Lifeboat Foundation

Space travel nowadays relies on physical ejection of propellants, which is challenged by reachable distance of a vehicle in desirable time. In contrast, electromagnetic propulsion was proposed to be a potential solution without need of carrying bulky mass of propellants, by using force interaction of local magnetic dipoles with the external natural magnetic field. Further development of this technique, however, has been daunted by extremely small magnetic induction that can be obtained.

To generate a significant thrust by a system with a reasonable scale, we propose an alternative concept of design, based on the variation of local magnetic dipole moments that has not been considered.

A magnetic dipole is created by wrapping a solenoid around an iron core. It is varied spatially by changing the cross-sectional area of the solenoid, hence giving a gradient of magnetic dipole moment. The interaction force is measured by an in-house force sensor based on a cantilever, which has a high sensitivity of one micro-Newton. In addition, numerical simulation is used to calculate the magnetic field and created force via the Maxwell stress tensor.

‘Humans are extraordinarily special’. Not new but well worth remembering.

Either way, their conclusion is that, like stick-shift cars, extraterrestrial civilizations are few and far between. The implication is that our nearest cosmic chums are at least several thousand light-years away.

You may wonder why this story has raised eyebrows. Well, it would make Homo sapiens extraordinarily special, despite the fact that the galaxy is stuffed with planets. It discomfits scientists (including me) because, historically, every time we’ve thought we occupy a privileged position in the universe, we were wrong. Remember that six centuries ago, learned folk would have assured you that Earth was the center of the cosmos.

Continue reading “Opinion | How many aliens are out there? Why a new estimate is raising eyebrows” »

UC scientists and physicians hope to permanently cure patients of sickle cell disease by using CRISPR-Cas9 to replace a defective gene with the normal version.

In 2014, two years after her Nobel Prize-winning invention of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, Jennifer Doudna thought the technology was mature enough to tackle a cure for a devastating hereditary disorder, sickle cell disease, that afflicts millions of people around the world, most of them of African descent. Some 100000 Black people in the U.S. are afflicted with the disease.

Continue reading “FDA approves first test of CRISPR to correct genetic defect causing sickle cell disease” »

When the researchers used their system to measure the qubits’ state, they achieved an accuracy of 98 percent, exactly the same as when they carried out the measurement using a conventional electrical cable.

The authors acknowledge that work is already underway to try and reduce the heat produced by current approaches, including the development of thinner wires, proposals to replace wires with superconducting cables, or a process called multiplexing that makes it possible to send many signals over the same cable simultaneously.

But optical fiber is a well-established technology, and is already replacing electrical wires in many areas of computing thanks to its ability to carry far more data. The authors also point out that components used in this experiment were designed to work at room temperature, so optimizing them for cryogenic temperatures could provide significant performance gains.

There’s a new crypto converter on the market for those looking for a more seamless way to send and receive money internationally.

With the emergence of crypto remittance companies in recent years, a group of undergraduates based in Nigeria teamed up to stake their claim in the market. Software engineers Ben Eluan and Osezele Orukpe became the CEO and CTO, respectively, of their company, Flux, a new crypto remittance company that allows merchants to send and receive money from anywhere in the world, TechCrunch reports. Through Flux, users can convert fiat funds into crypto that can be sent to people in other countries without all the time constraints and exorbitant fees.

Related: 10 of the Most Successful Black Entrepreneurs.

It’s a glass dome with a view.

When SpaceX launches four civilian astronauts on the private Inspiration4 spaceflight, they’re going to have the ultimate window: a glass dome offering panoramic views of Earth from space.

Continue reading “SpaceX’s Dragon spaceship is getting the ultimate window for private Inspiration4 spaceflight” »

Univ. of Toronto Researcher: “I did not realize quite how bad [the lack of reproducibility and poor quality in research papers] was.”

Many areas of science have been facing a reproducibility crisis over the past two years, and machine learning and AI are no exception. That has been highlighted by recent efforts to identify papers with results that are reproducible and those that are not.

Two new analyses put the spotlight on machine learning in health research, where lack of reproducibility and poor quality is especially alarming. “If a doctor is using machine learning or an artificial intelligence tool to aid in patient care, and that tool does not perform up to the standards reported during the research process, then that could risk harm to the patient, and it could generally lower the quality of care,” says Marzyeh Ghassemi of the University of Toronto.

Continue reading “Machine Learning Faces a Reckoning in Health Research” »

A collision between Earth and the asteroid 99942 Apophis can be ruled out, for at least the next century, based on new observations by NASA.

Didn’t watch the video.

Prof David R. Liu, Professor at Harvard University, the Broad Institute, and HHMI was interviewed by the Sheeky Science Show. In the interview, they discussed how to make precise genome editing safe & efficient using the latest CRISPR tech advances in base editing and prime editing and taking it to the clinic (e.g Beam Therapeutics). They talked about the next frontier, epigenome editing.

Continue reading “Editing the Epigenome for Better Health and a Pathway to Antiaging” »