Lifeboat Foundation

Thousands of years ago, glaciers covered much of the planet. Oceans receded as water froze in massive sheets of ice blanketing the North American continent. As the ice age ended, glaciers melted. Massive river deltas flowed out across the continental shelf. The oceans rose, and fresh water was trapped in sediments below the waves. Discovered while drilling for oil offshore in the 1970s, scientists thought these “isolated” pockets of fresh water were a curiosity. They may instead prove to be a parched world’s newest source of fresh water.

As told in the latest issue (paywall) of the peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports, scientists from Columbia University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution spent 10 days on a research ship towing electromagnetic sensors from New Jersey to Massachusetts. By measuring the way electromagnetic waves traveled through fresh and saline water, researchers mapped out fresh-water reservoirs for the first time.

It turns out the subterranean pools stretch for at least 50 miles off the US Atlantic coast, containing vast stores of low-salinity groundwater, about twice the volume of Lake Ontario. The deposits begin about 600 ft (183 m) below the seafloor and stretch for hundreds of miles. That rivals the size of even the largest terrestrial aquifers.

The scene resembles a typical blind speed-dating event: 13 women and 13 men, seated on either side of a bamboo screen in an upmarket Tokyo restaurant, are chatting in pairs on a strictly timed three-minute rotation.

But the doctor hovering on the fringes and the scientific documents held in the participant’s hands, however, offer a hint that this is no ordinary dating event: for everyone attending has undergone a DNA test in a bid to find their best romantic match.

Welcome to the world of DNA matchmaking. Forget hobbies, professions, ages or nose sizes: one critical new criteria for finding the perfect partner was recently added to Japan’s fast-paced dating world, with the launch of a new service that promises to find love based on genetic compatibility.

Continue reading “Japanese sign up for DNA matchmaking as country faces demographic crisis” »

Scientists reverse Alzheimer’s Disease in human cells by editing a single gene.

A 17-year-old was using an e-cigarette when it suddenly blew up in his face. The force of the blow was so powerful that it broke his jaw bone. The explosion could be linked to lithium batteries overheating inside the vape device. June 22, 2019.

Shares of the AI chip leader revved up after Tuesday’s announcement.

Scientists have discovered an unexpectedly simple formula that governs one of the most seemingly unknowable limits in physics: determining how much of an electric field a water droplet can withstand before it will burst.

This infinitesimal phenomenon has been studied by physicists for decades, but while the overall concept may be easy to imagine, discerning the mathematical relationships that underpin such electrified explosions has been anything but.

Now that it’s been figured out, scientists say this one formula could lead to new advancements in everything from space propulsion to mass spectrometry, high-resolution printing, air purification, molecular analysis, and more.

Continue reading “Scientists Discover an ‘Unexpectedly Simple’ Formula Behind The Nature of Water Drops” »

A group of Traverse City students will kick off their summer vacation with an otherworldly experience – making radio contact with the International Space Station and interviewing NASA astronaut Nick Hague live as he’s in orbit. The special event is one of several opportunities for students to participate in science, nature, and STEM programs this summer in Traverse City.

The Traverse Area District Library’s (TADL’s) Summer Reading Club was chosen through a national competitive application process to be one of 13 U.S. organizations that will host a radio contact event with the International Space Station (ISS) between now and December. Only three libraries were selected, and TADL is the only Michigan-based organization invited to participate. “The closet other events are in Pennsylvania and Missouri,” says TADL Marketing and Communications Manager Matt Wiliford.

Students will talk with ISS crew members via amateur radio on Friday (June 28) from the McGuire Room at the library. Doors will open at 9am, with the event starting at 9:30am. Former NASA astronaut Greg Johnson will be in attendance to discuss his own trips to ISS, then members of the Cherryland Amateur Radio Club will provide an overview of the equipment being used to make radio contact with ISS. At 10:02am, direct radio contact will occur between NA1SS (ISS) and W8TCM (Traverse City). Eight students have been chosen to ask one question each of their own, then a second question submitted by community members through the library’s “Ask an Astronaut” submission contest. TADL staff helped curate the questions to cover a variety of topics and provoke thoughtful conversation, according to Wiliford.

Continue reading “Traverse City To International Space Station, Do You Read?” »

The European Space Agency (ESA) just tested out a device that’s meant to assist in astronaut rescue missions on the surface of the Moon. The strange contraption, dubbed the Lunar Evacuation System Assembly, is a pyramid-like structure that can be operated by a single astronaut to extricate a fallen comrade — the world’s first, according to the ESA.

The gadget is meant to save incapacitated astronauts by lifting them onto a mobile stretcher. According to an ESA statement, the device can be “transported like a golf caddy.”

“There is no way an astronaut could carry their fallen crewmate over their shoulder while wearing an [extravehicular activity] EVA suit,” said ESA head of spacewalk training Hervé Stevenin in the statement.

There are certainly ways to use AI to reduce the collateral damage and harms of war, but fully autonomous weapons would also usher in a host of new moral, technical, and strategic dilemmas, which is why scientists and activists have pushed the United Nations and world governments to consider a preemptive ban. Their hope is that we can keep killer robots in the realm of science fiction.

We have the technology to make robots that kill without oversight. But should we?