These AI voice models are surprisingly good. One of the podcasts I produce is about computer security. A few episodes ago, just before recording, I took a sample of my co-host’s voice, created a model, and had him read part of the Gettysburg Address. It took three minutes to do this.
In the episode, we discussed the possibility of someone being fooled by, for example, a late night voice mail from a voice that sounds like their boss, saying he’s leaving the country and will be unavailable, and should give the top secret password to someone name Joe, who calls. What does the employee do? Risk of losing their job by not giving Joe the password, or play it safe?
Gassho,
Ryūmon (Kirk)
Sat
-
Tech used to help solve a problem caused by our wastefulness. (Still, what a mess!
)
And tech used to defraud ...“Very High” Accuracy – Machine Learning Helps Separate Compostable From Conventional Plastic Waste
Researchers have created classification models that enable accurate and automated sorting of various types of plastics.
The use of compostable plastics is increasing, and while they offer several benefits, these materials, such as wrappers and packaging, can mix with and contaminate traditional plastic waste during recycling. To address this issue, scientists have employed advanced imaging techniques and created machine-learning algorithms capable of distinguishing compostable plastics from conventional ones.
Disposable plastics are everywhere in our lives, appearing in various forms such as food containers, coffee cups, and plastic bags. Although certain plastics are designed to biodegrade under controlled conditions, they are still problematic as they often resemble traditional plastics. When these compostable plastics are recycled improperly, they can contaminate plastic waste streams, leading to a reduction in recycling efficiency. Furthermore, recyclable plastics are often mistaken for compostable ones, resulting in polluted compost.
Researchers at University College London (UCL) have published a paper in Frontiers in Sustainability in which they used machine learning to automatically sort different types of compostable and biodegradable plastics and differentiate them from conventional plastics.
“The accuracy is very high and allows the technique to be feasibly used in industrial recycling and composting facilities in the future,” said Prof Mark Miodownik, corresponding author of the study.
https://scitechdaily.com/very-high-a...plastic-waste/
Gassho, JThat panicky call from a relative? It could be a thief using a voice clone, FTC warns
The Federal Trade Commission issued a consumer alert this week urging people to be vigilant for calls using voice clones generated by artificial intelligence, one of the latest techniques used by criminals hoping to swindle people out of money.
"All [the scammer] needs is a short audio clip of your family member's voice — which he could get from content posted online — and a voice-cloning program," the commission warned. "When the scammer calls you, he'll sound just like your loved one."
If you're not sure it's a friend or relative, hang up and call them
The FTC suggests that if someone who sounds like a friend or relative asks for money — particularly if they want to be paid via a wire transfer, cryptocurrency or a gift card — you should hang up and call the person directly to verify their story.
https://www.npr.org/2023/03/22/11654...s-ai-scams-ftc
stlahLeave a comment:
-
We can prove that there is intelligent life on a planet deep in space: Look in the mirror.
Some news with a Tsukuba/JAXA (Japanese NASA) connection ...
And I thought "Chicken McNuggets" were already pretty much "lab grown chicken" ...Component of RNA Found in Asteroid Ryugu Samples
Researchers have analyzed samples of asteroid Ryugu collected by the Japanese Space Agency’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft and found uracil—one of the informational units that make up RNA, the molecules that contain the instructions for how to build and operate living organisms. Nicotinic acid, also known as Vitamin B3 or niacin, which is an important cofactor for metabolism in living organisms, was also detected in the same samples. This discovery by an international team, led by Associate Professor Yasuhiro Oba at Hokkaido University, adds to the evidence that important building blocks for life are created in space and could have been delivered to Earth by meteorites. The findings will be published today (March 21) in the journal Nature Communications.
“Scientists have previously found nucleobases and vitamins in certain carbon-rich meteorites, but there was always the question of contamination by exposure to the Earth’s environment,” Oba explained. “Since the Hayabusa2 spacecraft collected two samples directly from asteroid Ryugu and delivered them to Earth in sealed capsules, contamination can be ruled out.”
https://scitechdaily.com/component-o...ryugu-samples/
New perspectives ... on the universal pointillist muffin ...Lab-grown chicken is one step closer to being sold in the US
Americans are one step closer to being able to buy chicken grown from animal cells, also known as lab-grown meat.
Good Meat, the developer of such a chicken product, announced Tuesday that it has received a so-called “no questions” letter from the Food and Drug Administration. That letter states that the administration is satisfied that the product is safe to sell in the United States. The FDA issued a similar letter to another company that makes meat from cultured chicken cells, Upside Foods, in November.
That’s a big step, but it doesn’t mean shoppers will be able to try the product just yet. To get the green light to sell to consumers, both companies need the go-ahead from the US Department of Agriculture.
... Good Meat advertises its product as “meat without slaughter,” a more humane approach to eating meat. Supporters hope that cultured meat will help fight climate change by reducing the need for traditional animal agriculture, which emits greenhouse gases. Cultivated or lab-grown meat is grown in a vat much like what you’d find at a beer brewery. There’s no clear timeline for when Good Meat or Upside Foods will get USDA approval. But internationally, things are moving quickly. Good Meat’s cell-based chicken was approved for sale in Singapore in 2020, and has since been available for purchase in restaurants in that country. ...
[ATTACH=CONFIG]8276[/ATTACH]
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/21/b...fda/index.html
AI is nipping on my heals as a lawyer, translator ... even Zen teacher ...New Perspective on the Fundamental Structure of the Universe
The universe is peppered with galaxies, which, on large scales, exhibit a filamentary pattern, referred to as the cosmic web. This heterogeneous distribution of cosmic material is in some ways like blueberries in a muffin where material clusters in certain areas but may be lacking in others.
Based on a series of simulations, researchers have begun to probe the heterogeneous structure of the universe by treating the distribution of galaxies as a collection of points—like the individual particles of matter that make up a material—rather than as a continuous distribution. This technique has enabled the application of mathematics developed for materials science to quantify the relative disorder of the universe, enabling a better understanding of its fundamental structure. “What we found was that the distribution of galaxies in the universe is quite different from the physical properties of conventional materials, having its own unique signature,” explained Oliver Philcox, a co-author of the study.
... the research team showed that on the largest scales (on the order of several hundred megaparsecs), the universe approaches hyperuniformity, while on smaller scales (up to 10 megaparsecs) it becomes almost antihyperuniform and strongly inhomogeneous. “The perceived shift between order and disorder depends largely on scale,” stated Torquato. “The pointillist technique of Georges Seurat in the painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (see image below) produces a similar visual effect; the work appears disordered when viewed up-close and highly ordered from afar. In terms of the universe, the degree of order and disorder is more subtle, as with a Rorschach inkblot test that can be interpreted in an infinite number of ways.”
A section of the universe (black and white), with dark matter halos indicated by points and their associated large-scale topological structures indicated by colors.
Soon, we can send the AI to the water cooler to gossip for us!
Gassho, JAI: The way we work is about to change
In just a few months, you’ll be able to ask a virtual assistant to transcribe meeting notes during a work call, summarize long email threads to quickly draft suggested replies, quickly create a specific chart in Excel, and turn a Word document into a PowerPoint presentation in seconds.
And that’s just on Microsoft’s 365 platforms.
Over the past week, a rapidly evolving artificial intelligence landscape seemed to leap ahead again. Microsoft and Google each unveiled new AI-powered features for their signature productivity tools and OpenAI introduced its next-generation version of the technology that underpins its viral chatbot tool, ChatGPT.
