Lifeboat Foundation

InvisDefense uses an unusual pattern and irregular heat signals to confuse AI cameras.

Research from Imperial College London suggests that gold compouds recovered from discarded SIM cards can significantly lower the cost of making medicines.

Scientists have measured the highest toughness ever recorded, of any material, while investigating a metallic alloy made of chromium, cobalt, and nickel (CrCoNi). Not only is the metal extremely ductile – which, in materials science, means highly malleable – and impressively strong (meaning it resists permanent deformation), its strength and ductility improve as it gets colder. This runs counter to most other materials in existence.

“In the same units, the toughness of a piece of silicon is one, the aluminum airframe in passenger airplanes is about 35, and the toughness of some of the best steels is around 100. So, 500, it’s a staggering number.” —

New way of altering DNA is used to engineer an “exciting”, experimental therapy for a 13-year-old girl.

They’re so much like humans. Hopefully this doesn’t hurt them in the long term.

Farms in India have reached out to the authorities after repeatedly being attacked by opium-addicted parrots.

Farmers in Madhya Pradesh say their opium crops are being ruined by parrots who keep returning to raid their farms in an attempt to get high. The farmers have been guarding the fields day and night to protect their poppies, but the birds are willing to risk it all to get their beaks on the opium, which is being farmed for medical purposes.

Continue reading “Parrots Keep Attacking Poppy Farms To Get High On Opium” »

Rather, he says his motivation in accumulating wealth has always been about securing independence, the freedom to do what he wishes in business and in life — and he wishes more people would follow his example.

“The world is not driven by greed. It’s driven by envy,” Munger said at the annual meeting of the Daily Journal, the newspaper company where he is a director, earlier this year.

Continue reading “Billionaire investor Charlie Munger: ‘The world is not driven by greed, it’s driven by envy’” »

Pessimism sounds smart. Optimism sounds dumb. Don’t fall for it, says Wired’s Kevin Kelly.

Cancer cells are incredibly adaptable, much like stem cells. Researchers from the University of Basel have discovered substances that artificially mature breast cancer cells of the very aggressive triple-negative subtype and transform them into a state that is similar to normal cells.

Cancer occurs when cells grow uncontrollably and spread to other organs. Cancer cells are quite different from normal ones. Cancer cells are known for their remarkable adaptability to varied settings in the body as well as drug treatments. They resemble stem cells or cells at an early stage of development in this regard.

The prospect of artificially maturing (or, more accurately, differentiating) breast cancer cells as a strategy to transform them into a more normal kind of cell has been explored by researchers at the University of Basel and the University Hospital Basel.

A pleasingly disorienting foray into the fundamental perplexity of life.