Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 10077

We have a vacancy for a senior/principal mechanical engineer capable of providing specialist consultancy/mechanical design analysis, research and development support to clients in both space and terrestrial markets.

The role involves leadership of all aspects of multiple mechanism and tribology projects from identification of opportunities and where necessary funding sources, through preparation of winning proposals to execution of the work in-line with cost, schedule and quality requirements.

Working mainly with bespoke, precision mechanical systems, the main purpose of the role is to provide specialist engineering consultancy and research/development support to external clients involved in space and vacuum mechanism development. In addition, the job-holder will be expected to provide conceptual/architectural design and development leadership for in-house devices, new products and test facility developments.

Read more

Bacteria that were thought to be resistant to a powerful antibiotic may be susceptible to treatment after all, research has found.

The food-poisoning bug Listeria was shown to respond to an antibiotic even though the carry that should make it highly resistant.

Scientists say the antibiotic—called fosfomycin—should be reconsidered as a treatment for life-threatening Listeria infections.

Read more

Rice University atomic physicists have verified a key prediction from a 55-year-old theory about one-dimensional electronics that is increasingly relevant thanks to Silicon Valley’s inexorable quest for miniaturization.

“Chipmakers have been shrinking feature sizes on microchips for decades, and device physicists are now exploring the use of nanowires and nanotubes where the channels that electrons pass through are almost one-dimensional,” said Rice experimental physicist Randy Hulet. “That’s important because 1D is a different ballgame in terms of electron conductance. You need a new model, a new way of representing reality, to make sense of it.”

With IBM and others committed to incorporating one-dimensional carbon nanotubes into integrated circuits, chip designs will increasingly need to account for 1D effects that arise from electrons being fermions, antisocial particles that are unwilling to share space.

Read more

The free market Adam Smith Institute says we could be on the cusp of a revolution.

When I wrote that 41% of land in the contiguous United States is used to feed livestock, I thought it was a pretty high number. According to a new report from the free market-leaning Adam Smith Institute, however, the UK has us beat on that front:

Apparently a full 85% of the UK’s land footprint is associated with animal product production.

Read more