Lifeboat Foundation

Say hello to ronnagrams and quettameters: International scientists gathered in France voted on Friday for new metric prefixes to express the world’s largest and smallest measurements, prompted by an ever-growing amount of data.

It marks the first time in more than three decades that new prefixes have been added to the International System of Units (SI), the agreed global standard for the metric system.

Joining the ranks of well-known prefixes like kilo and milli are ronna and quetta for the largest numbers – and ronto and quecto for the smallest.

Researchers have discovered the human brain’s enhanced processing power may stem from differences in the structure and function of our neurons. Credit: Queensland Brain Institute / Professor Stephen Williams.

The human brain’s function is remarkable, driving all aspects of our creativity and thoughts. However, the neocortex, a region of the human brain responsible for these cognitive functions, has a similar overall structure to other mammals.

Researchers from The University of Queensland (UQ), The Mater Hospital, and the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital have shown that changes in the structure and function of our neurons may be the cause of the human brain’s increased processing power.

It’s frigid and strange and orbits its home planet backward.

But Enceladus isn’t the only location in our solar system with active geysers, as another small moon near the edge of the solar system shares similar characteristics, as well. This is Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, which has been visited only once by NASA’s Voyager 2 in 1989. But are Triton’s geysers the only characteristics that make it a good target for astrobiology and finding life beyond Earth?

“Triton may be an ‘ocean world’, a moon that has a solid ice crust over a liquid water subsurface ocean,” said Candice Hansen-Koharchek, a planetary scientist who was a Voyager Imaging Team Assistant Experiment Representative during the Voyager missions. “If that is the case, and if we are able someday to reach that ocean and find life, that would extend the habitable zone to the Kuiper Belt, not just the inner solar system. That has profound implications, both in our solar system and at exoplanets.”

Continue reading “One unexpected Solar System moon could be key to finding alien life” »

Unusual types of DNA.

In very rare cases, some people may be carrying two completely different sets of DNA and are unaware of it.

Circa 2021 face_with_colon_three

We don’t know very much about our universe. We’re fairly certain it exists, but we don’t know how it got here, how long it’s been here, or how big it is. Heck, we don’t even know if our universe is unique.

Ever since Albert Einstein came up with the theory of relativity and other scientists realized that classical physics and quantum mechanics don’t really line up, we’ve been trying to reconcile those worlds.

Continue reading “New superstring theory says black holes may be portals to other universes” »

Messenger RNA

#biology #biochemistry #rna

Continue reading “Messenger RNA” »

“The LNG procurement environment has changed completely. Procurement can also be said to be in a state of war,” they told the ministry.

A dwindling supply of natural gas worldwide has sent countries racing to secure shipments of the key fuel. The squeeze is due to a lack of investment in LNG export projects, according to the trade ministry.

At the same time, European buyers are set to step up their imports of LNG from next year after Moscow cut off pipeline-borne gas flows to the continent in retaliation to Western sanctions. They have already been in “huge competition” with Asian buyers for exports from Qatar to replace the Russian supplies.

This supposed vampire’s bones were discovered and now scientists have reconstructed what his face would have looked like.

“We wanted to draw on the biomechanics of these animals to see if we could develop faster, more energy-efficient soft robots,” Jie Yin, co-author of the paper and mechanical engineer at N.C. State.

Michael Phelps, eat your heart out.

Continue reading “This Robot Floats Like a Butterfly to Swim Through the Sea” »