Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder have tapped into a poltergeist-like property of electrons to design devices that can capture excess heat from their environment — and turn it into usable electricity.

The researchers have described their new “optical rectennas” in a paper published today (May 18, 2021) in the journal Nature Communications. These devices, which are too small to see with the naked eye, are roughly 100 times more efficient than similar tools used for energy harvesting. And they achieve that feat through a mysterious process called “resonant tunneling” — in which electrons pass through solid matter without spending any energy.

“They go in like ghosts,” said lead author Amina Belkadi, who recently earned her PhD from the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering (ECEE).

Tune in to find out about how we’re furthering our mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

0:00 Opening Film.
1:26 Introduction, Sundar Pichai.
7:07 Workspace.
34:54 Safer With Google.
43:00 Helpful Information.
1:13:30 Design + Android.
1:41:29 Health.
1:50:43 Sustainability.

Continue reading “Google Keynote (Google I/O ‘21)” »

Rapamycin has been proven to extend the lifespan of mice, warms and yeast. Lifespan.io is starting a large clinical trial named Participatory Evaluation (of) Aging (with) Rapamycin (for) Longevity Study, or PEARL, to see if the antiaging effects of Rapamycin apply to humans. This will be the first study to see if Rapamycin works as well in humans as it does in mice.

The PEARL trial will follow up to 200 participants over 12 months testing four different Rapamycin dosing regimens. It will be double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled and registered with clinicaltrials.gov. The principal investigator is Dr. James P Watson at UCLA, who was also a PI for the famous TRIIM trial.

Continue reading “Lifespan.io Starting Rapamycin Antiaging Human Trials” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=3iS5f716oYQ

Here’s what we already know about Ford’s electric F-150.

Ford is set to unveil its next major electric vehicle, the F-150 Lightning, at 9:30PM ET on Wednesday, May 19th. But this isn’t just another EV event. An electric version of the automaker’s iconic F-series pickup truck is a very big deal for Ford, for the auto world, for car buyers, and even for the US economy.

Continue reading “Ford F-150 Lightning: what to expect from the automaker’s first electric pickup truck” »

Photon counting and reliable photon number resolving, until now, only partially available utilizing esoteric EMCCD technology in highly controlled laboratory environments, is now possible with a compact form-factor camera, operating at room temperature — with the additional benefits of higher resolution and speed. “The ability to do photon counting at room temperature is a game changer for our research efforts in Astrophysics and Quantum Information Science,” said Dr. Don Figer, Director of Center for Detectors and the Future Photon Initiative in the College of Science, Rochester Institute of Technology.

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South China Morning Post.

Continue reading “China lands Zhu Rong Mars rover after ‘nine minutes of terror’” »

The US-European Solar Orbiter mission caught footage of a coronal mass ejection bursting out of the sun’s atmosphere during the spacecraft’s first close pass by our star.

These clever semiconductors make our internet-connected world go round. In addition to iPhones and PlayStations, they underpin key national infrastructure and sophisticated weaponry.

But recently there haven’t been enough of them to meet demand.

The reasons for the ongoing global chip shortage, which is set to last into 2022 and possibly 2023, are complex and multifaceted. However, nations are planning to pump billions of dollars into semiconductors over the coming years as part of an effort to sure up supply chains and become more self-reliant, with money going toward new chip plants, as well as research and development.

Researchers with the BrainGate Collaboration have deciphered the brain activity associated with handwriting: working with a 65-year-old (at the time of the study) participant with paralysis who has sensors implanted in his brain, they used an algorithm to identify letters as he attempted to write them; then, the system displayed the text on a screen; by attempting handwriting, the participant typed 90 characters per minute — more than double the previous record for typing with a brain-computer interface.

So far, a major focus of brain-computer interface research has been on restoring gross motor skills, such as reaching and grasping or point-and-click typing with a computer cursor.