Lifeboat Foundation

Imagine the possibility of life forms on other planets that don’t resemble any on Earth. What might they look like, and why would they be so different?

Juan Pérez-Mercader says it may be possible and the answer may be that they developed from a different type of chemistry. For more than 10 years, the senior research fellow in the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences and the Origins of Life Initiative at Harvard has studied how to produce synthetic living systems—without relying on biochemistry, or the chemistry that has enabled life on Earth.

“We have been trying to build a non-biochemical system, which unaided is capable of executing the essential properties common to all natural living systems,” Pérez-Mercader explained.

Following the announcement of Vision Pro at WWDC yesterday, Apple is providing more details about the headset itself and the visionOS software platform in developer sessions. In a session on Tuesday, called “Design for spatial input,” Apple showcased two ways to interact with Vision Pro: a floating in-air keyboard and pairing a keyboard via Bluetooth.

Text input has been one of the most common questions about Vision Pro so far. In this WWDC session for developers, Apple points out two ways users can input text with Vision Pro.

First, you can type using a virtual keyboard with your fingertips. Apple explains that the keyboard’s design is meant to help guide users toward the button surface. The experience also includes feedback via spatial sound effects to “compensate for the missing tactile information.”

Artificial intelligence has proven itself useful in reading medical imaging and even shown it can pass doctors’ licensing exams.

Now, a new AI tool has demonstrated the ability to read physicians’ notes and accurately anticipate patients’ risk of death, readmission to hospital, and other outcomes important to their care.

Designed by a team at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the software is currently in use at the university’s affiliated hospitals throughout New York, with the hope that it will become a standard part of health care.

How do you stay strong and not get rattled? Here’s the answer.

Researchers say they have been able to tap a new pool of organ donors to preserve and transplant their hearts: people whose hearts have stopped beating, resulting in so-called circulatory death.

Traditionally, the only people considered to be suitable organ donors were those who have been declared brain-dead but whose hearts and other organs have continued to function.

There’s another group that would be willing to donate if survival wasn’t possible: people who may have severe brain injuries but who are not brain-dead. In these cases, people are considered deceased when their hearts stop beating after withdrawal of life support, also called circulatory death.

To learn more about nose and sinus cancers, we spoke with head and neck surgeon Ehab Hanna, M.D.

What are the symptoms of nose and sinus cancers?

Early symptoms often mimic those of more common conditions, such as sinus infections and allergies. As a result, these cancers are often misdiagnosed.

Colorectal cancer screening can detect cancer early, giving you the greatest chance for successful treatment. While colonoscopy is the gold standard for colorectal cancer screening, you may be wondering when you should get your first test.

We spoke with gastroenterologist Mazen Alasadi, M.D., about the recommended age for colonoscopies.

Researchers discovered only relatively recently that black hole jets emit X-rays, and how the jets accelerate particles to this high-energy state is still a mystery. Surprising new findings in Nature Astronomy appear to rule out one leading theory, opening the door to reimagining how particle acceleration works in the jets—and possibly also elsewhere in the universe.

One leading model of how jets generate X-rays expects the jets’ X-ray emissions to remain stable over long time scales (millions of years). However, the new paper found that the X-ray emissions of a statistically significant number of jets varied over just a few years.

“One of the reasons we’re excited about the variability is that there are two main models for how X-rays are produced in these jets, and they’re completely different,” explains lead author Eileen Meyer, an astronomer at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “One model invokes very low-energy electrons and one has very high-energy electrons. And one of those models is completely incompatible with any kind of variability.”

Aint necessarily so.

After a comprehensive study, researchers came to a startling conclusion.