Lifeboat Foundation

Microbes that are used for health, agricultural, or other applications need to be able to withstand extreme conditions, and ideally the manufacturing processes used to make tablets for long-term storage. MIT researchers have now developed a new way to make microbes hardy enough to withstand these extreme conditions.

Their method involves mixing bacteria with food and drug additives from a list of compounds that the FDA classifies as “generally regarded as safe.” The researchers identified formulations that help to stabilize several different types of microbes, including yeast and bacteria, and they showed that these formulations could withstand high temperatures, radiation, and industrial processing that can damage unprotected microbes.

In an even more extreme test, some of the microbes recently returned from a trip to the International Space Station, coordinated by Space Center Houston Manager of Science and Research Phyllis Friello, and the researchers are now analyzing how well the microbes were able to withstand those conditions.

The massive data centers use liquid cooling for top performance.

The first commercial spacewalk mission looks to be back on schedule with Polaris Dawn saying that it will launch no earlier than July 31, 2024. The Dragon spacecraft is slated to carry the four-person crew farther from Earth than any mission in over 50 years.

Commercial space flights mean a lot more than private firms filling government space contracts. Though most private missions today carry cargo and crews to and from the International Space Station (ISS), the future will see more and more private visits to orbit that have nothing to do with national governments.

On September 15, 2021, the first completely private mission in history, a privately owned and operated rocket putting a privately owned and operated spacecraft into orbit with private astronauts aboard on a private charter, lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The craft was a SpaceX Crew Dragon and the launch vehicle a Falcon 9 rocket that boosted the Inspiration4 mission to an altitude of 357 miles (575 km).

[2023 APCTP Spring Colloquium] Wormholes and quantum entanglement.

Date: 10 March, 2023
Speaker: Prof. Juan Maldacena.

Continue reading “Wormholes and quantum entanglement | Juan Maldacena” »

Generations of scientists have compared the universe to a giant, complex game, raising questions about who is doing the playing – and what it would mean to win.

By Marcus Du Sautoy

This insightful video essay about the late great Iian M Banks and his extraordinary series of books known as “The Culture” gives us a glimpse of the potential we have now as a species, set in a future where we have not just met that potential, but EXCEEDED it.

When Google announced this week that its climate emissions had risen by 48 percent since 2019, it pointed the finger at artificial intelligence.

US tech firms are building vast networks of data centers across the globe and say AI is fueling the growth, throwing the spotlight on the amount of energy the technology is sucking up and its impact on the environment.

By Gitta Kutyniok

The recent unprecedented success of foundation models like GPT-4 has heightened the general public’s awareness of artificial intelligence (AI) and inspired vivid discussion about its associated possibilities and threats. In March 2023, a group of technology leaders published an open letter that called for a public pause in AI development to allow time for the creation and implementation of shared safety protocols. Policymakers around the world have also responded to rapid advancements in AI technology with various regulatory efforts, including the European Union (EU) AI Act and the Hiroshima AI Process.

One of the current problems—and consequential dangers—of AI technology is its unreliability and subsequent lack of trustworthiness. In recent years, AI-based technologies have often encountered severe issues in terms of safety, security, privacy, and responsibility with respect to fairness and interpretability. Privacy violations, unfair decisions, unexplainable results, and accidents involving self-driving cars are all examples of concerning outcomes.

As noted by Musk in his update, Tesla is just finalizing the construction of Giga Texas’ supercomputer cluster. He also noted that the electric vehicle maker would be attempting to get the supercomputer cluster online in the coming months. The cluster is expected to further accelerate the progress of Tesla’s FSD efforts, which is crucial for the rollout of the company’s dedicated Robotaxi, which will be unveiled on August 8, 2024.

While Musk was all work in his Giga Texas update during Independence Day, he also took some time to poke fun at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg, who posted a video of himself wakeboarding in a suit and sunglasses, sipping some beer, and holding up an American flag to celebrate the Fourth of July. Zuckerburg’s video went viral, with social media users noting that it made the Meta CEO very likable and cool.