Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 42

A new study published in Frontiers in Computer Science investigated if placing smartphones just out of our reach while we’re at work influenced device use for activities not related to work.

“The study shows that putting the smartphone away may not be sufficient to reduce disruption and procrastination, or increase focus,” said the paper’s author Dr. Maxi Heitmayer, a researcher at the London School of Economics. “The problem is not rooted within the device itself, but in the habits and routines that we have developed with our devices.”

Read more | >

In a potential step toward sending small spacecraft to the stars, researchers have developed an ultra-thin, ultra-reflective membrane designed to ride a column of laser light to incredible speeds.

Since its launch in 1977, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has traveled over 15 billion miles into deep space. That’s a long way—but it’s not even 1% of the distance to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to the sun. If humans are going to send ships to the stars, space travel will have to get a lot faster.

One promising way to pick up that kind of speed is a “”—a thin, reflective membrane that can be pushed by light much the same way that wind pushes a sailboat. Lightsails have the potential to reduce flight time to nearby stars from several thousand years using current propulsion systems to perhaps just a decade or two.

Read more | >

A quantum state of light was successfully teleported through more than 30 kilometers (around 18 miles) of fiber optic cable amid a torrent of internet traffic – a feat of engineering once considered impossible.

The impressive demonstration by researchers in the US in 2024 may not help you beam to work to beat the morning traffic, or download your favourite cat videos faster.

However, the ability to teleport quantum states through existing infrastructure represents a monumental step towards achieving a quantum-connected computing network, enhanced encryption, or powerful new methods of sensing.

Read more | >

Throughout the course of their lives, humans are known to establish and navigate an intricate web of social relationships, ranging from friendships to family bonds, romances, acquaintances, professional relationships and, today, online interactions. Over the past decades, some behavioral scientists have been trying to better understand how people make sense of these different types of relationships.

The overall organization and effects on the well-being of different kinds of social relationships has been widely investigated. However, how people conceptualize them (i.e., mentally make sense of different types of bonds) is not yet fully understood.

Researchers at Beijing Normal University carried out a study aimed at better understanding how humans across time and from different cultural backgrounds make sense of their relationships.

Read more | >

🚀 Q: What key capabilities must SpaceX perfect for Earth-to-Earth transportation? A: SpaceX must master in-space engine relight, Mechazilla catch system landings, and re-entry with V2 upgrades including improved flaps and heat shields for extreme conditions.

🛬 Q: How many Starship landing pads is the US Air Force planning to build? A: The USAF plans to construct two landing pads on Johnston Island, with potential for more in the future, emphasizing goals of high launch frequencies and seamless point-to-point transport.

Read more | >

The body’s cells respond to stress—toxins, mutations, starvation or other assaults—by pausing normal functions to focus on conserving energy, repairing damaged components and boosting defenses.

If the stress is manageable, cells resume normal activity; if not, they self-destruct.

Scientists have believed for decades this response happens as a linear chain of events: sensors in the cell “sound an alarm” and modify a key protein, which then changes a second protein that slows or shuts down the cell’s normal function.

Read more | >