Lifeboat Foundation

Breakthrough in next generation of storage batteries could transform the US electrical grid within five to 10 years, says research agency, Arpa-E.

We may be on the verge of creating a new life form, one that could mark not only an evolutionary breakthrough, but a potential threat to our survival as a species.

NASA’s study of a Venus landsail rover for possible launch as early as 2023 continues via its Innovative Advanced Concepts office. Geoffrey Landis, the rover’s study scientist fills me in on the latest. Ironically, the optimal landing site is near that of the Soviet Venera 10 lander.

NASA continues working towards a Venus landsail surface rover that could see launch as early as 2023 and mark the first time in a generation that any probe has landed on the planet’s hot, rocky surface. After a five month journey from Earth, the lander-rover — about the size of a windsurfing board — would begin a nominal 50-day surface mission.

If funded, NASA would launch this landsail “Zephyr” rover as a $400 million Discovery class mission with a coupled orbiter and lander. Once safely in Venus orbit, the rover-lander would detach for its journey through the planet’s thick atmosphere. Following an upright wheels-down landing, pyrotechnics would then cut the rover loose to explore the surface.

Continue reading “NASA Venus Landsail Rover Could Launch In 2023” »

A breakthrough in understanding human skin cells offers a pathway for new anti-ageing treatments.

For the first time, scientists at Newcastle University, UK, have identified that the activity of a key metabolic enzyme found in the batteries of human skin cells declines with age.

A study, published online in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, has found that the activity of mitochondrial complex II significantly decreases in older skin.

Continue reading “Scientists make significant anti-aging breakthrough” »

Is this the ultimate flying bike? A Hungarian company hopes to sell this flying device as soon as sometime this year.

More of our innovation stories: http://cnnmon.ie/1KQJYCZ

We talked to Paul Dillinger, Levi’s VP of Global Product Innovation, on how the company is using the future of textile tech with Google’s Project Jacquard.

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If you ride a bike, motorbike, or drive an automobile, you know that from time to time you need to pump air into those tires, at least if you need to ensure an optimum ride, you do. It’s a known fact that we do get lazy and at times ignore. But there is a good news, especially for a cyclist, there could be a solution out there for you personally.

Benjamin Krempel has come up with an invention called Dubbed the PumpTube, the idea here is that the inner tube on your motorcycle’s tires will be able to self-pump, meaning that as you cycle, it’ll continuously pump air in your tires to ensure that it really never deflates and that it’ll be at the pressure that you have set.

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Necessity is the mother of invention. Tanzanian researcher creates a water filter that turns polluted water into drinking water.

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“Ruth Porat has taken an unusual path to the tech world. Before becoming the chief financial officer at Google in May 2015 (and then at Alphabet, Google’s new parent company, a few months later), she held the same post at Morgan Stanley, where among other roles she worked closely with the U.S. government to sort out the troubles at the insurance corporation AIG and the mortgage-financing agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the 2008 financial crisis.”

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