Tech Net News 06-17-2017

Credit: Fir0002

The DARC is not slowing down while we get ready for Field Day! We’re busy, but we have all our usual nets going on tonight and this week. Skynet meets tonight at  9:00 pm, and the afterglow movie net will discuss Close Encounters of the Third Kind tonight at 10:30 pm.

We’ll have a meeting on the air this Sunday, a HamFixins net this Monday, and a Vetnet this Wednesday.

There aren’t any contests going on in this part of the world this weekend; everyone seems to be waiting for Field Day.

The most exciting news from science this week has been that Chinese scientists succeeded in creating pairs of “entangled” photons in space and sending them down to the ground. Some journalists have talked about how this technique could enable faster-than-light communications; but that’s probably not true. It’s going to be much more useful to make regular slower-than-light communications more secure.

Technological improvements in transporting human organs meant for transplantation could prove very significant! Keeping organs functional instead of chilling them could substantially improve outcomes for patients and improve organ availability.

It looks like a broccoli extract could help treat type II diabetes as well as an expensive prescription drug.

And in sad news, it seems that food for babies and toddlers might, in some cases, be contaminated with traces of lead. Hopefully, discovering that the lead is there will soon lead to its elimination.