Lifeboat Foundation

The second half of Tsiolkovsky’s famous quote refers to not just living on the Earth but relying on it as we venture farther out into the cosmos. Even today, as the International Space Station orbits above at 28,000 kilometers per hour (17,500 miles per hour), those astronauts require constant resupply from the ground to stay alive. Future astronauts on the Moon might only have to wait three days to receive supplies from Earth, but as we move farther out into space, especially to Mars, this reliance will undoubtedly become far more tedious, time-consuming, and costly. Therefore, if humanity is to establish a long-term presence in space, we have to learn to use the on-hand resources we have at our disposal.

A team of researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), has developed a sustainable method for making bricks out of Martian soil, using bacteria and urea. Mammals, including humans, are the primary producers of urea. Because they secrete urea as the primary nitrogenous waste product, they are called ureotelic animals. Urea serves an important role in the metabolism of nitrogen-containing compounds by animals. These so-called “space bricks” can be used to construct building-like structures on Mars that could facilitate human settlement on the Red Planet.

The method for making these space bricks was published in PLOS One. A slurry is first created by mixing Martian soil (simulant) with guar gum, a bacterium called Sporosarcina pasteurii, urea, and nickel chloride (NiCl2). This slurry can be poured into molds of any desired shape, and over a few days, the bacteria convert the urea into crystals of calcium carbonate. These crystals, along with biopolymers secreted by the microbes, act as the cement holding the soil particles together. An advantage of this method is the reduced porosity of the bricks, which has been a problem with other methods used to consolidate Martian soil into bricks.

Our brain is constantly working to make sense of the world around us and finding patterns in it, even when we are asleep the brain is storing patterns. Making sense of the brain itself, however, has remained an intricate pursuit.

Christoff Koch, a well-known neuroscientist, famously called the human brain the “most complex object in our observable universe” [1]. Aristotle, on the other hand, thought it was the heart that gave rise to consciousness and that the brain functioned as a cooling system both practically and philosophically [2]. Theories of the brain have evolved since then, generally shaped by knowledge gathered over centuries. Historically, to analyze the brain, we had to either extract the brain from deceased people or perform invasive surgery. Progress over the past decades has led to inventions that allow us to study the brain without invasive surgeries. A few examples of imaging techniques that do not require surgery include macroscopic imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or approaches with a high temporal resolution such as electroencephalogy (EEG). Advances in treatments, such as closed-loop electrical stimulation systems, have enabled the treatment of disorders like epilepsy and more recently depression [3, 4]. Existing neuroimaging approaches can produce a considerable amount of data about a very complex organ that we still do not fully understand which has led to an interest in non-linear modeling approaches and algorithms equipped to learn meaningful features.

Continue reading “Deep Learning in Neuroimaging” »

Waves break once they swell to a critical height, before cresting and crashing into a spray of droplets and bubbles. These waves can be as large as a surfer’s point break and as small as a gentle ripple rolling to shore. For decades, the dynamics of how and when a wave breaks have been too complex to predict.

Now, MIT engineers have found a new way to model how waves break. The team used machine learning along with data from wave-tank experiments to tweak equations that have traditionally been used to predict wave behavior. Engineers typically rely on such equations to help them design resilient offshore platforms and structures. But until now, the equations have not been able to capture the complexity of breaking waves.

The updated model made more accurate predictions of how and when waves break, the researchers found. For instance, the model estimated a wave’s steepness just before breaking, and its energy and frequency after breaking, more accurately than the conventional wave equations.

The West Japan Rail Company has released video of its new humanoid heavy equipment robot. Mounted on the end of a crane, this gundam-style robot torso mimics the arm and head motions of a human pilot, who sees through the robot’s eyes via VR goggles.

The key objectives here, according to the company, are “to improve productivity and safety,” enabling workers to lift and naturally manipulate heavy equipment around the rail system without exposing them to the risk of electric shocks or falling.

The robot’s large torso is mounted to a hydraulic crane arm, which rides around the rail system on a specially braced rail car, putting down stabilizing legs when it’s time to get to work.

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World Economic Forum.

They’re autonomous, self-cleaning and powered entirely by solar energy.

The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing had a budget of $730 million, most of it funded by the US Department of Energy, with a $94.5 million contribution from the state of Michigan. MSU contributed an additional $212 million in various ways, including the land. It replaces an earlier National Science Foundation accelerator, called the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL), at the same site. Construction of FRIB started in 2014 and was completed late last year, “five months early and on budget”, says nuclear physicist Bradley Sherrill, who is FRIB’s science director.

For decades, nuclear physicists had been pushing for a facility of its power — one that could produce rare isotopes orders of magnitude faster than is possible with the NSCL and similar accelerators worldwide. The first proposals for such a machine came in the late 1980s, and consensus was reached in the 1990s. “The community was adamant that we need to get a tool like this,” says Witold Nazarewicz, a theoretical nuclear physicist and FRIB’s chief scientist.

ECHO, the robot, belongs to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and rolls around the tundra collecting data used to study marine ecosystems.

The small robot takes readings and collects data like a normal researcher, but his existence allows researchers to collect real-time information year round and minimize the impact their presence could have on the animals’ lives.

Researchers say the penguins seem to be getting along swimmingly with the robot.

A UK study has discovered five types of bacteria linked to aggressive prostate cancer. The breakthrough could help doctors identify who needs urgent treatment.

Every year, around 12,000 men in the UK die from prostate cancer, but many more die with prostate cancer than from it. So knowing whether the disease is going to advance rapidly or not is important for knowing who to treat.

Our latest study, published in European Urology Oncology, sheds some light on understanding which cancers will progress rapidly and aggressively and which won’t. Part of the answer lies with five types of bacteria.

Continue reading “Prostate cancer linked to bacteria, raising hope of new test and treatment” »

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