Lifeboat Foundation

A silicone robot has survived a journey to 10900 metres below the ocean’s surface in the Mariana trench, where the crushing pressure can implode all but the strongest enclosures. This device could lead to lighter and more nimble submersible designs.

A team led by Guorui Li at Zhejiang University in China based the robot’s design on snailfish, which have relatively delicate, soft bodies and are among the deepest-living fish. They have been observed swimming at depths of more than 8000 metres.

The submersible robot looks a bit like a manta ray and is 22 centimetres long and 28 centimetres in wingspan. It is made of silicone rubber with electronic components spread throughout the body and connected by wires, rather than mounted on a circuit board like most submersibles. That’s because the team found in tests that the connections between components on rigid circuit boards were a weak point when placed under high pressure.

Supermassive black holes in the Milky Way and Andromeda will engulf each other less than 17 million years after the galaxies merge, simulations show.

Israel is investing 1.25 billion NIS in a national initiative to build up quantum proficiency, and this project in particular is part of that initiative.

Ultimately, Cyrille Przybyla, an aquaculture researcher at the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea who led the research, dreams of designing a lunar fish farm that uses water already on the moon to help feed residents of the future Moon Village set to be established by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Lunar Hatch project is just one of around 300 ideas currently under evaluation by the ESA, and may or may not be selected for the final mission. Przybyla’… See More.

To boldly farm fish where no one has farmed fish before.

This is the Hadrian X by FBR, a pioneering and autonomous bricklaying robot that can build a standard 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom house every 2 days on average.

Great new episode with evolutionary paleobiologist Bruce Lieberman; the discussion covers the gamut from very ancient intertidal RNA pools to Trilobites to the emergence of Hominids on the East African savannas. Well worth a listen.

I welcome renowned evolutionary paleobiologist Bruce S. Lieberman, a professor at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, who is an expert on how cosmic cataclysms have impacted the evolution of life here on Earth. Massive nearby supernovae, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) as well as asteroidal and cometary impactors have each played a role in our planet’s long tape of life. And if we were able to rewind that tape and roll the die once more? Would intelligent life have manifested itself here at all? This lively episode delves into our long road from Trilobite to Human Intelligence.

Continue reading “Episode 40 --- Cosmic Cataclysms And The Evolution Of Intelligent Life On Earth” »

NASA has awarded the Mars Ascent Propulsion System (MAPS) contract to Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation of Elkton, Maryland, to provide propulsion support and products for spaceflight missions at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Elon Musk’s Insane Idea to Get 1 Million People on Mars by 2050.

The colorful community was built in just 13 weeks!

A colorful village of 40 tiny homes opened up in Los Angeles earlier this month. While each 64-foot square unit can only hold one to two people, the project as a whole is a huge step forward when it comes to solving one of the city’s biggest crises: homelessness.

Continue reading “Los Angeles Just Opened a Tiny Home Village for the Homeless” »