Lifeboat Foundation

Imagine you’re in a car, pedal to the metal, racing down the highway, but no matter how hard you push, you can’t surpass the speed of the car next to you, which is effortlessly cruising at the same pace. Now, replace the car with light, and you have a real cosmic conundrum: why can’t anything go faster than light?

Back in 1905, Albert Einstein turned the world of physics upside down with his theory of relativity. This wasn’t just about E=mc² or the bending of space-time; it was about something that touches everything we do: the speed of light, which is roughly 299,792 kilometers per second. According to relativity, no matter how fast you’re moving towards or away from a light source, you will always measure the speed of light at the same constant velocity.

Continue reading “Why Can’t We Go Faster Than Light?” »

Battery recycling drops from ~25,500 miles to ~15,000 miles the CO₂ breakeven point for EVs compared to ICE.

Are electric cars really that much better for the environment? With recycling, the question is a no-brainer.

Notably, it’s very limited autonomous driving.

Real-time in situ x-ray observations of new nickel-rich lithium-ion batteries reveal that reduced performance comes from lithium ions getting trapped in the cathode.

This article is part of a series of pieces on advances in sustainable battery technologies that Physics Magazine is publishing to celebrate Earth Week 2024. See also: Q&A: Electrochemists Wanted for Vocational Degrees; Q&A: The Path to Making Batteries Green; News Feature: Sodium as a Green Substitute for Lithium in Batteries; Research News: A New Cathode for Rechargeable Magnesium Batteries.

Electric vehicles are picking up visibility in the public eye. But their adoption is slowed down by batteries that degrade over time, an issue commercial ventures are especially keen on addressing as they adopt increasingly nickel-rich cathodes—the cathode du jour for high-end electric vehicles. The substitution of nickel for cobalt in earlier versions of these cathodes can improve their performance, but it also accelerates degradation. Earlier this year, Louis Piper, University of Warwick, UK, and his colleagues devised and demonstrated an x-ray technique that can examine industry-grade versions of nickel-rich lithium-ion batteries in real time [1]. Their observations help to narrow down why these batteries degrade and lead to suggestions for how to prolong battery lifespans.

The OpenAI Startup Fund, a venture fund related to — but technically separate from — OpenAI that invests in early-stage, typically AI-related companies across education, law and the sciences, has quietly closed a $15 million tranche.

According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, two unnamed investors contributed the $15 million in new cash on or around April 19. The paperwork was submitted on April 25, and mentions Ian Hathaway, the OpenAI Startup Fund’s manager and sole partner.

The capital was transferred to a legal entity called a special purpose vehicle, or SPV, associated with the OpenAI Startup Fund: OpenAI Startup Fund SPV II, L.P.

The iconic Transformers villain comes to life in a self-converting robot that turns into a tank. It’s a killer toy.

Federal, transportation and union leaders gathered in Las Vegas Monday to drive spikes into a symbolic rail, marking the beginning of construction for a $12 billion high-speed rail line that will link Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area.

“People have been dreaming of high-speed rail in America for decades,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Monday ahead of the groundbreaking ceremony. “It’s really happening this time.”

Among the myriad of projects that challenge traditional norms and offer innovative approaches to gaming and game development, hand gesture-based systems undeniably stand in a league of their own, a fact that’s recently been reaffirmed by Programmer and ML enthusiast Ayaan Khan.

Over on LinkedIn, Ayaan presented an impressive setup he devised during his high school years that enables one to play racing games by simply waving fingers in the air and making different hand gestures in front of a webcam. Inspired by the idea of combining technology with gaming, the system allows users to steer virtual cars by detecting which fingers are displayed to the camera, offering a truly unique gaming experience.

In the demo shared by Ayaan, he showed how the system can be utilized to play EA’s 2017 racing game, Need for Speed Payback. While the developer refrained from revealing the inner workings of his system, he hinted that it relies primarily on Python, OpenCV, and MediaPipe, providing a clue for aspiring developers interested in replicating the setup. You can check out Ayaan’s original post by clicking this link.

In a recent interview, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang shared his vision for the future, predicting that humanoid robots will soon become mainstream products, revolutionizing various industries.

Huang emphasized that manufacturing costs for humanoid robots will be surprisingly low, comparable to the price range of cheap cars. He proposed a price range of $10,000 to $20,000 for these robots, making them accessible to a wide range of consumers.

Continue reading “NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang predicts widespread usage of Humanoid Robots by the general population” »