Lifeboat Foundation

Circa 2019

Domestic cats (Felis catus) and dogs (Canis familiaris) are the most popular companion animals; worldwide, over 600 million cats live with humans¹, and in some countries their number equals or exceeds the number of dogs (e.g., Japan: dogs: 8,920,000, cats: 9,526,000)^2,3. Cats started to cohabit with humans about 9,500 years ago⁴; their history of cohabitation with humans is shorter than that of dogs⁵, and they have been domesticated by natural selection, not by artificial selection^6,7,8. Despite these differences in their process of domestication compared to that of dogs, cats too have developed behaviours related to communication with humans; for example, for human listeners, the vocalisations of domestic cats are more comfortable than those of African wild cats (Felis silvestris lybica)⁹. In addition, purring has different acoustical components during solicitation of foods than at other times, and humans perceive such solicitation purrs as more urgent and unpleasant than non-solicitation purrs¹⁰. These facts clearly indicate that domestic cats have developed the ability to communicate with humans and frequently do so; Bradshaw⁸ suggested that this inter-species communicative ability is descended from intra-species communicative ability.

Researchers have only recently begun to investigate cats’ ability to communicate with humans. Miklósi et al. showed that cats are able to use the human pointing gesture as a cue to find hidden food, similarly to dogs¹¹. The researchers also suggested that cats do not gaze toward humans when they cannot access food, unlike dogs. However, a recent study revealed that cats show social referencing behaviour (gazing at human face) when exposed to a potentially frightening object, and to some extent cats changed their behaviour depending on the facial expression of their owner (positive or negative)¹². Cats in food begging situations can also discriminate the attentional states of humans who look at and call to them¹³. In addition, Galvan and Vonk demonstrated that cats were modestly sensitive to their owner’s emotions¹⁴, and other research has indicated that cats’ behaviour is influenced by human mood^15,16. Further, cats can discriminate their owner’s voice from a stranger’s¹⁷. This research evidence illustrates that domestic cats have the ability to recognize human gestural, facial, and vocal cues.

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The future is here.

Hints of a new particle carrying a fifth force of nature have been multiplying at the LHC – and many physicists are convinced this could finally be the big one.

Guest contributor describes some of the challenges technology companies face in developing ESG standards and measuring their performance.

Machine learning and machine learning algorithms are finding new applications in game building. Machine learning NPCs with machine learning processors have made it possible to have a virtual player.

Study reveals the different ways the brain parses information through interactions of waves of neural activity.

Summary: Study reveals the different ways the brain parses information through interactions of waves of neural activity.

Source: Salk Institute.

For years, the brain has been thought of as a biological computer that processes information through traditional circuits, whereby data zips straight from one cell to another. While that model is still accurate, a new study led by Salk Professor Thomas Albright and Staff Scientist Sergei Gepshtein shows that there’s also a second, very different way that the brain parses information: through the interactions of waves of neural activity.

When it comes to space, there’s a problem with our human drive to go all the places and see all the things. A big problem. It’s way too big.

Scientists shut down the particle accelerator in 2018 to allow for upgrades (SN: 12/3/18). On April 22, protons once again careened around the 27-kilometer-long ring of the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, located at the particle physics laboratory CERN in Geneva.

The LHC is coming out of hibernation gradually. Researchers started the accelerator’s proton beams out at relatively low energy, but will ramp up to slam protons together at a planned record-high energy of 13.6 trillion electron volts. Previously, LHC collisions reached 13 trillion electron volts. Likewise, the beams are starting out wimpy, with relatively few protons, but will build to higher intensity. And when fully up to speed, the upgraded accelerator will pump out proton collisions more quickly than in previous runs. Experiments at the LHC will start taking data this summer.

Physicists will use this data to further characterize the Higgs boson, the particle discovered at the LHC in 2012 that reveals the source of mass for elementary particles (SN: 7/4/12). And researchers will be keeping an eye out for new particles or anything else that clashes with the standard model, the theory of the known particles and their interactions. For example, researchers will continue the hunt for dark matter, a mysterious substance that so far can be observed only by its gravitational effects on the cosmos (SN: 10/25/16).

Architect Andreas Tjeldflaat from design and research studio, Framlab, has his head high up in the clouds.

His latest project, titled Oversky, was recently on display at an exhibition on architecture and climate change at Sweden’s Bildmuseet art museum.

Oversky deals with a series of semi-floating structures in the ariel space between roads and buildings. The modular structures would be based on the technology that allows zeppelins to float, known as the lighter-than-air technology, and would be interconnected and supported by various infrastructural links that connect the street, known as “the cloudscape”.

Microscope footage shows how a fiery T cell latches onto a cancer cell in an attempt to destroy it.