Lifeboat Foundation

Driverless cars seem straight out of the future, but thanks to developments in autonomous vehicle technology, that future could be right around the corner. Similar to the incremental adoption of electric cars — with hybrid models hitting the road first—car manufacturers have been introducing driverless features to conventional vehicles for some time now. Already on the road today we have partially autonomous vehicles, cars and trucks with cruise control, braking assistance and self-parking technology. And industry specialists predict that fully autonomous vehicles could be on the market in a matter of a few years.

It’s a problem that plagues even the priciest of lenses, manufactured to the most exacting specifications: the center of the frame might be razor-sharp, but the corners and edges always look a little soft. It’s a problem that’s existed for thousands of years with optical devices, and one that was assumed to be unsolvable until a Mexican physicist developed a mind-melting formula that could revolutionize how lenses are manufactured.

On paper, a curved glass lens should be able to redirect all the rays of light passing through it onto a single target known as its focal point. But in the real world, it just doesn’t work that way. Differences in refraction across the lens, as well as imperfections in its shape and materials, all contribute to some of those light rays, especially those entering the lens near its outer edges, missing the target. It’s a phenomenon known as spherical aberration, and it’s a problem that even Isaac Newton and Greek mathematician Diocles couldn’t crack.

Lost and broken teeth could one day be regrown, scientists believe after finding the stem cells responsible for tooth formation and the gene that switches it on.

Scientists at the University of Plymouth discovered a new group of stem cells which form skeletal tissue and contribute to the making dentin — the hard tissue that surrounds the main body of the tooth. They also showed that a gene called Dlk1 sparks the stem cells into action, so they can mend damage such as decay, crumbling or cracked teeth.

Currently there is nothing to be done to repair damaged teeth apart from fillings or crowns.

Dark matter might well be the biggest mystery in the Universe. We know there’s something out there making things move faster than they should. But we don’t know what it is, and we sure as heck don’t know where it came from.

According to a new paper, the origins of dark matter may be more peculiar than we know. Perhaps, they were particles that appeared in a very brief period of time, just fractions of fractions of a second, before the Big Bang.

This doesn’t just suggest a new connection between particle physics and astronomy; if this hypothesis holds, it could indicate a new way to search for the mysterious stuff.

In the cold waters off the west coast of Vancouver Island, scientists have found a hidden oasis teeming with corals, sponges, and creatures more typical of warmer waters to the south.

The discovery is among the most significant finds from a two-week trip conducted by researchers with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, the Nuu-chah-nulth Nations and other partner organizations. The expedition dropped a camera on a cable down about 2,000 metres into the depths as part of an examination of Explorer Seamount, Canada’s largest underwater volcano.

“We found a coral garden that is like something you would see in the tropics, with a large coral community home to fish and octopus like everything you would expect to see in Hawaii, but you find it here in Canada deep below the surface where the sun doesn’t reach,” said Dr. Cherisse Du Preez, marine biologist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

The Android Security team’s former tech lead, who’s now a security researcher on Google’s Project Zero, breaks down why.

Of the 1,500 active volcanoes worldwide, about 6 percent of them erupt each year, or 50 to 85. Less than half of all volcanoes have sensors, and even fewer are considered well-monitored, the result of high costs and difficulty in maintaining equipment in such unforgiving environments. Volcanoes that are considered dormant rarely have any monitoring, despite surprises like the 2008 eruption of the Chaitén volcano in Chile after 8,000 years of inactivity.

Now, volcanologists are turning to satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to keep a closer eye on more volcanoes and, eventually, forecast eruptions. MOUNTS (Monitoring Unrest from Space), currently tracks 18 volcanoes, including Mount Fuego in Guatemala and Mount Etna in Italy.

With 800 million people living within 62 miles of an active volcano, there are plenty of reasons to increase monitoring.

NASA’s two astronauts will one day fly to the International Space Station (ISS) onboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule. The SpaceX spacecraft is a modified version of the Cargo Dragon capsule, the rocket manufacturer uses to deliver supplies to the ISS. Developed for NASA’s Commercial Crew Programme, part of SpaceX’s launch package includes sleek and futuristic spacesuits. But before NASA’s astronauts can take the Dragon into space, the two men had to go through a dress rehearsal of launch day operations.

When it comes to detecting whether an image or video is fake, it’s the little mistakes that matter, and to help with the sleuthing, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants to improve what it calls “semantic forensics.”

The agency announced this week that it plans to hold a proposers day on Aug. 28 to give more information on an anticipated Semantic Forensics (SemaFor) Broad Agency Announcement. It’s the latest expression of DARPA’s interest in countering the chaos-inducing potential of “deepfakes” — the practice of using artificial intelligence to manipulate audio, video, text or photo files.

The SemaFor program, DARPA says, will explore ways to get around some of the weaknesses of current deepfake detection tools. The statistical detection techniques used in the past have been successful to date, but those tools won’t always have the upper hand.