Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have detected evidence for quartz nanocrystals in the high-altitude clouds of WASP-17 b, a hot Jupiter exoplanet 1,300 light-years from Earth.

The detection, which was uniquely possible with MIRI (Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument), marks the first time that silica (SiO₂) particles have been spotted in an exoplanet atmosphere.

The quartz crystals are only about 10 nanometers across, so small that 10,000 could fit side-by-side across a human hair. Their size and composition of pure silica were reported in “JWST-TST DREAMS: Quartz Clouds in the Atmosphere of WASP-17b,” published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The new book Minding the Brain from Discovery Institute Press is an anthology of 25 renowned philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians who seek to address that question. Materialism shouldn’t be the only option for how we think about ourselves or the universe at large. Contributor Angus Menuge, a philosopher from Concordia University Wisconsin, writes.

Neuroscience in particular has implicitly dualist commitments, because the correlation of brain states with mental states would be a waste of time if we did not have independent evidence that these mental states existed. It would make no sense, for example, to investigate the neural correlates of pain if we did not have independent evidence of the existence of pain from the subjective experience of what it is like to be in pain. This evidence, though, is not scientific evidence: it depends on introspection (the self becomes aware of its own thoughts and experiences), which again assumes the existence of mental subjects. Further, Richard Swinburne has argued that scientific attempts to show that mental states are epiphenomenal are self-refuting, since they require that mental states reliably cause our reports of being in those states. The idea, therefore, that science has somehow shown the irrelevance of the mind to explaining behavior is seriously confused.

The AI optimists can’t get away from the problem of consciousness. Nor can they ignore the unique capacity of human beings to reflect back on themselves and ask questions that are peripheral to their survival needs. Functions like that can’t be defined algorithmically or by a materialistic conception of the human person. To counter the idea that computers can be conscious, we must cultivate an understanding of what it means to be human. Then maybe all the technology humans create will find a more modest, realistic place in our lives.

Strategic defense initiative.

Around planets that have a magnetosphere, something magical happens.

If you listen with the right instruments, you can hear chirping and whistling, almost like the singing of birds at dawn and dusk. These so-called chorus waves have been recorded at Earth, and Jupiter, and Saturn; and observed at Uranus and Neptune.

Continue reading “Mysterious ‘Singing’ Plasma Waves Detected Around Mercury” »

Super ionic water ice 18 ice 19… proven to withstand temperatures many thousands degrees Fahrenheit in the lab is believed to be present in planets like Uranus and Neptune and contributes to the generation of Wonky, multi-polar magnetic fields…

Odd things happen inside planets, where familiar materials are subjected to extreme pressures and heat.

Iron atoms probably dance within Earth’s solid inner core, and hot, black, heavy ice – that’s both solid and liquid at the same time – likely forms within the water-rich gas giants, Uranus and Neptune.

Continue reading “Strange Form of Ice Found That Only Melts at Extremely Hot Temperatures” »

Eventually, maybe by the early 2040s, would like to see every large body in solar system, from the Sun out to Pluto to have a probe like the Cassini probe in a permanent orbit around it. So we have 24/7 live feed / study of all of them. And, ASI could run all of it by that point.

You know, the planet?

Watch live with us as a “ring of fire” eclipse travels across the United States on Oct. 14, 2023, from Oregon to Texas. This event occurs when the Moon passe…

The Psyche probe is heading to its namesake metal-rich asteroid. Along the way, it will demonstrate a near-infrared laser system to send high-rate data hundreds of millions of miles home.

It will detect plasma in space and track it back to the Sun, planetary atmospheres, comet tails, and interstellar space.

NASA is working on a concept similar to a hidden decoder ring with which you can read a secret message containing significant information about the objects around you: where they originated from, why they are there, and what will happen to them in the future.

Now, consider the secret decoder ring, a sensor that can be launched into space to reveal secrets about matter in the solar system. Where did this matter come from, how did it get electrified, and how can it affect humanity on Earth and in space?