Lifeboat Foundation

Concerns regarding scarcity, high prices, and safety regarding the long-term use of lithium-ion batteries has prompted a team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to propose a greener, more efficient, and less expensive energy storage alternative.

In research published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS), corresponding author Nikhil Koratkar, the John A. Clark and Edward T. Crossan Professor of Engineering at Rensselaer, and his team, assert that calcium ions could be used as an alternative to lithium-ions in batteries because of its abundance and low cost.

“The vast majority of rechargeable battery products are based on lithium-ion technology, which is the gold standard in terms of performance,” said Dr. Koratkar. “However, the Achilles’ heel for lithium-ion technology is cost. Lithium is a limited resource on the planet, and its price has increased drastically in recent years. We are working on an inexpensive, abundant, safe, and sustainable battery chemistry that uses calcium ions in an aqueous, water-based electrolyte.”

Explorers have recovered coins, gemstones and priceless jewels from a galleon that sank off the Bahamas in 1656.

In the darkness of the open water, rarely seen creatures dance along the ocean current.

An Israeli startup is using over-the-phone voice analysis to detect atrial fibrillation, a common heart condition that is hard to find on a standard screening ECG.

The atmospheric water vapor could also contribute to global warming.

A new study has revealed that a record-breaking amount of water vapor entered Earth’s atmosphere after a volcanic eruption in Tonga in January.

A new type of quantum money could make energy-sapping blockchains obsolete, say researchers.

Researchers have created synthetic mouse embryos out of stem cells, removing the need for sperm, eggs and even a womb. They were then grown to almost half the entire gestation period, at which point they had all of the organ progenitors, including a beating heart. The tech could eventually be used to grow organs for transplant.

The new study, from researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, built on two branches of the team’s previous research. The first involved reprogramming stem cells into a “naive” state that allows them to differentiate into all other cells, including other stem cells. The other work focused on developing a device that could grow embryos more effectively outside of the womb.

By combining the two techniques, the team has now grown some of the most advanced synthetic mouse embryos to date. They started with naive mouse stem cells, which had been cultured in a Petri dish for several years prior. These were separated into three groups that would play key roles in the embryo development.

Recently, Blake Lemoine a computer scientist and machine learning bias researcher for Google released an interview with Google’s LaMDA a conversation technology and AI. Blake proposes, based on his time testing LaMDA, that it is a super intelligence and sentient. Blake details just what made him come to this conclusion and why he believes we have passed the singularity, last year.

Blake’s links:
https://twitter.com/cajundiscordian.
https://cajundiscordian.medium.com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interview-ea64d916d917

Continue reading “Is Artificial Sentience Here? with Blake Lemoine” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pCA7HE1FvXg

We have reached a turning point in society. According to renowned theoretical physicist Michio Kaku, the next 100 years of science will determine whether we perish or thrive. Will we remain a Type 0 civilization, or will we advance and make our way into the stars?

Experts assert that, as a civilization grows larger and becomes more advanced, its energy demands will increase rapidly due to its population growth and the energy requirements of its various machines. With this in mind, the Kardashev scale was developed as a way of measuring a civilization’s technological advancement based upon how much usable energy it has at its disposal (this was originally just tied to energy available for communications, but has since been expanded).