Suddenly, AI tools, which have long operated in the background of many services, are now more powerful and more visible across a wide and growing range of workplace tools.
Google’s new features, for example, promise to help “brainstorm” and “proofread” written work in Docs. Meanwhile, if your workplace uses popular chat platform Slack, you’ll be able to have its ChatGPT tool talk to colleagues for you, potentially asking it to write and respond to new messages and summarize conversations in channels.
...
But the sheer number of new options hitting the market is both dizzying and, as with so much else in the tech industry over the past decade, raises questions of whether they will live up to the hype or cause unintended consequences, including enabling cheating and eliminating the need for certain roles (though that may be the intent of some adopters).
Even the promise of greater productivity is unclear. The rise of AI-generated emails, for example, might boost productivity for the sender but decrease it for recipients flooded with longer-than-necessary computer-generated messages. And of course just because everyone has the option to use a chatbot to communicate with colleagues doesn’t mean all will chose to do so.
...
The agent will know, for example, what’s in a user’s email and on their calendar for the day, as well as the documents they’ve been working on, the presentations they’ve been making, the people they’re meeting with, and the chats happening on their Teams platform, according to the company. Users can then ask Business Chat to do tasks such as write a status report by summarizing all of the documents across platforms on a certain project, and then draft an email that could be sent to their team with an update.
...
Although OpenAI’s GPT-4 update promises fixes to some of its biggest challenges — from its potential to perpetuate biases, sometimes being factually incorrect and responding in an aggressive manner — there’s still the possibility for some of these issues to find their way into the workplace, especially when it comes to interacting with others.
Arijit Sengupta, CEO and founder of AI solutions company Aible, said a problem with any large language model is that it tries to please the user and typically accepts the premise of the user’s statements.
“If people start gossiping about something, it will accept it as the norm and then start generating content [related to that],” said Sengupta, adding that it could escalate interpersonal issues and turn into bullying at the office.
...
“Blind trust in these solutions is as dangerous as complete lack of faith in the effectiveness of it,” Chandrasekaran said. “Generative AI solutions can also make up facts or present inaccurate information from time to time – and organizations need to be prepared to mitigate this negative impact.”
At the same time, many of these applications are not up to date (GPT-4’s data that it’s trained on cuts off around September 2021). The onus will have to be on the users to do everything from double check the accuracy to change the language to reflect the tone they want. It will also be important to get buy-in and support across workplaces for the tools to take off.
“Training, education and organizational change management is very important to ensure that employees are supportive of the efforts and the tools are used in the way they were intended to,” Chandrasekaran said.
stlahLeave a comment:
-
A potential "peptide papa" to us all ...
It takes a human brain to understand a bug brain ...Scientists Identify “Pioneer Peptide” That May Have Sparked Life on Earth
A team of Rutgers University scientists dedicated to pinpointing the primordial origins of metabolism – a set of core chemical reactions that first powered life on Earth – has identified part of a protein that could provide scientists clues to detecting planets on the verge of producing life. ...
... Based on laboratory studies, Rutgers scientists say one of the most likely chemical candidates that kickstarted life was a simple peptide with two nickel atoms they are calling “Nickelback” not because it has anything to do with the Canadian rock band, but because its backbone nitrogen atoms bond two critical nickel atoms. A peptide is a constituent of a protein made up of a few elemental building blocks known as amino acids.
“Scientists believe that sometime between 3.5 and 3.8 billion years ago there was a tipping point, something that kickstarted the change from prebiotic chemistry – molecules before life – to* living, biological systems,” Nanda said. “We believe the change was sparked by a few small precursor proteins that performed key steps in an ancient metabolic reaction. And we think we’ve found one of these ‘pioneer peptides’.” ...
https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-...life-on-earth/
Like little submarines with twin inboard engines ...First Complete Map of an Insect Brain – “Everything Has Been Working Up to This”
Researchers have completed the most advanced brain map to date, that of an insect, a landmark achievement in neuroscience that brings scientists closer to true understanding of the mechanism of thought. The international team led by Johns Hopkins University and the University of Cambridge produced a breathtakingly detailed diagram tracing every neural connection in the brain of a larval fruit fly, an archetypal scientific model with brains comparable to humans.
The work, likely to underpin future brain research and to inspire new machine learning architectures, appears today (March 10, 2023) in the journal Science.
“If we want to understand who we are and how we think, part of that is understanding the mechanism of thought,” said senior author Joshua T. Vogelstein, a Johns Hopkins biomedical engineer who specializes in data-driven projects including connectomics, the study of nervous system connections. “And the key to that is knowing how neurons connect with each other.” ... This team’s connectome of a baby fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster larva, is the most complete as well as the most expansive map of an entire insect brain ever completed. It includes 3,016 neurons and every connection between them: 548,000.
The team purposely chose the fruit fly larva because, for an insect, the species shares much of its fundamental biology with humans, including a comparable genetic foundation. It also has rich learning and decision-making behaviors, making it a useful model organism in neuroscience. And for practical purposes, its relatively compact brain can be imaged and its circuits reconstructed within a reasonable time frame.
Even so, the work took the University of Cambridge and Johns Hopkins 12 years. The imaging alone took about a day per neuron. ...
~~~
The fruit fly larva connectome is an important advance because it's "closer in many regards to a human brain than the other ones," says Joshua Vogelstein, an author of the study and an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
For example, "there's regions that correspond to decision making, there's regions that correspond to learning, there's regions that correspond to navigation," Vogelstein says. But the challenges scientists faced in producing the fruit fly larva connectome show just how far they still have to go to map a human brain, which contains more than 80 billion neurons and hundreds of trillions of synapses.
The complete set of neurons in an insect brain, which were reconstructed using synapse-resolution electron microscopy.
and
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-...human-learning
I might have to sell a kidney in order to afford a new kidney!Revolutionary Twin-Bioengine Nanorobots for Gastrointestinal Inflammation Therapy
Micro/nanorobots with self-propelling and -navigating capabilities have attracted extensive attention in drug delivery and therapy owing to their controllable locomotion in hard-to-reach body tissues.
However, developing self-adaptive micro/nanorobots that can adjust their driving mechanisms across multiple biological barriers to reach distant lesions is still a challenge. Recently, a research team led by Prof. Lintao Cai from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed a twin-bioengine yeast micro/nanorobot (TBY-robot) with self-propelling and self-adaptive capabilities that can autonomously navigate to inflamed sites to provide gastrointestinal inflammation therapy via enzyme-macrophage switching (EMS).
Yeast micro/nanorobots utilize twin-engine to self-propel in gastrointestinal intraluminal and extraluminal environments.
https://scitechdaily.com/revolutiona...ation-therapy/
And this is scary ... we can't even believe our own eyes and ears anymore! ...When we’ll be able to 3D-print organs and who will be able to afford them
What if doctors could just print a kidney, using cells from the patient, instead of having to find a donor match and hope the patient’s body doesn’t reject the transplanted kidney?
The soonest that could happen is in a decade, thanks to 3D organ bioprinting, said Jennifer Lewis, a professor at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Organ bioprinting is the use of 3D-printing technologies to assemble multiple cell types, growth factors and biomaterials in a layer-by-layer fashion to produce bioartificial organs that ideally imitate their natural counterparts, according to a 2019 study.
