Lifeboat Foundation

Dressing in layers is usually the easiest way to ensure that you won’t be uncomfortable at any point in the day. If things get too hot, just shed a layer and you’re good, and if you get chilly again, just slip it back on. But what if you didn’t have to do that at all? What if your clothing could tell if you were too hot or too cool and adjust accordingly?

That’s exactly what researchers from the University of Maryland seem to have accomplished with an incredibly unique kind of new fabric that actually changes depending on your body temperature.

There’s no two-ways about it, the Universe is an extremely big place! And thanks to the limitations placed upon us by Special Relativity, traveling to even the closest star systems could take millennia.

As we addressed in a previous article, the estimated travel time to the nearest star system (Alpha Centauri) could take anywhere from 19,000 to 81,000 years using conventional methods.

For this reason, many theorists have recommended that humanity rely on generation ships to spread the seed of humanity among the stars. Naturally, such a project presents many challenges, not the least of which is how large a spacecraft would need to be to sustain a multi-generational crew.

Continue reading “To Start Life at The Nearest Star System, This Is How Big a Spaceship We Would Need” »

Could a water bottle be more valuable than a diamond?

Explore the paradox of value:

Damaged or chipped teeth can be reconstructed.

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Meet the $15 super computer that’s the size of an iPhone.

Mars One, the much-criticized proposal to colonize the Red Planet, has been declared bankrupt by a Swiss court.

Turns out it is smarter than we think.

It is well known that the circuits in this part of our nervous system, which travel down the length of our spine, control seemingly simple things like the pain reflex in humans, and some motor control functions in animals.

Now, new research from Western University has shown that the spinal cord is also able to process and control more complex functions, like the positioning of your hand in external space.

“This research has shown that a least one important function is being done at the level of the spinal cord and it opens up a whole new area of investigation to say, ‘what else is done at the spinal level and what else have we potentially missed in this domain?’” said the study’s senior and supervising researcher Andrew Pruszynski, PhD, assistant professor at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Canada Research Chair in Sensorimotor Neuroscience.

As a winter storm bore down on the Hawaii islands early Monday, officials are warning residents of gusty winds, rain, high surf, and a rarer sight: snow.

Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) Division of State Parks is reporting that “for perhaps the first time ever, snow has fallen in a Hawaii State Park.”

“Polipoli State Park on Maui is blanketed with snow. It could also be the lowest elevation snow ever recorded in the state. Polipoli is at 6200 feet elevation,” the DLNR said in a press release posted on their Facebook page.

Continue reading “Snow Has Fallen in a Hawaii State Park for Perhaps the First Time Ever” »