Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 4,485

As buzz grows ever louder over the future of quantum, researchers everywhere are working overtime to discover how best to unlock the promise of super-positioned, entangled, tunneling or otherwise ready-for-primetime quantum particles, the ability of which to occur in two states at once could vastly expand power and efficiency in many applications.

Developmentally, however, quantum devices today are “about where the computer was in the 1950s,” which it is to say, the very beginning. That’s according to Kamyar Parto, a sixth-year Ph.D. student in the UC Santa Barbara lab of Galan Moody, an expert in quantum photonics and an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Parto is co-lead author of a paper published in the journal Nano Letters, describing a key advance: the development of a kind of on-chip “factory” for producing a steady, fast stream of single photons, essential to enabling photonic-based quantum technologies.

Read more | >

Chinese scientists precisely confirmed the latest volcanic activity on moon happened about 2 billion years ago after they studied the lunar samples collected by Chang’e-5 lunar probe in 2020.

The outcome was announced by the China National Space Administration on Monday.

In 2021, a team of scientists carried out researches on the volcanic rock, which is a type of basalt to help indicate the time of volcanic activity occurred, from the lunar samples and proved that the volcanic activity continued until 2 billion years ago, a new refresh for human beings toward the lunar magmatic activity and the lunar evolution.

Read more | >

Xerox® Elem™ Additive Solutions today announced that an ElemX liquid metal printer was recently installed on board USS Essex (LHD 2), making it the first metal additive manufacturing machine deployed on a U.S. Naval vessel.

The ElemX was placed on the ship earlier this month in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, with at-sea trials beginning immediately. The installation is the latest step in the U.S. Navy’s strategy of using additive manufacturing (AM) to increase operational readiness for the fleet. It also builds on the relationship between the U.S. Navy and Xerox Elem Additive that began with the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California receiving the first-ever installation of the ElemX in 2020.

“The military supply chain is among the most complex in the world and putting the ElemX on USS Essex means that sailors can now bypass that complexity and print parts when and where they need them,” said Tali Rosman, GM of Elem Additive. “We are proud to continue our partnership with the Navy to help them advance their additive manufacturing capabilities and execute their long-term vision.”

Read more | >

Annaka Harris is the author of Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
- Wealthfront: https://wealthfront.com/lex to get $50 sign-up bonus.
- BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/lex to get 10% off.
- Blinkist: https://blinkist.com/lex to get 25% off premium.
- Onnit: https://lexfridman.com/onnit to get up to 10% off.
- Indeed: https://indeed.com/lex to get $75 credit.

EPISODE LINKS:
Annaka’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/annakaharris.
Annaka’s Website: http://annakaharris.com.
Annaka’s Facebook: http://facebook.com/annakaharrisprojects.
Annaka’s Books:
1. Conscious: https://amzn.to/3SFLLPE
2. I Wonder: https://amzn.to/3UPQTTm.
Annaka’s Articles:
1. What Is Time?: http://nautil.us/what-is-time-238478
2. A Solution to the Combination Problem: http://annakaharris.com/the-future-of-panpsychism.
3. Consciousness Isn’t Self-Centered: http://nautil.us/consciousness-isnt-self_centered-237720
Books:
1. The Case Against Reality: https://amzn.to/3MhW4Wt.
2. Being You: https://amzn.to/3RsxdBQ
3. Livewired: https://amzn.to/3Cn9BKS
4. Spooky Action at a Distance: https://amzn.to/3y27N7a.
5. The Order of Time: https://amzn.to/3Stqn0u.

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast.
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr.
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4
Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41

OUTLINE:
0:00 — Introduction.
0:53 — Free will.
54:10 — Consciousness.
1:24:42 — Depression.
1:37:59 — Psychedelics.
1:45:58 — Meditation.
1:50:22 — Ideas.
2:14:08 — AI sentience.
2:31:30 — Suffering.
2:34:26 — Meaning of life.

