General Electric : The GE Brief – August 16, 2018

Few planes inspire more awe than the Lockheed C-5 Galaxy - the largest plane in the U.S. Air Force. The Galaxy is fast, efficient and can carry two battle tanks across the Pacific Ocean in a matter of hours and on a single tank of jet fuel.

Upgraded Galaxy: Last week, Lockheed delivered the last upgraded version of the plane called the C-5M Super Galaxy to the U.S. Air Force. The Super Galaxy is using new engines based on the same revolutionary design that launched GE into the commercial aviation business in the 1970s.

Read more about the C-5M Super Galaxy and advancements in engine design here.

In 2008, Dr. Ernie Garcia experienced multiple chest pain episodes that spurred him to request a nuclear cardiology test. But Garcia wasn't just a patient - he was the researcher who, a decade earlier, developed the software that analyzed the test results and calculated the calcium score in each of his coronary arteries.

Preventing heart attacks: The calcium score is a measure of arterial plaque that indicates the likelihood of a heart attack. A normal score is less than 100 and a score around 400 indicates the need for intervention. Garcia's score was a staggering 700. As a result, he underwent a quadruple bypass surgery. Today, he is a professor of radiology and the director of the Nuclear Cardiology R&D Laboratory at Emory University in Atlanta.

Read about a new version of the technology that was launched in June here.

Researchers led by the U.S. Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Laboratory found that fortifying the connections between the U.S.' three main power grids could 'make renewable energy more widely available.'

Taking steps: High-voltage direct current, or HVDC, is an affordable, efficient and available technology that could replace the old equipment to transmit electricity from coast to coast. Lead researcher Aaron Bloom proposes burying the lines along existing railroad rights-of-way in order to quicken the installation process.

Read more about fortifying the U.S.' electrical grids here.

- QUOTE OF THE DAY -

'The score of 700 was significantly abnormal and told me that the disease had already spread to other regions.'

- Ernie Garcia, director of the Nuclear Cardiology R&D Laboratory at Emory University