In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology and life science news:
- Stephen Hawking goes looking for ET
- Cheating website Ashley Madison is hacked
- SpaceX says a strut failure doomed a rocket
- A strong dollar hurts Novartis
The details:
- Hawking’s ET search
The search for extraterrestrial life received a major boost Monday with the launch of an ambitious $100 million program, backed by famed physicist Stephen Hawking and tech billionaire Yuri Milner.
Combining unprecedented computing capacity with the world’s most powerful telescopes, Hawking and the Russian-born Milner seek to intensify the so far fruitless search for life beyond the planet Earth.
It is a coordinated plan to use the latest scientific methods to solve one of mankind’s enduring riddles: Are we alone?
Hawking, who speaks using a computer-generated voice due to the effects of motor neuron disease, explained the reason for the project: “We are alive. We are intelligent. We must know.”
Milner, who made a fortune through investments in companies like Facebook, said the power of Silicon Valley technology and innovation would be used.
“The scope of our search will be unprecedented: a million nearby stars, the galactic center, the entire plane of the Milky Way and 100 nearby galaxies,” Milner told a packed press conference at the Royal Society in London.
Organizers say the “Breakthrough Initiatives” project, also endorsed by other prominent British scientists, is the biggest ever scientific search for alien life. It includes a “listening” program — the effort to analyze vast amounts of radio signals in search of signs of life — and a “messaging” program that will include $1 million in prizes for digital messages that best represent the planet Earth.
The messages will not be sent, however, in part because some scientists — including Hawking — fear messages sent into space could possibly spur aggressive actions by alien races.
It will be supported by the 100-meter Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia in the United States and the 64-meter Parkes Telescope in New South Wales, Australia.
- Ashley Madison hacked
The parent company of Ashley Madison, a matchmaking website for cheating spouses, says it was hacked and that the personal information of some of its users was posted online.
In addition, the person or persons behind the attack are threatening to release all of the site’s personal information — including its members’ sexual fantasies and financial information — if the company doesn’t take Ashley Madison offline, according to a prominent security blog.
Toronto-based Avid Life Media Inc. says it has had the hackers’ posts — which included snippets of personal information — taken down and has hired a technology security firm. The company and law enforcement agencies are investigating.
The breach was first reported late Sunday by Brian Krebs of KrebsonSecurity, a website that focuses on cybersecurity. Ashley Madison, whose slogan is “Life is short. Have an affair,” purports to have 37 million members.
The hacking follows the May breach of the dating website Adult FriendFinder, which involved the theft of names, email addresses and information about the sexual orientation or habits of up to 4 million of that site’s members.
According to Krebs, the hacker or hackers, in the Ashley Madison breach identified as “The Impact Team,” posted large caches of data from the Ashley Madison site, claiming to have compromised user databases, financial records and other information.
- SpaceX cites strut failure
SpaceX suspects a 2-foot steel strut snapped inside its rocket and led to last month’s launch accident.
The company’s founder and chief executive, Elon Musk, said Monday that hundreds of these struts had flown many times before without any problem. But two minutes into the June 28 launch, one of the struts in the second stage of the unmanned Falcon 9 rocket likely broke loose.
The strut was holding down a high-pressure helium bottle in the liquid oxygen tank. If the strut snapped as engineers believe, according to Musk, the bottle would have shot to the top of the tank at high speed, dooming the rocket and its Dragon supply ship for the International Space Station.
It was the third lost shipment for the orbiting lab in eight months. Russia has resumed deliveries, while SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp., NASA’s contracted suppliers, remain grounded.
Musk stressed at a news conference that these are preliminary results. He also noted that the Dragon could have saved itself, via parachutes, if the right software had been on board.
He declined to say when the California-based company might attempt another launch, noting the strut issue should push out the flights by maybe just a few months.
- Novartis reports earnings
Swiss-based pharmaceutical giant Novartis’ second-quarter net income dropped 32 percent over the same quarter last year, brought down primarily by poor performance from associated companies and negative effects of a strong U.S. dollar, the company said Tuesday
Net income was $1.856 billion, down from $2.723 billion in the same quarter in 2014. Net sales were down 5 percent to $12.694 billion and earnings per share from continuing operations dropped to $0.77 from $1.11 last year.
Nevertheless, CEO Joseph Jimenez said the company had a strong quarter for innovation with the U.S. approval and launch of two new drug products — heart failure drug Entresto and multiple sclerosis therapy drug Glatopa — and confirmed its full-year guidance.
Group sales are expected to grow by mid-single digits and operating income is expected to grow ahead of sales at a high-single-digit rate, Novartis has said.
“We are confident we will deliver on our priorities for the year,” Jimenez said.
Novartis said its core group’s net income was down 8 percent to $3.074 billion but would have been up 5 percent in constant currencies.
If the U.S. dollar maintains its mid-July strength for the rest of the year, it will contribute to a 9 percent drop in sales and 13-14 percent on core operating income, the company said.
