chandrayaan-3 gets closer to moon, all eyes on landing

<article><header><h1>Research Roundup: Six Science Stories That Almost Slipped Past, From Spooky Action to Building Homes on Mars With Yeast</h1><p class="byline">By Jennifer Ouellette</p></header><section><p>A roundup of recent research that did not make the front page: observations of spooky action at the Large Hadron Collider, evidence of psychoactive use during the Ice Age, and yeast-based methods for building structures on Mars.</p></section><section><p>The Ice Age finding is the most striking of the group. Trace evidence at an archaeological site in the Alps suggests people were deliberately using plants with psychoactive compounds, which substantially revises assumptions about ritual behaviour in Ice Age Europe.</p></section><section><p>The Mars work is more immediately practical, and more speculative: engineered yeast producing structural material could in principle replace the structural polymers that are the limiting factor for habitats built far from Earth.</p></section><section><p>The collider results continue a debate about whether quantum entanglement can be observed at distances where local interactions are ruled out. The measurements remain contested.</p></section><footer><p><em>Source: Ars Technica - Tech &amp; Innovation</em></p></footer></article>

Research Roundup: Six Science Stories That Almost Slipped Past, From Spooky Action to Building Homes on Mars With Yeast

A roundup of recent research that did not make the front page: observations of spooky action at the Large Hadron Collider, evidence of psychoactive use during the Ice Age, and yeast-based methods for building structures on Mars. The Ice Age finding is the

<article><header><h1>Lyft Settles Landmark Driver Misclassification Lawsuit for $272.5 Million, With Critics Saying Workers Are Owed Far More</h1><p class="byline">By Cyrus Farivar</p></header><section><p>Lyft has settled a long-running class action brought by drivers who argued they were misclassified as independent contractors, agreeing to pay $272.5 million.</p></section><section><p>The case addressed the central question in the gig economy: whether a platform&rsquo;s control over fares, routes and acceptance rates amounts to employment in law as well as in practice.</p></section><section><p>The settlement is significant both for the sum and for the precedent, having resisted the argument that the terms of driver agreements settled the matter contractually.</p></section><section><p>Critics argue the figure is inadequate relative to what workers are owed. The underlying accounting question &mdash; what drivers actually earn once vehicle costs and unpaid time are accounted for &mdash; remains unresolved and is likely to be litigated again.</p></section><footer><p><em>Source: Ars Technica - Tech &amp; Innovation</em></p></footer></article>

Lyft Settles Landmark Driver Misclassification Lawsuit for $272.5 Million, With Critics Saying Workers Are Owed Far More

Lyft has settled a long-running class action brought by drivers who argued they were misclassified as independent contractors, agreeing to pay $272.5 million. The case addressed the central question in the gig economy: whether a platform’s control over fa

<article><header><h1>Memory Executives Expect the RAM Shortage to Persist Through 2028 as AI Demand Absorbs Capacity</h1><p class="byline">By Scharon Harding</p></header><section><p>Memory executives now expect the shortage in RAM to continue through 2028, with prices for 2027 supply already being contracted at levels far above 2026.</p></section><section><p>The cause is the reallocation of manufacturing capacity toward high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators. Conventional DRAM and NAND have not become scarce through weak demand; they have become scarce because the lines that make them also make the more profitable product.</p></section><section><p>That distinction matters for everything downstream. Consumer devices, servers and automotive suppliers are all competing for output whose price is being set by a different market entirely.</p></section><section><p>Forecasts of this kind have been wrong before, because memory cycles are famously violent. But the current investment cycle required to add HBM capacity is long enough that oversupply is not an obvious near-term exit.</p></section><footer><p><em>Source: Ars Technica - Tech &amp; Innovation</em></p></footer></article>

Memory Executives Expect the RAM Shortage to Persist Through 2028 as AI Demand Absorbs Capacity

Memory executives now expect the shortage in RAM to continue through 2028, with prices for 2027 supply already being contracted at levels far above 2026. The cause is the reallocation of manufacturing capacity toward high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerat

<article><header><h1>Rocket Report: SpaceX Completes a Launch Triple-Header as Rocket Lab Lands a Major Contract and Blue Origin Seeks Launch Clearance</h1><p class="byline">By Stephen Clark</p></header><section><p>SpaceX has completed three launches in a single day, consolidating its position at a cadence that remains unmatched by any other operator.</p></section><section><p>Rocket Lab has separately secured a significant contract, continuing a run in which the company has moved decisively up the value chain rather than remaining a small-launch provider.</p></section><section><p>Blue Origin is seeking Federal Aviation Administration approval for up to 50 New Glenn launches and 50 booster landings per year, a request that would represent a step change in its activity.</p></section><section><p>Three companies are now proposing cadence figures that would have been implausible a decade ago, and the constraint on the industry is shifting from launch capacity toward the regulatory and infrastructure capacity to absorb it.</p></section><footer><p><em>Source: Ars Technica - Tech &amp; Innovation</em></p></footer></article>

Rocket Report: SpaceX Completes a Launch Triple-Header as Rocket Lab Lands a Major Contract and Blue Origin Seeks Launch Clearance

SpaceX has completed three launches in a single day, consolidating its position at a cadence that remains unmatched by any other operator. Rocket Lab has separately secured a significant contract, continuing a run in which the company has moved decisively

<article><header><h1>US Military Ends Long-Running Missile Detection Program as Satellite Replacement Becomes Operational</h1><p class="byline">By Eric Berger</p></header><section><p>The US military is retiring a long-running ground-based program for detecting missile launches, having shifted the task to a newer space-based capability that has been operational since 2011.</p></section><section><p>The programme is one of the oldest in the missile-warning architecture, and its retirement completes a transition that has been under way for more than a decade.</p></section><section><p>A further generation of satellites is expected to launch within 12 months, continuing the move of early-warning responsibility away from ground radar and towards orbit.</p></section><section><p>The change reduces the vulnerability of a capability that ground-based systems have always had, and puts more weight on a small number of satellites whose failure would be correspondingly consequential.</p></section><footer><p><em>Source: Ars Technica - Tech &amp; Innovation</em></p></footer></article>

US Military Ends Long-Running Missile Detection Program as Satellite Replacement Becomes Operational

The US military is retiring a long-running ground-based program for detecting missile launches, having shifted the task to a newer space-based capability that has been operational since 2011. The programme is one of the oldest in the missile-warning archi