Lifeboat Foundation

After decades of miniaturization, the electronic components we’ve relied on for computers and modern technologies are now starting to reach fundamental limits. Faced with this challenge, engineers and scientists around the world are turning toward a radically new paradigm: quantum information technologies.

Quantum technology, which harnesses the strange rules that govern particles at the atomic level, is normally thought of as much too delicate to coexist with the electronics we use every day in phones, laptops and cars. However, scientists with the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering announced a significant breakthrough: Quantum states can be integrated and controlled in commonly used electronic devices made from silicon carbide.

“The ability to create and control high-performance quantum bits in commercial electronics was a surprise,” said lead investigator David Awschalom, the Liew Family Professor in Molecular Engineering at UChicago and a pioneer in quantum technology. “These discoveries have changed the way we think about developing quantum technologies—perhaps we can find a way to use today’s electronics to build quantum devices.”

What if developing a 3D gaming world were as easy as snapping pics with your phone? Nvidia researchers recently developed an AI system capable of predicting a complete 3D model from any 2D image.

Called “DIB-R,” the AI takes a picture of any 2D object – an image of a bird, for example – and predicts what it would look like in three dimensions. This prediction includes lighting, texture, and depth.

A striking new study has tracked the effects of extreme isolation on the brains of nine crew members who spent 14 months living on a remote research station in Antartica. The study presents some of the first evidence ever gathered to show how intense physical and social isolation can cause tangible structural changes in a person’s brain, revealing significant reductions in several different brain regions. Despite the small size of the study the conclusions echo years of research correlating solitary confinement and sensory deprivation with mental health issues, and suggest social isolation may fundamentally change the structure of a person’s brain.

The lonely brain

In 1969 Robert King was arrested and convicted for a robbery he maintained he did not commit. Three years later an inmate on King’s block was murdered. King was blamed for the murder, and despite his claims of innocence he was convicted of murder and sent to solitary confinement.

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. — SpaceX made an early holiday delivery to the International Space Station on Sunday, bringing muscle-bound “mighty mice,” pest-killing worms and a smart, empathetic robot.

The station commander, Italy’s Luca Parmitano, used a large robot arm to grab onto the Dragon three days after its launch from Cape Canaveral. The two spacecraft soared 260 miles (420 kilometres) above the South Pacific at the time of capture.

“Whenever we welcome a new vehicle on board, we take on board also a little bit of the soul of everybody that contributed to the project, so welcome on board,” Parmitano told Mission Control.

Scientists discovered a microbe that eats metals found in meteorites, a discovery expected to guide efforts to identify alien life in space.

Morgan Cable crafts alien environments in miniature. She can stir up a shot-glass-size lake, unleash gentle spritzes of rain, and whip up other wonders to mimic the bizarre surface of Saturn’s moon Titan. In this far-flung world, temperatures plunge hundreds of degrees Fahrenheit below zero, and rivers of liquid methane and ethane sculpt valleys into a frozen landscape of water ice.

“We can, in a way, touch Titan here in the lab—even though it’s millions of miles away,” says Cable, who is a scientist in the Astrobiology and Oceans Worlds Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

While they’ve been working with these mini worlds for years, the team’s latest tiny Titan facsimile is making waves: By mixing acetylene and butane in a novel way, they’ve created a previously unknown type of “mineral.” The new substance doesn’t precisely fall under the common definition of an earthly mineral, since it still requires confirmation that it can form in nature. Instead, it is technically known as a co-crystal.

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Two of SA’s most promising female technology entrepreneurs have this year raised millions from astute local and international investors for their global-impact businesses in healthcare and space.

Presagen, co-founded by Dr Michelle Perugini, raised a total of $4.5 million from Jungle Capital group in Australia and US private investor 3Lines Venture Capital, with the SA Government also pitching in.

The funding will help commercialise its Life Whisperer artificial intelligence (AI) platform. Life Whisperer uses AI to identify healthy embryos in in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) with the aim of improving pregnancy outcomes for infertile couples globally.