Lifeboat Foundation

When my colleague Professor Tom Gill at University of Texas at El Paso alerted me to a recent study noting that cargo ships may be creating more lightning, my first reaction was that I wasn’t surprised at all. Though this may be a surprising finding to many scientists and the public, I have been conducting research for over two decades on how cities affect rainfall, storms, and lightning. As I read the paper, it was apparent to me that some of the same physical processes were at play with the cargo ship — lightning relationships. So how does a cargo ship create lightning?

Researchers have created a biohybrid robot finger, a tiny device that combines 3D-printed parts with living muscle tissue.

This device renders your iPhone screen invisible to everyone except you.

This robotic suit lets wheelchair users walk.

Scientists have discovered a “Big Bang” of Alzheimer’s disease – the precise point at which a healthy protein becomes toxic but has not yet formed deadly tangles in the brain.

A study from UT Southwestern’s O’Donnell Brain Institute provides novel insight into the shape-shifting nature of a tau molecule just before it begins sticking to itself to form larger aggregates. The revelation offers a new strategy to detect the devastating disease before it takes hold and has spawned an effort to develop treatments that stabilize tau proteins before they shift shape.

“This is perhaps the biggest finding we have made to date, though it will likely be some time before any benefits materialize in the clinic. This changes much of how we think about the problem,” said Dr. Marc Diamond, Director for UT Southwestern’s Center for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases and a leading dementia expert credited with determining that tau acts like a prion – an infectious protein that can self-replicate.

Continue reading “The ‘Big Bang’ of Alzheimer’s: Scientists ID genesis of disease, focus efforts on shape-shifting tau” »

This robot is like a roomba for tennis balls. 🎾.

A new AI algorithm can create the most advanced deepfakes yet, complete with emotions and gestures, after just a few minutes of training.

One of the best parts about having expendable money has to be flying in style.

After all, being on an airplane can be brutal. Especially when your flight stretches over 10 hours.

Here’s the 10 most luxurious first-class cabins that make flying comfortable and enjoyable.

Continue reading “The 10 most luxurious first-class plane cabins in the world” »

Project Recode may be the most ambitious science experiment of our time – genetically engineering humans to be virus-resistant.