Lifeboat Foundation

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have conducted the first spectroscopic…survey of the Earth-sized planets (d, e, f, and g) within the habitable zone around the nearby star TRAPPIST-1. This study is a follow-up to Hubble observations made in May 2016 of the atmospheres of the inner TRAPPIST-1 planets b and c. Hubble reveals that at least three of the exoplanets (d, e, and f) do not seem to contain puffy, hydrogen-rich atmospheres similar to gaseous planets such as Neptune…at: https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/…/hubble-probes-atmospheres-of…/

NASA’s Exoplanet Exploration Program, the search for planets and life beyond our solar system.

Researchers are using predictive artificial intelligence to help police officers classify crimes and determine whether they are gang-related.

Photo: AP

With the recent launch of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) – which took place on Wednesday, April 18th, 2018 – a lot of attention has been focused on the next-generation space telescopes that will be taking to space in the coming years. These include not only the James Webb Space Telescope, which is currently scheduled for launch in 2020, but some other advanced spacecraft that will be deployed by the 2030s.

Such was the subject of the recent 2020 Decadal Survey for Astrophysics, which included four flagship mission concepts that are currently being studied. When these missions take to space, they will pick up where missions like Hubble, Kepler, Spitzer and Chandra left off, but will have greater sensitivity and capability. As such, they are expected to reveal a great deal more about our Universe and the secrets it holds.

As expected, the mission concepts submitted to the 2020 Decadal Survey cover a wide range of scientific goals – from observing distant black holes and the early Universe to investigating exoplanets around nearby stars and studying the bodies of the Solar System. These ideas were thoroughly vetted by the scientific community, and four have been selected as being worthy of pursuit.

Continue reading “Dream About the Future of Big Telescopes; Monster Space Telescopes That Could Fly by the 2030s” »

Four lasers beam out from one of the Unit Telescopes of ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), guiding your eyes to the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds beneath them.

The Four Laser Guide Star Facility (4LGSF) shines four 22-watt laser beams into the sky to create artificial guide stars by making sodium atoms in the upper atmosphere glow so that they look just like real stars. The artificial stars allow the adaptive optics systems to compensate for the blurring caused by the Earth’s atmosphere and so that the telescope can create sharp images.

What do you get when you mix science fiction with music and some of the most powerful and important social issues to date? You get Janelle Monáe’s highly anticipated short film (or as Monáe astutely calls it ‘Emotion Picture’) Dirty Computer, which accompanied her new album by the same name.

A futuristic celebration of queer love, black and female power, and the nonconforming individual identity!

Continue reading “Janelle Monáe’s ‘Dirty Computer’ Short Film Speaks Truth to Power” »

It seems popular cryptocurrency wallet MyEtherWallet is having issues. A litany of concerned users are reporting their wallets have suddenly been drained out – without any notification or action on their side.

The unexpected withdrawals have caused many netizens to suspect that MyEtherWallet has been hacked. Despite speculation though, the issue might have to do with with a glitch in Google’s Domain Name System (DNS) protocol.

Speaking to Hard Fork, MyEtherWallets reps clarified that the popular app “is not hacked.” Instead, the company claims that the unusual activity “was a DNS attack on Google DNS servers.”

Continue reading “MyEtherWallet users report stolen funds after an Amazon DNS attack [Update]” »

Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin has written about the threat and promise of artificial intelligence in his annual letter to shareholders. The Alphabet president says AI has brought about a ‘technology renaissance’ but says problems raised by this tech demand ‘serious thought and research.’

Dark energy means that the Universe’s expansion is accelerating. But how big will it get, and how fast?

Whole genome sequencing is more precise than other methods, and it just keeps getting faster and cheaper. Joel Sevinsky, head of the Molecular Science Laboratory at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), told the Associated Press his lab can sequence the genome of a suspected pathogen in less than 72 hours.

Whole genome sequencing is already helping researchers address food-borne outbreaks, including a 2017 salmonella outbreak that stretched across 21 states, and the current romaine outbreak.

Continue reading “You Know That Romaine-Linked Outbreak? DNA Tech Is Fixing It” »