Lifeboat Foundation

Many organisms can produce minerals or mineralized tissue. A well-known example is nacre, which is used in jewelry because of its iridescent colors. Chemically speaking, its formation begins with a mollusk extracting calcium and carbonate ions from water. However, the exact processes and conditions that lead to nacre, a composite of biopolymers and platelets of crystalline calcium carbonate, are the subject of intense debate among experts, and different theories exist.

Researchers do agree that non-crystalline intermediates, such as amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC), play a crucial role in biomineralization. Lobsters and other crustaceans, for example, keep a supply of ACC in their stomachs, which they use to build a new shell after molting. In a recent study published in Nature Communications, researchers from the University of Konstanz and Leibniz University Hannover have now succeeded in deciphering the formation pathway of ACC.

Newcastle University research turns to ancient hot springs to explore the origins of life on Earth.

The research team investigated how the emergence of the first living systems from inert geological materials happened on Earth more than 3.5 billion years ago. Scientists at Newcastle University found that mixing hydrogen, bicarbonate, and iron-rich magnetite under conditions mimicking relatively mild hydrothermal vent results in forming a spectrum of organic molecules, most notably including fatty acids stretching up to 18 carbon atoms in length.

Published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, their findings potentially reveal how some key molecules needed to produce life are made from inorganic chemicals, which is essential to understanding a key step in how life formed on the Earth billions of years ago.

Complexity of biological forms has fascinated humankind over the years. Different species of plants have different leaf shapes. Have you ever wondered why it is so? Why does this shape diversity exist? Plants can change their leaf shapes over time and space. But how?

Does the distinct shape of leaf forms play a significant role in energy optimization? In fact, the shape of leaves has a lot to do with adapting to their surrounding environment. How is the unfolding of shape related to the evolutionary process of nature? These intriguing questions have led us to focus on quantitative approaches to the complexity of plant leaves.

Quantifying leaf shapes using Euclidean shapes, such as circles, triangles, etc., are appropriate to only a few plant species. Therefore, various quantitative measures of leaf shapes have been developed with varying accuracy. But Is the shape of an object really its actual shape? Visual perception of definite shape or geometry of physical objects is only an abstraction.

Astronomers have completed the largest and most detailed study of what triggers stars to form in the universe’s biggest galaxies, using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes. They were surprised to find that the conditions for stellar conception in these exceptionally massive galaxies have not changed over the last ten billion years.

“What’s surprising here is that there are lots of things that could have affected star formation over the last ten billion years,” said Michael Calzadilla of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who led the study. “In the end, however, the main driver of star formation in these huge galaxies really comes down to one thing—whether or not the hot gas surrounding them can cool off quickly enough.”

Clusters of galaxies are the largest objects in the universe held together by gravity and contain huge amounts of hot gas seen in X-rays. The mass of this hot gas is several times the total mass of all the stars in all the hundreds of galaxies typically found in galaxy clusters.

Join us at 5:00 pm EST (11:00 pm UTC) for our Perpetual Life Hybrid Party live from our new location at 950 South Cypress Road in Pompano Beach, FL, and socialize with Immortalists from Around the World, hosted by hosted by Tonya Scholz and Rudi Hoffman. (Registration link at http://perpetual.life).

Stay “In Zoom” for our 7:00 pm (12:00 am-midnight UTC) YouTube Streaming Service with José Luis Cordeiro presents, “The Death of Death: Advances Towards Immortality Around the World”

Jose will be live for Q & A after the presentation.

Princeton physicists have discovered an abrupt change in quantum behavior while experimenting with a three-atom-thin insulator that can be easily switched into a superconductor.

The research promises to enhance our understanding of quantum physics in solids in general and also propel the study of quantum condensed matter physics and superconductivity in potentially new directions. The results were published in the journal Nature Physics in a paper titled “Unconventional Superconducting Quantum Criticality in Monolayer WTe₂.”

The researchers, led by Sanfeng Wu, assistant professor of physics at Princeton University, found that the sudden cessation (or “death”) of quantum mechanical fluctuations exhibits a series of unique quantum behaviors and properties that appear to lie outside the purview of established theories.

Summary: Researchers create a transparent graphene-based neural implant offering high-resolution brain activity data from the surface. The implant’s dense array of tiny graphene electrodes enables simultaneous recording of electrical and calcium activity in deep brain layers.

This innovation overcomes previous implant limitations and offers insights for neuroscientific studies. The transparent design allows optical imaging alongside electrical recording, revolutionizing neuroscience research.

While NASA has long been known for its space-related initiatives, the space agency also has a rich history of aeronautics research and development with high-speed aircraft. This makes today’s unveiling of the experimental X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft, a joint venture between NASA and defense contractor, Lockheed Martin, much more exciting. With the X-59, NASA hopes to collect data with the goal of revolutionizing commercial air travel, as the most well-known supersonic passenger aircraft was the Concorde, which retired in 2003.

“This is a major accomplishment made possible only through the hard work and ingenuity from NASA and the entire X-59 team,” said NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy. “In just a few short years we’ve gone from an ambitious concept to reality. NASA’s X-59 will help change the way we travel, bringing us closer together in much less time.”

The X-59 aircraft is the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission and stands for “Quiet Supersonic Technology”. The goal of Quesst is to develop supersonic aircraft that don’t produce the familiar sonic booms that supersonic aircraft are known to make when they break the sound barrier, which has been known to result in broken windows and significant noise pollution for civilian populations.

An excellent and inspiring writeup of the story of Dyno Therapeutics, one of the most exciting startups in the gene therapy world.

How AI can accelerate gene therapy.