Lifeboat Foundation

In this edition of Future Discussions Ugochukwu discusses with the Head of TAFFD’s Africa on the vision and strategies for creating opportunities for education, technology and empowerment in Africa using the global channel that TAFFDs Africa is creating.

Brenda talks about why she joined TAFFD’s Inc and the amazing work she and her team has been doing to foster the progress of Africa. She equally talks about the 4th Industrial Revolution, what is means for Africa and the work TAFFD’s Africa is doing to prepare young Africans to leverage the opportunities therein.

Continue reading “Creating Opportunities through education, technology and empowerment in Africa W/Brenda Ramokoplewa” »

The Moon and Mars are remote and forbidding but it’s fairly easy to turn their soil into construction material and mine it for water to drink and oxygen to breathe.

Several astronauts have spent more than a year in zero gravity, and they experienced muscle loss, brittle bones and difficulties with vision. A space station could be spun up to ameliorate these problems, and for colonists on the Moon and Mars, gravity would be reduced, not absent. Their capillaries and cardiovascular systems would adjust, and muscle mass would be shed.

Continue reading “The Physical Effects of Living in Space Could Create a New Human Species” »

The Space Race

Looking back over years of research into the topic of hybrid systems based on different combinations of solar, wind, hydro and other renewables, an international group of scientists found strong potential for strategies to exploit complementarity between the different sources integrate more intermittent renewables onto regional and national grids. The scientists present a series of conclusions and recommendations that aim to push research in hybrid renewables forward.

A breakthrough skin-gel is showing promising signs in Australian trials, with the ability to halt chronic pain in its tracks, halve healing time and even turn back the clock on ageing skin.

The gel, which is known as RM191A, is believed to be a new class of anti-inflammatory.

It’s a copper-based compound which is applied directly to the skin as a topical.

This eco village is 100% self-sufficient and zero waste, offering warmth, shelter and even food! The community of 23 houses was built using recycled, repurposed and locally sourced materials in the Netherlands. These houses produce around 75% of their own electricity and 100% of their heat with the…

In 2021, mankind is all set to achieve new milestones in space.

Researchers from the Max Planck Society assessed humans’ capabilities for controlling killer AI. Read the details.

Researchers from Osaka University propose a concept for next-generation ultra-intense lasers, possibly increasing the current record from 10 Petawatts to 500 Petawatts.

Ultra-intense lasers with ultra-short pulses and ultra-high energies are powerful tools for exploring unknowns in physics, cosmology, material science, etc. With the help of the famous technology “Chirped Pulse Amplification (CPA)” (2018 Nobel Prize in Physics), the current record has reached 10 Petawatts (or 10¹⁶ Watts). In a study recently published in Scientific Reports, researchers from Osaka University proposed a concept for next-generation ultra-intense lasers with a simulated peak power up to the Exawatt class (1 Exawatt equals 1000 Petawatts).

Continue reading “Towards Exawatt-Class Lasers: New Concept for Next-Generation Ultra-Intense Lasers” »

Researchers from the Max Planck Society assessed humans’ capabilities for controlling killer AI. Read the details.

Researchers have found a simple way to eliminate almost all sequencing errors produced by a widely used portable DNA sequencer, potentially enabling scientists working outside the lab to study and track microorganisms like the SARS-CoV-2 virus more efficiently.

Using special molecular tags, the team was able to reduce the five-to-15 percent error rate of Oxford Nanopore Technologies’ MinION device to less than 0.005 percent — even when sequencing many long stretches of DNA at a time.

Continue reading “Pocket-Sized DNA Sequencer Achieves Near-Perfect Accuracy – Could Help Track COVID-19 Virus” »