This Security Wall Will Turn Your Smart Car Hack-Proof

                Scientists have created a security protocol to protect smart cars – equipped with GPS, Bluetooth and internet connections – from being hacked. A car can be fully controlled by the hackers if it is not protected. Researchers also built an experimental environment that simulates communication system in a smart car, which allow the security protocol to be tested through simulations. The research focused on protection of the Controller Area Network (CAN), an internal communication system in vehicles. They are proposing to add a layer of security, so if an unauthorized person accesses it they still would not be able to control your vehicle. The security protocol protects CAN in two ways. Firstly, it authenticates message sent through the network by creating an authentication code. This code allows nodes on the network to differentiate between a valid message and an attacker’s message. The second feature protects against replay attacks, when a hacker attempts to breach the network by repeatedly sending messages. The protocol uses a times tamp to calculate when the network last received message.

Better And Safer Painkiller than Morphine Soon

                Scientists unveiled a synthetic drug on 18 August that appears to neutralize pain as effectively as morphine but without side effects that make opioids so dangerous and addictive. The big data methods used by the researchers also open up a promising avenue in drug innovation. In experiments with mice, the new compound – identified after screening “trillions” of candidates – activated a known molecular pathway in the brain that triggers pain suppression. But unlike morphine and prescription drugs such as oxycodone or oxycontin, it did not switch on a second pathway that can slow or block normal breathing.

                Respiratory suppression caused by opioids results in some 30,000 deaths every year in the United States alone, where opioid use and abuse has taken on epidemic proportions. Nor did the new drug – dubbed PZM21 – produce addiction in the lab mice, which get hooked on morphine and pharmaceutical painkillers as easily as humans. In experiments, the rodents showed no preference between a cubicle in which they had been administered PZM21 or one in which they received a neutral saline solution. PZM21, the researchers summed up, offers “long-lasting analgesia coupled to apparent elimination of respiratory depression.” A third advantage of the new compound is that it does not cause constipation.

NASA Lauched First Asteroid Sample Return Mission

                NASA is set to launch its first mission to return pristine samples of an asteroid to Earth, which will study how planets formed and how life began. The finding may also improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth. The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-Rex) spacecraft will travel to the near Earth asteroid Bennu and bring a sample back to Earth for intensive study. Launch was scheduled for September 8 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The 2,110-Kilogramme fully-fueled spacecraft will launch aboard and Atlas V 411 rocket during a 34-day launch period that begins September 8, and reach Bennu in 2018. After a careful survey of Bennu to characterize the asteroid and locate the most promising sample sited, OSIRIS-Rex will collect between 60 to 2,000 grams of surface material with its robotic arm and return the sample to Earth via a detachable capsule in 2023

Soon, Your Mobile Could Talk To Your Contact Lenses

                Scientists, including some of Indian origin, have developed a new method of communication that may allow power constrained devices such as brain implants, contact lenses and credit cards to ‘talk’ to smart phones and watches. The “inter-scatter communication” works by converting Bluetooth signals in Wi-Fi transmissions over the air. Using only reflections, an inter-scatter device such as a smart contact lens converts Bluetooth signals from a smartwatch, for example, into Wi-Fi transmissions that can be picked up by a smartphone. Wireless connectivity for implanted devices can transform how we manage chronic diseases. For example, a contact lens could monitor a diabetic blood sugar level in tears and send notifications to the phone when the blood sugar level goes down. Due to their size and location within the body, these smart contact lenses are too constrained by power demands to send data using conventional wireless transmissions.

The team has demonstrated for the first time that these types of power limited devices can “talk” to others using standard Wi-Fi communication. The system relies solely on mobile devices commonly found with users to generate Wi-Fi signals using 10,000 times less energy than conventional methods. The team process relies on a communication technique called backscatter, which allows devices to exchange information simply by reflection existing signals. Because the new technique enables inter-technology communication, the team calls it “inter-scattering”. Inter-scatter communication uses the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or ZigBee radios embedded in common mobile devices like smartphones, watches, laptops, tablets and headsets, to serve as both source and receivers for these reflected signals.

Now, Your Body Odour Can Fatally Trap Mosquitoes

                A new type of mosquito trap running on solar electricity and using human odour as bait has cut the insect population by 70% on a malaria-ridden island in Kenya. The three year study, conducted by scientists from Netherlands, along with Kenyan and Swiss scientists, also found 30% fewer malaria victims in houses that had traps than in those that did not. Although the traps appeared quite effective at lowering mosquito populations, they had some significant drawbacks. Because they need power form solar panels, they are relatively expensive. Still, the panes appealed to residents who could also use them to power a light bulb or charge a cell phone.

                Also the traps – which resemble lampshades and hang just outside the house – lured in Anopheles funestus mosquitoes, the most important malaria vector on Rusinga Island in Lake Victoria, where the test was conducted. But they did not attract Anopheles gambiae or Anopheles arabiensis, which are much more important malaria vectors in most of Africa, where more than 400,000 children die of the disease each year.

Also, the traps needed regular rebaiting with a blend of five chemical constituents of human odour along with a chemical that mimicks carbon dioxide plume created by breath. Mosquito traps releasing carbon dioxide are available in the US, but they can cost hundreds of dollars; can sometimes require propane tanks, electricity or dry ice; and may not be effective. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently tested simple bucket traps that caught egg-laying females by using water and hay as bait and sticky paper to kill.

Discovered Closest Ever 'Second Earth'

                Scientists might have found the closest ever candidate for another Earth that could support life. The new found planet orbits around a now well-investigated star in Proxima Centauri, near us, according to reports. It is similar to Earth and could support life, it is claimed. The researchers that found the planet are expected to show it off at the end of this month. But until then they are saying nothing about the revolutionary find. One report said the planet will be the closest ‘second Earth’ ever found. The Proxima Centauri system, which includes our solar system.

The still nameless planet is believed to be Earth-like and orbits at a distance to Proxima Centauri that could allow it to have liquid water on its surface – an important requirement for the emergence of life. The report didn’t give any mode details on the planet itself. NASA revealed a second Earth to much fanfare last year. That planet was called Kepler 452b, and is just 60% larger than Earth and in many other ways is almost identical to our planet.

But since it is so far away – 1400 light years – the chance of ever getting there or learning much more about it is limited. The new discovery is far, far nearer, at just 4.24 light years from us. But that still makes it too far away to actually visit with today’s space technology. But it means that we will be able to learn far more about the planet than we could about further away ones.

New Osteoporosis Drug Could Help Prevent Fractures.

                A large clinical trial of new osteoporosis drug found that it stimulates bone growth and prevents fractures at least as well as the only other such drug on market. The new drug, expected to win approval from federal regulators, would offer another much-needed treatment for people who have a disease that weakens bones and often leads to years of pain, disability and early death. Experts agree that new drug is urgently needed for this debilitation disease. People with osteoporosis have bones that are fragile and break easily. Bone is naturally lost with age. But osteoporosis is an extreme, abnormal bone loss that can cause devastating fractures, particularly of the spine and hip.The new drug looks promising, according to the clinical trial conducted by Radius. The trial compared the new drug, abaloparatide, with a placebo and with the only other bone building drug on the market. The new drug is a derivative of hormone that stimulate bone growth and it fill holes in osteoporotic bone appeared to fill faster.