Since 2013, Backblaze has published statistics and insights based on the hard drives in our data center. You’ll find links to those reports below. We also publish the data underlying these reports, so that anyone can reproduce them. You’ll find an overview of this data and the download links further down this page.
Source: Hard Drive Test Data – Determining Failure Rates and More
A Chinese group has become the first to inject a person with cells that contain genes edited using the revolutionary CRISPR–Cas9 technique.
On 28 October, a team led by oncologist Lu You at Sichuan University in Chengdu delivered the modified cells into a patient with aggressive lung cancer as part of a clinical trial at the West China Hospital, also in Chengdu.
Earlier clinical trials using cells edited with a different technique have excited clinicians. The introduction of CRISPR, which is simpler and more efficient than other techniques, will probably accelerate the race to get gene-edited cells into the clinic across the world, says Carl June, who specializes in immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and led one of the earlier studies.
“I think this is going to trigger ‘Sputnik 2.0’, a biomedical duel on progress between China and the United States, which is important since competition usually improves the end product,” he says.
Source: CRISPR gene-editing tested in a person for the first time
AI Experiments is a showcase for simple experiments that let anyone play with artificial intelligence and machine learning in hands-on ways, through pictures, drawings, language, music, and more.
Source: A.I. Experiments
At a Colorado aircraft hangar, the two firms unveiled the triple-engined XB-1 prototype, a one-third sized prototype of the airliner they hope will be able to blast from London to New York in three hours and 15 minutes – air traffic control allowing.
“60 years after the dawn of the jet age, we’re still flying at 1960s speeds,” said Blake Scholl, chief executive officer and founder of Boom.
“Concorde’s designers didn’t have the technology for affordable supersonic travel, but now we do. Today, we’re proud to unveil our first aircraft as we look forward to first flight late next year.”
Boom, a product of the Y Combinator startup factory, claims that with advanced materials, more efficient engines that don’t require an afterburner that chews fuel, and a more efficient wing design, it can make supersonic travel a commercial reality for the cost of today’s business class – around $5,000 for a return transatlantic trip.
The firm envisages 170-foot long airliners with 60-foot wingspans that will seat 55 passengers, one on each side of the aisle. The finished craft will have a range of 4,500 nautical miles (long enough for New York or Washington to London), but Boom says it’ll be designed for refueling for trips with twice that range.
Source: Virgin Galactic and Boom unveil Concorde 2.0 tester to restart supersonic travel
