical rockets is a matter of routine. A new page, in the history of space exploration and spaceships, is ion propulsion. The theoretical discussion that follows helps us to get an idea of how the principles of ion propulsion initiated and evolved and it prepares the ground for a more interesting development of the physics of ion propulsion. In 1906 Robert Goddard mentioned the possibility of accelerating electrically charged particles to very high velocities without the need for high temperatures. In Early 1920 Werner von Braun and Dr. Hermann Oberth considered seriously the possibility of electronic propulsion. Oberth proposed an “electric rocket.”In his book ‘Possibilities of Space Flight’ which was published in 1939, Oberth devoted a chapter to electric propulsion. In 1947 Werner von Braun told Stuhlinger: "Professor Oberth has been right with so many of his early proposals, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if we flew to Mars electrically.” 11 years later Stuhlinger presented a paper at the International Congress in Vienna with the title: “Possibilities of Electrical Space Ship Propulsion.” During his presentation, Stuhlinger discussed a proposal made by von Braun two years earlier, to use chemical propulsion to send a spaceship to Mars. In von Braun's proposal, Stuhlinger noted that the ratio of take-off weight to final weight after propellant consumption was 25-to-1. Stuhlinger argued that lighter-weight electric propulsion systems would make such planetary trips more feasible than they were with chemical propulsion. In April of 1958 Army Ballistic Missile Agency in Huntsville, Alabama initiated its first electrical propulsion contract. In 1960’s there are major advances in ion propulsion included multi-aperture grids, mercury vaporizers, long-life oxide main cathodes, plasma bridge neutralizers, and discharge chamber hollow cathodes. The major development programs included 5, 10, 20, 50 and 150 cm thrusters. In 1961 (August) Hughes Research Laboratory in Malibu, California, under contract with the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, demonstrated an ion engine. In December of 1962 Program 661A Test Code A – The first of three sub-orbital flight tests was launched of the Electric Propulsion Space Tests. Engine thrusting was not accomplished in this test. In July 1964, the Space Electric Rocket Test (SERT I) spacecraft was launched using a Scout launch vehicle. This flight experiment had an 8-cm-diameter cesium contact ion engine and a 10-cm-diameter mercury electron bombardment ion engine and was the first successful flight test of ion propulsion. One year later a SNAP 10 A nuclear power system was launched into a 1300-km orbit with a cesium ion engine as a secondary payload. Three years later two caesium-contact ion engines were launched aboard the ATS-4 spacecraft. This was the first successful orbital test of an ion engine. The same year ion propulsion was mentioned in Star Trek episode “Spock’s Brain.” In February 1970, the SERT II spacecraft was launched into a 1000-km-high polar orbit. In addition to diagnostic equipment and related ion 5 propulsion system hardware, the spacecraft had two identical 15 cm diameter, mercury ion engines and two power-processing units. In May 1974 the ATS-6 was launched. One of the ion engines operated for about one hour and the other for 92 hours. Three years later ion propulsion was used again as science fiction on the Twin Ion Engine (TIE) fighters (Star Wars movie). In 1990’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA Lewis partnered on the NASA Solar Electric Power Technology Applications Readiness (NSTAR) project. In 1997 (September) NSTAR test concluded after over 8,000 hours of operation. The next year Deep space 1 was launched. DS1 is the first spacecraft to use ion propulsion to reach another planetary body. Deep Space 1 tested all these advanced technologies together so that other missions wouldn't have to bear the costs of being first. The mission concluded three years later in 2001, after approaching two asteroids. The mission achieved a specific impulse of 1000-3000 seconds which is higher than the specific impulse of chemical spaceships by a factor of 10, and a Thrust of 92 milli-Newtons. Thrust is of course proportional to the acceleration of the spaceship, and ‘specific impulse’ is a special terminology which is used in rocket science. It can be defined as the impulse given to a spacecraft per unit weight of propellant used. It is dimensionally equivalent to the generated thrust divided by the propellant mass flow rate or weight flow rate. If mass is used as the unit of propellant, then specific impulse has units of velocity . If weight is used instead, then specific impulse has units of time. The better the propellant, the higher is the specific impulse. The engine worked for 678 days, a record at the time, which now belongs to the mission ‘Dawn’. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory decided to test the function of the NSTAR thruster more extensively- a flight spare thruster identical to one flown on the successful Deep Space 1 mission. This test was concluded on June 30, 2003, after 30,352 continuous hours of operation. In 2001 NASA's Office of Space Science selected Glenn Research Center to develop a next generation ion propulsion system called NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) system. In 2003 at the end of NEXT Phase 1, NASA's Glenn Research Center (GRC) had successfully demonstrated system level performance of an engineering model thruster, a power processing unit and a propellant management system at power levels in excess of 7.0 kW. Asteroid 1992 KD is also known as Asteroid Braille. On July 29, 1999 the spacecraft flew 26 kilometres away of the asteroid. The spacecraft's infrared sensor confirmed that the small asteroid is similar to Vesta , Braille was discovered in 1992. In April 2004 43 ignitions and over 6000 hours have been accumulated on a single unit of the Plasma Contactor Unit (PCU) which was developed by the Rocket dyne division of the Boeing Company to control charging of the International Space Station (ISS). In September 2007 Dawn spacecraft was launched. This is the first purely scientific mission to use ion propulsion.The Dawn spacecraft uses ion propulsion to get the additional velocity needed to reach Vesta once it leaves the Delta rocket. It also uses ion propulsion to spiral to lower altitudes on Vesta, to leave Vesta and cruise to Ceres and to spiral to a low altitude orbit at Ceres. Ion propulsion makes efficient use of the on board fuel by accelerating it to a velocity ten times that of chemical rockets. This efficiency is measured in terms of the specific impulse of the fuel (Isp). Dawn's engines have a specific impulse of 3100 s. While a chemical rocket on a spacecraft might have a thrust of up to 500 Newtons, Dawn's much smaller engine achieves an equivalent trajectory change by firing over a much longer period of time. There are several advantages of Xenon. The ion propulsion system uses electrical power to ionize and accelerate the propellant. The action of the ions leaving the thruster causes a reaction that pushes the