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<ul class="summary-list"><li>A pig has tested positive for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-avian-influenza-outbreak-us-h5n1-wiping-out-everything-2023-4">H5N1 bird flu</a> in a backyard farm in Oregon.</li><li>Pigs can host both bird and human flu viruses, which can make them a dangerous "mixing bowl."</li></ul><p>A bird flu virus has jumped one species <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/h5n1-bird-flu-virus-experts-concerned-human-outbreak-spread-possible-2024-6">closer to a human outbreak</a>.</p><p>The H5N1 <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/avian-flu-has-made-organic-eggs-cheaper-than-conventional-ones-2022-12">bird flu</a> was detected in a pig in Oregon, the first instance of a swine infection in the US, officials announced on Wednesday.</p><p>Pigs get both bird flu viruses and human flu viruses, making them a genetic mixing bowl where H5N1 could gain <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/woman-hiv-had-coronavirus-216-days-virus-mutated-2021-6">genetic mutations</a> that help it spread between humans.</p><p>That's not inevitable, but "I would say the concern elevated slightly with this pig infection," Stacey Schultz-Cherry, a virus expert at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the deputy director of a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/who-says-millions-died-covid-pandemic-global-health-systems-2022-5">World Health Organization</a> center on animal and bird influenza, told Business Insider.</p><h2 id="d1cf7120-d282-47b7-81ca-5de40e2d7544">The 'animal pandemic' that could jump to humans</h2><p>This strain of bird flu has killed tens of millions of birds worldwide since 2020 and more than 40,000 sea lions and seals in South America. World Health Organization chief scientist Jeremy Farrar has called this an "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/3-viruses-scientists-are-watching-for-the-next-pandemic-2022-4">animal pandemic</a>."</p><div type="image" title="two people in white biohazard suits with masks and goggles handle a vial on a beach next to a dead porpoise" height="1500" width="2249" msid="114818661" hostid="261" sizebytes="166630"></div><p>Earlier this year, it made an unexpected <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-cattle-outbreak-repeat-mistakes-former-surgeon-general-warning-2024-4">jump into US cattle herds</a>.</p><p>Since then, H5N1 has even <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-virus-h5n1-new-human-case-michigan-respiratory-symptoms-2024-6">infected a few humans</a> who work closely with livestock in the US. But there has been no sign of sustained human-to-human transmission. Pigs could change that.</p><h2 id="bc8980f4-6384-4658-be8f-7431e95db3eb">Meet the first infected pig</h2><p>The US Department of Agriculture <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.aphis.usda.gov/news/agency-announcements/federal-state-veterinary-agencies-share-update-hpai-detections-oregon">reported</a> that the infected pig was living in a "backyard farming operation" which is now quarantined.</p><p>Two other pigs on the farm have tested negative for H5N1, while results are still pending for two others. <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/what-is-chicken-anxiety-how-to-tell-poultry-is-cooked-2023-8">Poultry</a> there have also tested positive.</p><p>"There is no concern about the safety of the nation's pork supply as a result of this finding," the USDA reported, saying that the pigs at this farm were not intended for commercial <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-eggs-meat-milk-dairy-safety-during-outbreak-2024-4">food supplies</a>.</p><p>Because of the backyard setting, this case doesn't pose the same major outbreak risk as an infection in a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/chinas-skyscraper-farm-slaughter-1-million-pigs-a-year-2022-11">commercial pig farm</a>.</p><p>"If it starts to spread from pigs to pigs, then it's much more of a problem," Florian Krammer, a flu virologist at Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine in New York, told <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.statnews.com/2024/10/30/h5n1-bird-flu-found-in-oregon-pig-reassortment-threat-human-transmission/">STAT News</a>. "If it ends up in large pig populations in the US similar to cows, I think this would be a disaster."</p><h2 id="d7d01e9a-980c-4e8e-8e39-4d09d0ecc0cf">Why pig infection could be a tipping point</h2><p><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/super-pigs-bred-in-canada-escaped-captivity-now-invading-us-2023-4">Pigs</a> play host to both bird flu viruses and human flu viruses. That makes them a dangerous playground for the two to swap genes.</p><p><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/past-noncompliance-barred-pig-transplant-patient-from-human-heart-2022-1">Inside a pig</a>, the H5N1 bird flu virus could pick up genetic mutations that help it adapt to better infect human bodies.</p><div type="image" title="h5n1 virus microscope image shows black and white long straight worm-shaped organism" height="1500" width="2250" msid="114818658" hostid="261" sizebytes="157400"></div><p>The more pigs are infected, the greater this risk is. However, Schultz-Cherry said, "we would not need to see pig-to-pig transmission to worry about this mixing vessel or this mixing bowl effect." </p><p>There's no other animal "at the top of the list" with pigs, Richard Webby, a virologist at St. Jude and director of the WHO animal and bird flu center, told BI in June. </p><p>That could just be due to gaps in our understanding of animal influenza. After all, he added, "a few months ago, I would have told you that cows don't get flu."</p><h2 id="7a4f46f3-5945-4643-8803-01a4a97b4066">Bad timing: Flu season is in full swing</h2><p id="8364e69e-29e2-41ab-87e2-b1fac23a6a6f">The timing of this development is "not ideal," Schultz-Cherry said, because it's the middle of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tell-which-virus-you-have-flu-covid-rsv-symptoms-2022-12">flu season</a>, and pigs can get the strains of flu that circulate among humans.</p><p id="8364e69e-29e2-41ab-87e2-b1fac23a6a6f">If this season's flu strains were to overlap with a pig H5N1 infection, that would increase the risk of gene-swapping that helps the bird flu adapt to humans.</p><p id="8364e69e-29e2-41ab-87e2-b1fac23a6a6f">"Really it would just take one pig," Schultz-Cherry said.</p><p id="8364e69e-29e2-41ab-87e2-b1fac23a6a6f">Getting your seasonal flu vaccine can help, though, especially if you're in contact with cows, pigs, or poultry. Schultz-Cherry said that's because vaccination reduces the amount of flu circulating through the population.</p><div type="image" title="Flu Vaccine" height="1220" width="1639" msid="114818656" hostid="261" sizebytes="95142"></div><h2 id="09d4fd9c-f4e2-4a2a-ad87-8f1c71a7d750">Genomic detective work</h2><p id="8364e69e-29e2-41ab-87e2-b1fac23a6a6f">Schultz-Cherry was surprised by the pig news but, she said, "I guess I shouldn't be."</p><p>The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bird-flu-cows-milk-spread-study-suggests-how-to-stop-2024-6">virus is circulating in cattle</a>, chickens, wild birds, and cats all over the country. Mice have tested positive.</p><p>Just sharing a drinking water source with these animals could put a pig at risk. The USDA reported that livestock and poultry on the Oregon farm shared water sources, shelter, and other equipment.</p><p>Now that officials have samples of the virus that infected the pig, they can sequence its genome. That could hint at which animal it first came from.</p><p>Scientists will likely look for mutations in the virus that could help it infect humans more easily, such as a tweak that makes it attach to more mammal-type receptors in a host animal's cells.</p><p>"It was one pig," Schultz-Cherry said. "But it is something that will lead to increased monitoring of the situation."</p>

Bird flu was detected in a pig, and it could be a tipping point threatening more human transmission

