Lifeboat Foundation

Killer asteroids might be a bigger threat than you think.

• Small asteroids can strike Earth with the force of many nuclear weapons and destroy entire cities.
• A small fraction of such asteroids is estimated to have been found, but NASA is supposed to find 90% of them by 2020.
• Retired astronaut Rusty Schweickart says a relatively inexpensive space telescope, called the Near-Earth Object Camera, could find these space rocks — and quickly.
• NASA has denied full funding to NEOCam multiple times because the agency’s mission selection process is weighted against the telescope.
• NEOCam’s supporters say the telescope needs just $40 million more in NASA’s budget to launch into space.
• It’s up to President Trump and Congress to raise NASA’s budget enough to support the mission.

A former NASA astronaut says the agency he used to work for has a duty to protect civilians from killer asteroids, but that it isn’t meeting that obligation.

The threat of asteroid strikes might seem as abstract as outer space itself. But the risk, while infrequent, is real — and potentially more deadly than the threat posed by some of the most powerful nuclear weapons ever detonated.

Continue reading “Astronaut says a neglected telescope is NASA’s best chance of defending Earth from ‘city killer’ asteroids — ‘for God’s sake, fund it’” »

QUT chemistry researchers have discovered cheaper and more efficient materials for producing hydrogen for the storage of renewable energy that could replace current water-splitting catalysts.

Professor Anthony O’Mullane said the potential for the chemical storage of renewable energy in the form of hydrogen was being investigated around the world.

Continue reading “New catalyst material produces abundant cheap hydrogen” »

Here’s a 2-min video of my recent talk in #Dubai for the inaugural #GSTalksUAE event. I was really excited that the UAE Prime Minister’s Office brought me in to talk specifically on #transhumanism and how it might improve Government Services. In the last year, many countries around the world have been getting in touch with me to better understand transhumanism and our changing #future. Click on the link to watch the video: https://www.instagram.com/p/BqcN2bUHnwA/?utm_source=ig_share…9IE5_ASuEA

Location data beamed from GPS satellites are used by smartphones, car navigation systems, the microchip in your dog’s neck and guided missiles — and all those satellites are controlled by the U.S. Air Force. That makes the Chinese government uncomfortable, so it’s developing an alternative that a U.S. security analyst calls one of the largest space programs the country has undertaken.

The Beidou Navigation System will be accessible worldwide by 2020.

However, the gap from Cape Campbell, where the main rupture ended in the South Island, and the New Zealand capital Wellington at the bottom of the North Island is still more than 50km.

At least 25 fault lines ruptured in the 2016 quake, which earthquake geologist Rob Langridge from the government’s geoscience research organisation GNS Science said made it one of the most complex earthquakes observed anywhere in the world.

Fellow GNS scientist Sigrun Hreinsdottir told the Stuff website on Friday that the sheer number of faults made it difficult to distinguish which was responsible for the post-quake creep.

Continue reading “2016 New Zealand earthquake moved islands closer together and lowered a city” »

Even with government and industry working on quantum-resistant encryption, getting any solutions rolled out will take time and a massive effort.

Billionaire entrepreneurs are trying to create rockets fit for human travel, while government agencies spend billions furthering their explorations. But we are still a long way off from making our way to the red planet by Oliver Holmes.

Government representatives from nearly 170 countries will this month consider whether to temporarily ban the release of organisms carrying gene drives — a controversial technology that can quickly propagate a chosen gene throughout a population. The technique has the potential to eradicate disease, control pests and alter entire ecosystems, but with unpredictable consequences — leading some groups to call for a global moratorium on its field applications.

Research is moving fast on the divisive genetic technology, which could help to eradicate diseases but also risks altering ecosystems in unpredictable ways.

A tiny transparent worm could be the key to finding out how to stop the frailty and ill health which often comes with old age.

British scientists are sending tens of thousands of worms into space in a government backed project to see if two drugs can prevent or slow down muscle wasting brought on by microgravity.

In space, the 1mm long c-elegans worms have nothing to push against to maintain their muscle mass and so quickly start losing strength, mirroring the effect experienced by elderly people back on Earth or those with conditions like muscular dystrophy.

Continue reading “How blasting worms into space could help slow down the ageing process” »