January 2017 – Lifeboat News: The Blog https://lifeboat.com/blog Safeguarding Humanity Sun, 04 Jun 2017 20:48:52 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 Humans Successfully Created A Human/Pig Chimera https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/humans-successfully-created-a-humanpig-chimera Wed, 01 Feb 2017 07:24:28 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/humans-successfully-created-a-humanpig-chimera

Scientists successfully grew a half pig/half human embryo.

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Help Me, Obi-Wan! New Hologram Technology Mimics ‘Star Wars’ https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/help-me-obi-wan-new-hologram-technology-mimics-star-wars Wed, 01 Feb 2017 06:22:53 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/help-me-obi-wan-new-hologram-technology-mimics-star-wars

Princess Leia’s holographic plea in the classic film “Star Wars” inspired researchers to work toward a device that could project real-life sci-fi holograms. Now, the futuristic 3D imaging may be one step closer to reality.

A team of physicists at the Australian National University (ANU) invented a tiny device that creates the highest-quality holographic images ever achieved, the scientists said.

Study lead researcher Lei Wang, a Ph.D. student at the ANU Research School of Physics and Engineering, said he first learned about the concept of holographic imaging from the “Star Wars” movies. However, these futuristic-looking 3D images could be used for more practical ends than sending messages from a galaxy far, far away. [Photos: Microsoft’s HoloLens Transforms Surroundings with Holographic Tech].

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Earth And Moon May Be On Long-Term Collision Course https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/earth-and-moon-may-be-on-long-term-collision-course Wed, 01 Feb 2017 04:23:16 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/earth-and-moon-may-be-on-long-term-collision-course

Nothing to fret about, but it is interesting that our Earth and Moon may end up colliding in the end. That’s long after our Sun has expanded as a Red Giant, but the implications for other earth-moon type systems are interesting.


For now, our anomalously large Moon is spinning away from us at a variable rate of 3.8 centimeters per year. But, in fact, the Earth and Moon may be on a very long-term collision course — one that incredibly some 65 billion years from now, could result in a catastrophic lunar inspiral.

“The final end-state of tidal evolution in the Earth-Moon system will indeed be the inspiral of the Moon and its subsequent collision and accretion onto Earth,” Jason Barnes, a planetary scientist at the University of Idaho, told me.

We can’t be sure, yet, though, whether or not the Earth-Moon system would survive the Sun’s Red Giant Phase, says Barnes. That is, when some six billion years from now our Sun runs out of nuclear fuel; its core becomes a burned-out remnant white dwarf; and, its outer layers expand outward beyond Earth orbit.

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A New Alliance Could Give Humanity the World’s First Cancer Vaccine https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/a-new-alliance-could-give-humanity-the-worlds-first-cancer-vaccine Wed, 01 Feb 2017 02:04:42 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/a-new-alliance-could-give-humanity-the-worlds-first-cancer-vaccine

The Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy has partnered with dozens of organizations to develop a cancer vaccine to prevent the disease which is expected to grow by an additional 21.7 million through 2030. The plan is to target genetic markers specific to tumors to allow the body to generate an immune response to combat the cancer before it ever takes hold.

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Soft robotic sleeve developed to aid failing hearts https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/soft-robotic-sleeve-developed-to-aid-failing-hearts Wed, 01 Feb 2017 01:23:11 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/soft-robotic-sleeve-developed-to-aid-failing-hearts

A soft robotic sleeve placed around the heart in a pig model of acute heart failure. The actuators embedded in the sleeve support heart function by mimicking the outer heart muscles that induce the heart to beat. (credit: Harvard SEAS)

An international team of scientists has developed a soft robotic sleeve that can be implanted on the external surface of the heart to restore blood circulation in pigs (and possibly humans in the future) whose hearts have stopped beating.

The device is a silicone-based system with two layers of actuators: one that squeezes circumferentially and one that squeezes diagonally, both designed to mimic the movement of healthy hearts when they beat.

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4 Stem Cell Breakthroughs Happening Right Now https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/4-stem-cell-breakthroughs-happening-right-now Wed, 01 Feb 2017 00:44:39 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/4-stem-cell-breakthroughs-happening-right-now

These 4 stem cell developments are huge and might end up saving your life.

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Milky Way galaxy is being pushed across the universe https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/milky-way-galaxy-is-being-pushed-across-the-universe https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/milky-way-galaxy-is-being-pushed-across-the-universe#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2017 23:23:02 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/milky-way-galaxy-is-being-pushed-across-the-universe

Our home galaxy, the Milky Way, is being pushed across the universe by a large unseen force, according to new research. Although it may not seem like a friendly gesture, the newly discovered Dipole Repeller is actually helping our galaxy on its journey across the expanding universe.

Researchers have known that the galaxy was moving at a relative speed for the past 30 years, but they didn’t know why.

“Now we find an emptiness in exactly the opposite direction, which provides a ‘push’ in the sense of a lack of pull,” said Brent Tully, one of the study authors and an astronomer at the Institute for Astronomy in Honolulu. “In a tug-of-war, if there are more people at one end, then the flow will be toward them and away from the weaker side.”

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‘Substantial evidence’ the universe is a hologram https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/substantial-evidence-the-universe-is-a-hologram Tue, 31 Jan 2017 22:03:07 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/substantial-evidence-the-universe-is-a-hologram

International team of researchers carry out observational tests of holographic cosmology.

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Millimeters-Thick Metal Foam Armor Obliterates Incoming Bullets https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/millimeters-thick-metal-foam-armor-obliterates-incoming-bullets Tue, 31 Jan 2017 20:04:24 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/millimeters-thick-metal-foam-armor-obliterates-incoming-bullets

Foam armor for the future.

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Electromagnetic Levitation Quadcopter https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/electromagnetic-levitation-quadcopter https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/electromagnetic-levitation-quadcopter#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2017 19:42:50 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/01/electromagnetic-levitation-quadcopter

Spinning magnets near copper sheets create levitation!
Try Audible free for 30 days: http://bit.ly/AudibleVe
Special thanks to Hyperloop One for showing me around.

Thanks to Patreon supporters:
Nathan Hansen, Donal Botkin, Tony Fadell, Saeed Alghamdi, Zach Mueller, Ron Neal, Perry cl, Bryan Baker.
Support Veritasium on Patreon: http://bit.ly/VePatreon

Filmed by raquel nuno, edited by trevor carlee.

Obviously this “quadcopter” is a demonstration device, showing how moving magnets over a conducting surface can generate levitation. It has not been optimized to minimize losses or be an efficient mode of transport. I still think it’s pretty cool. I’m used to seeing light things levitated by induced currents but not a 100+ lb machine.

For more on Hyperloop One: https://hyperloop-one.com/

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