Lifeboat Foundation

Ice buildup on powerlines and electric towers brought the northern US and southern Canada to a standstill during the Great Ice Storm of 1998, leaving many in the cold and dark for days and even weeks. Whether it is on wind turbines, electric towers, drones, or airplane wings, dealing with ice buildup typically depends on techniques that are time consuming, costly and/or use a lot of energy, along with various chemicals. But, by looking to nature, McGill researchers believe that they have found a promising new way of dealing with the problem. Their inspiration came from the wings of Gentoo penguins who swim in the ice-cold waters of the south polar region, with pelts that remain ice-free even when the outer surface temperature is well below freezing.

We initially explored the qualities of the lotus leaf, which is very good at shedding water but proved less effective at shedding ice,” said Anne Kietzig, who has been looking for a solution for close to a decade. She is an associate professor in Chemical Engineering at McGill and the director of the Biomimetic Surface Engineering Laboratory. “It was only when we started investigating the qualities of penguin feathers that we discovered a material found in nature that was able to shed both water and ice.”

https://youtube.com/watch?v=csOi-9MY_aw

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using large sums of money to attract retired British pilots. French pilots are also among Beijing’s targets.

#SpotlightOnChina #China #ChinaInsights

Researchers have created a device that uses machine vision to spot cockroaches and zap them with a laser. They say the method could offer a cheaper and more environmentally friendly alternative to insecticides.

Ildar Rakhmatulin at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, UK, and his colleagues equipped a laser with two cameras and a small computer running an AI model that can be trained to target certain types of insect.

Experts from the Astrophysics Research Institute at LJMU, with help from colleagues from the University of Montpellier, have conceived of an ‘early warning’ system to alert to when a massive star is about to end its life.

The next generation of phones and wireless devices will need new antennae to access higher and higher frequency ranges. One way to make antennae that work at tens of gigahertz—the frequencies needed for 5G and higher devices—is to braid filaments about 1 micrometer in diameter. But today’s industrial fabrication techniques won’t work on fibers that small.

Now a team of researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has developed a simple machine that uses the surface tension of water to grab and manipulate microscopic objects, offering a potentially powerful tool for nanoscopic manufacturing.

Continue reading “Simple machine may pave the way for more powerful cell phones and WiFi” »

Whether you are a keen astrophotographer or general lover of all things outer-space, NASA has a treat for you. They have made 140,000 audio clips, videos, and images available for everyone to view and download – copyright free and for public use.

Within the in-depth, searchable library, NASA has included the EXIF data with all images. This is particularly exciting as it provides an insight into how these photographs were created, whether that be with specialist equipment or more accessible DSLRs.

Just in time for Halloween, scientists have discovered something spooky and strange occurring at the edge of the solar system: The heliopause — the boundary between the heliosphere (the bubble of solar wind encompassing the solar system) and the interstellar medium (the material between the stars) appears to be rippling and creating oblique angles in an unexpected manner.

The general concept that the heliopause changes shape is not new; over the past decade, researchers have determined that it is not static. They made this discovery using data from Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, the only two spacecraft to exit the heliosphere thus far, as well as NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) satellite, which studies the emissions of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) that are created when solar winds and the interstellar medium interact.

Why does Facebook constantly change its algorithm? I can never keep up.” “We’re the ones giving them money. Why are they always making it harder on us to get our content to our audience?” You’re not alone if you’ve ever asked either of those questions. For years, marketers and advertisers have been noticing changes to Facebook’s algorithm. Each time, these changes only seemed to hurt their organic reach and ad performance with Facebook marketing. Though the Facebook algorithm isn’t the only thing affecting the reach of your content, it is one of the most important. That’s why all marketers must stay up to date on the changes and updates as Facebook rolls them out.

Find out about changes to the Facebook algorithm, how it works, and take away 19 clever tips you can try today to outsmart the algorithm.

Register now for your free virtual pass to the Low-Code/No-Code Summit this November 9. Hear from executives from Service Now, Credit Karma, Stitch Fix, Appian, and more. Learn more.

As AI spreads throughout the enterprise, organizations are having a difficult time balancing the benefits against the risks. AI is already baked into a range of tools, from IT infrastructure management to DevOps software to CRM suites, but most of those tools were adopted without an AI risk-mitigation strategy in place.

Of course, it’s important to remember that the list of potential AI benefits is every bit as long as the risks, which is why so many organizations skimp on risk assessments in the first place.