Lifeboat Foundation

Wei Lin built a scalable computing cluster comprised of $7 chips.

KILAUEA VOLCANO, BIG ISLAND (HawaiiNewsNow) — Scientists with the U.S.G.S. issued a Volcano Activity Notice on Tuesday, warning that the magma system beneath Kilauea’s East Rift Zone had become increasingly pressurized and that a new vent could form ‘at any time’ if conditions persist.

Based on data observed over the past month, the new vent could form on either the existing Pu’u O’o cone or on an adjacent area along the East Rift Zone, scientists say.

Magma is currently accumulating ‘at shallow depths’ beneath the existing Pu’u O’o eruption. The last time a major vent opened in the area was June 27, 2014 – the appropriately-named June 27th Flow sent lava flowing more than 12 miles into the town of Pahoa, causing minor damage to roads and structures.

Continue reading “: New Kilauea lava vent could form ‘at any time,’ scientists say” »

A man in Paris has become the world’s first to successfully receive two facial transplants.

Jérôme Hamon, 43, underwent his first face transplantation procedure in 2010 to treat neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder characterized by the growth of tumors along nerves in the skin, brain and other parts of the body. Yet Hamon’s body rejected the original transplant.

In January, a team of surgeons and paramedics at Georges Pompidou European Hospital AP-HP, led by surgeon Dr. Laurent Lantieri, performed Hamon’s second transplant.

Continue reading “Man’s second face transplant is a world first” »

If it’s started to feel like all summer blockbuster movies are being written by robots [INSERT FORMER PRO WRESTLER, INSERT GIANT CGI ANIMAL], you’ll be disquieted to learn that that future may not be too far off.

The meditation app Calm teamed up with the tech team at Botnik to write a new Brothers Grimm-style fairy tale entirely through artificial intelligence. By inputting the data from existing Brothers Grimm stories and using predictive text technology (and with a few human writers stitching things together), the group at Botnik crafted “The Princess and the Fox,” a story about “a talking fox [who] helps the lowly miller’s son to rescue the beautiful princess from the fate of having to marry a dreadful prince who she does not love.”

“We’re doing for the Brothers Grimm what Jurassic Park did for dinosaurs,” says Michael Acton Smith, co-founder of Calm, in a press press release. “We’re bringing them back from the dead, with modern science.” (It perhaps bears remembering here that Jurassic Park famously did not end well.)

Continue reading “Artificial intelligence is writing fairy tales now, and humanity is doomed” »

But the mice didn’t seem any smarter than usual.

Will robots dream in ones and zeros? Can they appreciate a rose by any other name? Perhaps a new class calculus will provide us with those answers, and machines with consciousness.

Human stem cells—the biological jack of all trades—have revolutionized modern medicine, with their ability to transform into specialized cell types.

But the current approach, which requires specialized instructive protein molecules known as growth factors, comes with risks, including the potential development of unwanted tissue, i.e., a tumor.

Researchers at Texas A&M University, however, have discovered a gentler approach.

Continue reading “Nanoparticles Grow Bone, Cartilage Tissue Without Harmful Side Effects” »

Four virtual reality (VR) veterans from Discovery Digital, Oculus Story Studio and Lightshed officially launched their new company out of stealth mode in San Francisco this week. Dubbed Tomorrow Never Knows, the new studio aims to use virtual and augmented reality as well as other emerging technologies including artificial intelligence for groundbreaking storytelling projects, said co-founder and CEO Nathan Brown in an interview with Variety this week.

“The thesis behind the company is to consistently violate the limits of storytelling, forcing the creation of new tools, methodologies and workflow and to do this intentionally so we create original creative and technology IP,” he said.

Before founding Tomorrow Never Knows, Brown co-founded Discovery VR, which has become one of the most ambitious network-backed VR outlets. Also hailing from Discovery VR is Tomorrow Never Knows co-founder Tom Lofthouse. They are joined by Gabo Arora, whose previous work as the founder of Lightshed included VR documentaries like “Clouds Over Sidra” and “Waves of Grace,” as well as Oculus Story Studio co-founder Sachka Unseld, the director of the Emmy Award-winning VR animation short “Henry” and the Emmy-nominated VR film “Dear Angelica.”

Continue reading “Discovery VR, Oculus Veterans Launch New AR/VR Studio Tomorrow Never Knows (EXCLUSIVE)” »

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TESS for short, will add a powerful new tool to the hunt for Earth-like planets. Here’s how scientists are going about identifying habitable exoplanets.