Lifeboat Foundation

A material that doesn’t just rival the strength of diamonds and graphene, but boasts a yield strength 10 times greater than Kevlar, renowned for its use in bulletproof vests.

Researchers at Delft University of Technology, led by assistant professor Richard Norte, have unveiled a remarkable new material with the potential to impact the world of material science: amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC).

Beyond its exceptional strength, this material demonstrates mechanical properties crucial for vibration isolation on a microchip. Amorphous silicon carbide is therefore particularly suitable for making ultra-sensitive microchip sensors.

Self-driving labs can perform experiments thousands of times faster than a human and they don’t need to sleep. That means more science in less time, but many questions remain, says Alex Wilkins

By Alex Wilkins

According to Candy, the rise of AI would instead put a premium on soft skills like critical and creative thinking.

“Questioning, creativity skills, and innovation are going to be hugely important because I think AI’s going to free up more capacity for creative thought processes,” he told Fortune earlier.

It’s not just jobs in tech, though. Candy said that advances in AI image-generation technology could also affect those working in the arts.

Double slit experiment, and quantum light paradox. Get 60% off your Babbel subscription: https://go.babbel.com/t?bsc=1200m60-youtube-astrum-jun-2023&…Influencer…astrum…USA…YouTube.

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Continue reading “The Attribute of Light Science Still Can’t Explain” »

This chapter gives an overview of the projects facing a science of consciousness. Such a science must integrate third-person data about behavior and brain processes with first-person data about conscious experience. Empirical projects for integrating these data include those of contrasting conscious and unconscious processes, investigating the contents of consciousness, finding neural correlates of consciousness, and eventually inferring underlying principles connecting consciousness with physical processes. These projects are discussed with reference to current experimental research on consciousness. Some obstacles that a science of consciousness faces are also discussed.

The Paulding Light, a perplexing glow in the Michigan sky, has fueled folklore with its eerie nightly appearances since the 1960s. What was once thought to be a ghostly signal has turned into a case study for scientific inquiry. A team of Michigan Tech students, led by Jeremy Bos, a PhD candidate in electrical engineering, undertook a methodical investigation to expose the truth behind the spectral luminance that intrigued both locals and visitors in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Their rigorous scientific approach involved telescopes, spectrographs, and atmospheric modeling, which demystified the paranormal claims. By observing the phenomenon through a telescope, the researchers identified the lights as nothing more than the headlights and taillights of vehicles on a distant stretch of US Highway 45. This was further supported by spectral analysis, confirming the automotive origin of the lights. The team’s findings pointed to atmospheric conditions and the geography of the Paulding area, which caused the vehicle lights to refract and create the illusion of the unexplained Paulding Light.

Despite the logical explanations provided by these dedicated students, the Paulding Light’s allure remains undiminished. The legend continues to attract those drawn to the supernatural, demonstrating the human fascination with mystery over the mundane. The Paulding Light stands as a symbol of our enduring attraction to the unexplained, a reminder that sometimes, even when the truth is revealed, the legend never dies.

Quanta Magazine’s full list of the major computer science discoveries from 2023.

In 2023, artificial intelligence dominated popular culture — showing up in everything from internet memes to Senate hearings. Large language models such as those behind ChatGPT fueled a lot of this excitement, even as researchers still struggled to pry open the “black box” that describes their inner workings. Image generation systems also routinely impressed and unsettled us with their artistic abilities, yet these were explicitly founded on concepts borrowed from physics.

Continue reading “The Biggest Discoveries in Computer Science in 2023” »

Occam’s razor—the principle that when faced with competing explanations, we should choose the simplest that fits the facts—is not just a tool of science. Occam’s razor is science, insists a renowned molecular geneticist from the University of Surrey.

In a paper published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Professor Johnjoe McFadden argues Occam’s razor—attributed to the Surrey-born Franciscan friar William of Occam (1285–1347)—is the only feature that differentiates science from superstition, pseudoscience or fake news.

Professor McFadden said, “What is science? The rise of issues such as vaccine hesitancy, climate skepticism, alternative medicine, and mysticism reveals significant levels of distrust or misunderstanding of science among the general public. The ongoing COVID inquiry also highlights how scientific ignorance extends into the heart of government. Part of the problem is that most people, even most scientists, have no clear idea of what science is actually about.”

The discovery of stars with their outer layers of hydrogen stripped by companions fills a glaring hole in our understanding of supernovas and binary systems with colliding neutron stars.