This type of regenerative medicine is in the development stage, and the driving force behind this innovation is “real human need,” Lewis said.
In the United States, there are 106,800 men, women and children on the national organ transplant waiting list as of March 8, 2023, according to the Health Resources & Services Administration. However, living donors provide only around 6,000 organs per year on average, and there are about 8,000 deceased donors annually who each provide 3.5 organs on average. ... Every day, 17 people die waiting for an organ transplant, according to the Health Resources & Services Administration. And every 10 minutes, another person is added to the waitlist, the agency says. More than 90% of the people on the transplant list in 2021 needed a kidney.
“About a million people worldwide are in need of a kidney. So they have end-stage renal failure, and they have to go on dialysis,” Lewis said. “Once you go on dialysis, you have essentially five years to live, and every year, your mortality rate increases by 15%. Dialysis is very hard on your body. So this is really motivating to take on this grand challenge of printing organs.” ...
... Atala and his colleagues were responsible for growing human bladders in a lab by hand in 2006, and implanting a complicated internal organ into people for the first time — saving the lives of three children in whom they implanted the bladders.
... To begin the process of bioprinting an organ, doctors typically start with a patient’s own cells. They take a small needle biopsy of an organ or do a minimally invasive surgical procedure that removes a small piece of tissue, “less than half the size of a postage stamp,” Atala said. “By taking this small piece of tissue, we are able to tease cells apart (and) we grow and expand the cells outside the body.” his growth happens inside a sterile incubator or bioreactor, a pressurized stainless steel vessel that helps the cells stay fed with nutrients — called “media” — the doctors feed them every 24 hours, since cells have their own metabolism, Lewis said. Each cell type has a different media, and the incubator or bioreactor acts as an oven-like device mimicking the internal temperature and oxygenation of the human body, Atala said.
“Then we mix it with this gel, which is like a glue,” Atala said. “Every organ in your body has the cells and the glue that holds it together. Basically, that’s also called ‘extracellular matrix.’” [ MORE DETAILS OF PROCESS AT LINK BELOW] ...
... Atala and Lewis are conservative in their estimates about the number of years remaining before fully functioning bioprinted organs can be implanted into humans.
“The field’s moving fast, but I mean, I think we’re talking about a decade plus, even with all of the tremendous progress that’s been made,” Lewis said.
“I learned so many years ago never to predict because you’ll always be wrong,” Atala said. “There’s so many factors in terms of manufacturing and the (US Food and Drug Administration regulation). At the end of the day, our interest, of course, is to make sure the technologies are safe for the patient above all.” ...
... So, it’s a lot cheaper to create an organ that you can implant into the patient.”
The average kidney transplant cost was $442,500 in 2020, according to research published by the American Society of Nephrology — while 3D printers retail for around a few thousand dollars to upward of $100,000, depending on their complexity. ...
A 3D printer seeds different types of cells onto a kidney scaffold at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.
https://us.cnn.com/2022/06/10/health...scn/index.html
Gassho, JAn online tool creates convincing AI audio fakes of anyone. Here's how the technology works and what's at stake.
stlahLast edited by Jundo; 03-11-2023, 04:33 AM.Leave a comment:
-
Water on tap ...
Looking at Venus and Jupiter this week, be grateful that a certain planet is -NOT- up there. We exist by the good fortune of our Goldilocks solar system ...Astronomers Discover Missing Link: Water on Earth Is Even Older Than Our Sun
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected gaseous water in the planet-forming disc around the star V883 Orionis. This water carries a chemical signature that explains the journey of water from star-forming gas clouds to planets, and supports the idea that water on Earth is even older than our Sun.
... This discovery was made by studying the composition of water in V883 Orionis, a planet-forming disc about 1300 light-years away from Earth. When a cloud of gas and dust collapses it forms a star at its center. Around the star, material from the cloud also forms a disc. Over the course of a few million years, the matter in the disc clumps together to form comets, asteroids, and eventually planets. ... The journey of water from clouds to young stars, and then later from comets to planets has previously been observed, but until now the link between the young stars and comets was missing. “V883 Orionis is the missing link in this case,” says Tobin. “The composition of the water in the disc is very similar to that of comets in our own Solar System. This is confirmation of the idea that the water in planetary systems formed billions of years ago, before the Sun, in interstellar space, and has been inherited by both comets and Earth, relatively unchanged.”
https://youtu.be/UnDl2cBxkQ4
Zooming on the young star V883 Orionis. This star is currently in outburst,
which has pushed the water snow line further from the star
and allowed it to be detected for the first time with ALMA.
https://us.cnn.com/2023/03/08/world/...scn/index.html
And speaking of delicate balances ...Astrophysicist Reveals Planet That Could [Have Ended] Life on Earth
A terrestrial planet hovering between Mars and Jupiter would be able to push Earth out of the solar system and wipe out life on this planet, according to a University of California, Riverside (UCR) experiment. ...
[There is a] gap in our solar system between the size of terrestrial and giant gas planets. The largest terrestrial planet is Earth, and the smallest gas giant is Neptune, which is four times wider and 17 times more massive than Earth. There is nothing in between. “In other star systems, there are many planets with masses in that gap. We call them super-Earths,” Kane said.
The other gap is in location, relative to the sun, between Mars and Jupiter. “Planetary scientists often wish there was something in between those two planets. It seems like wasted real estate,” he said.
These gaps could offer important insights into the architecture of our solar system, and into Earth’s evolution. To fill them in, Kane ran dynamic computer simulations of a planet between Mars and Jupiter with a range of different masses, and then observed the effects on the orbits of all other planets.
The results, published in the Planetary Science Journal, were mostly disastrous for the solar system. “This fictional planet gives a nudge to Jupiter that is just enough to destabilize everything else,” Kane said. “Despite many astronomers having wished for this extra planet, it’s a good thing we don’t have it.” ... Depending on the mass and exact location of a super-Earth, its presence could ultimately eject Mercury and Venus as well as Earth from the solar system. It could also destabilize the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, tossing them into outer space as well.
The super-Earth would change the shape of this Earth’s orbit, making it far less habitable than it is today, if not ending life entirely.
... These results gave Kane a renewed respect for the delicate order that holds the planets together around the sun. “Our solar system is more finely tuned than I appreciated before. It all works like intricate clock gears. Throw more gears into the mix and it all breaks,” Kane said.
https://scitechdaily.com/astrophysic...life-on-earth/
Maybe the bees will inherit the planet (if they survive too). Bees go to culture school, and earn a B+ ...Scientists have revived a ‘zombie’ virus that spent 48,500 years frozen in permafrost
Warmer temperatures in the Arctic are thawing the region’s permafrost — a frozen layer of soil beneath the ground — and potentially stirring viruses that, after lying dormant for tens of thousands of years, could endanger animal and human health. While a pandemic unleashed by a disease from the distant past sounds like the plot of a sci-fi movie, scientists warn that the risks, though low, are underappreciated.
... In 2014, he managed to revive a virus he and his team isolated from the permafrost, making it infectious for the first time in 30,000 years by inserting it into cultured cells. For safety, he’d chosen to study a virus that could only target single-celled amoebas, not animals or humans. ... And in his latest research, published February 18 in the journal Viruses, Claverie and his team isolated several strains of ancient virus from multiple samples of permafrost taken from seven different places across Siberia and showed they could each infect cultured amoeba cells.
