Lifeboat Foundation

Finding ways to connect the human body to technology could have broad applications in health and entertainment. A new “electric plastic” could make self-powered wearables, real-time neural interfaces, and medical implants that merge with our bodies a reality.

While there has been significant progress in the development of wearable and implantable technology in recent years, most electronic materials are hard, rigid, and feature toxic metals. A variety of approaches for creating “soft electronics” has emerged, but finding ones that are durable, power-efficient, and easy to manufacture is a significant challenge.

Continue reading “‘Electric Plastic’ Could Merge Technology With the Body in Future Wearables and Implants” »

Dr. Lauren Schurmeier: “The methane clathrate crust warms Titan’s interior and causes surprisingly rapid topographic relaxation, which results in crater shallowing at a rate that is close to that of fast-moving warm glaciers on Earth.”

How does Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, have such a methane-rich atmosphere? This is what a recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated how methane that resides with Titan’s crust could be responsible for the lack of depth in Titan’s impact craters, which could explain why Titan’s atmosphere has so much methane, as well. This study holds the potential to help researchers better understand the formation and evolution of Titan and whether it could host life as we know it.

For the study, the researchers used computer models to simulate the formation and evolution of impact craters on Titan, of which only approximately 90 have been identified via satellite imagery from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft.

Continue reading “Titan’s Atmosphere and Climate: Lessons from an Alien World” »

A two-line comment about “various compliance requirements” spurred questions about sanctions policy and procedure on the Linux kernel mailing list.

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Mathematician and Computer Scientist Stephen Wolfram wants to do no less than revolutionising physics. He wants to do it with computer code that gives rise to all the fundamental laws of nature that we know and like — and maybe more. Unfortunately, Einstein’s theories of general relativity inherently clash with how computers work. And yet, he and his team might have found a clever way around this problem.

Continue reading “This Theory of Everything Could Actually Work: Wolfram’s Hypergraphs” »

Can rocky exoplanets orbiting stars smaller than our Sun support life as we know it? This is what a recent study published in Nature Communications hopes to address as an international team of researchers examined the atmospheric stability of exoplanets orbiting M-dwarf stars, which typically range from 7.5 percent to 50 percent of our Sun’s mass and surface temperatures of approximately 3,500 degrees Celsius (6,300 degrees Fahrenheit) with our Sun boasting surface temperatures of approximately 5,000 degrees Celsius (9,000 degrees Fahrenheit). This study holds the potential to help astronomers better understand the conditions for finding life beyond Earth and where we can find it.

For the study, the researchers examined TRAPPIST-1, which is an M-dwarf star located approximately 40 light-years from Earth while boasting seven rocky exoplanets, several of which orbit within its star’s habitable zone (HZ). Using computer models, the team simulated the formation and evolution of the orbiting exoplanets to ascertain if their individual atmospheres could remain stable over time to form a habitable environment. In the end, the team found that the exoplanets that orbit close to their star likely do not possess stable atmospheres, but found promising results for exoplanets orbiting farther out, specifically TRAPPIST-1 e.

“One of the most intriguing questions right now in exoplanet astronomy is: Can rocky planets orbiting M-dwarf stars maintain atmospheres that could support life?” said Dr. Joshua Krissansen-Totton, who is an assistant professor of Earth and space sciences at the University of Washington and lead author of the study. “Our findings give reason to expect that some of these planets do have atmospheres, which significantly enhances the chances that these common planetary systems could support life.”

An innovative method now allows DNA to store information as a binary code — the same strings of 0s and 1s used by standard computers.

‘Bricks’ of DNA, some of which have chemical tags, could one day be an alternative to storing information electronically.

A team of researchers has for the first time successfully used lasers to generate guided sound waves on the surface of a microchip. These acoustic waves, akin to the surface waves produced during an earthquake, travel across the chip at frequencies nearly a billion times higher than those found in earth tremors.

By containing the sound wave on the surface of a chip, it can more easily interact with the environment, making it a perfect candidate for advanced sensing technologies.

The findings are published in APL Photonics.

For the first time since the discovery of the material MnBi₂Te₄ (MBT), researchers at the University of Twente have successfully made it behave like a superconductor. This marks an important step in understanding MBT and is significant for future technologies, such as new methods of information processing and quantum computing.

MBT is a recently discovered material attracting attention due to its unique magnetic and topological properties. In their research, the scientists examined how electricity behaves in the material. The findings are published in the journal Communications Materials.

MBT’s topological properties cause electrons to move only along the edges of the material, and in theory, they should only move in a clockwise direction. However, the experiments at Twente demonstrated that under certain conditions, the electrons can rotate both clockwise and counterclockwise.

The biological and technological race to live forever is very much underway.