Lifeboat Foundation

China’s first Mars mission will search for pockets of water beneath the surface that could host life.

As China’s first Mars mission, is uniquely ambitious. No nation had ever attempted to send an orbiter and rover to Mars on the first try. But China succeeded, making a historic victory.

Tianwen-1 arrived in Mars orbit as a single spacecraft. Once on Mars, the landing platform extended a ramp, allowing the Zhurong rover to roll gently onto the surface—similar to the way China’s Chang’e Moon rovers are deployed.

Continue reading “Tianwen-1 and Zhurong, China’s Mars orbiter and rover” »

NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) are collaborating to advance space-based nuclear technologies.

In May 1997, a large earthquake shook the Kermadec Islands region in the South Pacific Ocean. A little over 20 years later, in September 2018, a second big earthquake hit the same location, its waves of seismic energy emanating from the same region.

Though the earthquakes occurred two decades apart, because they occurred in the same region, they’d be expected to send seismic waves through the Earth’s layers at the same speed, said Ying Zhou, a geoscientist with the Department of Geosciences in the Virginia Tech College of Science.

But in data recorded at four of more than 150 Global Seismographic Network stations that log seismic vibrations in real time, Zhou found an anomaly among the twin events: During the 2018 earthquake, a set of seismic waves known as SKS waves traveled about one second faster than their counterparts had in 1997.

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Amazon introduced the technology at Amazon re: MARS 2022, its annual AI event centered around machine learning, automation, robotics, and space. Alexa AI head scientist Rohit Prasad referred to the upcoming feature as a way to remember friends and family members who have passed away.

“While AI can’t eliminate the pain of loss, it can definitely make their memories last,” Prasad said.

Continue reading “Amazon’s Alexa Will Soon be Able to Use a Dead Person’s Voice” »

Although the name and scenario are fictional, this is a question we have to confront now. In December 2021, Melbourne-based Cortical Labs grew groups of neurons (brain cells) that were incorporated into a computer chip. The resulting hybrid chip works because both brains and neurons share a common language: electricity.

In silicon computers, electrical signals travel along metal wires that link different components together. In brains, neurons communicate with each other using electric signals across synapses (junctions between nerve cells). In Cortical Labs’ Dishbrain system, neurons are grown on silicon chips. These neurons act like the wires in the system, connecting different components. The major advantage of this approach is that the neurons can change their shape, grow, replicate, or die in response to the demands of the system.

Dishbrain could learn to play the arcade game Pong faster than conventional AI systems. The developers of Dishbrain said: “Nothing like this has ever existed before … It is an entirely new mode of being. A fusion of silicon and neuron.”

New anthropological research suggests our ancestors enjoyed long slumbers.

This creature was discovered by chance in a Caribbean mangrove. It is surprising not only for its size but its DNA-encasing internal membranes.

Exploring Otherness on Earth and Beyond is a new research project of ours with the goal to prepare us for the discovery of alien life. For more info, see.