Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Trees make everything better. Even EV batteries.

Trees provide the air we breathe, and now, in an interesting turn of events, they might also help to power our electronics. A team of researchers from Brown University and the University of Maryland developed a new material that can be used in solid-state batteries to improve the safety and power of traditional batteries by replacing the liquids typically used in lithium-ion cells, a press statement reveals.

The material in question is a kind of cellulose nanofibril, which takes the form of polymer nanotubes derived from wood. The researchers found that it could be combined with copper to produce a paper-thin material that has an ion conductivity between 10 and 100 times better than other polymer ion conductors.

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Over the past few years, the business world has increasingly turned towards intelligent solutions to help cope with the changing digital landscape. Artificial intelligence (AI) enables devices and things to perceive, reason and act intuitively—mimicking the human brain, without being hindered by human subjectivity, ego and routine interruptions. The technology has the potential to greatly expand our capabilities, bringing added speed, efficiency and precision for tasks both complex and mundane.

To get a picture of the momentum behind AI, the global artificial intelligence market was valued at $62.35 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40.2% from 2021 to 2028. Given this projection, it’s not surprising that tech giants such as AWS, IBM, Google and Qualcomm have all made significant investments into AI research, development, disparate impact testing and auditing.

My coverage area of expertise, fintech (financial technology), is no exception to this trend. The AI market for fintech alone is valued at an estimated $8 Billion and is projected to reach upwards of $27 Billion in the next five years. AI and machine learning (ML) have penetrated almost every facet of the space, from customer-facing functions to back-end processes. Let’s take a closer look at these changing dynamics.

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Don’t let the titanium metal walls or the sapphire windows fool you. It’s what’s on the inside of this small, curious device that could someday kick off a new era of navigation.

For over a year, the avocado-sized vacuum chamber has contained a cloud of atoms at the right conditions for precise navigational measurements. It is the first device that is small, energy-efficient and reliable enough to potentially move quantum sensors—sensors that use quantum mechanics to outperform conventional technologies—from the lab into commercial use, said Sandia National Laboratories scientist Peter Schwindt.

Sandia developed the chamber as a core technology for future that don’t rely on GPS satellites, he said. It was described earlier this year in the journal AVS Quantum Science.

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You might know that the size of the pupils in our eyes changes depending on how well lit our environment is, but there’s more to the story: Scientists have now discovered that the pupil also shifts in size depending on how many objects we’re observing.

The more objects in a scene, the bigger the pupil grows, as if to better accommodate everything that it has to look at. This “perceived numerosity” is a simple and automatic reflex, the new research shows.

In a new study, researchers observed the pupil sizes of 16 participants while they looked at pictures of dots. In some of the pictures, the dots were linked together in dumbbell shapes – creating the illusion that there were fewer objects – and pupil size then shrank.

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Growing veggies on a thin film that allows nutrients and water to pass through while blocking viruses and bacteria.

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Watch more full episodes of Japan’s Top Inventions on NHK WORLD-JAPAN!
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/program/video/to…-jti034-hp.
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https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/ondemand/video/?cid=wohk-yt-2108-jti034-hp.

A Japanese farming technique using film shows potential for crop cultivation in arid regions and areas affected by soil degradation.

Continue reading “Film Farming — Japan’s Top Inventions” | >

Dr. Ann Marie Kimball (https://epi.washington.edu/faculty/kimball-ann-marie/) is a physician, epidemiologist and currently holds the roles of Associate Fellow at the international affairs think tank Chatham House, and Vice Chair, COVID 19 task force, at The Rotary Foundation / Rotary International.

Previously, Dr. Kimball served as a strategic advisor to the Rockefeller Foundation, supporting the strengthening and development of strategies for Ebola, post-Ebola, and health crisis response, including planning and guiding the formation of a regional disease surveillance network in collaboration with Connecting Organizations for Regional Disease Surveillance (CORDS).

Before joining the Rockefeller Foundation, Dr. Kimball served as technical and strategic lead for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation surveillance strategy formation.

Prior to Gates, Dr. Kimball served as Professor of Epidemiology for the University of Washington (UW), School of Public Health, with adjunct appointments in Medicine (Bioinformatics and Infectious Diseases) and the Jackson School of Foreign Affairs. During her tenure at UW, Dr. Kimball founded and directed the APEC Emerging Infections Network, and led research and training programs in Surveillance and Informatics in Peru and Thailand.

Continue reading “Dr Ann Marie Kimball, MD — Physician, Epidemiologist, Rotarian — Global Public Service, Saving Lives” | >