Lifeboat Foundation

Summary: New research demonstrates that learning a second language enhances brain connectivity, particularly when started in childhood. Scientists found that bilingual individuals have more efficient communication between brain regions, notably between the cerebellum and left frontal cortex.

The study, which used whole-brain fMRI scans, shows this effect increases the younger a second language is learned, suggesting an early boost to cognitive flexibility and neuroplasticity. This heightened connectivity may improve cognitive performance and resilience to age-related decline. The findings contribute to understanding bilingualism’s broader impact on the brain and could have implications for education and brain health.

Quantum physicists have developed a new type of optical atomic clock, using quantum entanglement among strontium atoms to achieve unprecedented precision.

This breakthrough could significantly impact quantum computing and precision sensing, although it currently operates effectively for only milliseconds.

Quantum Advances in Timekeeping.

It’s “one of the brightest comets in our lifetimes”, and only becomes visible every 80,000 years, so no wonder the science community is so excited about the upcoming celestial event.

Angstrom-scale ICs will require innovation across the entire semiconductor ecosystem: This will include advances in both the hardware (transistors, power distribution, and connection of multi-die systems) and tools (EDA tools with AI/ML and silicon life-cycle management).

Article co-authored by Deepak Sherlekar, Fellow in the Solutions Group at Synopsys

Every time you stream a 4K movie from your phone or play an online video game, you require bandwidth—high rates of data transfer that enable your connected devices to deliver engaging, interactive, and immersive experiences (Figure 1). Our digital world—with its increasing levels of intelligence—continues to demand more from the underlying technologies that make all these activities possible. But there are bottlenecks that threaten to thwart real-time responses.

Engineers have worked out how to give robots complex instructions without electricity for the first time, which could free up more space in the robotic ‘brain’ for them to ‘think.’

Mimicking how some parts of the human body work, researchers from King’s College London have transmitted a series of commands to devices with a new kind of compact circuit, using variations in pressure from a fluid inside it.

They say this world first opens up the possibility of a new generation of robots, whose bodies could operate independently of their built-in control center, with this space potentially being used instead for more complex AI-powered software.

Elon Musk on Thursday unveiled what he said was a robotaxi capable of self-driving, predicting it would be available by 2027—about a decade after he first promised an autonomous vehicle.

The Tesla CEO said the fully electric car—which has no steering wheel or pedals—would be priced under $30,000, would be charged wirelessly with inductive technology and would be “10 to 20 times safer” than human-driven cars.

“You can think of the car in an autonomous world as being like just a little lounge,” he told a crowd at the Warner Brothers Studio lot near Los Angeles.

A new fabrication technique for substantially enhancing the prospects of commercializing perovskite solar cells through improved stability, reliability, efficiency and affordability is underway at City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK).

Published in Science, the research is significant because the simple device structure that the CityUHK team has built can facilitate future industrial production and enhance confidence in the commercialization of perovskite solar cells.

“The improvements in stability and the simplification of the production process of perovskite solar cells represent a significant step forward in making solar energy more accessible and affordable,” explained Professor Zhu Zonglong of the Department of Chemistry, explaining that the mineral perovskite is used extensively to convert sunlight into electricity efficiently.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is a satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott, first published in 1884 by Seeley & Co. of London. Written pseudonymously by “A Square”, ^{[ 1 ]} the book used the fictional two-dimensional world of to comment on the hierarchy of Victorian culture, but the novella’s more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions. ^{[ 2 ]}

A sequel, Sphereland, was written by Dionys Burger in 1957. Several films have been based on including the feature film Dudley Moore and the short films [ 3 ].

WASHINGTON — A startup led by a founder of a financial services company is taking a new approach to space-based solar power intended to be more scalable and affordable than previous concepts.

Aetherflux announced Oct. 9 plans to develop and ultimately deploy a constellation of satellites in low Earth orbit that will collect solar power and beam it to Earth using infrared lasers. The company is planning to demonstrate this technology with a small satellite launching by early 2026.

The concept is a departure from many previous concepts for space-based solar power (SBSP), which have involved large arrays in geostationary orbit. Those systems would transmit their power using microwaves to large rectennas on the ground. Such concepts have been studied for more than half a century but have not advanced beyond the drawing board.