Lifeboat Foundation

Sky map March 2018. Printable star chart to see constellations.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Los Alamos-based startup Ubiquitous Quantum Dots got a $750,000 boost this week to further develop and begin deploying technology that enables windows to generate electricity.

The National Science Foundation awarded a phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant for UbiQD LLC to continue building quantum dot-tinted windows, which can harness sunlight to power everyday consumer products, and eventually entire buildings.

The NSF previously awarded a $225,000 phase I grant in 2016, allowing UbiQD to test and validate its technology at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado.

Continue reading “Quantum dot startup wins $750,000 grant” »

Following a public naming campaign that drew 115,000 participants, NASA’s New Horizons team has selected the name Ultima Thule for the spacecraft’s second target, Kuiper Belt Object (KBO) 2014 MU69, which the probe is scheduled to fly past on New Year’s Day 2019.

Pronounced ultima thoolee, this name was nominated by more than 40 participants in the campaign, which ran from early November through December 6 of last year.

Initially scheduled to end on December 1, the project was extended five days due to high levels of participation.

Continue reading “New Horizons’ next target nicknamed Ultima Thule” »

The future arrived, and it’s a minivan. Waymo’s fleet of totally driverless cars in Phoenix, Arizona, now lets members of the public hail a ride around the suburbs.

The news: Waymo’s CEO, John Krafick, announced at SXSW in Austin, Texas, that the firm is offering trips to so-called “early riders”—the first people to have signed up to use its robotic Chrysler Pacifica taxis. The minivans don’t have a safety driver behind the wheel, but someone can take control remotely if necessary.

Why it matters: The cars have been in testing without a safety driver for a few months. But this long-awaited advance is the first time people have been able to simply hail a totally driver-free ride using an app, as they would an Uber. It’s a big moment for a firm that hopes to turn its autonomy tech into a viable business by offering driverless rides.

Continue reading “Real people are now hailing Waymo’s robotic taxis, without a driver in sight” »

D rones have become the must-have gadget for tech fans and videographers. Drones let you become a pilot and aerial photographer, getting incredible footage or even taking part in activities like drone racing.

There are a couple of major drone brands out there. DJI is known for making high-end drones close to those used by professionals. Parrot makes cheaper drones, which have slightly less powerful cameras but come cheaper.

Until recently, GoPro produced the GoPro Karma, but the company has recently cut its drone division and will no longer be producing it, so we have left it out for the purposes of this review.

Our brains aren’t flying solo; our emotions also come into play when we’re interacting with the world, new research finds.

Satellite imaging, astronomy and a smart hunch about North Korea propaganda confirmed the launching site of the North Korean missile and a new monument.

For all of us, the act of being and thinking requires a network of complex support. The late physicist’s disability made it visible.

Midnight. As I was browsing the internet, I saw, like shooting stars, emails suddenly appear and disappear from the right-hand corner of my computer screen. The first from CNN announcing the death of Stephen Hawking, the second from an editor at The Atlantic asking me to write about him.

I had written about the man for 10 years—as a biographer of some sort, or an anthropologist of science to be more precise, studying the traces of Hawking’s presence. But now I felt a powerless inertia, unable to write anything. I didn’t think I would be affected by his death, but it touched me deeply. I was overwhelmed by the numerous articles that started to appear all over the world doing precisely what I had studied for so long and so carefully: recycling over and over again the same stories about him. Born 300 years after the death of Galileo Galilei, holder of Cambridge’s Lucasian Chair of Mathematics (once held by Isaac Newton), and now … died on the same day Albert Einstein was born. The life paths of history’s most iconic scientists intersected in weird ways. The puzzle seemed complete: Hawking had fully entered the pantheon of the great.

Continue reading “Stephen Hawking Lived Beyond His Body” »

There are several ways we can deal with the troubles that lie ahead during the transition to full automation. Some experts and companies are exploring basic income, the centuries-old idea of giving unconditional money to all citizens, enough for them to live their lives. Other thought leaders such as Bill Gates are proposing robot taxes, where companies that use automation pay certain fees for the jobs they take away from humans. Other solutions might emerge.

Automation will continue to move forward at an accelerating pace. We don’t need to fear about the destination. Instead, we must prepare ourselves for the rocky road ahead. I’m not worried about the robots taking all the jobs. I’m worried about them leaving some to the humans.