Lifeboat Foundation

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Ultimate in miniaturization.

For nearly five years, Austin Energy’s EVs for Schools program has provided access to electric vehicle charging infrastructure and related technology curriculum to more than 150 schools across Central Texas. Now, AE is gearing up for the rollout of its upgraded program, adapted to meet the changing landscape of EV technology.

India’s sun-monitoring spacecraft has crossed a landmark point on its journey to escape “the sphere of Earth’s influence”, its space agency said, days after the disappointment of its moon rover failing to awaken.

The Aditya-L1 mission, which started its four-month journey towards the center of the solar system on September 2, carries instruments to observe the sun’s outermost layers.

“The spacecraft has escaped the sphere of Earth’s influence,” the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement late Saturday.

Researchers at Cornell University have developed a tiny, proof of concept robot that moves its four limbs by rapidly igniting a combination of methane and oxygen inside flexible joints.

The device can’t do much more than blow each limb outward with a varying amount of force, but that’s enough to be able to steer and move the little unit. It has enough power to make some very impressive jumps. The ability to navigate even with such limited actuators is reminiscent of hopped-up bristebots.

Continue reading “Micro Robot Disregards Gears, Embraces Explosions” »

This article explores the research question: ‘What are ChatGPT’s human-like traits as perceived by society?’ Thematic analyses of insights from 452 individuals worldwide yielded two categories of traits. Category 1 entails social traits, where ChatGPT embodies the social roles of ‘author’ (imitating human phrasing and paraphrasing practices) and ‘interactor’ (simulating human collaboration and emotion). Category 2 encompasses political traits, with ChatGPT assuming the political roles of ‘agent’ (emulating human cognition and identity) and ‘influencer’ (mimicking human diplomacy and consultation). When asked, ChatGPT confirmed the possession of these human-like traits (except for one trait). Thus, ChatGPT displays human-like qualities, humanising itself through the ‘game of algorithms’.

The veteran US philosopher renowned for his theories of consciousness is an intriguing figure but too prone to ‘professorial preening’.

In a recent study, scientists stained the DNA of this worm hatchling to hunt down segments of DNA that they’d seen deleted from its genome earlier in development. The deleted fragments (red) survive only in germline cells in the worm’s gonads.

To figure out what was going on, Delattre’s lab looked at the DNA of an adult worm. The researchers compared the genomes of M. belari’s germline cells — the specialized reproductive cells like sperm and eggs — with the genomes of the worm’s somatic (nonreproductive) cells. The somatic genomes were missing long strings of sequences present in germline genomes. Sometime between the embryo’s growth from seven cells to 32, huge chunks of DNA had vanished.

The scientists then watched nematode embryos develop under a microscope. As the cells grew and replicated their genomes, they broke 20 chromosomes down into fragments and then reassembled them into 40 miniature chromosomes. Most of the fragments rejoined in this new, smaller genome — but a substantial fraction were left out.

Continue reading “To Defend the Genome, These Cells Destroy Their Own DNA” »

OpenAI recently announced an upgrade to ChatGPT (Apple, Android) that adds two features: AI voice options to hear the chatbot responding to your prompts, and image analysis capabilities. The image function is similar to what’s already available for free with Google’s Bard chatbot.

Even after hours of testing the limits and capabilities of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s chatbot still manages to surprise and scare me at the same time. Yes, I was quite impressed with the web browsing beta offered through ChatGPT Plus, but I remained anxious about the tool’s ramifications for people who write for money online, among many other concerns. The new image feature arriving for OpenAI’s subscribers left me with similarly mixed feelings.

While I’ve not yet had the opportunity to experiment with the new audio capabilities (other great reporters on staff have), I was able to test the soon-to-arrive image features. Here’s how to use the new image search coming to ChatGPT and some tips to help you start out.

NASA has officially called upon companies to submit designs for a so-called U.S. Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) for the International Space Station (ISS). This pioneering spacecraft would have the crucial mission of safely bringing the ISS back to Earth, marking the ISS’s planned retirement.

The unprecedented project comes with an estimated price tag “a little short of about $1 billion,” as reported earlier this year by Kathy Lueders, NASA Associate Administrator for Space Operations.

Although initial considerations revolved around employing Russian spaceships for this monumental task, NASA, in a strategic shift, opened the floor this month to proposals from U.S. industry. The deadline for these innovative submissions is set for November 17, following the initiation of the call for designs on September 20.