Where do failed and defunct tech products go when they die?  In most cases, the answer to that question is that there really isn't one answer, but for historians of Google's many felled initiatives, remembrance is now only a click away.

At killedbygoogle.com, the brainchild of coder, Cody Ogden, all of the search giant's killed or soon-to-be killed products, including, apps, services, and hardware, are compiled in a list that reads less like a ledger and more like an actual graveyard.

Ogden in a recent blog post: 'We grow accustomed to the apps, services, and devices we use as a part of our routine.  We come to know their characteristics, their quirks, and like a relationship, it deeply affects us, even for years after they are no longer with us.'

The extensive burial ground contains 149 different apps, services, and types of hardware that run the gamut of Google products, ranging from the company's ill-fated social platform, Google+, to lesser known -- or almost entirely unknown -- offerings like BebaPlay, an electronic ticketing platform in Nairobi, Kenya.

Since the website's creation, fans and critics of Google's deceased products have taken to Reddit to opine about which products they remember fondly and which they might be better off without.

'Google Reader was the biggest loss.  It was a really handy RSS/Atom feed aggregator.  Still miss it these days and nothing comes close.  Even Feedly (which is paid),' said one user.

'I'm pissed about Inbox.  I love it.  And even though Google says they've incorporated Inbox's features into Gmail...  They haven't.  The bulk sweep of emails isn't there, and that's what made Inbox great,' griped another.

The website's creation comes on the heels of several announcements from Google in March that spell the end of three relatively well-known services.  Among them are Allo, Google's messaging service launched in 2016, a Google's URL shortener, and Google Inbox, an email service with a loyal following that is set to be discontinued on April 2.

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NASA could have humans back on the moon within the next five years under the latest orders from the Trump administration.  Vice President Mike Pence revealed the new deadline during a speech at the fifth meeting of the National Space Council in Huntsville, Alabama on 26 March, where he told an audience that the president wants astronauts to touch down on the lunar south pole by 2024.

The VP called on NASA to ‘reignite the spark of urgency’ for space exploration and make it a priority to set ‘bold goals’ and stay on schedule.  This accelerated timeline, however will undoubtedly be met with many challenges; just weeks ago NASA said it was on schedule to have humans on the moon by 2028 – a full four years later than the new target.

NASA’s plans to send humans to the moon rely on its upcoming Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the Orion crew capsule.  But, SLS has faced numerous delays over the years, and the agency just recently revealed it will not be ready for the uncrewed Exploration Mission-1, which will serve as crucial proving ground for subsequent missions with crew on board.  Despite the mounting obstacles, the Trump administration says it's eyeing a much sooner deadline than NASA had previously planned for.

The Vice President said on 26 March: 'Since the end of Apollo 11, we’ve forged incredible breakthroughs in our technology that have allowed us to go further, more safely in space than ever before.  We have the technology to go the moon and renew American leadership in human space exploration.  Just as the United States was the first nation to reach the moon in the 20th century, so too will we be the first nation to return astronauts to the moon in the 21st century.'

The administration is recommending a 'major course correction' for NASA to prioritize human presence on the moon.  Speaking 'on behalf of the president,' Pence said it is the administration's stated policy to put American astronauts on the moon within the next five years.  The administration is now calling on NASA to 'embrace a new mindset.'

Pence said: 'That begins with setting bold goals and staying on schedule.  To reach the moon in the next five years we must select our destinations now.  NASA already knows that the lunar south pole holds great economic and strategic value.  Now it’s time to commit and go there.'

Going there won't be easy, though, and NASA has already been struggling to meet its deadlines.  Instead of using its own SLS rocket for the initial uncrewed tests, for example, NASA said that it may instead have to use a commercially developed rocket in order to stay on schedule.

SLS and Orion were expected to be ready for their first uncrewed test flight in 2020.  Though it has not yet named a company that could provide a substitute for SLS, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy and United Launch Alliance's Delta IV are essentially the only contenders.  Even with this solution, though, the plan will require extensive workarounds.

While NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) would be able to boost Orion and the European Service Module to orbit on its own, there’s no rocket currently in existence capable of doing that.  To get the two components into orbit around the moon as planned, NASA will need two heavy-lift rockets – one to launch Orion and ESM, and a second to launch an upper stage that will dock with Orion in Earth’s orbit and give it a boost to the moon.