spacecraft in the other direction. Although this system is extremely efficient, the thrust is very low. But the more massive the ion, the greater the thrust. Xenon, being a relatively massive atom, yields a higher (but still low!) thrust than many other candidate propellants. It is the most massive nonradioactive noble gas (outweighing helium, neon, argon, and krypton). Being nontoxic, it is easy and safe for engineers to work with. Because it is inert, the xenon atoms and ions that happen to make their way to sensitive spacecraft surfaces do not react chemically to degrade thermal, electrical, or optical properties. The xenon is relatively easy to store on board with conventional high pressure systems at typical spacecraft temperatures. The companies extract Xe from the atmosphere. When atmospheric nitrogen is liquefied, it contains a mixture of noble gases which are subsequently separated. Because there is such an enormous industry associated with nitrogen, the production of purified xenon is not as expensive as it would otherwise be. It seems therefore that after the successful mission of Deep Space 1, ion propulsion will be the future of space exploration. This is not surprising at all after all. Ion engines can eject ions over long periods of time and accumulate higher acceleration over time compared with a conventional rocket. As a matter of fact their specific impulse is very high. An ion engine accelerates ions using a voltage difference. Propellant (such as Xenon) enters from the left. A cathode emits electrons towards the same direction which knock the Xenon atoms, which in turn loose an electron and so positively charged xenon ions are created. These ions are then forced by gas pressure through holes in the positive grid. Then the electric field between the positive and negative grids accelerates the ions and sprays them out the back. The beam is neutralised by electrons. This happens in order to avoid the attraction of ions back to the negative grid, cancelling out the thrust. By ejecting electrons to the exhaust, a neutralisation of both the exhaust and the spaceship is achieved. Electrons carry little momentum and thus thrust is not affected. It is comprised of neutral gas molecules. There is very small radial field across the chamber, and the cathode can be a thermionic emitter. The electrons as they are accelerated, achieve typically energies of several tens of electron volts, which suffice to ionise the neutral Xenon atoms, by knocking them. To increase the path length of the electrons and ensure that they collide with as many Xenon atoms as possible, an axial magnetic field is generated, which forces them to move in a spiral path. This way ionisation becomes as much efficient as possible. In other words, the number of ions created related with the electron current, becomes maximum. The grids are separated by 1-2 mm, and a large potential differences, usually of order of 1000 volts. The ions gain energy in the strong electric field, and directed through the outer grid, they form the exhaust beam. Furthermore, in opposition with chemical rockets, a nozzle is not needed, since the motion of the ion beam, is very ordered and not chaotic, as in the case of chemical rockets. The thrust is exerted upon the grids, the grid is therefore transmitted to the whole body of the spacecraft. The equation above demonstrates how the current density J, as well as thrust depend only on the accelerating potential V and the grid distance d to each other, if enough ions can be created. If we increase the accelerating potential or decrease the grid separation the thrust can be increased, however, electrical breakdown between the grids puts an upper limit on this. Space charge limit sets an upper limit on thrust density to some Newtons/m^2 and so to generate higher thrusts, a larger thruster diameter is required. NASA’s Deep Space 1 was powered by a 30 cm diameter, 2 kW electron bombardment ion thruster having a specific Impulse of 3100 s. It achieved a beam current of 1.76 amps with a thrust of 92 mN but consumed only 12 kg of propellant during its entire mission. An advantage of ion thrusters is that a higher fraction of the input power is transmitted into kinetic energy of the exhaust than in a chemical rocket, because chemical rockets work as heat engines obeying the restrictive laws of thermodynamics. Ion propulsion Subsystems Ion propulsion systems comprise of the following five parts:  Power Source  Power processing unit  Propellant management system  Control Computer  Ion Thruster Low thrust Devices Except from ion thrusters there are also other categories of low thrust devices. These are: 1. Electrothermal devices, in these thrusters the exhaust is heated by some electrical process, then expanded through a suitable nozzle. Three sub-classes exist and these are different, in terms of the physical details of the propellant heating: Resistojets, devices where the heat is transmitted to the fuel from a solid surface, (i.e. a chamber wall) Arcjets, devices where the fuel is heated by an electric arc passing through it. An electric arc is an electric current, often strong, and luminous, in which electrons jump across a gap. Inductively and radiatively heated devices. High frequency radiation heats the fuel. 2. Electrostatic devices, there the exhaust is accelerated by direct application of electrostatic forces to ionized particles.Ion thrusters are in this category. 3. Electromagnetic devices. In these devices the fuel is accelerated under the simultaneous action of electric and magnetic fields.Following decades of scientific and technological research, there is rapid development since the decade of 1950s, and a large number of variations in the operation of electromagnetic thrusters, have been constructed. Possible permutations of the electromagnetic thrusters have been studied, both experimentally and theoretically, but through the years only a few of them, survived. It is worth mentioning, the most advanced of them:  The steady or quasi-steady magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thrusters  The Hall-current accelerators,  The pulsed plasma devices. 4.Space sails, which use radiation pressure from the Sun ,to accelerate. That is the use the pressure of photons and not the pressure of solar wind. Sunlight at a distance of 1 AU(150,000,000 km) exerts a force of 9 Newtons per square kilometer. 5.Beamed energy devices, which use a remote energy source, such as a ground or space based laser or microwave source, to receive power from, via a beam of electromagnetic radiation. Ion propulsion is clearly, a huge improvement in space exploration, and in the following years, it will improve significantly. Despite their very low thrust, ion thrusters today are clearly, the thrusters, with the highest specific impulse. The space charge limit, allows a maximum efficient current that can pass through the grids, limiting this way the thrust they can produce. Their advantage over conventional rockets is that they can operate for months accumulating acceleration and speed. We conclude that in principle they can be used successfully for interstellar travel, because of their economic fuel requirements.

