Lifeboat Foundation

Entrepreneur Julie Hill broke through the glass ceiling. Now she wants to break through the stratosphere.

A team of French archaeologists has located the remains of a lost ancient city in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Over the course of six excavations between 2012 and 2018, researchers uncovered the ancient city at Kunara, near the Zagros mountains. Previously, experts had been prevented from exploring the site, near the modern city of Sulaymaniyah, by Saddam Hussein’s regime and conflicts in the region.

The discovery is described in the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) journal.

Continue reading “Mysterious 4,000-year-old lost city discovered” »

PARIS (AP) — The French government has outlined measures to ensure early diagnostic testing for young children with autism and help for them going to school.

In a statement following a Cabinet meeting Monday, the government promised that expenses linked to diagnostic testing will be fully reimbursed.

Measures include opening specific classes at preschools and elementary schools, and putting in place teacher and medical staff training and research to better understand autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder.

Converting excess wind and solar power into hydrogen can extend renewable energy’s reach.

• By Peter Fairley on April 1, 2019

Major depression, obesity and chronic pain are all linked to the effects of one protein, called “FK506-binding protein 51,” or FKBP51. Until now, efforts to inhibit this target have been hampered by the difficulty of finding something specific enough to do the job and not affect similar proteins. Now a research group has developed a highly selective compound that can effectively block FKBP51 in mice, relieving chronic pain and having positive effects on diet-induced obesity and mood. The new compound also could have applications in alcoholism and brain cancer.

It sounds like the start of a very bad physics riddle: I’m a particle that really isn’t; I vanish before I can even be detected, yet can be seen. I break your understanding of physics but don’t overhaul your knowledge. Who am I?

It’s an odderon, a particle that’s even more odd than its name suggests, and it may have recently been detected at the Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful atom smasher, where particles are zipped at near light speed around a 17-mile-long (27 kilometers) ring near Geneva in Switzerland.

The wings of aircraft today are complex systems with lots of moving flaps and components controlled by hydraulics or cables depending on the application. Researchers from NASA and MIT have shown off a new wing design that is flexible and able to change shape to control the flight. The team says that the new design could significantly boost aircraft production, flight, and improve maintenance efficiency.

Satellite measurements of sulfur dioxide from volcanic eruptions could help keep aircraft safe from hazardous ash.

IBM researchers found a method to reduce noise in quantum computing by amplifying noise at measurable intervals, and extrapolating a difference to calculate a “zero-noise” result.