Lifeboat Foundation

Research can seem bland to us laypersons. But, Marko Vukolić shares many of my research interests and he exceeds my academic credentials (with just enough overlap for me to understand his work). So, in my opinion, his writing is anything but bland…

Vukolić started his career as a post-doc intern at IBM in Zurich Switzerland. After a teaching stint as assistant professor at Eurecom and visiting professor at ETH Zurich, he rejoined the IBM research staff in both cloud computing infrastructure and the Blockchain Group.*

As a researcher and academic, Vukolić is a rising star in consensus-based mechanisms and low latency replicated state machines. At Institut Mines-Télécom in Paris, he wrote papers and participated in research projects on fault tolerance, scalability, cloud computing and distributed trust mechanisms.

Now, at IBM Zurich, Vukolić has published a superior analysis addressing the first and biggest elephant in the Bitcoin ballroom, Each elephant addresses an urgent need:

Continue reading “Blockchain Scalability: Proof-of-Work vs BFT Replication” »

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One day this century, a robot of super-human intelligence will offer you the chance to upgrade your mind, says AGI expert Ben Goertzel. Will you take it?

This will be the last invention humanity needs, says Ben Goertzel.

The Breakthrough Starshot is an effort backed by US$100 million from Russian investor Yuri Milner to vastly accelerate research and development of an interstellar space probe.

Leaders of the mission plan to start funding technology-development projects within months, with the aim of launching a fleet of tiny, laser-propelled probes in the next 20 years. The effort would ultimately cost about $10 billion, leaders hope, and take another 20 years to reach Alpha Centauri.

The first truly challenging step in any mission such as Breakthrough Starshot is to accelerate the spacecraft to interstellar velocities.

Continue reading “$100 million Breakthrough Starshot small interstellar probe project will start funding technological development in a few months” »

To learn more about Breakthrough Starshot, visit http://breakthroughinitiatives.org.

On the fifty-fifth anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s great leap into space, April 12, 2016, Yuri Milner was joined by Stephen Hawking at New York’s One World Observatory to announce Breakthrough Starshot, which will lay the foundations for humanity’s next great leap: to the stars. It was also announced that Mark Zuckerberg joined the board of the initiative.

Continue reading “Stephen Hawking Discusses Breakthrough Starshot” »

Pterostilbene showing some interesting potential for treating cancer.

One of the most common forms of cancer in the hematologic system is Multiple myeloma (MM) which affects plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that produces antibodies. With advanced symptoms bone pain, bleeding, frequent infections, and anemia may occur.

In studies, Pterostilbene has shown anti-inflammatory and anticarcinogenic properties which has led to the improved function of healthy cells and the inhibition of malignant cells. So far its anticarcinogenic action has been reported for lung, breast and prostate cancers. Today we will look at the latest research showing how it could be used to treat cancer patients.

Continue reading “Pterostilbene an anticarcinogenic breakthrough” »

Microsoft’s cofounder vows to change the “supply side” for breakthrough energy technologies by investing billions of his and his friends’ dollars.