Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers have been working for many years to comprehend the relationship between brain structure, functional connectivity, and intelligence. A recent study provides the most comprehensive understanding to date of how different regions of the brain and neural networks contribute to a person’s problem-solving ability in a variety of contexts, a trait known as general intelligence.

The researchers recently published their findings in the journal Human Brain Mapping.

The research, led by Aron Barbey, a professor of psychology, bioengineering, and neuroscience at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and first author Evan Anderson, a researcher for Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. working at the Air Force Research Laboratory, employed the technique of “connectome-based predictive modeling” to evaluate five theories on how the brain leads to intelligence.

Russia is one of the top three countries with the largest nuclear arsenal. However, it has struggled to catch up with America’s latest ICBM technologies during the last decade.

But all that is about to change with the nation’s latest addition to its vast arsenal: the state-of-the-art Satan 2 or Sarmat bomb.

Continue reading “Russia Says 16,000mph Satan-2 Nuke is Ready” »

In 2011, archaeologists uncovered one of the most — if not the most — pristine dinosaur fossils yet: a near-whole ankylosaur, complete with its jagged spikes, most of its limbs, armor coating, and some of its guts and stomach contents. The most amazing detail, though? Its uncannily preserved face and skin.

It took Mark Mitchell, a technician at Royal Tyrell Museum, an absurd 7,000 hours and nearly six years to meticulously exhume the fossil by delicately chipping away at the surrounding stone. For his efforts, he had the newly discovered specie of nodosaur — a type of ankylosaur — named after him: Borealopelta markmitchelli.

“During preparation, I would piece together the blocks like a puzzle, and the animal started to really take shape,” Mitchell said in a new interview with Ars Technica, describing the painstaking process.

A study published by The Planetary Science Journal in 2020 suggests that Psyche is made almost entirely of iron and nickel. This metallic composition sets it apart from other asteroids that are usually comprised of rock or ice, and could suggest it was originally part of a planetary core. That would not only represent a momentous discovery, it’s key to Psyche’s potential astronomical value: NASA scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton calculated that the iron in the asteroid alone could be worth as much as $10 quintillion, which is $10,000,000,000,000,000,000 (yes, a 20-figure sum). For context, the entire global economy is worth roughly $110 trillion as of writing. However, more recent research out of the University of Arizona suggests that the asteroid might not be as metallic or dense as once thought. Psyche could actually be closer to a rubble pile, rather than an exposed planetary core, the research claims. If true, this would devalue the asteroid. NASA’s upcoming mission should settle the debate about Pysche’s composition for once and all.

Of course, Psyche isn’t the only valuable rock in space. NASA has previously said the belt of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter holds mineral wealth equivalent to about $100 billion for every individual on Earth. Mining the precious metals within each asteroid and successfully getting them back down to earth is the hard part. Then you have the whole supply and demand conundrum that could drive the price of specific metals up or down. We’ll leave the complexities of space mining for another day.

Continue reading “This Rare Asteroid May Be Worth 70,000 Times the Global Economy. Now NASA Is Sending a Spaceship to Explore It” »

Scientists have developed a minuscule brain implant smaller than a human hair which allows people to control computers with their minds. The chip is developed by Precision Neuroscience and works along similar principles to those of Elon Musk’s Neuralink company, though the Precision chip sits on the brain rather than in the tissue.

In a study from the University of Auckland, scientists found a drug that can increase life span. The age-old quest for immortality has taken a step forward. The team that long-term treatment of healthy mice from middle age (one year) with a drug currently used to treat cancer can increase their lifespan by an average of 10% to around three years.

The DEIMOS laser weapon is seen here in illustration, capable in the near future of knocking a drone, ordinance, aircraft and even missiles out of the sky.

It is the economics of laser weapon systems that makes this type of ordinance so attractive. At the moment various vendors like Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon are building 50 Kilowatt laser weapons. But there is no determining limit on the strength. The U.S. Department of Defense estimates a 100 Kilowatt laser could easily handle a drone, a small boat, a shell fired by artillery, and even a mortar. For a cruise missile, the estimate is a 300 Kilowatt laser, and for a ballistic missile or hypersonic weapon, a 1 Megawatt laser. Lockheed Martin is already testing a 300 Kilowatt version of DEIMOS.

The US Navy is looking at 100 Kilowatt versions of DEIMOS for its ships and looks like it will replace arming vessels with rail gun technology which now appears to be considered obsolete. Rail guns were high-speed ordinance systems designed to knock down incoming cruise missiles but when costs are compared the laser has the technology beat.

Continue reading “U.S. Military Plans to Deploy Laser Weapons by 2025” »

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Continue reading “10 Unsettling Artificial Intelligence Scenarios” »

Sean Carroll CalTech, John’s Hopkins, Santa Fe Institute One of the great intellectual achievements of the twentieth century was the theory of quantum mech…