Lifeboat Foundation

The event is likened to the Chicxulub collision on Earth.

A study has found that the megatsunami that swept Mars around 3.4 billion years ago was caused by an asteroid strike on one of its oceans. The event is compared to the likes of the Chicxulub collision—which is believed to have wiped out dinosaurs from the face of the earth about 66 million years ago.

Researchers, led by Alexis Rodriguez of the Planetary Science Institute in Arizona, have also suggested that NASA’s Viking 1 Lander, which was deployed on a mission to find evidence of life on Mars in 1976, could have landed near the crater of this megatsunami.

Continue reading “Megatsunami on Mars linked to an asteroid strike 3.4 billion years ago” »

They discovered that removing PLD3 from neurons using gene therapy resulted in a significant decrease in axonal swelling.

A study on Alzheimer’s published recently by Yale University is quite attention-grabbing. Because the disease’s crippling symptoms could be brought on by swelling in the brain brought on by amyloid plaques, say the experts.

Continue reading “Yale research may uncover the true cause of Alzheimer’s — Swelling of brain axons” »

ChatGPT is remarkable. It’s a new AI model from OpenAI that’s designed to chat in a conversational manner. It’s also a liar. Stuck for ideas on what to talk to a machine about, I decided to interview ChatGPT about the ethics of AI. Would it have the level of self-awareness to be honest about its own dangers? Would it even be willing to answer questions on how it behaves?

Yes, it would. And while ChatGPT started off by being commendably upfront about the ethics of what it does, it eventually descended into telling outright lies. It even issued a non-apology for doing so.

An interview with the cutting-edge chatbot, ChatGPT, ends in a little white lie.

Continue reading “I Interviewed An AI About The Ethics Of AI” »

Saturn’s moon Titan is one of the weirdest and most intriguing worlds in our solar system. It is the only place we know of in the universe for sure beyond Earth that has rivers, lakes and larger bodies of liquid, but on Titan these features are filled with flammable hydrocarbons like methane and ethane.

Studying Titan in depth has been difficult due to a thick atmosphere of clouds and haze, but NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is giving scientists their first detailed glimpse of those clouds, and by extension, the weather patterns at work on this unique world.

“We had waited for years to use Webb’s infrared vision to study Titan’s atmosphere,” said JWST Principal Investigator Conor Nixon. “Detecting clouds is exciting because it validates long-held predictions from computer models about Titan’s climate, that clouds would form readily in the mid-northern hemisphere during its late summertime when the surface is warmed by the Sun.”

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and the Keck Observatory in Hawaii have together captured Saturn’s largest moon Titan in near-infrared.

The new images reveal clouds in the northern hemisphere near Kraken Mare, the largest known methane sea on the giant moon’s surface. Titan is the only other body in the solar system that has rivers, lakes and seas, though instead of water they flow with liquid methane and ethane. These hydrocarbons—as well as water and ammonia—also produce clouds and rain on the giant moon.

Continue reading “In Photos: Webb Telescope’s First Look At Titan, Saturn’s Giant Moon That May Once Have Have Hosted Life” »

Gravity could be a leading cause of irritable bowel syndrome, along with increased serotonin levels and changes in the gut microbiome.

Approximately 20 to 40 percent of all visits to gastroenterologists are due to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms. The common disorder affects between 25 and 45 million people in the United States and up to ten percent of the world’s population, yet experts aren’t sure of how or why it develops.

However, there is no dearth of theories. While one explains that IBS is a gut-brain disorder, another theory states that IBS is caused by abnormalities in the gut microbiome.

The Federal Communications Commission issued a key authorization to Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Thursday to launch up to 7,500 next-generation satellites in its Starlink internet network.

“Specifically, we grant SpaceX authority to construct, deploy, and operate up to 7,500 satellites operating at altitudes of 525,530, and 535 km and inclinations of 53, 43, and 33 degrees, respectively, using frequencies in the Ku-and Ka-band. We defer consideration of SpaceX’s proposed use of E-band frequencies and tracking beacons,” said the order.

The presence of food-specific IgA antibodies in the gut does not prevent peanut or egg allergies from developing in children, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in Science Translational Medicine.

Scientists examined stool samples from more than 500 infants across the country and found that the presence of Immunoglobulin A, the most common antibody found in mucous membranes in the digestive tract, does not prevent peanut or egg allergies from developing later in life.

This discovery calls into question the role of Immunoglobulin A, or IgA, which was previously thought to be a protective factor against the development of food allergies.

Disney Research Studios’ newest neural network, FRAN, can shave hours off of VFX artists’ workloads to create convincingly re-aged actors.