Lifeboat Foundation

A new study claims chocolate can improve cognitive performance – joining research that indicates it can prevent heart attacks and help you lose weight. But dig a little deeper and all is not what it seems …

You may have heard of Magic Leap, future purveyors of “cinematic reality” (augmented reality) headsets. This is a company without a single commercial product, and yet it’s worth $4.5 billion. Many are invigorated by the company’s potential, but a tour of its most recent, 160,000-word, 350-page patent application — especially with current events in mind — could suggest other, less exciting applications for the emerging technology.

No one really knows what to expect from the company: by design, it’s mysterious. (Out of silence comes allure.) We’ve seen two videos, we’ve investigated its job postings, and we know that wealthy organizations love throwing money its way. But we do have access to Magic Leap’s patent applications, and it published its most recent one in late January.

People are excited about VR and AR. With reason, too: the demos, previews, and new releases we get to watch are striking. The games we imagine playing in the future are enthralling. The mere idea of a virtual or augmented world, either distinct from or mixed with the actual (boring, depressing, what-have-you) world, is enough to invigorate all of our wayward souls.

Continue reading “Here’s Magic Leap’s Covert Vision for Its Augmented Reality Headsets” »

Cataracts can be cured by regrowing the lens in the eye using stem cells, a breakthrough hailed as ‘remarkable’ by scientists.

Graphene, that atomic-scale super material that promises to revolutionize everything from batteries to robots, is already improving the cycling world. Vittoria’s new graphene-infused Mezcal and Morsa bike tires are lightweight, thin, grippy, and everything a cyclist wants in a tire without any tradeoffs.

Choosing what tires to put on your bike usually depends on the conditions in which you’ll be riding. Larger tires provide better grip and durability, but add weight to a bike, while smaller tires are lighter and sleeker but wear out faster and provide minimal traction.

But by adding graphene—that wonder new material made of carbon atoms arranged in a strong honeycomb pattern—Vittoria’s new G+, or Graphene Plus, tires exhibit wonderful new properties. When riding on straightaways, the dual-layer makeup of the G+ tires allows them to remain firm for lower rolling resistance and added speed. But when a cyclist is braking or cornering, the tires get soft for added traction and grip.

Continue reading “Graphene-Infused Bike Tires Automatically Get Softer While Cornering For Better Grip” »

Noodle-like nanostructures emerge as a cheap alternative to graphene.

Recent results from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland hint at activity going on beyond the standard model of particle physics — which means we could finally be about to enter a new era in physics.

Right now, the standard model is the best explanation we have for how the Universe works and how it’s held together. But there are big gaps — most noticeably, the fact that the model doesn’t actually account for gravity — so scientists have spent decades probing the boundaries of physics for signs of any activity that the standard model can’t explain. And now they’ve found one.

The discrepancy deals with a particle called the B meson. According to the standard model, B mesons should decay at very specific angles and frequencies — but those predictions don’t match up what’s been seen in LHC experiments, suggesting that something else is going on. And if we can figure out what that is, it’ll take us closer to unlocking some of the mysteries in our Universe.

Continue reading “New LHC results suggest there’s a flaw in the standard model of physics” »

There’s no way of knowing how good our fake Mars soil really is — plus, the plants might be toxic.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rw1odkI0Nw8

Stem cell breakthrough grows new cornea material that restores some sight to blind rabbits in an experiment.