If you thought <keyword id="6359858" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Alcohol" source="Orion">alcohol</keyword> was just a human vice, think again! Animals might be indulging in nature’s own happy hour more often than we ever imagined. Ecologists are starting to turn this idea on its head, revealing that boozy snacks are far more common in the wild than previously thought.<br /><h2>How animals stumble upon alcohol</h2>When fruits are left to ripen a little too long, especially when drenched in warm sunlight, they naturally ferment into a natural brew. Stories of “drunk” animals like elephants, monkeys, and birds toppling around after munching on <keyword id="23742494" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="fermented-fruits" source="keywords">fermented fruits</keyword> have been around for ages, but scientists used to think these incidents were rare flukes. But now, they’re rethinking it.<br /><br />"We’re moving away from this anthropocentric view that ethanol is just something that humans use," says study author Kimberley Hockings. "It's much more abundant in the natural world than we previously thought, and most animals that eat sugary fruits are going to be exposed to some level of ethanol."<br />    <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="114540943" title="Karnataka to go Goa way and allow alcohol sales in coastal cities to lure tourists" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>In fact, ethanol — yep, the stuff in booze — has been around for over 100 million years. When flowering plants first started making nectar and fruits, natural yeast joined the party, creating alcohol in the process. Today, it’s pretty much everywhere, especially in humid, tropical regions, where fermentation-friendly conditions are available year-round.<br /><h2>Built for the booze</h2>For most wild critters, alcohol isn’t about the buzz; it’s about the calories. According to molecular ecologist Matthew Carrigan, animals prioritise the energy found in these boozy treats rather than the “fun” side effects. <br /><br />“From an ecological perspective, it is not advantageous to be inebriated as you're climbing around in the trees or surrounded by predators at night — that's a recipe for not having your genes passed on,” Carrigan points out. Unlike us humans, animals want the energy but prefer to skip the hangover.<br /><br />Interestingly, animals seem to be pretty well-equipped to handle alcohol. They’ve harboured genes that can degrade ethanol for millions of years, long before natural yeast even got into the game. Primates, birds, and tree shrews that enjoy fruit and nectar have evolved a strong tolerance for it, allowing them to take advantage of ethanol’s calories without too much of a head-spin.<br /><h2>Why do animals bother?</h2>It might seem counterintuitive, but ethanol could have a few perks for wild animals. It’s calorie-dense, helping to fuel their bodies when food is scarce, and some of the odorous byproducts of fermentation can act as a food signal. So, while animals likely aren’t sniffing around for alcohol itself, they could be drawn to the scent of rotting fruits.<br />    <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="114453591" title="The Liver Doc shares brain scan of 40-year-old on alcohol; highlights link between brain strokes and drinking" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Insects like fruit flies have even shown a medicinal benefit to ethanol. Fruit fly larvae consume more ethanol when they're fighting off parasites like wasps. The ethanol seems to make their internal environment less hospitable to invaders, which is an intriguing example of self-medicating in the wild.<br /><br />“On the cognitive side, ideas have been put forward that ethanol can trigger the endorphin and dopamine system, which leads to feelings of relaxation that could have benefits in terms of sociality.” as behavioral ecologist Anna Bowland points out. You can imagine animals bonding over a boozy snack – kind of how humans sharing a beer!<br /><br />There’s still a lot we don’t know about how alcohol impacts animals in the wild. Do certain species seek it out more than others? Does ethanol consumption affect their social lives, family dynamics, or evolutionary adaptations? Hockings and her team plan to dig deeper, studying how alcohol impacts behavior and metabolism in animals, particularly primates.<br /><br />The findings of this research have been published in <em>Trends in Ecology &amp; Evolution </em>and can be accessed <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2024.09.005">here</a>.<br />

A lot more animals are alcoholics than we thought! Here’s how they get their booze

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Nvidia wants to bring "physical AI" to hospitals, with robots for X-rays, linen delivery, and more.</li><li>It's part of Nvidia's plan to corner the advanced robotics market and cement the AI giant's future.</li></ul><p>Nvidia is digging deeper into healthcare — and the tech giant has big ambitions to bring AI to every part of the hospital.</p><p>The AI behemoth has already made a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-startup-empire-nventures-founders-2024-7">number of investments</a> and notched partnerships in digital health and biotech, including for virtual care and drug discovery.</p><p>After massive developments in large language models in the past two years, according to Nvidia's VP of Healthcare Kimberly Powell, the next wave of AI will turn <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jensen-huang-nvidia-robots-huamanoid-self-driving-cars-2024-9">medical devices into robots.</a></p><p>"This physical AI thing is coming where your whole hospital is going to turn into an AI," Powell told BI. "You're going to have eyes operating on your behalf, robots doing what is otherwise automatable work, and smart digital devices. So we're super excited about that, and we're doing a lot of investments."</p><p><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/vcs-like-khosla-and-a16z-backing-robotics-that-use-ai-2024-7">Physical AI</a> refers to "models that can perceive, understand, and interact with the physical world," Powell said during a keynote presentation at this year's HLTH conference in Las Vegas.</p><p>In healthcare, she told Business Insider, there are countless applications for this next wave. Nvidia is building out its tech stack and partnering with select startups to spearhead the company's AI push into more health systems.</p><p>The efforts are part of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jensen-huang-nvidia-robots-huamanoid-self-driving-cars-2024-9">Nvidia's vision to corner the emerging advanced robotics market</a> to maintain its spot in the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nvidia-ai-3-trillion-club-apple-microsoft-jensen-huang-2024-6">tech stratosphere</a>.</p><p>It'll take healthcare "a couple of years" to fully embrace the physical AI wave, Powell said — but with key components of physical AI already being adopted in healthcare, that transformation could be closer than we think.</p><div type="image" title="Kimberly Powell speaking onstage at the HLTH 2024 conference, with a large HLTH sign behind her." height="1141" width="1826" msid="114947223" hostid="261" sizebytes="58486"></div><h2 id="8772be31-a388-40be-a749-093e49de9021">Hospitals' "digital twins"</h2><p>While recent AI breakthroughs have made more sophisticated robotic developments within reach, robots still present unique challenges to Nvidia and other companies developing them.</p><p>Powell said these physical AI systems would essentially require three computers working in tandem: one to train the AI, another to simulate the physical world in the digital space, called a "digital twin," and a third to operate the robot.</p><p>The robots need not only to be able to receive and respond to inputs from the real world, like movement and speech but to be trained in their physics — like the grip and amount of pressure required to use a scalpel, for example.</p><p>To tackle the digital twin challenge in healthcare, Nvidia is partnering with IT solutions provider <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.markiiisys.com/blog/mark-iii-recognized-as-2024-nvidia-partner-network-americas-healthcare-partner-of-the-year/">Mark III</a>, which works with healthcare systems like the University of Florida Health to create simulations of their hospital environments and develop AI using them.</p><p>Hospitals can use those digital twins to train their clinicians, too, Powell said, like by letting doctors learn how to perform a particular surgery first in the virtual operating room.</p><p>Physical AI is getting more sophisticated for real-time surgeries, too. Nvidia is an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/saibala/2024/09/30/nvidias-venture-capital-arm-is-silently-investing-millions-into-healthcare/">investor in Moon Surgical</a>, a robotics company that <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/moon-surgicals-maestro-system-powered-by-nvidia-holoscan-paves-the-way-to-next-generation-laparoscopy-with-over-200-patients-treated-302092824.html">uses Nvidia's Holoscan platform</a> for its surgical assistant robot, which provides an extra set of arms to hold and manipulate surgical instruments, like adjusting the cameras used inside the body during laparoscopic surgeries.</p><p>But Nvidia sees robots being used far beyond the operating room — including to monitor a patient for falls in their hospital room, or bring them fresh linens, Powell said. She pointed to Mayo Clinic, which started deploying <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1763236350828000">its own linen delivery robots</a> earlier this year at its Florida campus to autonomously ferry fresh sheets from room to room.</p><p>"You could imagine someday when you get an X-ray scan, you'll have a room that you just step into. It has cameras such that it knows where you're in the vicinity of this scanner; it'll tell you where to stand in front of the scanner. It'll take an X-ray, it'll check the quality," Powell said.</p><div type="image" title="Da Vinci robotic surgery system" height="1132" width="2000" msid="114947221" hostid="261" sizebytes="61308"></div><h2 id="7d8494bc-b5bb-4b2b-b8e1-c7e6698be3de">Nvidia's digital health ambitions</h2><p>Nvidia doesn't want to be a healthcare company, and would never acquire another healthcare company, Powell said. But in digital health, the AI colossus is putting its money and tech behind a number of startups.</p><p>Medical scribe company Abridge is no doubt Nvidia's buzziest healthcare bet. Nvidia's venture capital arm, NVentures, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.abridge.com/press-release/collaboration-nvidia">invested in Abridge in March</a>; Abridge is now reportedly raising more money at a <a target="_blank" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=356af929f731a2f0148d8a19a4ea58643477dfa1feeb9af322049efcfa0b44d8&amp;postID=672105613a35c2732d44e6df&amp;postSlug=nvidia-bring-ai-robots-to-hospital-2024-10&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theinformation.com%2Farticles%2Felad-gils-latest-ai-bet-is-in-health">$2.5 billion</a> pre-money valuation. Powell said Nvidia is doing "deep, deep speech research" with Abridge.</p><p>General Catalyst-backed Hippocratic AI also <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/ai-and-machine-learning/nvidias-venture-arm-backs-17m-investment-hippocratic-ai-build-out">snagged funding from Nvidia</a> in September, after notching a partnership with the company this spring to develop healthcare AI agents that can video chat with patients.</p><p>And Nvidia is teaming up with Microsoft to supercharge the next generation of AI startups in healthcare and life sciences. The two companies <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-inception-microsoft-startups-ai-healthcare/">said at HLTH</a> that they're bringing together Nvidia's accelerator, Nvidia Inception, and Microsoft's free product platform for founders, Microsoft for Startups, to provide cloud credits, AI tools, and expert support to startups, starting with healthcare and life sciences companies.</p>

