Lifeboat Foundation

The Joint European Torus (JET) fusion reactor in the UK has generated the highest level of sustained energy ever from atom fusion. On December 21st, 2021, the “tokamak” reactor produced 59 megajoules of energy during a five-second fusion pulse. That’s double what it created back in 1997. (Yes, I know energy is not created or destroyed, but you get what I mean!)

The JET reactor is the flagship experimental device of the European Fusion Program, funded by the EU. It’s mainly designed to prove scientists’ modeling efforts, with an eye on future, bigger experiments with a much larger ITER reactor in France, set to start fusion testing in 2025.

JET hit a Q value of 0.33, meaning it produced about a third of the energy put in. The highest Q value achieved so far is 0.7 by the US Department of Energy’s National Ignition Facility, but it only hit that figure for 4 billionths of a second. The goal with ITER is to reach a Q factor of 10 or greater. Fun fact: ITER isn’t an acronym but means “the path” in Latin. And now you know.

Tesla is planning to build its new design center in Beijing later this year, according to a new document released by the Chinese government.

Shortly after announcing Gigafactory Shanghai, Tesla made it clear that it not only wants to tap into China’s incredible capacity in manufacturing, but it also wants to take advantage of the country’s incredible engineering and design talent.

In early 2020, Tesla announced plans to establish a new R&D center and a new design center in China to build “a Chinese-style” electric car.

As long as humans have built machines, we’ve feared the day they could destroy us. Stephen Hawking famously warned that AI could spell an end to civilization. But to many AI researchers, these conversations feel unmoored. It’s not that they don’t fear AI running amok—it’s that they see it already happening, just not in the ways most people would expect.

AI is now screening job candidates, diagnosing disease, and identifying criminal suspects. But instead of making these decisions more efficient or fair, it’s often perpetuating the biases of the humans on whose decisions it was trained.

Our furry friends are about to fetch new answers to the tough problem of longevity.

The Dog Aging Project (DAP), launched in 2018, is recruiting tens of thousands of loyal canine companions for a comprehensive study. The open-sourced collaborative project, expected to last ten years, has ambitious goals: tackle the thorny problem of what contributes to aging, and test ways to prolong healthy longevity.

Aside from its massive scale—it’s the largest data-gathering program of its kind—the project stands out in that it eschews the usual method of using lab animals, grown in carefully-controlled environments and often inbred. Instead, DAP is recruiting dogs from across the country, with a smorgasbord of breeds, ages, and environments.

Nuclear power may not be as bad as you think. If we used Thorium instead of Uranium, we could greatly decrease dangerous radioactive by-products. There is enough Thorium in the world to meet all our energy needs for over 1,000 years.

In this video I show you how nuclear power plants work, and how Thorium can change the game. I aim to shift your views on nuclear power.

Continue reading “It’s time to rethink Nuclear Power! Limitless Green Thorium Energy is coming” »

Starship is threatening NASA’s moon contractors, which are watching its progress with a mix of awe and horror.

Robot tanks and drones swarming the battlefield represent only a small fraction of the ways the military might put autonomy to use in the years ahead.

Instead of commanding killer robots, most troops will get helping hands from things like driving assistance software.

Biotechnology is a rapidly growing industry with lots of exciting innovations! So, I created this list as a resource to help people learn about and keep track of key biotechnology companies.

PDF version: List of Biotechnology Companies to Watch

I created this list to serve as a resource to help people learn about and keep track of key biotechnology companies. Some of these are emerging startups, some are established giants, and some provide useful services. Though this list is far from comprehensive, I have tried to cover as many of the key players as possible. In the next iteration of this list, I would especially like to add more agricultural biotechnology companies. It is also important to realize that this landscape is constantly changing, so some of the information on this list will eventually transition into antiquity (this current version was written over the course of 2021 and early 2022). I think many people will find my compilation both interesting and useful. I hope you enjoy delving into the exciting world of biotechnology!

Continue reading “List of Biotechnology Companies to Watch” »

Its “blockchain accelerator” is set to ship later this year.

Intel is working on a new sustainability-focused chip designed to mine cryptocurrency. One of its first customers include the Jack Dorsey-owned fintech company Block (formerly known as Square).