Lifeboat Foundation

A novel brain-computer interface developed by a New York-based company called Synchron was just used to help a paralyzed patient send messages using their Apple device for the very first time. It’s a massive step up in an industry that has increasingly reported progress, which suggests that interfacing our minds with consumer devices could happen a lot sooner than some of us bargained for.

Brain-computer devices eavesdrop on brainwaves and convert these into commands. More or less the same neural signals that healthy people use to instruct their muscle fibers to twitch and enact a movement like walking or grasping an object can be used to command a robotic arm or move a cursor on a computer screen. It really is a phenomenal and game-changing piece of technology, with obvious benefits for those who are completely paralyzed and have few if any means of communicating with the outside world.

This type of technology is not exactly new. Scientists have been experimenting with brain-computer interfaces for decades, but it’s been in the last couple of years or so that we’ve actually come to see tremendous progress. Even Elon Musk has jumped on this bandwagon, founding a company called Neuralink with the ultimate goal of developing technology that allows people to transmit and receive information between their brain and a computer wirelessly — essentially connecting the human mind to devices. The idea is for anyone to be able to use this technology, even normal, healthy people, who want to augment their abilities by interfacing with machines. In 2021, Neuralink released a video of a monkey with an implanted Neuralink device playing pong, and the company wants to start clinical trials with humans soon.

With inherited gene mutations from both parents, a woman in Spain is battling with 12 tumors in her body.

As stated by the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), the woman first developed a tumor when still a baby and other tumors followed it within five years. 36 year-old-patient has developed twelve tumors, at least five of them malignant in her life. Each one has been of a unique kind and has affected a different area of the body.

“We still don’t understand how this individual could have formed during the embryonic stage, nor could have overcome all these pathologies,” says Marcos Malumbres, director of the Cell Division and Cancer Group at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO).

Sometimes astrophysics gets super weird.

A recent study of the star’s surface, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, says that we’re seeing Gamma Columbae in a short, deeply weird phase of a very eventful stellar life, one that lets astronomers look directly into the star’s exposed heart.

What’s New – The mix of chemical elements on the surface of Gamma Columbae look like the byproducts of nuclear reactions that should be buried in the depths of a massive star, not bubbling on its surface.

The FH-97A closely resembles the MQ-28 Ghost Bat.

The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) has unveiled a model of an FH-97A that is almost a direct replica of the Airpower Teaming System loyal wingman drone.

Continue reading “China’s newly released drone is reportedly exact replica of MQ-28 Ghost Bat” »

The Wi-Peep uses many messages to communicate with a target device while it is in the air.

A research team from the University of Waterloo created a drone-powered tool that uses WiFi networks to penetrate barriers.

Called Wi-Peep, the device can fly close to buildings and then use the WiFi network of the occupants to identify and locate any WiFi-enabled devices quickly.

The size of the wing, made of compressed puffed rice, depends on the recipient’s nutrition requirements.

The IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Kyoto last week saw an ingenious creation presented by researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne. Their paper described a drone made from rice cakes.

Mind you, this was no light matter. Titled ‘Towards Edible Drones for Rescue Missions: Design and Flight of Nutritional Wings,’ by Bokeon Kwak, Jun Shintake, Lu Zhang, and Dario Floreano from EPFL, the paper detailed a drone that could “boost its payload of food from 30 percent to 50 percent of its mass”, according to a release.

Excessive technology use could cause future humans to form a second eyelid and alterations in the hands and back.

Advancements in technology change how people work and function, often speeding up the process or creating efficiency. However, there is a possibility that technology is affecting our bodies, especially from using it often.

A research project commissioned by TollFreeForwarding warns that using technology too much could form abnormalities. Researchers collaborated with a 3D designer to make images of a “future human” that shows tech-related problems from daily technological use. Researchers named the 3D model “Mindy”.

Does that spell the end of the project?

It’s not looking good for Elon Musk’s hyperloop. The site of the futuristic train-like vehicle is now going to be turned into a parking lot, according to a report by Bloomberg published on Thursday.

Still, it’s not all doom and gloom.

Continue reading “Musk’s hyperloop site will be transformed into a parking lot- here’s why” »

Electrical charge can change the size of water droplets and cause them to ‘explode.’

A new scientific experiment has proven that electrically charging clouds can change the size of the droplets in fog or, possibly, droplets in a cloud that is having trouble moving to fall as rain.

The new experiment assists a “constipated cloud” in becoming rainy, according to a report published by The Guardian on Thursday.