Lifeboat Foundation

The fiber-optic cables carrying data across the internet are vulnerable to hacking. Two US initiatives aim to fix that by creating super-secure quantum transmissions.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell, astrophysicist extraordinaire who helped discover radio pulsars while a graduate student in 1967 (though only her adviser was recognized when the discovery snagged a Nobel Prize in physics in 1974), is getting long-overdue recognition.

Bell Burnell, now a visiting professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford and chancellor of Scotland’s University of Dundee, was awarded the weighty Breakthrough Prize in physics in September for her pulsar discovery and science leadership.

Continue reading “Robbed of Nobel, Female Physicist Blazed Her Own Amazing Trail: Watch Her Speak Tonight” »

Other common names for the drugs include captopril, cilazapril and enalapri.

They work by reducing the activity of the angiotensin-converting enzyme, or ACE for short. By blocking this enzyme, the blood vessels relax and widen and blood pressure is lowered.

Continue reading “Blood pressure pills could raise risk of lung cancer, research finds” »

Star formation is one of the most important research fields in astrophysics. This process, in which gravitational instabilities cause the collapse of gas to form more compact structures and finally stars, encompasses a broad range of physical scales. These include star-forming galaxies on the large scale, individual young stars with envelopes and circumstellar disks on the smaller scale, and intermediate scales that include giant molecular clouds and protostellar cores.

A “portrait” that is the first piece of artificial-intelligence art sold by a major auction house shattered estimates, selling for 45 times what was expected.

“Portrait of Edmond de Belamy” was sold Thursday at Christies in New York for $432,500. It had been expected to go for $7,000 to $10,000. The buyer was not revealed.

The painting is one of 11 portraits of a fictional family created so far by the Paris-based art collective Obvious.

Continue reading “Art ‘painted’” »

SodaStream and NGO Plastic Soup are battling plastics in the Caribbean Sea armed with a unique vessel, the “Holy Turtle,” and a coalition of local schoolkids.

Nootropics or “Smart Drugs” have been credited with enhancing cognitive functions, including creativity. We dug into the research to find out if they really do.

• East Island is located about 550 miles northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii.
• In early October, the island was effectively wiped off the map when Hurricane Walaka swept through it.
• Scientists say East Island was the nesting ground for 50% of the world’s Hawaiian green sea turtles.
• It’s unclear if the island will reappear, and scientists expect future hurricanes to be stronger and wetter due to climate change.

An 11-acre island in the Pacific Ocean has vanished after Hurricane Walaka, one of the most powerful storms to sweep through the area, struck the island in early October.

Satellite photos show that East Island, located roughly 550 miles northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii, was wiped off the map during the hurricane.

ESO, european organisation for astronomical research in the southern hemisphere.