Lifeboat Foundation

Actual universal basic income going on 💸💵💰🪙

STIMULUS checks have given Americans a feel for universal basic income (UBI) – but folks in certain states and cities are getting used to this idea.

UBI is a set of recurring payments that individuals get from the government. These can be paid out every month, several times a year, or just once annually.

Continue reading “Thousands of Americans eligible for direct payments worth up to $2,550” »

Solar cells are vital for the green energy transition. They can be used not only on rooftops and solar farms but also for powering autonomous vehicles, such as planes and satellites. However, photovoltaic solar cells are currently heavy and bulky, making them difficult to transport to remote locations off-grid, where they are much needed.

In a collaboration led by Imperial College London, alongside researchers from Cambridge, UCL, Oxford, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin in Germany, and others, researchers have produced materials that can absorb comparable levels of sunlight as conventional silicon solar cells, but with 10,000 times lower thickness.

The material is sodium bismuth sulfide (NaBiS₂), which is grown as nanocrystals and deposited from solution to make films 30 nanometers in thickness. NaBiS₂ is comprised of nontoxic elements that are sufficiently abundant in the earth’s crust for use commercially. For example, bismuth-based compounds are used as a nontoxic lead replacement in solder, or in over-the-counter stomach medicine.

“Everyone can quantum.”

Chinese multinational technology company Baidu just released its first quantum computer on Thursday. The first superconducting quantum computer, “Qian Shi” can integrate hardware, software, and many applications. Baidu also introduced the world’s first all-platform quantum hardware-software integration solution — Liang Xi — that provides access to various quantum chips via mobile app, PC, and cloud.

Qian Shi is expected to solve data that a standard computer cannot calculate and problems that cannot be solved. This development is also thought to be a breakthrough in artificial intelligence, computational biology, material simulation, and financial technology.

Continue reading “Baidu Releases Superconducting Quantum Computer and World’s First All-Platform Integration Solution, Making Quantum Computing Within Reach” »

It’s a big step forward in understanding exoplanets.

Humanity’s giant space telescope has captured evidence of carbon dioxide in a planet outside of the solar system for the first time. According to a Thursday press release.

The detection was made using Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) and took the form of a small bump between 4.1 and 4.6 microns on the spectrum related to the exoplanet’s atmosphere. The evidence helps shine a light on how planets are formed.

Continue reading “NASA’s Webb Detects Carbon Dioxide in Exoplanet Atmosphere” »

Just 1 kilo of hydrogen fuel can do the same as around 9.9 pounds of diesel.

French-based company Alstom broke new ground in transportation. The company announced the world’s first hydrogen train, the Coradia iLint, reached Bremervörde, Lower Saxony, Germany.

This regional train only emits steam and condensed water while operating with a low noise level. With this breakthrough, it has been aimed to contribute to the greenest rail network globally, Alstom says.

Continue reading “14 Coradia iLint to start passenger service on first 100% hydrogen operated route” »

The Rhythm of Crust Production on Earth

Many rocks on Earth form from molten or semi-molten magma. This magma is derived either directly from the mantle—the predominantly solid but slowly flowing layer below the planet’s crust—or from recooking even older bits of pre-existing crust. As liquid magma cools, it eventually freezes into solid rock.

Through this cooling process of magma crystallization, mineral grains grow and can trap elements such as uranium that decay over time and produce a sort of stopwatch, recording their age. Not only that, but crystals can also trap other elements that track the composition of their parental magma, like how a surname might track a person’s family.

Aug. 24 (UPI) — A team of researchers have discovered an exoplanet about 100 light years away from Earth in the Draco constellation, and they say the world appears to be covered in a deep ocean.

The exoplanet — called TOI-1452b — is slightly larger than the Earth and is located in a “Goldilocks zone,” where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist. Therefore, astronomers think TOI-1452b could be covered in an ocean.

Continue reading “Scientists say TOI-1452b, exoplanet 100 light years from Earth, may be covered with deep ocean” »

Future internet connection speeds – 2030, 2040, 2050. Predictions of future internet technologies and trends. What will the internet be like in 2050?

As the world builds out ever larger installations of wind and solar power systems, the need is growing fast for economical, large-scale backup systems to provide power when the sun is down and the air is calm. Today’s lithium-ion batteries are still too expensive for most such applications, and other options such as pumped hydro require specific topography that’s not always available.

Now, researchers at MIT and elsewhere have developed a new kind of battery, made entirely from abundant and inexpensive materials, that could help to fill that gap.

The new battery architecture, which uses aluminum and sulfur as its two electrode materials, with a molten salt electrolyte in between, is described today in the journal Nature, in a paper by MIT Professor Donald Sadoway, along with 15 others at MIT and in China, Canada, Kentucky, and Tennessee.