Lifeboat Foundation

Summary: APOEe4, a gene associated with Alzheimer’s disease risk, doesn’t appear to directly affect memory performance or brain activity in older adults without cognitive impairment. However, the gene does seem to influence brain regions and systems that older at-risk adults activate to support successful memory recall.

Source: McGill University

Researchers at McGill University and the Douglas Mental Health University Institute, in collaboration with the StoP-AD Center, have published a new paper in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, examining how a known genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD) influences memory and brain function in cognitively intact older adults with a family history of AD.

Nanoscale thermal physics guarantees our decline, no matter how many diseases we cure.

It’s first uncrewed flight will take place early 2021 and it is set to launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida.

Space Perspective is building a balloon that will be able to transport passengers and research equipment to the “edge of space.”

There are several companies looking to enter the emerging “space tourism” marketplace, but Space Perspective sets itself apart with its balloon design, named Spaceship Neptune. This balloon will accompany a pressurized and spacious cabin, creating a comfortable traveling experience for its passengers, according to its maker.

Continue reading “A startup is building a balloon to transport tourists to the ‘edge of space’ for $125,000. See what the Spaceship Neptune may look like” »

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Chris Cassidy ventured out on their third spacewalk over the past few weeks to replace outdated batteries with more powerful new ones.

Large-scale oceanic phenomena are complicated and often involve many natural processes. Tropical instability wave (TIW) is one of these phenomena.

Pacific TIW, a prominent prevailing oceanic event in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, is featured with cusp-shaped waves propagating westward at both flanks of the tropical Pacific cold tongue.

The forecast of TIW has long been dependent on physical equation-based numerical models or statistical models. However, many natural processes need to be considered for understanding such complicated phenomena.

A team from the Cockrell School of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin have developed a new kind of battery that mixes the best of both worlds of liquid- and solid-state batteries. The design is the first all-liquid metal battery that can work at room temperature and is claimed to outperform lithium-ion batteries.

Liquid metal batteries are less susceptible to wearing out than solid batteries because dendrites don’t form and damage the components. The only downside is, most of these batteries need to be heated to at least 240°C (464°F) to keep the metals liquid and the equipment required to do that is bulky and energy-consuming.

For the study, published in the journal Advanced Materials, the UT team examined alloys that could remain liquid at useful temperatures. They decided to use a gallium-indium alloy for the cathode and a sodium-potassium alloy for the anode, which was able to stay liquid at 20°C (68°F). The researchers say it’s the lowest operating temperature ever recorded for a liquid-metal battery.

What’s the most dangerous thing in a fire?

If you think it’s the flames or the heat, that’s understandable: those are dangerous, too. But both from a victim’s and a firefighter’s perspective, the deadliest enemy is smoke.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will launch its first-ever interplanetary mission today (July 19), and you can watch the historic liftoff live.

The Emirates Mars Mission, also known as Hope, is scheduled to launch atop an H-IIA rocket from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center today at 5:58 p.m. EDT (2158 GMT; 6:58 a.m. July 20 Japan Standard Time. You can follow the action live here at Space.com courtesy of the UAE Space Agency and the Dubai One news channel, or directly via the latter two organizations here.

Food for thought.

How does AI powered Robotics cause a mayhem? Read why the cobots are so dangerous, to the mankind, and what would happen if Artificial Intelligence powered Robots are programmed to kill humans.