The Sun is the star of the day, a nuclear furnace that converts every second 4 million tons of hydrogen into energy, while at the same time it fuses 600 million tones of hydrogen into helium. The composition of the Sun is 73% hydrogen and 25% helium. Modern studies, with instruments on Earth or with satellites in space (such as in orbit around the Earth or at the so called Lagrange points or even missions that have approached the Sun) have revealed to us some amazing secrets of this main sequence star. A major turning point was in the middle of the 19th century and the development of methods for the analysis of the solar spectrum (the beginning of Astrophysics). The Sun does not emit only visible light, but also radio waves, UV, infrared radiation as well as X-rays. The γ-rays which are produced inside the solar core from the nuclear fusion reaction, eventually reach the surface mainly as the less energetic radio waves, UV & infrared radiation, as they lose energy every time they collide with a particle. Below you can see an image of the magnetic field lines on the surface of the Sun.

The Cerebras "Wafer-Scale Engine" (CWS) is the largest chip ever built.

Voyager 2 spacecraft approaches Neptune, giving us the first significant data about this planet date: 25/08/1989. No other spacecraft has visited Neptune since. The essential information that we currently have for Neptune come from this landmark flyby of Voyager 2 with Neptune. Before encountering Neptune, Voyager 2 had also a close encounter with Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.

