Lifeboat Foundation

Humankind on the verge of evolutionary traps, a new study: …For the first time, scientists have used the concept of evolutionary traps on human societies at large.

For the first time, scientists have used the concept of evolutionary traps on human societies at large. They find that humankind risks getting stuck in 14 evolutionary dead ends, ranging from global climate tipping points to misaligned artificial intelligence, chemical pollution, and accelerating infectious diseases.

The evolution of humankind has been an extraordinary success story. But the Anthropocene—the proposed geological epoch shaped by us humans—is showing more and more cracks. Multiple global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, food insecurity, financial crises, and conflicts have started to occur simultaneously in something which scientists refer to as a polycrisis.

Continue reading “New research maps 14 potential evolutionary dead ends for humanity and ways to avoid them” »

One AI startup’s undoing is another’s opportunity.

Case in point: Today, AI21 Labs, a company developing generative AI products along the lines of OpenAI’s GPT-4 and ChatGPT, closed a $53 million extension to its previously announced Series C funding round. The new tranche, which had participation from new investors Intel Capital and Comcast Ventures, brings AI21’s total raised to $336 million.

The startup’s valuation remains unchanged at $1.4 billion.

Dr. Hyekyoung Choi and Min Ju Yun’s research team from the Energy Conversion Materials Research Center, Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI), has developed a technology that can increase the flexibility and efficiency of a thermoelectric generator to the world’s highest level by using “mechanical metamaterials” that do not exist in nature. The research results were published in Advanced Energy Materials.

In general, a material shrinks in the vertical direction when it is stretched in the horizontal direction. It is like when you press a rubber ball, it flattens out sideways, and when you pull a rubber band, it stretches tightly.

The amount of transversal elongation divided by the amount of axial compression is Poisson’s ratio. Conversely, mechanical metamaterials, unlike materials in nature, are artificially designed to expand in both the horizontal and vertical directions when it is stretched in the horizontal direction. Metamaterials have a negative Poisson’s ratio.

The Tesla Cybertruck was spotted on the beach, driving through ocean water in the Gulf of Mexico just a week from deliveries.

Tesla claimed a while ago that the Cybertruck would be able to float. Although the truck did not completely enter the water in this instance, we have no idea if the automaker has prepared the pickup to travel through bodies of water.

Beach driving is popular, and all-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive vehicles are suitable for this kind of travel. Drivers also need to air down their tires in order to prevent their car or truck from digging into the sand, but a vehicle cannot be too heavy, either, as it will sink into the beach. The highest gross vehicle weight on most drive-on beaches is 10,000 pounds.

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Microsoft’s vision for zero trust security is galvanized around generative AI and reflects how identity and network access must constantly improve to counter complex cyberattacks.

Their many security announcements at Ignite 2023 reflect how they’re architecting the future of zero trust with greater adaptability and contextual intelligence designed in. The Microsoft Ignite 2023 Book of News overviews the new products announced this week at the event.

A stunning image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope shows a cluster of protostars at the dense center of the Milky Way.

On Nov. 17, JUICE performed a 43-minute burn to get into position for its upcoming Earth-moon flyby, the first-ever double gravity assist.

SYDNEY, Nov 21 (Reuters) — Some residents of a remote Papua New Guinea island were preparing on Tuesday to evacuate from the vicinity of an erupting volcano that shot a cloud of ash into the sky forcing the cancellation of some flights.

Teams had been sent to the Mount Ulawun area on New Britain island to coordinate an evacuation after it began erupting on Monday, state broadcaster NBC PNG reported senior disaster management official Clement Bailey as saying.

Flights from the island’s Hoskins airport had been cancelled, the broadcaster said, adding that the volcano was still erupting.

A first-of-its-kind study led by the University of California, Irvine has revealed a new culprit in the formation of brain hemorrhages that does not involve injury to the blood vessels, as previously believed. Researchers discovered that interactions between aged red blood cells and brain capillaries can lead to cerebral microbleeds, offering deeper insights into how they occur and identifying potential new therapeutic targets for treatment and prevention.

The findings, published online in the Journal of Neuroinflammation, describe how the team was able to watch the process by which red blood cells stall in the brain capillaries and then observe how the hemorrhage happens. Cerebral microbleeds are associated with a variety of conditions that occur at higher rates in older adults, including hypertension, Alzheimer’s disease and ischemic stroke.

“We have previously explored this issue in cell culture systems, but our current study is significant in expanding our understanding of the mechanism by which cerebral microbleeds develop,” said co-corresponding author Dr. Mark Fisher, professor of neurology in UCI’s School of Medicine. “Our findings may have profound clinical implications, as we identified a link between red blood cell damage and cerebral hemorrhages that occurs at the capillary level.”