Lifeboat Foundation

The interior of the Earth is a mystery, especially at greater depths (660 km). Researchers only have seismic tomographic images of this region and, to interpret them, they need to calculate seismic (acoustic) velocities in minerals at high pressures and temperatures. With those calculations, they can create 3D velocity maps and figure out the mineralogy and temperature of the observed regions. When a phase transition occurs in a mineral, such as a crystal structure change under pressure, scientists observe a velocity change, usually a sharp seismic velocity discontinuity.

In 2,003 scientists observed in a lab a novel type of phase change in minerals—a spin change in iron in ferropericlase, the second most abundant component of the Earth’s lower mantle. A spin change, or spin crossover, can happen in minerals like ferropericlase under an external stimulus, such as pressure or temperature. Over the next few years, experimental and theoretical groups confirmed this phase change in both ferropericlase and bridgmanite, the most abundant phase of the lower mantle. But no one was quite sure why or where this was happening.

In 2,006 Columbia Engineering Professor Renata Wentzcovitch published her first paper on ferropericlase, providing a theory for the spin crossover in this mineral. Her theory suggested it happened across a thousand kilometers in the lower mantle. Since then, Wentzcovitch, who is a professor in the applied physics and applied mathematics department, earth and environmental sciences, and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, has published 13 papers with her group on this topic, investigating velocities in every possible situation of the spin crossover in ferropericlase and bridgmanite, and predicting properties of these minerals throughout this crossover. In 2,014 Wenzcovitch, whose research focuses on computational quantum mechanical studies of materials at extreme conditions, in particular planetary materials predicted how this spin change phenomenon could be detected in seismic tomographic images, but seismologists still could not see it.

Quantum technology typically employs qubits (quantum bits) consisting of, for example, single electrons, photons or atoms. A group of TU Delft researchers has now demonstrated the ability to teleport an arbitrary qubit state from a single photon onto an optomechanical device—consisting of a mechanical structure comprising billions of atoms. Their breakthrough research, now published in Nature Photonics, enables real-world applications such as quantum internet repeater nodes while also allowing quantum mechanics itself to be studied in new ways.

Quantum optomechanics

The field of quantum optomechanics uses optical means to control mechanical motion in the quantum regime. The first quantum effects in microscale mechanical devices were demonstrated about ten years ago. Focused efforts have since resulted in entangled states between optomechanical devices as well as demonstrations of an optomechanical quantum memory. Now, the group of Simon Gröblacher, of the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience and the Department of Quantum Nanoscience at Delft University of Technology, in collaboration with researchers from the University of Campinas in Brazil, has shown the first successful teleportation of an arbitrary optical qubit state onto a micromechanical quantum memory.

Circa 2020

TOKYO — As scientists the world over scramble to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus, Kyushu University professor Takahiro Kusakabe and his team are working to develop a unique vaccine using silkworms.

In his project, each of the worms is a factory that manufactures a type of protein to serve as the key material for vaccine production. Kusakabe said it is possible to create an oral vaccine and aims to start clinical tests on humans in 2021.

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The UN health agency now ranks air pollution on a par with smoking or an unhealthy diet. As a result, it has issued new, stricter guidelines they claim could save millions of lives.

There is quite a bit of handwringing going on that AI-based true self-driving cars are going to be a monopoly. This is based on the assumption that only a few purveyors will be able to attain true self-driving cars. A tiny set of automakers or self-driving tech firms will hold all the cards when it comes to self-driving cars.

We are not there yet, since the invention of self-driving cars is still being figured out.

But, if you are thinking ahead, those purveyors might be the only entities able to field self-driving cars and therefore be able to charge monopoly rent, as it were. This could include charging sky-high prices for the use of self-driving cars.

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“I want to build a transformational technology company that stands the test of time,” Kinsel says.

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Pat Kinsel, 36 started Notarize after selling his previous company, mobile-data collection firm Spindle, to Twitter in 2013 and realizing that the notary had failed to sign his documents. Without the signature, the documents became invalid, despite being stamped, a major headache for Kinsel.

Continue reading “Next Billion-Dollar Startups: How Notarize Built A $760 Million Business In Online Notaries” »

Axiom Space, a venture-backed unicorn building the next generation International Space Station, is teaming up with Discovery Channel to give away a trip to the space station onboard SpaceX to the winner of a series of rigorous challenges meant to simulate astronaut training. The series is expected to air in 2022 and for those wanting to go up, casting is underway at discovery.com/astronaut. What this means is that the commercialization of space is happening in a very real way. No longer the realm of science fiction, private startups are joining forces with Fortune 500 companies to build industrial complexes in low Earth orbit for a multitude of commercial purposes including research, development, manufacturing, climate sensing, and even hospitality, with space hotels being planned to serve as WeWorks for those seeking off-planet retreats and remote work offices. you ever gazed up at the stars and wondered what it would feel like to be looking back down at Earth? Are you a space enthusiast who would give anything to travel to space, but never thought you’d have an opportunity? Welcome to WHO WANTS TO BE AN ASTRONAUT — the ultimate chance of a lifetime. Compete for a seat on a flight to the International Space Station where the winner will be able to do something only a handful of humans have ever done…travel into space.

We’re not looking for rocket scientists — this is an opportunity for regular people to have the chance to travel to space and share that journey with the world. (Ok, ok, if you’re a rocket scientist you’re welcome to apply too!)

If this sounds like a mission you want to be part of, now is your chance. Fill out the application below and submit a short video (30−60 seconds) telling us about yourself, why you deserve a chance to travel to space, what it would mean to you, and why you want to participate. We can’t wait to hear from you.

AI.Reverie offered APIs and a platform that procedurally generated fully annotated synthetic videos and images for AI systems. Synthetic data, which is often used in tandem with real-world data to develop and test AI algorithms, has come into vogue as companies embrace digital transformation during the pandemic. In a recent survey of executives, 89% of respondents said synthetic data will be essential to staying competitive. And according to Gartner, by 2,030 synthetic data will overshadow real data in AI models.

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Facebook has quietly acquired AI.Reverie, a New York-based startup creating synthetic data to train machine learning models, VentureBeat has learned.

How feasible is it to build a Jupiter brain, a computer the size of a planet? Just in the past few decades, the amount of computational power that’s available to humanity has increased dramatically. Your smartphone is millions of times more powerful than the NASA computers used to send astronauts to the moon on the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Computers have become integral to our lives, becoming the backbone of our communications, finances, education, art, health care, military, and entertainment. In fact, it would be hard to find an area of our lives that computers didn’t affect.

Now imagine that one day we make a computer that’s the size of an entire planet. And we’re not talking Earth, but larger, a megastructure the size of a gas giant like Jupiter. What would be the implications for humans to operate a computer that size, with an absolutely enormous, virtually limitless, amount of computing power? How would our lives change? One certainly begins to conjure up the transformational effects of having so much oomph, from energy generation to space travel and colonization to a fundamental change in the lifespan and abilities of future humans.

Continue reading “How to Make a Jupiter Brain — A Computer the Size of a Planet” »