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Mars rover, Antitrust hearing, FDA warning and Corona sniffing dogs

Atlas V taking off
United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 rocket lifts off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
NASA has successfully launched its 2020 Mars Perseverance rover today. The launch took place on 30 July, 7:50 am EDT and was broadcasted live from NASA TV. Later in the day, the craft successful phoned home a signal to establish the connection and is now officially on the way to the Red Planet. Also on board is the Ingenuity helicopter which upon successful deployment after reaching target, would become the first ever man-made object to fly on Mars.
The rover has several upgrades this time when compared to the recent Curiosity rover. It contains a large robotic arm on the front side of the body which would help Perseverance collect rock core samples and save them for future studies by scientists. The arm is also capable of making drills and snapping close-up images for surface inspection and take selfies for engineering health checkups.
There is also an internal workspace inside the rover that can store sample tubes within a Sample Caching System. While on the move, the rover will benefit from the newly engineered wheels which are narrower and bigger to better absorb the wear and tear of the Martian surface and are made up of thicker aluminum the what was used in Curiosity's wheels.
Scientists claim the new Operating System board will also help manage the rover's daily activities more efficiently with greater independence. The rover would be able to cover more ground without consulting controllers on Earth so frequently and would be able to use its electrical power more autonomously for better speed and efficiency.

An unlikely union of the tech giants

On June 29, Four of the world's most powerful CEOs faced the US House of Representatives' antitrust subcommittee. The hearing was conducted over their alleged predatory business practices, theft of digital content and aggressive acquisitions of competing businesses. The CEOs in question were Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Apple's Tim Cook and Alphabet's Sundar Pichai. The hearing lasted for five and a half hours and was a culmination of a 13-month long investigation. You can watch the complete hearing here.
Among many other things, Google's Sundar Pichai was questioned over the company's decision to withdraw from a Pentagon project after some of its employees protested the undertaking. Among other accusations, Mr. Pichai was questioned about whether Google was lifting content from other websites to keep users within its search engine in order to make more money from add revenue and its methodology behind suggesting real estate listings at the top of search results when asked about local businesses, flights and hotels.
Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook was questioned over the decision to buy Instagram and several emails were presented that suggested Mr. Zuckerberg saw Instagram as a potential threat that needed to be dealt with. In one of the emails Zuckerberg also talked about potentially buying Google which he dismissed as a mere Joke.
Apple CEO Tim Cook had to answer why Apple pulled some parental control apps from its app-store shortly after it launched its own version of such apps. Further Apple was accused of "pandemic profiteering" for charging commission from apps like Airbnb and ClassPass after the companies shifted to selling virtual classes due to the current circumstances.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos's hearing was initially delayed for some time due to a technical glitch. Mr. Bezos was later questioned over how Amazon was using user and seller's data and evidence that Amazon used sellers' data to develop and promote its own house brand products.


Dogs might be able to sniff out Covid-19


According to a report in Bloomberg, German armed forces have trained eight dogs for a week to identify coronavirus cases. When the dogs were made to sniff the saliva of 1000 people, the dogs were able to detect the coronavirus cases among them with an accuracy of 94%. 

A professor from a veterinary university which was involved in the research said that this could be due to the different metabolism of the coronavirus patients. The dogs were apparently selected for the study as they have a smelling capacity 1000 times than that of an average human. In the next stage of the study, the researchers will try to train the dogs to differentiate between Covid-19 and other diseases like influenza.

FDA's warning over hangover remedies

The US Food and Drug Administration in a recent statement has warned several companies that specialize in anti-hangover products over selling unapproved products which are being marketed as supplements that claim to cure or treat hangovers, as they stand in violation of the Federal food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Read the full statement here.
The director of the FDA's Office of Dietary Supplement Programs said, “Dietary supplements that claim to cure, treat, mitigate or prevent hangovers could potentially harm consumers, especially young adults. Consumers may get the false impression that using these products can prevent or mitigate health problems caused by excessive drinking. Dietary supplements are not a substitute for responsibly limiting one’s alcohol consumption.” .

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