Lifeboat Foundation

This robot sees and analyzes trash the same way a person does, but sorts it a lot faster 🤖.

The reasons electric aircraft make a lot of sense.

The electric aircraft sector — the number of electric aircraft in development increased by roughly 50% over the past year to 170.

Roland Berger: “All indications suggest that we may be on the cusp of a revolution in the aerospace and aviation industries.”

HOUSTON — (July 30, 2019) One of the most extensively studied genes in cancer, TP53 is well known for its role as a tumor suppressor. It senses cellular stress or damage, and in response stops cell division or initiates cell death, thereby preventing a damaged cell from reproducing. Mutation of this gene eliminates a key cellular fail-safe mechanism and is a step leading to cancer. Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have conducted the most comprehensive study of TP53 mutations to better understand the processes leading to the inactivation of this important gene. Their findings, published in the journal Cell Reports, shed light on how the gene becomes mutated and how those mutations can help predict clinical outlook.

The team, led by Dr. Larry Donehower, professor of molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, studied 10,225 patient samples from 32 different cancers, from The Cancer Genome Atlas, and compared them to another 80,000 mutations in a database collected over three decades by Dr. Thierry Soussi, professor of molecular biology at Sorbonne University. After analyzing this large data sample, they have a more thorough understanding of how the TP53 gene mutation impacts cancer.

The team found that across all cancer types studied, TP53 mutations were more frequent in patients with poorer survival rates. But they also identified a way to more accurately predict prognosis. Donehower said he identified four upregulated genes in mutant TP53 tumors, whose expression correlated to patient outcome.

New research centering around the Unruh effect has created a set of necessary conditions that theories of quantum gravity must meet.

Quantum physics has, since its development in the early years of the 20th century, become one of the most successful and well-evidenced areas of science. But, despite all of its successes and experimental triumphs, there is a shadow that hangs over it.

Despite successfully integrating electromagnetic, the weak and strong nuclear forces — three of the four fundamental forces — quantum physics is yet to find a place for gravity.

This video is the ninth in a multi-part series discussing computing and the second discussing non-classical computing. In this video, we’ll be discussing what quantum computing is, how it works and the impact it will have on the field of computing.

[0:28–6:14] Starting off we’ll discuss, what quantum computing is, more specifically — the basics of quantum mechanics and how quantum algorithms will run on quantum computers.

Continue reading “What Is Quantum Computing (Quantum Computers Explained)” »

Driverless cars seem straight out of the future, but thanks to developments in autonomous vehicle technology, that future could be right around the corner. Similar to the incremental adoption of electric cars — with hybrid models hitting the road first—car manufacturers have been introducing driverless features to conventional vehicles for some time now. Already on the road today we have partially autonomous vehicles, cars and trucks with cruise control, braking assistance and self-parking technology. And industry specialists predict that fully autonomous vehicles could be on the market in a matter of a few years.

It’s a problem that plagues even the priciest of lenses, manufactured to the most exacting specifications: the center of the frame might be razor-sharp, but the corners and edges always look a little soft. It’s a problem that’s existed for thousands of years with optical devices, and one that was assumed to be unsolvable until a Mexican physicist developed a mind-melting formula that could revolutionize how lenses are manufactured.

On paper, a curved glass lens should be able to redirect all the rays of light passing through it onto a single target known as its focal point. But in the real world, it just doesn’t work that way. Differences in refraction across the lens, as well as imperfections in its shape and materials, all contribute to some of those light rays, especially those entering the lens near its outer edges, missing the target. It’s a phenomenon known as spherical aberration, and it’s a problem that even Isaac Newton and Greek mathematician Diocles couldn’t crack.

Lost and broken teeth could one day be regrown, scientists believe after finding the stem cells responsible for tooth formation and the gene that switches it on.

Scientists at the University of Plymouth discovered a new group of stem cells which form skeletal tissue and contribute to the making dentin — the hard tissue that surrounds the main body of the tooth. They also showed that a gene called Dlk1 sparks the stem cells into action, so they can mend damage such as decay, crumbling or cracked teeth.

Currently there is nothing to be done to repair damaged teeth apart from fillings or crowns.