Lifeboat Foundation

SpaceX’s Starman and cherry red Tesla Roadster have traveled beyond Mars. SpaceX shared a diagram of the car once driven by the aerospace manufacturer’s CEO Elon Musk indicating it has now reached beyond the Red Planet.

Sharing Starman’s current position in a diagram to Twitter, SpaceX also tweeted a nod to Douglas Adams’ seminal work The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which is beloved by Musk. (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe refers to the second book in the series.) The dash of the Roadster itself even has a nod to Hitchhiker’s Guide, as Space.com notes the words “Don’t Panic” on its control panel also appeared on a cover of the novel.

Searching for newborn stars, the high-powered telescope spotted a very happy-looking galaxy.

by

• Bonnie Burton

Without alarm clocks, most of us would oversleep every day. So, how did humans wake up before they were invented?

A college student-athlete in Kansas died suddenly from a rare bacterial infection after thinking her symptoms were due to tonsillitis, according to news reports.

The 23-year-old, Samantha Scott, was a top coxswain on the rowing team at Kansas State University, according to a statement from the university. But about two weeks ago, she started to feel unwell.

Initially, it was thought that Scott had tonsillitis, or inflammation of the tonsils, according to local news outlet KDVR. Tonsillitis can cause symptoms such as sore throat, fever and pain when swallowing. But Scott had actually developed an illness called Lemierre syndrome, a condition that’s so rare it was referred to as “all-but-forgotten disease” in a 2006 report of a similar case. [27 Oddest Medical Cases].

Continue reading “College Athlete Dies of Rare Bacterial Illness Called ‘Forgotten Disease’” »

Have some patience until someone takes the lead, and let’s sing some hakuna matata in the mean time.

Getting into trouble after succumbing to peer pressure isn’t just a human experience.

New research co-led by Brock University shows that a particular species of tropical, air-breathing fish that can survive for weeks on land will delay escaping from hot water if it thinks one of its peers is nearby.

Continue reading “Friends to the end? Social cues cause fish to delay survival tactic” »

With the rapid advances in drone technology spanning the 20^th century, it should come as no surprise that miniature flying robots are on the horizon: Between now and 2020, Goldman Sachs’ forecasts a $100 billion market opportunity for drones, helped by growing demand from the commercial and civil government sectors.

What is surprising is that it has taken researchers more than two decades to finally come up with a fully autonomous version. That’s because the electronics needed to power and control the wings were so heavy that, until now, flying robotic insects had to be tethered to a wire attached to an external power source.

Yet a team of engineers at the University of Washington, led by assistant professor Sawyer Fuller, were able to figure it out. Relying on funding from UW, they created RoboFly, a robo-insect powered by an invisible laser beam that is pointed at a photovoltaic cell, which is attached above the robot and converts the laser light into enough electricity to operate its wings.

Continue reading “Slightly heavier than a toothpick, the first wireless insect-size robot takes flight” »

So does our Milky Way galaxy—although these bubbles might be a little bigger than what you’re used to. Two bubbles, each 25,000 light-years tall, are extending above and below the disk of the galaxy like the two halves of an hourglass. Discover possible explanations for these bubbles: