Lifeboat Foundation

Bruce Damer is a living legend and international man of mystery – specifically, the mystery of our cosmos, to which he’s devoted his life to exploring: the origins of life, simulating artificial life in computers, deriving amazing new plans for asteroid mining, and cultivating his ability to receive scientific inspiration from “endotripping” (in which he stimulates his brain’s own release of psychoactive compounds known to increase functional connectivity between brain regions). He’s about to work with Google to adapt his origins of life research to simulated models of the increasingly exciting hot springs origin hypothesis he’s been working on with Dave Deamer of UC Santa Cruz for the last several years. And he’s been traveling around the world experimenting with thermal pools, getting extremely close to actually creating new living systems in situ as evidence of their model. Not to mention his talks with numerous national and private space agencies to take the S.H.E.P.H.E.R.D. asteroid mining scheme into space to kickstart the division and reproduction of our biosphere among/between the stars…

Conventional surveys can’t track migration after natural disasters in real time. But Facebook data may provide a crude estimate of those who flee.

A new technique for locating land mines uses infrared cameras on drones. The novel technology uses temperature differences to find camouflaged mines before anyone might accidentally step on them.

Quantum physicist Paul Kwiat reveals what it takes do well in LabEscape, his science-themed escape room.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is eyeing flight tests later this year for two hypersonic weapons, and it is teaming up with the US Army on developing such a ground-launched capability. However, at the same time, army leaders are drafting plans to consolidate duelling lines of effort within their hypersonic weapons’ portfolio.

During a 1 May Defense Writers’ Group breakfast with reporters, DARPA Director Dr Steven Walker fielded questions about ongoing projects inside the Pentagon’s research arm including the development of two hypersonic weapons with the US Air Force (USAF) — the Tactical Boost Glide (TBG) and the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC).

“[They are] two very different concepts but when you’re talking hypersonic [weapons], it is good to have what I consider intended redundancy because it’s a hard technology, making materials and propulsion systems that last in 3,000° Fahrenheit temperatures is not easy,” Walker said.

Continue reading “DARPA preparing to test fly two hypersonic weapons” »

• When Uber goes public next week, some early investors in the ride-hailing company stand to make handsome profits.
• Jeff Bezos is among that group — his $3 million stake could be worth $400 million at IPO time.
• Ousted founder and CEO Travis Kalanick is expected to make nearly $9 billion from his 8.6 percent stake.

The rich keep getting richer. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, whose estimated net worth of $157 billion makes him the richest man in the world, is expected to haul in hundreds of millions of dollars from Uber’s anticipated initial public offering next week.

Many other countries have already banned the products. But the U.S. agency said the risk was still low, despite repeated requests from women and doctors that the implants be removed from the market.

If you take a look at the life of freshwater shrimp in the sleepy English countryside, you’ll find enough drugs to keep a funk band on tour very happy.

A new study has found notable levels of cocaine, ketamine, Valium, Xanax, t ramadol, and other pharmaceuticals in the bodies of freshwater shrimp and their habitat in Suffolk, UK. The researchers also found traces of numerous pesticides that are now banned by the EU.

Reporting in the journal Environment International, scientists from King’s College London analyzed levels of micropollutants in surface water samples and Gammarus pulex freshwater shrimp from 15 different sites across the county of Suffolk in the east of England. To their surprise, they discovered trace levels of at least 67 different contaminant compounds. The most frequently detected contaminant was cocaine, which was detected in every single shrimp from all 15 sites.

Continue reading “Shrimp Fail Drug Test For Cocaine, Ketamine, Xanax, And Valium” »

An end to the AIDS epidemic could be in sight after a landmark study found men whose HIV infection was fully suppressed by antiretroviral drugs had no chance of infecting their partner.

The success of the medicine means that if everyone with HIV were fully treated, there would be no further infections.

Among nearly 1,000 male couples across Europe where one partner with HIV was receiving treatment to suppress the virus, there were no cases of transmission of the infection to the HIV-negative partner during sex without a condom. Although 15 men were infected with HIV during the eight-year study, DNA testing proved that was through sex with someone other than their partner who was not on treatment.

Continue reading “End to AIDS in sight as huge study finds drugs stop HIV transmission” »