Lifeboat Foundation

Long-term supply agreements are nothing new in the semiconductor industry. Both fabless chip designers and contract makers of chips prefer stable supply and demand, respectively. But in a world with severely constrained supply, chip developers are willing to pay for their integrated circuits well in advance, which is a boon for foundries.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest foundry, disclosed in a filing that it received temporary receipts of around $3.825 billion (NT$106,33 billion) from customers as of September 30, 2021. Temporary receipts from TSMC’s customers are payments received to retain its capacity. To put the number into context, TSMC earned some $14.926 billion (NT$414.67 billion) in Q3 2021, so $3.825 billion is a sizeable sum for the company.

Google is secretly working with the world’s leading neuroscientists on mapping the entire Human Brain. Neuroscientists at have released the most detailed 3D map of the mammalian brain ever made. Google has helped them by funding their goal to create the most detailed map yet of the connections within the human brain. It reveals a staggering amount of detail, including patterns of connections between neurons, as well as what may be a new kind of neuron.

The applications in the field of Brain Computer Interfaces or understanding medical conditions are staggering. But it’s doubtful that this will just help companies such as Neuralink develop advanced future brain computer interfaces and will likely lead to Google doing evil things by understanding people’s way of thinking and delivering ads to them.
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Continue reading “How Google is Reading Your Thoughts — Scientists Mapping the Human Brain” »

OAKLAND, Calif. Nov 17 (Reuters) — A new quantum computer startup born from researchers at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) called QuEra Computing said on Wednesday it raised $17 million from investors, including Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten Inc (4755.T).

It’s the latest quantum computer hardware maker to come out of the lab at a time when funding for the nascent technology is booming. read more

While there are various technologies for creating so-called quantum bits or qubits where the computations happen, QuEra’s qubits use neutral atoms in a vacuum chamber and use lasers to cool and control them.

On October 21, Sweden’s Jetson Aero launched the Jetson One, a single-seat flying car with 20-minute flight times and a top speed of about 63 mph. It has already sold all 12 of the electric vehicles in its first production run (to be delivered in fall 2022), and it’s now taking orders for 2023.

The vehicles will be delivered about 50% assembled, and customers must finish putting them together themselves.

Continue reading “You can now buy a flying car for $92,000” »

Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang doesn’t see the global chip shortage coming to an end anytime soon. The head of the largest chip maker by market cap, Huang is fresh off his virtual keynote at Nvidia’s GTC conference where he announced advances in the company’s metaverse and AI efforts.

But Nvidia still makes the bulk of its revenue, about 47% in Q2, from the sale of its gaming cards. And those continue to be in short supply due to the pandemic-induced chip crisis.

“I think that through the next year, demand is going to far exceed supply. We don’t have any magic bullets in navigating the supply chain,” Huang told Yahoo Finance Live on Wednesday.

Vehicle retrofit company Orten E-Truck has developed an electric truck that incorporates Blackstone’s solid-state batteries. Blackstone is 3D printing the storage cells.

For example, scientists recently treated a patient’s severe depression with a neural implant that zaps her brain 300 times per day and, she says, has allowed her to spontaneously laugh and feel joy for the first time in years. Of course, the treatment requires an electrode implanted deep into the brain, which currently reserves it for the most extreme medical cases — but as brain interface tech inexorably becomes more advanced and widely available, there’s no reason such a device couldn’t become a consumer gadget as well.

At the research’s current rate of trajectory, experts told Futurism, the tech could conceivably hit the market in just a few years. But what we don’t know is what it will mean for us, psychologically as individuals and sociologically as a society, when we can experience genuine pleasure from the push of a button. And all those questions become even more complex, of course, when applied to the messy world of sex.

“A big question that remains unanswered is whether sextech will ultimately become a complement to our sex lives or a substitute,” Kinsey Institute research fellow Justin Lehmiller, an expert on sex and psychology, told Futurism.

Incredible new videos show stem cells escaping from hair follicles, which could provide insight on a new, potentially reversible mechanism of hair loss.

Stem cells contribute to tissue regeneration, and they are thought to play an important role in age-related decline — so much so that stem cell exhaustion is one of the hallmarks of aging. These stem cells reside in “compartments” in various tissues. In the hair, the stem cell compartment, known as the bulge, is adjacent to the hair follicle.

Continue reading “Hair Loss Reversal? Stem Cell Escape Identified!” »

Demand for residences that produce as much energy as they consume is being spurred by climate concerns, consumer appetite and more affordable solar technology.