Lifeboat Foundation

Glass nanoparticles trapped by lasers in extreme vacuum are considered a promising platform for exploring the limits of the quantum world. Since the advent of quantum theory, the question at which sizes an object starts being described by the laws of quantum physics rather than the rules of classical physics has remained unanswered.

A team formed by Lukas Novotny (ETH Zurich), Markus Aspelmeyer (University of Vienna), Oriol Romero-Isart (University of Innsbruck), and Romain Quidant (Zurich) is attempting to answer precisely this question within the ERC-Synergy project Q-Xtreme. A crucial step on the way to this goal is to reduce the energy stored in the motion of the nanoparticle as much as possible, i.e. to cool the particle down to the so-called quantum ground-state.

From burgers to sausages and steak tips to chicken nuggets, there’s no shortage of plant-based “meat” products on grocery store shelves and in restaurants these days. Companies like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have done an impressive job diversifying their offerings, with almost any processed meat you can think of now on their lists (even beef jerky and popcorn chicken). But a key cut of meat is still missing from these big names’ menus: a good old-fashioned filet, just like the cows make ‘em.

I served the steak with quinoa and sauteed veggies, and after a few bites, I couldn’t deny it was both tasty and had a pleasant texture. Did it taste or feel like a real steak? Not really. The real meat it most reminded me of was rib meat, the kind that easily pulls off the bone when the ribs have been slow-cooked; soft and tender, but not dried out. The plant-based steak had a distinctly fatty-like mouthfeel without the excessive oiliness you sometimes get from animal fat.

Continue reading “This Steak Is Tender, Marbled, Meaty—and 100% Vegan” »

The most famous one is the cell phone itself: Captain Kirk’s communicator inspired the folks at Motorola to make the first handheld mobile device in 1973. Star Trek: The Original Series (popularly called TOS) from the 1960s also inspired video conferencing. But things started to amp up when, in 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation (aka TNG) hit the floors, with Sir Patrick Stewart in the lead. It became one of the most syndicated shows on television—which is how I discovered it in mid-90s India on the Star network. It fundamentally impacted my life, inspiring me to become the technology writer I am today.

But more than me, this show heralded more technological concepts that are becoming increasingly real. The LCARS computer on the Galaxy-Class USS Enterprise D is basically the foundation of what Google is today. Google’s former head of search, Amit Singhal, often said that the company is “trying to build the Star Trek computer”.

Regeneration, Resuscitation & Biothreat Countermeasures — Commander Dr. Jean-Paul Chretien, MD, Ph.D., Program Manager, Biological Technology Office, DARPA

Commander Dr. Jean-Paul Chretien, MD, Ph.D. (https://www.darpa.mil/staff/cdr-jean-paul-chretien) is a Program Manager in the Biological Technology Office at DARPA, where his research interests include disease and injury prevention, operational medicine, and biothreat countermeasures. He is also responsible for running the DARPA Triage Challenge (https://triagechallenge.darpa.mil/).

Continue reading “CDR Dr. Jean-Paul Chretien — DARPA BTO — Regeneration, Resuscitation And Biothreat Countermeasures” »

Voice-powered virtual assistants may be a trend of the past as major tech companies turn their attention toward A.I.

A 1960s nuclear research lab in the North of England will host a new quantum computing facility under plans drawn up by a Silicon Valley technology company.

PsiQuantum is to set up a research hub at the Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, using the facility’s state of the art cooling systems to develop its technology.

PsiQuantum, which is backed by BlackRock, Microsoft and Baillie Gifford, was set up by professors at the University of Bristol and Imperial College London but its founders moved to Silicon Valley in 2016 under advice from investors.

Summary: The more a person is able to synchronize to a simple beat, the better they are at synchronizing their pupils with those of another person.

Source: Dartmouth College.

How well you synchronize to a simple beat predicts how well you synchronize with another mind, according to a new Dartmouth study published in Scientific Reports.

We live in a four-dimensional Universe, where matter and energy curve the fabric of spacetime. But time sure is different from space!

I am restoring here some pages from the old version of the website turingchurch.com, which has been moved to Substack (please subscribe!). This is an archive of some old pages about the Order of Cosmic Engineers, a Turing Church precursor that was active before 2010.

See Chapter 2 of “Tales of the Turing Church” and references therein for the story of the Order of Cosmic Engineers.