Chip giant Nvidia wants to bring robots to the hospital

<ul class="summary-list"><li>SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew has returned to Earth.</li><li><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-plan-colonize-mars-plan-unrealistic-scientists-explain-2023-10">Elon Musk's dreams of building a city on Mars</a> got a major boost from the Polaris Dawn mission.</li></ul><p><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/polaris-dawn-crew-spacex-commercial-astronauts-first-private-spacewalk-2024-9">SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew</a> successfully returned to Earth on Sunday, bringing Elon Musk one step closer to his dream of settling Mars.</p><p>The five-day mission saw the four commercial astronauts complete a list of historic firsts: They traveled further than anyone has gone in <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/moon-missions-why-astronauts-have-not-returned-2018-7">more than 50 years, since the last Apollo missions</a>. The two female crew members, in particular, set the record for the farthest any woman has traveled in space.</p><p>They donned new SpaceX spacesuits that had never been tested in orbit, opened their ship to the vacuum of space, and conducted the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/polaris-dawn-spacewalk-watch-live-spacex-crew-dragon-commercial-astronauts-2024-9">first-ever commercial spacewalk</a>.</p><p>On top of that, they exposed themselves to high levels of space radiation, much higher than what astronauts aboard the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photo-international-space-station-hidden-passing-sun-2023-4">International Space Station</a> undergo in the same time period. And they endured a fiery plummet back to Earth.</p><p>It was all in the name of <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-invest-mars-pulsed-plasma-rocket-shorten-space-time-travel-2024-7">paving the way to Mars</a>.</p><div type="image" title="Polaris Dawn landing." height="1604" width="2852" msid="113365917" hostid="261" sizebytes="221754"></div><p>If you ask <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jared-isaacman-net-worth-career-spacex-polaris-dawn-2024-8">Jared Isaacman</a>, the billionaire who funded and commanded the mission, it was also in the name of raising funds for childhood-cancer research at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.</p><p>As he previously told Business Insider, before his <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-inspiration4-first-space-tourists-return-to-earth-2021-9">first flight with SpaceX</a> in 2021, he wanted to "take care of some of the problems that we have here on Earth, so we earn the right to go and explore among the stars."</p><div type="image" title="jared isaacman spacex crew dragon" height="2560" width="3840" msid="113365923" hostid="261" sizebytes="991006"></div><p>But the technical aspects of the mission — the spacewalk, the spacesuits, the laser Starlink communication, flying through a radiation belt — were critical tests of technologies SpaceX will need in order to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-havent-we-been-to-mars-yet-2024-5">fly humans to the red planet</a>.</p><p>Isaacman's future plans fit the Mars bill, too. He's planning two more Polaris missions and says the third one will ditch Crew Dragon for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-starship-flight-four-ocean-splashdown-elon-musk-plans-2024-6">Starship</a>. That's the Statue-of-Liberty-sized mega-rocket SpaceX is developing in South Texas for the express purpose of colonizing Mars.</p><h2 id="1637b34d-1546-42ca-a615-916aa98a2919">Mars trailblazers return home</h2><p>As the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-discovers-urine-leak-on-crew-dragon-spaceships-2021-10">Crew Dragon</a> hurtled back toward Earth, plowing through the atmosphere, superheated plasma roared at the edges of its protective heat shield.</p><p>Isaacman had done this before, but it was the first spaceflight for the three other crew members: a former US Air Force pilot named Scott Poteet and two <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/working-for-elon-musk-spacex-workplace-culture-twitter-jim-cantrell-2022-11">SpaceX engineers</a>, Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis.</p><p>They felt a jerk as the spaceship deployed parachutes to drift down into the Gulf of Mexico near Florida's Dry Tortugas. It bobbed in the waves, looking like a toasted marshmallow, until a ship hauled it on board and SpaceX workers helped the crew off.</p><div type="image" title="Screenshot of the crew and spacecraft." height="1800" width="2880" msid="113365930" hostid="261" sizebytes="100324"></div><p>Five days after launch, they had officially completed the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launch-risky-polaris-dawn-mission-first-commercial-spacewalk-radiation-2024-8">most daring crewed commercial spaceflight yet</a>.</p><h2 id="de02c9b0-79f8-43b9-aa69-40373e49bcd1">Spacewalks and spacesuits for Mars</h2><p>The main event of the mission was its spacewalk.</p><div type="image" title="astronaut in white suit and helmet standing at the open hatch of a spaceship in space holding onto a railing looking out over earth" height="540" width="960" msid="113365926" hostid="261" sizebytes="13622"></div><p>The crew spent 48 hours slowly depressurizing their spacecraft so that they could open the hatch to the vacuum of space, sending Isaacman and Gillis out to gaze over Earth and conduct a few mobility exercises.</p><p>They were testing SpaceX's new extravehicular <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacesuit-design-history-timeline-changes-nasa-2018-3">spacesuits</a>, designed for the purpose of leaving a spacecraft to conduct maintenance or repairs — an ability that future Mars-bound people will need, since the journey takes months.</p><p>"It might be 10 iterations from now and a bunch of evolutions of the suit," but someday someone may even wear a version of these spacesuits "<a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-made-oxygen-out-of-thin-air-on-mars-2023-9">walking on Mars</a>," Isaacman said in a prelaunch briefing in August.</p><div type="image" title="four people in spacesuits with their visors up smiling and pointing at a black spacex logo on a spaceship behind them" height="1500" width="2270" msid="113365919" hostid="261" sizebytes="208520"></div><p>"There's going to be an armada of Starships arriving on Mars at some point in the future," he added. "Those people are going to have to be able to get out of it and walk around and do important things."</p><h2 id="175335c0-7c23-487c-a845-a51ae47e64b7">Radiation on the way to Mars</h2><p>Polaris Dawn also tackled another big challenge for crewed Mars missions: extreme radiation exposure. People traveling to Mars would be exposed to immense amounts of space radiation for months.</p><p>So the Crew Dragon spacecraft flew through two donuts of intense radiation surrounding Earth, called the Van Allen belts. The crew conducted tests and measurements to see how it affected their bodies.</p><div type="image" title="spaceship mouth with railings in the foreground with the huge round curvature of Earth dominating the background from a distance beneath the blackness of space" height="713" width="1273" msid="113365933" hostid="261" sizebytes="31010"></div><p>"If we get to Mars someday, we'd love to be able to come back and be healthy enough to tell people about it," Isaacman said in August.</p><p>Other medical experiments on the mission checked their eyes, veins, and airways, to help SpaceX better understand the impacts of long-distance spaceflight.</p><h2 id="2a23b528-e8d9-4a1e-aa8a-c67599b035ad">Communications for Mars</h2><p>Polaris Dawn also tested <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-laser-beam-message-10-million-miles-away-streaming-mars-2023-11">laser-based communications</a> using Starlink, the network of internet satellites that SpaceX has built throughout Earth's orbit.</p><p>The commercial astronauts posted on X mid-mission, saying they'd uploaded their photos there using Starlink internet.</p><p>Those space lasers lay the groundwork for future communications with deep-space missions — that is, as the Polaris website says, "for missions to the moon, Mars and beyond."</p><p>Isaacman seems to be vested in making that happen.</p><p>"I'd certainly like my kids to see humans walking on the moon and Mars and venturing out and exploring our solar system," he said ahead of the launch.</p>

SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew returns to Earth victorious, making huge gains in Elon Musk's plans to send humans to Mars

