Lifeboat Foundation

Part 2: This is the second of a three-part series on how Stanford Medicine researchers are designing vaccines that protect people from not merely individual viral strains but broad ranges of them. The ultimate goal: a vaccine with coverage so broad it can protect against viruses never before encountered.

The series opener focused on why having vaccines that cover not just one strain of a single virus, but many, could be an invaluable advance. Although Part 1 focused on the COVID-19-causing SARS-CoV-2 as a textbook example, that strain-spewing microbe is just one of many viruses to worry about.

Take, for instance, the old steady: influenza.

Dr. Avshalom Cyrus Elitzur (Hebrew: אבשלום כורש אליצור; born 30 May 1957) is an Israeli physicist, philosopher and professor at Chapman University. He is also the founder of the Israeli Institute for Advanced Physics. He obtained his PhD under Yakir Aharanov. Elitzur became a household name among physicists for his collaboration with Lev Vaidman in formulating the “bomb-testing problem” in quantum mechanics, which has been validaded by two Nobel-prize-winning physicists. Elitzur’s work has sparked extensive discussions about the foundations of quantum mechanics and its interpretations, including the Copenhagen interpretation, many-worlds interpretation, and objective collapse models. His contributions have had a profound impact on both physics and philosophy, influencing debates about measurement, the role of observers, and the ontology of quantum states. Elitzur has also engaged in discussions about consciousness, the arrow of time, and other foundational topics, including a recent breakthrough in bio-thermodynamics and the “ski-lift” pathway.

Elitzur’s Google Scholar page: https://tinyurl.com/5n7a8hd6
Elitzur’s Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avshalo…
IAI Article: https://iai.tv/articles/a-radical-new…

Continue reading “Avshalom Elitzur on Biology, Thermodynamics, and Information: A Tutorial” »

New A.I. tools could enable a Silicon Valley dream: bots that customize learning for pupils. Prior attempts have not lived up to the hype.

Artificial intelligence has progressed from sci-fi fantasy to mainstream reality. AI now powers online tools from search engines to voice assistants and it is used in everything from medical imaging analysis to autonomous vehicles. But the advance of AI will soon collide with another pressing issue: energy consumption.

Much like cryptocurrencies today, AI risks becoming a target for criticism and regulation based on its high electricity appetite. Partisans are forming into camps, with AI optimists extolling continued progress through more compute power, while pessimists are beginning to portray AI power usage as wasteful and even dangerous. Attacks echo those leveled at crypto mining in recent years. Undoubtedly, there will be further efforts to choke off AI innovation by cutting its energy supply.

The pessimists raise some valid points. Developing ever-more capable AI does require vast computing resources. For example, the amount of compute used to train OpenAI’s ChatGPT-3 reportedly equaled 800 petaflops of processing power—on par with the 20 most powerful supercomputers in the world combined. Similarly, ChatGPT receives somewhere on the order of hundreds of millions of queries each day. Estimates suggest that the electricity required to respond to all these queries might be around 1 GWh daily, enough to power the daily energy consumption of about 33,000 U.S. households. Demand is expected to further increase in the future.

University of California, San Diego developed this implant using a high electrode density combined with machine learning.

“We are expanding the spatial reach of neural recordings with this technology,” said study senior author Duygu Kuzum, a Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering professor at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.

“Even though our implant resides on the brain’s surface, its design goes beyond the limits of physical sensing in that it can infer neural activity from deeper layers,” added Kuzum.

Continue reading “Researchers create transparent implant to decipher deep brain activity” »

New method captures better thermal details, helpful for self-driving, identifying materials, and enhancing security measures.

Scientists have created a novel technology using meta-optical devices to conduct thermal imaging. Like a pair of glasses, this device does thermal imaging and can also identify the objects being imaged.

This expands the potential applications of thermal imaging in various fields, including security, thermography, medical imaging, and remote sensing.

Continue reading “Innovative meta-optical devices enhance thermal imaging applications” »

The first text exchange was achieved just six days after the satellite launch.

The Starlink team successfully sent and received their first text messages using T-Mobile network spectrum through their new Direct to Cell satellites launched six days prior.

Sirius Jet, the world’s first hydrogen VTOL aircraft, redefines aviation with zero-emission travel, cutting-edge design, and strategic collaborations for a sustainable future.

Embark on a journey into the future of aviation with Sirius Jet, the groundbreaking hydrogen VTOL aircraft, merging innovation, sustainability, and style.

According to Chinese news sources, Chinese scientists have allegedly harnessed plasma to develop a working energy shield for drones and other military tech.

Chinese scientists have allegedly developed an energy shield to protect some of its military assets, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports. Utilizing a special kind of plasma, the energy shield is designed to resist potentially harmful microwaves from damaging delicate electronics. If the claims of its existence are true, the new shield is a significant leap in directed energy technology, especially in the ongoing aerial-to-anti-aerial arms race.

Continue reading “China develops ‘Star Wars’-style deflector plasma shield to defend drones” »