Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists have discovered an antibody produced by an HIV-positive patient that neutralises 98 percent of all HIV strains tested — including most of the strains that are resistant to other antibodies of the same class.

Due to HIV’s ability to rapidly respond to the body’s immune defences, an antibody that can block a wide range of strains has been very hard to come by. But now that we’ve found one, it could form the basis of a new vaccine against the virus.

Researchers from the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that the antibody, called NG, was able to maintain its ability to recognise the HIV virus, even as the virus morphed and broke away from it.

Continue reading “Scientists Have Identified an Antibody That Neutralises 98% of HIV Strains” »

Lenses with a surface accuracy in the nanometer range are behind ever more accurate laser and optical systems. Manufacturers depend on ultra-precise optical and mechanical ablation processes, innovative coating processes and extremely accurate measuring technology to venture into these nano-worlds. The latest trends in optical manufacturing will be showcased by the world’s leading trade fair LASER World of PHOTONICS, from June 26–29, 2017 in Munich.

Nanoscribe GmbH’s 3D printing process creates three-dimensional micro and nano lenses from photosensitive coatings. The structures are built up a pulse at a time by highly focused femtosecond lasers employing two-photon polymerization. Source: Nanoscribe GmbH

The diversity of lenses, their shapes, sizes and materials is growing all the time. Applications in non-visible wavelengths from x-rays and ultraviolet to the far infrared also require special optics, such as material processing using short pulse and ultrashort pulse lasers or imaging techniques in the medical and research fields and industrial quality control.

Continue reading “Ultra-precision in optical manufacturing” »

Immensely concentrated sunlight provides a novel method for the synthesis of many nanomaterials that possess remarkable photonic, tribological, electronic, and catalytic properties.

The solar paradigm of creating singular nanomaterials that possess unprecedented photonic, tribological, electronic, and catalytic properties is arguably far less familiar than the energy-saving paradigms of solar photovoltaics and solar thermal systems. Much of the research in this field has evolved over the past decade from our collaborations (i.e., between researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel).

Continue reading “Solar-energy paradigm for generating singular nanomaterials” »

Research out of New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering has found a new method for developing electronics at the atomic scale — and it’s difficult to get much smaller than that.

Scientists and engineers have previously tried developing electronics using two-dimensional or monolayer electronic materials like graphene to make transistors, but found that the material’s lack of an energy band gap poses difficulties for semiconductor applications.

The new research by assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering Davood Shahrjerdi and doctoral student Abdullah Alharbi, has shown that using a monolayer of tungsten disulfide might be the key to unlocking the potential in nano-scale electronics.

Continue reading “New Monolayer Material Could Unlock Nano-Scale Electronics” »

Researchers from Case Western Reserve University, Dayton Air Force Research Laboratory and China have developed a new dry adhesive that bonds in extreme temperatures—a quality that could make the product ideal for space exploration and beyond.

The gecko-inspired adhesive loses no traction in temperatures as cold as liquid nitrogen or as hot as molten silver, and actually gets stickier as heat increases, the researchers report.

The research, which builds on earlier development of a single-sided dry adhesive tape based on vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, is published in the journal Nature Communications (“Carbon nanotube dry adhesives with temperature-enhanced adhesion over a large temperature range”). As far as the researchers know, no other dry adhesive is capable of working at such temperature extremes.

TOKYO — Leading information technology companies are rushing to create systems that use artificial intelligence to defend against cyberattacks. The goal is to commercialize AI software to detect even ingeniously designed attacks, identify the perpetrators, and quickly mount a defense.

However, research is also taking place in the U.S. and elsewhere on ways to harness AI for cyberwarfare, and the trend suggests there will come a time when the battles in cyberspace pit AI against AI, leaving humans sidelined.

Fujitsu Laboratories, the R&D unit of Japanese IT giant Fujitsu, has begun to develop an AI system to protect corporate information systems from cyberattack. The system would learn to recognize regular patterns of network activity so deviant behavior stands out. The company aims to have a commercial product ready in two to three years that could uncover and respond to attacks even from hackers who intentionally space out their login attempts so they are difficult to discover.

Continue reading “Cybersecurity companies adopting AI, but so are hackers” »

You know that whole chaos theory idea (okay, we saw it in an Ashton Kutcher movie) about how a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world can trigger a hurricane in another?

Well, the 2016 equivalent is a project where scientists in Russia wear an exoskeleton to control a connected robot in Germany.

Continue reading “Wearable exoskeleton lets researchers in Russia control a robot in Germany” »

Lawmakers are struggling on how to improve the security of internet-connected devices.

Diamonds are a computer’s best friend.

Different kinds of quantum computers encode information using their own wavelengths of light, but a device that modifies their photons could allow them to network.