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-launch-risky-polaris-dawn-mission-first-commercial-spacewalk-radiation-2024-8">SpaceX launched the Polaris Dawn mission</a> Tuesday morning, sending four people on an ambitious flight.</li><li>The private mission aims to fly through radiation belts and conduct the first commercial spacewalk.</li></ul><p><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-polaris-dawn-mission-launch-2024-8">SpaceX just launched four people</a> on its most daring human spaceflight yet, a mission called Polaris Dawn.</p><p>The crew features a billionaire, a pilot, and two SpaceX employees. After an early morning launch on Tuesday, they're floating in the company's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-says-next-spacex-flight-will-have-better-toilets-2021-9">Crew Dragon spaceship</a> in Earth's orbit.</p><p>None of them are NASA-grade <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronaut-warns-tourists-that-spaceflight-is-uncomfortable-risky-2021-8">professional astronauts</a>, but they're scheduled to fly further from Earth than anyone has traveled in over 50 years, since the Apollo missions.</p><p>They're also planning to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/polaris-dawn-spacewalk-spacex-crew-dragon-2024-9">conduct the first-ever commercial spacewalk</a>, taking the risk of opening their entire<strong> </strong>Crew Dragon spaceship to the vacuum of space.</p><p>Here's who's on board this bold, historic mission.</p><h2 id="688a5c11-20ce-406b-89c2-4f98790acc82">Jared Isaacman, mission commander</h2><div type="image" title="jared isaacman spacex crew dragon" height="2560" width="3840" msid="113245844" hostid="261" sizebytes="991006"></div><p><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jared-isaacman-net-worth-career-spacex-polaris-dawn-2024-8">Jared Isaacman</a> is the billionaire bankrolling the mission and serving as its commander. This isn't the 41-year-old's first rodeo.</p><p>In 2021, he funded and flew on the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-civilian-crew-zip-ties-sedatives-orbit-2021-9">first-ever all-civilian spaceflight</a>, called Inspiration4, and brought three people with him to circle Earth aboard SpaceX's Crew Dragon.</p><p>That mission's name, Inspiration4, derives from Shift4, the payment-processing company that Isaacman founded at age 16 in his parents' basement after dropping out of high school. He is still the CEO.</p><p>Compared to other space-faring billionaires — like the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-spaceflight-2021-7">flashy Richard Branson</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-jeff-bezos-interrupts-william-shatner-space-speech-spray-champagne-2021-10">champagne-spraying Jeff Bezos</a> — Isaacman's tone is much more serious.</p><p>For starters, he's a relatively private person. He's repeatedly declined to say how much money he's spent on his missions with SpaceX.</p><p>He also has some technical qualifications for the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/virgin-galactic-blue-origin-spacex-commercial-space-flights-tourism-cost-2023-7">commercial astronaut</a> gig: He's an accomplished pilot, reporting over 7,000 flight hours. Isaacman's business repertoire also includes Draken International, a private aircraft provider and pilot-training company that he founded in 2012 and sold to Blackdstone in 2019. The sale, along with taking Shift4 public, made him a billionaire.</p><p>Messaging around both <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-final-members-of-the-all-civilian-inspiration4mission-revealed-2021-4">Inspiration4</a> and Polaris Dawn has been heavily focused on fundraising for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital as well as making technological advancements in human spaceflight.</p><p>"I just knew it was a pretty significant moment in history, and it comes with some responsibility," Isaacman told BI ahead of the Inspiration4 launch in 2021. He said the St. Jude fundraising was an effort to "take care of some of the problems that we have here on Earth, so we earn the right to go and explore among the stars."</p><p>Isaacman has also approached NASA, offering to fund a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-spacex-announcement-billionaire-spaceflight-hubble-space-telescope-2022-9">Crew Dragon mission to boost the Hubble Space Telescope's orbit</a> and therefore extend its lifespan, since it's currently expected to fall from orbit in the mid-2030s. NASA has declined the offer for now.</p><p>Isaacman lives in New Jersey with his wife, Monica Isaacman, and their two daughters, according to the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://nypost.com/2024/09/10/us-news/jared-isaacman-nj-high-school-dropout-turned-tech-billionaire-set-to-conduct-first-private-spacewalk/">New York Post</a>.</p><h2 id="826614e6-dace-47db-8f31-d7d755ada4e7">Sarah Gillis, mission specialist</h2><div type="image" title="sarah gillis smiling woman in white spacesuit and open helmet with gray and black trim" height="1667" width="2500" msid="113245841" hostid="261" sizebytes="137418"></div><p>As the engineer overseeing <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-spacex-first-civilians-trained-for-spaceflight-photos-2021-9">SpaceX's astronaut training program</a>, Sarah Gillis first got to know Isaacman when she was preparing him and his crewmates for the Inspiration4 flight.</p><p>"You spend a huge amount of your job pretending to be an astronaut and thinking through what they would care about," Gillis, aged 30, said in a briefing on August 19. "I cannot wait to actually test this in space and bring back knowledge to the engineers."</p><p>Growing up in Boulder, Colorado, Gillis was on track to be a violinist like her mother until her junior year of high school, when she attended a university guest lecture by Joe Tanner, a former NASA astronaut and a mechanical engineering professor. She told <a target="_blank" href="https://www.denverpost.com/2024/07/22/spacex-colorado-astronauts-scott-poteet-sarah-gillis-polaris-dawn/">The Denver Post</a> that she stayed to talk with Tanner, who became her mentor as she pursued aerospace engineering.</p><p>Gillis started with an internship at SpaceX in 2015 and quickly ascended through the ranks of the company's astronaut training program and mission control operations. She's still a skilled violinist and an avid hiker.</p><p>Gillis's husband, Lewis, is also a SpaceX engineer. He helped build Dragon's propulsion system.</p><p>"So I know exactly what goes into the testing and the design and the rigor behind absolutely everything in the spacecraft," Gillis said, adding that she was "very, very excited to fly on my favorite Dragon spacecraft."</p><p>She's serving as the mission specialist on Polaris Dawn, assigned to leave Dragon on Thursday to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-shows-cosmonaut-space-littering-during-spacewalk-nasa-says-harmless-2023-5">conduct the first commercial spacewalk</a> alongside Isaacman. This is her first time in space.</p><h2 id="3fe1acf4-ea8f-4279-9bc9-30d402b3c54d">Anna Menon, mission specialist and medical officer</h2><div type="image" title="Crewmember Anna Menon of Polaris Dawn smiling and wearing sunglasses" height="1500" width="2004" msid="113245851" hostid="261" sizebytes="165860"></div><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronaut-parenting-tips-career-vs-dad-time-2024-3">Anna Menon</a> has dreamed of going to space since she was a child.</p><p>"I grew up in Houston, another Space City, and I was exposed to space on a field trip and got to experience a day in the life of an astronaut and a flight controller in mission control," Menon said during the August 19 briefing. "And I fell in love with the industry." </p><p>Polaris Dawn is the 38-year-old's first time in space. She's an engineer at SpaceX and is serving as a mission specialist and medical officer for Polaris Dawn. </p><p>"I think working at SpaceX gives me a tremendous amount of competence going to space," Menon said. </p><p>Before joining SpaceX, Menon worked at NASA and helped oversee International Space Station operations as a biomedical flight controller. </p><p>She's not the only one in her family headed to space. Menon's husband, Anil, is one of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronauts-hiring-resume-selection-manager-2024-3">NASA's new astronauts</a>. The couple have two children, James and Grace.</p><p>During her trip in space, Anna plans to get in a bit of reading. "I'm going to read a children's book I wrote, '<a target="_blank" href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/744559/kisses-from-space-by-anna-menon-and-keri-vasek-illustrated-by-andy-harkness/">Kisses from Space</a>,' to both my kids as well as some of the brave kids at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital," she <a target="_blank" href="https://people.com/billionaire-jared-isaacman-leads-four-civilian-astronauts-historic-polaris-dawn-mission-8709509">told People</a>. The live feed storytime is part of the mission's fundraising for the pediatric hospital, which treats childhood cancers and other diseases.</p><h2 id="3fce8d66-9204-4222-b02b-13d7f457607b">Scott "Kidd" Poteet, mission pilot</h2><div type="image" title="Polaris Dawn crewmember Scott Poteet against a white background" height="1500" width="2151" msid="113245842" hostid="261" sizebytes="78440"></div><p>Though he's flown fighter jets for the US Air Force, Scott Poteet has never been to space. The 50-year-old <a target="_blank" href="https://polarisprogram.com/team/scott-poteet/">mission</a> pilot <a target="_blank" href="https://mynews13.com/fl/orlando/space/2024/08/16/scott-kidd-poteet-talks-about-polaris-dawn">suffers</a> from motion sickness, but managed to overcome that in his combat missions and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.airforce.com/thunderbirds/overview">performing</a> aerobatic maneuvers with the US Air Force's Thunderbirds.</p><p>Poteet told <a target="_blank" href="https://mynews13.com/fl/orlando/space/2024/08/16/scott-kidd-poteet-talks-about-polaris-dawn">Spectrum News</a> his route to becoming an astronaut wasn't typical, at least not by today's standards. His grades weren't the best in school, and he doesn't have a background in engineering or science. Nevertheless, Isaacman invited Poteet, who goes by "Kidd," to pilot Polaris Dawn.</p><p><span>"On a personal level, flying fighter jets in the Air Force for 20 years, combat experience, operational test experience, leading many red flag exercises, and fighter weapons school, I can tell you without a doubt this has been some of the most challenging training that I've ever experienced," </span>Poteet said about his training for Polaris Dawn during the briefing on August 19.</p><p>Poteet lives in Monument, Colorado with his wife and has <a target="_blank" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/C8QPSBUMRo8/?img_index=1">three</a> children. At least one hopes to follow in his footsteps. "My 12-year-old son absolutely plans to go to space," he recently told <a target="_blank" href="https://magazine.unh.edu/issue/winter-2023/to-the-stars/">UNH Magazine</a>. "He believes it will be commonplace in his lifetime."</p>

Meet SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew: The daring 4 who are in space on the most ambitious private space mission in history

