Lifeboat Foundation

This course is for students wishing to explore blockchain technology’s potential use—by entrepreneurs and incumbents—to change the world of money and finance. The course begins with a review of Bitcoin and an understanding of the commercial, technical, and public policy fundamentals of blockchain technology, distributed ledgers, and smart contracts. The class then continues on to current and potential blockchain applications in the financial sector.

Scientists have unveiled a new printing process that can turn just about any piece of paper or cardboard into a waterproof keyboard that you can fold up and put in your pocket – and it doesn’t require a power source.

The tech makes use of a special coating that’s repellent to liquids and dust, which allows multiple circuit layers to then be printed on top of the paper without any smudging or degradation between the layers.

On the other side of the paper or cardboard, standard ink printing can then be used to point out where the pressure points (the buttons) are, and what they represent. These layers can be printed in any design you want, from numerical keypads to volume controls.

Beginning September 1 at 11:30 a.m. ET (8:30 a.m. PT), MIT is offering a course on “COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 and the Pandemic.” The course’s lectures will be livestreamed every Tuesday and are free to the public. (Only enrolled students can ask questions, but everyone can watch.)

A Twitter teardown of digital pregnancy tests reveals the complicated 8-bit processor inside. These digital tests still use a paper strip to record the test, and literally read the result and convert it into an LCD display.

This is the first time the e-commerce giant has registered a craft directly, rather than leasing it.

A new study provides an extraordinary close-up of the menagerie of neural cell types, yielding possible leads for neurological and psychiatric treatments.

Just playing around with the SpaceX footage from last nights SN6 hop. Enlarged and enhanced the video so we could zoom in on SN6 and the 2nd half of the video I slow it down X5.

Nuclear startup NuScale has received a landmark final safety evaluation report (FSER) for its modular reactor design, making it the first American modular design to reach this point. NuScale’s design uses classic nuclear fission water reactor technology in a much smaller form factor, which contrasts with the escalating sizes of most current nuclear plant construction around the world.

☢️ You like nuclear. So do we. Let’s nerd out over nuclear together.

Batteries with high energy densities could enable the creation of a wider range of electric vehicles, including flying vehicles that can transport humans in urban environments. Past studies predict that to support the operation of vehicles capable of take-off and landing, batteries require energy densities of approximately 400 Wh kg^-1 at the cell level, which is approximately 30% higher than the energy density of most existing lithium-ion (Li-ion) cells.

In addition to powering flying vehicles, high-energy cells (i.e., single units within a battery that convert chemical into electrical energy) could increase the distance that electric cars can travel before they need to be charged again. They may also reduce overall fabrication costs for electric vehicles, as similar results could be achieved using fewer but better-performing cells.

Anode-free lithium metal cells are particularly promising for creating batteries with higher energy densities. While they use the same cathode as Li-ion cells, these cells store energy via an electroplated lithium metal instead of a graphite host, and they can have energy densities that are 60% greater than those of Li-ion cells.