Lifeboat Foundation

The rover will collect data for Japan’s crewed pressurized rover.

Batteries and fuel cells often rely on a process known as ion diffusion to function. In ion diffusion, ionized atoms move through solid materials, similar to the process of water being absorbed by rice when cooked. Just like cooking rice, ion diffusion is incredibly temperature-dependent and requires high temperatures to happen fast.

This temperature dependence can be limiting, as the materials used in some systems like fuel cells need to withstand high temperatures sometimes in excess of 1000 degrees Celsius. In a new study, a team of researchers at MIT and the University of Muenster in Germany showed a new effect, where ion diffusion is enhanced while the material remains cold, by only exciting a select number of vibrations known as phonons. This new approach—which the team refers to as “phonon catalysis”—could lead to an entirely new field of research. Their work was published in Cell Reports Physical Science.

In the study, the research team used a computational model to determine which vibrations actually caused ions to move during ion diffusion. Rather than increasing the temperature of the entire material, they increased the temperature of just those specific vibrations in a process they refer to as targeted phonon excitation.

SpaceX is already underway on building its first floating spaceport platform, and the plan is for it to start hosting launches as early as next year. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk shared those details on the progress of its build for Deimos, one of two converted oil rigs that SpaceX purchased earlier this year in order to transform them into floating launch and landing sites for its forthcoming Starship reusable rocket.

SpaceX’s purchase of the two rigs at the beginning of this year was for the creation of Deimos and Phobos, two floating spaceports named after the moons of Mars. They’ll act as offshore staging grounds for Starship launch activities, and the name is appropriate because the eventual plan is to have Starship provide transport for both people and goods to and from the red planet.

Ocean spaceport Deimos is under construction for launch next year

Starship fuels up before liftoff on its offshore launch platform Deimos!#SpaceX #Starship #Deimos #Render pic.twitter.com/wFcjT5WUaA

Continue reading “SpaceX’s first ocean spaceport is being built and will host launches next year” »

Creepio advocates for the technological singularity… as foretold by the PROPHECY! 😉

Happy memorial day to the other Americans amongst you!

Continue reading “Star Wars — Youth Biology PSA” »

COVID-19 Drugs: Canadian researchers from the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) and the Université de Montréal announced the clinical trial findings of the COLCORONA study (NCT04322682), which was a phase 3, randomized, double-blind, adaptive, placebo-controlled, multicentre trial of the oral anti-inflammatory medication called Colchicine on hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The stu…

TIL a preprint publication points to another commonality found in blue zones: their lack of birth records. Author Dr. Saul Justin Newman concludes, “the designated ‘blue zones’ of Sardinia, Okinawa, and Icaria corresponded to regions with low incomes, low literacy, high crime rate and short life expectancy relative to their national average. As such, relative poverty and short lifespan constitute unexpected predictors of centenarian and supercentenarian status, and support a primary role of fraud and error in generating remarkable human age records.”

Can the blue zone diet help with longevity? We investigate Dan Buettner’s claims about blue zones and the corresponding lifestyle.

Each city is populated by a unique host of microbial organisms, and this microbial ‘fingerprint’ is so distinctive, the DNA on your shoe is likely enough to identify where you live, scientists say.

In a new study, researchers took thousands of samples from mass transit systems in 60 cities across the world, swabbing common touch points like turnstiles and railings in bustling subways and bus stations across the world.

Subjecting over 4700 of the collected samples to metagenomic sequencing (the study of genetic material collected from the environment), scientists created a global atlas of the urban microbial ecosystem, which they say is the first systematic catalog of its kind.

Researchers say we’re unlikely to ever be able to contain a large enough superintelligent artificial intelligence.

The premise sounds scary, but knowing the odds will help scientists who work on these projects.

Self-teaching AI already exists and can teach itself things programmers don’t “fully understand.”

Continue reading “Calculations Show Humans Can’t Contain Superintelligent Machines” »

A potentially new species of tree frog has been discovered in New Guinea, and it’s full of surprises. For starters, instead of the bright green skin of its relatives, this creature sports a beautiful chocolate brown.