Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists have announced that the oldest living creature on our planet is a jellyfish-like organism called a ctenophore. It evolved from the same primordial animals that humans did.

This fascinating creature first emerged 700 million years ago, a significant time before the dinosaurs, which appeared only 230 million years ago. The study found that ctenophores are the closest relatives of the first animals and can still be spotted in modern-day oceans and aquariums.

A team from the University of California, Berkeley embarked on a quest to decipher the relationships within the animal tree of life. They wanted to broaden our understanding of the origins and evolution of life on Earth.

Artificial intelligence has been around for years, but scarcely has it found itself in conversation as much as it has now. The launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT rocketed generative AI onto the radar of many people who hadn’t been paying much attention — or didn’t feel it was relevant to their lives. This has included workers, who’ve already been touched by the technology, whether they know it or not.

The chatbot, which uses machine learning to respond to user prompts, is helping workers write cover letters and resumes, generate ideas and even art in the workplace and more. It’s already making a splash in hiring with recruiters, who are finding they need to adapt to the new technology. And as competing companies rush to launch similar tools, the technology will only get stronger and more sophisticated.

The rise of generative AI in the workplace is inevitable. There’s a lot to be excited about it.

Continue reading “Workplace AI: How artificial intelligence will transform the workday” »

Soft robotics have several key advantages over rigid counterparts, including their inherent safety features—soft materials with motions powered by inflating and deflating air chambers can safely be used in fragile environments or in proximity with humans—as well as their flexibility that enables them to fit into tight spaces. Textiles have become a choice material for constructing many types of soft robots, especially wearables, but the traditional “cut and sew” methods of manufacturing have left much to be desired.

Now, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have established a new approach for additively manufacturing soft robotics, using a 3D knitting method that can holistically “print” entire soft robots. Their work is reported in Advanced Functional Materials.

Continue reading “Additively manufacturing soft robots could reduce waste, increase performance” »

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Time travelers might want to keep this one handy.

The adoption of AI in clinical settings has increased exponentially over the past decade, but AI models still haven’t achieved the level of ubiquity that they could within the sector.

A few years ago, a group of Mayo Clinic researchers recognized this major problem. The health system was producing a huge amount of research on AI in clinical contexts, but it was still having a hard time actually deploying those AI models at scale.

Continue reading “Mayo Clinic-born Startup Scores $7.7M for Its Clinical AI Deployment Platform” »

The world’s first flexible, transparent augmented reality (AR) display screen using 3D printing and low-cost materials has been created by researchers at the University of Melbourne, KDH Design Corporation and the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication (MCN). The development of the new display screen is set to advance how AR is used across a wide range of industries and applications.

AR technology overlays digital content onto the real world, enhancing the user’s real-time perception and interaction with their environment. Until now, creating flexible AR technology that can adjust to different angles of light sources has been a challenge, as current mainstream AR manufacturing uses glass substrates, which must undergo photomasking, lamination, cutting, or etching microstructure patterns. These time-consuming processes are expensive, have a poor yield rate and are difficult to seamlessly integrate with product appearance designs.

Led by University of Melbourne researchers Associate Professor Ranjith Unnithan, Professor Christina Lim and Professor Thas Nirmalathas, in collaboration with Taiwanese KDH Design Corporation, the team has successfully developed a transparent AR display screen using low-cost, optical-quality polymer and plastic—a first-of-its-kind achievement in the field of AR displays.

When London-based student Lewis Hornby noticed that his dementia-afflicted grandmother was having trouble staying hydrated, he came up with Jelly Drops, bite-sized pods of edible water made with gelling agents and electrolytes.

An official launch date for the new accessibility features is yet to be announced but Apple has confirmed that it will be by the end of 2023.