Lifeboat Foundation

Could a water bottle be more valuable than a diamond?

Explore the paradox of value:

Damaged or chipped teeth can be reconstructed.

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Meet the $15 super computer that’s the size of an iPhone.

Mars One, the much-criticized proposal to colonize the Red Planet, has been declared bankrupt by a Swiss court.

Turns out it is smarter than we think.

It is well known that the circuits in this part of our nervous system, which travel down the length of our spine, control seemingly simple things like the pain reflex in humans, and some motor control functions in animals.

Now, new research from Western University has shown that the spinal cord is also able to process and control more complex functions, like the positioning of your hand in external space.

“This research has shown that a least one important function is being done at the level of the spinal cord and it opens up a whole new area of investigation to say, ‘what else is done at the spinal level and what else have we potentially missed in this domain?’” said the study’s senior and supervising researcher Andrew Pruszynski, PhD, assistant professor at Western’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Canada Research Chair in Sensorimotor Neuroscience.

As a winter storm bore down on the Hawaii islands early Monday, officials are warning residents of gusty winds, rain, high surf, and a rarer sight: snow.

Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) Division of State Parks is reporting that “for perhaps the first time ever, snow has fallen in a Hawaii State Park.”

“Polipoli State Park on Maui is blanketed with snow. It could also be the lowest elevation snow ever recorded in the state. Polipoli is at 6200 feet elevation,” the DLNR said in a press release posted on their Facebook page.

Continue reading “Snow Has Fallen in a Hawaii State Park for Perhaps the First Time Ever” »

Researchers spent three weeks diving into the deep and dark seas of Costa Rica, and what they found is both amazing and incredibly eye-opening.

Possible quantum computing at room temperature. Scientists working with hexagonal boron nitride, which allows them to work in two-dimensional arrays. Simpler than using 3D objects such as diamonds.

Researchers have now demonstrated a new hardware platform based on isolated electron spins in a two-dimensional material. The electrons are trapped by defects in sheets of hexagonal boron nitride, a one-atom-thick semiconductor material, and the researchers were able to optically detect the system’s quantum states.