Lifeboat Foundation

The same goes for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) models.

And just as the human brain created AI and ML models that grow increasingly sophisticated by the day, these systems are now being applied to study the human brain itself. Specifically, such studies are seeking to enhance the capabilities of AI systems and more closely model them after brain functions so that they can operate in increasingly autonomous ways.

Researchers at Meta AI have embarked on one such initiative. The research arm of Facebook’s parent company today announced a long-term study to better understand how the human brain processes language. Researchers are looking at how the brain and AI language models respond to the same spoken or written sentences.

Pilot tests of ‘game-changing’ salt batteries are set to take place in homes in France, Poland and the Netherlands this year.

“It is not yet a product, but everything is now ready to be tested for the first time in a real-world situation,” said Olaf Adan, a professor at Eindhoven University of Technology.

“While the potential is great, we have also seen many great potential technologies that have not made it. So we’re going to keep our feet on the ground and take this one step at a time.”

Continue reading “Battery breakthrough will make ‘millions of homes gas-free’” »

The West Japan Rail Company (or JR West) unveiled its Gundam-style heavy equipment robot for carrying out repairs.

The robot takes on the appearance of a humanoid upper body mounted on the end of a hydraulic crane arm, which rides around on the rail system atop a specially braced rail car. The rail car can deploy stabilizing legs when it arrives at its destination along the line, allowing the robot to manipulate heavy equipment around the rail system instead of workers “to improve productivity and safety.”

NASA has an ambitious plan to bring a piece of Mars back to Earth for study. Called the Mars Sample Return mission, the idea is to send a robotic team consisting of a lander, rover, and an ascent vehicle to the red planet to pick up samples being collected and sealed in tubes by the Perseverance rover. These samples will then be launched off the Martian surface and into orbit, where they’ll be collected and brought back to Earth.

If that sounds complicated, it is. NASA is working on some of the hardware required for this ambitious long-term mission, and recently the agency tested out a new design for the Earth Entry System vehicle which will carry the sample through our planet’s atmosphere and to the surface. And its test was a dramatic one — dropping a model of the vehicle from 1,200 feet and seeing if it survived.

The test was focused on the vehicle’s areoshell, testing out one possible design for the shell which has to protect the delicate electronics and sample inside from the heat and forces of passing through Earth’s atmosphere. To do this, the test was performed at the Utah Test and Training Range, where a helicopter ascended with a model of the vehicle and areoshell, called a Manufacturing Demonstration Unit (MDU), that was covered in sensors and measures 1.25 meters across. The MDU was then dropped by the helicopter and its descent was recorded. Coming from an altitude of 1,200 feet, the MDU reached the speeds that would be engineers think are equivalent to a sample landing mission.

Though it didn’t last long, Mother’s big brother The Trust contained some valuable lessons in this iconic series’ philosophy.

Scientists believe several of their satellite might contain the conditions for life.

Europa and Enceladus are promising candidates.

Walter Lynsdalein russia they aren’t even respecting traditional IP laws, “ok you can copy western IP as a sanctions workaround”. I doubt they’ll respect NFTs. there’s a broader issue than “distributed vs centralised”.

The only way to really own something is to kee… See more.

Csaba HoffmannJust a couple of months now and we will see how it compares to the “legacy” system.

Continue reading “Power to the Players” »

SpaceX’s fully reusable Starship, powered by Raptor V2 engines could reach orbit as soon as next month, as Elon Musk previously announced.

The Axiom-1 mission — the first fully private crew to visit the International Space Station — splashed down on Earth on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon on April 26. During that return journey, a camera meant to track meteors caught sight of the spacecraft, the ISS and a blazing fireball all at the same time. Wow.

The European Space Agency Operations Twitter account shared the video on Friday, writing, “An incredible sighting: a meteor strikes, burning up in Earth’s atmosphere, passing by four astronauts cocooned in the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft as it departed from the International Space Station on 26 April, bound for home.”

The meteor is pretty clear in the video. It’s the one dragging out like a fiery smudge heading downward. The ISS is the brightest moving dot, above and to the right of the meteor. Crew Dragon is the fainter dot above the streak of light.