Lifeboat Foundation

Circa 2020

In 2016, Elon Musk’s younger brother, Kimbal Musk co-founded Brooklyn-NY-based vertical-farming operation Square Roots as part of a broader quest to grow fresh, local produce close to population centres and empower young people to participate in the sustainable urban farming trend. Over four years, Square Roots has grown more than 120 varieties of crop, including salad greens, vegetables and strawberries.

Continue reading “Elon Musk’s brother ramps up vertical farming venture” »

Asteroid 2022 KY4 will, thankfully, miss our planet by a few million miles.

The skyscraper-size asteroid 2022 KY4 will make its closest recorded approach to Earth on Sunday, July 17, passing within about 3.8 million miles.

Join the audience for a live webinar on 20 July 2022 sponsored by TA Instruments – Waters, Hiden Analytical and Royal Society of Chemistry, in partnership with The Electrochemical Society.

In today’s business world, machine-learning algorithms are increasingly being applied to decision-making processes, which affects employment, education, and access to credit. But firms usually keep algorithms secret, citing concerns over gaming by users that can harm the predictive power of algorithms. Amid growing calls to require firms to make their algorithms transparent, a new study developed an analytical model to compare the profit of firms with and without such transparency. The study concluded that there are benefits but also risks in algorithmic transparency.

Conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the University of Michigan, the study appears in Management Science.

“As managers face calls to boost transparency, our findings can help them make decisions to benefit their firms,” says Param Vir Singh, Professor of Business Technologies and Marketing at CMU’s Tepper School of Business, who coauthored the study.

The TRISO-X, LLC Fuel Fabrication Facility (TF3) will be the nation’s first High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) fuel fabrication facility. TRISO-X is a wholly owned subsidiary of advanced reactor designer X-energy, LLC. TF3 will use uranium enriched between 5% and 20% to produce fuel for advanced and small modular reactors of the future. TF3 will manufacture TRi-structural ISOtropic (TRISO) fuel, an advanced fuel that is tough enough to handle the higher operating temperatures of several advanced reactors under development.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is supporting the development of TF3 through an award with X-energy, LLC under the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) 0, which aims to speed the demonstration of advanced reactors through cost-shared partnerships with the U.S. nuclear industry. The design and license application development of TF3 was also supported through an $18M (federal cost share) industry FOA that was awarded to X-energy in 2018. TF3 will initially provide the TRISO fuel for X-energy’s Xe-100 high-temperature gas reactor.

“The TRISO-X Fuel Fabrication Facility represents the intersection of some of DOE’s hard work to bring advanced reactors to commercialization,” said Alice Caponiti, DOE’s Deputy Assistant Secretary for Reactor Fleet and Advanced Reactor Deployment. “We’ve been investing in R&D on TRISO fuels for decades. Now, with funding through ARDP, TF3 will bring the next evolution of nuclear fuel to reality, advancing new nuclear technology, creating new jobs, and supporting the clean energy economy.”

A small study in men suggests tiny bubbles of cell membrane found in semen are different in those with unexplained infertility issues compared to those with no fertility problems, which could help explain the mysterious condition.

Even when they get rid of a few parking spots in the process.

This article is an installment of The Future Explored, a weekly guide to world-changing technology. You can get stories like this one straight to your inbox every Thursday morning by subscribing here.

If nuclear fusion was a viable energy source, everything could be electrified. Electricity would be so cheap that projects that seem impossible now could be within our grasp, like commercial space flights, desalinating sea water, or direct air carbon capture.

Continue reading “Nuclear fusion gets closer to reality with this new reactor” »

A bubbling waterfall and plants that purify indoor air, no cellphones, and a pebbled path — every element in this garden has been built to boost mental well-being and reduce stress.