Lifeboat Foundation

Pleasanton-based green energy startup NDB, Inc. has reached a key milestone today with the completion of two proof of concept tests of its nano diamond battery (NDB). One of these tests took place at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the other at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University, and both saw NDB’s battery tech manage a 40% charge, which is a big improvement over the 15% charge collection efficiency (effectively energy lossiness relative to maximum total possible charge) of standard commercial diamond.

NDB’s innovation is in creating a new, proprietary nano diamond treatment that allows for more efficient extraction of electric charge from the diamond used in the creation of the battery. Their goal is to ultimately commercialize a version of their battery that can self-charge for up to a maximum lifespan of 28,000 years, created from artificial diamond-encased carbon-14 nuclear waste.

This battery doesn’t generate any carbon emissions in operation, and only requires access to open air to work. And while they’re technically batteries, because they contain a charge which will eventually be expended, they provide their own charge for much longer than the lifetime of any specific device or individual user, making them effectively a charge-free solution.

Scientists at University College London have achieved a data transmission rate of 178 terabits per second (tbps) – a speed at which you could download the entire Netflix library in less than a second.

The breakthrough involved a collaboration between University College London (UCL) and two companies, Xtera and KDDI Research. The technology used a much wider range of colours of light, or wavelengths, than is typically found in optical fibre. Most of today’s infrastructure has a limited spectrum bandwidth of 4.5THz, with 9THz commercial systems entering the market. The researchers in this study, however, used a bandwidth of 16.8THz.

The hyperfast speed – around three million times faster than conventional broadband – was made possible by combining different “amplifier” technologies to boost signals over this wider bandwidth, and then maximised by developing new Geometric Shaping (GS) constellations. The latter are signal combinations that make best use of the phase, brightness and polarisation properties of light, manipulating the properties of each individual wavelength.

If you eschew hyperbole and hang in for the long haul, maintaining a discipline of understatement in the midst of a flashy neon world, you may be offered a modicum of credence when you make an extraordinary announcement. No one is entitled to this courtesy twice. If the news that you trumpet to the moon does not pan out, your readers will be justified in discounting everything you say thereafter.

Here goes.

Continue reading “Age Reduction Breakthrough” »

Even before the COVID crisis added its impetus, technological trends were accelerating the creation of robots that could fan out into our lives. Mechanical parts got lighter, cheaper, and sturdier. Electronics packed more computing power into smaller packages. Breakthroughs let engineers put powerful data-crunching tools into robot bodies. Better digital communications let them keep some robot “brains” in a computer elsewhere—or connect a simple robot to hundreds of others, letting them share a collective intelligence, like a beehive’s.

Machines now perform all sorts of tasks: They clean big stores, patrol borders, and help autistic children. But will they make life better for humans?

The Tetrad Automated Causal Discovery Platform, a software and text project developed by Peter Spirtes, Clark Glymour, Richard Scheines and Joe Ramsey of Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Philosophy, earned the “Leader” Award at the 2020 World Artificial Intelligence Conference this past July.

Continue reading “Philosophers Win Artificial Intelligence Award” »

A breakthrough COVID-19 treatment using pineapples has been accidently discovered by Australian scientists, but how does it compare to a vaccine?

Angela Cox speaks with Professor David Morris, the man behind the discovery.

Universal coherence protection has been achieved in a solid-state spin qubit – a modification that allows quantum systems to stay operational (“coherent”) for 10,000 times longer than before.

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Southern Research, have identified a new drug candidate that they claim could represent a “distinct and innovative” approach to treating type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The small molecule drug, designated SRI-37330, inhibits the expression of a protein known as TXNIP—which the team had previously identified as a top glucose-induced gene—in both mouse and human islets.nnResults from the researchers’ preclinical studies suggested that SRI-37330 acts on pancreatic islet cells that produce glucagon and insulin, and also acts on the liver. The findings showed that the drug could have therapeutic effects against diabetes, in both lean and obese individuals. Tests on isolated human and mouse pancreatic islets, on mouse and rat cell cultures, and in animal models of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, demonstrated that SRI-37330 improved diabetes-related hyperglycemia, and hyperglucagonemia; reduced the excessive production of glucose by the liver; and reduced fatty liver, or hepatic steatosis.nn

Studies showed non-toxic, orally bioavailable small molecule effectively rescued mice from models of type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and reduced fatty liver.

DARPA’s Subterranean (SubT) Challenge focuses on discovering innovative approaches to map, navigate, and search complex underground environments across three diverse subdomains: human-made tunnels, urban underground, and natural cave systems. Two previous scored events – Tunnel and Urban Circuits – featured both Virtual and Systems Competitions. DARPA has made the difficult decision to proceed only with the Virtual Competition for the Cave Circuit, due to safety considerations surrounding COVID-19. The date for the Cave Circuit Virtual Competition webcast/public event will be announced in the coming weeks.

Teams must qualify by a September 15 deadline to participate in the Cave Circuit Virtual Competition, which includes team registration and registration on the SubT Challenge Virtual Portal. Additional details are available in the SubT Qualification Guide available on the program’s Resources Page. Interested teams also are encouraged to join the SubT Community Forum, where they can engage with other participants and ask any questions.

“We recognize and share the teams’ passion to compete and showcase the hard work they have completed since the Urban Circuit, and we also are committed to the safety of the global community and extended SubT Challenge family,” said Dr. Timothy Chung, program manager for the SubT Challenge in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office. “Additionally, I know a significant aspect of the SubT Challenge is the opportunity to invite the public to experience the camaraderie and competition unique to DARPA challenges. We look forward to providing greater insight into the Virtual Competition Cave Circuit via an enhanced webcast and online experience, and offering additional opportunities to experience the SubT Challenge during the Final Event.”