Israeli airstrike kills 18 in attack near Lebanon's largest public hospital

<ul class="summary-list"><li>French researchers used a powerful MRI machine to create detailed brain scans of about 20 people.</li><li>The images are nearly 10 times more detailed than a hospital MRI's scans.</li></ul><p>Researchers have unveiled images of the human brain from the world's most powerful MRI, which could one day lead to breakthroughs in treating Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other diseases. The images are almost 10 times as detailed as those of a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/brain-scans-dying-man-study-life-flashed-before-his-eyes-2022-2">typical hospital MRI</a>.</p><p>Researchers at France's Atomic Energy Commission scanned the brains of about 20 people<strong> </strong>with the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/experts-question-whether-prenuvos-whole-body-mri-scans-are-necessary-2022-10">magnetic resonance imaging machine</a>, called Iseult.</p><p>The volunteers only had to spend four minutes in the machine for the scientists to take remarkably detailed images, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cea.fr/english/Pages/News/world-premiere-living-brain-imaged-with-unrivaled-clarity-thanks-to-world-most-powerful-MRI-machine.aspx">according</a> to a press release. Trying to capture <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-19-survivors-gray-matter-brain-tissue-long-term-study-2021-6">similar scans</a> with an ordinary machine would take hours.</p><p>"With this machine, we can see the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-19-can-kill-brain-cells-impairing-cognitive-function-study-2021-10">tiny vessels</a> which feed the cerebral cortex, or details of the cerebellum which were almost invisible until now," Alexandre Vignaud, a researcher on the project, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sciencealert.com/first-images-of-human-brain-from-worlds-most-powerful-mri-revealed">told Agence France-Presse</a>.</p><h2>A machine powerful enough to capture thousands of neurons</h2><p>The strength of MRI magnets is measured in a unit called Teslas. Most hospital machines are between 1.5 and 3 Teslas. France's machine is 11.7 Teslas.</p><p>With such a powerful magnet, the MRI takes <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/new-brain-map-accomplishes-what-scientists-have-been-working-on-for-100-years-2016-7">high-resolution images</a> so detailed they can show a few thousand neurons or nerve cells. By comparison, MRIs typically record 600,000 neurons, according to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/breakthrough-brain-imaging">University of California, Berkeley</a>.</p><p>Think of it like trying to spot a squirrel in a picture of a backyard. It might be easier if you could focus on a tree or even a specific branch.</p><div type="image" title="Three brain scans from different powered MRIs, with the least detailed at the left and the most at the right" height="720" width="1280" msid="109204995" hostid="261" sizebytes="109952"></div><p>Such detailed images could help researchers look for changes in the brain and learn new information about how the organ functions. For example, some scientists at France's Atomic Energy Commission want to look at how and where the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/mental-health/what-is-lithium">drug lithium</a> moves in the brain to better understand how to treat bipolar disorder.</p><h2>The US is working on its own high-powered MRI machines</h2><p>Though not quite as powerful as Iseult, there are MRI machines at the University of California, Berkeley and <a target="_blank" href="https://today.duke.edu/2023/04/brain-images-just-got-64-million-times-sharper">Duke University</a> with 7 Tesla and 9.4 Tesla magnets, respectively.</p><p>Researchers at these and other institutions are hoping to use high-powered MRIs to study animal and human brains to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/detecting-and-preventing-cognitive-decline-with-ai-2023-11">look for changes</a> related to Alzheimer's, dyslexia, dementia, and other diseases.</p><p>Physicians at the Cleveland Clinic, for example, <a target="_blank" href="https://my.clevelandclinic.org/patient-stories/559-young-womans-epileptic-seizures-gone-after-discovery-from-7-tesla-mri">used</a> a 7 Tesla MRI machine to find the location of a tiny lesion that was causing a patient's epileptic seizures. Images from regular MRIs were too low-resolution for them to show up, according to the Cleveland Clinic.</p><p>It will be several years before doctors can use Iseult and other similar MRIs to diagnose patients since they're still <a target="_blank" href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10334-023-01063-5">studying</a> the effects such a powerful magnet has on the human body.</p>

Researchers used the world's most powerful MRI to get brain scans that are 10 times as detailed as a hospital MRI — take a look

