Lifeboat Foundation

Where will the best real estate outside of Earth be? In this fascinating talk, The building of the most accurate space colony simulator examines the evidence that “we can do better than Mars.”

Joe Strout’s programming career began at a young age, writing articles for “Nibble” magazine in high school. Joe obtained a bachelors in psychology from the University of Miami and a masters in neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego, but couldn’t resist the call of code and became a full-time software developer after graduate school. He now runs a consulting business, crafting unique software solutions to a wide range of problems. Joe and his two sons have been working on High Frontier for almost a year, and ran a successful Kickstarter campaign in November 2015.

Continue reading “TedX talk making the case for orbital space colonization and speaker made the most detailed space colony simulator ever” »

Computronium is defined by some as a substance which approaches the theoretical limit of computational power that we can achieve through engineering of the matter around us. It would mean that every atom of a piece of matter would be put to useful work doing computation. Such a system would reside at the ultimate limits of efficiency, and the smallest amount of energy possible would be wasted through the generation of heat. Computronium crops up in science fiction a lot, usually as something that advanced civilizations have created, occasionally causing conflicts due to intensive harvesting of matter from their galaxy to further their processing power. The idea is also also linked with advanced machine intelligence: A block of matter which does nothing other than compute could presumably would be incredibly sought after by any artificial intelligence looking to get the most compact and powerful brain for its money!

As atoms in our bodies were made in stars millions of years ago, it’s been common to propose that we are, in fact, made of stars. Now comes news of another mind-blowing cosmic relationship as physicists conclude that human cells and neutron stars share structural similarities, which look like multi-story parking garages.

Neutron stars are quite strange space objects. They come to life as a result of supernova explosions of massive stars and are incredibly dense. While they are the smallest stars, they can pack as much mass as two Suns into a star with the radius of just 10 kilometers.

Continue reading “Humans and Supernova-Born Neutron Stars Have Similar Structures, Discover Scientists” »

The laws of thermodynamics are some of the most important principles in modern physics, because they define how three fundamental physical quantities — temperature, energy, and entropy — behave under various circumstances.

But now physicists say they’ve found a loophole in one of these laws, and it could create scenarios in which entropy — or disorder — actually decreases with time.

Thanks to modern physics, almost everything in the Universe can be explained according to two theories: general relativity for the big stuff like stars, galaxies, and the Universe itself; and quantum mechanics, for behaviours on the atomic scale.

Continue reading “Physicists might have found a way to break the Second Law of Thermodynamics” »

This planet of ours, it ain’t gonna last forever. And though who the heck knows what’s going to happen to the world that far off into the future (or even after November 8th), Life Noggin decided to conduct a little brain exercise about how we could convert a planet like Mars or Venus, or a moon like Europa, into a second Earth.

A space rock zips by earth Sunday night. Astronomers know it doesn’t pose a threat, in part thanks to a new automated warning program called Scout.

As we continue moving forward in the colonization of Mars, how might we get along with our future Martian robot companions? — B.J. Murphy for Serious Wonder.

“A radical review of cybersecurity in space is needed to avoid potentially catastrophic attacks.”

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“After being spurned in Chicago, Lucas’s Museum of Narrative Art is looking for a West Coast home.”

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