Lifeboat Foundation

The desert moss Syntrichia caninervis is a promising candidate for Mars colonization thanks to its extreme ability to tolerate harsh conditions lethal to most life forms. The moss is well known for its ability to tolerate drought conditions, but researchers report in the journal The Innovation that it can also survive freezing temperatures as low as −196°C, high levels of gamma radiation, and simulated Martian conditions involving these three stressors combined. In all cases, prior dehydration seemed to help the plants cope.

“Our study shows that the environmental resilience of S. caninervis is superior to that of some of highly stress-tolerant microorganisms and tardigrades,” write the researchers, who include ecologists Daoyuan Zhang and Yuanming Zhang and botanist Tingyun Kuang of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“S. caninervis is a promising candidate pioneer plant for colonizing extraterrestrial environments, laying the foundation for building biologically sustainable human habitats beyond Earth.”

With generative AI models, researchers combined robotics data from different sources to help robots learn better. MIT researchers developed a technique to combine robotics training data across domains, modalities, and tasks using generative AI models. They create a combined strategy from several different datasets that enables a robot to learn to perform new tasks in unseen environments.

Let’s say you want to train a robot so it understands how to use tools and can then quickly learn to make repairs around your house with a hammer, wrench, and screwdriver. To do that, you would need an enormous amount of data demonstrating tool use.

Existing robotic datasets vary widely in modality — some include color images while others are composed of tactile imprints, for instance. Data could also be collected in different domains, like simulation or human demos. And each dataset may capture a unique task and environment.

Superintelligence is within reach.

Building safe superintelligence (SSI) is the most important technical problem of our time.

We have started the world’s first straight-shot SSI lab, with one goal and one product: a safe superintelligence.

LOS ANGELES — Redwire announced a contract June 17 to serve as prime mission integrator for a DARPA satellite with a novel propulsion system for very low Earth orbit (VLEO).

SabreSat, Redwire’s VLEO satellite for government intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions, will house “air-breathing” electric propulsion systems being developed through DARPA’s Otter program.

The discovery process involved extensive fieldwork and the use of advanced technology. Researchers utilized high-resolution aerial photographs and an optimized artificial intelligence model to accurately map the habitat and health of trees across the region, indirectly leading to the identification of the new viper species. This method allowed the researchers to cover a vast area with unprecedented precision, enhancing their understanding of the ecosystem and its inhabitants.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the Ovophis jenkinsi is its behavior. Unlike many snakes that prefer to flee when threatened, this viper exhibits aggressive defensive tactics.

“It is usually slow-moving but shows great aggression when disturbed,” the researchers wrote. “When threatened, these snakes inflate their bodies to make themselves appear larger and strike quickly.”

Researchers used dendrochronology and a radiocarbon spike from 5,259 BC to date a prehistoric Greek settlement to over 7,000 years ago. This new method enables precise dating for other Southeast European archaeological sites.

Researchers at the University of Bern have, for the first time, precisely dated a prehistoric settlement of early farmers in northern Greece to over 7,000 years ago. They achieved this by combining annual growth ring measurements on wooden building elements with a significant spike in cosmogenic radiocarbon dating to 5,259 BC. This method provides a reliable chronological reference point for numerous other archaeological sites in Southeast Europe.

Dating finds plays a key role in archaeology. It is always essential to find out how old a tomb, settlement, or single object is. Determining the age of finds from prehistoric times has only been possible for a few decades. Two methods are used for this: dendrochronology, which enables dating on the basis of sequences of annual rings in trees, and radiocarbon dating, which can calculate the approximate age of the finds by the decay rate of the radioactive carbon isotope ¹⁴ C contained in the tree rings.

Washi: the traditional Japanese paper, known for its beauty and strength, has been used in bookbinding, art, furniture, and architecture for hundreds of years. But, more recently, washi’s usage is on the decline, as people opt for more western style housing designs.

What influences mental health, academic achievement, and cognitive growth? A recent review published in De Gruyter’s Reviews in the Neurosciences indicates that poverty and low socioeconomic status (SES) are significant contributing factors. While previous research has explored the individual impacts of poverty on the brain and behavior, this review introduces the first integrated framework. It synthesizes evidence from various studies to directly connect brain alterations caused by low SES with behavioral, pathological, and developmental outcomes.

SES refers to the social standing of an individual or family, and involves factors such as wealth, occupation, educational attainment, and living conditions. As well as affecting day-to-day life, perhaps surprisingly SES can also have far-reaching consequences for our brains that begin in childhood and persist into adulthood.

So, how can poverty and low SES change the brain? The review examines the negative effects of poor nutrition, chronic stress, and environmental hazards (such as pollution and inadequate housing conditions), which are more likely to affect low-SES families. These factors can impair the brain development of children, which in turn can influence their language skills, educational attainment, and risk of psychiatric illness.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of space exploration, private companies are increasingly taking the lead. One company at the forefront of this commercial space revolution is Sierra Space. With its innovative inflatable habitat modules and ambitious plans, Sierra Space is poised to play a pivotal role in building the next generation of space stations and lunar habitats.