<p>Jennie Zeiher is a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/things-to-never-do-airport-lounges-frequent-flyer">frequent flyer</a>, but she was beginning to distrust the process.</p><p>It was about 95 degrees Fahrenheit that day, June 10, in Athens, Greece, as she, her husband, and two sons <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/flight-attendant-pet-peeves-passengers-gate-lice-boarding-crowds-2023-3">boarded their flight</a>.</p><p>Zeiher recalls their pilot announcing over the speaker that the <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-plane-stuck-on-tarmac-hours-child-bag-toilet-aisle-2023-8">tarmac-bound</a> Qatar Airways plane had an electrical issue.</p><p>The doors were sealed, there was no air conditioning, and in the stiff, unmoving air, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/delta-passengersheat-stroke-on-overheated-las-vegas-atlanta-flight-2023-7">the heat inside the plane mounted</a>.</p><p>Hours passed.</p><p>Zeiher and her 10-year-old son drank all their water. She started <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/health/conditions-symptoms/heat-exhaustion-vs-heatstroke">feeling faint</a>, her son was crying, passengers were fanning themselves with safety pamphlets, and neither the pilot nor flight attendants had information on when they could leave.</p><div type="image" title="woman wearing mask and 10-year-old boy sitting in plane seats flushed" height="1608" width="2866" msid="112550809" hostid="261" sizebytes="114898"></div><p>"Everyone was up in arms," Zeiher, a 48-year-old Australian business executive, told Business Insider. "People were screaming at the flight attendants to go and get information."</p><p>Finally, after three hours and cries that someone had fainted, they deboarded.</p><p>The experience was "traumatic," Zeiher said. "That lack of control was quite hard."</p><div type="image" title="a few dozen people stand with luggage on sunny tarmac at the bottom of a metal staircase for deboarding a plane" height="2667" width="2000" msid="112550816" hostid="261" sizebytes="717762"></div><p>A <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/delayed-passengers-appeared-to-pass-out-95-degree-heat-wave-2024-6">spokesperson at Qatar Airways previously told BI</a> that the delay was due to a "technical issue," and the airline had apologized to the passengers and told them about compensation they could get under "applicable regulations." Zeiher said she never received a response to the ticket she filed. Qatar Airways didn't respond to an additional request for comment.</p><p>The incident was arguably a procedural failure. But there was more to it. Greece was experiencing an <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/extreme-heat-already-ruining-summer-travel-going-to-get-worse-2024-6">unseasonably early, severe heat wave</a>.</p><p>The day before Zeiher's flight, British TV personality Dr. Michael Mosley was found dead on the Greek island of Symi after he went for a hike. By the end of June, five other tourists died on hikes in Greece's heat.</p><div type="image" title="tourists wearing hats carrying umbrellas on a sandy stone path high above a city" height="1500" width="2250" msid="112550807" hostid="261" sizebytes="287604"></div><p>The extreme temperatures turned a logistical airport mishap into a <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/arizona-heat-so-hot-almost-killed-teacher-heatstroke-burns-2023-9">potentially dangerous situation</a>.</p><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/heat-waves-are-dominating-summer-and-its-not-abnormal-anymore-2022-7">Summer has become a relentless barrage of heat waves</a>, but temperatures aren't the only hazard on the rise.</p><p>The climate crisis amplifies some of the worst parts of flying — delays, bumpy rides, and possibly even <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/airlines-united-delta-scrambling-fix-crisis-too-many-cheap-flights-2024-7">ticket costs</a>.</p><p>Flying is still safe, and <a target="_blank" href="https://news.mit.edu/2024/study-flying-keeps-getting-safer-0807">it keeps getting safer</a>. Even so, the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-america-lags-rest-world-air-travel-growth-iata-2024-4">air travel boom</a> means more people and planes are cruising through an increasingly extreme atmosphere.</p><p>While the odds are low that <em>you</em> will get trapped on a hot plane or <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/singapore-airlines-passenger-dies-after-severe-turbulence-2024-5">injured in violent turbulence</a>, more incidents like this are bound to happen. On several fronts, flying is getting worse.</p><h2><strong>Turbulence is getting worse</strong></h2><p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/turbulence-more-frequent-stronger-expert-aviation-explains-why-2024-7">Increasing turbulence</a> was aviation professionals' top climate-related safety concern in a 2020<a target="_blank" href="https://library.wmo.int/records/item/57199-outcomes-of-the-2020-survey-on-the-impacts-of-climate-change-and-variability-on-aviation"> survey</a> of more than 400 pilots, flight crew members, air traffic controllers, and other flight professionals worldwide by the World Meteorological Organization. </p><p>One of the most dangerous types is clear-air turbulence, which is much harder to predict than turbulence from storms or mountains.</p><div type="image" title="QATAR plane lowering toward a blurry runway" height="1500" width="2278" msid="112550814" hostid="261" sizebytes="379102"></div><p>"It's clear blue skies, there's no storms anywhere, and there's just this invisible turbulence that, often, the first you know about it is when you're flying through it," said Paul Williams, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Reading in the UK who's been studying turbulence for about a decade.</p><p>He's <a target="_blank" href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023GL103814">found</a> that clear-air turbulence — especially the most severe instances of it — has already increased because rising temperatures bring more wind shear to the jet stream.</p><p>In severe turbulence, an aircraft can be momentarily out of control, passengers lift out of their seats against their seatbelts, and walking down the aisle becomes impossible. That's what happened to doctors Ade Tan and Amos Chan during their honeymoon in May.</p><p>The couple barely felt their plane starting to wobble before they were shooting toward the ceiling.</p><div type="image" title="A general view of the cabin of Singapore Airlines flight SQ321, which was hit by severe turbulence." height="3548" width="4728" msid="112550808" hostid="261" sizebytes="730154"></div><p>"The last thing I saw was Amos trying to put on his seatbelt, and the next thing I registered was that he was no longer in his seat," Tan<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/honeymooning-couple-endured-60-seconds-of-hell-aboard-sq321-flight-2024-5"> previously told BI</a>'s Kwan Wei Kevin Tan.</p><p>Investigators later reported that Singapore Airlines flight SQ321<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/singapore-airlines-flight-turbulence-death-investigation-report-details-2024-5"> had dropped 178 feet in just four seconds</a> due to an exceptionally rough patch of turbulence.</p><p>Tan said oxygen masks were dangling where passengers had crashed into ceiling panels, and people were lying in the aisles, some with blood on their heads. She tried to help Geoffrey Kitchen, a 73-year-old British passenger who ultimately died.</p><p>A Bangkok hospital official later said in a news conference that over 100 of the 211 passengers sustained injuries. Tan said that she suffered a cervical spine fracture and spent a week in the hospital.</p><div type="image" title="man in hospital scrubs with head bandaging in a wheelchair with medical professionals standing around him in a hospital lobby" height="1500" width="2250" msid="112550817" hostid="261" sizebytes="175222"></div><p>Singapore Airlines did not respond to a request for comment, but the company previously <a target="_blank" href="https://www.facebook.com/singaporeair/posts/singapore-airlines-sends-offers-of-compensation-to-sq321-passengerssingapore-air/867151658789515/">posted</a> on Facebook apologizing for the "traumatic experience" and saying it had <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/singapore-airlines-offers-compensation-victims-injured-turbulence-hit-sq321-2024-6">offered $10,000 or upward of $25,000 in compensation</a> to injured passengers, depending on their injury.</p><h2><strong>The skies could be even bumpier in the future</strong></h2><p>The North Atlantic, where planes fly between North America and Europe, had 55% more severe clear-air turbulence in 2020 than in 1979, Williams found.</p><p>By the 2060s, he <a target="_blank" href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2017GL074618">predicts</a> twice as much turbulence, or even three times as much.</p><p>While <a target="_blank" href="https://www.faa.gov/travelers/fly_safe/turbulence">FAA data</a> doesn't show a rise in turbulence-related injuries — there are usually less than 20 a year on US airlines flying worldwide — Williams said the data may be misleading. It only counts serious injuries that require a person to be hospitalized for over 48 hours or have hemorrhaging, broken bones, or second or third-degree burns.</p><div type="image" title="six ambulances lined up in a parking lot beneath and air traffic control tower at night" height="1500" width="2250" msid="112550815" hostid="261" sizebytes="276356"></div><p>Even if nobody gets hurt, more turbulence can cause more wear and tear on aircraft.</p><p>"Even light turbulence is flexing the wings up and down and stressing the airframe," Williams said, adding, "That limits the life of the aircraft."</p><p>More turbulence doesn't have to mean bumpier flights. Planes have more flexible wings than they used to, which reduces inflight jostling, and forecasting to help pilots avoid turbulence is improving.</p><p>New onboard <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ancient-civilizations-that-were-hiding-in-plain-sight-2023-1">lidar technology</a> can also use a laser to reveal clear-air turbulence ahead. For now, it's large and expensive, but Williams hopes one day it'll be small and cheap enough for all passenger planes. It's unclear if that technology will catch up with turbulence from climate change.</p><h2><strong>Worse weather brings more delays</strong></h2><p>Some parts of our flying future aren't necessarily dangerous or scary. They're just frustrating — like delays, which will likely worsen in our warming world.</p><p>Bad weather causes about 75% of air traffic delays in the US, according to the FAA, and mounting research indicates climate change is driving more severe thunderstorms, hurricanes, heat waves, wildfires, and hail in some places. In fact, heat alone could ground 23 times more passengers by 2050 — up to 185,000 people a year — a 2020 McKinsey <a target="_blank" href="https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/sustainability/our%20insights/will%20infrastructure%20bend%20or%20break%20under%20climate%20stress/will-infrastructure-bend-or-break-under-climate-stress-case-study-old.pdf">report</a> projected.</p><div type="image" title="plane silhouette rising in an orange sky beside a large bright sun" height="1500" width="2250" msid="112550813" hostid="261" sizebytes="42478"></div><p>In some cases, extreme heat can melt runways, like it did <a target="_blank" href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jul/18/uk-transport-operators-say-worst-heatwave-problems-yet-to-come">at a UK airport</a> in 2022. A more common issue, though, is that extreme heat changes the calculus of takeoff. Planes must be lighter or have a longer runway to get enough lift in extremely hot air, which means that on especially hot days, airlines may have to ditch some cargo and, therefore, some <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://aviationweek.com/business-aviation/airports-fbos-suppliers/rising-temperatures-aircraft-payload-range-affects&amp;sa=D&amp;source=docs&amp;ust=1723680874028451&amp;usg=AOvVaw3MPUhWiESTacjTr67H9iJV">revenue</a>.</p><p>Then, there are cases like the Canadian wildfires in June 2023, which reduced visibility in the Northeast US so much that it delayed hundreds of flights.</p><div type="image" title="airplane nose emerges on smoky dark low visibility airport runway" height="1500" width="2249" msid="112550810" hostid="261" sizebytes="26472"></div><p>Changing weather patterns are already increasing flight delays in Europe, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.iata.org/en/iata-repository/publications/economic-reports/weather-related-operational-disruptions-are-rising/">according</a> to the International Air Transport Association. The memo warns that these weather delays have "a cost impact" for airlines and travelers alike.</p><p>Even if bad weather doesn't cause delays, it can cost money. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/why-airlines-are-struggling-despite-record-travel-demand-profits-revenue-2024-6">Airlines are already struggling to turn profits</a>. The climate crisis won't help. Think of the astronomical air conditioning required to cool an airport and the planes at its gates on a hot day.</p><p>In its June global <a target="_blank" href="https://www.iata.org/en/iata-repository/publications/economic-reports/global-outlook-for-air-transport-june-2024-report/">outlook</a>, IATA wasn't shy about the issue: "The industry's profitability is still fragile, leaving meager buffers with which to absorb the rising costs of climate change and decarbonization."</p><p>Airports are likely to pass their costs on to airlines by increasing their landing fees, "which then get passed on to passengers however airlines can do it," Robert W. Mann, an airline industry consultant and former airline executive, told BI.</p><h2><strong>Buckle up and expect delays</strong></h2><p>This all means that you should brace for flying to become more annoying and possibly even scary at times.</p><p>"Passengers will need to pack patience when they board aircraft" and heed instructions about wearing seatbelts, Veronica Cote, an associate professor of aviation science at Bridgewater State University and a former pilot, told BI in an email.</p><p>Despite the complexity of aviation and the ever-changing atmosphere, Cote added, airlines still run "tens of thousands of operations daily <strong><em>safely</em>.</strong>"</p><p>Even before the incident in Athens, Zeiher felt anxious while flying. She doesn't like the lack of control, and takeoffs scare her. She's even experienced extreme turbulence.</p><p>Still, she's undeterred.</p><p>"I'll continue flying. I enjoy travel, so you have to," Zeiher said. "They come hand in hand."</p><p><em>Taylor Rains contributed reporting.</em></p>

