Lifeboat Foundation

There are many places on the earth, where natural background radiation exposures are elevated significantly above about 2.5 mSv/year. The studies of health effects on populations living in such places are crucially important for understanding the impact of low doses of ionizing radiation. This article critically reviews some recent representative literature that addresses the likelihood of radiation-induced cancer and early childhood death in regions with high natural background radiation. The comparative and Bayesian analysis of the published data shows that the linear no-threshold hypothesis does not likely explain the results of these recent studies, whereas they favor the model of threshold or hormesis. Neither cancers nor early childhood deaths positively correlate with dose rates in regions with elevated natural background radiation.

Keywords: natural radiation, background radiation, HBRA, HNBR, low radiation, cancer, hormesis.

The launch of the first prototype of the new form of Russia’s national currency, the digital ruble, could be just several months away, the head of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, Anatoly Aksakov, has told RT.

“The digital ruble is currently the highest form of money,” the official said in an interview to RT. He said that the central bank is set to publish the roadmap for development of the digital currency soon and its prototype should be ready by autumn.

“The tests of this form of money may start at the end of 2021 or at the beginning of 2022,” he went on, adding that the digital currency may be used for domestic transactions in two to three years.

Do not be afraid of what you see. Even though the robotics industry has been making huge progress lately, it hasn’t quite reached the level you see here.

Researchers detected the Cepheus spur, a bridge of massive blue stars, while creating the most accurate map of the galaxy to date.

What’s New: Intel today announced that it has signed an agreement with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to perform in its Data Protection in Virtual Environments (DPRIVE) program. The program aims to develop an accelerator for fully homomorphic encryption (FHE). Microsoft is the key cloud ecosystem and homomorphic encryption partner leading the commercial adoption of the technology once developed by testing it in its cloud offerings, including Microsoft Azure and the Microsoft JEDI cloud, with the U.S. government. The multiyear program represents a cross-team effort across multiple Intel groups, including Intel Labs, the Design Engineering Group and the Data Platforms Group, to tackle “the final frontier” in data privacy, which is computing on fully encrypted data without access to decryption keys.

“Fully homomorphic encryption remains the holy grail in the quest to keep data secure while in use. Despite strong advances in trusted execution environments and other confidential computing technologies to protect data while at rest and in transit, data is unencrypted during computation, opening the possibility of potential attacks at this stage. This frequently inhibits our ability to fully share and extract the maximum value out of data. We are pleased to be chosen as a technology partner by DARPA and look forward to working with them as well as Microsoft to advance this next chapter in confidential computing and unlock the promise of fully homomorphic encryption for all.” – Rosario Cammarota, principal engineer, Intel Labs, and principal investigator, DARPA DPRIVE program

The first wireless commands to a computer have been demonstrated in a breakthrough for people with paralysis.

The system is able to transmit brain signals at “single-neuron resolution and in full broadband fidelity”, say researchers at Brown University in the US.

A clinical trial of the BrainGate technology involved a small transmitter that connects to a person’s brain motor cortex.

Fusion reactor technologies are well-positioned to contribute to our future power needs in a safe and sustainable manner. Numerical models can provide researchers with information on the behavior of the fusion plasma, as well as valuable insight on the effectiveness of reactor design and operation. However, to model the large number of plasma interactions requires a number of specialized models that are not fast enough to provide data on reactor design and operation.

Aaron Ho from the Science and Technology of Nuclear Fusion group in the department of Applied Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology has explored the use of machine learning approaches to speed up the numerical simulation of core plasma turbulent transport. Ho defended his thesis on March 17^th.

The ultimate goal of research on fusion reactors is to achieve a net power gain in an economically viable manner. To reach this goal, large intricate devices have been constructed, but as these devices become more complex, it becomes increasingly important to adopt a predict-first approach regarding its operation. This reduces operational inefficiencies and protects the device from severe damage.

A research team led by Professor Pan Jianwei and Professor Xu Feihu from University of Science and Technology of China achieved single-photon 3D imaging over 200 km using high-efficiency optical devices and a new noise-suppression technique, which was commented on by the reviewer as an almost “heroic” attempt at single photon lidar imaging at very long distances.

Lidar imaging technology has enabled high precision 3D imaging of target scenes in recent years. Single photon imaging lidar is an ideal technology for remote optical imaging with single-photon level sensitivity and picosecond resolution, yet its imaging range is strictly limited by the quadratically decreasing count of photons that echo back.

Researchers first optimized transceiver optics. The lidar system setup adopted a coaxial scanning design for the transmit and receive optical paths, which can align the transmitting and receiving spots more precisely and achieve higher-resolution imaging in comparison with traditional methods.

Using measurements of resistance versus applied gate voltage at temperatures of 390 mK, the researchers showed that superconductivity in the improved NbN layer could survive applied magnetic fields as high as 17.8 Tesla. Meanwhile, the improved GaN semiconductor was of high enough quality to exhibit the quantum Hall effect at lower applied magnetic fields of 15 T. “Both these improvements mean the quantum Hall effect and superconductivity can occur at the same time in the heterostructure over a certain ‘window’ of temperatures and magnetic fields (that is, below 1 K and between magnetic fields of 15 to 17.8 T),” study lead author Phillip Dang tells Physics World.

According to the team, the new GaN/NbN heterostructure could be used in quantum computing and low-temperature electronics. Reporting their work in Science Advances, the researchers say they now plan to further investigate the interaction between superconductivity and the quantum Hall effect in this material.