Lifeboat Foundation

Long charging times and limited access to fast chargers can be the dealbreakers for electric vehicle buyers today. But technology advancements are often fast-paced, and it’s hard to predict how close, or far, we are from the next big breakthrough. However, battery scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) might have a solution for charging speeds.

ORNL’s paper highlights a new lithium-ion battery that can not only recharge to 80 percent in 10 minutes but also sustain the fast charging ability for 1,500 cycles. For those new to the EV language, battery charge, and discharge occur when ions travel between the positive and negative electrodes through a medium called an electrolyte.

Getting to fifteen hundred charging cycles isn’t a new development. Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted in 2019 that the Model 3’s battery modules were designed to last 1,500 cycles or between 300,000 and 500,000 miles.

The SpaceX Super Heavy Starship is already the largest and most powerful rocket ever built. Elon tweeted that future versions will be 10% to 20% longer. If the 20% longer development happens then the stacked rocket will be 144 meters long. Adding 24 meters would be over 60% of the length of the Space Shuttle orbiter which was 37 meters long.

Likely to be 10% to 20% longer in later versions.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 9, 2023

Neuralink’s brain implants could help protect humanity from the risks of artificial intelligence, Elon Musk said on Wednesday, as the company prepares to launch its first in-human trials for the chips it hopes could restore lost functions to people with paralysis.

Neuralink will hopefully play a role in cutting the “civilizational risk” artificial intelligence poses to humanity, Musk said in a post on X.

The implantable tech will allow humans to interact with computers with their thoughts alone and should improve our abilities to communicate with AI “by several orders of magnitude,” Musk explained.

Continue reading “Elon Musk Says Neuralink Could Slash Risk From AI As Firm Prepares For First Human Trials” »

Past tests have been conducted on pigs.

On Tuesday, Elon Musk’s Neuralink announced it was ready to start its first human trials. “We are happy to announce that we’ve received approval from the reviewing independent institutional review board and our first hospital site to begin recruitment for our first-in-human clinical trial,” noted a blog on the company’s website.

The PRIME Study (short for Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface) – a groundbreaking investigational medical device trial for our fully-implantable, wireless brain-computer interface (BCI) – aims to evaluate the safety of our implant (N1) and surgical robot (R1) and assess the initial functionality of our BCI for… More.

Continue reading “Neuralink to recruit people with paralysis for first human trials” »

The Seattle-based company aims to build a “100% reusable” spacecraft capable of an ambitious 24-hour mission turnaround time.

Seattle-based startup Stoke Space successfully landed its reusable second-stage rocket this week following a brief hop test reminiscent of SpaceX’s early Starship tests.

The recent test, called Hopper 2, allowed Stoke Space to successfully test several novel engineering concepts, some of which were considered by Elon Musk’s SpaceX but ultimately discarded.

Time to link up or shut up.

Sept 19 (Reuters) — Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup Neuralink said on Tuesday it has received approval from an independent review board to begin recruitment for the first human trial of its brain implant for paralysis patients.

Those with paralysis due to cervical spinal cord injury or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis may qualify for the study, it said, but did not reveal how many participants would be enrolled in the trial, which will take about six years to complete.

Continue reading “Musk’s Neuralink to start human trial of brain implant for paralysis patients” »

Elon Musk’s brain-implant startup, Neuralink, said it has received approval from an independent review board to begin recruiting patients for its first human trial. The company is seeking people with paralysis to test its experimental device in a six-year study.

Elon Musk’s neurotech startup announced that it is now seeking patients with paralysis to test a brain-computer interface.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket will perform 14 launches for Telesat, taking 18 satellites each to the low-earth orbit.

Aerospace seems to be the new buzzword in the technological arena, with multiple new entrants aiming to make a mark in the industry.

To that extent, Canadian satellite operator Telesat and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which designs and manufactures rockets and spacecraft, have agreed to deliver the former’s Lightspeed constellation to low-earth orbit.