Flying is about to become even more miserable

Artificial intelligence has its hands in nearly every industry, from chatbots to healthcare, and one of the AI world's favorite new tools is <keyword id="20280828" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="whisper" source="keywords">Whisper</keyword>, a transcription program developed by <keyword id="19918823" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="OpenAI" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="OpenAI" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="OpenAI">OpenAI</keyword>. Whisper’s main selling point is that it supposedly delivers near “human-level robustness and accuracy,” as the company claims. But there’s a major catch — Whisper has a habit of “hallucinating.”<br /><br />If you’re picturing an AI tool hallucinating psychedelic visuals, it’s not quite like that. Hallucinations in AI transcriptions mean the tool has a tendency to make up words, phrases, and even entire sentences. Whisper has been known to slip in racial commentary, violent ideas, or medical jargon that no one actually said. And when used in sensitive settings like hospitals, these “creative” additions can be more than an oddity — they could be downright dangerous.<br /><h2>The hospital risk factor</h2>Several developers and researchers have found these hallucinations are worryingly frequent. In hospitals, transcription software like Whisper is being trialed to record patient-doctor conversations. It seems like a great idea — automated transcriptions could give healthcare professionals more time to focus on patients instead of endless paperwork. But as Allison Koenecke, a professor at Cornell, points out, nearly 40% of these hallucinations could lead to misinterpretations. And, as Alondra Nelson, former director at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said, “Nobody wants a misdiagnosis. There should be a higher bar.”<br /><br />In <keyword id="23715899" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="medical-transcriptions" source="keywords">medical transcriptions</keyword>, even one mistaken word can be serious. One version of Whisper, for example, took the phrase, “He, the boy, was going to, I’m not sure exactly, take the umbrella,” and turned it into something alarming: “He took a big piece of a cross, a teeny, small piece… I’m sure he didn’t have a terror knife so he killed a number of people.” Disturbing additions like these could leave hospital staff baffled or, worse, could result in patient notes that entirely misrepresent a consultation.<br /><div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="111165894" title="Scientists find speech-to-text AI randomly adding violent language such as &amp;quot;terror,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;knife&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;killed&amp;quot; to audio transcription" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Researchers have analysed thousands of audio samples and found that hallucinations often appear in well-recorded clips, not just in low-quality recordings or when there’s lots of background noise. For instance, when someone said, “After she got the telephone, he began to pray,” Whisper turned it into “I feel like I’m going to fall, I feel like I’m going to fall…” In other cases, it has fabricated nonexistent medications, like “hyperactivated antibiotics,” or injected racial commentary where none existed.<br /><br />Hospitals aren’t the only ones using Whisper — its transcriptions are popping up in call centers, video captions, and consumer voice assistants. In each case, hallucinations could lead to confusion and miscommunication, particularly for those who rely on accuracy, such as the Deaf and hard of hearing community. Whisper can bury made-up text in long transcriptions, meaning someone reviewing the text may struggle to spot which parts are hallucinated, experts warn.<br /><h2>Legal and ethical backlash</h2>With hospitals and health centers pushing forward with Whisper tools, former OpenAI engineer William Saunders believes OpenAI should address this flaw urgently. He points out, “It’s problematic if you put this out there and people are overconfident about what it can do and integrate it into all these other systems.”<br /><br />As usage grows, so do privacy concerns. California State Assembly member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, who recently refused to allow a health provider to share her child’s medical recordings with OpenAI’s biggest investor, Microsoft Azure, expressed frustration about tech companies handling sensitive data. "The release was very specific that for-profit companies would have the right to have this,” Bauer-Kahan said. “I was like, ‘absolutely not.’”<br /><div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="114683256" title="&amp;quot;Jarvis, you there?&amp;quot;: Google&amp;#39;s new AI agent might take over your web browser and carry out tasks on your behalf" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>Despite the troubling feedback, OpenAI has been receptive to researchers’ findings. The company is working to address the hallucination issue, but they’ve also issued a warning: Whisper should not be used in “high-risk domains.” Yet, companies like Nabla, which offers Whisper-based tools to transcribe medical appointments, continue to integrate it. Nabla’s approach erases the original audio for “data safety reasons,” meaning hospitals may have no way to verify transcripts.<br /><br />Whisper’s hallucinations are a stark reminder that <keyword id="21222445" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="AI-in-healthcare" source="keywords">AI in healthcare</keyword> isn’t foolproof. The conversation about AI transcription flaws is picking up steam, with experts pushing for regulations and OpenAI encouraged to prioritise fixes. While AI is undeniably changing industries, sometimes its creative input needs a reality check — especially in life-and-death fields like medicine.<br />

OpenAI's tools are making up stuff in hospital transcriptions; can be dangerous for patients, experts warn

A recent study suggests that lingering <keyword id="23667455" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="SARS-CoV-2-proteins" source="keywords">SARS-CoV-2 proteins</keyword> in the blood of <keyword id="20537242" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="long-COVID" source="keywords">long COVID</keyword> sufferers could be a key factor in their ongoing symptoms. This discovery offers new insights into the complex nature of long COVID and potentially points towards new treatment strategies.<br /><br />Researchers at Harvard-affiliated <keyword id="23667458" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Brigham-and-Womens-Hospital" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="Brigham and Women’s Hospital" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="Brigham and Women’s Hospital">Brigham and Women’s Hospital</keyword> analysed blood samples from 706 individuals who had previously tested positive for COVID-19. They found that those experiencing a wide range of long COVID symptoms were twice as likely to have traces of SARS-CoV-2 proteins in their blood compared to those without symptoms.<br /><br />The study, published in the journal <em><keyword id="23667460" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="clinical-microbiology" source="keywords">Clinical Microbiology</keyword> and Infection</em>, focused on individuals with long COVID symptoms affecting three major body systems: cardiopulmonary, musculoskeletal, and neurologic. A staggering 43% of these patients tested positive for viral proteins within 1 to 14 months of their initial COVID infection.<br /><br />These findings suggest that a persistent viral infection may be contributing to long COVID symptoms in some patients. If this is the case, <keyword id="23667457" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="antiviral-treatments" source="keywords">antiviral treatments</keyword> could potentially alleviate their suffering. The study’s lead author, Zoe Swank, emphasised the importance of identifying patients who may benefit from such interventions.<br /><br />However, the researchers also noted that persistent viral proteins were not detected in all long COVID patients. This suggests that other factors, such as <keyword id="21736950" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="immune-system-dysfunction" source="keywords">immune system dysfunction</keyword>, may also play a role in the development of long COVID symptoms.<br /><br />To better understand the mechanisms underlying long COVID, researchers are conducting further studies to analyse blood samples and symptom data from larger groups of patients. These efforts aim to identify specific factors that may predispose individuals to persistent viral infections and long COVID symptoms.<br /><br />The discovery of a potential <keyword id="23667459" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="viral-reservoir" source="keywords">viral reservoir</keyword> in long COVID patients offers hope for the development of targeted treatments. By addressing the underlying cause of symptoms, antiviral medications could provide relief for many individuals suffering from this debilitating condition. As research continues, a clearer picture of long COVID and its potential treatments is emerging, offering hope for a future where this persistent illness can be effectively managed.<br />  <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="105896840" title="Covid virus can persist in lungs for up to two years: Study" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div><br />

SARS-CoV-2 proteins have been found hiding in blood of long COVID patients. Can this explain the persistent infection?

