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Jul 14, 2018

NASA director reverses on climate change, after 1 month

Posted by in categories: astronomy, climatology, education, environmental, ethics, existential risks, governance, government, lifeboat, science, space, sustainability

For millennia, our planet has sustained a robust ecosystem; healing each deforestation, algae bloom, pollution or imbalance caused by natural events. Before the arrival of an industrialized, destructive and dominant global species, it could pretty much deal with anything short of a major meteor impact. In the big picture, even these cataclysmic events haven’t destroyed the environment—they just changed the course of evolution and rearranged the alpha animal.

But with industrialization, the race for personal wealth, nations fighting nations, and modern comforts, we have recognized that our planet is not invincible. This is why Lifeboat Foundation exists. We are all about recognizing the limits to growth and protecting our fragile environment.

Check out this April news article on the US president’s forthcoming appointment of Jim Bridenstine, a vocal climate denier, as head of NASA. NASA is one of the biggest agencies on earth. Despite a lack of training or experience—without literacy in science, technology or astrophysics—he was handed an enormous responsibility, a staff of 17,000 and a budget of $19 billion.

In 2013, Bridenstine criticized former president Obama for wasting taxpayer money on climate research, and claimed that global temperatures stopped rising 15 years ago.

Continue reading “NASA director reverses on climate change, after 1 month” »

Jul 14, 2018

Artificial skin grown from spider silk could help heal wounds

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs

Wounds and burns could one day be treated by the material spiders use to make their webs.

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Jul 14, 2018

Drug to Treat Smallpox Approved

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, security

Though the disease was eradicated decades ago, national security experts fear that stocks of the virus in labs could be released as a bioweapon.

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Jul 14, 2018

The Nuclear Reactor Renaissance: Space Exploration and National Security

Posted by in categories: climatology, nuclear energy, security, solar power, space travel, sustainability

The nuclear power sector is seeing a resurgence in innovation, supported by new policies and emerging technologies. The general public and various governments are starting to grasp the value of nuclear power as an alternative, sustainable energy source. Unlike renewables, such as wind and solar power, nuclear energy is not dependent on weather conditions for power generation, having a capacity factor of over 90 percent. Nuclear power is also more eco-friendly than natural gas and coal and its “carbon-free” attributes are seen as critical in the fight against climate change.

For decades, advancements in the nuclear power sector have been incremental and focused largely on making systems “walk away safe.” Today, the industry is pushing the boundaries and exploring applications for nuclear power in ways that have never before been considered.

BWXT is at the forefront of this nuclear renaissance. This 6,000-employee company operates on the model of letting capital drive strategy. BWXT is constantly evaluating new ways to ensure workers, funding, and policies are utilized in the most effective way possible. The company also analyzes the needs of numerous other industries to determine how nuclear power could provide innovative solutions.

Continue reading “The Nuclear Reactor Renaissance: Space Exploration and National Security” »

Jul 14, 2018

The AI revolution has spawned a new chips arms race

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

There’s no x86 in the AI chip market yet—” People see a gold rush; there’s no doubt.”

A lot has changed since 1918. But whether it’s a literal (like the City of London School athletics’ U12 event) or figurative (AI chip development) race, participants still very much want to win.

For years, the semiconductor world seemed to have settled into a quiet balance: Intel vanquished virtually all of the RISC processors in the server world, save IBM’s POWER line. Elsewhere AMD had self-destructed, making it pretty much an x86 world. And Nvidia, a late starter in the GPU space, previously mowed down all of it many competitors in the 1990s. Suddenly only ATI, now a part of AMD, remained. It boasted just half of Nvidia’s prior market share.

Continue reading “The AI revolution has spawned a new chips arms race” »

Jul 14, 2018

Mining Moon Ice: Prospecting Plans Starting to Take Shape

Posted by in category: space

GOLDEN, Colorado — A diverse range of scientists, engineers and mining technologists have begun blueprinting what hardware and missions are required to explore and establish a prospecting campaign for water ice at the poles of Earth’s moon.

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Jul 14, 2018

Drug boosts immune system in elderly people

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Drugs were created to block a protein called the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and it boosted the immune system by about 40% in elderly people.

They safely reducing infections in elderly volunteers around 40% by enhancing the immune system.

In 2004, tests that blocked a similar enzyme in fruit flies gave them a longer lifespan.

Continue reading “Drug boosts immune system in elderly people” »

Jul 14, 2018

Room temperature superconductivity evidence with graphene in contact with alkanes

Posted by in category: materials

Arxiv – Observation of the Meissner effect at room temperature in single-layer graphene brought into contact with alkanes

There are claims of synthesis of a room temperature superconductor. However, these claims have not been officially accepted by scientific communities. Currently, the highest transition temperature (Tc) recognized in scientific articles is 135 K at 1 atm of Hg-Ba-Ca-Cu-O system which is a copper oxide superconductor. We packed graphite flakes into a ring-shaped polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) tube and further injected heptane or octane. Then we generated circulating current in this ring tube by electromagnetic induction and showed that this circulating current continues to flow continuously at room temperature for 50 days. This experiment suggests that bringing alkane into contact with graphite may result in a material with zero resistance at room temperature.

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Jul 14, 2018

First color images of Earth

Posted by in category: space

This was what it was like to see Earth from space in color for the first time.

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Jul 14, 2018

Wall Street’s Big Banks Are Waging an All-Out Technological Arms Race

Posted by in category: finance

But constraints brought about by the financial crisis ended the leverage that had fueled the boom. Fixed-income traders felt the brunt of the changes, and in the years since, equities traders —especially those with a technology background—have enjoyed a renaissance. Their rise has touched off a battle for supremacy that’s come down to only three companies: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase. These rivals are now locked in a technological arms race to control a $58 billion-a-year industry. As they each jockey for an edge over the other, no one who trades on Wall Street is safe.


Dimon, Blankfein, Gorman: Three great rivals are battling to control the $58 billion-a-year equities industry.

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