Lifeboat Foundation

Sunspots come and go in 11-year cycles with fluctuations in solar magnetic activity.

Stuart Clark

On April 2, 1845, Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau and Jean Bernard Léon Foucault manage to make the very first photography of the Sun. Thereby, they both initiate astronomical photography.

From a previous blog post you may remember Léon Foucault’s Pendulum.[4] The instrument was used to proof Earth’s rotation in the 1850s and counts to one of Foucault’s biggest scientific achievements. But let’s start a little bit earlier. Leon Foucault was born on September 18, 1819 as the son of a publisher in Paris. After an education received chiefly at home, he studied medicine, which he abandoned in favour of physics due to a fear of blood.

Meanwhile, astronomical photography started to establish slowly. There were not many experts in the field back then, since the very long exposures needed to capture relatively faint astronomical objects and many technological problems had to be overcome. Completely new telescopes had to be developed that were rigid enough in order to not lose the focus during exposure time. Also the telescopes had to be attached to a rotating mount that would move at a constant rate very accurately. Next to the telescope building itself, the technology of photography needed improvement as well. The daguerreotype was just introduced in 1839 and came into a very widespread use. However, for astronomical photography, the process was too slow and was only able to record very bright objects. Also, the exposure time was very limited using this method due to the wet plate collodion process.

We’ve all heard the old saying, “Money is what makes the world go round.” And while the monetary system is still relevant today, its role and distinction have diminished quite significantly in the pursuit of overwhelming abundance. In today’s world, convenience has become the ultimate product.

A new world is emerging thanks to the technological revolution being waged by a base of consumers who dream of a future where scarcity no longer exists.

Continue reading “In the 21st Century, Convenience is What Makes the World Go Round” »

DIYers can bioprint living human organs by modifying an off-the-shelf 3D printer costing about $500, announce researchers who published the plans as open source, enabling anyone to build their own system. [This article first appeared on LongevityFacts. Author: Brady Hartman. ]

Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) developed a low-cost 3D bioprinter to print living tissue by modifying a standard desktop 3D printer and released the design as open source so that anyone can build their own system.

Continue reading “New DIY 3D Bioprinter to Create Living Human Organs” »

In brief: An implantable cancer vaccine from Harvard has shown promising results in mice, and researchers are testing it in a clinical trial on humans. [This article first appeared on LongevityFacts. Author: Brady Hartman. ]

An implantable cancer vaccine being tested on patients by Harvard’s Wyss Institute is a new type of immunotherapy that holds promise to treat a wide range of cancers such as melanoma, as well as auto-immune conditions and infectious diseases. The aspirin-sized implant is made of a polymer scaffold containing growth factors and tissue samples from a patient’s tumors which trains a patient’s immune system to search and destroy cancer cells.

Harvard’s cancer vaccine is approaching the end of clinical testing, promising to be available 4 or 5 years sooner than Stanford’s vaccine with its 97% cure rate.

S cientists have warned against the risks of intensive IVF treatment as research suggests it increases the risk of heart disease in children.

The “high stimulation” method, where powerful drugs are used to stimulate egg production, is a commonly used practise in British fertility clinics.

But experts are now claiming there is growing evidence the treatment can result in offspring with higher blood pressure and thicker arteries than normal.

Continue reading “IVF children at risk of heart disease if procedure too intense, experts warn” »

A passenger pod would try to reach half the speed of sound, roughly 381 miles an hour, and then brake in less than a mile, Musk tweeted in the tech billionaire’s latest update. The announcement came as competitors, including British tycoon Richard Branson, pursue rival hyperloop plans.

Many great ideas in this article!

For the last few years, Goodyear has rolled into the Geneva Motor Show with new tire designs that could be described as intriguing concepts at best and crazy, outlandish ideas at worst. Either way, they do provoke thought around the future of transport and this year’s rendition is no different, hiding living moss inside the sidewall to cleanse the surrounding air as the car rolls down the road.

Continue reading “Goodyear goes green in Geneva with photosynthesizing concept tire” »

A black hole could strip your past and give you infinite futures, according to a new study.