Lifeboat Foundation

Every now and again, the night sky lights up with a spectacular explosion that blazes with the most energetic light our Universe can produce. Known as gamma-ray bursts, they can release in a few seconds what our Sun will emit over its lifetime.

Now scientists have found a never-before-seen signal buried in the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation delivered by the brightest gamma ray burst ever recorded.

That signal is an emission light – a bright region in the gamma-ray spectrum produced by something emitting light in that specific wavelength range. And that something, scientists have determined, is complete and utter destruction: the mutual annihilation of electron-positron pairs, matter and its antimatter counterpart.

Could we store samples of Earth’s endangered biodiversity on the Moon for long-term preservation? This is what a recent study published in BioScience hopes to address as a team of researchers led by the Smithsonian Institution proposes how the Moon’s permanently shadowed regions (PSRs) located at the lunar north and south poles could be ideal locations for establishing a lunar biorepository where endangered species can be cryopreserved. This study holds the potential to safeguard Earth’s biodiversity from extinction while improving future space exploration and possible terraforming of other worlds.

“Initially, a lunar biorepository would target the most at-risk species on Earth today, but our ultimate goal would be to cryopreserve most species on Earth,” said Dr. Mary Hagedorn, who is a research cryobiologist at the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute and lead author of the study. “We hope that by sharing our vision, our group can find additional partners to expand the conversation, discuss threats and opportunities and conduct the necessary research and testing to make this biorepository a reality.”

The reason lunar PSRs are of interest for this proposal is due to several craters being completely devoid of sunlight from the Moon’s small axial tilt (6.7 degrees versus Earth’s 23.5 degrees). The team postulates this presents ample opportunity for storing several groups, including pollinators, threatened and endangered animals, culturally important species, and primary producers, just to name a few.

Nick bostroms simulation argument.

Have you ever paused, looked around, and wondered if everything you see, feel, and experience is real? Or could it be that we’re living in a sophisticated simulation, indistinguishable from reality?

This thought isn’t just a plot from a sci-fi movie; it’s a serious philosophical argument proposed by Nick Bostrom, known as the Simulation Argument. If you’ve ever questioned the nature of reality or pondered over the mysteries of existence, this exploration is for you.

Continue reading “Reality or Simulation? Simulation Argument by Nick Bostrom” »

A cutting-edge theory of mind suggests a new type of doomsday scenario.

What would it take to set Uranus ablaze? Is it even possible to burn it in the typical sense? If anyone can figure it out, it’s the Dead Planets Society.

Join Dead Planeteers Leah and Chelsea as they invite planetary scientist Paul Byrne back to the podcast, to join in more of their chaotic antics.

Continue reading “Can We Burn Uranus? | Dead Planets Society Podcast” »

Achieving such a concept — commonly referred to as AGI — is the driving mission of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and a priority for the elite research wings of tech giants https://fortune.com/company/amazon-com/” class=””>Amazon, https://fortune.com/company/alphabet/” class=””>Google, Meta and https://fortune.com/company/microsoft/” class=””>Microsoft.

It’s also a cause for concern https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-risks-uk-…d6e2b910b” rel=“noopener” class=””>for world governments. Leading AI scientists published research Thursday in the journal Science warning that unchecked AI agents with “long-term planning” skills could pose an existential risk to humanity.

But what exactly is AGI and how will we know when it’s been attained? Once on the fringe of computer science, it’s now a buzzword that’s being constantly redefined by those trying to make it happen.

BUSAN, South Korea — The European Space Agency will allow a proposed mission to the asteroid Apophis to proceed to a next stage of development to keep it on schedule even though it is not yet fully funded.

ESA announced July 16 that its space safety program, which includes planetary defense, has given the Ramses mission permission to begin preparatory work for the mission, which is designed to visit Apophis before that asteroid makes a very close flyby of Earth in April 2029.

Ramses, or Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety, would use the same spacecraft bus as ESA’s Hera mission, scheduled to launch this October to visit the asteroid Didymos, whose moon Dimorphos was the target of NASA’s DART mission to deflect its orbit. Ramses will carry two cubesats for additional studies of the asteroid.

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Our universe is a strange place, with underlying rules we’re only just beginning to understand, but could the strangest thing of all about our Universe be that we are able to live here to observe it in the first place?

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Continue reading “The Fermi Paradox: Fine Tuned Universe” »

30 years ago, on 16 July 1994, astronomers watched in awe as the first of many pieces of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet slammed into Jupiter with incredible force. The event sparked intense interest in the field of planetary defence as people asked: “Could we do anything to prevent this happening to Earth?”

Today, ESA’s Space Safety programme takes another step towards answering this question. The programme has received permission to begin preparatory work for its next planetary defence mission – the Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety (Ramses).

Ramses will rendezvous with the asteroid 99,942 Apophis and accompany it through its safe but exceptionally close flyby of Earth in 2029. Researchers will study the asteroid as Earth’s gravity alters its physical characteristics. Their findings will improve our ability to defend our planet from any similar object found to be on a collision course in the future.