Lifeboat Foundation

Contrary to existing antimicrobial coatings, which function by eliminating microorganisms upon contact over some adequate duration of time, the technology developed by FendX takes a preventative approach. Utilizing nanotechnology to develop film and spray protective coatings that prevent microbial adherence to surfaces, thereby minimizing the potential for transmission. This is a significant departure from reactive coating surfaces in the market, offering a proactive method for reducing the occurrence and spread of HAIs.

REPELWRAP™ film, is FendX’s lead product in development and is with their manufacturer who is gearing up to conduct pilot runs on their commercial manufacturing line to create intermediate films for testing. FendX is also developing a spray-based product using their patent-pending nanotechnology. This spray offers the same preventative measures against microbial adherence and has the potential to be more versatile and easier-to-apply to surfaces. It not only demonstrates the same repelling properties but also effectively inactivates any residual microorganisms on the coated surface.

FendX is focused on healthcare settings, but is also exploring potential applications in other multiple billion high-traffic industries. It is anticipated that FendX’s future protective coatings can be applied to various high-touch surfaces: from bed rails and IV poles in healthcare to potential handrails in public transport systems to door handles in restaurants and public bathrooms. Given that the technology inhibits microbial adherence, it has the potential to significantly reduce the spread of pathogens in virtually any setting where human interaction with surfaces occurs. This broad applicability signifies that the market opportunity could be vastly larger than the projected $7.6 billion for antimicrobial coatings by 2025, opening doors to various industries and settings.

Research shows that 20th-century commercial whaling has left a mark on the genetic diversity of surviving whales, emphasizing the importance of understanding and conserving their genetic history.

Commercial whaling in the 20^th century decimated populations of large whales but also appears to have had a lasting impact on the genetic diversity of today’s surviving whales, new research from Oregon State University shows.

Researchers compared DNA.

The famous Copenhagen Interpretation favored by the founders of quantum mechanics is most definitely psi-epistemic. Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and others saw the state vector as being related to our interactions with the Universe. As Bohr said, “Physics is not about how the world is; it is about what we can say about the world.”

QBism is also definitively psi-epistemic, but it is not the Copenhagen Interpretation. Its epistemic focus grew organically from its founders’ work in quantum information science, which is arguably the most important development in quantum studies over the last 30 years. As physicists began thinking about quantum computers, they recognized that seeing the quantum in terms of information — an idea with strong epistemic grounding — provided new and powerful insights. By taking the information perspective seriously and asking, “Whose information?” the founders of QBism began a fundamentally new line of inquiry that, in the end, doesn’t require science fiction ideas like infinite parallel universes. That to me is one of its great strengths.

But, like all quantum interpretations, there is a price to be paid by QBism for its psi-epistemic perspective. The perfectly accessible, perfectly knowable Universe of classical physics is gone forever, no matter what interpretation you choose. We’ll dive into the price of QBism next time.

Like Tom Hanks, victims of AI-generated trickery will need help getting out the message that they are not the ones who generated the content that’s being ascribed to them. The value of human expertise and decision-making in crisis management will become even more evident.

The AI revolution will have permanent repercussions beyond anything we can perhaps imagine today. Soon, organizations exploring and implementing the use of AI will invite unprecedented levels of risk.

Deepfake AI is now being used to create voice clones, convincing images and video hoaxes, all of which can be used to destroy an individual’s reputation or livelihood.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technologies have ushered in a new era, bringing unprecedented opportunities and challenges. In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, addressing these multifaceted challenges necessitates a collaborative effort spanning various sectors and calls for policy reforms while emphasizing global cooperation.

The rapid advancement of technologies, particularly artificial intelligence, has introduced transformative possibilities alongside a range of concerns. While AI holds the potential to revolutionize industries and enhance our daily lives, it also raises pressing issues related to data privacy, misinformation, and cybersecurity.

Experts have proposed adopting the “information environment” framework to address these multifaceted challenges. This framework comprises three essential components:

Quantum physicists have simulated super diffusion in quantum particles on a quantum computer, paving the way for deeper insights into condensed matter physics and materials science. This achievement, realized on a 27-qubit system programmed remotely from Dublin, emphasizes the potential of quantum computing in both commercial and fundamental physics inquiries.

Quantum physicists at Trinity, working alongside IBM Dublin, have successfully simulated super diffusion in a system of interacting quantum particles on a quantum computer.

This is the first step in doing highly challenging quantum transport calculations on quantum hardware and, as the hardware improves over time, such work promises to shed new light in condensed matter physics and materials science.

Scientists generally, said NSF’s Lisa Winter, will be able to view a very active corona — or upper atmosphere of the sun — during the precious minutes that the sun is nearly completely blocked by the moon. The sun is nearing its maximum of solar activity in its 11-year-cycle, unlike the last U.S. total solar eclipse of 2017, meaning that “the corona will be very active this time around,” said Winter, who is NSF’s program director for solar-terrestrial research.

Solar activity has an immense impact on the ionosphere, which is a layer of Earth’s atmosphere that interacts with electromagnetic radiation from above and below its extent. These interactions affect the propagation of radio signals.

Neuroscientists in New York have made a major breakthrough in memory research that promises to revolutionize our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s.

A new study details how a structural cell that wraps around blood vessels may actually play an important role in the formation and storage of long-term memories.

According to the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly 5.8 million American adults live with Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias. And yet, our understanding of these diseases is still fairly limited, largely thanks to question marks over how memories are actually formed.

A new study, published in Nature Nanotechnology, may offer a strategy that mitigates negative side effects associated with intravenous injection of nanoparticles commonly used in medicine.

“Nanotechnology’s main advantage over conventional medical treatments is its ability to more precisely target tissues, such as cancer cells targeted by chemotherapy. However, when nanoparticles are injected, they can activate part of the immune system called complement,” said senior author Dmitri Simberg, Ph.D., professor of Nanomedicine and Nanosafety at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Complement is a group of proteins in the immune system that recognize and neutralize bacteria and viruses, including nanoparticles which are foreign to the body. As a result, nanoparticles are attacked by immune cells triggering side effects that include shortness of breath, elevated heart rate, fever, hypotension, and, in rare cases, anaphylactic shock.