Albert Einstein, the man who invented the theory of general relativity, (the most successful theory of all time), spent much of his latter life trying to unify his own theory: general relativity with Maxwell's equations for electromagnetism. Ignoring the recent discovery of nuclear forces and the quantum mechanics, he had no successful results in his pioneering work towards unification. However, today the best physicists in the world have the same dream: There must be a comprehensible and singular big picture of the Universe: a single law of nature if you want. In 1929, Einstein published a paper on the idea of Unification. Perhaps it is not just his hair, and the unbelievable success of his theories, that make him still so famous today, but also the fact that he spend the whole rest of his life for the Ultimate Ideal of Unification (let us not forget the photoelectric effect and his other contributions to physics). In this paper, he mentions: “Roughly but truthfully, one might say: we not only want to understand how nature works, but we are also after the perhaps utopian and presumptuous goal of understanding why nature is the way it is and not otherwise.” Today, there is still a luck of a clear direction towards Unification, but most of the suggested theories are too complicated to be true in our opinion. After all, among the dozens of different theories which have been suggested, all of them originate from radically different perceptions of nature, and only one of them, at most, can be correct. Complicated theories with at least 13 extra spatial dimensions might be correct, but never fail to remind us of the at least 13 extra epicycles of the early geocentric models. Today LHC, the large hadron collider, has not detected anything yet, but this is due to the incomparably higher energies that correspond to quantum gravity. Self consistent mathematical theories of quantum gravity today remain our main playground, such as string theory. However, both the theory of general relativity and the theory of quantum mechanics are most probably based on entirely wrong perceptions about the way that nature works, despite their good predictions. Human creativity here comes to play a major role in forming a radically new picture of nature, that will explain both quantum effects and gravity. In science, the success of different theories, has hardly depended on the human efforts, but rather on the passage of time. It was impossible for Newton to publish the general theory of relativity. In the same way, it is not possible for us today to know the correct theory of quantum gravity. It is also impossible for us to know what will be the next piece of the puzzle that will help us to see the big picture in the future. With this mindset, it would probably be more wise, instead of formulating cosmological models that are 1000 years ahead of our time, to look for the accumulation of small advantages that will allow the next generations to build upon them. We certainly don't want to have the same fate with the ancient Greeks and their strong belief for a geocentric model, e belief that remained for dozens of centuries afterwards. However, if they were much more intelligent they would had initiated the slow development of methods to measure the parallax of distant stars for example, which would have ruled out a geocentric model.

A massive online scandal. 1 million fingertips became available for malicious intentions. A security tool called Biostar 2, has been hacked and the data have been leaked online. 23 GB of data with 30 million records were found exposed online. They include 1 million fingerprints. Suprema runs Biostar 2, a biometric lock system controlling access and surveillance in secured buildings. The leak was discovered by Israeli researchers Noam Rotem and Ran Locar and the cybersecurity firm vpnMentor. TIMELINE OF THE LEAK Date discovered: 5th August 2019 Date vendors contacted: 7th August 2019 Date of Action: 13th August, it was fixed. THE LEAKED DATA INCLUDE: Access to client admin panels, dashboards, back end controls, and permissions Fingerprint data Facial recognition information and images of users Unencrypted usernames, passwords, and user IDs Records of entry and exit to secure areas Employee records including start dates Employee security levels and clearances Personal details, including employee home address and emails Businesses’ employee structures and hierarchies Mobile device and OS information In the "wrong" hands these data could wreak havoc of the lives of the victims. Of course, once they are stolen, unlike passwords, fingerprints are of permanent nature. This makes fingerprint data theft even more concerning. Fingerprints are replacing typed passwords on many consumer items, like phones. Most fingerprint scanners on consumer goods are unencrypted, so when a hacker develops technology to replicate your fingerprint, they will gain access to all the private information such as messages, photos, and payment methods stored on your device. What Suprema did wrong? In the first place they were saving unencrypted information. In addition their databases had poor protection. Many passwords were found to be weak such as: "123456789", "password" or "abcd1234". The company should had followed a more rigorous safety plan in general, in order to protect the customers. Criminals with access to the leaked data could gain access to sensitive areas or even further sensitive personal information of the victims.

Recent research shows that the intrinsic F18L mutation in the mitochondrial DNA of some glioblastoma - (GBM) tumour cells alters the energy production mechanism of the cells. The cells become 64% more sensitive to clomipramine, an anti-depressant drug. The good news is that the mutation can be detected by a simple blood test. The researchers mention:  “ Glioblastoma is the most common and malignant primary brain tumour in adults, with a dismal prognosis. This is partly due to considerable inter- and intra-tumour heterogeneity. Changes in the cellular energy-producing mitochondrial respiratory chain complex (MRC) activities are a hallmark of glioblastoma relative to the normal brain, and associate with differential survival outcomes. Our discovery paves the way for clinical trials to include patients with F18L, as they may have a better chance of benefiting from clomipramine. After the trial, patients can be divided into subgroups e.g. with and without F18L in order to clarify the results: this is known as patient stratification. The benefit is that if you run a trial on 100 people and only 20% respond positively to the drug it might make the trial look relatively ineffective. But, if you know that everyone in that 20% had the F18L mutation, this means the drug works well for this type of patient. This is the foundation on which the future of personalised medicine is being built.” Clomipramine was discovered in 1964 by the Swiss drug manufacturer Ciba-Geigy, and is currently sold under the brand name Anafranil. Clomipramine is not without side effects which can include dry mouth, constipation, loss of appetite, sleepiness, weight gain, sexual dysfunction, and trouble urinating. However it is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines, and is prescribed today for a number of wide uses such as: antidepressant, sleep paralyis, premature ejaculation and chronic pain.

