Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 2

Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.

Log in for authorized contributors

Orbital files plans for 100,000 orbital data centers

TAMPA, Fla. — Five-month-old startup Orbital has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to deploy up to 100,000 data center satellites, aiming to bring 10 gigawatts of computing power from space to meet rising artificial intelligence demand.

The filings submitted June 24 add a few more details for a constellation the Los Angeles-based venture first outlined earlier this month, when it emerged from stealth with $5 million in pre-seed funding ahead of a demonstration mission next year.

They include plans to deploy 100-kilowatt-class satellites in low Earth orbit at altitudes of 500–850 kilometers, with solar arrays and radiators spanning around 100 meters and a dry mass of 1.5−2.5 metric tons.

“Breakthrough” robot with lab-grown “human brain” promises advancement in brain-computer interfacing

Chinese researchers from Tianjin University and the Southern University of Science and Technology have created a groundbreaking robot powered by a tiny organoid derived from human stem cells grafted to a neural interface. This breakthrough system allows the robot to learn tasks like obstacle avoidance and object manipulation.

Described as the “world’s first open-source brain-on-chip intelligent complex information interaction system,” the technology marks a significant advancement in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) – devices that translate between neural and computational signals.

The South China Morning Post notes that the scientists grew the organoids from human pluripotent stem cells, which can develop into various cell types, including neural tissue. These synthetic-organic (pardon the oxymoron) brain cells are linked to the robot’s neural interface, enabling communication between the neural tissue and the robot’s systems. Although the presented images of pink brain matter are merely mockups (below), the actual organoids are much smaller.

Could We Reach Alpha Centauri in 20 Years?

Alpha Centauri is 4.37 light years away—so could we reach it in 20 years? Only by leaving ordinary rockets behind for beamed sails, antimatter, or stranger drives. 🚀 Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZFipeZtQM5CKUjx6grh54g/join 🛒 SFIA Merchandise: https://isaac-arthur-shop.fourthwall.com/ 🌐 Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net ❤️ Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/IsaacArthur ⭐ Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-arthur 👥 Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1583992725237264/ 📣 Reddit Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/IsaacArthur/ 🐦 Follow on Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/Isaac_A_Arthur 💬 SFIA Discord Server: https://discord.gg/53GAShE

Chinese researchers create ‘human-on-chip’ system using brain matter to create ‘organoid’ robot

Destroy them.

Researchers at Tianjin University and the Southern University of Science and Technology in China have created a “human-on-chip” system that combines human brain matter with a neural interface chip and have used the technology to create a hybrid “organoid” robot.

The technology is reported to be an emerging branch of brain-computer interfaces, which aims to combine the brain’s electrical signals with external computing power. The idea behind the technology is to develop brain-like computing.

According to the Global Times, the system uses an artificial brain cultivated in vitro – such as a “brain-like organ” — that can interact with external information through encoding, decoding and stimulus feedback when coupled with electrode chips. In vitro, in this case, means that they’re growing the brain-like organ in a controlled laboratory environment using stem cell technology.

Lithium Dosing in Bipolar Disorder Shapes Brain Exposure Patterns

Now, a new study conducted by researchers at Newcastle University and Technische Universität Dresden has used a new lithium MRI technique to reveal that brain lithium levels closely track blood concentrations throughout the day.

Understanding lithium tracking gaps in bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder affects ~40 million people globally. The mental health condition is characterized by severe shifts in mood, energy, and activity levels. Patients navigate intense emotional states that alternate between mania and deep depression.

New T‑cell therapy targets three tumor proteins, shows early survival gains in aggressive pediatric brain cancers

Researchers report encouraging early results from a first-in-human clinical trial led by Children’s National Hospital using a new T-cell immunotherapy for children and young adults with some of the deadliest brain tumors, including diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and relapsed central nervous system (CNS) tumors. These findings, published in Nature Medicine, are particularly significant given the challenges of treating pediatric brain tumors, which remain the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in children. Immunotherapies have been shown to work in blood cancers but rarely succeed in solid tumors, especially brain tumors.

“This study represents an important step toward developing safer and more effective T-cell therapies for children with devastating brain cancers,” said Catherine Bollard, MBChB, MD, senior vice president and chief research officer at Children’s National, and co-senior author of the study. “Even in this early-stage trial focused on safety, we were encouraged to see lasting clinical benefit in several patients who otherwise had very few options.”

Giant exoplanet may hold a magnetic grip on its host star

Within their planetary systems, stars are continuously shaping their orbiting planets through gravity, radiation and magnetic forces. So far, this relationship has appeared to be a one-way street.

But through new research published in Science, an international research team has found compelling evidence that the dynamic can run in reverse: A giant exoplanet orbiting very close to its star appears to be leaving a measurable magnetic imprint on the star itself.

Lipids and DNA nanostructures independently control artificial cell mechanics

What if the mechanical properties of a cell could be programmed like the components of a machine? Researchers at the University of Tokyo have discovered that two fundamental modes of cellular deformation—stretching and bending—can be independently controlled using different molecular building blocks. The finding provides a new strategy for engineering artificial cells, drug-delivery capsules and adaptive soft materials with precisely tailored mechanical functions.

Miho Yanagisawa, an associate professor at the University of Tokyo, and Kazutoshi Masuda, a Ph.D. student, developed a new framework for dissecting the mechanics of artificial cells. Using lipid-coated microdroplets as simplified cell models, they combined micropipette aspiration experiments with a theoretical model that separates membrane mechanics into stretching and bending contributions. The approach successfully captured nonlinear deformation behaviors that conventional models could not explain. The work is published in the journal Small Science.

The researchers found that lipid molecular geometry primarily determines membrane stretching elasticity. In contrast, when Y-shaped DNA motifs were interconnected to form a three-dimensional network, they created a nanoscale scaffold that dramatically enhanced resistance to bending while leaving stretching elasticity largely unchanged.

Futurist Brian David Johnson: Don’t Let The Future Happen To You!

“When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.”

I recorded this conversation with Brian David Johnson 14 years ago, back when he was Intel’s futurist with 25 patents to his name and a mandate to build an actionable vision of computing for 2020.

Read that again. 2020 was the far horizon he was paid to imagine. We are now well past it.

So here is the uncomfortable question worth sitting with: how much of the future he described did we make happen on purpose, and how much simply happened to us while we wondered what was going on?

Brian’s whole method was a refusal to be passive about it. He used ethnographic fieldwork, trend data, and even science-fiction prototyping as a #design tool because he believed the future is not a forecast you wait for; it is an object you construct. His line still lands harder every year: own the fact that you can build the future.

A few things he said in 2012 that read very differently in the age of generative #AI and ubiquitous #robotics:

Continue reading “Futurist Brian David Johnson: Don’t Let The Future Happen To You!” | >
/* */