Lifeboat Foundation

Ammolite is an opal-like organic gemstone found primarily along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains of North America. It is made of the fossilized shells of ammonites, which in turn are composed primarily of aragonite, the same mineral contained in nacre, with a microstructure inherited from the shell. It is one of few biogenic gemstones; others include amber and pearl.

The chemical composition of ammolite is variable, and aside from aragonite may include calcite, silica, pyrite, or other minerals. The shell itself may contain a number of trace elements, including: aluminium; barium; chromium; copper; iron; magnesium; manganese; strontium; titanium; and vanadium. Its crystallography is orthorhombic. Its hardness is 4.5–5.5, and its specific gravity is 2.60–2.85.

An iridescent opal-like play of color is shown in fine specimens, mostly in shades of green and red; all the spectral colors are possible, however. The iridescence is due to the microstructure of the aragonite: unlike most other gems, whose colors come from light absorption, the iridescent color of ammolite comes from interference with the light that rebounds from stacked layers of thin platelets that make up the aragonite.

A physics paper proposes neither you nor the world around you are real.

A roundup of news from SC21: With Frontier still not online, still no official Exascale systems in the Top500.

How to Catch a Perfect Wave: Scientists Take a Closer Look Inside the Perfect Fluid

Berkeley Lab research brings us closer to understanding how our universe began.

Scientists have reported new clues to solving a cosmic conundrum: How the quark-gluon plasma.

Continue reading “Solving a Cosmic Conundrum: ‘Perfect Fluid’ Brings Us Closer to Understanding How Our Universe Began” »

In a new FLEET theoretical study published recently in Physical Review Letters, the so called ‘smoking gun’ in the search for the topological magnetic monopole — also known as the Berry curvature — has been found.

The discovery is a breakthrough in the search for topological effects in non-equilibrium systems.

The group, led by UNSW physicist and Associate Professor, Dimi Culcer, identified an unconventional Hall effect, driven by an in-plane magnetic field in semiconductor hole systems that can be traced exclusively to the Berry curvature.

We already have technology that allows wildlife to pass vaccines among themselves, and developing methods may speed up the process. But critics claim that they risk human infections and criminal misuse.

Scientists have discovered a way to stop the COVID-19 virus from replicating in infected human cells, marking major progress towards a definitive treatment for the deadly illness and accentuating the potential of genetic engineering to cure viral diseases.

The study explores the use of CRISPR, a genome editing tool, and builds on research that started at Australia’s Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in 2019, when Dr. Mohamed Fareh and Prof. Joe Trapani showed that CRISPR could be used to eliminate abnormal RNAs that drive children’s cancers.

At the beginning of the pandemic, and in collaboration with Director Prof. Sharon Lewin and Dr. Wei Zhao from the Doherty Institute, the scientists reprogrammed the same CRISPR tool to suppress replication of the RNA virus SARS-CoV-2 — and importantly, its “variants of concern” — in a test tube model. SARS-CoV-2, which is short for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2, is the virus that causes COVID-19.

Yet another EV start-up has plans for an electric truck, and this one has a few things in common with the Cybertruck. Here’s what it plans to offer.

The Cybertruck won’t be out for another year at the earliest, but it keeps inviting fresh competition from EV start-ups and established automakers alike. The latest such hopeful arrived at the LA auto show a few days ago, featuring styling that could be described as a smoothed-out Cybertruck.

The latest contender concept hails from EdisonFuture, not to be confused with Faraday Future, and like Tesla it is once again named after a 19th century electrical pioneer. (Yes, most of the names of 19th century electrical innovators are already taken by EV start-ups).

Continue reading “EdisonFuture EF1-T Aims for the Cybertruck” »

Barely a year after the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR) broke one record for fusion, it’s smashed it again, this time holding onto a churning whirlpool of 100 million degree plasma for a whole 30 seconds.

Though it’s well short of the 101 seconds set by the Chinese Academy of Sciences earlier this year, it remains a significant milestone on the road to cleaner, near-limitless energy that could transform how we power our society.

Here’s why it’s so important.