Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists have made a groundbreaking advancement in understanding light propagation through complex media, potentially revolutionizing fields like optical communication and medical imaging.

By introducing the concept of coherence entropy, a new metric for evaluating light behavior, they have provided a reliable tool for managing light fields in challenging environments. This research could significantly enhance the performance of systems that rely on light, particularly in situations where traditional methods fail due to media distortion.

Light technology is at the heart of many cutting-edge innovations, from high-speed internet to advanced medical imaging. However, transmitting light through challenging environments, such as turbulent atmospheres or deformed optical systems, has always posed a significant hurdle. These complexities can distort and disrupt the light field, making it difficult to achieve clear and reliable results. Scientists have long sought ways to overcome these limitations, and a new breakthrough may hold the key to advance practical applications.

A space rock that smacked into Earth 66 million years ago and devastated the ancient life living thereon took a remarkably circuitous route to get here, a new study has found.

The Chicxulub event – the giant impact that ended the reign of non-avian dinosaurs, clearing the way for mammalian life to rise – was triggered by an asteroid from a region of the Solar System out past the orbit of Jupiter, the cold, dark outer limits, far from the Sun’s light and warmth.

And an asteroid it was indeed, with the new findings by an international team of researchers ruling out that the object could have been a comet.

A former Ubisoft engineer explained why Unity’s PC port was lacking.

A better understanding of emergent phenomena like the wetness of water, where the properties of a system can’t be explained by those of its constituent parts, could unravel some big mysteries.

By Michael Brooks

This study shows that by enhancing internal complexity of neurons in a Hodgkin–Huxley network, similar performance to larger, simpler networks can be achieved, suggesting an alternative path for powerful AI systems by focusing on neuron complexity.

Researchers from Western University have discovered a protein that has the never-before-seen ability to stop DNA damage in its tracks. The finding could provide the foundation for developing everything from vaccines against cancer, to crops that can withstand the increasingly harsh growing conditions brought on by climate change.

Cornell University research demonstrates that sleep resets the hippocampus, enabling continuous learning and offering new strategies for treating memory-related disorders.

While everyone knows that a good night’s sleep restores energy, a new Cornell University study finds it resets another vital function: memory.

Learning or experiencing new things activates neurons in the hippocampus, a region of the brain vital for memory. Later, while we sleep, those same neurons repeat the same pattern of activity, which is how the brain consolidates those memories that are then stored in a large area called the cortex. But how is it that we can keep learning new things for a lifetime without using up all of our neurons?

Like a computer system with built-in redundancies, a study has revealed that brains use three different sets of neurons to store a single memory. The finding could one day help soften painful memories in people who’ve suffered trauma.

By imaging the brains of mice, researchers at the University of Basel’s Biozentrum, were able to watch what happens when a new memory is formed. What they found was that the rodent brains called three different sets of neurons into action to record the memory. The first are known as early-born neurons and are the earliest to develop as a fetus is growing. At the other end of the spectrum are the late-born neurons, which show up late in embryonic development. Between these are neurons that form somewhere right in the middle of growth in the womb.

The imaging study revealed that when the new memory is stored in the early-born neurons, it is initially hard to retrieve, but it becomes stronger as time goes on.

Designer proteins that exhibit the phenomenon of allostery.