Lifeboat Foundation

The coldest chemical reaction in the known universe took place in what appears to be a chaotic mess of lasers. The appearance deceives: Deep within that painstakingly organized chaos, in temperatures millions of times colder than interstellar space, Kang-Kuen Ni achieved a feat of precision. Forcing two ultracold molecules to meet and react, she broke and formed the coldest bonds in the history of molecular couplings.

“Probably in the next couple of years, we are the only lab that can do this,” said Ming-Guang Hu, a postdoctoral scholar in the Ni lab and first author on their paper published today in Science. Five years ago, Ni, the Morris Kahn Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and a pioneer of ultracold chemistry, set out to build a new apparatus that could achieve the lowest temperature chemical reactions of any currently available technology. But they couldn’t be sure their intricate engineering would work.

Now, they not only performed the coldest reaction yet, they discovered their new apparatus can do something even they did not predict. In such intense cold—500 nanokelvin or just a few millionths of a degree above absolute zero—their molecules slowed to such glacial speeds, Ni and her team could see something no one has been able to see before: the moment when two molecules meet to form two new molecules. In essence, they captured a chemical reaction in its most critical and elusive act.

Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, which is supposed to carry astronauts to the International Space Station in the near future, met its United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket for the first time on Nov. 21.

When people learn the Universe is expanding, they want to know where the center is. The ‘answer’ isn’t what they expect.

Between the solar wind stripping its atmosphere and these horrific dust towers bleeding its water into space, Mars may not have ever had a chance at a stable climate.

NASA reports that these are the result of observations by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s heat-sensing Mars climate sounder instrument which can easily penetrate this dusty haze.

We’re not yet able to understand how much these towers contributed to Mars’ past water loss, David Kass, a planetary scientist at NASA Jet Propulsion laboratory and the Mars Climate Sounder instrument’s principal investigator, told me by phone. But they are telling us that the simple extrapolations that we were doing before to explain Mars’ water loss has limitations, he says.

Continue reading “Massive Dust Towers Are Linked To Mars’ Ancient Water Loss, Says NASA” »

Theories about the universe that will blow your mind!

https://goo.gl/7Z9k7w

Over a dozen countries have started their own space agencies in the last decade, a trend driven in large part by the expansion of the commercial sector.

Ira Pastor, ideaXme exponential health ambassador, interviews Dr. Ronald Mallett, Professor Emeritus, Theoretical Physics, Department of Physics at the University of Connecticut.

Ira Pastor Comments:

Continue reading “Theoretical Physicist Explores Real World Time Travel Possibilities” »

Star City, a concept for a human city on Mars, won first place at the Mars Colony Prize Design contest. The design, led by MIT PhD student George Lordos and his brother Alexandros, features five villages constructed around a crater rim.

Image: Star City Team/Delta Architects

#IAmTranshuman is heading into space onboard PlantSat 1, a project worked on in part at the Transhuman House.

The IAmTranshuman (ist) web site is about the stories of transhumanists, from professors to artists and everything in between from all walks of life. IAmTranshuman is about helping humanity grow and be more then what we were through the responsible use of technology.