Lifeboat Foundation

As the James Webb Space Telescope enters its second year of capturing images of the depths of space, it has already revealed a treasure trove of beauty from around the universe, both near and far from home.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was launched on Christmas Day in 2021, and sent back its first batch of images on July 12, 2022, making this July its functional birthday.

This telescope, now situated around 1 million miles from Earth as it photographs the cosmos, is the successor space telescope to Hubble, designed to peer far back into the universe’s history and study the earliest stars and galaxies.

The works will be sent in commercial shipments in tandem with NASA’s Artemis missions.

Adam Schrader, July 31, 2023.

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have devised a photonic circuit on a chip that transforms a single incoming beam of laser light into a panoply of new beams, each with a host of different optical properties.

The newly generated beams—which retain the frequency of the original beam—simultaneously exit the circuit at different locations along the chip. That allows scientists and engineers to select the specific characteristics of one or more beams needed for a particular application.

Precision shaping and controlling beams of visible light are critical for diagnosing and studying human diseases, trapping atoms that form the basis of the world’s most accurate clocks, quantum computing, and many other quantum-based technologies.

With unusually powerful magnetic fields, these stars seem to get a boost when their cores start to drift apart. Thus, they may not be the ideal hosts for habitable exoplanets.

However, this perspective warrants reevaluation. It is very flawed.

The seismic shift towards a post-work society does not signify an end to human productivity or purpose. Instead, it presents an opportunity to redefine ‘work’ and untangle our identities from traditional employment as we see it today.

Work has transformed over the centuries from being a matter of survival to becoming an economic imperative. The next evolutionary leap could reshape work as a channel for self-expression and fulfillment. The dawn of a post-work era could herald a liberation from simple tasks and a celebration of qualities that make us uniquely human: creativity, empathy, innovation, and complex social interaction.

Queen guitarist Brian May and Dante Lauretta, the chief scientist of NASA’s asteroid-sampling OSIRIS-REx mission, have collaborated on a book about the asteroid Bennu — and it’s not a PR stunt.

OSIRIS-REx snagged a sample of Bennu in October 2020 and is currently speeding toward Earth with the precious space-rock material, which is scheduled to touch down here on Sept. 24.

Today, our observable Universe extends for 46 billion light-years in all directions. But early on in our history, things were much smaller.

Breakthrough research represents “the missing link that will enable wearables to control genes in the not-so-distant future,” researchers say.

Psilocybin has antidepressant-like effects and can improve cognitive function in a rat model of depression induced by chronic stress, according to new research published in Psychedelic Medicine. The findings provide new insights into the potential therapeutic applications of psychedelic substances and highlight the need for further research in this area to fully comprehend the underlying mechanisms.

Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in certain species of mushrooms, often referred to as “magic mushrooms” or “shrooms.” In recent years, there has been a growing interest in studying psilocybin and other psychedelics for their potential therapeutic effects. Psychedelics have shown promising rapid and persistent antidepressant effects in humans and animals. However, the exact mechanism behind these effects is not fully understood.

To investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for the antidepressant effects of psychedelics, the researchers used an appropriate animal model of depression. They chose a chronic stress-based model for greater translational value, as chronic stress is known to be a significant factor in depression. They specifically focused on female rats, as women are more susceptible to depression than men.