Pence's statement today comes as a baffling departure from the agency's previously discussed plans.

Construction on the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway – an orbiting lunar outpost that will facilitate human exploration – isn't expected to begin until 2022 at the earliest.

And in a statement at the beginning of this month on the $21 billion 2020 budget, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said NASA is currently on track to have humans back on the moon by 2028.  ‘Beginning with a series of small commercial delivery missions to the Moon as early as this year, we will use new landers, robots and eventually humans by 2028 to conduct science across the entire lunar surface,’ Bridenstine said at the time.

Now, NASA will be working under a much tighter deadline, giving it less time to come up with the technology necessary to get humans, safely, to the surface of the moon.  But so far, NASA doesn't appear to be shying away from the challenge.

'This agency is up to the task.  We are going to do everything we can to meet it,' Bridenstine said in response to the vice president's new recommendation. ''

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A range of robots capable of instantly making sushi at the touch of a button has been created by engineers.  The machines do not require the years of training and hard-work needed for a human to become an accomplished sushi chef but can churn out the fishy delicacies relentlessly.  Sushi-making firm AUTEC say the device can create 2,400 nigiri rice balls and 200 sushi rolls per hour.

Monk Conveyors, based in the UK, manufactures the AUTEC robots.  They are capable of making a wide-range of Japanese food, including rice balls and sushi rolls.

Rice is moulded inside a rotating container and poured out flat in the form of various sheets.  A plethora of ingredients can be added to the process to create different recipes, such as sashimori, nori and vegetables.  It can then also wrap, package and cut them ready for serving.

The designers of the products say they are intended to be used alongside human chefs in cafeterias and chain restaurants.  They are available to buy in the UK but may be imported from Japan for delivery in two to eight weeks.

Automation is making its way into the food industry as restaurateurs and companies try to minimise costs and maximise efficiency.

'Flippy' the one-armed robot chef hit headlines when it was 'fired' for being unable to work with humans.  The one-armed robot chef has been re-tooled and is now flipping 300 burgers a day, seven days a week at Caliburger in Pasadena, California, its developers say.  It ran into problems after being unable to work in sync with its human colleagues and continuously placing cooked burgers on the wrong trays.  The robot also attracted so much national interest that the CaliBurger was struggling to keep up with the crowds.

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Future footballers may look more like the slender bodied Marcus Rashford than the stockier looking Wayne Rooney, scientists say.

Significant changes to footballers' body shapes due to improvements to football pitches and increased workload, researchers have found.  The new, better maintained pitches favour leaner body types than the muscular physiques of older generation of players.   These changes have reportedly created leaner and more slender body shapes in footballers.

Muscle and power, epitomised by the likes of Alan Shearer, Emile Heskey and Wayne Rooney – have been replaced by the lean, slender physiques of today's top players such as Jamie Vardy, Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford, say scientist.

A new report led by University of Wolverhampton sports scientists, reveals that the well-maintained pitches of today, along with tough new training regimes, have had a major impact on the evolution of footballers' body shapes.

Lead researcher Professor Alan Nevill, at the University of Wolverhampton, said: 'Footballers of today have adapted to the modern game, and as a result their body shape has altered.  Today's players are more like endurance athletes than power athletes.  To compete at today's high levels, they are also working harder and harder so are much leaner.

Modern players are ectomorphic, characterised by a lean, slender body, as opposed to the muscular, mesomorphic builds which were more common in the seventies and eighties.  A lot of this can be attributed to the increased quality of playing surfaces where footballers train and compete.  Modern pitches are immaculate and well-maintained and not the mud baths that they used to be.  Pitches used to get very heavy and soggy, particularly in mid-winter, which accounted for players being bulkier and more muscular.'

The findings, which examined more than 2,600 top-division players also showed a dramatic decrease in BMI, which Professor Nevill believes is an indication of leaner body mass.  The researchers examined how body size, shape and age characteristics had changed for footballers since the 1970s.  Findings showed footballers have steadily been getting taller, with an average height increase of 1cm per decade.

