In today’s Bulldog wrapup of technology and science news:

  • Yearlong Mars simulation nears end on Mauna Loa (plus video update)
  • Twitter to let all users filter tweets for higher ‘quality’
  • Ohio Turnpike may soon see self-driving testing
  • Zika researchers seeking volunteers willing to be infected 

The details:

  • Yearlong Mars simulation nears end on Mauna Loa

Six scientists are close to wrapping up a year of near isolation in a Mars simulation on a Hawaii mountain.

The scientists are housed in a dome on Mauna Loa and can go outside only in spacesuits, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported (http://bit.ly/2b9NTgt).

They manage limited resources while conducting research and working to avoid personal conflicts.

Communication is delayed the 20 minutes, the length it would take to relay messages from Mars.

(Watch a video update at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnuHwQrf_9A )

Kim Binsted, principal investigator for the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, said this simulation is the second-longest of its kind after a mission that lasted 520 days in Russia.

“They’re doing OK as far as we can tell,” Binsted said of the scientists.

Previous simulations in the Mauna Loa dome have lasted four to eight months.

Mauna Loa soil is similar to what would be found on Mars. The area’s high elevation means almost no plant growth.

NASA funded the study run through the University of Hawaii.

The scientists will have access to fresh produce and other foods not available to them in the dome when the simulation ends Aug. 28.

“They are clamoring to get into the ocean,” Binsted said. “I think they will enjoy having a beer as well.”

An eight-month simulation starts in January.

  • Twitter to let all users filter tweets for higher ‘quality’

Twitter is making a “quality filter” available to all users, allowing them to hide tweets that contain threats, appear to be automated or spammy.

The feature was previously only available to users with “verified” accounts, which are typically celebrities, public figures or journalists, and who can be identified by a blue checkmark next to the username.

The company said in a blog post Thursday that the filter does not hide content fromusers that a person is following or has interacted with on Twitter.

Users will also have the ability to only see notifications from accounts they follow on the service. This might help people, for example, who don’t want to see a barrage of abusivetweets directed at them. But it won’t actually delete the tweets themselves.

The announcement comes a month after “Saturday Night Live” and “Ghostbusters” star Leslie Jones publicly called on Twitter to do more to curb harassment on the platform.

  • Ohio Turnpike may soon see self-driving testing

Ohio’s toll road, a heavily traveled connector between the East Coast and Chicago, is moving closer to allowing the testing of self-driving vehicles.

Testing is likely to begin within 12 months, and possibly before the end of the year, the Ohio Turnpike’s executive director told The Associated Press. Officials overseeing the roadway have spent more than a year looking at the possibilities.

Ohio is among several states competing to play a role in the testing and research of autonomous vehicles, which is advancing at light speed.

  • Zika researchers seeking volunteers willing to be infected

Wanted: Volunteers willing to be infected with the Zika virus for science.

It may sound bizarre, but researchers are planning just such a study — this winter, when mosquitoes aren’t biting — to help speed development of much-needed Zika vaccines.

The quest for a vaccine began less than a year ago as Brazil’s massive outbreak revealed that Zika, once dismissed as a nuisance virus, can harm a fetus’ brain if a woman is infected during pregnancy.

Now, researchers in the United States have begun safety testing of two vaccine candidates, and more experimental shots are poised to enter that preliminary testing soon. Any that seem promising will have to be tested in thousands of people in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean that are hard-hit by the mosquito-borne virus — the only way to prove if an experimental vaccine really protects.

Even if all goes well, a vaccine wouldn’t be available for general use any time soon.

But a different kind of research also can offer clues for vaccine development. It’s called a human challenge study, when healthy — and nonpregnant — people agree to be injected deliberately with a virus, mimicking natural infection while scientists track how their bodies react.

The first question is even more basic: How much of the virus does it take to infect someone?

If government regulators agree, researchers could find out by injecting paid volunteers with different amounts of lab-grown Zika virus as early as December in a Baltimore hospital. That information will help the researchers later, when they’re ready to test an experimental Zika vaccine.