Lifeboat Foundation

This crystal of iron pyrite, just four hundredths of a millimeter in size, could function as the light absorbing layer of a tiny solar cell – potentially a promising future source of power on the Moon.

Working with Estonia’s Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), ESA has studied the production of sandpaper-like rolls of such microcrystals as the basis of monograin-layer solar cells.

“We’re looking at these microcrystals in the context of future lunar settlement,” explains ESA advanced manufacturing engineer Advenit Makaya. “Future Moon bases will need to ‘live off the land’ in order to be sustainable, and the iron and sulfur needed to produce pyrite could be retrieved from the lunar surface.”

Prof Stuart Russell, founder of the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence, at the University of California, Berkeley, is giving this year’s Reith Lectures.

He said: Because I think it’s really important and really urgent.

And the reason it’s urgent is because the weapons that we have been talking about for the last six years or seven years are now starting to be manufactured and sold.

Continue reading “Reith Lectures: AI and why people should be scared” »

Science isn’t all lab coats and test tubes. Beautiful visuals can engage people—especially students—and inspire them to learn about science more broadly.

Scientists have often invited the public to see what they see, using everything from engraved woodblocks to electron microscopes to explore the complexity of the scientific enterprise and the beauty of life. Sharing these visions through illustrations, photography, and videos has allowed laypeople to explore a range of discoveries, from new bird species to the inner workings of the human cell.

Continue reading “These gorgeous images could transform science education” »

A total solar eclipse occurred early this morning across one of our planet’s most remote and beautiful regions. It was, as always, utterly surreal.

For some, the 1 minute 30 seconds (or so) event at around 07:00 UTC was marred by low and high cloud in the Scotia Sea. There were 14 cruise ships in the 290 miles-wide path of totality, but so far there have been no reports of clear views.

Continue reading “In Photos And Video: Antarctica’s Exclusive Eclipse Of The Sun Attracts Intrepid Travelers —And Humpback Whales” »

A common strategy to make vaccines more powerful is to deliver them along with an adjuvant — a compound that stimulates the immune system to produce a stronger response.

Researchers from MIT, the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, and other institutions have now designed a new nanoparticle adjuvant that may be more potent than others now in use. Studies in mice showed that it significantly improved antibody production following vaccination against HIV, diphtheria, and influenza.

“We started looking at this particular formulation and found that it was incredibly potent, better than almost anything else we had tried,” says Darrell Irvine, the Underwood-Prescott Professor with appointments in MIT’s departments of Biological Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering; an associate director of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research; and a member of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard.

Company doing some impressive work on robotic Arms and Hands, definitely worth a look for robotics people.

The Atom Touch artificial arm is capable of full human range of motion, restores a basic sense of touch, and is non-invasively mind-controlled. Coming 2023.

Learn Artificial Intelligence with these online courses

#artificialintelligence … See more.

Continue reading “10 Best AI Courses: Beginner to Advanced” »

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Its exact hardness remained unknown — until now.

Growing Diamonds

Researchers from Washington State University’s Institute for Shock Physics have developed hexagonal diamonds large enough to study in a lab and test their stiffness and hardness.