Lifeboat Foundation

Bohr’s model of the atom is kind of crazy. His collage of ideas mixing old and new concepts was the fruit of Bohr’s amazing intuition. Looking only at hydrogen, the simplest of all atoms, Bohr formed the image of a miniature solar system, with a proton in the center and the electron circling around it.

Following the physicist’s way of doing things, he wanted to explain some of his observed data with the simplest possible model. But there was a problem. The electron, being negatively charged, is attracted to the proton, which is positive. According to classical electromagnetism, the theory that describes how charged particles attract and repel one another, an electron would spiral down to the nucleus. As it circled the proton, it would radiate away its energy and fall in. No orbit would be stable, and atoms could not exist. Clearly, something new and revolutionary was needed. The solar system could only go so far as an analogy.

To salvage the atom, Bohr had to invent new rules that clashed with classical physics. He bravely suggested the implausible: What if the electron could only circle the nucleus in certain orbits, separated from each other in space like the steps of a ladder or the layers of an onion? Just like you can’t stand between steps, the electron can’t stay anywhere between two orbits. It can only jump from one orbit to another, the same way we can jump between steps. Bohr had just described quantum jumps.

You can’t discuss fulfillment robots without mentioning Amazon. Over the past decade, the retail juggernaut has become the 800-pound gorilla in the category, courtesy of several key acquisitions and seemingly endless resources. And while warehouse robotics and automation have been accelerated amid the pandemic and resulting employment crunch, Amazon Robotics has been driving these categories for years now.

This week at its annual Re: Mars conference in Las Vegas, the company celebrated a decade of its robotics division, which was effectively born with its acquisition of Kiva Systems. Over the course of its life, Amazon Robotics has deployed more than 520,000 robotic drive units, across its fulfillment and sort centers. From the outside, it’s been a tremendous success in the company’s push toward same-and next-day package delivery, and its driven the competition to look for their own third-party robotics solutions, bolstering startups like Locus, Fetch and Berkshire Grey.

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The universe is going to end. But of all the possible ends of the universe vacuum decay would have to be the most thorough — because it could totally rewrite the laws of physics. Today I hope to help you understand exactly how terrified you should be.

Continue reading “How Vacuum Decay Would Destroy The Universe” »

The partnership aims at building infrastructures, such as landing pads, habitats, and roads on the lunar surface.

In a quest to find practical solutions to build sustainable structures on the moon, NASA has furthered its partnership with ICON, a construction technologies company based in Austin, Texas. The firm is known for building the first-ever habitable 3D-printed home in the United States in 2018.

Continue reading “NASA awards Texas company to develop structures on the Moon” »

Lifeboat Earth appears tiny in the immense blackness of space, a compelling and iconic image.

This is Lifeboat Earth, currently, the only known place where life exists in The Universe., and we are putting it at risk.

Ideas for quantum computing change the way we think about space and time.

Icon co-founder Jason Ballard says the NASA moon project is something Icon’s leaders “want to do on behalf of humanity.”

This glittering star cluster lives so close to the center of our galaxy that tidal forces are stripping away its outermost stars.

A new study equates a green view and the proximity of green space with better mental health in urban settings.