Lifeboat Foundation

Later today I’ll lose consciousness for a few hours to rest and repair. There’s a good chance you will, too. Yet as ubiquitous as sleep is, we know very little about which parts of the brain are fundamental to staying awake.

Thanks to a recent experiment that stimulated the brains of anaesthetised macaques, we have a clearer idea of just which neurological structures might be primarily responsible for switching us on each day.

The results not only help us to better understand the processes behind anaesthesia; for those trapped in vegetative or comatose states by illness or injury it could mean a pathway out again.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has called for more regulation of harmful online content, saying it was not for companies like his to decide what counts as legitimate free speech.

Citing China, Mr Zuckerberg also warned excessive control risked stifling individual expression.

He was speaking at the Munich Security Conference in Germany.

Amberd (Armenian: Ամբերդ) is a 10th-century fortress located 2,300 meters (7,500 ft) above sea level, on the slopes of Mount Aragats at the confluence of the Arkashen and Amberd rivers in the province of Aragatsotn, Armenia. The name translates to “fortress in the clouds” in Armenian. It is also the name incorrectly attributed to Vahramashen Church, the 11th-century Armenian church near the castle. The village of Byurakan is 6.4 kilometres (4.0 mi) from the site of Amberd.

The site started as a Stone Age settlement. During the Bronze Age and Urartian periods, a fortress had been built that is now obsolete. Some sources say that Amberd used to be a summer residence for kings. The castle of Amberd and some sections of walls were constructed in the 7th century as a possession of the noble House of Kamsarakan.

Continue reading “House In The Caves Close to Biblical Mount Ararat | Armenia” »

A large, decomposing creature washed ashore in Maine, and through beachgoers for a loop. It wasn’t a whale, it was a basking shark.

Bill-gates-thinks-gene-editing-artificial-intelligence-save-world.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been working to improve the state of global health through his nonprofit foundation for 20 years, and today he told the nation’s premier scientific gathering that advances in artificial intelligence and gene editing could accelerate those improvements exponentially in the years ahead.

“We have an opportunity with the advance of tools like artificial intelligence and gene-based editing technologies to build this new generation of health solutions so that they are available to everyone on the planet. And I’m very excited about this,” Gates said in Seattle during a keynote address at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Continue reading “Why Bill Gates thinks gene editing and artificial intelligence could save the world” »

Hackers could shut them down—or turn them into weapons.

[Source Images: 3DSculptor/iStock, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center]

Living donors are becoming key to understanding the human brain.

MirAIe can work in perfect harmony with Google Home and Amazon Alexa.

Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk says if people are negative about the present, then they aren’t reading enough history. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett also agree this is the best time to be alive.