Lifeboat Foundation

Live coverage from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as the Polaris Dawn crew launches on a mission to perform the world’s first commercial space walk. Liftoff from pad 39A, atop a Falcon 9 rocket, is scheduled for no earlier than Tuesday, September 10, 2024 at 3:38 a.m. EDT (0738 UTC).

Aboard Dragon Resilience are mission commander, Jared Isaacman, retired U.S. Air Force pilot, Scott “Kidd” Poteet, and two SpaceX Lead Space Operations Engineers, Anna Menon and Sarah Gillis. In addition to performing the spacewalk the crew will fly further from Earth than anyone since the Apollo era.

Continue reading “Watch live: SpaceX launches Polaris Dawn astronauts on first commercial spacewalk mission” »

A research team has identified key visual perceptual factors that enhance the viewing experience of 3D displays.

The research revealed that the presence of parallax significantly impacts the perceived realism and immersion of 3D images viewed through holographic displays.

The results of this study were published in ACM Transactions on Graphics on July 19, and were presented at the international conference on computer graphics, SIGGRAPH 2024, held in Denver from July 28 to August 1.

Hyperloop, a new form of mass transit involving capsules whizzing on magnetic fields through depressurized tubes, has achieved significant liftoff in the northern Netherlands, a company developing the technology said Monday.

A test vehicle was levitated and zipped through a tube at a testing facility for the high-speed transit system once promoted by Elon Musk.

“So today, with the first successful test, we were able to levitate the vehicle, also turn on the guidance system and the propulsion system,” Marinus van der Meijs, the technology and engineering director at hyperloop company Hardt, told The Associated Press late last week before Monday’s formal announcement.

A virtual haptic implementation technology that allows all users to experience the same tactile sensation has been developed. A research team led by Professor Park Jang-Ung from the Center for Nanomedicine within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) and Professor Jung Hyun Ho from Severance Hospital’s Department of Neurosurgery has developed a technology that provides consistent tactile sensations on displays.

This research was conducted in collaboration with colleagues from Yonsei University Severance Hospital. It was published in Nature Communications on August 21, 2024.

Virtual haptic implementation technology, also known as tactile rendering technology, refers to the methods and systems that simulate the sense of touch in a virtual environment. This technology aims to create the sensation of physical contact with virtual objects, enabling users to feel textures, shapes, and forces as if they were interacting with real-world items, even though the objects are digital.

A new, cheap, easily manufactured device could lead to improved satellite communication, high speed data transmission, and remote sensing, scientists say.

A team of engineers led by researchers from the University of Glasgow have developed an ultrathin 2D surface that harnesses the unique properties of metamaterials to manipulate and convert radio waves across the frequencies most commonly used by satellites.

Metamaterials are structures that have been carefully engineered to imbue them with properties that don’t exist in naturally occurring materials.

A bowel cancer trial has seen all participants emerge cancer-free, indicating “extremely positive” development for treatment.

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, with cases in under-50s seeing a rise in recent years. Thanks to campaigners like Dame Deborah James, more people are having bowel cancer checks – important, as chances of survival are greater when caught early.

When caught in the early stages, 90 per cent of those treated with stage one bowel cancer will survive for five or more years. The figure falls to 65 per cent at stage three, and to 10 per cent at stage four.

I have been off Facebook, will leave again because I always get harassed by Facebook. I haven’t used it ib months, and I already have broken ubknown rules🙄. I did share info to Lifeboat via e-mail. I think I will join X like everyone else…but this was a cool video.

No, this is not Japan but Kenya! East Africa just got its first ever Robot restaurant and it is located in Nairobi. This really fun cafe style eatery is ideal for families with kids as the young ones will simply love the robot waiters.

Continue reading “East Africa’s FIRST Robot Cafe Just Opened in Nairobi” »

The bottom of the ocean is cold, dark and under extreme pressure. It is not a place suited to the physiology of us surface dwellers: At the deepest point, the pressure of 36,200 feet of seawater is greater than the weight of an elephant on every square inch of your body. Yet Earth’s deepest places are home to life uniquely suited to these challenging conditions. Scientists have studied how the bodies of some large animals, such as anglerfish and blobfish, have adapted to withstand the pressure. But far less is known about how cells and molecules stand up to the squeezing, crushing weight of thousands of feet of seawater.

“The animals that live down in the deep sea are not ones that live in surface waters,” said Itay Budin, who studies the biochemistry of cell membranes at the University of California, San Diego. “They’re clearly biologically specialized. But we know very little, at the molecular level, about what is actually determining that specialization.”

Continue reading “The Cellular Secret to Resisting the Pressure of the Deep Sea” »

A breakthrough filtration system developed by MIT researchers offers hope for removing harmful “forever chemicals” — dangerous pollutants that have plagued water supplies globally for decades.

These long-lasting pollutants, known as PFAS, persist in the environment and have contaminated water sources worldwide.

A recent study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control found that 98% of people tested had detectable levels of PFAS in their bloodstream, highlighting the severity of the contamination.