Lifeboat Foundation

An increasingly likely catastrophe can cause major disruptions in space flight and our daily lives.

BREAKING.

NASA is working to contain a small leak onboard the International Space Station.

The issue appears to be contained and the people on board the station do not appear to be under any immediate threat. But it did trigger a real alarm through the floating lab, which sent astronauts scrambling to find the cause of the problem.

Continue reading “The International Space Station is leaking air” »

The annual 2018 World Robot Conference in Beijing is a showcase of China’s burgeoning industry ranging from companion robots to those deployed on factory assembly lines and entertainment.

People with low muscle strength are 50% more likely to die earlier, a new study:

People with weaker muscles have a 50 percent greater chance of dying earlier than their stronger peers after adjusting for other factors.

In 2018, Canada is ranked tenth in the world in nominal GDP. It is a rich developed country. Despite having an economy that is 11 times smaller than the USA or 7 times smaller than China, Canada has world competitive or world-leading projects in quantum computing, artificial intelligence, molecular nanotechnology, nuclear fusion and nuclear-molten salt.

(Reuters) — Detroit authorities on Wednesday ordered drinking water shut off at all city public schools after elevated levels of lead and copper were found in water at more than a dozen buildings with antiquated plumbing systems.

Chile’s Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has observed a galaxy that looks nothing like what researchers expected. It’s forming stars at an absolutely incredible rate.

The “Monster Galaxy”, also known as COSMOS-AzTEC-1, formed just 2 billion years after the Big Bang, and it turns more than a thousand Suns worth of gas into stars each year. Scientists still don’t understand these early galaxies very well, but now they have some new information that can shed light on why they form stars so blisteringly fast.

Germany helped make solar power cheap. As of June this year, it boasts 1 million homes that have installed rooftop solar panels. That means the country produces a lot of renewable energy—sometimes more than it can use.

At such times, German grid operators have had to pay neighboring countries or grids to use the excess electricity. Since the beginning of this year, German grids have accumulated 194 hours (paywall) with negative power prices.

Now Germany is turning to energy storage as a solution to the problem of excess electricity. On Aug. 28, an energy ministry official attended the commissioning (link in German) of the 100,000th home to install a battery-storage system that’s connected to the grid.

Continue reading “100,000 homes in Germany now have battery-storage systems connected to the grid” »

New research finds that severe air pollution can eliminate all profits from solar panel installations.