Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists are finally getting closer to figuring out the puzzle of the structure of neutron stars and revealing the nature of their ultra-dense interiors.

In theories of stellar evolution, neutron stars are considered one of the end states of stars, along with white dwarfs and black holes. As a star evolves it will enter stages of expansion as hydrogen is fused into helium and so on through the periodic table of elements. Depending on the mass of the star, a limit will be reached whereby nuclear fusion can no longer take place and the star is no longer able to overcome the immense gravitational force which it has been holding back for all these years. As a result, the star implodes, ejecting its outer layers as a planetary nova or a supernova, leaving only a mere remnant of its former self behind – or so the story goes.

For massive stars, the implosion is so great that it crushes its stellar matter to such high densities that the oppositely charged electrons and protons are forced so close together that they fuse to become neutrons, hence creating a neutron star. This neutron star is so dense that a single teaspoonful could weigh a billion tonnes! For stars massive enough, it is further theorised that the gravitational collapse would be so great that it would instead crush the neutron star down to the size of an infinitesimal point, creating a black hole.

New research in rats suggests that vitamin K intake can improve cognitive abilities in the aging brain.

Plastic and molten salt batteries may be the key to grid-scale energy storage.

Electricity is a marvelous thing. It can power every manner of machine and digital device, but it is ephemeral. It has to be used as soon as it is created or it is lost forever. The trick to making it serve the needs of humanity is to store it, and to do that, you need a battery.

There are hundreds of ways to make a battery — the Romans did it with copper and iron in a lemon juice bath. But not all of those storage techniques are practical in the real world. Some are too heavy, others too bulky. Many are too costly or use materials that are too scare. Nickel has long been a major component of today’s lithium-ion batteries, but upheavals in some countries masterminded by criminal leaders have caused it to triple in price recently.

Continue reading “Grid-Scale Storage Solutions — Plastic & Freeze/Thaw Battery Edition” »

In a discovery that could speed research into next-generation electronics and LED devices, a University of Michigan research team has developed the first reliable, scalable method for growing single layers of hexagonal boron nitride on graphene.

The process, which can produce large sheets of high-quality hBN with the widely used molecular-beam epitaxy process, is detailed in a study in Advanced Materials.

Continue reading “Graphene-hBN breakthrough to spur new LEDs, quantum computing” »

Mushrooms could be communicating in a structure that resembles human language, suggests a study published in the Royal Society Open Science.

Professor Andrew Adamatzky analysed the electrical signals in fungi and found patterns that have a structural similarity to English and Swedish languages at the University of the West of England’s Unconventional Computing Laboratory. The hope is to better understand how information is transferred and processed in mycelium networks, and to one day create fungi-based computing devices.

The latest results from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider have established a lower mass limit for the elusive hypothesized particle.

For the first time, scientists have managed to capture the dual natures of light – particle and wave – in a single electron microscope image.

Until now, scientists could only capture an image of light as a particle or a wave, never both at the same time. However, a team from the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland has overcome the challenges that previous experiments faced by imaging light in this very strange state using electrons.

Continue reading “This Is The World’s First Image of Light as Both a Particle And a Wave” »

Around the rim of the lens is an array of other electronics, including a custom-designed chip with a radio that streams content to the display and a variety of sensors, including an accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer for tracking the user’s eye movements. This eye tracking capability not only ensures that AR imagery holds still as the user looks around, but also makes it possible to control the device through eye movements alone.

Despite their efforts to pack as much into the lens as possible, it won’t be a stand-alone piece of equipment. Most of the computing power required to run AR applications will be contained in a companion device worn around the neck, which will stream the content to the lens wirelessly.

The lens also hasn’t yet been cleared by the FDA for human use, so early demonstrations involve looking through a lens on a stick just in front of the eye. At present it is only capable of producing images in a green monochrome. But according to CNET , the device allows a user to select a variety of apps arranged in a ring around the periphery of their field of vision using nothing more than their gaze. These make it possible to do everything from checking flight information to using a compass to navigate and track fitness data like heart rate and lap number.

People with type O-blood are considered “universal donors” because their blood doesn’t have any antigens or proteins, meaning anybody’s body will be able to accept it in an emergency.

But why are there different blood types? Researchers don’t fully know, but factors such as where someone’s ancestors are from and past infections which spurred protective mutations in the blood may have contributed to the diversity, according to Dr. Douglas Guggenheim, a hematologist with Penn Medicine. People with type O blood may get sicker with cholera, for example, while people with type A or B blood may be more likely to experience blood clotting issues. While our blood can’t keep up with the different biological or viral threats going around in real time, it may reflect what’s happened in the past.

“In short, it’s almost like the body has evolved around its environment in order to protect it as best as possible,” Guggenheim says.