Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: military

Next-generation atomic clock successfully tested at sea

Adelaide University researchers have successfully tested a new type of portable atomic clock at sea for the first time, using technology that could help power the next generation of navigation, communications and scientific systems. The research team, from the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS), developed the highly precise device and trialed it aboard a vessel provided by the Royal Australian Navy in July 2024. They have reported their findings in a new paper published in the journal Optica.

Atomic clocks are the world’s most accurate timekeepers and are essential for technologies such as GPS navigation, telecommunications networks and radio astronomy. However, most high-performance atomic clocks operate in carefully controlled laboratory environments and are not designed to be easily transported or used in challenging real-world conditions. The newly developed device changes that.

Photonics researchers created a portable optical atomic clock that uses laser-cooled atoms of the element ytterbium to keep time with extreme precision. By cooling the atoms with lasers and measuring a very specific atomic transition, the clock can track time far more accurately than conventional systems.

Critical flaw in wolfSSL library enables forged certificate use

A critical vulnerability in the wolfSSL SSL/TLS library can weaken security via improper verification of the hash algorithm or its size when checking Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) signatures.

Researchers warn that an attacker could exploit the issue to force a target device or application to accept forged certificates for malicious servers or connections.

WolfSSL is a lightweight TLS/SSL implementation written in C, designed for embedded systems, IoT devices, industrial control systems, routers, appliances, sensors, automotive systems, and even aerospace or military equipment.

Lethal conflict after group fission in wild chimpanzees

Territorial conflicts in animals can inform aspects of human warfare, but civil war, with its shifting group identities, has not been previously observed. We report a rare, permanent fission in the largest-known group of wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Using 30 years of behavioral observations and network analyses, we describe a transition from cohesion to polarization in 2015 and the emergence of two distinct groups by 2018. Over the next 7 years, members of one group made 24 attacks, killing at least seven mature males and 17 infants in the other group. These findings indicate that group identities can shift and escalate into lethal hostility in one of our closest living relatives in the absence of the cultural markers often thought necessary for human warfare.

Skydio secures USAFCENT contract for drone security in Middle East

The US Air Forces Central (USAFCENT), a component of US Central Command (CENTCOM), has placed an order worth over $9m with US-based drone manufacturer Skydio for the supply of Skydio Dock and X10 systems.

The drones and infrastructure will be used to secure US airbases in the Middle East as part of one of the largest deployments of autonomous drone security systems by the US Air Force (USAF) for international base protection.

Robot dogs are protecting data centers. Operators are seeing payoffs

As companies pour billions into sprawling industrial campuses for cloud and AI computing, some data center operators are experimenting with four-legged bots — about the size of large dogs — that can patrol fences, inspect equipment, and flag any issues before they turn into costly outages.

“I was literally at a data center this week,” Merry Frayne, senior director of product management at Boston Dynamics, the maker of Spot, told Business Insider. “We’ve seen a huge, huge uptick in interest from data centers in the last year, I’d say, which is probably not surprising given the investment in that space.”

Robot dogs have already been deployed by first responders, the military, and in other industrial sectors such as oil and mining. But the rapid pace of data center buildouts is creating another niche for the mechanical quadrupeds.

Sric4 News #05: a Message to The Youth: be The Voice of Peace

While space agencies globally recognize space applications, diplomacy, and national prestige as core justifications for their work, they remain hesitant to embrace a critical concept: the urgent humanization of space, or the urgent expansion of civilization into space. Similarly, educational institutions have not yet integrated matters related to civilian space development into their curricula. Reviewing the Space Renaissance Manifesto provides a deeper understanding of why the “humanization of space” is essential for the future. The proposition of diverting military spending toward civilian space development is simple yet transformative: it would directly elevate human quality of life. Wars are the worst experience a human population can encounter, and today we are witnessing more military confrontations around the world than at any time since WWII, action is necessary. With this short letter, we are calling the youth to take action. Youth working, or aspiring to work, in the space domain, are welcome to join Space Renaissance International (SRI) and become part of our cause. The Towards the Young Generation Committee is dedicated to guiding the next generation and advocating for the expansion of humanity into the cosmos.

This year marks the IV SRI World Congress (SRIC4), a landmark online event held every five years to set strategic guidelines. For the first time, a dedicated Youth Session is being hosted. Please see the specific EHTOS Call for Papers. And submit your abstract. Be sure to flag the EHTOS checkbox: “I am under 35 years old, this abstract is for the EHTOS context”

As a young professional or student, you will receive a discount when joining SRI. By submitting an abstract to the SRI World Congress, you will automatically join the youth special session.

New chip lets robots see in 4D by tracking distance and speed simultaneously

Current vision systems for robots and drones rely on 3D sensors that, although powerful, do not always keep up with the fast-paced, unpredictable movement of the real world. These systems often struggle to measure speed instantly or are too bulky and expensive for everyday use. Now, in a paper published in the journal Nature, scientists report how they have developed a 4D imaging sensor on a chip that creates 3D maps of an environment while simultaneously tracking the speed of moving objects.

The researchers built a focal plane array (FPA), a physical grid of 61,952 stationary pixels etched onto a single silicon chip. Each one is a tiny sensor that emits laser light toward a scene and detects the reflected signal.

To “see” its surroundings, laser light from an external source is fed into the chip. This light is routed across the chip through a network of optical switches that sequentially direct it to groups of pixels. Each pixel then uses a technique called FMCW LiDAR to measure the returning signal, which is later processed to determine distance and speed. In many LiDAR systems, one set of pixels sends the light, and another receives it, but here, all pixels both send and receive, making the system much more compact.

/* */