Month: October 2016

Enlarge / The back is very shiny, and a fingerprint magnet.

The Galaxy Note 7 will probably go down as the most disastrous phone launch in history. Shortly after launch, reports started rolling in that the devices were exploding, causing minor injuries to customers and burning down cars. Sales were halted, and 2.5 million devices were recalled. After a retooling period for the Note 7, "defective" devices were exchanged and sales resumed... and then reports started coming in that the devices were still exploding. A second recall has been started, and the Galaxy Note 7 has been declared dead. Samsung is even sending out ceramic-lined fireproof coffins for returns.

Everyone is starting to wonder how we got to this point, and reports are rolling in from across the Internet.

For the first recall, Samsung has admitted that its subsidiary, Samsung SDI, was to blame. Citing CSPC Chairman Elliot Kaye, Bloomberg said the "batteries made by Samsung SDI had been built slightly too large for the compartment in the phone. Installing them had crimped the corner of the batteries, causing them to short circuit and overheat," while The New York Times says that "plates inside the SDI battery were too close to each other near its rounded corners, making it vulnerable to a short circuit."

Enlarge / President Barack Obama delivers a speech at the Operations and Checkout Building at NASA Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on Thursday, April 15, 2010. (credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Given how far NASA lies down the food chain of White House priorities, it's always welcome when a president engages in a discussion of space policy. And that's what President Obama did on Tuesday when he authored an op-ed that appeared on CNN.com and called for America to take a "giant leap" by sending humans to Mars in the 2030s.

There wasn't much new in the president's call to action, as it wasn't all that different from a space policy speech he delivered in 2010. The president said then at Kennedy Space Center, "by the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. And a landing on Mars will follow." The similarity of his words, spoken six years apart, gives us a chance to judge his administration's space policy, and the verdict is pretty straightforward: Obama has set NASA and the United States on a course to Mars.

It is an easy thing to say "We are going to Mars," however, and a far more difficult thing to do it. In reality, Obama has put NASA on an unsustainable pathway to Mars given NASA's current resources and approach, and he is leaving the hard work of actually getting to Mars to his successors. In other words, right now, NASA is on a journey to Mars in name only.

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Apple isn't alone in taking advantage of the US tax system. Facebook also established an overseas subsidiary in Ireland largely for tax purposes—using what is known as the "Double Irish" technique—and named Dublin its base for business outside North America. But the Internal Revenue Service claims Facebook undervalued the move, and the IRS wants the California company to pay $1.7 billion (£1.4 billion) in taxes, plus interest, for the year 2010 and possibly subsequent years.

Facebook, however, told the IRS late Tuesday in a court filing that it shouldn't have to pay. It's a tax fight likely to fuel the debate over tax loopholes, which have become a hot-button topic in the presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

The social-networking site asked a US Tax Court to reverse the IRS' conclusion that Facebook undervalued property when it was transferred to Facebook Ireland Holdings Ltd. Not including intellectual property, Facebook assumed a value of roughly $5.8 billion; the IRS claimed nearly $14 billion.

(credit: Sanofi Pasteur)

Zika virus, transmitted by mosquitos and sexual contact, causes fevers, rashes, headaches, and, most concerning, microcephaly in babies born to infected mothers. The current outbreak of Zika in the Americas has left us struggling to find ways to contain the virus. Unfortunately, the actual dynamics of infection, replication, and shedding of this virus are poorly understood. A recent paper published in Nature Medicine identifies some of the ways in which Zika interacts with its hosts.

The authors of this study infected 28 rhesus macaques and eight cynomolgus macaques using two different strains of the Zika virus, tracking the dynamics of the virus within blood, tissues, cerebrospinal fluid, and mucosal secretions. They found that both strains of Zika peaked in the blood within the first week of infection, with no significant differences between males and females.

The study also showed that all animals had significantly elevated body temperatures a day after infection and that they remained significantly elevated for the entire first week of infection.