Lifeboat Foundation

A newly invented fuel cell taps into naturally present, and ubiquitous microbes in the soil to generate power.

This soil-powered device, about the size of a regular paperback book, offers a viable alternative to batteries in underground sensors used for precision agriculture.

Northwestern University highlighted the durability of its robust fuel cell, showcasing its ability to withstand various environmental conditions, including both arid soil and flood-prone areas.

Longevity and regenerative medicine doctor Neil Paulvin shares the “holy grail” of longevity foods that he eats every day to boost his brain power and immune system.

India has used traditional methods of agriculture for generations, but with 1.4 billion people now dependant on the crops farmers produce, some are turning to technology to boost productivity and profit.

For example on one vineyard, sensor devices are being used to check weather and soil health.

Continue reading “Artificial intelligence comes to farming in India | BBC News” »

Kidney damage from diabetes is called diabetic nephropathy. You can slow down kidney damage or keep it from getting worse. Controlling your blood sugar and blood pressure, taking your medicines and not eating too much protein can help.

If you have diabetes, your blood glucose, or blood sugar, levels are too high. Over time, this can damage your kidneys. Your kidneys clean your blood. If they are damaged, waste and fluids build up in your blood instead of leaving your body.

Kidney damage from diabetes is called diabetic nephropathy. It begins long before you have symptoms. People with diabetes should get regular screenings for kidney disease. Tests include a urine test to detect protein in your urine and a blood test to show how well your kidneys are working.

Continue reading “Diabetic Nephropathy | Diabetic Kidney Disease” »

For older adults with mild high blood pressure, a new study suggests consuming tomatoes may help manage hypertension and may even lower the risk of developing high blood pressure in the first place.

In the study, people without high blood pressure who ate the most tomatoes or tomato-based foods had a 36% lower risk of developing hypertension than those who ate the least.

In people who already had high blood pressure, especially those with stage 1 hypertension, moderate consumption of tomatoes was associated with a reduction in blood pressure.

With better food preservation and factories that are more precise along with more upgrades to the global supply line we could even eliminate poverty with the food that is wasted.

It is estimated that 1.3 billion metric tons of food are lost or wasted annually, translating to a financial loss of $1 trillion (USD) per year. And without significant changes, this problem is expected to grow to 2.1 billion metric tons and $1.5 trillion by 2030.

Staggering as these numbers might be, they do not take into account the hidden costs of food production, including labor, storage and salvage or the costs related to customer dissatisfaction, lost opportunities, and inventory/stocking level imprecision.

Continue reading “Food Waste Costs the World’s Economy $1T Each Year” »

Our smart devices take voice commands from us, check our heartbeats, track our sleep, translate text, send us reminders, capture photos and movies, and let us talk to family and friends continents away.

Now imagine turbocharging those capabilities. Holding in-depth, natural language exchanges on academic or personal queries; running our vital signs through a global database to check on imminent health issues; packing massive databases to provide comprehensive real-time translation among two or more parties speaking different languages; and conversing with GPS software providing details on the best burgers, movies, hotels or people-watching spots trending along your route.

Tapping into the seductive power of large language models and natural language processing, we’ve witnessed tremendous progress in communications between us and technology that we increasingly rely on in our daily lives.

Berlin-based designer Kimia Amir-Moazami hopes to tackle the issue of food waste with a container system that reveals if something is safe to eat or not.

Vorkoster is a smart lid that uses PH-sensitive film to detect if a food product has expired. The film gradually changes colour as the food product begins to spoil, making it easy to see whether it’s still edible.

This can provide an accurate indication of food freshness so that people don’t have to rely on generic expiry dates, which can lead to food being thrown out unnecessarily.

Though highly capable – far outperforming humans in big-data pattern recognition tasks in particular – current AI systems are not intelligent in the same way we are. AI systems aren’t structured like our brains and don’t learn the same way.

AI systems also use vast amounts of energy and resources for training (compared to our three-or-so meals a day). Their ability to adapt and function in dynamic, hard-to-predict and noisy environments is poor in comparison to ours, and they lack human-like memory capabilities.

Our research explores non-biological systems that are more like human brains. In a new study published in Science Advances, we found self-organising networks of tiny silver wires appear to learn and remember in much the same way as the thinking hardware in our heads.