According to recent research from the Imperial College Research Centre: "Preliminary findings at our lab show that metformin combined with current novel therapeutic strategies identified in the lab kills patient derived brain tumor cells more effectively. We believe it does this by altering metabolism to hinder the growth of the tumor cells. We still need to do more work but these are very promising early results.” Cancer cells depend on glucose metabolism and hence metformin which is commonly used to treat diabetes type 2, has the potential to assist in lowering the glucose and therefore to starve cancer cells. According to many independent experiments and published papers metformin has been shown to inhibit glioblastomas growth both in vitro and in vivo, alone or in combination with chemotherapy and radiation. Metformin is soluble in water and has the following chemical structure: Metformin was initially developed as an antiviral drug, but had poor results for this purpose. It was not until the 1950’s that Metformin was studied for diabetes management. In 1994, it was approved by FDA, and it was brought to the market by BMS on March 1995. It is not metabolized in the body, and 90% of it, is excreted with urine. The most serious side effect of Metformin is lactic acidosis (if there are any renal problems). However, Metformin itself does not cause kidney damage nor does it cause lactic acidosis. In 2008, a study suggested that Metformin could reduce the risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Famous scientist James Watson revealed during a lecture that he is taking metformin as a preventative measure for cancer.

A drug containing liquid aspirin, triacetin and saccharin, is currently is being researched by Dr Richard Hill and his team for its potential brain tumor therapeutic effects. Dr Hill's (pictured above) research has shown that the drug, known by the code name IP1867B, breaks down the defences of tumours making them more susceptible to powerful immunotherapy drugs and can carry the other more powerful medications across the blood brain barrier. Conventional brain cancer therapies are not powerful enough due to the tumour’s ability to hide from and develop resistance to the treatment, excessive side effects, the treatment not being clinically effective and the lack of penetration through the blood brain barrier. The new drug was shown to avoid these difficulties. In a new study, published in the highly-rated journal,  Cancer Letters , IP1867B was shown to reduce the size of adult high-grade glioma brain tumours in a mouse model. Dr Hill mentions: “To produce a completely new drug takes many years and is very expensive. By focusing our efforts on testing novel formulation techniques, we can move closer to a treatment more quickly than would otherwise be possible. We will continue to urgently investigate which drugs will combine most effectively and safely with IP1867B, to improve these results even further and reduce the need for long-term use. There is still much work to be done, but many reasons to be excited for future studies.” Irrespective of the ultimate effectiveness of the particular drug, let us all support brain tumor research with every possible way we can, such as with donations or by raising awareness. A brain tumor is probably one of the worst nightmare scenarios for an individual and for the society: Less than 20% of those diagnosed with a brain tumour survive for more than five years, as compared with 50% for all cancers. We must all take immediate action and support the medical brain tumour research.

A new spectacular discovery. The black hole must be satisfied after such a good meal. This is what the experiments of Virgo and Ligo seem to suggest. As so often happens in science, more research is required before we can be certain! Black holes and neutron stars are both forming in the Universe, after a supernova explosion. The difference is in the mass of the collapsing core of the dying star. In particular, a black hole always satisfies the Schwarzschild equation, which means that for a given radius there exists a critical mass. A neutron star is also an ultra-compressed form of matter, to the extend that the electrons are forced to move away from their nuclei, and hence the nuclei gain a lot of free space, forming an extremely dense object. A neutron star has 2 or 3 times the mass of the Sun, but its radius is only about 20 km. A black hole can be described more accurately as an extremely compact object, of an unknown state of matter, rather than as a point mass of infinite density. No known force in nature can resist the collapse of matter under a strong enough gravity! Perhaps, we don't understand enough about quantum gravity and what are the truly smallest particles of matter in the Universe, as well as their behaviour when they are forced to go very close to each other, under such a strong gravity. When a black hole collides with a star, this usually happens after the pair follows a spiral orbit, or after dancing a deadly cosmic tango that may last thousands of years. Reference: https://gracedb.ligo.org/superevents/S190814bv/