... The oldest was almost 48,500 years old, based on radiocarbon dating of the soil, and came from a sample of earth taken from an underground lake 16 meters (52 feet) below the surface. The youngest samples, found in the stomach contents and coat of a woolly mammoth’s remains, were 27,000 years old.
... In 2012, scientists confirmed the 300-year-old mummified remains of a woman buried in Siberia contained the genetic signatures of the virus that causes smallpox. An anthrax outbreak in Siberia that affected dozens of humans and more than 2,000 reindeer between July and August in 2016 has also been linked to the deeper thawing of the permafrost during exceptionally hot summers, allowing old spores of Bacillus anthracis to resurface from old burial grounds or animal carcasses.
Birgitta Evengård, professor emerita at Umea University’s Department of Clinical Microbiology in Sweden, said there should be better surveillance of the risk posed by potential pathogens in thawing permafrost, but warned against an alarmist approach.
“You must remember our immune defense has been developed in close contact with microbiological surroundings,” said Evengård, who is part of the CLINF Nordic Centre of Excellence, a group that investigates the effects of climate change on the prevalence of infectious diseases in humans and animals in northern regions. “If there is a virus hidden in the permafrost that we have not been in contact with for thousands of years, it might be that our immune defense is not sufficient,” she said. “It is correct to have respect for the situation and be proactive and not just reactive. And the way to fight fear is to have knowledge.”
... Of course, in the real world, scientists don’t know how long these viruses could remain infectious once exposed to present-day conditions, or how likely the virus would be to encounter a suitable host. Not all viruses are pathogens that can cause disease; some are benign or even beneficial to their hosts. And while it is home to 3.6 million people, the Arctic is still a sparsely populated place, making the risk of human exposure to ancient viruses very low.
Still, “the risk is bound to increase in the context of global warming,” Claverie said, “in which permafrost thawing will keep accelerating, and more people will populate the Arctic in the wake of industrial ventures.” ...
https://us.cnn.com/2023/03/08/world/...scn/index.html
Gassho, JBumblebees Learn To Solve Puzzles by Watching Other Bees
A new study has shown that bumblebees pick up new “trends” in their behavior by watching and learning from other bees, and that one form of behavior can spread rapidly through a colony even when a different version gets discovered.
The research, led by Queen Mary University of London and published today (March 7) in PLOS Biology, provides strong evidence that social learning drives the spread of bumblebee behavior – in this case, precisely how they forage for food.
... The researchers designed a two-option puzzle box that could be opened either by pushing a red tab clockwise or a blue tab counter-clockwise to reveal a 50 percent sucrose solution reward. ‘Demonstrator’ bees were trained to use either the red or blue tabs, with ‘observer’ bees watching. When it was the observers’ turn to tackle the puzzle, they overwhelmingly and repeatedly chose to use the same method that they had seen, even after discovering the alternative option. This preference for the taught option was maintained by whole colonies of bees, with a mean of 98.6% of box openings made using the taught method. ...
... Similar results from similar experiments have been used in species such as primates and birds to suggest that they, like humans, are capable of culture. If bumblebees are capable of this, too, this could potentially explain the evolutionary origin of many of the complex behaviors seen among social insects. It might be possible that what now appears instinctive could have been socially learned, at least originally. ..
... “We tend to overlook the “alien civilizations” formed by bees, ants, and wasps on our planet – because they are small-bodied and their societies and architectural constructions seem governed by instinct at first glance. Our research shows, however, that new innovations can spread like social media memes through insect colonies, indicating that they can respond to wholly new environmental challenges much faster than by evolutionary changes, which would take many generations to manifest.” ...
https://scitechdaily.com/bumblebees-...ng-other-bees/
stlahLeave a comment:
-
PS - Oh, I have to add this ...
Kinda reminds me of Gumby (for those Americans of a certain age ... ) ...Scientists create 'shape-shifting' metal robot which melts through bars
Engineers have designed miniature robots that rapidly and reversibly shift between liquid and solid states.
Scientists from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh took gallium, a metal that melts at room temperature, and enriched it with magnetic particles.
When an alternate magnetic field is run through the metal, it can melt, move and re-form.
Leave a comment:
-
The world comes together, pulls apart, then (hopefully someday soon) comes together as one ...
Spring is in the air. Ever wonder how the seeds know it is time to sprout, the flowers to flower?100 Million Years Unveiled: The Most Detailed Model of Earth’s Surface Ever
... Scientists have published new research revealing a detailed and dynamic model of the Earth’s surface over the past 100 million years. ... For the first time, it provides a high-resolution understanding of how today’s geophysical landscapes were created and how millions of tonnes of sediment have flowed to the oceans.
Lead author Dr. Tristan Salles from the University of Sydney School of Geosciences, said: “To predict the future, we must understand the past. But our geological models have only provided a fragmented understanding of how our planet’s recent physical features formed. “If you look for a continuous model of the interplay between river basins, global-scale erosion, and sediment deposition at high resolution for the past 100 million years, it just doesn’t exist. So, this is a big advance. It’s not only a tool to help us investigate the past but will help scientists understand and predict the future, as well.”
World map animation of landscape evolution over the past 100 million years.
https://scitechdaily.com/100-million...-surface-ever/
However, how did our ancestors and near cousins smell the ancient Spring? A genetic study tried pretty sweet tricks to find out ...Internal Thermometer Discovered That Tells Seeds When To Germinate
Researchers have discovered the mechanisms by which the seed decides to remain in “hibernation” or to trigger its germination depending on the outside temperature.
Germination is a crucial stage in the life of a plant as it will leave the stage of seed resistant to various environmental constraints (climatic conditions, absence of nutritive elements, etc.) to become a seedling much more vulnerable. The survival of the young plant depends on the timing of this transition. It is therefore essential that this stage be finely controlled. A Swiss team, led by scientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), has discovered the internal thermometer of seeds that can delay or even block germination if temperatures are too high for the future seedling. This work could help optimize plant growth in a context of global warming.
... This mechanism of repression by temperature (thermo-inhibition) allows a very fine regulation. A variation of only 1 to 2°C can indeed delay the germination of a seed population and thus increase the chances of survival of future seedlings. ... These variations are detected by a protein sensitive to light and temperature, phytochrome B, which normally acts as a brake on plant growth. An increase of 1 to 2°C promotes the inactivation of phytochrome B, which makes it less effective in preventing growth. ...
https://scitechdaily.com/internal-th...-to-germinate/
And finally, please enjoy a beautiful and relatively rare sunset ... on Mars ...What Did Ancient Noses Smell? ... Researchers are comparing the genetic makeup of humans’ extinct relatives to those of contemporary individuals.
... A study led by biological anthropologist Kara C. Hoover from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and biochemist Claire de March from Universite Paris-Saclay suggests that the Denisovan, with its heightened sensitivity to sweet odors, may have quickly honed in on the scent and beat the human to a high-energy feast.
... A paper on the research, recently published in iScience, was written by collaborators from UAF, Duke University, Universite Paris-Saclay, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, and the University of Manchester. The study investigated whether humans share a sense of smell with their now-extinct Denisovan and Neanderthal cousins, who left Africa about 750,000 years ago. Contemporary humans left Africa about 65,000 years ago. ...
