Lifeboat Foundation

A California-based startup called JetZero has a different idea: changing the shape of commercial planes and the material they’re made of. The company unveiled its designs for the midsize commercial and military tanker-transport markets this spring, and has big plans to upend the way air travel looks and feels—as well as how much it costs and how much carbon it emits. Tony Fadell, founder of venture capital firm Build Collective and a JetZero investor and strategic advisor, thinks the company could be the “SpaceX of aviation” due to its potential to disrupt the existing business model.

JetZero’s planes, which are still in the concept/prototype phase, have a blended wing body design. That means the wings merge with the main body of the aircraft, rather than being attached to a hollow tube like the planes we travel in today. Picture the body of a manta ray: wide and flat, it tapers off to a narrower fin at each side, with a head and a tail. A blended wing body aircraft isn’t terribly different, though on JetZero’s models the body isn’t quite as wide.

Besides providing a lot more space, this design is more aerodynamic than tube-and-wing planes. JetZero plans to fly its planes at higher altitudes than today’s norm (40 to 45,000 feet rather than 30 to 35,000), and says its airframe will cut fuel burn and emissions in half. It plans to make its planes out of carbon fiber and kevlar (a strong lightweight fiber used for things like body armor, bulletproof vests, car brakes, boats, and aircraft). The company says its planes’ lighter weight and improved aerodynamics would be able to fly at the same speed and range as existing midbody jetliners, but burn half as much fuel in the process.

Reels started as Instagram’s solution for competing with TikTok and soon launched on sister-site Facebook — a natural expansion. Meta is now testing Reels on a less expected medium: the Meta Quest. Its VR headset works for internet browsing, watching movies, games and more — but the addition of typically-vertical Reels presents a different viewing experience than these more malleable (and typically screen-wide) options.

Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the update through a 13-second video on Meta’s Instagram Channel. It featured a Reel from influencer Austin Sprinz’s Instagram account in which he visited the world’s deepest pool. The immersive video is a good choice for VR, taking the viewer underwater into a seemingly bottomless space — and is certainly better than a cooking or dance Reel.

The Reels update comes ahead of Meta Quest 3’s fall release and follows Apple’s new AR/VR Vision Pro headset announcement. Though, with Quest 3’s pricing starting at $499, compared to the Vision Pro’s $3,499, the pair don’t exactly fall into the same category. Meta’s VR headset line first launched as Oculus Quest and subsequently Oculus Quest 2 before the second-generation model was rebranded as Meta Quest 2. The Meta Quest Pro followed soon after the name change. As for Reels, there’s no timeline for if and when it will leave the testing phase and become available across Meta Quest headsets.

Instead of yanking the rug away from producers, these tools can actually streamline the music production workflow. We put together a guide to help you get your feet wet.

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Continue reading “Taurine Deficiency As A Driver Of Aging: What’s My Data (Youthful Or Aged)?” »

This is a new channel with Liz Parrish. This is an hour with Aubrey.

Most people consider #aging to be a normal part of the cycle of #life and #death. But, did you know that some people see aging merely as a disease?
Which means that they believe there is a cure for aging.
And, these people are in pursuit of that cure.

Continue reading “Ep#04 Aubrey De Grey : What if we don’t have to die” »

Texas-based Firefly Aerospace says it has acquired Bellevue, Wash.-based Spaceflight Inc. and will shift the operation’s focus from satellite rideshare logistics to its line of orbital transfer vehicles.

Firefly says the strategic acquisition will add to its portfolio of low-cost space transportation services, ranging from launch vehicles to its Blue Ghost lunar lander.

Continue reading “Firefly Aerospace acquires Spaceflight Inc. to boost capabilities for on-orbit services” »

It’s not easy to impress the world’s fourth richest person. But Gates is calling this breakthrough ‘the big thing.’

With the Monsoon rains comes many infectious diseases that can pose health risks, such as mosquito-borne malaria and dengue.

Early suggestion for a likely diagnosis can save lives. However, many infections share the same symptoms and clinical findings. The combination of a detailed patient anamnesis, physical examination, and laboratory data is therefore a prerequisite for identification of the likely cause.

In a paper published in Science Advances, an international team led by deCODE genetics, a subsidiary of Amgen, reveals the discovery of sequence variants in the gene ABCC9 that influence the pitch of voices.

Speaking is one of the most characteristic human behaviors, and yet the genetic underpinnings of voice and speech are largely unknown. In the first study of its kind, the scientists combined speech recordings from almost 13,000 Icelanders with data, in the sequence of the genome, to search for common variants in ABCC9 that are associated with a higher-pitched voice.

Continue reading “Study reveals first genetic locus for voice pitch” »