Month: April 2019

Enlarge (credit: Alpha Six)

Traditionally, Microsoft would use the release of a new operating system to bump the minimum hardware requirements that the software needs. With Windows 10 being the "last" version of Windows, Microsoft is using the major updates to bump specs. The May 2019 update, version 1903, takes the opportunity to do just this.

Previously, 32-bit Windows had a minimum storage requirement of 16GB, and 64-bit Windows needed 20GB. Both of these were extremely tight, leaving little breathing room for actual software, but technically this was enough space for everything to work. That minimum has now been bumped up: it's 32GB for both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows.

Part of this growth may be due to a new behavior that Microsoft is introducing with version 1903. To ensure that future updates install without difficulty, 7GB of disk space are permanently reserved for the install process. While this will avoid out-of-disk errors when updating, it represents a substantial reduction in usable space on these low-storage systems.

Enlarge / Shell has halted the controversial oil drilling in the Chukchi Sea, citing the marginal discovery of oil was "not enough to continue the search for the foreseeable" future. In a statement on September 28, the company said, "Shell will now cease further exploration activity in offshore Alaska for the foreseeable future." (credit: Photo by Orjan F. Ellingvag/Corbis via Getty Images)

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal this week, the Department of the Interior's new secretary, David Bernhardt, said that the Trump administration would indefinitely suspend its plans to expand offshore oil drilling in the Arctic and several areas in the Atlantic ocean. The Secretary did not appear to comment on whether the administration would move forward with offshore drilling in areas outside of those regions.

The decision not to pursue lease sales in the Arctic and some areas of the Atlantic is a significant one for the Interior Department (DOI) and the Trump administration, which promised to roll back drilling moratoriums that the Obama administration had imposed.

The plan to open up Arctic and Atlantic waters to offshore oil drilling hit a snag in late March, when a federal judge in Alaska ruled that the Trump administration could not open up federal waters to oil and gas extraction after the Obama administration closed those waters. The Obama administration relied on a 1953 law called the "Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act" (OCSLA) to close the waters to drilling. That law allows sitting presidents to close waters, but it says nothing about the president's power to re-open waters. Originally, Congress opened the federal waters in question to lease sales, so the thought is that Congressional approval would be required again to reverse former President Obama's closures.

An atomic clock based on a fountain of atoms. (credit: National Science Foundation)

One of light’s most redeeming features is that it can be guided in optical fibers with very little change to its properties. In terms of quantum information processing and sensing, this is important: you stick a bit of information into an optical fiber, and you will get that bit out the other end with very high probability. 

Matter is not so nice to work with, but the sensitivity that makes matter difficult also makes it promising for sensing applications and quantum computation. Researchers have recently demonstrated that matter can be guided down an optical fiber without losing its quantum state, opening up the possibility of combining the best properties of light and matter. 

A train track of quantum states

I think the atomic clock best demonstrates the benefits of moving quantum states around. In an atomic clock, we shoot atoms upward in a vacuum to measure the passage of time. The end result is measurement accuracy down to about 10 attoseconds (10-18s).

Enlarge / NASA conducts a full-power, full-duration 650-second RS-25 engine test on the A-1 Test Stand at Stennis Space Center. (credit: NASA)

For much of March and April, in response to a desire from the Trump administration to accelerate development of the Space Launch System rocket, NASA has been looking at ways to launch the large booster in 2020 instead of further delaying it. Among the options has been skipping a "green run" test of the rocket's core stage—an all-up firing of the rocket's four main engines for the full duration of an ascent to orbit.

NASA has been preparing for this test for the better part of a decade, and according to the agency it has spent about $230 million to renovate and modify the B-2 test stand at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi for this purpose. These modifications included special equipment required for the SLS rocket's green run test and future testing of the Exploration Upper Stage.

During this test the rocket is clamped down, and its firing marks an important step to validating that the rocket will perform as anticipated during an actual launch. However, transporting the core stage to the test stand, installing it, testing it, firing it, and then moving it again would take an estimated six to nine months. By skipping the test, NASA could have shaved that much time from the development of a rocket that is already more than two years late, possibly allowing the agency to keep the rocket to its latest launch date of mid-2020.

Enlarge / A young child, seated in a bed in a clinical setting, who had presented with an extensive rash, which had developed due to a measles infection. The image was captured on day-3 of the rash, which is usually when the rash manifests, beginning on the face, then adopting a more generalized distribution. (credit: CDC)

This year’s tally of measles cases is now the largest seen this century—and it’s only April. As several outbreaks continue to rage around the country with no end in sight, officials fear the disease will once again take root, undoing a public health triumph that was decades in the making.

As of 3pm on Wednesday, April 24, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed 695 measles cases across 22 states. That is the highest number of measles cases since the milestone date of 2000, when health officials declared measles eliminated (meaning that there was no longer continuous transmission of the viral illness in the US, though international travelers can continue to import the disease). It’s also the highest number of cases seen since 1994, when there were 958 cases.

The year 1994 is also a milestone. It marked the start of the federally funded “Vaccines for Children” program, which provides vaccines at no cost to children whose parents or guardians may not otherwise be able to afford them. From there, annual measles cases dropped precipitously—448 in 1996, 138 in 1997, and down to a triumphant low of 86 in 2000, the year of the elimination declaration.

Enlarge / Cox's website advertises the Cox Elite Gamer service. (credit: Cox)

Cox cable is beginning to charge Internet users an extra $15 a month for a service that reduces lag in online gaming.

Cox's new offer sparked concerns that the ISP is violating net neutrality principles. But the service wouldn't have violated net neutrality rules even if they hadn't been repealed, because Cox is merely reselling a third-party service and not making any changes to its broadband network.

Dubbed "Cox Elite Gamer," the service is a Cox-branded version of Wtfast, which can alternatively be purchased directly from Wtfast and used with other ISPs. Cox says the service "routes your game activity through a dedicated gaming network to provide a reduced latency path between your computer and the game servers of select online games."