Lifeboat Foundation

Where in the world is the Silicon Valley for Robotics emerging? Not in California. Forget its reputation for chocolate, cheese, mountains and Alpine bells: Switzerland is now setting itself up as the world leader in artificial intelligence. And Google and Disney seem to agree.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=f-tva2zj0H0

Researchers at Macquarie University have discovered that a naturally occurring protein in the body protects the eye from the common eye disease glaucoma, which is particularly sensitive to oxidation through environmental factors that may include cigarette smoke. The findings were published in Scientific Reports.

The researchers have demonstrated that the protein “neuroserpin” is critical to a healthy retina, regulating other enzymes and maintaining a natural protective environment in the eye.

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Connectivity

Billion-tweet study proves we write happier messages when the weather is good.

Everyone’s mood improves when the weather is good, right? Actually, the large-scale evidence to prove this has never been gathered—until now.

Continue reading “Here’s the first large-scale evidence that our moods depend significantly on the weather” »

Scientists have struggled to develop a single substance that can both speed up wound healing and reduce the formation of scars. Scar reduction medications tend to interfere with the natural process of healing, but now a team of researchers has created a novel skin patch that can reduce scarring and increase the pace of wound healing.

The team from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore discovered a key protein called Angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) plays several roles over different phases of healing. ANGPTL4 not only reduces inflammation and induces new cell growth, but in later stages of healing it produces molecules that interfere with a key protein that induces scar tissue.

Excessive collagen production is a key factor in the scarring we are familiar with when a wound heals. The key to the new innovation was developing a way to modulate collagen production without turning it off completely, as it is fundamentally necessary for wound repair.

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Artificial intelligence is becoming smarter, but that doesn’t mean humans will disappear entirely from customer service.

Singapore gets its first electric vehicle-sharing service, and it comes from France.

Apple updated the security and privacy information on its website on Wednesday, revealing new details about how its new facial-recognition technology works.

The new details come about a month before Apple’s most advanced iPhone, the iPhone X, goes on sale. The banner feature of the iPhone X is a facial-recognition tool called Face ID that unlocks the phone, replacing the fingerprint sensor.

Since Face ID and its corresponding 3D camera, called TrueDepth, were announced earlier this month, the technology has attracted a lot of attention and speculation from privacy advocates and security experts. Sen. Al Franken even wrote an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook with 10 questions about the technology.

Continue reading “Apple just released new information about how facial recognition on the iPhone X works” »

It’s not every day scientists say a new kind of renewable energy could satisfy the majority of our power needs, so when they do, it’s worth leaning in close.

In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers have found that energy harvested from the evaporation of water in US lakes and reservoirs could power nearly 70 percent of the nation’s electricity demands, generating a whopping 325 gigawatts of electricity.

Alongside the great strides being made in solar and wind, biophysicist Ozgur Sahin from Columbia University says natural evaporation represents a massive unexplored resource of environmentally clean power generation, just waiting to be tapped.

Continue reading “Evaporating Water Could Power Almost 70% of The US Electrical Grid” »