To recreate the noses of our extinct genetic relatives and compare them to those of present-day people, the research team used publicly available genome sequences from multiple Neanderthals, one Denisovan, and one ancient human. They used data from the 1000 Genomes project to represent modern humans. They then compared 30 olfactory receptor genes from each group. The team found that 11 of the receptors had some novel mutations present only in extinct lineages. In the largest study of its kind to date, the team created laboratory versions of those 11 olfactory receptors and then exposed them to hundreds of odors at different concentrations.
When the receptors detected an odor, they literally lit up. The speed and brightness of the luminescence told the scientists whether, how soon, and to what degree each “nose” could smell the odors. While the receptors could detect the same things as modern humans, they differed in sensitivity to many of the odors.
“We literally reproduced an event that hadn’t happened since the extinction of Denisova and Neanderthal 30,000 years ago: an extinct odorant receptor responding to an odor in cells on a lab bench,” de March said.
Gassho, JNASA’s Curiosity Rover Views First Dazzling “Sun Rays” on Mars
... Although Martian sunsets are uniquely moody, NASA’s Curiosity rover captured one last month that really stands out. As the Sun descended over the horizon on February 2, rays of light illuminated a bank of clouds. These “sun rays,” also known as crepuscular rays, from the Latin word for “twilight,” are bright streaks that occur when incoming light is partially obstructed by a cloud or tall feature on the horizon. It was the first time sun rays have been so clearly viewed on Mars. ...
,,, As on Earth, clouds provide scientists with complex but crucial information for understanding the weather. By looking at when and where clouds form, scientists can learn more about the Martian atmosphere’s composition and temperatures, and the winds within it. ... “Where we see iridescence, it means a cloud’s particle sizes are identical to their neighbors in each part of the cloud,” said Mark Lemmon, an atmospheric scientist with the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “By looking at color transitions, we’re seeing particle size changing across the cloud. That tells us about the way the cloud is evolving and how its particles are changing size over time.”
NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover captured these “sun rays” shining through clouds at sunset on February 2, 2023 ...
This feather-shaped iridescent cloud was captured just after sunset on January 27, 2023
stlahLast edited by Jundo; 03-08-2023, 02:20 AM.Leave a comment:
-
Additional research on growing replacement neurons for the brain ...
And more information (a little better written) on "Organoid Intelligence" ... the computer that is human neurons, human neurons that are a computer ...A team of biologists has discovered how to awaken neural stem cells and reactivate them in adult mice.
Some areas of the adult brain contain quiescent, or dormant, neural stem cells that can potentially be reactivated to form new neurons. However, the transition from quiescence to proliferation is still poorly understood. A team led by scientists from the Universities of Geneva (UNIGE) and Lausanne (UNIL) has discovered the importance of cell metabolism in this process and identified how to wake up these neural stem cells and reactivate them. Biologists succeeded in increasing the number of new neurons in the brain of adult and even elderly mice. These results, promising for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, are to be discovered in the journal Science Advances. ...
Stem cells have the unique ability to continuously produce copies of themselves and give rise to differentiated cells with more specialized functions. Neural stem cells (NSCs) are responsible for building the brain during embryonic development, generating all the cells of the central nervous system, including neurons. Surprisingly, NSCs persist in certain brain regions even after the brain is fully formed and can make new neurons throughout life. This biological phenomenon, called adult neurogenesis, is important for specific functions such as learning and memory processes. However, in the adult brain, these stem cells become more silent or ‘‘dormant’’ and reduce their capacity for renewal and differentiation. As a result, neurogenesis decreases significantly with age. ...
https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-...e-adult-brain/
Gassho, J“Organoid Intelligence” – Revolutionary Biocomputers Powered by Human Brain Cells
Artificial intelligence (AI) has long been inspired by the human brain. This approach proved highly successful: AI boasts impressive achievements – from diagnosing medical conditions to composing poetry. Still, the original model continues to outperform machines in many ways. This is why, for example, we can ‘prove our humanity’ with trivial image tests online. What if instead of trying to make AI more brain-like, we went straight to the source?
Scientists across multiple disciplines are working to create revolutionary biocomputers where three-dimensional cultures of brain cells, called brain organoids, serve as biological hardware. They describe their roadmap for realizing this vision in the journal Frontiers in Science.
... Brain organoids are a type of lab-grown cell-culture. Even though brain organoids aren’t ‘mini brains’, they share key aspects of brain function and structure such as neurons and other brain cells that are essential for cognitive functions like learning and memory. Also, whereas most cell cultures are flat, organoids have a three-dimensional structure. This increases the culture’s cell density 1,000-fold, meaning that neurons can form many more connections.
But even if brain organoids are a good imitation of brains, why would they make good computers? After all, aren’t computers smarter and faster than brains?
“While silicon-based computers are certainly better with numbers, brains are better at learning,” ... Brains are not only superior learners, they are also more energy efficient. Brains also have an amazing capacity to store information, estimated at 2,500TB,” Hartung added. “We’re reaching the physical limits of silicon computers because we cannot pack more transistors into a tiny chip. But the brain is wired completely differently. It has about 100bn neurons linked through over 1015 connection points. It’s an enormous power difference compared to our current technology.”
stlahLeave a comment:
-
Update on the Fountain of Youth ...
This is an interview done with the doctor in this study I posted some days ago ...
The good doctor is quite optimistic in this interview. My gut reaction, however, is that the actual issue of aging is multi-faceted, there is not a single button to push ... and Dr. Sinclair is over-selling this a bit.Old mice grow young again in study. Can people do the same?
... The experiments show aging is a reversible process, capable of being driven “forwards and backwards at will,” said anti-aging expert David Sinclair, a professor of genetics in the Blavatnik Institute at Harvard Medical School and codirector of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research.
Our bodies hold a backup copy of our youth that can be triggered to regenerate, said Sinclair, the senior author of a new paper showcasing the work of his lab and international scientists. ... “The astonishing finding is that there’s a backup copy of the software in the body that you can reset,” Sinclair said. “We’re showing why that software gets corrupted and how we can reboot the system by tapping into a reset switch that restores the cell’s ability to read the genome correctly again, as if it was young.”
It doesn’t matter if the body is 50 or 75, healthy or wracked with disease, Sinclair said. Once that process has been triggered, “the body will then remember how to regenerate and will be young again, even if you’re already old and have an illness. Now, what that software is, we don’t know yet. At this point, we just know that we can flip the switch.” ... “One of our breakthroughs was to realize that if you use this particular set of three pluripotent stem cells, the mice don’t go back to age zero, which would cause cancer or worse,” Sinclair said. “Instead, the cells go back to between 50% and 75% of the original age, and they stop and don’t get any younger, which is lucky. How the cells know to do that, we don’t yet understand.”
More here: https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...l=1#post316905
A related report:
By the way, Dr. Sinclair in this video is actually 97 years old! (Just Kidding!)
Gassho, J
stlah
(thank you to Bion for the link)
OH, and some technology that we definitely DO NOT NEED!!!!
Last edited by Jundo; 03-06-2023, 06:29 AM.Leave a comment:
-
What is soon to follow Hubble and Webb? Nancy Grace Roman ...
Gassho, JA new simulation shows how NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will turn back the cosmic clock, unveiling the evolving universe in ways that have never been possible before when it launches by May 2027. With its ability to rapidly image enormous swaths of space, Roman will help us understand how the universe transformed from a primordial sea of charged particles to the intricate network of vast cosmic structures we see today.
