Lifeboat Foundation

A research team has introduced a novel method for selectively tuning electronic bands in graphene. Their findings, published in Physical Review Letters, showcase the potential of artificial superlattice fields for manipulating different types of band dispersions in graphene.

Cerebras has set a new record for AI inference speed, serving Llama 3.1 8B at 1,850 output tokens/s and 70B at 446 output tokens/s.

@CerebrasSystems has just launched their API inference offering, powered by their custom wafer-scale AI accelerator chips.

Llama 3.1 8B provider analysis:

Continue reading “Llama 3.1 8B: API Provider Performance Benchmarking & Price Analysis” »

Biotechnology firm United Therapeutics has showcased what it claims to be the “world’s most complex 3D printed object” in partnership with 3D printer manufacturer 3D Systems at the recent LIFE ITSELF conference in San Diego.

The partners have produced a 3D printed human lung scaffold capable of demonstrating gas exchange in animal models, and are now planning to cellularize the scaffold with a patient’s own stem cells to create tolerable, transplantable human lungs.

“Last week, it was exciting to show the public our 3D printed human lung scaffold, but we’re thrilled to share that our 3D printed lung scaffolds are now demonstrating gas exchange in animal models,” said Dr. Martine Rothblatt, United Therapeutics’ Chairperson and CEO. “We are regularly printing lung scaffolds as accurately as driving across the United States and not deviating from a course by more than the width of a human hair.

This research uncovers diverse neural roles in processing words and complex sentences.

MIT neuroscientists have identified several brain regions responsible for processing language using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

However, discovering the specific functions of neurons in those regions has proven difficult because fMRI, which measures changes in blood flow, doesn’t have a high resolution to reveal what small populations of neurons are doing.

Continue reading “New MIT study finds neurons process language at varied timescales” »

SpaceX, with its rapidly expanding squadron of Starship rockets and super-capsules, looks poised to dominate the creation of humanity’s first base camp on the Moon.

As it ramps up producing Starship upper stages that can double as Moon-orbiting space stations or as spectacular lunar resorts, SpaceX is positioned to speed past NASA’s plans for Spartan astronaut habitats on the orb’s South Pole.

Continue reading “SpaceX Starship Flotillas Could Outrace NASA To Create Moon Base Alpha” »

What does the future hold? What will become of this planet and its inhabitants in the centuries to come?
We are living in a historical period that sometimes feels like the prelude to something truly remarkable or terribly dire about to unfold.
This captivating video seeks to decipher the signs and attempt to construct plausible scenarios from the nearly nothing we hold in our hands today.
As always, it will be scientific discoveries leading the dance of change, while philosophers, writers, politicians, and all the others will have the seemingly trivial task of containing, describing, and guiding.
Before embarking on our journey through time, let me state the obvious: No one knows the future!
Numerous micro and macro factors could alter this trajectory—world wars, pandemics, unimaginable social shifts, or climate disasters.
Nevertheless, we’re setting off. And we’re doing so by discussing the remaining decades of the century we’re experiencing right now.

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DISCUSSIONS \& SOCIAL MEDIA

Continue reading “From Today To The Year 3000: Let’s Dive Into The Future!” »

“Those tiny objects with masses comparable to giant planets may themselves be able to form their own planets,” said Dr. Aleks Scholz.

What can rogue planets teach us about the formation and evolution of stars and planets? This is what a recent study published in The Astronomical Journal hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated NGC 1,333, which is a star-forming cluster located just under 1,000 light-years from Earth. This study holds the potential to help scientists better understand the formation and evolution of stars and planets while challenging previous hypotheses about these processes.

“We are probing the very limits of the star forming process,” said Dr. Adam Langeveld, who is an assistant research scientist at Johns Hopkins University and lead author of the study. “If you have an object that looks like a young Jupiter, is it possible that it could have become a star under the right conditions? This is important context for understanding both star and planet formation.”

Continue reading “James Webb Space Telescope Uncovers Six Likely Rogue Worlds with Dusty Disks” »

J.J. Thomson won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1906 showing that the electron is a particle: ironically, his son, G.P. Thomson, won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1937 showing that it is not (or rather that the electron can also behave as a wave)

A tale of two Thomsons.

The brain-machine interface race is on. While Elon Musk’s Neuralink has garnered most of the headlines in this field, a new small and thin chip out of Switzerland makes it look downright clunky by comparison. It also works impressively well.

The chip has been developed by researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) and represents a leap forward in the sizzling space of brain-machine-interfaces (BMIs) – devices that are able to read activity in the brain and translate it into real-world output such as text on a screen. That’s because this particular device – known as a miniaturized brain-machine interface (MiBMI) – is extremely small, consisting of two thin chips measuring just 8 mm² total. By comparison, Elon Musk’s Neuralink device clocks in at comparatively gargantuan size of about 23 × 8 mm (about 0.3 x .9 in).

Additionally, the EPFL chipset uses very little power, is reported to be minimally invasive, and consists of a fully integrated system that processes data in real time. That’s different from Neuralink, which requires the insertion of 64 electrodes into the brain and carries out its processing via an app located on a device outside of the brain.