In the most recent decade, however, footballers are now also lighter and nimbler, which researchers have put down to less muddy pitch surfaces favouring leaner body shapes.

Professor Nevill added: 'Body shape is clearly important and English professional clubs might be advised to attract young, less muscular, more angular players as part of their talent identification and development programmes to improve future chances of success.  In an industry that is so financially competitive, any advantage that can be gained has the potential to positively influence future performance.'

Last December, Manchester United star Romelu Lukaku himself blamed his poor form at the start of this season on being too muscular.  The researchers say it also has implications for the identification and development of talent to increase England's chances of future success.

The full report was published in the International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching.

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Thousands of newly discovered fossils of showing stunning details of sea organisms have been unearthed in China.  They represent a range of species that lived as far back as 518 million years ago, during a time where there was a surge in life forms on Earth.

These new finds could reveal new details early life during that period which is known as the Cambrian Explosion, say scientists.

Paleontologists found the fossils in rocks on the bank of the Danshui River in the Hubei province of southern China.  Amongst the fossils, primitive forms of jellyfish, sponges, anemones, worms, algae, tiny invertebrates called kinorhynchs or mud dragons and arthropods were found.

Scientists believe the rocks show what was in a mudslide that took place more than 500 million years ago when life on Earth experienced a massive burst of diversity in life forms known as the Cambrian explosion.

The 4,351 separate fossils excavated so far include 101 species, with 53 of them previously unknown to scientists.  More than 50 per cent of the discoveries are thought to be previously unknown species, the study published in the journal Science on 21 March.

Unlike other Cambrian fossil troves, the Qingjiang site is unique in that it not only includes well-preserved fossils but soft-bodied organisms as well, the study states.  According to the authors, the unique aspects of Qingjiang have the potential to greatly inform the understanding of early animal evolution.

Dr Allison Daley, a paleontologist with an interest in the Cambrian Explosion at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, was not part of the study but wrote a perspective that accompanied the study.  She wrote: 'The treasure trove of the Qinjiang biota provides an exciting opportunity to explore how paleoenvironmental conditions influenced ecological structuring and evolutionary drivers during the Cambrian Explosion.'

Researchers say the discovery in China may rival previous fossil hauls, such as the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rocky Mountains in 1909, Chengjiang in China and Emu Bay Shale in Australia.  The site in Burgess dates back to 508 million years ago and includes well-preserved fossils that show evidence of animal's skin, eyes, gut and brains.  Scientists will be studying the recent Chinese discoveries to try and work out what they can reveal about early life on earth.

The full report was published in the journal Science.

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Images which appear to be of a strange handful of pink marbles in a patch of mud are actually the eggs of a legless amphibian.  The pictures show the little see-through balls which contain the creatures which belong to the Chikilidae family, related to the salamander.

The chikilidae is a caecilian, the most primitive of three amphibian groups that also includes frogs.  Because they live hidden underground, not much is known about them unlike their more famous - and vocal - amphibious cousins, the frogs.  In adult form, they look a lot like worms or a miniature snake, despite having a spine.  They do have eyes, but their sight is extremely limited as they spend most of their time underground.

The species was discovered in 2012 in India, giving more evidence that the region is a hotbed of amphibian life with habitats worth protecting.  Biju said in an interview at the time: 'This is a major hotspot of biological diversity, but one of the least explored.  We hope this new family will show the importance of funding research in the area.  We need to know what we have, so we can know what to save.'

The female brood with the eggs for 2-3 months, and researchers think the adults don't feed during this time.  When they finally hatch, there's no larval stage - like frogs tend to have with tadpoles.  Instead, they emerge as small adults and squirm away.  They grow to about 10 centimeters, and can ram their skulls through some of the region's tougher soils

The chikilidae's 2012 discovery brings the number of known caecilian families in the world to 10.  Three are in India and others are spread across the tropics in Southeast Asia, Africa and South America.

Only 186 of the world's known amphibious species are caecilians, compared with more than 6,000 frog species - a third of which are considered endangered.

They are harmless feed on worms and insects that might harm crops; and they churn the soil as they moves underground.

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Seventeen of 58 species evaluated were classified as facing extinction, the Shark Specialist Group of the International Union for the Conservation (IUCN) said on 21 March in an update of the Red List of threatened animals and plants.