“The Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes are optimized for studying astronomical objects in-depth and up close, so they’re like looking at the universe through pinholes,” said Aaron Yung, a postdoctoral fellow at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who led the study. “To solve cosmic mysteries on the biggest scales, we need a space telescope that can provide a far larger view. That’s exactly what Roman is designed to do.”
stlahLast edited by Jundo; 03-04-2023, 01:32 PM.Leave a comment:
-
The promise and perils of AI ...
An aid to lawyers, but will it also soon replace lawyers because their research, analysis, brief and contract writing and advising are no longer needed?
And what of other jobs, from doctor to bus driver, store clerk to insurance salesperson, translators to artists, airplane pilot to architect?
Perhaps the 500+ lawyer firm can let about 450 of those lawyers go soon??The new AI technology, CoCounsel, is the first A.I. legal assistant, and Pablo Arredondo and Jake Heller of Casetext discuss how it can impact the legal profession. ...
"Our AI legal assistant is the first of its kind," said Jake Heller, co-founder and CEO of Casetext. "It creates a momentous opportunity for attorneys to delegate tasks like legal research, document review, deposition preparation, and contract analysis to an AI, freeing them to focus on the most impactful aspects of their practice."
... For the first time, lawyers can reliably delegate substantive, complex work to an AI assistant—just as they would to a legal professional—and trust the results. ... Unlike generalized, publicly available large language models, CoCounsel is a product that offers the reliability and security critical for legal matters, which are specialized, complex, and confidential. In building CoCounsel, Casetext has coupled the immense technological power of OpenAI's most advanced model with its own proprietary legal databases and market-leading legal search system, Parallel Search. As a result, CoCounsel can perform substantive tasks such as legal research, document review, deposition preparation, and contract analysis more quickly and accurately than ever before possible. Most importantly, CoCounsel produces results lawyers can rely on for professional use and keeps customers'—and their clients'—data private and secure.
"CoCounsel is a truly revolutionary legal tech innovation," noted John Polson, Chairman and Managing Partner of Fisher Phillips, the first major law firm to deploy CoCounsel firm-wide to its 500+ attorneys. "The power of this tool to help our attorneys perform efficient legal research, document review, drafting, and summarizing, has already resulted in immediate, sustained benefits to our clients, and we have only scratched the surface of what it has to offer."
On the other hand, a recent funny (yet true) look at AI, its promise and pitfalls, by commentator and wit John Oliver ...
... caused me to put my open name in to OpenAI. The following is what it said. Certainly, pretty good but not totally reliable (the BOLDFACE items are just wrong):
Okay, humans cannot be fully replaced yet. On the other hand, the memories and accuracy of human beings is often even less reliable.Jundo Cohen is an American Zen teacher, author, and founder of the Treeleaf Zendo, an online Zen meditation community. He has been practicing Zen for over 30 years and was ordained as a Zen priest in the Soto school of Zen in 2002 by Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Jundo Cohen is known for his accessible and practical approach to Zen practice, which emphasizes the integration of meditation into daily life. He has written several books on Zen, including "The Heart of Zen" and "Sitting with Koans," and hosts the popular podcast "Treeleaf Zendo: The Drinking Gourd."
Than I asked it a couple of more things about myself. OpenAI is quite the smooth talker ...
That's nice!Please describe Jundo Cohen. What kind of person is he?
As an AI language model, I do not have personal experiences or opinions, but I can provide information on Jundo Cohen's public persona based on available sources.
From his teachings and interviews, Jundo Cohen comes across as a warm, compassionate, and down-to-earth person. He is known for his practical and accessible approach to Zen practice, which emphasizes the integration of meditation into daily life. He often uses humor and everyday examples to illustrate Zen teachings and concepts, making them more relatable to modern audiences.
Jundo Cohen is also known for his dedication to helping others, both through his teaching and his social activism. He has been involved in various social justice causes, including environmentalism and human rights, and he encourages his students to engage in compassionate action as part of their Zen practice.
Overall, Jundo Cohen appears to be a genuine and caring person who is dedicated to sharing the benefits of Zen practice with others and making a positive impact on the world.
Oh, also nice!Compare Jundo Cohen to Shirley Temple
Jundo Cohen and Shirley Temple are two very different people who made significant contributions in different fields. Jundo Cohen is a Zen teacher and author, while Shirley Temple was a famous child actress, singer, and diplomat. Therefore, it would not be appropriate or meaningful to compare them.
However, if we were to look at some qualities that they both possessed, we could say that both Jundo Cohen and Shirley Temple had a positive impact on people's lives. Jundo Cohen has helped many people to find peace and meaning through his Zen teachings, while Shirley Temple brought joy and entertainment to millions of people around the world with her acting and singing.
Both Jundo Cohen and Shirley Temple also demonstrated a strong work ethic and a commitment to their craft. Jundo Cohen has spent decades studying and practicing Zen, while Shirley Temple spent her childhood and early adulthood honing her talents as an actress and performer.
Overall, while Jundo Cohen and Shirley Temple are very different individuals, they both have made significant contributions in their respective fields and have inspired many people through their work.
Well, it could have said that we are both full of air and provide empty calories, so I would say that OpenAI is quite the diplomat too!Please compare Jundo Cohen to a bag of chips
Jundo Cohen and a bag of chips are two very different things, so it would not be meaningful to compare them.
However, if we were to look for some qualities that they share, we could say that both Jundo Cohen and a bag of chips can provide nourishment and sustenance, although in very different ways. Jundo Cohen nourishes the mind and spirit through his Zen teachings, while a bag of chips provides physical sustenance and energy.
Additionally, both Jundo Cohen and a bag of chips can offer comfort and satisfaction. Jundo Cohen's teachings may bring comfort and solace to those who are seeking meaning and purpose in their lives, while a bag of chips can be a comforting snack that provides a momentary sense of pleasure and satisfaction.
Overall, while Jundo Cohen and a bag of chips are very different, they both have the potential to provide nourishment, comfort, and satisfaction in their own unique ways.
Gassho, J
stlahLast edited by Jundo; 03-04-2023, 07:10 AM.Leave a comment:
-
The human-made neuron computer ... Organoids ...
(By the way, the following article is not that well written ... maybe AI, or an Organoid, could have done better ...
)
And we might also build computers the size of single atoms ...Move over, artificial intelligence. Scientists announce a new ‘organoid intelligence’ field
Computers powered by human brain cells may sound like science fiction, but a team of researchers in the United States believes such machines, part of a new field called “organoid intelligence,” could shape the future — and now they have a plan to get there.
Organoids are lab-grown tissues that resemble organs. These three-dimensional structures, usually derived from stem cells, have been used in labs for nearly two decades ... Brain organoids don’t actually resemble tiny versions of the human brain, but the pen dot-size cell cultures contain neurons that are capable of brainlike functions, forming a multitude of connections.
Scientists call the phenomenon “intelligence in a dish.” ... He and his colleagues envision combining the power of brain organoids into a type of biological hardware more energy efficient than supercomputers. These “biocomputers” would employ networks of brain organoids to potentially revolutionize pharmaceutical testing for diseases like Alzheimer’s, provide insight into the human brain and change the future of computing. ... “Computing and artificial intelligence have been driving the technology revolution but they are reaching a ceiling,” said Hartung, senior study author, in a statement. “Biocomputing is an enormous effort of compacting computational power and increasing its efficiency to push past our current technological limits.” ...
