Lifeboat Foundation

New research from a team including a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist reaffirms that human footprints found in White Sands National Park, New Mexico, date to the Last Glacial Maximum, placing humans in North America thousands of years earlier than once thought. Explore the role of radiocarbon dating of pollen in the discovery:

We support diverse research activities with talented staff, state-of-the-art facilities and core competencies. From internal collaboration to external partnerships, we work together to advance scientific discovery.

Japanese scientist Kikunae Ikeda first proposed umami as a basic taste—in addition to sweet, sour, salty and bitter—in the early 1900s. About eight decades later, the scientific community officially agreed with him.

Now, scientists led by researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences have evidence of a sixth basic taste.

In research published in Nature Communications, USC Dornsife neuroscientist Emily Liman and her team found that the tongue responds to ammonium chloride through the same protein receptor that signals sour taste.

WIRED asked experts from all corners of society and academia to answer questions about the future of technology, artificial intelligence, and humanity itself.

Still haven’t subscribed to WIRED on YouTube? ►► http://wrd.cm/15fP7B7
Listen to the Get WIRED podcast ►► https://link.chtbl.com/wired-ytc-desc.
Want more WIRED? Get the magazine ►► https://subscribe.wired.com/subscribe/splits/wired/WIR_YouTu…ription_ZZ

Continue reading “Experts Predict the Future of Technology, AI & Humanity” »

According to a new theory presented by researchers at HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus and their colleagues at University College London, how useful a memory is for future situations determines where it resides in the brain.

The theory offers a new way of understanding systems consolidation, a process that transfers certain memories from the hippocampus – where they are initially stored – to the neocortex — where they reside long term.

Under the classical view of systems consolidation, all memories move from the hippocampus to the neocortex over time. But this view doesn’t always hold up; research shows some memories permanently reside in the hippocampus and are never transferred to the neocortex.

We asked four talented designers for their go-to rendering tips.

Have you ever wondered if the Earth has a heartbeat? Well, it turns out that our planet does pulsate every 26 seconds, and scientists have no idea why.

This mysterious phenomenon has been detected by seismometers across the world for more than half a century, but its origin and meaning remain unknown.

When the discovery of fossilized footprints made in what’s now New Mexico was made public in 2021, it was a bombshell moment for archaeology, seemingly rewriting a chapter of the human story. Now new research is offering further evidence of their significance.

While they look like they could have been made yesterday, the footprints were pressed into mud 21,000 to 23,000 years ago, according to radiocarbon dating of the seeds of an aquatic plant that were preserved above and below the fossils.

This date dramatically pushed back the timeline of humans’ history in the Americas, the last landmass to be settled by prehistoric people. The 61 dated prints, which were discovered in the Tularosa Basin, near the edge of an ancient lake in White Sands National Park, were made at a time when many scientists think that massive ice sheets had sealed off human passage into North America, indicating that humans arrived in the region even earlier.

Their advantages extend beyond reducing carbon emissions.

Thirteen US states are now implementing underground thermal energy networks to reduce buildings’ carbon emissions as part of a nationwide push to adopt cleaner energy sources.

Thermal energy networks use pipe loops that connect multiple buildings and provide heating and cooling through water-source heat pumps. Geothermal heat is commonly used in these networks, but it is also possible to bring in waste heat from other buildings through the sewer system.

AI-powered parking platform Metropolis today announced that it raised $1.7 billion to acquire SP Plus, a provider of parking facility management services, in a combination of equity and debt.

Eldridge Capital and 3L Capital co-led the tranche with participation from BDT & MSD Partners’ affiliated credit funds, Vista Credit Partners, Temasek, Slow Ventures and Assembly Ventures. As a part of the financing, Metropolis will take on $650 million in loans and $1.05 billion in Series C preferred stock financing.

Metropolis will pay roughly $1.5 billion for SP Plus “while retaining significant capital on its balance sheet,” Metropolis co-founder and CEO Alex Israel said in a press release. Prior to the latest fundraise, Metropolis had raised $226 million in total.