Lifeboat Foundation

Elemental and lead isotope analyses of ancient copper ingots are unlocking secrets of Early Iron Age trade routes and how indigenous Mediterranean communities functioned from about 2,600 years ago.

For the first time, a scientific team led by Flinders University archaeologists, working with the Institute of History (CSIC) in Spain, has examined the origins of Iron Age metal items from an archaeological site in southwest France and found they were sourced from a variety of Mediterranean locations.

The underwater site of Rochelongue, believed to be four small boats located west of Cap d’Agde in southwestern France and discovered in 1964, dates to about 600 BCE and its cargo included 800kg of copper ingots and about 1,700 bronze artifacts. They contain very pure copper with traces of lead, antimony, nickel and silver.

Superconductivity is the disappearance of electrical resistance in certain materials below a certain temperature, known as “transition temperature.” The phenomenon has tremendous implications for revolutionizing technology as know it, enabling low-loss power transmission and maintenance of electromagnetic force without electrical supply. However, superconductivity usually requires extremely low temperatures ~ 30 K (the temperature of liquid nitrogen, in comparison, is 77 K) and, therefore, expensive cooling technology. To have a shot at realizing a low-cost superconducting technology, superconductivity must be achieved at much higher transition temperatures.

Materials scientists have had a breakthrough on this front with crystalline materials containing hydrogen, known as “metal hydrides.” These are compounds formed by a metal atom bonded with hydrogen that have been predicted and realized as suitable candidates for achieving even room-temperature superconductivity. However, they require extremely high pressures to do so, limiting their practical applications.

In a new study published in Chemistry of Materials, a group of researchers led by Professor Ryo Maezono from Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) performed computer simulations to expand the search for high-temperature superconductors, looking for potential candidates among ternary hydrides (hydrogen combined with two other elements).

The wildly inventive physicist John Wheeler was an early explorer of this notion. In a 1989 paper, “Information, Physics, Quantum: The Search for Links,” Wheeler takes a stab at “the age-old question: How come existence?” The answer, he speculates, might come from a fusion of physics and information theory. The former traffics in “its,” or physical things, and the latter in “bits,” defined as answers to yes-or-no questions.

Wheeler proposes that “every physical quantity, every it, derives its ultimate significance from bits, binary yes-or-no indications, a conclusion which we epitomize in the phrase, it from bit.” Noting the crucial role of measurement in the outcome of quantum experiments, Wheeler suggests that we live in a “participatory universe,” in which we bring the world into existence, and vice versa.

Picking up on Wheeler’s ideas, physicist Carlo Rovelli argues in a 1996 paper, “Relational Quantum Mechanics,” that quantum mechanics undermines “naive realism,” the notion that science discovers a reality that exists independently of our observation of it. He proposes what he calls a “relational” interpretation of quantum mechanics, which says things only exist in relation to other things. Rovelli notes that Galileo and Kant, among others, anticipated the relational perspective.

Time magazine on Monday named Tesla chief and space entrepreneur Elon Musk as its person of the year, citing his embodiment of the technological shifts but also troubling trends reshaping people’s lives.

Musk — who overtook Amazon founder Jeff Bezos this year to become the world’s wealthiest person — wields impact on Earth with his Tesla electric car company and beyond our planet with his SpaceX rockets.

“Musk’s rise coincides with broader trends of which he and his fellow technology magnates are part cause and part effect,” Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal wrote.

Further exploration of the unknown worlds of the deep sea may soon be possible, along with low-energy monitoring. Engineers at Caltech, ETH Zurich, and Harvard are developing an AI that will allow autonomous drones to navigate using the ocean’s currents rather than struggling to move through them.

According to one of the authors of a recent paper published in Nature Communications 0, John O. Dabiri, communications with robots exploring at depths of 20,000 feet is near impossible. They are difficult to control via joystick, and researchers are unable to feed them data about local ocean currents. So it becomes necessary for ocean-borne drones to be able to make their own decisions and move by themselves.

Contrary to what you may think, getting old is not inevitable. And by getting old, I mean the bad parts: weakened muscles, fading memory, aching joints … or perhaps a disease such as cancer or diabetes makes an unwelcome appearance.

James Peyer, 35, is out to prove that age is, instead, like polio or tuberculosis. Those and other infectious diseases once were the biggest killers, until we developed effective vaccines or treatments.

Why, asked Peyer, co-founder of the New York longevity start-up Cambrian Biopharma, should age be any different? “Of our 100,000-year-plus history as a species, it’s been for only about 75 years that these diseases of ageing have been the primary predators of humankind.” He added: “We are rapidly zeroing in on our biggest.

Work to drum up interest in pre-owned options are slowly starting to deliver an impact.

China has developed what it calls a Quantum Satellite System in a bid to combat any adversary intrusion into its power infrastructure. The country boasts the world’s largest national power grid.

Elon Musk warns that real androids are coming. Musk is one of the world wealthiest men and a tech entrepreneur. Some fear an impending catastrophe as a result of robots produced with artificial intelligence. Others speculate he is developing Neuralink to offer humans a fighting chance. Musk response video comes from Cornwall-based Engineered Arts.