... “The brain is still unmatched by modern computers,” Hartung said. “Brains also have an amazing capacity to store information, estimated at 2,500 (terabytes),” he added. “We’re reaching the physical limits of silicon computers because we cannot pack more transistors into a tiny chip.” ... Hartung recalled that he was asked by other researchers whether brain organoids could think or achieve consciousness. The question spurred him to consider feeding information to organoids about their environment and how to interact with it.
“This opens up research on how the human brain works,” said Hartung, who is also the codirector of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing in Europe. “Because you can start manipulating the system, doing things you cannot ethically do with human brains.”
... The brain organoids that Hartung currently uses would need to be scaled up for OI, or organoid intelligence. Each organoid has about the number of cells one would find in a fruit fly’s nervous system. A single organoid is about one-three-millionth the size of the human brain, which means it is the equivalent of about 800 megabytes of memory storage.
“They are too small, each containing about 50,000 cells. For OI, we would need to increase this number to 10 million,” he said.
The researchers also need ways to communicate with the organoids in order to send them information and receive readouts of what the organoids are “thinking.” The study authors have developed a blueprint that includes tools from bioengineering and machine learning, along with new innovations. Allowing for different kinds of input and output across organoid networks would allow for more complex tasks, the researchers wrote in the study.
“We developed a brain-computer interface device that is a kind of an EEG (electroencephalogram) cap for organoids, which we presented in an article published last August,” Hartung said. “It is a flexible shell that is densely covered with tiny electrodes that can both pick up signals from the organoid, and transmit signals to it.”
... sing brain organoids to create organoid intelligence is still very much in its infancy. Developing OI comparable to a computer with the brain power of a mouse could take decades, Hartung said.
But there are already promising results that illustrate what is possible. Study coauthor Dr. Brett Kagan, chief scientific officer at Cortical Labs in Melbourne, Australia, and his team recently showed that brain cells can learn to play Pong, the video game.
“Their team is already testing this with brain organoids,” Hartung said. “And I would say that replicating this experiment with organoids already fulfills the basic definition of OI. From hereon, it’s just a matter of building the community, the tools, and the technologies to realize OI’s full potential.” “We are entering a new world, where the interface between humans and human constructs blurs distinctions,” Kinderlerer wrote. “Society cannot passively await new discoveries; it must be involved in identifying and resolving possible ethical dilemmas and assuring that any experimentation is within ethical boundaries yet to be determined.” ...
This magnified image shows a brain organoid produced in Hartung's lab. The culture was dyed to show neurons in magenta, cell nuclei in blue and other supporting cells in red and green.
Anyone should be able to be a parent ... but may all be good parents to their kids ...New studies broaden the perspectives on what constitutes a “computer” and how small a computational unit can be.
When we define a “computer” as any device that processes information through input and output, it raises the questions of what objects can perform these computations and how small can these computers be. With transistors reaching the limits of miniaturization, finding answers to these questions becomes crucial, as they could lead to the development of a new computing paradigm.
In a new study published in EPJ Plus by researchers from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, Gerard McCaul and his team demonstrate that atoms, one of the most basic building blocks of matter, can act as a reservoir for computing where all input-output processing is optical. ... The team proposed a non-linear single-atom computer with the input information encoded directly into light and the output also in the form of light. The calculation is then determined by filters that the light output is passed through.
https://scitechdaily.com/building-a-...a-single-atom/
(When we adopted our two kids, we had to go through all kinds of psychological checks, background checks, home visits, preparatory safety and parenting classes, post-adoption follow-ups ... Ideally (it will never happen), I think that ALL parents should be required to do the same as we experienced, and licenses should be issued to be parents.)
Look down at the solid ground you stand on, and consider this ...Dutch Healthcare System Deemed “Unprepared” for Pregnant Transgender Men
Transgender men can, and often wish to, become pregnant. However, they do need extra guidance and care providers often lack the necessary knowledge and skills. Amsterdam University Medical Centers (Amsterdam UMC) is the first to conduct qualitative research into the experiences of Dutch transgender people with maternity care. This research is now available as a pre-print in the journal Midwifery.
Transgender men often undergo medical procedures to adjust their bodies to their male gender identity. These medical interventions can affect fertility. Some transgender men, therefore, choose not to undergo these treatments, postpone them or, even, to temporarily stop them. Allowing them to retain the possibility of becoming pregnant. ... This research shows that their experiences differ greatly from a female pregnancy. For example, transgender men get little to no understanding of pregnancy from their environment, as pregnancy is seen as something feminine in society. Finding the right care providers can also be difficult, sometimes leading to individuals withholding the desire to become pregnant. Fear also plays a role in the process. On one hand, the fear that pregnancy will hinder their medical transition as well as the fear of negative reactions from healthcare providers. These findings echo international studies into the experience of pregnant transgender men.
Like superman ....Mysteries of the Earth: How Fast Did Ancient Magma Ocean Solidify?
During the early stages of Earth’s formation, a massive ocean of molten rock known as a “magma ocean” blanketed the planet’s surface and penetrated deep into its core. The cooling rate of this “magma ocean” played a crucial role in shaping the layered structure of the Earth and determining the chemical composition of those layers.
Previous research had suggested that it took hundreds of millions of years for the magma ocean to solidify, but new research from Florida State University published in Nature Communications has reduced these uncertainties to less than just a couple of million years.
https://scitechdaily.com/mysteries-o...cean-solidify/
Gassho, JX-Ray Vision: MIT’s Augmented Reality Headset Enables You To See Hidden Objects
The device could help workers locate objects for fulfilling e-commerce orders or identify parts for assembling products.
MIT researchers have built an augmented reality headset that gives the wearer X-ray vision. The headset combines computer vision and wireless perception to automatically locate a specific item that is hidden from view, perhaps inside a box or under a pile, and then guide the user to retrieve it.
The system utilizes radio frequency (RF) signals, which can pass through common materials like cardboard boxes, plastic containers, or wooden dividers, to find hidden items that have been labeled with RFID tags, which reflect signals sent by an RF antenna.
stlahLast edited by Jundo; 03-03-2023, 12:55 AM.Leave a comment:
-
This is possibly just the kind of technology we're needing. Let's not forget that zazen is a 'technology' of sorts, so technology that modulates errant human desire or mind/brain disease is just the next level isn't it?
Gassho, Tokan
satlahLeave a comment:
-
Scientists, using their brains to supplement the brain ...
Could something like this also head off extreme human anger, sexual attraction in sex offenders, etc. etc. ?
Growing our own neuron replacements too ...Suppressing Symptoms – A Neuro-Chip To Manage Brain Disorders
Researchers at EPFL have combined the fields of low-power chip design, machine learning algorithms, and soft implantable electrodes to create a neural interface capable of identifying and mitigating symptoms of various neurological disorders.
... The system boasts a 256-channel high-resolution sensing array and an energy-efficient machine learning processor, enabling it to effectively extract and categorize a wide range of biomarkers from real patient data and in-vivo animal models of disease. This results in a high level of accuracy in symptom prediction. ... NeuralTree functions by extracting neural biomarkers – patterns of electrical signals known to be associated with certain neurological disorders – from brain waves. It then classifies the signals and indicates whether they herald an impending epileptic seizure or Parkinsonian tremor, for example. If a symptom is detected, a neurostimulator – also located on the chip – is activated, sending an electrical pulse to block it.
