Lifeboat Foundation

A vast reservoir of ancient water has been found thousands of feet under the ice in western Antarctica, scientists said in a paper published Thursday in the journal Science.

Researchers had long suspected but never before established the existence of such hidden pockets of Antarctic groundwater, which they believe act to lessen friction between ice sheets and underlying bedrock to make the ice more prone to slide from the continent’s interior toward the surrounding ocean.

Time will tell if more effective strategies can be developed to manage space junk in the future. But, as you are about to find out, we may not want to clear up space entirely.

Some of these “dead” spacecraft may still function!

1. Voyager 1 and 2 are still going strong.

Continue reading “Meet some of the oldest ‘undead’ spacecraft that are still going strong” »

Scientists have given a fascinating new insight into the next steps to develop fast, energy-efficient, future computing systems that use light instead of electrons to process and store information—incorporating hardware inspired directly by the functioning of the human brain.

A team of scientists, including Professor C. David Wright from the University of Exeter, has explored the future potential for computer systems by using photonics in place of conventional electronics.

The article is published today (January 29th 2021) in the prestigious journal Nature Photonics.

Should we just be blasting out to the cosmos?

Two new messages will give away our location, one to TRAPPIST-1. But it brings up a few questions which question if METI is so smart after all.

China’s drive for “common prosperity” is called a ‘’profound revolution’’ by state media. It has unnerved investors.

Hearing loss is usually irreversible because there’s no way to grow back the necessary outer and inner ear sensory cells once they’ve been killed off. But we may have started on the path to change, thanks to new research in mice.

Scientists have discovered a single master gene that’s able to regulate whether ear hair cells into the outer or inner types required to restore hearing. That’s a significant step forward in being able to actually carry this out in the lab.

The master gene is called TBX2. Through experiments on mice, the team found that when it’s expressed, ear hair cells become inner hair cells; when it’s blocked, ear hair cells become outer hair cells. It’s a crucial toggle switch.

Clues from fish diversity suggest that interbreeding between species could be a major mechanism of fast speciation.

DeLorean EV teaser promises a May 31 unveiling — two months earlier than originally promised.