Lifeboat Foundation

Anil Seth, Neuroscientist, Author, and Public Speaker who has pioneered research into the brain basis of consciousness for more than 20 years.

Moderated by Susan Schneider, Ph.D., William F Dietrich Distinguished Professor of Philosophy in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters; Member of the Brain Institute. Schneider is founding director of the Center for the Future Mind.

Continue reading “Anil Seth’s ‘Being You? A New Science of Consciousness’” »

Light sources, a form of particle accelerator, produce powerful beams of X-rays and other spectrums, enabling scientists to peer into the microscopic structure of materials without physically altering them.

These machines differ from other accelerators as they use oscillating magnetic fields to generate light directly. They play a crucial role across various scientific fields, from studying atomic structures with hard X-rays to examining electronic structures with terahertz waves.

Light sources are a type of particle accelerator that produce powerful beams of X-rays, ultra-violet, or infrared light. These beams are similar to how holding an envelope in front of a bright light can reveal something about what’s inside the envelope. But by using special types of light vastly more powerful than the X-ray machine in a doctor’s office, these light sources help scientists see inside matter. It’s like seeing inside an envelope without opening it. This gives scientists the power to reveal how materials behave at microscopic or nanoscale sizes as well as at ultrafast speeds.

As President, Jimmy Carter established several science-related initiatives and policies.

Carter also sought to promote scientific research and development in a number of areas. He increased funding for basic science research in fields such as physics and chemistry, and established the National Commission on Excellence in Education to promote improvements in science and math education in American schools.

Continue reading “Looking back at President Jimmy Carter’s science policy” »

Meet Barbara Di Ventura, an engineer turned synthetic biologist at the University of Freiburg, who explores protein dynamics across cell types. Outside of the laboratory, she moonlights as a musician. Di Ventura harmonizes her passion for art and science in musical abstracts, using a guitar to riff about her latest research, transforming scientific communication into a lively experience.

What inspired you to start creating musical abstracts?

I was inspired by Uri Alon, a systems biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, who played the guitar and sang songs about his group’s projects in an entertaining way. Then in 2021, we published a paper on a novel optogenetic tool for controlling gene expression in bacteria, and I had this vision to write a song about it.¹ We’re constantly asked to describe our work in new ways despite the numerous figures we produce. To me, writing song lyrics is easier than new text. The song “American Pie” came to mind, and it sounded cool with “Bye-bye, L-arabinose drive,” where L-arabinose is the normal inducer of this system.

Mental health issues are one of the most common causes of disability, affecting more than a billion people worldwide. Addressing mental health difficulties can present extraordinarily tough problems: what can providers do to help people in the most precarious situations? How do changes in the physical brain affect our thoughts and experiences? And at the end of the day, how can everyone get the care they need?

Answering those questions was the shared goal of the researchers who attended the Mental Health, Brain, and Behavioral Science Research Day in September. While the problems they faced were serious, the new solutions they started to build could ultimately help improve mental health care at individual and societal levels.

“We’re building something that there’s no blueprint for,” said Mark Rapaport, MD, CEO of Huntsman Mental Health Institute at the University of Utah. “We’re developing new and durable ways of addressing some of the most difficult issues we face in society.”

Twenty years ago, the MESSENGER mission revolutionized our understanding of Mercury. We sat down with project head and former Carnegie Science director Sean Solomon to talk about how the mission came together and the groundbreaking work it enabled.

Q: As the principal investigator of the MESSENGER mission, what were your personal highlights or proudest moments throughout the mission’s duration? Sean Solomon: There were many personal highlights for me during the MESSENGER mission, beginning with our initial selection by NASA in 1999 and culminating in the publication by the MESSENGER science team of all of the findings from our mission in a book published nearly two decades later.

The most challenging events in any planetary orbiter mission are launch and orbit insertion. The successful completion of those two milestones for MESSENGER—in 2004 and 2011, respectively—were sources of great pride for me in the technical expertise of all of the engineers, mission design experts, and project managers who contributed to the mission.

In the ever-evolving landscape of scientific discovery, certain paradigms periodically challenge the established norms, compelling us to reconsider the boundaries of what we deem as ‘science.’ One such paradigm is the intersection of quantum physics and metaphysical science. Despite skepticism, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that these two fields are not only compatible but also complementary. This blog delves into how quantum physics supports metaphysical science and argues for its integration into mainstream scientific discourse, underpinned by historical precedents.

“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena; it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.” — Nikola Tesla

Quantum physics, the study of particles at the smallest scales of energy levels, has fundamentally altered our understanding of reality. The principles of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, entanglement, and wave-particle duality, have revealed a universe far more intricate and interconnected than classical physics ever suggested. These concepts resonate profoundly with metaphysical science, which explores the nature of reality, consciousness, and existence beyond the physical.

And could entire civilizations seek to leave this reality behind?

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Continue reading “Transcendence: Many seek a path to enlightenment through study and meditation, but what does science tell us about transcendence?” »

Once online in 2030, it will make modern speeds feel like dial-up.