Lifeboat Foundation

The Burj Khalifa in Dubai currently holds the title of world’s tallest building, but its architects are now looking to overtake it with a new project in Saudi Arabia. Known as the Jeddah Tower, or Kingdom Tower, the building will rise at least 3,280 feet when it’s completed in 2018, making it the world’s first to reach a full kilometer into the air. (The Burj Khalifa is 2,716 feet tall.) This week, the Saudi government announced that $2.2 billion in funding had been secured to build Jeddah City, including the tower.

The tower was designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, and construction up to the 26th floor has already been completed. But there’s still a lot to be done. When completed, the $1.23 billion project will have 200 floors that will be used for offices, apartments, and a Four Seasons hotel. It will also overlook the Red Sea, which posed engineering challenges due to the nearby saltwater and high wind levels. That explains its deep, 200-foot foundations, and its angular, wind-shielding shape.

Continue reading “The world’s tallest building will be one kilometer high” »

These robots do everything.

Read more

“The ribosome is one of the primary target for antibiotics, so understanding its architecture and consistently throughout biology could be of great benefit,” said Williams. “By studying the ribosome, we can start thinking about biology in a different way. We can see the symbiotic relationship between RNA and proteins.”

While the ribosomal core is the same across species, what’s added on top differs. Humans have the largest ribosome, encompassing some 7,000 nucleotides representing dramatic growth from the hundred or so base pairs at the beginning.

“What we’re talking about is going from short oligomers, short pieces of RNA, to the biology we see today,” said Williams. “The increase in size and complexity is mind-boggling.”

Read more

Shadowy hints of dark matter’s true nature are set to be boosted by a new particle and gamma-ray detector being launched into orbit.

Read more

A supercomputer simulation of a mere 10 milliseconds in the collapse of a massive star into a neutron star proves that these catastrophic events, often called hypernovae, can generate the enormous magnetic fields needed to explode the star and fire off bursts of gamma rays visible halfway across the universe.

The results of the simulation, published online Nov. 30 in advance of publication in the journal Nature, demonstrate that as a rotating star collapses, the star and its attached magnetic field spin faster and faster, forming a dynamo that revs the magnetic field to a million billion times the magnetic field of Earth.

A field this strong is sufficient to focus and accelerate gas along the rotation axis of the star, creating two jets that ultimately can produce oppositely directed blasts of highly energetic gamma rays.

Read more

Space Technology Mission Directorate, STMD

Read more

Amazon says drones can deliver packages weighing up to 5 pounds within 30 minutes.

“In time, there will be a whole family of Amazon drones,” says narrator Jeremy Clarkson, the former BBC “Top Gear” cohost who is working on a similar show for Amazon. “Different designs for different environments.”

Continue reading “See The Amazon Drone That Will Deliver In 30 Minutes Or Less” »

Radar reveals ‘an entrance to something’ in the walls of the burial chamber.

Read more

Will FAST be able to communicate with aliens? China will search for extraterrestrials in outer space when the world’s largest radio telescope is complete in 2016.

Read more