Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Blog – Page 229

The work-related death rate fell 95% in the U.S. between 1913 & 2015.

Labor union activism is often credited with the decline, but economic expansion is what made better working conditions possible in the first place.

Read more about this trend.

All economic activity involves some degree of physical risk. Credible data on work injuries and fatalities among our agrarian ancestors are difficult to come by. Yet agricultural work must have been quite unappealing, considering that so many people in the early 19th century preferred factory work over farm work.

Continue reading “Work Grows Safer” | >

Users of Google’s Chrome browser can rest easy knowing that their surfing is secure, thanks in part to cryptographer Joppe Bos. He’s coauthor of a quantum-secure encryption algorithm that was adopted as a standard by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in August and is already being implemented in a wide range of technology products, including Chrome.

Rapid advances in quantum computing have stoked fears that future devices may be able to break the encryption used by most modern technology. These approaches to encryption typically rely on mathematical puzzles that are too complex for classical computers to crack. But quantum computers can exploit quantum phenomena like superposition and entanglement to compute these problems much faster, and a powerful enough machine should be able to break current encryption.

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In this article, we examine airborne microplastics in greater detail, explore detection methods, consider what we currently know about their health risks and highlight various mitigation strategies.

Unpacking the origins of microplastics

Airborne microplastics are a growing concern due to their presence across diverse environments, from lively city centers to isolated, untouched corners of the world.

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Site-selective immobilization of different bioreceptors on individual field-effect transistors, achieved through the use of thermal scanning probe lithography. Each bioreceptor can be tuned to detect a different disease.

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The University of Cape Town, along with the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, have conducted a large-scale study identifying significant cranial shape differences between four genetically distinct giraffe species. The findings suggest that these species exhibit unique developmental and morphological characteristics, which have implications for conservation efforts.

Taxonomic classification is critical for guiding good conservation strategies. Giraffes have long been categorized as one species with geographic variants, though advancements in research are reshaping this perspective.

In the study, “Heads Up—Four Giraffa Species Have Distinct Cranial Morphology,” published in PLOS ONE, researchers examined 515 skulls with 3D geometric morphometrics to analyze patterns of cranial variability. The dataset, the largest of its kind, included specimens from , wild populations, and taxidermy sources across Africa.

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