Lifeboat Foundation

GPR-1 under pilot control doing some basic sortation.

This post delves into the implementation of my procedural earth simulation, written entirely in GLSL fragment shaders. It simulates the complete history of an earth-like planet in a few minutes, with the simulation updating at 60 frames per second.

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a new technology which allows non-contact manipulation of small objects using sound waves. They used a hemispherical array of ultrasound transducers to generate a 3D acoustic field that stably trapped and lifted a small polystyrene ball from a reflective surface. Their technique employs a method similar to laser trapping in biology, but adaptable to a wider range of particle sizes and materials.

The ability to move objects without touching them might sound like magic, but in the world of biology and chemistry, technology known as optical trapping has been helping scientists use light to move microscopic objects around for many years. In fact, half of the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physics, awarded to Arthur Ashkin (1922–2020) was in recognition of the remarkable achievements of this technology. But the use of laser light is not without its failings, particularly the limits placed on the properties of the objects which can be moved.

Enter acoustic trapping, an alternative that uses sound instead of optical waves. Sound waves may be applied to a wider range of object sizes and materials, and successful manipulation is now possible for millimeter-sized particles. Though they haven’t been around for as long as their optical counterparts, acoustic levitation and manipulation show exceptional promise for both lab settings and beyond. But the technical challenges that need to be surmounted are considerable. In particular, it is not easy to individually and accurately control vast arrays of ultrasound transducers in real time, or to get the right sound fields to lift objects far from the transducers themselves, particularly near surfaces that reflect sound.

Apigenin, quercetin, luteolin data: USDA Database for the Flavonoid.
Content of Selected Foods.
https://www.ars.usda.gov/arsuserfiles/80400525/data/flav/flav_r03-1.pdf.

Kuromanin data: http://phenol-explorer.eu/contents/polyphenol/9

Continue reading “Dietary CD38 Inhibitors: Are They Correlated With Biological Age?” »

Maybe eyes really are windows into the soul — or at least into the brain, as a new study finds.

Every dad should do this. 😃

French dad and robotics engineer Jean-Louis Constanza has built a robotic suit for his 16-year-old son Oscar that allows him to walk.

Continue reading “Dad builds robotic exoskeleton to help son walk — BBC News” »

In the world of space exploration, all eyes are on the Red Planet.

Billionaires like Elon Musk still envision Mars as a future home for human civilizations.

All eyes are on the red planet. Here’s a look back at some of the best images ever taken, from rovers like Perseverance to orbiters like Mars Express.

Amazing.

Zaha Hadid Architects and ETH Zurich have built a 3D-printed concrete footbridge named Striatus in Venice that is freestanding and assembled without mortar.

Named Striatus, the 16-metre-long bridge was built by the computation and design team at Zaha Hadid Architects, known as ZHACODE, in collaboration with the Block Research Group (BRG) at Swiss university ETH Zurich, incremental3D and Holcim. It was constructed from 53 hollow blocks each printed from 500 layers of printed concrete.

Continue reading “Zaha Hadid Architects creates unreinforced 3D-printed concrete bridge at Venice” »

What do you think?

The idea of using spaceships to travel from one point on the Earth’s surface to another has been around since at least the 1960s, but the cost and complexity of the idea have meant it’s been little more than a pipe dream.

In principle, the approach isn’t that different from the one used by intercontinental ballistic missiles. A rocket is used to blast the payload, be it a nuclear weapon or a passenger spaceship, on a big looping trajectory into space before re-entering the atmosphere on the other side of the planet.

Continue reading “Japan Wants to Build Intercontinental Passenger Spaceships by the Early 2040s” »