Lifeboat Foundation

According to astrophysicist Erik Zackrisson’s computer model, there could be about 70 quintillion planets in the universe. However, most of these planets are vastly different from Earth — they tend to be larger, older, and not suited for life. Only around 63 exoplanets have been found in their stars’ habitable zones, making Earth potentially one of the few life-sustaining planets. This could explain Fermi’s paradox — the puzzling lack of evidence for extraterrestrial life. While we continue searching, Earth might be truly special.

After reading the article, Harry gained more than 55 upvotes with this comment: “If life developing on Earth the way it has is 1 in a billion, then this would imply that there is life on at least a billion other planets (?)”

The prevailing belief among astronomers is that the number of planets should at least match the number of stars. With 100 billion galaxies in the universe, each containing about a billion trillion stars, there should be an equally vast number of exoplanets, including Earth-like worlds — in theory.

The order of the planets is something most of us learn in school: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and (until 2006) Pluto.

So, you would be forgiven for thinking that as Earthlings, our closest planetary neighbor is Venus. And in a way, you would be right – at its nearest, Venus approaches Earth closer than any other planet in the Solar System. Likewise, its orbit is closer to our orbit than any other. However, in another sense, you would be wrong. At least, that is the argument put forward in an article published in PhysicsToday.

Continue reading “A New Planet Is Now Our Closest Neighbor” »

Radio frequency (RF) and microwave power measurements are widely used to support applications across space, defense, and communication. These precise measurements enable engineers to accurately characterize waveforms, components, circuits, and systems.

In a paper published in Chaos, researchers from Sergio Arboleda University in Bogotá, Colombia, and the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta used an electrophysiological computer model of the heart’s electrical circuits to examine the effect of the applied voltage field in multiple fibrillation-defibrillation scenarios. They discovered far less energy is needed than is currently used in state-of-the-art defibrillation techniques.

Edge computing devices, devices located in proximity to the source of data instead of in large data centers, could perform computations locally. This could reduce latency, particularly in real-time applications, as it would minimize the need to transfer data from the cloud.

Related: Radiation-hardened space electronics enter the multi-core era

The approach mitigates risk and enables easy adoption. The RAD510 computer board will launch in industry-standard 3U form factor and use software compatible with the BAE Systems RAD750 and RAD5545 computer boards.

The RAD510 embedded computing board is for the challenging environment of radiation and extreme temperatures of space. It is built on the BAE Systems RAD750 computer board that has enabled more than 100 satellites.

Reducing the energy demand of the amorphization process takes us one step closer to phase-change memory-based data storage systems in the future.

Researchers suggest a new approach is needed to build LLMs with accurate world models.

LLMs have shown that they can excel at various things – like writing, generating computer programs, and more activities.

Continue reading “US researchers show GenAI lacks coherent world model understanding” »

In a study published in Physical Review Letters, researchers at the Center for Computational Quantum Physics (CCQ) at the Flatiron Institute have revealed that the quantum problem they solved, which involved a specific two-dimensional quantum system of flipping magnets, exhibits a behavior known as confinement. This problem explains why they defeated the quantum computer in its own game. Only one-dimensional systems had previously exhibited this behavior in quantum condensed matter physics.

The researchers revealed earlier this year that they had completely surpassed a quantum computer at a task that some believed could only be completed by quantum computers by using a classical computer and complex mathematical models.

According to lead author Joseph Tindall, a research fellow at the CCQ, this surprising discovery is giving researchers a framework for evaluating novel quantum simulations and aiding in their understanding of the boundary between quantum and classical computers’ capabilities.