Lifeboat Foundation

Over billions of years, microorganisms and plants evolved the remarkable process we know as photosynthesis. Photosynthesis converts sun energy into chemical energy, thus providing all life on Earth with food and oxygen. The cellular compartments housing the molecular machines, the chloroplasts, are probably the most important natural engines on earth. Many scientists consider artificially rebuilding and controlling the photosynthetic process the “Apollo project of our time.” It would mean the ability to produce clean energy—clean fuel, clean carbon compounds such as antibiotics, and other products simply from light and carbon dioxide.

But how to build a living, photosynthetic cell from scratch? Key to mimicking the processes of a living cell is to get its components to work together at the right time and place. At the Max Planck Society, this ambitious goal is pursued in an interdisciplinary multi-lab initiative, the MaxSynBio network. Now the Marburg research team led by director Tobias Erb has succeeded successfully created a platform for the automated construction of cell-sized photosynthetically active compartments, “artificial chloroplasts,” that are able to capture and convert the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide with light.

Scientists around the world are working on a number of vaccines and treatments for COVID-19.

AI can now be used to generate an endless stream of plausible-sounding but meaningless words. Check out to create more babble than you know what to do with.

As we enter the 2020s, China, Russia and the United States are spending billions to develop hypersonic weapons in a bid to outpace ever-improving missile defenses.

While strategic-range cruise or ballistic missile strikes may be detected between 15 minutes to an hour before impact, hypersonic weapons capable of exceeding five times the speed of sound threaten to decrease that margin to just a few minutes. Such a fast tempo of destruction could destabilize the current balance of power by making first strikes more effective and unpredictable.

China and Russia have taken a lead in this new arms race. In October, China paraded launchers for land-attack DF-17 and anti-ship DF-100 hypersonic missiles. Meanwhile, Russia supposedly is deploying nuclear-capable hypersonic Kinzhal air-launched missiles and Avangard glide vehicles released by RS-28 intercontinental-range missiles.

A team of scientists successfully achieved 53% reverse aging in old rats with blood plasma from young rats, in an astounding leap forward for the erstwhile-controversial aging field of study.

The US Air Force (USAF) is working toward being able to update the Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter’s software while the aircraft is in flight.

The service believes updating software on the fly will reduce fielding time to its fleet by 50%, it says on 12 May. The USAF did not disclose how long it currently takes to update the software of an F-16.

Kim Jong-un has not been seen since May 1 (Image: GETTY)

Claims carried in numerous media outlets last month suggested the 36-year-old had died after botched heart surgery, or was alternatively in a vegetative state.

Speculation was fuelled after he missed the birth anniversary celebrations of state founder Kim Il-sung, his grandfather, on April 15.

Each day brings us closer to landing the first woman and next man on the Moon! One year ago today, we revealed the name of our lunar exploration program, called #Artemis after the twin sister of Apollo and goddess of the 🌕. https://www.nasa.gov/artemis/

In a study published today (May 13, 2020) in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists in the U.S. and Japan report that in the laboratory, cats can readily become infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and may be able to pass the virus to other cats.

Professor of Pathobiological Sciences at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine Yoshihiro Kawaoka led the study, in which researchers administered to three cats SARS-CoV-2 isolated from a human patient. The following day, the researchers swabbed the nasal passages of the cats and were able to detect the virus in two of the animals. Within three days, they detected the virus in all of the cats.

The day after the researchers administered virus to the first three cats, they placed another cat in each of their cages. Researchers did not administer SARS-CoV-2 virus to these cats.