February 2021 – Lifeboat News: The Blog https://lifeboat.com/blog Safeguarding Humanity Mon, 01 Mar 2021 06:22:17 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 Do telomere length tests really reveal your biological age? https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/do-telomere-length-tests-really-reveal-your-biological-age Mon, 01 Mar 2021 06:22:17 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/do-telomere-length-tests-really-reveal-your-biological-age

Curiosity about how well our bodies are ageing has fuelled an industry around telomere length tests, but the much touted “biological clock” in our DNA isn’t what we thought.

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Club IA Tesla https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/club-ia-tesla Mon, 01 Mar 2021 02:23:21 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/club-ia-tesla

The future of education with augmented reality 🧑 🏫🧠


El futuro de la educación con Realidad Aumentada 🧑‍🏫 🧠.

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‘Like a horror movie’: Caterpillar silences tomato’s cry for help, scientists find https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/like-a-horror-movie-caterpillar-silences-tomatos-cry-for-help-scientists-find Mon, 01 Mar 2021 02:22:17 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/like-a-horror-movie-caterpillar-silences-tomatos-cry-for-help-scientists-find

“Scientists found that a caterpillar called the tomato fruit worm not only chomps on tomatoes and their leaves, but also deposits enzyme-laden saliva on the plant, interfering with its ability to cry for help. If it all sounds a bit improbable, starting with the concept of plants crying for help, scientists also scoffed at that idea when it was first proposed a few decades ago. But it has been shown time and time again that when under attack, plants can emit chemical distress signals, causing their peers to mount some sort of defense. A classic example is the smell of a freshly mown lawn, which prompts the release of protective compounds in nearby blades of grass that have yet to be cut. In some cases, plant distress signals can even summon help from other species. That’s what happens with the tomato. When caterpillars nibble on the plant’s leaves, the leaf pores release volatile chemicals that are detected by a type of parasite: a wasp that lays eggs inside caterpillars. (Not to overwork the horror-movie analogy, but as with the hapless astronauts in the “Aliens” franchise, it doesn’t end well for the caterpillar.)”


While there’s a famous horror-movie spoof about killer tomatoes, no one seems to have made one about caterpillars—the insect pests that eat the juicy red fruits of summer.

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New study suggests supermassive black holes could form from dark matter https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/new-study-suggests-supermassive-black-holes-could-form-from-dark-matter Sun, 28 Feb 2021 23:22:27 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/new-study-suggests-supermassive-black-holes-could-form-from-dark-matter

A new theoretical study has proposed a novel mechanism for the creation of supermassive black holes from dark matter. The international team find that rather than the conventional formation scenarios involving ‘normal’ matter, supermassive black holes could instead form directly from dark matter in high density regions in the centers of galaxies. The result has key implications for cosmology in the early Universe, and is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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After 20 years, physicists find a way to keep track of lost accelerator particles https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/after-20-years-physicists-find-a-way-to-keep-track-of-lost-accelerator-particles Sun, 28 Feb 2021 23:22:19 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/after-20-years-physicists-find-a-way-to-keep-track-of-lost-accelerator-particles

A high-intensity accelerator beam is formed of trillions of particles that race at lightning speeds down a system of powerful magnets and high-energy superconductors. Calculating the physics of the beam is so complex that not even the fastest supercomputers can keep up.

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Missing Matter Found in Our Own Galaxy https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/missing-matter-found-in-our-own-galaxy Sun, 28 Feb 2021 21:22:34 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/missing-matter-found-in-our-own-galaxy

A team of astronomers has discovered evidence of lightless hydrogen “snow clouds” that may make up much of the “missing” matter in the Milky Way.

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Forecast: SpaceX plans Sunday night Starlink launch https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/forecast-spacex-plans-sunday-night-starlink-launch Sun, 28 Feb 2021 21:22:26 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/forecast-spacex-plans-sunday-night-starlink-launch

According to our friends at the 45th Weather Squadron, there is a 90 percent chance of a go for launch.

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New Metamaterial Structures for Studying the Oldest Light in the Universe https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/new-metamaterial-structures-for-studying-the-oldest-light-in-the-universe Sun, 28 Feb 2021 21:22:18 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/new-metamaterial-structures-for-studying-the-oldest-light-in-the-universe

The cosmic microwave background, or CMB, is the electromagnetic echo of the Big Bang, radiation that has been traveling through space and time since the very first atoms were born 380000 years after our universe began. Mapping minuscule variations in the CMB tells scientists about how our universe came to be and what it’s made of.

To capture the ancient, cold light from the CMB, researchers use specialized telescopes equipped with ultrasensitive cameras for detecting millimeter-wavelength signals. The next-generation cameras will contain up to 100000 superconducting detectors. Fermilab scientist and University of Chicago Associate Professor Jeff McMahon and his team have developed a new type of metamaterials-based antireflection coating for the silicon lenses used in these cameras.

“There are at least half a dozen projects that would not be possible without these,” McMahon said.

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The real reason why Bill Gates is now the US’ biggest farmland owner https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/the-real-reason-why-bill-gates-is-now-the-us-biggest-farmland-owner Sun, 28 Feb 2021 19:22:15 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/the-real-reason-why-bill-gates-is-now-the-us-biggest-farmland-owner

Trent Condellone.

He’s going to chip the farmland, wait and see.

1 Reply.

Chris Cole.

Here you go, the non sensational reasoning behind owning lots of land:


Late last year, Eric O’Keefe was researching a mysterious recent purchase of 14500 acres of prime Washington state farmland. His magazine, The Land Report, tracks major land transactions and produces an annual list of the 100 biggest US landowners.

Sales of more than a thousand acres are “blue-moon events,” O’Keefe noted, so this one stood out. And Eastern Washington has some of the richest, most expensive farmland in the country. But the purchaser of record was a small, obscure company in Louisiana.

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Early-Warning for Seizures Could Be a Game-Changer for Epilepsy Patients https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/early-warning-for-seizures-could-be-a-game-changer-for-epilepsy-patients Sun, 28 Feb 2021 17:23:37 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2021/02/early-warning-for-seizures-could-be-a-game-changer-for-epilepsy-patients

A new mathematical algorithm examines data from EEG and brain implants to learn each epilepsy patient’s unique brain pattern signatures. The system can predict the onset of a seizure within an hour, allowing the patient to take necessary interventions.

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