Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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You may not have heard of tantalum, but chances are you’re holding some right now. It’s an essential component in our cell phones and laptops, and currently, there’s no effective substitute. Even if you plan to recycle your devices after they die, the tantalum inside is likely to end up in a landfill or shipped overseas, being lost forever.

As a researcher focused on critical materials recovery, I’ve spent years digging through , not seeing it as garbage, but as an urban mine filled with valuable materials like .

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String theory has long been touted as physicists’ best candidate for describing the fundamental nature of the universe, with elementary particles and forces described as vibrations of tiny threads of energy. But in the early 21st century, it was realized that most of the versions of reality described by string theory’s equations cannot match up with observations of our own universe.

In particular, conventional ’s predictions are incompatible with the observation of dark energy, which appears to be causing our universe’s expansion to speed up, and with viable theories of quantum gravity, instead predicting a vast ‘swampland’ of impossible universes.

Now, a new analysis by FQxI physicist Eduardo Guendelman, of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Israel, shows that an exotic subset of string models—in which the of strings is generated dynamically—could provide an escape route out of the string theory swampland.

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A team of researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has introduced a novel framework for designing and creating universal diffractive waveguides that can control the flow of light in highly specific and complex ways.

This new technology uses (AI), specifically deep learning, to design a series of structured surfaces that guide light with high efficiency and can perform a wide range of functions that are challenging for conventional waveguides.

The work is published in the journal Nature Communications.

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Recent advances in electronics and optics have opened new possibilities for terahertz (THz) waves—an invisible type of light that falls between infrared light and microwaves on the spectrum. The use of THz scattering for medical diagnosis is a promising frontier in this field, as THz waves can probe tissue structures in ways that traditional imaging methods cannot. Emerging THz measurement methods have the potential to detect subtle changes in tissue architecture that occur in diseases like cancer and burn injuries, serving as a powerful diagnostic tool.

However, existing THz imaging techniques face significant limitations for medical applications. Most existing approaches rely primarily on water content differences between healthy and as their main source of diagnostic contrast—an approach that proves overly simplistic for complex disease conditions.

Moreover, while polarization measurements of reflected THz waves seem to be valuable for tissue diagnosis, the underlying mechanisms that create different polarization responses in tissues remain poorly understood. This gap in understanding underscores a need for computational models capable of explaining and predicting the phenomena that researchers have observed experimentally.

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Scientists have developed a groundbreaking quantum interferometry tool that achieves nanometer-scale precision in challenging environments. Researchers at the University of Illinois, led by Physics Professor Paul Kwiat, have unveiled a groundbreaking tool that is reshaping precision measurement a

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Quantum science, cellular biology, and high-definition television technology converge in the development of new biosensors. Using hypersensitive quantum sensors inside living cells offers a promising way to track cell growth and diagnose diseases, including cancers, at very early stages. Some

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What’s happening inside the brain of a passionate hockey fan during a big game? A new study from the University of Waterloo gives a closer look at how the brain functions when watching sports, with data showing how different a die-hard fan’s experience is from that of a casual viewer.

The study, “Understanding the sport viewership experience using functional near-infrared spectroscopy,” is published in Scientific Reports.

The researchers found that during offensive faceoff opportunities, fans deeply invested in hockey showed more activity in a part of the brain called the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex. This area is connected to emotional involvement and evaluative thinking—the mental processing we use to judge and interpret what’s happening around us.

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Deep in the swamps of the American Southeast stands a quiet giant: the bald cypress (Taxodium distichum). These majestic trees, with their knobby “knees” and towering trunks, are more than just swamp dwellers—they’re some of the oldest living organisms in Eastern North America. Some have been around for more than 2,500 years, quietly thriving in nutrient-poor, flooded forests where most other trees would wither.

But life isn’t easy for these ancient . They’re under siege from a variety of threats: rising seas, insect infestations, wildfires and increasingly erratic weather patterns. Unlike most animals, trees generally don’t die of old age—they succumb to the stresses around them.

A study by Florida Atlantic University, in collaboration with Lynn University, the University of Georgia, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and the Georgia Museum of Natural History, reveals how dramatic shifts in climate can have long-lasting effects on even the toughest, most iconic trees—and offers a glimpse into the powerful forces that shape our natural world.

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ODIA has the unique opportunity to host a defense briefing regarding the space industry in Oklahoma…with a twist. The Catalyst Accelerator & The University of Tulsa is putting on a Government Business Boot Camp for Oklahoma-based startups the first two weeks in June. ODIA will have an opportunity to hear an abbreviated pitch from each person in the program from 3:00 — 3:50 pm.

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