Lifeboat News: The Blog – Safeguarding Humanity

Teachers Fear ChatGPT Will Make Cheating Easier Than Ever

Posted by Gemechu Taye in education, robotics/AI

Dec 12
2022

“There’s a lot of cheap knowledge out there. I think this could be a danger in education, and it’s not good for kids,” said one educator of OpenAI’s viral chatbot.

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Video: The humanoid robot CyberOne is playing a drum set without missing any beat

Posted by Gemechu Taye in robotics/AI

Dec 12
2022

Don’t worry, human drummers. It won’t take your job.

One of the best qualities of talented drummers is to be able to show all their dexterity by staying in the metronome beats. Xiaomi should be aware of this because the humanoid bot it produces is on its way to becoming a rock star.

Chinese consumer electronics company Xiaomi introduced CyberOne in August and shared a fresh video of it playing drums. Slow for now, but it can stay on the beat.

It is able to accurately coordinate a variety of intricate movements, such as slapping the drumsticks together, tapping the cymbals, using the foot pedal, and using a set of four drums to produce a variety of sounds.

Continue reading “Video: The humanoid robot CyberOne is playing a drum set without missing any beat” | >

Video: MIT engineers develop paper-thin solar cells that can power any surface

Posted by Gemechu Taye in solar power, sustainability

Dec 12
2022

The ultralight solar cells are made of semiconducting inks using printing processes that can be scaled in the future to large-area manufacturing.

A group of engineers at MIT have developed a rather interesting solution to be deployed in remote locations or for assistance in emergencies: solar cells made of ultralight fabric that can turn any surface into a power source.

The research is published in Small Methods.

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Artificial womb: Video shows what pregnancy may be like in the future

Posted by Gemechu Taye in biotech/medical, Elon Musk

Dec 12
2022

Would you want to take one home if it freed you up from the hassles of pregnancy?

The concept of the world’s first-ever artificial womb facility has been unveiled. Called EctoLife, the facility can produce up to 30,000 babies every year. The use of the word “produce” is deliberate since, as one can see in the video below, the facility aims to give parents a wide range of tools to get a baby customized to their desires.

Hashem Al-Ghaili/ YouTube.

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US scientists reach long-awaited nuclear fusion breakthrough, source says

Posted by Claudio Soprano in innovation, nuclear energy

Dec 12
2022

For the first time ever, US scientists at the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain, a source familiar with the project confirmed to CNN.

The US Department of Energy is expected to officially announce the breakthrough Tuesday.

The result of the experiment would be a massive step in a decadeslong quest to unleash an infinite source of clean energy that could help end dependence on fossil fuels. Researchers for decades have attempted to recreate nuclear fusion – replicating the fusion that powers the sun.

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Scientists Have Blown Away the Internet Speed Record With an Optical Chip

Posted by Quinn Sena in computing, internet

Dec 12
2022

Using a chip-based optical frequency comb, researchers transmitted almost double the global internet traffic in a single second.

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US achieves fusion breakthrough, making clean zero-carbon energy

Posted by Quinn Sena in government, nuclear energy, security

Dec 12
2022

The US government may have made a major scientific breakthrough in fusion energy, paving the way for creating a limitless supply of energy with zero carbon emissions or radioactive waste, The Financial Times reported, citing people with knowledge of a recent experiment’s results.

The fusion process is a landmark step of progress in the quest to achieve a limitless supply of environmentally-friendly energy.

According to The Financial Times, the US Energy Department will have US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Undersecretary for Nuclear Security Jill Hruby announce a “major scientific breakthrough” sometime on Tuesday.

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Daycares in Finland Built a ‘Forest’, And It Changed Kids’ Immune Systems

Posted by Quinn Sena in biotech/medical, food

Dec 12
2022

Playing through the greenery and litter of a mini forest’s undergrowth for just one month may be enough to change a child’s immune system, according to an experiment in Finland.

When daycare workers rolled out a lawn, planted forest undergrowth (such as dwarf heather and blueberries), and allowed children to care for crops in planter boxes, the diversity of microbes in the guts and on the skin of the young kids appeared healthier in a very short space of time.

Compared to other city kids who play in standard urban daycares with yards of pavement, tile, and gravel, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds at these greened-up daycare centers in Finland showed increased T-cells and other important immune markers in their blood within 28 days.

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Science Saturday: Early research toward a cell-free solution for stress urinary incontinence

Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in biotech/medical, life extension, science

Dec 12
2022

Mayo Clinic researchers found a noncellular substance suggested improvement in restoring muscle function and bladder control in preclinical models. The teams of Atta Behfar, M.D., Ph.D. and Emanuel Trabuco, M.D., led this research in a collaboration between Mayo Clinic Departments of Cardiovascular Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology. The paper is published in NPJ Regenerative Medicine.

“Surgical treatment for stress urinary incontinence, a condition afflicting 25 million women, has significantly declined over concerns about negative side effects,” says Dr. Trabuco. “This has led many women to delay therapy and suffer needlessly. We hope to develop a minimally invasive, noncellular, exosome-based approach to muscle regeneration for urinary incontinence that not only targets the underlying cause of the condition but also avoids the problem with invasive surgical options presently available.”

The research team used regenerative purified exosome product, known as PEP, derived from platelets to deliver messages into the cells of preclinical models. Exosomes are extracellular vesicles that are like a delivery service moving cargo from one cell to another, with instructions for targeting exact tissues that need repair. The study suggests that the use of purified exosome product alleviates stress urinary incontinence from musculoskeletal breakdown in animals. The team did not detect any infection or off-target toxicity with application of PEP.

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