Lifeboat Foundation

It may not offer infinite range, but it’s close. The new Oceanvolt ServoProp saildrive has a regeneration feature that efficiently charges up an electric boat’s batteries while sailing.

Many people think of sailboats as being purely wind powered. While smaller sailboats usually are, most decently sized sailboats have a motor for maneuvering in a marina or when the winds die down.

Saildrive motors are an innovative propulsion system commonly found on modern sailboats, offering a compact and efficient alternative to traditional shaft-driven inboard engines.

Researchers at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Linköping University, have together with colleagues at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, developed a method that increases the signal strength from microbial electrochemical cells by up to twenty times. The secret is a film with an embedded bacterium: Shewanella oneidensis.

Adding bacteria to electrochemical systems is often an environmentally sensitive means to convert chemical energy to electricity. Applications include water purification, bioelectronics, biosensors, and for the harvesting and storage of energy in fuel cells. One problem that miniaturisation of the processes has encountered is that a high signal strength requires large electrodes and a large volume of liquid.

Researchers at Linköping University, together with colleagues at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, USA, have now developed a method in which they embed the electroactive bacterium Shewanella oneidensis into PEDOT: PSS, an electrically conducting polymer, on a substrate of carbon felt.

A warm-hued material prized by jewelry makers, amber takes more than 40,000 years to form. See pictures of some of the finest specimens.

The new technology has the capacity to save thousands of lives.

For 4 hours, I tried to come up reasons for why AI might not kill us all, and Eliezer Yudkowsky explained why I was wrong.

We also discuss his call to halt AI, why LLMs make alignment harder, what it would take to save humanity, his millions of words of sci-fi, and much more.

Continue reading “Eliezer Yudkowsky — Why AI Will Kill Us, Aligning LLMs, Nature of Intelligence, SciFi, & Rationality” »

Lawrence Livermore Laboratory (LLNL) scientists designed and built a telescope that, as of March 14, was out of this world.

The Stellar Occultation Hypertemporal Imaging Payload (SOHIP) is a telescope using LLNL patented optics technology on a gimbal to observe and measure atmospheric gravity waves and turbulence.

The device was sent aboard a SpaceX rocket out of Cape Canaveral in Florida last month to the International Space Station (ISS).

Child protégée, David Balogun, continues to shock the world with his incredible genius.

The nine-year-old is one of the youngest high school graduates, receiving his diploma from Reach Cyber Charter School in Harrisburg, PA. After graduation, Balogun was invited by NASA and the Maryland-based Space Telescope Science Institute to visit the James Webb Space Telescope Mission Operations Center in Baltimore. His story made headlines and Hannah Braun, the institute’s spokesperson, said the team just had to meet him.

“I had actually seen David’s story all over social media and thought, ‘Wow, I’d bet he’d find a trip to Webb’s Mission Operations Center exciting!’” Braun said to Atlanta Black Star.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that the Starship is fully stacked and ready to launch on its maiden orbital flight.

Starship, comprising the Starship upper stage and Super Heavy first stage, will become the most powerful rocket ever to fly when it lifts off from SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, possibly in the coming days.

Recent years have seen rapid advances in the preclinical development and clinical evaluation of oncolytic (cancer-lysing) virus-based therapies, and these are emerging as treatment modality for some cancers. There are challenges to address, however, if we are to maximize the impact of these therapies in patients.