Lifeboat Foundation

It’s pretty cool how NASA knows the spacecraft is in interstellar space.

It’s only the second object made by humans to ever reach this distance, following Voyager 1 in 2012.

The long journey: Since launching more than 40 years ago back in 1977, the probe has traveled 11 billion miles to get to cross into interstellar space. While it launched before Voyager 1, its flight path put Voyager 2 on a slower path to reach this milestone.

Continue reading “Voyager 2 has finally entered interstellar space, more than 40 years after its launch” »

We’ve discovered water on the asteroid Bennu! Our OSIRIS-REx mission has revealed water locked inside the clays that make up Bennu.

Recently analyzed data from NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission has revealed water locked inside the clays that make up its scientific target, the asteroid Bennu.

Continue reading “NASA’s Newly Arrived OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Discovers Water on Bennu” »

Facial recognition technology is being tested by businesses and governments for everything from policing to employee timesheets. Even more granular results are on their way, promise the companies behind the technology: Automatic emotion recognition could soon help robots understand humans better, or detect road rage in car drivers.

But experts are warning that the facial-recognition algorithms that attempt to interpret facial expressions could be based on uncertain science. The claims are a part of AI Now Institute’s annual report, a nonprofit that studies the impact of AI on society. The report also includes recommendations for the regulation of AI and greater transparency in the industry.

“The problem is now AI is being applied in a lot of social contexts. Anthropology, psychology, and philosophy are all incredibly relevant, but this is not the training of people who come from a technical [computer science] background.” says Kate Crawford, co-founder of AI Now, distinguished research professor at NYU and principal researcher at Microsoft Research. “Essentially the narrowing of AI has produced a kind of guileless acceptance of particular strands of psychological literature that have been shown to be suspect.”

Continue reading “Amazon And Microsoft Claim AI Can Read Human Emotions. Experts Say the Science Is Shaky” »

TMAO (trimethylamine N-oxide) — a gut bacteria byproduct formed during digestion—can lead to the development of cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and strokes. TMAO is produced when gut bacteria digest choline, lecithin and carnitine, nutrients that are abundant in animal products such as red meat and liver and other animal products.

In concurrent studies, Cleveland Clinic researchers have uncovered new mechanisms that demonstrate why and how regularly eating red meat can increase the risk of heart disease, and the role gut bacteria play in that process.

The research, led by Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.D., builds upon previous work showing TMAO (trimethylamine N-oxide) — a gut bacteria byproduct formed during digestion—can lead to the development of cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and strokes. TMAO is produced when gut bacteria digest choline, lecithin and carnitine, nutrients that are abundant in animal products such as red meat and liver and other animal products.

Continue reading “Studies reveal role of red meat in gut bacteria, heart disease development” »

A human-made object has entered the space between the stars for the second time in history, scientists report.

NASA will announce the details live at a press conference today at 11 a.m. ET, at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) in Washington. You can watch the press conference live here.

Continue reading “It’s Official: Voyager 2 Has Entered Interstellar Space” »

Equations, like numbers, cannot always be split into simpler elements. Researchers have now proved that such “prime” equations become ubiquitous as equations grow larger.

Try to spot a dolphin swimming through a sea of Jovian clouds.

In a phenomenon called pareidolia, humans can find shapes in what is otherwise just random data. Is Flipper actually splashing across Jupiter’s atmosphere? Obviously not. But a new series of images that showcase a dolphin-shaped cloud moving across Jupiter’s southern belt is really enjoyable to look at.

Citizen-scientists Brian Swift and Sean Doran made the images using data from the JunoCam imager, an instrument on board NASA’s Juno spacecraft. On Oct. 29, the spacecraft performed its 16th close flyby of Jupiter.

Continue reading “Dolphin-Shaped Cloud Swims Across Jupiter in This Awesome NASA View” »

If it’s quiet solitude and beauty you seek, there is no better place than the surface of Mars has earned its moniker as the red planet, but the HiRISE camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) can transform the subtle differences of soils into a rainbow of colours.

For 10 years, HiRISE has recorded gorgeous – and scientifically valuable – images of Mars. Its photos are so detailed that scientists can examine the planet’s features at the scale of just a few feet, including the recent crash site of Europe’s Schiaparelli Mars lander.

We combed through 2,054 of the camera’s latest pictures, released in August, September, and October, to bring you some of the best – and hopefully help you temporarily escape Earth.

Continue reading “NASA Has Just Released 2,540 Stunning New Photos of Mars” »

Of the 10 flavonoids tested, fisetin was the most potent senolytic. Acute or intermittent treatment of progeroid and old mice with fisetin reduced senescence markers in multiple tissues, consistent with a hit-and-run senolytic mechanism.

The natural product fisetin has senotherapeutic activity in mice and in human tissues. Late life intervention was sufficient to yield a potent health benefit. These characteristics suggest the feasibility to translation to human clinical studies.