Lifeboat Foundation

I knew the future would be shocking but this is a whole other level.

They shared a placenta, but on the ultrasound, one looked like a boy, and the other a girl.

We believe that when we are faced with the choice between two or more options of what to think about, non-conscious traces of the thoughts are there already, a bit like unconscious hallucinations,” Professor Pearson says. “As the decision of what to think about is made, executive areas of the brain choose the thought-trace which is stronger. In, other words, if any pre-existing brain activity matches one of your choices, then your brain will be more likely to pick that option as it gets boosted by the pre-existing brain activity.

A new UNSW study suggests we have less control over our personal choices than we think, and that unconscious brain activity determines our choices well before we are aware of them.

Published in Scientific Reports today, an experiment carried out in the Future Minds Lab at UNSW School of Psychology showed that free choices about what to think can be predicted from patterns of brain activity 11 seconds before people consciously chose what to think about.

Continue reading “Our brains reveal our choices before we’re even aware of them, study finds” »

D-Wave’s architecture becomes more complex while machine gets faster, more capable.

Archaeologists in Mexico have discovered a sealed Maya “ritual cave” containing a trove of relics that offer new clues about the ancient civilization.

The cave system, which researchers believe had been sealed for 1,000 years, is known as Balamku or “Jaguar God,” and contains at least 150 stunning objects. The findings were announced at a Monday press conference in Mexico City.

According to researchers, the cave’s difficult access and structure increase its sacred qualities, suggesting that it was used for rituals.

Continue reading “Sealed Maya ‘ritual cave’ untouched for 1,000 years contains trove of stunning relics” »

Nuclear fusion could be a source of nearly unlimited electricity — if scientists can stabilize the reactions.

Blue Origin’s founder explains how New Shepard and New Glenn enable humanity’s future in the solar system.

This article originally appeared in the Feb. 25, 2019 issue of SpaceNews magazine.

Jeff Bezos is not a man of little dreams. The world’s richest person, with an estimated net worth of more than $130 billion, is spending some of his wealth on his space startup, Blue Origin. Much of the attention that the company has received has focused on the billions he’s invested into the company, its plans to fly tourists on its suborbital New Shepard vehicle and its entry into the orbital launch market with its New Glenn rocket.

Circa 2018

Scientists have attributed the flying behaviour of these wingless arthropods to ‘ballooning’, where spiders can be carried thousands of miles by releasing trails of silk that propel them up and out on the wind.

However, the fact that ballooning has been observed when there is no wind to speak of, when skies are overcast and even in rainy conditions, raises the question: how do spiders take off with low levels of aerodynamic drag?

Biologists from the University of Bristol believe they have found the answer.

Although there are still hurdles for the production of the successor to the lithium-ion batteries according to experts, a Chinese start-up has allegedly succeeded in producing solid-state batteries.