Lifeboat Foundation

For humans, the most important star in the universe is our sun. The second-most important star is nestled inside the Andromeda galaxy. Don’t go looking for it—the flickering star is 2.2 million light-years away, and is 1/100,000th the brightness of the faintest star visible to the human eye.

Yet, a century ago, its discovery by Edwin Hubble, then an astronomer at Carnegie Observatories, opened humanity’s eyes as to how large the universe really is, and revealed that our Milky Way galaxy is just one of hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe ushered in the coming-of-age for humans as a curious species that could scientifically ponder our own creation through the message of starlight. Carnegie Science and NASA are celebrating this centennial at the 245th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.

The seemingly inauspicious star, simply named V1, flung open a Pandora’s box full of mysteries about time and space that are still challenging astronomers today. Using the largest telescope in the world at that time, the Carnegie-funded 100-inch Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory in California, Hubble discovered the demure star in 1923. This rare type of pulsating star, called a Cepheid variable, is used as milepost markers for distant celestial objects. There are no tape-measures in space, but by the early 20th century Henrietta Swan Leavitt had discovered that the pulsation period of Cepheid variables is directly tied to their luminosity.

In the years following the launch of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have tallied over 1 trillion galaxies in the universe. But only one galaxy stands out as the most important nearby stellar island to our Milky Way—the magnificent Andromeda galaxy (Messier 31). It can be seen with the naked eye on a very clear autumn night as a faint cigar-shaped object roughly the apparent angular diameter of our moon.

A century ago, Edwin Hubble first established that this so-called “spiral nebula” was actually very far outside our own Milky Way galaxy —at a distance of approximately 2.5 million light-years, or roughly 25 Milky Way diameters. Prior to that, astronomers had long thought that the Milky Way encompassed the entire universe. Overnight, Hubble’s discovery turned cosmology upside down by unveiling an infinitely grander universe.

Continue reading “Panorama of Andromeda galaxy unveils hundreds of millions of stars” »

“Proteins are the molecular machinery that helps the body to function — and malfunction. Their role in disease is crucial, but rarely simple. Knowing which are associated with a particular disease can help doctors and scientists to spot it earlier and narrow down potential treatments,” writes Tom Whipple in The Times, as he describes the potential impact of a new study from UK Biobank that is the world’s largest exploration of all the proteins in the human body.

Thermo Fisher’s Olink Proteomics Explore HT platform, which enables precise analysis of proteins in the human body, will play a key role in the work. Researchers will use our technology to study the role proteins play in many types of diseases. Their findings will fuel the discovery of new protein biomarkers that could predict, diagnose and treat diseases. The study “has the potential to transform healthcare by the end of this decade,” says Dr. Chris Whelan, who is leading a group of pharmaceutical companies working on the project.

‘Treasure trove’ of samples provided by UK volunteers has the potential to transform healthcare by the end of this decade, say scientists.

Continue reading “‘Game-changing’ study of blood proteins will help fight disease” »

Microsoft research blog.

PromptWizard from Microsoft Research is now open source. It is designed to automate and simplify AI prompt optimization, combining iterative LLM feedback with efficient exploration and refinement techniques to create highly effective prompts in minutes.

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Harnessing molecular connections: unlocking long-lasting quantum entanglement.

Quantum entanglement—the mysterious connection that links particles no matter the distance between them—is a cornerstone for developing advanced technologies like quantum computing and precision measurement tools. While significant strides have been made in controlling simpler particles such as atoms, extending this control to more complex systems like molecules has remained challenging due to their intricate structures and sensitivity to their surroundings.

In a groundbreaking study, researchers have achieved long-lived quantum entanglement between pairs of ultracold polar molecules using a highly controlled environment known as “magic-wavelength optical tweezers.” These tweezers manipulate molecules with extraordinary precision, stabilizing their complex internal states, such as vibrations and rotations, while enabling detectable, fine-scale interactions.

Continue reading “‘Magic-wavelength optical tweezers’ achieve quantum entanglement of molecules” »

Speech Recognition With LLMs Adapted to Disordered Speech Using Reinforcement Learning w/ Dr. Subhashini Venugopalan of University of Texas.

Speakers: Cecile Tamura, Subhashini Venugopalan

Scientists and engineers from the University of Bristol and the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and have successfully created the world’s first carbon-14 diamond battery.

This new type of battery has the potential to power devices for thousands of years, making it an incredibly long-lasting energy source.

The battery leverages the radioactive isotope, carbon-14, known for its use in radiocarbon dating, to produce a diamond battery.

Moving from HOT to HAT, a dazzling new acoustic technology.