Lifeboat Foundation

When Oumuamua, the first interstellar object ever observed passing through the Solar System, was discovered in 2017, it exhibited some unexpected properties that left astronomers scratching their heads. Its elongated shape, lack of a coma, and the fact that it changed its trajectory were all surprising, leading to several competing theories about its origin: was it a hydrogen iceberg exhibiting outgassing, or maybe an extraterrestrial solar sail (sorry folks, not likely) on a deep-space journey? We may never know the answer, because Oumuamua was moving too fast, and was observed too late, to get a good look.

It may be too late for Oumuamua, but we could be ready for the next strange interstellar visitor if we wanted to. A spacecraft could be designed and built to catch such an object at a moment’s notice. The idea of an interstellar interceptor like this has been floated by various experts, and funding to study such a concept has even been granted through NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. But how exactly would such an interceptor work?

A new paper released on ArXiv on June 27^th explores one possible mission design. Derived from the NIAC study, the proposal suggests combining solar sail technology with the ability to miniaturize space probes to small, lightweight sizes.

Elon Musk is boring his way to the beach in Fort Lauderdale.

Local lawmakers accepted a proposal from Musk’s Boring Co. Tuesday to build an underground transit system that would whisk people from the Florida city’s downtown area to the beach in Teslas.

“Other firms have 45 days to submit competing proposals. This could be a truly innovative way to reduce traffic congestion,” Mayor Dean Trantalis wrote on Twitter.

At two hours post-treatment, pain freedom was achieved by 37% of participants with REN compared to 9% of the participants who took oral triptans and over the counter analgesic medications.

In 2017, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers broke his right collarbone in a game against the Minnesota Vikings. Typically, it takes about 12 weeks for a collarbone to fully heal, but by mid-December fans and commentators were hoping the three-time MVP might recover early and save a losing season.

So did Xudong Wang, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an expert in creating thin, movement-powered medical devices. “I started wondering if we could provide a new solution to bring athletes back to the field quicker than ever,” Wang says.

Researchers know that electricity can help speed up bone healing, but “zapping” fractures has never really caught on, since it requires surgically implanting and removing electrodes powered by an external source.

Continue reading “Self-powered implantable device stimulates fast bone healing, then disappears without a trace” »

A year after University at Buffalo scientists demonstrated that it was possible to produce millions of mature human cells in a mouse embryo, they have published a detailed description of the method so that other laboratories can do it, too.

The ability to produce millions of mature human cells in a living organism, called a chimera, which contains the cells of two species, is critical if the ultimate promise of stem cells to treat or cure human disease is to be realized. But to produce those mature cells, human primed stem cells must be converted back into an earlier, less developed naive state so that the human stem cells can co-develop with the inner cell mass in a mouse blastocyst.

The protocol outlining how to do that has now been published in Nature Protocols by the UB scientists. They were invited to publish it because of the significant interest generated by the team’s initial publication describing their breakthrough last May.

Warp drive patent.

The present invention relates to the use of technical drive systems, which operate by the modification of gravitational fields. These drive systems do not depend on the emission of matter to create thrust but create a change in the curvature of space-time, in accordance with general relativity. This allows travel by warping space-time to produce an independent warp drive system. Differential electron flow through a body in rotation is directed so as to simultaneously pass through a said body in its direction of rotation and contrary to its direction of rotation so as to release a directed flow of gravitons.

In an early trial, patients received a single infusion of a CRISPR-based therapy to knock out the mutated gene responsible for their disease.

Though the laser beam eventually would be fired up in extremely short pulses – with no risk of a blackout on Earth – experts believe it would tear apart space-time for a brief moment to allow scientists to glimpse new physical phenomena that for now only exist in theories.

Technological leap would allow the firing of a laser 10000 times more powerful than all the electricity grids in the world combined.

A team of researchers at Tel Aviv University has developed a breakthrough RNA-based drug delivery system to target diseased cells that could improve the treatment of blood cancers, various types of solid cancers, different inflammatory diseases and viral diseases – including coronavirus.

“We are the first in the world to deliver the drug exclusively to cells that are currently relevant to the disease.”

Continue reading “Tel Aviv team develops RNA ‘missiles’ to directly target cancer cells” »