Lifeboat Foundation

The science of meteorology has taken tremendous strides in the past two decades thanks to a confluence of several inputs: improved computing power; better modeling of data; more observational data points ranging from the device in your hand to the satellites orbiting earth; and advanced data science applications. As recently as two decades ago, providing an accurate forecast three to four days out was considered innovative. Today a five-day forecast is accurate about 80 percent of the time. Most weather experts are predicting even more extended accuracy by 2030 with the application of artificial intelligence for numerical weather prediction output. But beyond improving accuracy, here are a few other forecasting trends to watch in 2023.

Hyper-relevant Forecasting

Just like other sets of analytics have become more tailored, or localized to the user, weather intelligence is bringing forecast relevancy to an individual organization or entity. A business can determine which risks are most significant to their operations, such as wind gusts, lightning, heavy rains, and ice accretion, and then be alerted when those risk thresholds are met. While there’s growing use among utilities, municipalities and other infrastructure decision makers, hyper-relevant forecasting is growing in other sectors. For example, by combining weather data with purchasing trends and consumer demand data, one grocery chain learned that even a small change in temperature can result in a significant shift in what people buy. The store improved its revenues by modeling this impact and managing inventory accordingly. Even sports teams are applying hyper-relevant forecasting for everything from daily stadium operations to food and beverage decisions and strategic game plays.

“There’s a lot of cheap knowledge out there. I think this could be a danger in education, and it’s not good for kids,” said one educator of OpenAI’s viral chatbot.

Don’t worry, human drummers. It won’t take your job.

One of the best qualities of talented drummers is to be able to show all their dexterity by staying in the metronome beats. Xiaomi should be aware of this because the humanoid bot it produces is on its way to becoming a rock star.

Continue reading “Video: The humanoid robot CyberOne is playing a drum set without missing any beat” »

The ultralight solar cells are made of semiconducting inks using printing processes that can be scaled in the future to large-area manufacturing.

A group of engineers at MIT have developed a rather interesting solution to be deployed in remote locations or for assistance in emergencies: solar cells made of ultralight fabric that can turn any surface into a power source.

Continue reading “Video: MIT engineers develop paper-thin solar cells that can power any surface” »

Would you want to take one home if it freed you up from the hassles of pregnancy?

The concept of the world’s first-ever artificial womb facility has been unveiled. Called EctoLife, the facility can produce up to 30,000 babies every year. The use of the word “produce” is deliberate since, as one can see in the video below, the facility aims to give parents a wide range of tools to get a baby customized to their desires.

Continue reading “Artificial womb: Video shows what pregnancy may be like in the future” »

For the first time ever, US scientists at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain, a source familiar with the project confirmed to CNN.

The US Department of Energy is expected to officially announce the breakthrough Tuesday.

The result of the experiment would be a massive step in a decadeslong quest to unleash an infinite source of clean energy that could help end dependence on fossil fuels. Researchers for decades have attempted to recreate nuclear fusion – replicating the fusion that powers the sun.

Using a chip-based optical frequency comb, researchers transmitted almost double the global internet traffic in a single second.

The US government may have made a major scientific breakthrough in fusion energy, paving the way for creating a limitless supply of energy with zero carbon emissions or radioactive waste, The Financial Times reported, citing people with knowledge of a recent experiment’s results.

The fusion process is a landmark step of progress in the quest to achieve a limitless supply of environmentally-friendly energy.

According to The Financial Times, the US Energy Department will have US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Undersecretary for Nuclear Security Jill Hruby announce a “major scientific breakthrough” sometime on Tuesday.

Playing through the greenery and litter of a mini forest’s undergrowth for just one month may be enough to change a child’s immune system, according to an experiment in Finland.

When daycare workers rolled out a lawn, planted forest undergrowth (such as dwarf heather and blueberries), and allowed children to care for crops in planter boxes, the diversity of microbes in the guts and on the skin of the young kids appeared healthier in a very short space of time.

Compared to other city kids who play in standard urban daycares with yards of pavement, tile, and gravel, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds at these greened-up daycare centers in Finland showed increased T-cells and other important immune markers in their blood within 28 days.