Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: mapping – Page 5

NASA and SpaceX have rescheduled the launch of the IMAP spacecraft to September 2025 to allow more time for preparing its flight systems.

The mission will explore the heliosphere to understand the Sun’s protective bubble and its effects on space weather and life. Accompanying IMAP are two rideshare missions: the Carruthers Geocorona Observatory and NOAAs Space Weather Follow On – Lagrange 1, which will study Earth’s outer atmosphere and monitor solar activity, respectively. All three spacecraft will operate from Lagrange point 1 to efficiently monitor space conditions.

IMAP launch delay and mission overview.

Read more | >

These models are poised to become a standard for classifying geological data across various databases. The models are freely available and open-source, allowing for continual updates and improvements from the geoscience community. This initiative fosters an adaptable and interactive environment, crucial for enhancing our understanding of Earth’s geological history, especially the Mesoproterozoic era and older periods.

A significant innovation is the transition from traditional raster maps to vector format shapefiles. This shift allows for seamless integration of geological data, offering a more nuanced understanding of Earth’s geological fabric. The vector format ensures that each polygon, line, or point can possess multiple unique attributes, enabling a detailed and multidimensional representation of geological features.

In essence, the work paves the way for more precise and comprehensive geological and tectonic models. This is a crucial step towards better predicting and understanding the Earth’s future.

Read more | >

It’s estimated that anywhere from three to seven percent of school-age children may have dyslexia, a neurodevelopmental issue that affects reading, spelling, and writing. There are different ideas about why dyslexia occurs, although they relate to dysfunction in brain networks, and are likely due to multiple causes in affected individuals; the disorder may not have a singular underlying cause. Neuroimaging studies of dyslexic individuals have produced inconsistent results.

Since dyslexia has a heritable, and therefore, genetic component, scientists wanted to know more about how genetics and brain mapping could reveal more about the pathology of dyslexia. A new study has shown that carriers of genetic variants that increase the risk of dyslexia also have changes in brain structure, which occur in areas that are related to language, motor coordination, and vision. The findings have been reported in Science Advances.

Read more | >

Westlake University in China and the California Institute of Technology have designed a protein-based system inside living cells that can process multiple signals and make decisions based on them.

The researchers have also introduced a unique term, “perceptein,” as a combination of protein and perceptron. Perceptron is a foundational artificial neural network concept, effectively solving binary classification problems by mapping input features to an output decision.

By merging concepts from neural network theory with , “perceptein” represents a biological system capable of performing classification computations at the protein level, similar to a basic artificial neural network. This “perceptein” circuit can classify different signals and respond accordingly, such as deciding to stay alive or undergo programmed cell death.

Read more | >

The concept of vectors can be traced back to the 17th century with the development of analytic geometry by René Descartes and Pierre de Fermat. They used coordinates to represent points in a plane, which can be seen as a precursor to vectors. In the early 19th century, mathematicians like Bernard Bolzano and August Ferdinand Möbius began to formalize operations on points, lines, and planes, which further developed the idea of vectors.

Hermann Grassmann is considered one of the key figures in the development of vector spaces. In his 1844 work “Die lineale Ausdehnungslehre” (The Theory of Linear Extension), he introduced concepts that are central to vector spaces, such as linear independence, dimension, and scalar products. However, his work was not widely recognized at the time.

In 1888, Giuseppe Peano gave the first modern axiomatic definition of vector spaces. He called them “linear systems” and provided a set of axioms that precisely defined the properties of vector spaces and linear maps. Hilbert helped to further formalize and abstract the concept of vector spaces, placing it within a broader axiomatic framework for mathematics. He played a key role in the development of functional analysis, which studies infinite-dimensional vector spaces.

Read more | >

A method for imaging spin waves in magnetic materials uses flash-like intensity variations in a laser beam to capture the wave motion at specific moments in time.

The magnetic moments, or spins, in certain materials can twirl in a coordinated wave pattern that might one day be used to transmit information in so-called spintronic devices. Researchers have developed a new way to image these spin waves using an infrared laser that essentially flashes on and off at a frequency that matches that of the spin waves [1]. Unlike other spin-wave probes, this strobe method can directly capture phase information that is relevant to certain applications, such as hybrid devices that combine spin waves with other types of waves.

A spin wave can be triggered in a magnetic material when some perturbation causes a spin to oscillate, which can then generate a wave of oscillations that ripple through neighboring spins. Spin waves have several properties that make them good candidates for information carriers. For one, they have relatively small wavelengths—a few hundred nanometers at a frequency of 1 GHz, whereas a 1-GHz photon has a wavelength of about 30 cm. This compactness could conceivably allow researchers to build spintronic components, such as waveguides and logic gates, at the nanoscale. Another advantage of these waves is that the spins remain in place, and only their orientation changes. So the heat losses that affect the moving charges in traditional electronics don’t exist.

