Lifeboat Foundation

Last week, the LightSail 2 officially made its first contact with Earth. The solar-powered spacecraft will be sailing around Earth’s orbit for the next year, all part of a mission to prove that solar sailing is a viable mode of space exploration.

If successful, the hope is that solar sailing could be used in other spacecraft going forward, something that could allow us to explore further in space at a lower cost than is currently possible.

DARPA’s Ground X-Vehicle Technologies (GXV-T) program aims to improve mobility, survivability, safety, and effectiveness of future combat vehicles without piling on armor. The demonstrations featured here show progress on technologies for traveling quickly over varied terrain and improving situational awareness and ease of operation.

These demonstrations feature technologies developed for DARPA by:

Continue reading “Demonstrations of DARPA’s Ground X-Vehicle Technologies” »

Down in the deep ocean, where the Sun’s rays don’t penetrate, there dwells a beast so perfectly efficient it has remained practically unchanged for 200 million years. It’s called the bluntnose sixgill shark (Hexanchus griseus), and, like many deep-sea creatures, its lifestyle remains something of a mystery.

Scientists have managed to bring them up to the surface to tag them for tracking in the past. But under normal circumstances, they prefer the darker waters of the meso- and bathypelagic zones (up to 2,500 metres or 8,200 feet deep), coming into shallower waters only under the cover of night to feed.

Since being brought up to the surface can disorient and discombobulate the sharks, the data collected afterwards may not be a true representation of their normal movements. So a team of scientists sought to do something that’s never been accomplished before: tag a sixgill shark in its natural habitat.

During winter time, some snapping turtles like to hibernate in ponds and lakes. Safely tucked away underneath a thin layer of ice, these freshwater reptiles can survive up to six months without any oxygen to speak of.

How their bodies can cope with this depends on the way they were raised, it turns out. New research has revealed that when turtle embryos are exposed to low levels of oxygen, it programs their hearts to be more resilient to such conditions for the rest of their lives.

Continue reading “Some Animal Hearts Can Adapt to Survive Without Oxygen, And Scientists Are Intrigued” »

ASgamma experiment sheds light on how pulsars act as particle accelerators.

Well, each to his own taste. Kittens making friends with balls of yarn are absolute magnets for video surfers but a rival army of video clicksters can never max out staring at humanoids navigating where they want to go.

The latest video showcasing humanoid robots on the move is impressing viewers with the deft and successful way they are navigating a cinder block maze.

Continue reading “Robots step up to ace those big bad cinder blocks” »

Cholesterol does not cause heart disease in the elderly and trying to reduce it with drugs like statins is a waste of time, an international group of experts has claimed.

A review of research involving nearly 70,000 people found there was no link between what has traditionally been considered “bad” cholesterol and the premature deaths of over 60-year-olds from cardiovascular disease.

Published in the BMJ Open journal, the new study found that 92 percent of people with a high cholesterol level lived longer.

We review the Lift eFoil, an electric hydrofoil surfboard that is currently on the market for $12,000 to find out- is it tech we want? https://techwewant.com/lift-efoil-review-electric-hydrofoil-…eb79941e2c

Check out Lift eFoil: https://liftfoils.com/

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Fifty years ago this month, NASA’s Apollo 11 mission transformed the idea of putting people on the moon from science fiction to historical fact. Not much has changed on the moon since Apollo, but if the visions floated by leading space scientists from the U.S., Europe, Russia and China come to pass, your grandchildren might be firing up lunar barbecues in 2069.

“Definitely in 50 years, there will be more tourism on the moon,” Anatoli Petrukovich, director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Space Research Institute, said here today during the World Conference of Science Journalists. “The moon will just look like a resort, as a backyard for grilling some meat or whatever else.”

Continue reading “The moon in 2069: Top space scientists share their visions for lunar lifestyles” »