Lifeboat Foundation

How does inanimate matter come to breathe, thrive and reproduce? Explaining this magic means overhauling nature’s laws, says physicist Paul Davies

By Paul Davies

THERE is something special – almost magical – about life. Biophysicist Max Delbrück expressed it eloquently: “The closer one looks at these performances of matter in living organisms, the more impressive the show becomes. The meanest living cell becomes a magic puzzle box full of elaborate and changing molecules.”

Continue reading “Life’s secret ingredient: A radical theory of what makes things alive” »

For humans to survive off Earth, we’ll need vegetables to eat and flowers to admire.

In a study published in Environment International researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden show how PFAS industrial chemicals, which are used in many consumer products, pass through the placenta throughout pregnancy to accumulate in fetal tissue. Further research is now needed to ascertain the effect that highly persistent PFAS chemicals have on the fetus.

The PFAS (perfluoroalkyl substances) group comprises thousands of human-made chemicals, which, thanks to their water- and grease-resistant properties, are used in everything from frying pans and food packaging to clothes, cleaning agents and firefighting foams.

“We’ve focused on six of these PFAS substances and found that all appear to the same extent in fetal tissue as in the placenta,” says Richelle Duque Björvang, doctoral student at the Department of Clinical Science, Intervention and Technology, Karolinska Institutet. “So when the baby is born, it already has a build-up of these chemicals in the lungs, liver, brain, and elsewhere in the body.”

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Researchers at the University of Vienna study the relevance of quantum reference frames for the symmetries of the world.

According to one of the most fundamental principles in physics, an observer on a moving train uses the same laws to describe a ball on the platform as an observer standing on the platform – physical laws are independent on the choice of a reference frame. Reference frames such as the train and the platform are physical systems and ultimately follow quantum-mechanical rules. They can be, for example, in a quantum state of superposition of different positions at once. So, what would the description of the ball look like for an observer on such a “quantum platform”? Researchers at the University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences proved that whether an object (in our example, the ball) shows quantum features depends on the reference frame. The physical laws, however, are still independent of it. The results are published in Nature Communications.

Physical systems are always described relative to a reference frame. For example, a ball bouncing on a railway platform can be observed either from the platform itself or from a passing train. A fundamental principle of physics, the principle of General Covariance, states that the laws of physics which describe the motion of the ball do not depend on the reference frame of the observer. This principle has been crucial in the description of motion since Galileo and central to the development of Einstein’s theory of relativity. It entails information about symmetries of the laws of physics as seen from different reference frames.

SingularityNET lets anyone create, share, and monetize AI services at scale. The world’s decentralized AI network has arrived. Be part of the revolution and get to know us at this event! You will be able to ask questions to SingularityNET’s CEO Dr. Ben Goertzel.

For the first time ever, SingularityNET will be making a tour in the UK visiting the University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, and Imperial College London. Together with our co-host Eterna Capital, and in collaboration with the Cambridge University Engineering Society, and The Cambridge Guild, we are proud to be visiting the University of Cambridge on the 30th of January to present:

CEO & Dr. Ben Goertzel: How we are building the global AI brain with SingularityNET

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“We believe we will offer in a year’s time a complete cure for cancer,” said Dan Aridor, chairman of the board of Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd. (AEBi).

F ifteen-minute workouts could reverse diabetes in just six weeks, new research suggests. A trial of overweight men found that short, intense resistance training sessions three times a week significantly boosted their ability to manage insulin.

Previous research has indicated that 45-minute workouts could have this effect, but the new study has been greeted with particular excitement as experts believe type 2 diabetes patients will be more likely to commit to shorter sessions.

It is estimated that by 2025 there will be five million people with a diabetes diagnosis in the UK, 90 per cent of whom will have type 2, which is related to lifestyle.

Continue reading “15-minute Workouts May Reverse Type 2 Diabetes in Just Six Weeks” »

The shutdown dragged on two weeks longer than any other in US history, and its effects on science have been profound. It has interrupted studies of everything from California’s coastal fisheries to clinical trials of experimental drugs, and key federal data sets have been pulled offline. Employees at many science agencies were forced to stay at home without pay for more than a month, and academic researchers have been deprived of key research funding.

Federal researchers head back to work after politicians approve deal to reopen government for three weeks. Federal researchers head back to work after politicians approve deal to re-open government for three weeks.

The culprit is a familiar one: the polar vortex.

Seen here is a model using NASA Earth science + other satellite measurements of temperature, moisture, wind speeds and directions, and other conditions: https://go.nasa.gov/2FXw5Gh