Lifeboat Foundation

Oh, joy. I hope it doesn’t take an actual catastrophe before the world comes together to get all of our eggs out of this one basket.

Comet P/2016 BA14 was initially thought to be a cosmic lightweight, but as it flew past Earth on March 22, NASA pinged it with radar to reveal just what a heavyweight it really is.

Synthetic biology involves creating or re-engineering microbes or other organisms to perform specific tasks, like fighting obesity, monitoring chemical threats or creating biofuels. Essentially, biologists program single-celled organisms like bacteria and yeast much the same way one would program and control a robot.

But 10 years ago, it was extremely challenging to take a DNA sequence designed on a computer and turn it into a polymer that could implement its task in a specific host, say a mouse or human cell. Now, thanks to a multitude of innovations across computing, engineering, biology and other fields, researchers can type out any DNA sequence they want, email it to a synthesis company, and receive their completed DNA construct in a week. You can build entire chromosomes and entire genomes of bacteria in this way.

Continue reading “Magic Microbes: The Navy’s Next Defense?” »

A team of researchers at the University of Ottawa has discovered that twisted light moves slower than the speed of light in a vacuum set by Einstein’s theory of relativity, with major implications for the development of quantum computing and communications.

A flexible, paper-like ceramic material has been created that promises to provide an inexpensive, fireproof, non-conductive base for a whole range of new and innovative electronic devices (Credit: Eurakite). View gallery (4 images)

Materials to make hard-wearing, bendable non-conducting substrates for wearables and other flexible electronics are essential for the next generation of integrated devices. In this vein, researchers at the University of Twente have reformulated ceramic materials so that they have the flexibility of paper and the lightness of a polymer, but still retain exceptional high-temperature resistance. The new material has been dubbed flexiramics.

Continue reading “Multiple bends won’t crack this lightweight, paper-like, flexible ceramic” »

“The Colorware Retro iMac blends the fun, nostalgic look of the Apple IIe with the technology of a 27-inch Retina iMac.”

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For info about divesting from nuclear weapons companies, go to http://responsibleinvest.org/

Thanks to the Future of Life Institute for helping support this video http://www.futureoflife.org (in particular, thanks to Max Tegmark for guest narrating and Meia Chita-Tegmark for her feedback)

Continue reading “Why You Should Care About Nukes” »

Today, Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) and IBM announced the development of a new Scale-up Synaptic Supercomputer (NS16e) that highly integrates 16 TrueNorth Chips in a 4×4 array to deliver 16 million neurons and 256 million synapses. LLNL will also receive an end-to-end software ecosystem that consists of a simulator; a programming language; an integrated programming environment; a library of algorithms as well as applications; firmware; tools for composing neural networks for deep learning; a teaching curriculum; and cloud enablement.

The $1 million computer has 16 IBM microprocessors designed to mimic the way the brain works.

IBM says it will be five to seven years before TrueNorth sees widespread commercial use, but the Lawrence Livermore test is a big step in that direction.

Continue reading “Neuromorphic supercomputer has 16 million neurons” »

According to a series of articles produced by NASA and industry specialists, a lunar base could be built in a few years for just $10 billion.

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

VPUs or Vision Processing Units, allow machines to understand the scene set in front of them.