Lifeboat Foundation

Science fiction is often seen as an anticipation – a fiction peculiarly expected to graduate into fact. But if technologies once found only in SF do sometimes become real they do not, in so doing, always cease to be science fictional. SF is not, after all, simply a literature about the future; it is a literature about the shock of new capacities and new perspectives, about transcendence, estrangement and resistance in the face of the inhuman. Its ideas shape and constrain the ways in which technological possibilities are seen, understood and experienced long after those possibilities are first tentatively realised. It illuminates the dreams of Musk, Bezos and all the other new moon-rushers.

Fifty years after the first moon landings, a new generation of space travellers, from Xi Jinping’s taikonauts to Jeff Bezos, are racing to colonise our nearest neighbour. Is reality catching up with sci-fi?

In November last year, geologists announced they’d picked up something really weird: a huge seismic event originating in the island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean, felt all across the globe, source unknown. A few months later, scientists used modelling to produce an answer — hypothesising a giant underwater volcanic eruption.

And now it seems that is pretty likely to be the case. Scientists travelled out to where they think the swarm’s epicentre is located, and they found a large active volcano, rising 800 metres (2,624 feet) from the seafloor, and sprawling up to 5 kilometres (3.1 miles) across.

A large active volcano that wasn’t there six months prior.

Continue reading “Stunning Sonar Image Just Revealed Largest Underwater Volcano Eruption Ever Detected” »

Circa 2017

Scientists in all areas of research must feel able to freely articulate the implications of their work without concern for causing offense.

Continue reading “Creating a Universe in the Lab? The Idea Is No Joke” »

Hey Meatbags! Here you go, just what you’ve all been waiting for…

Meet “Mega-Wattson” the new singer and “Hellga Tarr” the new guitarist and backing vocalist.

Continue reading “Compressorhead-Ace of Spades-Now with 350kg Singer” »

The city of Baltimore is under attack, but not by someone armed with guns or bombs.

Two weeks ago, cybercriminals used ransomware known as RobinHood to seize control of about 10,000 of the city’s computers, saying they won’t relinquish access unless Baltimore hands over about $100,000 worth of bitcoin.

Baltimore is refusing the meet the ransom demand. However, it also isn’t equipped to crack the ransomware, meaning it’s been forced to go largely offline — another disturbing example of modern government’s inability to keep up with the evolving threat of cybercrime.

Continue reading “Cybercriminals Are Holding an Entire US City Hostage” »

Scientists have unearthed fossilised fungi dating back up to one billion years, in a discovery that could reshape our understanding of how life on land evolved, research showed Wednesday.

A cache of microscopic fossils from the Arctic hints that fungi reached land long before plants.

More than 130 years after its discovery, scientists just got their first high-tech peek at the unexpected crystal structure inside the Ram’s Horn.