Lifeboat Foundation

26,000 Years ago, humans hunted gigantic wooly mamoths, 600 miles above the arctic circle. The fact that we had such human settlements so far north, jives well with Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s hypothesis of a northern origin of all Indo-European language cultures. Tilak, the “Ben Franklin” of modern India and predecesor of Mahatma Gandhi wrote the book “The Arctic Home in the Vedas,” where he developed his hypothesis based of the Vedas verses, that what was described therein could only have happened above the arctic circle at a time when the climate there was milder. He proposed that as the ice age set in, this culture was forced to immigrate southwards, leading to colonization of Eurasia.

Ancient hunters butchered woolly mammoths at Taba-Yuryakh site some 26,000 years ago.

“When the final tests are completed in the future, South Korea will become the eighth country in the world that has developed an advanced supersonic fighter,” a government statement said.

South Korea unveiled its homegrown supersonic jet fighter on Friday, joining an exclusive club of military aviation giants and setting the stage for a $5.2 billion program it hopes will be a top export driver and jobs creator.

Once operational, the KF-21 jet is expected to be armed with a range of air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles — and possibly even air-launched cruise missiles.

Continue reading “South Korea launches first homegrown supersonic jet fighter” »

Sugar feeding prior to having an infected blood meal could protect a mosquito’s ability to get infected and transmit arboviruses such as Zika, dengue and chikungunya, according to a new study.

The research – led by the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research and published in PLOS Pathogens – showed that the Aedes aegypti species of mosquito, an arbovirus vector, had enhanced immunity in the gut after feeding on sugar, which in turn protected females of the species against viral infection.

HOUSTON — (Jan. 27 2020) — That banana peel, turned into graphene, can help facilitate a massive reduction of the environmental impact of concrete and other building materials. While you’re at it, toss in those plastic empties. A new process introduced by the Rice University lab of chemist James Tour can turn bulk quantities of just about any carbon source into valuable graphene flakes. The process is quick and cheap; Tour said the “flash graphene” technique can convert a ton of coal, food waste or plastic into graphene for a fraction of the cost used by other bulk graphene-producing methods. “This is a big deal,” Tour said. “The world throws out 30% to 40% of all food, because it goes bad, and plastic waste is of worldwide concern. We’ve already proven that any solid carbon-based matter, including mixed plastic waste and rubber tires, can be turned into graphene.” As reported in Nature, flash graphene is made in 10 milliseconds by heating carbon-containing materials to 3,000 Kelvin (about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit). The source material can be nearly anything with carbon content. Food waste, plastic waste, petroleum coke, coal, wood clippings and biochar are prime candidates, Tour said. “With the present commercial price of graphene being $67,000 to $200,000 per ton, the prospects for this process look superb,” he said.

Scientists at Rice University are using high-energy pulses of electricity to turn any source of carbon into turbostratic graphene in an instant. The process promises environmental benefits by turning waste into valuable graphene that can then strengthen concrete and other composite materials.

Continue reading “Rice lab turns trash into valuable graphene in a flash” »

Australians with COVID-19 who are at risk of hospitalisation will now have access to an additional antibody treatment, as the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) announced today it has granted provisional approval for sotrovimab to be used in Australia.

Earlier this month, the Australian Government secured an initial allocation of over 7,700 doses of the novel monoclonal antibody treatment sotrovimab and a first shipment is already in the country and ready to be deployed through the National Medical Stockpile from next week.

The sotrovimab treatment requires a single dose to be administered through an intravenous (IV) infusion in a health care facility and has been shown to reduce hospitalisation or death by 79 per cent in adults with mild to moderate COVID-19, who are at risk of developing severe COVID-19.

If you are looking for details, unfortunately Mercedes is tight lipped on the AWD EQG spec sheet. You could probably expect a similar-sized battery as the EQS line at over 100kWh with a much shorter 200–300 mile range because of the increased drag of the off-roader. Today’s unveiling is mostly about eye candy and imagining an off-road Mercedes with all of the benefits of electrification.

With the Concept EQG, Mercedes-Benz presents the near-production study of an all-electric model variant of its utilitarian off-road icon. Visually, the concept car combines the unmistakably striking look of the G-Class with selected design elements typical of all-electric models from Mercedes as contrasting highlights. The 4×4 qualities of the “G”, which have always set the highest standard, will not only find their way into the age of electric mobility, but will be developed even further in some areas. The Concept EQG thus offers a promising preview of what a Mercedes-Benz G-Class with battery-electric drive will be capable of.

Continue reading “Mercedes G-Class EQG concept wows off-roading aficionados at IAA” »

“If we make life multiplanetary, there may come a day when some plants & animals die out on Earth, but are still alive on Mars,” Musk tweeted in mid-April.

What Musk probably didn’t know was that his destiny was already sealed. Not in the stars, but on paper.

In 1,953 a book was published that predicted plans for an “Elon” to take humans to Mars.

The DSN is being upgraded to communicate with more spacecraft than ever before and to accommodate evolving mission needs.

The first flight of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft will not have a crew of astronauts on board, but there are several experienced teams of people behind the mission to ensure the success of the first SLS launch and Orion’s first trip around the Moon.