Lifeboat Foundation

“You can also engineer dead zones in radio waves or silent zones in acoustic waves,” said Lim. “This research points to the possibility of designing complex topologies in wave physics beyond optics, from electron beams to acoustics.”

When we think about singularities, we tend to think of massive black holes in faraway galaxies or a distant future with runaway AI, but singularities are all around us. Singularities are simply a place where certain parameters are undefined. The North and South Pole, for example, are what’s known as coordinate singularities because they don’t have a defined longitude.

Optical singularities typically occur when the phase of light with a specific wavelength, or color, is undefined. These regions appear completely dark. Today, some optical singularities, including optical vortices, are being explored for use in optical communications and particle manipulation but scientists are just beginning to understand the potential of these systems. The question remains — can we harness darkness like we harnessed light to build powerful, new technologies?

Continue reading “Harnessing the Dark Side: Optical Singularities Could Be Used for a Wide Range of Applications” »

Researchers in a small but growing field search for neural correlates of religiosity and spirituality.

A new artificial intelligence method removes the effect of gravity on cosmic images, showing the real shapes of distant galaxies.

Intel wants in on this, and hopes to expand its presence on the continent. It hopes to build in Europe at least one factory for manufacturing and another for advanced packaging, Greg Slater, VP of global regulatory affairs, told the Financial Times over the weekend. France, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands are being considered as hosts for these facilities, and Intel is expected to name locations by the end of the year.

Chipzilla is, we’re told, prepared to blow as much as $20bn on these factories over the next decade, with an eye on building up to eight fabs on a 1000-acre site somewhere with the necessary infrastructure around it. Intel teased it could spend up to $100bn during the lifetime of these Euro plants.

“We are well placed to make this an ecosystem-wide project, not just a couple of isolated paths in one member state,” Slater said. “We do believe that this is a project that will benefit Europe at large.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) seems to power all sorts of devices nowadays. Why not a lawn mower, too?

A NASA study has revealed how a ‘wobble’ in the Moon’s orbit could cause devastating flooding in the 2030s.

Research led by the US space agency predicts cities along the country’s coast could see three or four times as many high-tide flood days annually for a decade.

The Moon’s gravitational pull impacts tidal forces on Earth.

Circa 2019

Bezos has discussed his hope of building O’Neill colonies, spinning cylinders in space that would replicate gravity and sustain human life.

“The trend for feeding dogs raw food may be fuelling the spread of antibiotic resistant-bacteria”, the researchers said in a press release for their study, to be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases.

Separate research to be presented at the same conference found resistance to a last-resort antibiotic may be passing between pet dogs and their owners.

Antibiotic-resistant “superbugs” — which the World Health Organization calls one of the top global threats to public health — usually conjure images of hospital settings.

Continue reading “Bad Dog? Research Suggests Superbug Link To Man’s Best Friend” »

Boiling lobsters alive may be banned under a new law in the UK designed to protect the welfare rights of animals considered sentient beings. So, are lobsters sentient, do they feel pain, and what does science have to say about the moral quagmire of crustacean agony and cooking pots?

Back in May 2021, the UK government introduced a bill to formally recognize animals as sentient beings. Among the many facets of the bill, it aimed to limit the import of products from trophy hunting, push for fairer space requirements for farm animals, and stop people from owning primates as pets.

However, the bill only covered animals with a backbone and didn’t include any protections for non-vertebrates, which includes octopuses, squid, insects, and crustaceans. The Times reports that ministers are now preparing to back an amendment to the House of Lords, the upper house of the UK Parliament, to extend the legislation to shellfish and cephalopod mollusks. As per the report, this is likely to involve an outright ban on boiling lobsters alive.