Lifeboat Foundation

A quantum enigma machine is theoretical device that is able to use photons to encrypt messages using keys that are shorter than the message itself—and now it’s real.

August 08, 2016 | By Liezel Labios Researchers Receive NSF Grant to Develop New Quantum Technologies for Secure Communication.

Nice — another step forward for all things connected.

Scientists can now talk to and even command living cells–to a limited degree at the moment, but with massive implications for the future. MIT biological engineers have created a computer code that allows them to basically hijack living cells and control them. It works similarly to a translation service, using a programming language to create a function for a cell in the form of a DNA sequence. Once it’s scalable, the invention has major ramifications. Future applications could include designing cells that produce a cancer drug when a tumor is detected or creating yeast cells that halt their own fermentation if too many toxic byproducts build up.

Continue reading “Scientists Create Language to Program Living Cells” »

Indeed, if we set ethical and safety objections aside, genetic enhancement has the potential to bring about significant national advantages. Even marginal increases in intelligence via gene editing could have significant effects on a nation’s economic growth. Certain genes could give some athletes an edge in intense international competitions. Other genes may have an effect on violent tendencies, suggesting genetic engineering could reduce crime rates.

We may soon be able to edit people’s DNA to cure diseases like cancer, but will this lead to designer babies? If so, bioethicist G Owen Schaefer argues that China will lead the way.

But, using an assumption that a wormhole can be found at the middle of a black hole, a group of Portugese researchers modelled how objects like a chair, a scientist and a spacecraft would be able to withstand the journey through it.

‘What we did was to reconsider a fundamental question on the relation between the gravity and the underlying structure of space-time,’ Diego Rubiera-Garcia, lead author from the University of Lisbon, Portugal, said.

Continue reading “Tunnels in spacetime could someday take us to another universe, claims radical theory” »

A new dimming signal makes the famous star even more challenging to explain, but astronomers aren’t claiming that it’s aliens… yet.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rw1odkI0Nw8

“An ultimate goal of stem cell research is to turn on the regenerative potential of one’s own stem cells for tissue and organ repair and disease therapy,” said Dr. Kang Zhang of the UC San Diego School of Medicine.

You’ll soon be able to see the future with eyes grown in petri dishes. Scientists in Japan’s Osaka University have found a new way to turn stem cells into a human eyeball in what is (needless to say) a remarkable breakthrough for the medical community. According to lead biologist Kohji Nishida, a small sample of adult skin is all that would be required in order to grow retinas, corneas, lenses, and other key components of the eye.

Continue reading “Stem cell breakthrough allows scientists to grow and assemble human eyes” »

Scientists at IBM Research in Zurich have developed artificial neurons that emulate how neurons spike (fire). The goal is to create energy-efficient, high-speed, ultra-dense integrated neuromorphic (brain-like) technologies for applications in cognitive computing, such as unsupervised learning for detecting and analyzing patterns.

Continue reading “IBM scientists emulate neurons with phase-change technology” »