Lifeboat Foundation

Dutch researchers successfully raise radishes, peas, rye and tomatoes in soil mixed to match that of the red planet – giving hope that settlers could grow food.

Nation states cause some of our biggest problems, from civil war to climate inaction. Science suggests there are better ways to run a planet.

By Debora MacKenzie

Try, for a moment, to envisage a world without countries. Imagine a map not divided into neat, coloured patches, each with clear borders, governments, laws. Try to describe anything our society does – trade, travel, science, sport, maintaining peace and security – without mentioning countries. Try to describe yourself: you have a right to at least one nationality, and the right to change it, but not the right to have none.

Continue reading “End of nations: Is there an alternative to countries?” »

We now make computers small enough to inject into our bodies.

“You might own a car like some people own a horse. They might take a ride on the weekends or something.” Travis Kalanick, CEO Uber.

http://bloom.bg/1RtoEjp

Miniaturization is one of the most world-shaking trends of the last several decades. Computer chips now have features measured in billionths of a meter. Sensors that once weighed kilograms fit inside your smartphone. But it doesn’t end there.

Researchers are aiming to take sensors smaller—much smaller.

In a new University of Stuttgart paper published in Nature Photonics, scientists describe tiny 3D printed lenses and show how they can take super sharp images. Each lens is 120 millionths of a meter in diameter—roughly the size of a grain of table salt—and because they’re 3D printed in one piece, complexity is no barrier. Any lens configuration that can be designed on a computer can be printed and used.

Continue reading “Smart Dust Is Coming: New Camera Is the Size of a Grain of Salt” »

Free service DoNotPay helps appeal over $4m in parking fines in just 21 months, but is just the tip of the legal AI iceberg for its 19-year-old creator.

Modern Meadow uses skin cells to grow strips of real leather that can be turned into everything from purses to shoes.

“What would you do right now if you wanted to read something stored on a floppy disk? On a Zip drive? In the same way, the web browsers of the future might not be able to open today’s webpages and images …”

Read more