Lifeboat Foundation

For thousands of years, the moon inspired humans from afar, but the bright beacon in Earth’s night sky — located more than 200,000 miles (321,868 kilometers) away — remained out of reach. That all changed on September 13, 1959, when the former Soviet Union’s uncrewed spacecraft, Luna 2, landed on the moon’s surface.

The Luna 2 probe created a crater when it touched down on the moon between the lunar regions of Mare Imbrium and Mare Serenitatis, according to NASA.

That pivotal, lunar dust-stirring moment signaled the beginning of humanity’s endeavors to explore the moon, and some scientists now suggest it was also the start of a new geological epoch — or period of time in history — called the “Lunar Anthropocene,” according to a comment paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience on December 8.

The brain, despite its comparatively shallow structure with limited layers, operates efficiently, whereas modern AI systems are characterized by deep architectures with numerous layers. This raises the question: Can brain-inspired shallow architectures rival the performance of deep architectures, and if so, what are the fundamental mechanisms that enable this?

Neural network learning methods are inspired by the brain’s functioning, yet there are fundamental differences between how the brain learns and how deep learning operates. A key distinction lies in the number of layers each employs.

Continue reading “How Can the Human Brain Compete With Artificial Intelligence?” »

Eduard Shyfrin, Ph.D., author of “From Infinity to Man: The Fundamental Ideas of Kabbalah Within the Framework of Information Theory and Quantum Physics,” addressed attendees at the eighteenth World Union of Jewish Studies Conference in Jerusalem on Monday.

Shyfrin spoke via Zoom on Kabbalah of Information: Absence of Information is Information’. He explained how Kabbalistic ideas can be explained using the support of information theory and physics.

When young, these neurons signal fatty tissues to release energy fueling the brain. With age, the line breaks down. Fat cells can no longer orchestrate their many roles, and neurons struggle to pass information along their networks.

Using genetic and chemical methods, the team found a marker for these neurons—a protein called Ppp1r17 (catchy, I know). Changing the protein’s behavior in aged mice with genetic engineering extended their life span by roughly seven percent. For an average 76-year life span in humans, the increase translates to over five years.

The treatment also altered the mice’s health. Mice love to run, but their vigor plummets with age. Reactivating the neurons in elderly mice revived their motivation, transforming them from couch potatoes into impressive joggers.

A team of researchers from the Structured Light Laboratory at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, has made a significant breakthrough regarding quantum entanglement.

Led by Professor Andrew Forbes, in collaboration with renowned string theorist Robert de Mello Koch, now at Huzhou University in China, the team has successfully demonstrated a novel method to manipulate quantum entangled particles without altering their intrinsic properties.

This feat marks a monumental step in our understanding and application of quantum entanglement.

Putting “socks” on artificial muscles made from inexpensive materials helps them produce 40 times more flex than human muscle, a global research project has found, featuring researchers from the University of Wollongong (UOW) at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES).

UOW researchers from ACES joined with international partners from the U.S., China and South Korea to develop sheath-run artificial muscles (SRAMs), that can be used to create intelligent materials and fabrics that react by sensing the environment around them.

It builds on the work over the past 15 years by researchers from UOW and their international colleagues who have invented several types of strong, powerful artificial muscles using materials ranging from high-tech carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to ordinary fishing line.

The organization of electrolytes at the air/water interface affects the structure of interfacial water and therefore numerous natural processes. It has now been demonstrated that the surface of an electrolyte solution is stratified and consists of an ion-depleted outer surface and an ion-enriched subsurface layer, jointly determining the water interfacial structure.

A groundbreaking study by researchers from a number of institutions in China introduces a novel hyperspectral remote sensing technique capable of hour-hectometer level horizontal distribution of trace gases, offering an advanced tool to accurately identify emission sources.

The study was published in the Journal of Remote Sensing on 14 November 2023.

The research introduces a groundbreaking hyperspectral remote sensing method that delivers highly accurate, hour-hectometer-level insights into the horizontal distribution of atmospheric trace gases. This advanced technique utilizes effective optical paths (EOPs) within the ultraviolet (UV) and visible (VIS) spectral bands to measure average trace gas concentrations across various distances.

It’s not every day astronomers say, “What is that?” After all, most observed astronomical phenomena are known: stars, planets, black holes and galaxies. But in 2019 the newly completed ASKAP (Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder) telescope picked up something no one had ever seen before: radio wave circles so large they contained entire galaxies in their centers.

As the astrophysics community tried to determine what these circles were, they also wanted to know why the circles were. Now a team led by University of California San Diego Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Alison Coil believes they may have found the answer: the circles are shells formed by outflowing galactic winds, possibly from massive exploding stars known as supernovae. Their work is published in Nature.

Coil and her collaborators have been studying massive “starburst” galaxies that can drive these ultra-fast outflowing winds. Starburst galaxies have an exceptionally high rate of star formation. When stars die and explode, they expel gas from the star and its surroundings back into interstellar space. If enough stars explode near each other at the same time, the force of these explosions can push the gas out of the galaxy itself into outflowing winds, which can travel at up to 2,000 kilometers/second.