Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 5235

Robotic copy of a human hand still needs a lot of ummm work, and funding.

MIT researchers have created an interactive design pipeline that streamlines and simplifies the process of crafting a customized robotic hand with tactile sensors.

Typically, a robotics expert may spend months manually designing a custom manipulator, largely through trial-and-error. Each iteration could require new parts that must be designed and tested from scratch. By contrast, this new pipeline doesn’t require any manual assembly or specialized knowledge.

Continue reading “A helping hand for robotic manipulator design” | >

The famous double-slit experiment–a now classic showcase of how both light and matter are able to behave as both waves, and particles in their “classical” physical definition–seems almost like magic to many of us.

Because of this unusual function of our physical universe, the double-slit experiment has intrigued physicists for decades, as it suggests the possibility of multiple universes or weird quantum events. However, only recently have researchers at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) found a way to fully validate this experiment, using a particular measurement method on the particle.

Read more | >

Ready to embrace some meteoric uncertainty?

The Tau Herculids meteor shower may light up the skies over North America on May 30 and 31. Or it may not. There’s a chance we might pass through the thickest part of the comet fragment that is creating the debris, in which case the night skies will be filled with shooting stars.

Read more | >

WASHINGTON — The Space Systems Command on May 26 rolled out a new process to assess the cybersecurity of commercial satellite operators that do business with the Defense Department.

Under the Infrastructure Asset Pre-Approval program, or IA-Pre, commercial suppliers of satellite-based services are evaluated based on their cybersecurity practices and systems. Those suppliers that pass the government’s checklist are then placed on a pre-approved list and will not be required to complete lengthy cybersecurity questionnaires for each individual contract proposal.

“Our office will begin accepting IA-Pre applications for a limited number of assets to perform assessments,” said Jared Reece, program analyst at the Space Systems Command’s commercial services systems office.

Read more | >

Summary: Muffled sounds experienced in the womb prime the brain’s ability to interpret some sounds and may be key for auditory development.

Source: MIT

Inside the womb, fetuses can begin to hear some sounds around 20 weeks of gestation. However, the input they are exposed to is limited to low-frequency sounds because of the muffling effect of the amniotic fluid and surrounding tissues.

Read more | >

After China, the U.S. is the next largest exporter of goods in the world, shipping out $1.8 trillion worth of goods in 2021—an increase of 23% over the previous year.

Of course, that massive number doesn’t tell the whole story. The U.S. economy is multifaceted, with varying levels of trade activity taking place all across the nation.

Using the latest data on international trade from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, we’ve visualized the value of America’s goods exports by state.

Read more | >

While the SR-71 Blackbird remains the world’s fastest air-breathing aircraft, the rocket-powered X-15 has its own richly deserved place in the aviation history record books: on October 3, 1967, U.S. Air Force test pilot William “Pete” Knight became the fastest flying pilot ever when he achieved a speed of Mach 6.7, a record that has stood for nearly 55 years.

The Baby Steps Before that “One Small Step for Man…”

As if that one particular superlative weren’t impressive enough, the X-15 helped make history in other ways: before Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon, he was taught to fly the X-15 to the edge of space by then-Colonel Chuck Yeager, who, of course, made history in his own right as the first man to break the sound barrier whilst flying the first of the “X” planes, t he Bell X-1.

Read more | >