Lifeboat Foundation

In theory, it could mitigate the effects of global warming; but experts are wary.

Make Sunsets, a California-based startup, released weather balloons that carried sulfur particles into the stratosphere which possibly burst there, releasing the chemical, MIT Technology Review.

Continue reading “US startup wants to inject sulfur into the atmosphere to cool down the Earth” »

The research group of laser-matter interaction at the Institute of Intense Lasers and Applications (CELIA) at the University of Bordeaux, France, has explored a new glass micro-drilling method using a femtosecond laser in GHz-burst mode.

Publishing in the journal International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, the research team used a femtosecond laser from Amplitude operating in the GHz-burst regime to study a new glass micromachining method which allows for drilling taper-free, elongated holes with smooth inner walls without any cracks in the glass. Usually, laser drilling with standard single femtosecond pulses results in tapered holes of strongly limited length and rough inner surface.

This new laser-matter interaction regime makes it possible to directly drill holes of high aspect ratio in one single step without any chemical etching. The choice of the laser-burst parameters was revealed to be very important in order to achieve an outstanding micromachining quality of the machined structures. The femtosecond laser GHz-burst mode could pave the way for new applications such as microelectronics where silicon interposers are likely to be replaced by glass interposers.

NOTE FROM TED: We’ve flagged this talk, which was filmed at a TEDx event, because it appears to fall outside TEDx’s curatorial guidelines. The sweeping claims and assertions made in this talk are based on the speaker’s own theory and lack legitimate scientific support. TEDx events are independently organized by volunteers. The guidelines we give TEDx organizers are described in more detail here: http://storage.ted.com/tedx/manuals/tedx_content_guidelines.pdf.

The origin of intelligent life on earth requires a host of statistically improbable events which may imply that similar intelligent life elsewhere is extremely unlikely, a fact mostly ignored in discussions about contacting extraterrestrial life.

Continue reading “Why We are Alone in the Galaxy | Marc Defant | TEDxUSF” »

Recently, a start-up company called Make Sunsets has begun releasing chemicals into the stratosphere as a form of geoengineering that is intended to help climate change. However, many are very hesitant about the startup and the result of what they are doing.

For perspective, geoengineering is when chemical particles are released into the stratosphere to manipulate the weather or climate. The theory is that when sulfur is released into the atmosphere that it mimics a natural process that occurs after volcanoes and that by doing this intentionally, we could ease global warming.

While it isn’t difficult to do this, it is very controversial. The reason for this is that it could potentially have dangerous side effects. Additionally, because some regions could endure worse side effects, it could cause issues across international lines.

Researchers have found a new way to kill cancer cells by using artificial DNA which could pave the way for a cure for the disease in the future. The existing methods of treating cancer have their limitations, however, scientists believe that RNA and DNA-based drugs could potentially help beat the deadly disease.

The findings published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, last week, show that the researchers at the University of Tokyo have used the chemically synthesised, hairpin-shaped, cancer-killing DNA to target and kill human cervical cancer and breast cancer-derived cells. The DNA pairs were also used against malignant melanoma cells in mice.

The team of researchers at the University of Tokyo, led by Assistant Professor Kunihiko Morihiro and Professor Akimitsu Okamoto from the Graduate School of Engineering, indicated that they were inspired to move away from conventional anti-cancer drug treatments by using artificial DNA.

In November 2016, virologist David Evans traveled to Geneva for a meeting of a World Health Organization committee on smallpox research. The deadly virus had been declared eradicated 36 years earlier; the only known live samples of smallpox were in the custody of the United States and Russian governments.

Evans, though, had a striking announcement: Months before the meeting, he and a colleague had created a close relative of smallpox virus, effectively from scratch, at their laboratory in Canada. In a subsequent report, the WHO wrote that the team’s method “did not require exceptional biochemical knowledge or skills, significant funds, or significant time.”

Continue reading “Experts Debate the Risks of Made-to-Order DNA” »

Professor Carmit Levy. Credit: Tel Aviv University.

Professor Carmit Levy from the Department of Human Genetics and Biochemistry and Dr. Yftach Gepner from the School of Public Health and the Sylvan Adams Sports Institute at TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine conducted the study. Prof. Levy notes that the new research has resulted in a very important discovery by merging scientific know-how from different schools at TAU, which may help avoid metastatic cancer, Israel’s top cause of death. The study was recently published on the cover of the journal of Cancer Research.

Prof. Levy and Dr. Gepner: “Studies have demonstrated that physical exercise reduces the risk for some types of cancer by up to 35%. This positive effect is similar to the impact of exercise on other conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes. In this study we added new insight, showing that high-intensity aerobic exercise, which derives its energy from sugar, can reduce the risk of metastatic cancer by as much as 72%. If so far the general message to the public has been ‘be active, be healthy’, now we can explain how aerobic activity can maximize the prevention of the most aggressive and metastatic types of cancer.”

A “sex peptide” transferred from male to female fruit flies during mating interferes with the female’s biological clock, reducing her chances of mating again.

Studying the large-scale structure of our galaxy isn’t easy. We don’t have a clear view of the Milky Way’s shape and features like we do of other galaxies, largely because we live within it. But we do have some advantages. From within, we’re able to carry out close-up surveys of the Milky Way’s stellar population and its chemical compositions. That gives researchers the tools they need to compare our own galaxy to the many millions of others in the Universe.

This week, an international team of researchers from the USA, UK, and Chile released a paper that does just that. They dug through a catalogue of ten thousand galaxies produced by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, searching for galaxies with similar attributes to our own.

They discovered that the Milky Way has twins – many of them – but just as many that are only superficially similar, with fundamental differences buried in the data. What they discovered has implications for the future evolution of our own galaxy.