Nicholas Dulvy, who chaired the grouping of 174 experts from 55 countries said: 'Our results are alarming.  The sharks that are especially slow-growing, sought-after and unprotected from overfishing tend to be the most threatened.'

That category includes the shortfin mako, whose cruising speed of 40 km/h - punctuated by bursts of more than 70 km/h - makes it the fastest of all sharks.  Along with its longfin cousin, the two makos are highly prized for their flesh and fins, considered a delicacy in Chinese and other Asian culinary traditions.

Dulvy told AFP: 'Today, one of the biggest shark fisheries on the high seas is the mako.  It is also one of the least protected.'

In May, nations will vote on a proposal by Mexico to list the shortfin mako on Appendix II of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.  An Appendix II status would not ban fishing or trade, but would regulate it.

Six of the species reviewed were listed as 'critically endangered,' three for the first time: the whitefin swellshark, the Argentine angel shark, and the smoothback angel shark.  Eleven others were classified as either 'endangered' or 'vulnerable' to extinction.

The IUCN's shark group is conducting a two-year review of more than 400 species of sharks.

For land animals, conservation biologists focus on population size and geographic range in assessing extinction threat.  For sharks and other marine animals they use another approach, looking instead at how quickly populations decline.  But that requires a benchmark, especially for pelagic—or open ocean—species, Dulvy explained.

Only within the last 10 years have scientists been able to establish one, partly with the help of tuna fisheries that began to keep tallies of sharks by-catch.

'A decade on, we now know that the situation is way worse than we ever thought,' Dulvy said.

Ironically, fisheries management organisations doing a better job in policing tuna catches have increased the incentive for fishermen to target sharks for extra income.

'In the Indian Ocean'—along coastlines in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal—'the tuna fishery is really a shark fishery with tuna by-catch,' Dulvy said.

In light of its new findings, the Shark Specialist Group is calling for 'immediate national and international fishing limits, including complete bans on landing those species assessed as 'endangered' or 'critically endangered',' said Sonja Fordham, deputy chair of the group and an officer at The Ocean Foundation.

Sharks have lorded over the world's oceans for some 400 million years, playing a critical role in global food chains.  But the top-level predators have proven especially vulnerable to human predation: they grow slowly, become sexually mature relatively late in life, and produce few offspring.  The greeneye spurdog—newly classified as endangered—has a gestation period of nearly three years, the longest in the animal kingdom.

A 2013 peer-review study estimated that upward of 100 million sharks are fished every year to satisfy a market for their fins, meat, and liver oil.  More than half of shark species and their relatives are categorised as threatened or near-threatened with extinction.

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Researchers say they've developed a new method of powering electric cars that successfully balances zero-emission standards, increased capability, and potentially a fix to costly production.

Using water, carbon-dioxide, and cobalt, the new method is able to produce hydrogen that can be purposed for fuel, emitting only water vapor.  Once the hydrogen is produced in the new model, the gas goes to a fuel cell and is combined with oxygen from the atmosphere.  From there, the hydrogen can then be used to create electricity to power the vehicles motor, headlights, and more.

UMass Lowell Chemistry Department Chairman, Prof. David Ryan said in a statement: 'This process doesn't store any hydrogen gas, so it's safe and poses no transportation issues, greatly minimizing the possibility of a fire or explosion.  Hydrogen burns completely clean; it produces no carbon dioxide, only water.  You don't have to burn hydrogen to generate electricity.  Hydrogen can be used in fuel cells, in which it combines with oxygen from the air to produce electricity at up to 85 per cent efficiency.'

One major benefit to the new technology according to researchers is that unlike the current breed of electric vehicles, which rely on batteries that must be recharged semi-frequently and is viable only for smaller vehicles, this method would be capable of powering trucks, buses, and more.

Creators of the technology say that their method would also solve some of the major problems associated with using hydrogen fuel as a replacement for fossil fuels.  Among the major fixes, they say, is cost.  Current methods of producing Hydrogen cost about three time as much as natural gas per unit of energy produced.

