Lifeboat Foundation

Porsche and Boeing are teaming up to build luxury, electric-powered vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft for rich people to fly above traffic-choked cities. They are the latest companies to announce intentions to explore the risky and potentially dangerous urban air mobility market.

Porsche and Boeing have signed a nonexclusive memorandum of understanding, which means they will look for ways to work together, but they aren’t locked into a binding agreement. As part of the partnership, the companies say they will “create an international team to address various aspects of urban air mobility, including analysis of the market potential for premium vehicles and possible use cases.”

The word “premium” would seem to indicate that this won’t be a “flying car” for the masses, which is fair considering we’re talking about Porsche here. Many companies interested in creating a network of electric flying taxis have stretched credulity by insisting that people at all income levels will be able to afford to purchase tickets. But given the costs associated with creating an infrastructure to support electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, including landing pads and charging stations, it seems clear that it will be marketed toward the very wealthy — at least to start.

NASA says the first humans will set foot on Mars in the mid-2030’s. It will be the most dangerous mission any human has ever taken. Glad You Asked host Cleo Abram wants to know: What comes after that? Not how do we get there, but how will we survive once we do?
Note: There are several Fahrenheit measurements in this piece.
The metric conversions are:
At 7:53: 212 degrees Fahrenheit = 100 degrees Celsius
At 8:04: 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit = 37 degrees Celsius
At 8:45: −81 degrees Fahrenheit = −62.8 degrees Celsius

You choose — watch all episodes uninterrupted with YouTube Premium now, or wait to watch new episodes free with ads.

Continue reading “Will We Survive Mars? — Glad You Asked S1 (E1)” »

Smile! You’re on camera — or you were at some point in the past few years — and now your face is public domain.

Facial recognition technology is everywhere, and only becoming more pervasive. It’s marketed as a security feature by companies like Apple and Google to prevent strangers from unlocking your iPhone or front door.

It’s also used by government agencies like police departments. More than half of adult Americans’ faces are logged in police databases, according to a study by Georgetown researchers. Facial recognition technology is used by governments across the globe to identify and track dissidents, and has been deployed by police against Hong Kong protesters.

Customers can trim branches for $35 a pound or cut down the whole plant (like a Christmas tree) for $25 a pound. In a video of the field’s grand opening, a customer buys a 15-pound plant for almost $400.

That may sound pricey, but considering you’re lucky to find most refined hemp products for $25 an ounce, it’s a bargain, according to the farm’s customers, who tell the local newspaper, they’ll be using the plant’s flowers to make CBD oil, lotions and tinctures for pain, anxiety, depression and insomnia.

Instead of conventional row crops, they now grow one of the most lucrative plants on the planet.

Continue reading “USA’s First ‘Pick-Your-Own Hemp’ Field Opens in Maine” »

OA Text is an independent open-access scientific publisher showcases innovative research and ideas aimed at improving health by linking research and practice to the benefit of society.

On the surface, Ebola and the flu might not seem all that similar — one can cause organ failure or death, while the other usually just makes you feel really crummy — but they actually have the same underlying cause: an RNA-based virus.

That’s the type of virus behind some of the most common — and deadly — illnesses in the world, and researchers have just discovered a way to use the powerful gene-editing technology CRISPR in the fight against them.

On Thursday, a team lead by researchers from Harvard and MIT’s Broad Institute published a study in the journal Molecular Cell detailing their creation of CARVER (Cas13-Assisted Restriction of Viral Expression and Readout), a system that utilizes the CRISPR enzyme Cas13, which “naturally targets viral RNA in bacteria,” according to a Broad Institute press release.

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed a way to build soft robots that are compact, portable and multifunctional. The advance was made possible by creating soft, tubular actuators whose movements are electrically controlled, making them easy to integrate with small electronic components.

As a proof of concept, engineers used these new actuators to build a soft, battery-powered robot that can walk untethered on flat surfaces and move objects. They also built a soft gripper that can grasp and pick up small objects.

The team, led by UC San Diego mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Shengqiang Cai, published the work Oct. 11 in Science Advances.

If SpaceX wants its massive next-generation spacecraft to reach the moon and planets beyond, CEO Elon Musk says it’ll need to be refueled in orbit around Earth – and NASA wants to know more.

Now in the prototype and early test flight phase, Starship is a stainless steel crewed craft that will launch atop a Super Heavy booster. But because of its size and potentially heavy payloads – like dozens or hundreds of astronauts – in the future, it will need to be refueled in orbit around Earth before it begins longer voyages.

SpaceX, Musk said, is developing the technologies necessary to dock two Starships together in orbit – one without much in the way of crew or payloads – and transfer fuel to the one venturing beyond low-Earth orbit.

Time for my yearly proselytizing for PBS UK’s Rough Science. Awesome educational show where a bunch of scientists are dumped on an island and have to work together to make something crazy out of local scavenged materials.

The group is taken to a disused prison on the island where they have to determine the longitude and latitude of the island, create a radio from a saucepan and create an insect repellent.