The Roman Space Telescope: The power of science and the bankruptcy of capitalism - World Socialist Web Site

In 1999, Ihara Science was on the verge of bankruptcy with ¥5 billion in revenue, ¥3.5 billion in accumulated losses, and ¥2.3 billion in debt. Takuo Nakano turned the company profitable in his first year, and by the time it was taken private in 2023, revenue had reached ¥22 billion with an operating margin above 20%. Most recently, revenue stands at approximately ¥30 billion with a management-level profit margin of 30%. His methodology boils down to two pillars: "arithmetic management" (halt spending → generate cash → create profit) and "philosophy-driven management" (creating value that inspires). On the program "Investor's Sunday," Nakano discussed achieving a 100% on-time delivery rate through date-ordered invoice processing, boosting productivity by 40% through profit visualization on the factory floor, pivoting from hydraulics to the semiconductor market, and shifting to "value-based pricing"—where customers accepted a price increase from ¥1,000 to ¥10,000 per product.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researcher Isaiah Santistevan led the development of three-dimensional simulations exploring how a nuclear device could deflect or disrupt an asteroid threatening Earth. Credit: Blaise Douros/LLNL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers are developing three-dimensional simulations to examine how a nuclear device could be used to deflect or potentially disrupt an asteroid threatening Earth.

Milky Way’s first microblazar candidate sits 12,000 light-years away, offering a rare ground-level lab for studying relativistic jetsA black hole 12,000 light-years away is firing a jet of plasma almost directly toward Earth. At that distance, no known or expected danger to Earth has been identified by the researchers or the institutions involved. What astronomers have actually found is rarer and more interesting than a threat. Researchers have identified IRAS 18293-0941 as a compelling candidate for the Milky Way’s first microblazar, a class of object that gives astrophysicists a close-up laboratory for studying some of the most violent physics in the galaxy. What Astronomers FoundThe discovery centers on a binary system whose black hole expels plasma jets at close to three-quarters the speed of light, pointed almost directly toward Earth. The system pairs a hot, massive star with a black hole that completes a full orbit roughly every 11.38 days. Material drawn from the companion star feeds the black hole, and some of that matter gets expelled outward as opposing jets traveling at approximately three-quarters the speed of light. Terminology matters here.