<p>The <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/power-players-commercial-space-startup-leaders-industry-virgin-galactic-relativity-2022-4">commercial space industry</a> has boomed in recent years, with companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin leading the pack.</p><p>Their respective founders, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-science-fiction-nasa-colonize-colony-planets-solar-system-2021-6">Elon Musk</a> and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-stepping-down-amazon-ceo-space-2021-2">Jeff Bezos</a>, essentially share the same dream: to expand humanity's reach and build human settlements beyond Earth.</p><p>But they each have different ideas of how to get us there.</p><p><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-colonization-human-survival-radiation-food-biosphere-2018-4">Musk has his sights on Mars</a>, saying he wants to establish a permanent, self-sustaining human colony of one million people on the red planet by 2050. SpaceX is helping him toward that goal.</p><p>Meanwhile, Bezos wants to build enormous space stations that would allow <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-solar-system-mozart-einstein-37-000-serial-killers-2023-12">a trillion humans to live throughout the solar system</a>. Though he's said he won't see them built in his lifetime, Bezos founded Blue Origin for the purpose of making his vision come to life.</p><p>Both billionaires' aspirations come with major <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gaping-holes-elon-musk-and-jeff-bezos-space-plans-2019-7">technical, scientific, and ethical hurdles.</a> But according to experts in architecture, astrobiology, artificial gravity, and reproductive health, one vision is more realistic.</p><h2 id="d8efbcdf-65d0-4782-ab2d-8d2830ccaf1a">Construction</h2><div type="image" title="Collage with a Martian city on the top and an O'Neill cylinder on the bottom." height="1080" width="1440" msid="112109338" hostid="261" sizebytes="187956"></div><p>Establishing habitats where humans can not only live, but thrive, is the biggest challenge in both billionaires' visions.</p><p>If you ask independent architect Anthony Longman which world is more feasible to build, <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-plan-colonize-space-experts-say-2024-6">Bezos' space stations</a> are the way to go in the long-run because you can make them Earth-like more easily than an entire planet.</p><p>Musk's long-term vision is to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-just-quashed-elon-musks-plans-to-make-mars-habitable-for-humans-2018-7">terraform Mars</a> by giving it a thicker atmosphere with breathable oxygen and a protective magnetic field to shield from harmful space radiation, so that one day humans could live on and explore Mars's surface like on Earth.</p><p>Longman thinks transforming an entire planet is too challenging, which is why he says <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/obama-protect-earth-colonizing-mars-starship-launch-musk-bezos-space-2024-3">colonizing Mars</a> is "not a good idea." Bezos' space stations could be built to resemble Earth more easily — no massive terraforming necessary.</p><p>The scale Bezos envisions for these space stations, however, is unlike anything ever built. They would resemble a '70s concept called <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-reveals-blue-origin-future-space-plans-2019-5">O'Neill colonies</a> — enormous cylinders measuring 20 miles long and four miles wide that could hold a million people.</p><p>Longman has his own concept for <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-deep-space-habitat-plan-2015-12">space habitats</a> designed to house just 8,000 people. While he thinks that building a massive station like what Bezos imagines is more realistic, it's too big to be feasible near-term.</p><p>"I'm not saying they won't be built, but I think it will probably be some hundreds of years before we're able to build anything at that scale," Longman said.</p><p>With that said, Bezos is still the winner of this round.</p><p><strong>Score: Bezos 1, Musk 0.</strong></p><h2 id="649e0bf2-a7fd-49ae-87b9-49f6e33dd6c4">Food and agriculture</h2><div type="image" title="plants in space" height="2848" width="4288" msid="112109346" hostid="261" sizebytes="472742"></div><p>Aside from shelter, having enough food is crucial. But <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronauts-share-successful-harvest-of-fresh-vegetables-2021-4">growing food off-world</a> is challenging since crops have evolved in Earth's conditions.</p><p>Scientists have already <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-astronauts-growing-chile-peppers-space-station-crew-diet-2021-7">grown a few crops on the International Space Station</a>, including tomatoes and lettuce. But scaling up production to feed millions requires more research, astrobiologist Rebeca Gonçalves told BI.</p><p>"We need to develop these very safe, closed-loop, self-sufficient agricultural systems," Gonçalves said. She thinks this will be easier on Mars than in space.</p><p>That's because a planet already has a surface where humans can grow food, she said. In space, you'd have to build farms from scratch, and likely need to venture out to <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/billionaires-companies-going-to-space-need-rules-2024-3">mine water and minerals from asteroids</a>. Mars, on the other hand, has soil and water ice on its surface.</p><p>The challenge on Mars will be developing an agricultural system that can sustain crops in Martian conditions.</p><p>Researchers have already made progress toward that goal, successfully growing food in lunar regolith, and<strong> </strong>Gonçalves is working to develop a closed-loop, self-sustaining agricultural system for Martian colonies.</p><p>"If I had to pick a billionaire's vision of the future, I would definitely go with Elon Musk's Martian colony," Gonçalves told BI.</p><p><strong>Score: Bezos 1, Musk 1.</strong></p><h2 id="615f77df-473f-4090-ae8a-9bdca4def00d">Artificial gravity</h2><div type="image" title="zero gravity" height="851" width="1280" msid="112109353" hostid="261" sizebytes="111628"></div><p>The human body has evolved to exist in Earth gravity and doesn't adapt too well to low or zero gravity. <a target="_blank" href="https://affiliate.insider.com?h=107755f559d855eb49ae0cbf666982cd593b6b8ba9342b0336d9ace323b517be&amp;postID=66a156c9d290cb433ad22a22&amp;postSlug=elon-musk-mars-colonies-vs-jeff-bezos-space-station-realistic-2024-7&amp;site=bi&amp;u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nature.com%2Farticles%2Fs41526-022-00194-8">Researchers have found</a> that spending weeks to months in space can lead to muscle and bone loss, vision problems, and even kidney stones.</p><p>That means a space or Mars colony would need <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-tourism-microgravity-effects-damage-body-blue-origin-virgin-galactic-2021-5">artificial gravity</a> to keep residents healthy. Mars has some built-in gravity already — about 38% of what we experience on Earth. But a space station would need to start from scratch.</p><p>That's why Rachael Seidler thinks Musk's <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-map-show-where-humans-will-live-on-mars-2018-3">Martian cities</a> are a better bet than Bezos' space stations. Reaching Earth-like gravity on Mars might be easier since it's already over a third of the way there.</p><p>"Artificial gravity is thought to be very difficult to implement in space," Seidler, a professor of applied physiology and kinesiology at the University of Florida who studies astronauts, told BI.</p><p>Bezos' enormous 20-mile-long stations would rotate to simulate Earth's gravity. But getting that sort of goliath up and running is too far-fetched for Seidler.</p><p>Scientists are already looking into <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://space.innovationkyoto.org/2022/07/14/kyoto_kajima_pressrelease/?lang=en">building artificial gravity</a> on places like Mars.</p><p>So, Musk wins this round.</p><p><strong>Score: Bezos 1, Musk 2.</strong></p><h2 id="895473e5-3866-416c-ad64-6957935f3c80">Category 4: Human reproduction</h2><div type="image" title="Human fetus at 7 months, computer illustration" height="1499" width="1999" msid="112109342" hostid="261" sizebytes="36466"></div><p>If we're going to establish a longstanding colony off world, reproduction will be necessary.</p><p>A Russian experiment in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wired.com/2007/10/cockroach-birth/">2007</a> showed us that giving birth and <a target="_blank" class="" href=" https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-denies-volunteering-sperm-to-start-a-martian-colony-2024-7">conceiving in space</a> is at least possible after a cockroach named Hope birthed 33 baby roaches and one of those roaches later conceived during the mission.</p><p>However, cockroaches aren't humans, and a lot of questions remain around how <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/space-tourists-sex-pregnancy-risk-2023-8">space radiation and low gravity would affect a developing fetus</a> since we've never sent a pregnant person to space, and likely won't for a long time given the potential risks.</p><p>Even here on Earth in fully-equipped hospitals, giving birth can be dangerous.</p><p>So, both Musk's Martian colony and Bezos' space stations would have to be equipped with healthcare systems identical to those on Earth, if not better, said Adam Watkins, a professor of reproductive biology at the University of Nottingham.</p><p>It's not clear to Watkins whether space stations or Mars cities would be a better place for giving birth — they may both come with equal risk. But Watkins thinks it's likely that Musk would achieve <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/humans-gave-birth-space-earth-giant-alien-heads-2019-7">off-world human reproduction</a> before Bezos since Musk is already working on establishing his space colony before the end of this century.</p><p>"I think establishment of human colonies on Mars is more likely to occur before we have significant human colonies established on large structures in space," he said later in an email to BI.</p><p><strong>Score: Bezos 1, Musk 3.</strong></p><h2 id="de680355-a723-463f-9935-43bc69adaca3">The winner is: Musk's Martian Colony</h2><div type="image" title="Elon Musk cheering with his arms in the air." height="791" width="1024" msid="112109350" hostid="261" sizebytes="29000"></div><p>The majority of experts BI spoke with agreed that Musk's Martian colony is more feasible than Bezos' enormous space stations.</p><p>But neither of these billionaires are anywhere close to making these dreams a reality. It will take decades — if not centuries — of innovation to build the technology that would allow humans to live safely beyond Earth.</p><p><a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/barack-obama-jeff-bezos-space-exploration-colonization-save-earth-2024-3">Should we instead focus on caring for our home planet</a>? Is it worth the billions of dollars we'll spend to get there? Will humans really <em>want </em>to leave Earth? The experts BI spoke with raised all these questions and more.</p><p>But if you ask Musk and Bezos, colonizing space is humanity's destiny. Through <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-build-superpowered-dragon-spaceship-scrap-nasa-space-station-2024-7">SpaceX</a> and <a target="_blank" class="" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-faa-spacex-starship-super-heavy-launches-2024-6">Blue Origin</a>, they're laying the groundwork for our great expansion.</p>

You Searched For "hospitalizations" and got 11 results

Bird flu was detected in a pig, and it could be a tipping point threatening more human transmission

Morgan McFall-Johnsen

A lot more animals are alcoholics than we thought! Here’s how they get their booze

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Chip giant Nvidia wants to bring robots to the hospital

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SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew returns to Earth victorious, making huge gains in Elon Musk's plans to send humans to Mars

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