Lifeboat Foundation

There’s nothing quite like a captivating image to make you want to learn more. And nowhere is that more apparent than when it comes to sometimes hard-to-understand science. Before we all get too settled into 2019, we thought we’d take a look back at some of our best pictures from 2018. If you missed these images the first time we shared them — on our website or in social media — we hope you’ll take the time this go-round to learn a little bit more about what we do.

AUTHOR’s NOTE: These images were all shared by NIST for the first time in 2018. Some may have been taken prior to that year. Images are listed below in no particular order.

Continue reading “Top NIST Images of 2018” »

The microwave auditory effect, also known as the microwave hearing effect or the Frey effect, consists of audible clicks (or, with speech modulation, spoken words) induced by pulsed/modulated microwave frequencies… The cause is thought to be thermoelastic expansion of portions of the auditory apparatus.

Abstract:

Radio Tomography:

A radio tomographic (RT) system uses the received signal strength (RSS) measurements collected on the links of a wireless mesh network composed of low-powe.

Skyrocketing pixel counts are making for a more immersive viewing experience. Here’s why.

By Vox Creative

Around age six, we start learning how to tie our shoelaces, making knots that look like ribbons—or possibly more complex forms, if we are a little clumsy. We use knots every day, but the type of knots we generally use are associated with physical objects, things we can touch.

Although it can be hard to image, light can also be shaped in ways that form knotted configurations, whose shape depends on the orbital angular momentum of the light. This parameter is responsible for making the beam of light twist around its own axis, generating different knot shapes, and expanding to a new degree of freedom that can carry valuable information.

Learning and mastering how to generate twisted light—light with orbital angular momentum—has been a thriving field of study for the past 20 years. Unlike spin angular momentum, which is associated with the polarization of light, orbital angular momentum is associated with the spatial distribution of the electric field. These two types of angular momentum can also be coupled, which results in a variety of light fields of different shapes with polarizations that change from point to point.

Continue reading “Multicolored light twists in new knotted ways” »

Exclusive: ‘People on antidepressants long-term say they feel blunted, with psychedelic therapy it’s the opposite, they talk about an emotional release, a reconnection’

Why do we feel listless when we are recovering from an illness? The answer is, apparently, that low-grade chronic inflammation interferes with the dopaminergic signaling system in the brain that motivates us to do things.

This was reported in a new paper published in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

The research carried out at Emory University explains the links between the reduced release of dopamine in the brain, the motivation to do things, and the presence of an inflammatory reaction in the body. It also presents the possibility that this is part of the body’s effort to optimize its energy expenditure during such inflammatory episodes, citing evidence gathered during their study.

Continue reading “Chronic inflammation removes motivation” »

The inside line to the future.

Explore the many features that the Toyota Prius Prime has to offer. Let’s go places.