Lifeboat Foundation

Jetpack Aviation opens pre-orders on jet-powered flying motorcycle.

It’s been exactly one year since US scientists reported a mysterious surge in ozone-destroying chemicals, known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

Banned in 1987 under the globally signed Montreal Protocol, there was only one explanation: somewhere out there, in an unknown location, someone must have gone rogue, setting back progress on the ozone hole by a decade or more.

After much speculation, the whereabouts and magnitude of these harmful emissions has been confirmed in scientific research. As earlier reporting in The New York Times had already suggested, they seem to be coming from the northeast coast of mainland China.

Continue reading “We Finally Know Where The Scandalous Ozone-Destroying Chemicals Are Really Coming From” »

As living organisms eat, grow, and self-regenerate, all the while they are slowly dying. Chemically speaking, this is because life is thermodynamically unstable, while its ultimate waste products are in a state of thermal equilibrium. It’s somewhat of a morbid thought, but it’s also one of the characteristics that is common to all forms of life.

Now in a new study, researchers have created a self-replicator that self-assembles while simultaneously being destroyed. The synthetic system may help researchers better understand what separates biological matter from simpler chemical matter, and also how to create synthetic life in the lab.

The researchers, Ignacio Colomer, Sarah Morrow, and Stephen P. Fletcher, at the University of Oxford, have published a paper on the self-replicator in a recent issue of Nature Communications.

Continue reading “Self-replicator that is simultaneously created and destroyed may lead to better understanding of life” »

Rick and Morty is getting its own Dungeons & Dragons tabletop adventure! The news comes from Wizards of the Coast and it will be called, Dungeons & Dragons vs Rick and Morty: Tabletop Roleplaying Game Adventure.

The game will feature an adventure for characters of the series as you take one of the most dysfunctional families in all of the parallel worlds through the realms in their own story. The campaign is set up for a five-player game for levels 1–3. They are basically building an introductory campaign for people who are just starting out and those who might only be interested in the game because it’s Rick and Morty.

The press release says that the game “[blends] the world of Dungeons & Dragons with the mad narcissistic genius of Rick Sanchez’s power-gaming sensibilities, and it includes everything a Dungeon Master needs to channel their inner mad scientist and run a rickrolling adventure.”

Continue reading “RICK AND MORTY Getting It’s Own DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Tabletop Adventure!” »

In November last year, geologists announced they’d picked up something really weird: a huge seismic event originating in the island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, felt all across the globe, source unknown. A few months later, scientists used modelling to produce an answer — hypothesising a giant underwater volcanic eruption.

And now it seems that is pretty likely to be the case. Scientists travelled out to where they think the swarm’s epicentre is located, and they found a large active volcano, rising 800 metres (2,624 feet) from the seafloor, and sprawling up to 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) across.

A large active volcano that wasn’t there six months prior.

Continue reading “Stunning Sonar Image Just Revealed Largest Underwater Volcano Eruption Ever Detected” »

The scientific community is now struggling to grapple with the ethics of human germline editing as another woman pregnant with a gene-edited baby is soon due to give birth.

Circa 2017

Scientists in all areas of research must feel able to freely articulate the implications of their work without concern for causing offense.

Continue reading “Creating a Universe in the Lab? The Idea Is No Joke” »

Researchers from NYU Abu Dhabi’s (NYUAD) chemistry program and colleagues from the University’s biology program have developed and studied the biological activity of five new, metal-organic hybrid knotted molecules, termed metal-organic trefoil knots (M-TKs). These molecules can effectively deliver metals to cancer cells, demonstrating the potential to act as a new category of anti-cancer agents.

In a study published in the journal Chemical Science, NYUAD Research Scientists Farah Benyettou and Thirumurugan Prakasam from the Trabolsi Research Group, led by NYUAD Associate Professor of Chemistry Ali Trabolsi, report that these nanoscale, water-soluble M-TKs showed high potency in vitro against six cancer cell lines and in vivo in zebrafish embryos. Zebrafish-related studies were performed by NYUAD Postdoctoral Associate Anjana Ramdas Nair from the Sadler Lab.

The M-TKs, generated by metal-templated self-assembly of a simple pair of chelating ligands, were well tolerated in vitro by non-cancer cells but were significantly more potent than cisplatin, a common chemotherapy medication, in both human cancer cells—including those that were cisplatin-resistant—and in zebrafish embryos. In cultured cells, M-TKs introduce reactive oxygen species (ROS) that damage the mitochondria of cancer cells, but not the nuclear DNA or the plasma membrane.

Continue reading “Newly discovered hybrid molecules could serve as a novel category of anti-cancer agent” »

Researchers analyze secondary school curricula from 15 countries, revealing common themes and a need for emphasizing process over facts.