Ryan said: 'Since hydrogen is not mined or pumped out the ground like fossil fuels, we have to produce it.  Current methods of doing that are expensive and inefficient.  This, coupled with the lack of needed infrastructure, has hampered the transition from a petroleum to a hydrogen economy.'  

Developers of the technology already have a provisional patent on the method and are waiting to be awarded a full one.

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For the first time ever, a woman has been awarded the Abel Prize - one of the world's most prestigious international mathematics awards.

The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced that Karen Uhlenbeck of the University of Texas at Austin was this year's winner for her achievements in math and physics.  According to the jury who selected Uhlenbeck for the designation, of particular note is the mathematician's 'fundamental work in geometric analysis and gauge theory, which has dramatically changed the mathematical landscape.'

The prize, which comes with a more than $700,000 award, is named after Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel and is considered among global mathematicians to be the Nobel Prize of the field.

UT Austin President Gregory L. Fenves said: 'For more than three decades at The University of Texas, Karen Uhlenbeck conducted research that revolutionized geometric analysis and mathematics as a whole.  She was an inspiring teacher and dedicated mentor to thousands of UT students, motivating them to reach great heights in their academic and professional lives...'

Uhlenbeck is no stranger to accolades, having been the recipient of similar awards throughout her career.  In 1983, Uhlenbeck was chosen to be a MacArthur Fellow – known commonly as the genius award – and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2000.

Among Uhlenbeck's most influential and lasting works has to do with the study of soap film in an analysis of 'minimal surfaces' -- a surface with equal pressure on each side and a curvature of zero.

'Her pioneering insights have applications across a range of fascinating subjects, from string theory, which may help explain the nature of reality, to the geometry of space-time,' said Paul Goldbart, dean of the College of Natural Sciences and a professor of physics at UT Austin.

Throughout her career, Uhlenbeck has also been an advocate for bringing more women into her field, founding the Women and Mathematics Program at the Institute for Advanced Study for Princeton as well as the Distinguished Women in Mathematics Lecture Series at UT Austin.

'Seeing the success of students is its own reward,' said Uhlenbeck in a statement.

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A U.S. government-led group is working with chipmaker Intel Corp and Cray Inc to develop and build the nation's fastest computer by 2021 for conducting nuclear weapons and other research, officials said on Monday.

The Department of Energy and the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago said they are working on a supercomputer dubbed Aurora with Intel, the world's biggest supplier of data center chips, and Cray, which specializes in the ultra-fast machines.  The $500 million contract for the project calls on the companies to deliver a computer with so-called exaflop performance - that is, being able to perform 1 quintillion - or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 - calculations per second.

If the project succeeds, Aurora would represent nearly an order of magnitude leap over existing machines that feature so-called petaflop performance, capable of doing 1 quadrillion, or 1,000,000,000,000,000 - calculations a second.

It also heightens the stakes in a race in which the United States, China, the European Union, and Japan have all announced plans to build exaflop-capable supercomputers.

One of Aurora's primary functions would be simulating nuclear blasts, a pillar of weapons development since the ban of live detonation testings.

Rick Stevens, an associate lab director with Argonne overseeing the exascale computing project, said during a news briefing: Aurora will be built with artificial intelligence capabilities for projects such as developing better battery materials and helping the Veterans Administration prevent suicides.

The project is a win for Intel, which will supply its Xeon CPU chips and Optane memory chips for Aurora.

Intel has been fending off rival U.S. chipmaker Nvidia Corp's rise in the chip content of supercomputers as the machines take on more artificial intelligence work.  Nvidia's chips are found in five of the world's current top-10 supercomputers, though the Nvidia chips are found alongside chips from its rivals, according to TOP500, which ranks the machines.

The world's current most powerful machine, the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, contains chips from International Business Machines Corp and Nvidia.

The source of chips for supercomputers has become a factor in trade tensions between the United States and China.  The world's third-fastest supercomputer - the Sunway TaihuLight in China - has chips developed domestically in China.

Chirag Dekate, an analyst with Gartner who studies the supercomputing market, said that despite the small contract size relative to Intel's overall revenue, the work done on Aurora will eventually filter down to the company's commercial customers.  Dekate said: 'It's not just a jingoistic race between the U.S. and China.  The innovations that Intel is developing here will percolate down to other parts of its business.'

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