Lifeboat Foundation

Suddenly, a billion miles doesn’t seem so far.

Experts say the right kind of propulsion system could carry spacecraft to Saturn in just two years. The direct fusion drive (DFD), a concept being developed by Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, would make extremely fast work of the nearly billion miles between Earth and Saturn.

Continue reading “The Direct Fusion Drive That Could Get Us to Saturn in Just 2 Years” »

Tune in to “The Virtual Astronaut” talk with Melroy on Oct. 24!

One of the greatest legacies of the International Space Station is the diversity it brought to the astronaut corps, former space shuttle commander Pam Melroy will discuss with a virtual audience Saturday (Oct. 24).

Melroy, a three-time retired spaceflyer and former U.S. Air Force test pilot, will speak about her experiences in space as part of the Virtual Astronaut series, and you can buy tickets here.

The Trump administration prefers what U.S. Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios has called a “light-touch” approach toward regulating AI, to avoid holding back U.S. leadership in the field.

New technology could deliver “clean, limitless, low-voltage power for small devices”.

The rippling thermal motion of a tiny piece of graphene has been harnessed by a special circuit that delivers low-voltage electrical energy. The system was created by researchers in US and Spain, who say that if it could be duplicated enough times on a chip, it could deliver “clean, limitless, low-voltage power for small devices”.

Continue reading “Rippling graphene harvests thermal energy” »

We came. We saw. And we tagged. 👉 ☄️ Watch as OSIRISREx briefly touches the surface of asteroid Bennu during NASA’s first asteroid sample collection attempt. More: https://go.nasa.gov/2Hn0Giz # ToBennuAndBack.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Drugmaker Purdue Pharma, the company behind the powerful prescription painkiller OxyContin that experts say helped touch off an opioid epidemic, will plead guilty to federal criminal charges as part of a settlement of more than $8 billion, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.

The deal does not release any of the company’s executives or owners — members of the wealthy Sackler family — from criminal liability, and a criminal investigation is ongoing. Family members said they acted “ethically and lawfully,” but some state attorneys general said the agreement fails to hold the Sacklers accountable.

The company will plead guilty to three counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating federal anti-kickback laws, the officials said, and the agreement will be detailed in a bankruptcy court filing in federal court.

Gaining a better understanding of the limiting factors for the existence of stable, superheavy elements is a decade-old quest of chemistry and physics. Superheavy elements, as are called the chemical elements with atomic numbers greater than 103, do not occur in nature and are produced artificially with particle accelerators. They vanish within seconds.

A team of scientists from GSI Helmholtzzentrum fuer Schwerionenforschung Darmstadt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU), Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM) and the University of Jyvaeskylae, Finland, led by Dr. Jadambaa Khuyagbaatar from GSI and HIM, has provided new insights into the fission processes in those exotic nuclei and for this, has produced the hitherto unknown nucleus mendelevium-244. The experiments were part of “FAIR Phase 0,” the first stage of the FAIR experimental program. The results have now been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Heavy and superheavy nuclei are increasingly unstable against the fission process, in which the nucleus splits into two lighter fragments. This is due to the ever-stronger Coulomb repulsion between the large number of positively charged protons in such nuclei, and is one of the main limitations for the existence of stable superheavy nuclei.

FERNDALE, Mich. – Samples from Ferndale’s municipal water system have lead levels in the drinking water exceeding state standards, according to officials.

Oakland County Health Division (OCHD) was notified by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) about the results from testing. Testing occurred as part of routine compliance sampling required by EGLE under Michigan’s Safe Drinking Water Act.

The OCHD is coordinating the distribution of free water filter kits to Ferndale residents who qualify on Oct. 28 from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Gary Kulick Community Center (1201 Livernois St, Ferndale, MI 48220).

Scientists said some of the most mysterious and frightening creatures in the oceans today were swimming all over Kentucky 350 million years ago.

“There was no cave here,” said paleontologist JP Hodnett. “It was just a big open marine ocean floor with lots of water over your head. Over time that filled up and then it became dry land.”

Learning that sharks lived in our backyards all started by chance at Mammoth Cave. Back in the 90s, guides started noticing shark teeth and other fossils. But no one had ever found any shark fossils from this layer until now.