Lifeboat Foundation

A view into how nanoscale building blocks can rearrange into different organized structures on command is now possible with an approach that combines an electron microscope, a small sample holder with microscopic channels, and computer simulations, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Michigan and Indiana University.

The approach could eventually enable smart materials and coatings that can switch between different optical, mechanical and electronic properties.

Continue reading “Morphable materials: Researchers coax nanoparticles to reconfigure themselves” »

Theoretically, it’s impossible for us to perceive a 4D creature. That is, unless it broke into our three-dimensional reality.

Entanglement is a fundamental concept in quantum information theory and is often regarded as a key indicator of a system’s “quantumness”. However, the relationship between entanglement and quantum computational power is not straightforward. In a study posted on the arXiv preprint server, physicists in Germany, Italy and the US shed light on this complex relationship by exploring the role of a property known as “magic” in entanglement theory. The study’s results have broad implications for various fields, including quantum error correction, many-body physics and quantum chaos.

Traditionally, the more entangled your quantum bits (qubits) are, the more you can do with your quantum computer. However, this belief – that higher entanglement in a quantum state is associated with greater computational advantage – is challenged by the fact that certain highly entangled states can be efficiently simulated on classical computers and do not offer the same computational power as other quantum states. These states are often generated by classically simulable circuits known as Clifford circuits.

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NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is a next-generation observatory that will survey the infrared universe from beyond the orbit of the Moon. The spacecraft’s giant camera, the Wide Field Instrument, will be fundamental to this exploration. Data it gathers will enable scientists to discover new and uniquely detailed information about planetary systems around other stars. The instrument will also map how matter is structured and distributed throughout the cosmos, which could ultimately allow scientists to discover the fate of the universe. Watch this video to see a simplified version of how the Wide Field Instrument works. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Unprecedented Observational Capability

Continue reading “Cutting-Edge Roman Telescope Instrument Arrives at NASA’s Goddard Ready to Unravel Cosmic Mysteries” »

“That is a highlight of this building that it’s very close to talent — people who are still in this area because they just graduated,” said Knight, The Engine Accelerator’s president and chief executive.

The Engine Accelerator is where companies solving hard problems get off the ground. It’s part coworking space, with open desks, office suites, and conference rooms for rent. It’s part startup accelerator, hosting a high-octane circle of young scientists and engineers who need help turning their ideas into full-fledged operations.

If WeWork and Y Combinator had a baby, and that baby wanted to bring breakthrough research out of the lab and into the real world, it’d look something like The Engine.

“Once it leaves our facility, it hits the launch pad and launches into space,” he said.

Final testing and launch preparations for Dream Chaser’s maiden flight remain ongoing at KSC. The 30-foot-long cargo space plane — named Tenacity — arrived at the Cape in mid-May from NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio.

Engineering researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have demonstrated a state-of-the-art hardware device that could reduce energy consumption for artificial intelligent (AI) computing applications by a factor of at least 1,000.

The research is published in npj Unconventional Computing titled “Experimental demonstration of magnetic tunnel junction-based computational random-access memory.” The researchers have multiple patents on the technology used in the device.

With the growing demand for AI applications, researchers have been looking at ways to create a more energy efficient process, while keeping performance high and costs low. Commonly, machine or artificial intelligence processes transfer data between both logic (where information is processed within a system) and memory (where the data is stored), consuming a large amount of power and energy.

Whenever and wherever stars are born, which occurs whenever clouds of gas sufficiently collapse under their own gravity, they come in a wide variety of sizes, colors, temperatures, and masses. The largest, bluest, most massive stars contain the greatest amounts of nuclear fuel, but perhaps paradoxically, those stars are actually the shortest lived. The reason is straightforward: in any star’s core, where nuclear fusion occurs, it only occurs wherever temperatures exceed 4 million K, and the higher the temperature, the greater the rate of fusion.

So the most massive stars might have the most fuel available at the start, but that means they shine brightly as they burn through their fuel quickly. In particular, the hottest regions in the core will exhaust their fuel the fastest, leading the most massive stars to die the most quickly. The best method we have for measuring “How old is a collection of stars?” is to examine globular clusters, which form stars in isolation, often all at once, and then never again. By looking at the cooler, fainter stars that remain (and the lack of hotter, bluer, brighter, more massive stars), we can state with confidence that the Universe must be at least ~12.5–13.0 billion years old.

The pursuit of a cure for Alzheimer’s disease is becoming an increasingly competitive and contentious quest with recent years witnessing several important controversies.

In July 2022, Science magazine reported that a key 2006 research paper, published in the prestigious journal Nature, which identified a subtype of brain protein called beta-amyloid as the cause of Alzheimer’s, may have been based on fabricated data.

One year earlier, in June 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration had approved aducanumab, an antibody-targeting beta-amyloid, as a treatment for Alzheimer’s, even though the data supporting its use were incomplete and contradictory.