Lifeboat Foundation

The new SENS Research Newsletter is out!

SENS Research Foundation email newsletter from 28th November 2016.

In Brief

• Scientist have developed an ingenious means of converting nuclear power plant waste (76,430 metric tons in the US alone) into sustainable diamond batteries.
• These long-lasting batteries could be a clean and safe way to power spacecraft, satellites, and even medical devices.

Illustration representing the novel design of a hybrid supercapacitor, showing bundles of nanowires (blue) coated with 2D energy-storage materials (yellow) (credit: University of Central Florida)

University of Central Florida researchers have developed a radical new supercapacitor design that could one day replace lithium-ion batteries, allowing users to charge a mobile phone in a few seconds and with a charge that lasts a week, according to the researchers. The new battery would be flexible and a fraction of the size of a lithium-ion battery.

The proof-of-concept design is based on a hybrid supercapacitor composed of a core with millions of highly conductive nanowires coated with shells of two-dimensional materials. It combines fast charging and discharging (high power density) and high storage capacity (high energy density).

Continue reading “Battery breakthrough charges in seconds, lasts for a week” »

The pioneering and world-leading research conducted at the University of Exeter’s state-of-the-art Living Systems Institute (LSI) will form the basis of the latest high-profile Global Conversation event.

The iconic new research facility, located on the University’s Streatham Campus, will host 100 specially-invited guests at the prominent event, held on Monday, 28 November.

The event, the first Global Conversation to be held on campus, gives the distinguished guests an exclusive opportunity to preview the new £52 million LSI facility, which brings together world-leading scientists and researchers from diverse discipline backgrounds.

With wireless optogenetic tools, neuroscientists steer mice around their cages.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ySsv5-jSqss

BMI implant leveraging AI.

You probably clicked on this article because the idea of using brain implants to allow artificial intelligence (AI) to read your brain sounds futuristic and fascinating. It is fascinating, but it’s not as futuristic as you might think. Before we start talking about brain implants and how to augment the human brain using AI, we need to put some context around human intelligence and why we might want to tinker with it.

Continue reading “Brain Implants that Augment the Human Brain Using AI” »

Summary: Researchers have discovered a link between nerve clusters in the brain and the amount of force generated by a physical action.

Source: Oxford University.

Researchers have found a link between the activity in nerve clusters in the brain and the amount of force generated in a physical action, opening the way for the development of better devices to assist paralysed patients.

Scientific Method —

Mystery of bleary-eyed astronauts may be cleared up with spinal fluid study.

Small study finds fluid that cushions the brain floods eye cavities in microgravity.

Continue reading “Mystery of bleary-eyed astronauts may be cleared up with spinal fluid study” »

Microsoft plans to create its own quantum computing systems; here’s how the company is doing so differently and how it can do it better.