Lifeboat Foundation

Work, conducted at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and featured in Nature Physics, shows that ions behave differently in fusion reactions than previously expected. Credit: John Jett and Jake Long/LLNL

Ions behave differently in fusion reactions than previously expected, according to new findings by scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). This discovery provides crucial insights for the future design of a laser–fusion energy source.

The findings, entitled “Evidence for suprathermal ion distribution in burning plasmas,” were featured in a new paper published in the November 14 issue of Nature Physics.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death, with a five-year survival rate of only 10–20% in most countries. Early diagnosis is key to improving survival rates, but only 16% of lung cancers are diagnosed at an early stage. New results from a large multicentre, multinational study show that early detection of lung cancer using low-dose CT screening dramatically improves long-term survival.

“While screening doesn’t prevent cancers from occurring, it is an important tool in identifying lung cancers in their early stage when they can be surgically removed,” explains lead author Claudia Henschke from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who presented the findings this week at RSNA 2022, the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. “Symptoms occur mainly in late-stage lung cancer. Thus, the best way to find early-stage lung cancer is by enrolling in an annual screening programme.”

The lung cancer screening study began back in 1992 with the creation of the International Early Lung Cancer Action Program (I-ELCAP), which has enrolled over 87,000 participants from over 80 institutions to date.

As well as admiring beautiful pictures of space, you can also listen to those pictures via sonifications. These take images and translate them into eerie sounds to illustrate the wonderful and strange phenomena of our universe. NASA’s latest sonification illustrates the rings of X-rays that have been observed echoing around a black hole in the V404 Cygni system.

The sonification was made using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, both of which look in the X-ray wavelength. The data from the optical wavelength come from the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii. Taken together, you can see how the X-ray bursts propagate outward from a central point which is the black hole. The black hole itself remains invisible, as it absorbs all light.

However, even though black holes are themselves invisible, the material around them can glow brightly. As material like dust and gas is attracted to the black hole due to gravity, it joins into a swirling disk around the black hole called an accretion disk. This material rubs together and creates heat due to friction, and can become so hot that it glows.

An atomic-scale experiment all but settles the origin of the strong form of superconductivity seen in cuprate crystals, confirming a 35-year-old theory.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-ZeeuDrknYc

Technology — An investigation into the advancements in digital technology unique to the gaming industry. They can either enhance our lives and make the world a better place to live, or we may find ourselves in a dystopian future where we are ruled and controlled by the very technologies we rely on.

End Game — Technology (2021)
Director: J. Michael Long.
Writers: O.H. Krill.
Stars: Paul Jamison, Razor Keeves.
Genre: Documentary.
Country: United States.
Language: English.
Release Date: 2021 (USA)

Continue reading “End Game” »

Yakir Aharanov, winner of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Science, summarizes the main ideas behind the two-state vector formalism.

At the research workshop on the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics at the Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Tel-Aviv University, 18–24 October 2022, Prof Lev Vaidman asked: “Why is the many-worlds interpretation not in the consensus?” This was my answer.

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Elon GOAT Token’s efforts to deliver the statue landed the company on Twitter’s U.S. trending page. Musk purchased the social network last month, causing an upheaval with mass layoffs, departed advertisers and potential changes to the process of obtaining a Twitter Blue check mark.

Costing a total of $600,000, according to Elon GOAT Token, the Musk sculpture is a nod to the billionaire’s fame — a rocket representing SpaceX, the spacecraft company Musk founded; and the literal goat, a word that is also used as an acronym for the phrase “Greatest Of All Time.”

Continue reading “Giant Musk ‘Goat’ statue arrives at Tesla factory in crypto stunt” »

QC: Still not actually useful, but it’s increasingly intriguing.