SOCIAL:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman.
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman.
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman.
- Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman.
- Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman.
- Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman

Read more | >

The ultraviolet nail polish drying devices used to cure gel manicures may pose more of a public health concern than previously thought. Researchers at the University of California San Diego have studied these ultraviolet (UV) light emitting devices, and found that their use leads to cell death and cancer-causing mutations in human cells.

The devices are a common fixture in nail salons, and generally use a particular spectrum of UV light (340-395nm) to cure the chemicals used in gel manicures. While use a different spectrum of UV light (280-400nm) that studies have conclusively proven to be carcinogenic, the spectrum used in the nail dryers has not been well studied.

“If you look at the way these devices are presented, they are marketed as safe, with nothing to be concerned about,” said Ludmil Alexandrov, a professor of bioengineering as well as cellular and at UC San Diego, and corresponding author of the study published in Nature Communications. “But to the best of our knowledge, no one has actually studied these devices and how they affect at the molecular and cellular levels until now.”

Read more | >

Since the success of the COVID-19 vaccine, RNA therapies have been the object of increasing interest in the biotech world. These therapies work with your body to target the genetic root of diseases and infections, a promising alternative treatment method to that of traditional pharmaceutical drugs.

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have been successfully used in for decades. FDA-approved therapies use them as vehicles for delivering messenger RNA (mRNA), which prompts the cell to make new proteins, and small interfering RNA (siRNA), which instruct the cell to silence or inhibit the expression of certain proteins.

The biggest challenge in developing a successful RNA therapy is its targeted delivery. Research is now confronting the current limitations of LNPs, which have left many diseases without an effective RNA therapy.

Read more | >

For millions of years, nature has basically been getting by with just a few elements from the periodic table. Carbon, calcium, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, phosphorus, silicon, sulfur, magnesium and potassium are the building blocks of almost all life on our planet (tree trunks, leaves, hairs, teeth, etc). However, to build the world of humans—including cities, health care products, railways, airplanes and their engines, computers, smartphones, and more—many more chemical elements are needed.

A recent article, published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution and written by researchers from CREAF, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), warns that the range of chemical elements humans need (something scientifically known as the human elementome) is increasingly diverging from that which nature requires (the biological elementome).

In 1900, approximately 80% of the elements humans used came from biomass (wood, plants, food, etc.). That figure had fallen to 32% by 2005, and is expected to stand at approximately 22% in 2050. We are heading for a situation in which 80% of the elements we use are from non-biological sources.

Read more | >

Artificial neural networks that are inspired by natural nerve circuits in the human body give primates faster, more accurate control of brain-controlled prosthetic hands and fingers, researchers at the University of Michigan have shown. The finding could lead to more natural control over advanced prostheses for those dealing with the loss of a limb or paralysis.

The team of engineers and doctors found that a feed-forward neural network improved peak finger velocity by 45% during control of robotic fingers when compared to traditional algorithms not using neural networks. This overturned an assumption that more complex neural networks, like those used in other fields of machine learning, would be needed to achieve this level of performance improvement.

“This feed-forward network represents an older, simpler architecture—with information moving only in one direction, from input to output,” said Cindy Chestek, Ph.D., an associate professor of biomedical engineering at U-M and corresponding author of the paper in Nature Communications.

Read more | >

Scientists from UNSW Sydney have demonstrated a novel technique for creating tiny 3D materials that could eventually make fuel cells like hydrogen batteries cheaper and more sustainable.

In the study published in Science Advances, researchers from the School of Chemistry at UNSW Science show it’s possible to sequentially “grow” interconnected in 3D at the nanoscale which have unique chemical and to support energy conversion reactions.

In chemistry, hierarchical structures are configurations of units like molecules within an organization of other units that themselves may be ordered. Similar phenomena can be seen in the , like in flower petals and tree branches. But where these structures have extraordinary potential is at a level beyond the visibility of the human eye—at the nanoscale.

Read more | >