Lifeboat Foundation

All-optical multiplane quantitative phase imaging design eliminates the need for digital phase recovery algorithms.

UCLA researchers have introduced a breakthrough in 3D quantitative phase imaging that utilizes a wavelength-multiplexed diffractive optical processor to enhance imaging efficiency and speed. This method enables label-free, high-resolution imaging across multiple planes and has significant potential applications in biomedical diagnostics, material characterization, and environmental analysis.

Introduction to Quantitative Phase Imaging.

CEDAR PARK, Texas (KXAN) — Cedar Park is now home to a first-of-its-kind distinction in the state. The city is now hoping to cash in on the popularity of video games and virtual reality.

Cedar Park is now officially known as a “Digital Media Friendly Texas Certified Community.”

“This program is really designed to bring in that tech and creative talent,” Arthur Jackson, Chief Economic Development Officer for the city, said.

There’s more than one way for a star to die. Some go with a whimper, and some go with a very, very big bang.

By Phil Plait

Continue reading “How Do Stars Really Die?” »

What kind of residue will the AI bubble’s popping leave behind?

A recent study of Iceland’s Krafla volcanic caldera suggests hidden magma pools may be lurking under many of the world’s volcanic systems.

When we form a new memory, the brain undergoes physical and functional changes known collectively as a “memory trace.” A memory trace represents the specific patterns of activity and structural modifications of neurons that occur when a memory is formed and later recalled.

But how does the brain “decide” which neurons will be involved in a memory trace? Studies have suggested that the inherent excitability of neurons plays a role, but the currently accepted view of learning has neglected to look inside the command center of the neuron itself, its nucleus. In the nucleus, there seems to be another dimension altogether that has gone unexplored: epigenetics.

Inside every cell of a given living organism, the genetic material encoded by the DNA is the same, yet the various cell types that make up the body, like skin cells, kidney cells, or nerve cells each express a different set of genes. Epigenetics is the mechanism of how cells control such gene activity without changing the DNA sequence.

How do giant planets form and is this process slow or fast based on the amount of available dust used to build those planets? This is what a recent study published in Astronomy & Astrophysics hopes to address as a team of researchers from Germany investigated how sub-micron-sized dust kicks off the planetary formation process within a protoplanetary disc. This study holds the potential to help scientists better understand the formation and evolution of planets throughout our solar system and exoplanetary systems, as well.

For the study, the researchers developed first-of-its-kind model to involve all constituents responsible for the physical processes that from planets. Focusing on sub-micron-sized dust, they included factors such as pebble accumulation, planetary gas buildup, planetary migration, and dust buildup, among others. In the end, they found that ring-shaped disturbances in the protoplanetary disk, which they refer to as substructures, can result in multiple gas giants’ formation in rapid sequence.

Dr. Til Birnstiel, who is a professor of theoretical astrophysics at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and a co-author on the study, said: “When a planet gets large enough to influence the gas disk, this leads to renewed dust enrichment farther out in the disk. In the process, the planet drives the dust – like a sheepdog chasing its herd – into the area outside its own orbit.”

Study identifies the nuclear protein Pin1 as pivotal in the regulation of senescence, offering new avenues for senotherapeutic development.

2030 to 2100 C.E.

For shits and giggles, but also because why not?Credit for picture and music goes to the original makers. Song is Grand Cathedral from Serious Sam.