Lifeboat Foundation

The problem of space debris would worsen even if we sent nothing else into orbit.

ESA’s Space Environment report 2023 was published last August and highlighted a key problem: space debris. “Our planet is surrounded by spacecraft carrying out important work to study our changing climate, deliver global communication and navigation services and help us answer important scientific questions,” noted the report.

“But some of their orbits are getting crowded and increasingly churning with deadly, fast-moving pieces of defunct satellites and rockets that threaten our future in space.”

Continue reading “Stop crowding earth’s orbital environment: ESA report” »

“Lightning” system connects photons to the electronic components of computers using a novel abstraction, creating the first photonic computing prototype to serve real-time machine-learning inference requests.

Computing is at an inflection point. Moore’s Law, which predicts that the number of transistors on an electronic chip will double each year, is slowing down due to the physical limits of fitting more transistors on affordable microchips. These increases in computer power are slowing down as the demand grows for high-performance computers that can support increasingly complex artificial intelligence models. This inconvenience has led engineers to explore new methods for expanding the computational capabilities of their machines, but a solution remains unclear.

Potential of Photonic Computing.

Apple unveiled its new iPhone lineup on Tuesday, with its Lightning charger ports replaced on the newest models by a universal charger after a tussle with the European Union.

The European bloc is insisting that all phones and other small devices must be compatible with the USB-C charging cables from the end of next year, a move it says will reduce waste and save money for consumers.

The firm had long argued that its cable was more secure than USB-C chargers, which are already deployed by Apple on other devices and widely used by rivals including the world’s biggest smartphone maker Samsung.

Hurricane Lee is bringing dangerous rip currents and huge waves to the East Coast.

Reconstructed ancient plant protein should help crops counter the ongoing rise in global temperatures, says Cornell University plant biologist.

MIT researchers have demonstrated the first system for ultra-low-power underwater networking and communication, which can transmit signals across kilometer-scale distances.

This technique, which the researchers began developing several years ago, uses about one-millionth the power that existing underwater communication methods use. By expanding their battery-free system’s communication range, the researchers have made the technology more feasible for applications such as aquaculture, coastal hurricane prediction, and climate change modeling.

“What started as a very exciting intellectual idea a few years ago—underwater communication with a million times lower power—is now practical and realistic. There are still a few interesting technical challenges to address, but there is a clear path from where we are now to deployment,” says Fadel Adib, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and director of the Signal Kinetics group in the MIT Media Lab.

The Floridian repeat offender told the authorities that he planned on wheeling himself to London, England.

It started on August 26 when the US Coast Guard was transiting in the Atlantic Ocean in preparation for an intense hurricane when they found a weird-looking vessel in the middle of the ocean, 70 miles (110 km) off the coast of Georgia. There was a man aboard the vessel. He told the authorities that he planned on wheeling himself to London, England.

A Florida man was arrested in the middle of the ocean after he was found floating in a homemade vessel resembling a hamster wheel. But how did he get there in the first place?

Continue reading “Man tried to cross Atlantic in human-powered hamster wheel” »

The team plans to build battery-free underwater networks.

Deep Sea exploration is about to get more accessible. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed and demonstrated a technology that can transmit underwater signals spanning kilometers with a relatively low reader transmit power.

The researchers are calling their tech Van Atta Acoustic Backscatter (VAB), which can be used to map the pulse of the ocean. A submerged network of underwater sensors can continuously measure ocean vital signs like the temperature, pressure, and dissolved carbon dioxide to create more accurate climate change models and monitor the efficacy of carbon capture technologies, explained the researchers in their study.

Belinda Howell, Non-Executive Director at Digital Catapult, walks Reuters Plus through the potential that AI has to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change.