Lifeboat Foundation

Thinking machines think just like us—but only up to a point.

Patients recovering from severe lung infections develop “immunological scars” that stifle their body’s immune response and heighten their risk of contracting pneumonia, a common killer of COVID-19 sufferers, researchers said Monday.

Studies in both humans and mice showed that the body’s immune response is temporarily switched off after some severe infections, rendering patients more vulnerable to new bacterial or viral diseases.

A team of researchers from the University of Melbourne’s Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and the University Hospital of Nantes found that the cells that form the immune system’s first line of defence—macrophages—were “paralysed” after severe infection.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=WB5CawKfE2M

We read about different innovations in clean technology almost on a daily basis. A small Massachusetts-based start-up, FloDesign Wind Turbine, has created a wind turbine design based on jet engine technology. This revolutionary wind turbine can generate much more electricity at half the cost than today’s traditional wind turbines. It has also won two clean-energy competitions for its amazing innovation.

A traditional wind turbine can extract just 50% of the available wind energy in the given area it occupies. However, the Wind Jet by FloDesign uses blades covered in shrouds to direct the air through the turbine blades. This results in increased flow of air. As the airflow through the blades increases, the higher the speed of the turbines and ultimately the more power that is generated. The energy generated by this new wind turbine matches that of a traditional turbine with blades that are half the size.

Continue reading “Flodesign’s Jet Engine-Inspired Wind Turbine Could Revolutionize Wind Power Technology” »

An element which could hold the key to the long-standing mystery around why there is much more matter than antimatter in our Universe has been discovered by a University of the West of Scotland (UWS)-led team of physicists.

The UWS and University of Strathclyde academics have discovered, in research published in the journal Nature Physics, that one of the isotopes of the element thorium possesses the most pear-shaped nucleus yet to be discovered. Nuclei similar to thorium-228 may now be able to be used to perform new tests to try find the answer to the mystery surrounding matter and antimatter.

UWS’s Dr. David O’Donnell, who led the project, said: Our research shows that, with good ideas, world-leading nuclear physics experiments can be performed in university laboratories.

Beijing (AFP) — A Chinese laboratory has been developing a drug it believes has the power to bring the coronavirus pandemic to a halt.

The outbreak first emerged in China late last year before spreading across the world, prompting an international race to find treatments and vaccines.

A drug being tested by scientists at China’s prestigious Peking University could not only shorten the recovery time for those infected, but even offer short-term immunity from the virus, researchers say.

That means tinier, better reactors in the near future.

Technology related to sending power via a microwave beam down to Earth could potentially be applied to taking out hostile targets in space.

The northern lowlands and sedimentary regions of Mars are dotted with curious formations. Tens of thousands of conical hills, many topped with small craters, and surrounded by deep channels scoured from the surface by flowing liquid.

We need an artificial atmosphere not this it can cause radiation for much too long.

The SpaceX CEO is not too concerned about reports that the firm would need a huge amount of missiles.