Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 4515

Scientists from around the world have reconstructed the laws of gravity, to help get a more precise picture of the universe and its constitution.

The standard model of is based on General Relativity, which describes gravity as the curving or warping of space and time. While the Einstein equations have been proven to work very well in our solar system, they had not been observationally confirmed to work over the entire .

An international team of cosmologists, including scientists from the University of Portsmouth in England, has now been able to test Einstein’s theory of gravity in the outer-reaches of space.

Read more | >

Sean Carroll: We might solve free will one day. But here’s why I doubt it.

Up next, The great free will debate ► https://youtu.be/3O61I0pNPg8

Debates about the existence of free will have traditionally been fought by two competing camps: those who believe in free will and those who don’t because they believe the Universe is deterministic.

Determinism is the thesis that every event — from when a volcano erupts to what cereal you buy at the supermarket — is a theoretically predictable result of the long chain of events that came before it. Free will, it was long thought, cannot exist in a world where all events are already causally determined.

Continue reading “Does free will violate the laws of physics? | Sean Carroll” | >

Less than 20 years ago, Konstantin Novoselov and Andre Geim first created two-dimensional crystals consisting of just one layer of carbon atoms. Known as graphene, this material has had quite a career since then.

Due to its exceptional strength, is used today to reinforce products such as tennis rackets, car tires or aircraft wings. But it is also an interesting subject for , as physicists keep discovering new, astonishing phenomena that have not been observed in other materials.

Read more | >

Danish maritime architecture studio MAST has developed Land on Water, a system for constructing floating buildings that aims to be more flexible and sustainable than traditional methods.

The system designed by Copenhagen-based MAST consists of modular containers that can be filled with various floatation elements, similar to how gabion cages are used in the construction industry.

Made from recycled reinforced plastic, these flat-pack modules could be easily transported around the world and assembled in different configurations to suit a range of building types.

Read more | >

A multinational team headed by University College London scientists has discovered a new mechanism that slows down and maybe even prevents the normal aging of immune cells, one of the nine “hallmarks of aging.”

The discovery in-vitro (cells) and validated in mice was “unexpected,” according to the researchers, who believe harnessing the mechanism might extend the life of the immune system, enabling people to live healthier and longer lives, and would also have therapeutic use for diseases such as cancer and dementia. Their findings were recently published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

Explaining the study, lead author, Dr. Alessio Lanna, Honorary Professor at UCL Division of Medicine, said: Immune cells are on constant high-alert, always ready to fight pathogens. To be effective they also must persist for decades in the body – but the strategies employed to execute this life-long protection are largely unknown.

Read more | >

The equipment that generates quantum entanglement is bulky and produces entangled photons just a pair at a time. Now scientists have created a device roughly one-third as thick as a penny that can yield complex webs of entangled photons—not just in pairs, but several pairs all linked together.

Read more | >