Read more | >

UC Santa Barbara researchers developed a compact, low-cost laser that matches the performance of lab-scale systems. Using rubidium atoms and advanced chip integration, it enables applications like quantum computing, timekeeping, and environmental sensing, including satellite-based gravitational mapping.

For experiments requiring ultra-precise atomic measurements and control—such as two-photon atomic clocks, cold-atom interferometer sensors, and quantum gates—lasers are indispensable. The key to their effectiveness lies in their spectral purity, meaning they emit light at a single color or frequency. Today, achieving the ultra-low-noise, stable light necessary for these applications relies on bulky and expensive tabletop laser systems designed to generate and manage photons within a narrow spectral range.

But what if these atomic applications could break free from the confines of labs and benchtops? This is the vision driving research in UC Santa Barbara engineering professor Daniel Blumenthal’s lab, where his team is working to replicate the performance of these high-precision lasers in lightweight, handheld devices.

Read more | >

Mapping the geometry of quantum worlds: measuring the quantum geometric tensor in solids.

Quantum states are like complex shapes in a hidden world, and understanding their geometry is key to unlocking the mysteries of modern physics. One of the most important tools for studying this geometry is the quantum geometric tensor (QGT). This mathematical object reveals how quantum states “curve” and interact, shaping phenomena ranging from exotic materials to groundbreaking technologies.

The QGT has two parts, each with distinct significance:

1. The Berry curvature (the imaginary part): This governs topological phenomena, such as unusual electrical and magnetic behaviors in advanced materials.

2. The quantum metric (the real part): Recently gaining attention, this influences surprising effects like flat-band superfluidity, quantum Landau levels, and even the nonlinear Hall effect.

While the QGT is crucial for understanding these phenomena, measuring it directly has been a challenge, previously limited to simple, artificial systems.

A breakthrough now allows scientists to measure the QGT in real crystalline solids. Using an advanced technique involving polarization-, spin-, and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, researchers have reconstructed the QGT in a material called CoSn, a “kagome metal” with unique quantum properties like topological flat bands. This metal forms patterns resembling a woven basket, hosting quantum effects that were previously only theorized.

Continue reading “Physicists measure quantum geometry for first time” | >

After forty years, the creator of scar theory has observed the phenomenon in real time.

Quantum scarring is a phenomenon in which traveling electrons end up following the same repeating path.

Scars of Chaos: Visualizing Mysteries in Graphene Dots probabilities cluster along the paths of unstable orbits from their classical counterparts. These scars, while predicted, have remained elusive to direct observation—until now.
+
Using an innovative combination of graphene dot fabrication and advanced wavefunction mapping via scanning tunneling microscopy, researchers captured stunning images of scars. Within stadium-shaped GQDs, they observed striking lemniscate (∞-shaped) and streak-like probability patterns. These features recur at equal energy intervals, aligning with theoretical predictions for relativistic scars—a fascinating blend of mechanics and relativity.

The researchers further confirmed that these patterns are connected to two specific unstable periodic orbits within the GQD, bridging the chaotic motion of classical systems with the world. Beyond providing the first visual proof of scarring, this work lays the foundation for exploring other exotic scar phenomena, such as those induced by perturbations, chirality, or antiscarring effects.

This sets the stage for new discoveries in [#mechanics](https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/mechanics?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZXPCRQF-knoMxWsHdGuAINl_hxSgWpjd9vUPszcDQDED9B4XtpXqPPhvcrED0NuOfXnWgthLMzgHmb5MWHbg6_KCiMiM3QaLJM2p6zXDiZd5oSUVWZeKR8qhHn2bevNFEnZj4T-bvc595A_jLYg-RLGWJOGrgLefEZI-7CDt6hSLX7CskI28RIoWnxvrZR2Xks&__tn__=*NK-R), [#chaos](https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/chaos?__eep__=6&__cft__[0]=AZXPCRQF-knoMxWsHdGuAINl_hxSgWpjd9vUPszcDQDED9B4XtpXqPPhvcrED0NuOfXnWgthLMzgHmb5MWHbg6_KCiMiM3QaLJM2p6zXDiZd5oSUVWZeKR8qhHn2bevNFEnZj4T-bvc595A_jLYg-RLGWJOGrgLefEZI-7CDt6hSLX7CskI28RIoWnxvrZR2Xks&__tn__=*NK-R) theory, and material science, with potential applications ranging from technologies to our understanding of fundamental physical laws.

Explore #quantum at Facebook.

Continue reading “‪#‎quantum‬ — Explore” | >

There’s No Turning Back

Not long ago, solving the crystal structure of a protein required an entire PhD.

Growing crystals, collecting X-ray diffraction data, and interpreting electron density maps often took years of optimization and expensive instruments. Even then, solving all protein structures was a challenge, further compounding the “protein folding problem” in biology.

Read more | >