... “Eventually, we can use neural interfaces for many different disorders, and we need algorithmic ideas and advances in chip design to make this happen. This work is very interdisciplinary, and so it also requires collaborating with labs like the Laboratory for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces, which can develop state-of-the-art neural electrodes or labs with access to high-quality patient data. ...
NeuralTree.
Mature “Lab Grown” Neurons Hold Promise for Neurodegenerative Diseases Like Alzheimer’s
A team of researchers led by Northwestern University has achieved a breakthrough by producing the most mature neurons to date from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). This advancement opens up new avenues for medical research and the possibility of transplantation therapies for conditions such as neurodegenerative diseases and traumatic injuries.
Previous efforts to turn stem cells into neurons have resulted in functionally immature neurons that resemble those from the early stages of development. The limited maturation achieved through current stem cell culture methods restricts their potential for studying neurodegeneration. ... Not only were the enriched neurons more mature, but they also demonstrated enhanced signaling capabilities and greater branching ability, which is required for neurons to make synaptic contact with one another. And, unlike typical stem cell-derived neurons which tend to clump together, these neurons did not aggregate, making them less challenging to maintain.
With further development, the researchers believe these mature neurons could be transplanted into patients as a promising therapy for spinal cord injuries as well as neurodegenerative diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, or multiple sclerosis. ... For example, physicians could take skin cells from a patient with ALS or Parkinson’s disease, convert them into iPSCs, and then culture those cells on the coating to create healthy, highly functional neurons.
Transplanting healthy neurons into a patient could replace damaged or lost neurons, potentially restoring lost cognition or sensations. And, because the initial cells came from the patient, the new, iPSC-derived neurons would genetically match the patient, eliminating the possibility of rejection.
Fluorescent images of human neurons (stained with red, green, and blue) growing on coatings with fast-moving molecules (left) or conventional laminin (right) for 60 days. Neurons spread homogenously and showed more complex branching on the highly mobile coating developed at Northwestern.
Gassho, J
stlahLeave a comment:
-
Better understanding the "glue" (ons) that held the early universe together ...
More discoveries from the meteor samples brought back by the Japanese probe (built and controlled right here in Tsukuba) ...Breakthrough in Understanding Quark-Gluon Plasma, the Primordial Form of Matter in the Early Universe
New Model of Quark-Gluon Plasma Solves a Long-Standing Discrepancy Between Theory and Data
Researchers from Japan provide a novel theoretical framework for describing the quark-gluon plasma, which agrees better with experimental data.
The properties of quark-gluon plasma (QGP), the primordial form of matter in the early universe, is conventionally described using relativistic hydrodynamical models. However, these models predict low particle yields in the low transverse momentum region, which is at odds with experimental data. To address this discrepancy, researchers from Japan now propose a novel framework based on a “core-corona” picture of QGP, which predicts that the corona component may contribute to the observed high particle yields. ...
Research in fundamental science has revealed the existence of quark-gluon plasma (QGP) – a newly identified state of matter – as the constituent of the early universe. Known to have existed a microsecond after the Big Bang, the QGP, essentially a soup of quarks and gluons, cooled down with time to form hadrons like protons and neutrons – the building blocks of all matter. One way to reproduce the extreme conditions prevailing when QGP existed is through relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In this regard, particle accelerator facilities like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) have furthered our understanding of QGP with experimental data pertaining to such collisions.
Meanwhile, theoretical physicists have employed multistage relativistic hydrodynamic models to explain the data, since the QGP behaves very much like a perfect fluid. However, there has been a serious lingering disagreement between these models and data in the region of low transverse momentum, where both the conventional and hybrid models have failed to explain the particle yields observed in the experiments.
Against this backdrop, a team of researchers from Japan, led by theoretical physicist Professor Tetsufumi Hirano of Sophia University, undertook an investigation to account for the missing particle yields in the relativistic hydrodynamic models. In their recent work, they proposed a novel “dynamical core-corona initialization framework” to comprehensively describe high-energy nuclear collisions. ...
https://scitechdaily.com/breakthroug...arly-universe/
Not yet future replacement parts, but for pre-surgery testing ... the (3-D Printed) Heart Sutra ...NASA Discovers Organic Molecules on Asteroid Ryugu, Bolstering Theory of Extraterrestrial Life Ingredients
Asteroid Ryugu has a rich complement of organic molecules, according to a NASA and international team’s initial analysis of a sample from the asteroid’s surface delivered to Earth by Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft. The discovery adds support to the idea that organic material from space contributed to the inventory of chemical components necessary for life.
Organic molecules are the building blocks of all known forms of terrestrial life and consist of a wide variety of compounds made of carbon combined with hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and other atoms. However, organic molecules can also be made by chemical reactions that don’t involve life, supporting the hypothesis that chemical reactions in asteroids can make some of life’s ingredients.
... among the prebiotic organics found in the sample were several kinds of amino acids. Certain amino acids are widely used by terrestrial life as a component to build proteins. Proteins are essential to life as they are used to make enzymes which speed up or regulate chemical reactions and to make structures from microscopic to large such as hair and muscles. ...
https://scitechdaily.com/nasa-discov...e-ingredients/
AI finding drug and genetic connections for addictions and mood ... but will we soon become addicted to AI???MIT’s 3D-Printed Robotic Hearts Look and Pump Just Like the Real Thing
The soft robotic heart models are patient-specific and could help clinicians zero in on the best implant for an individual.
No two hearts beat alike. The size and shape of the heart can vary from one person to the next. These differences can be particularly pronounced for people living with heart disease, as their hearts and major vessels work harder to overcome any compromised function. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engineers are hoping to help doctors tailor treatments to patients’ specific heart form and function, with a custom robotic heart. The team has developed a procedure to 3D print a soft and flexible replica of a patient’s heart. They can then control the replica’s action to mimic that patient’s blood-pumping ability. The procedure involves first converting medical images of a patient’s heart into a three-dimensional computer model, which the researchers can then 3D print using a polymer-based ink. The result is a soft, flexible shell in the exact shape of the patient’s own heart. The team can also use this approach to print a patient’s aorta — the major artery that carries blood out of the heart to the rest of the body.
No easy solution, but some hopeful directions ... Our second MIT story today ...Machine Learning Unveils Promising Smoking Cessation Medications
According to a study conducted by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine and the University of Minnesota, certain medications, such as dextromethorphan, which is commonly used to treat coughs caused by colds and the flu, may be repurposed to aid individuals in quitting smoking. The researchers employed a cutting-edge machine learning approach, where computer algorithms scrutinize data sets to uncover patterns and trends, to identify the drugs that hold potential. Some of these drugs are already undergoing clinical trials.
... Using genetic data from more than 1.3 million people, Dajiang Liu, Ph.D., professor of public health sciences, and of biochemistry and molecular biology and Bibo Jiang, Ph.D., assistant professor of public health sciences, co-led a large multi-institution study that used machine learning to study these large data sets — which include specific data about a person’s genetics and their self-reported smoking behaviors.
The researchers identified more than 400 genes that were related to smoking behaviors. Since a person can have thousands of genes, they had to determine why some of those genes were connected to smoking behaviors. Genes that carry instructions for the production of nicotine receptors or are involved in signaling for the hormone dopamine, which makes people feel relaxed and happy, had easy-to-understand connections. For the remaining genes, the research team had to determine the role each plays in biological pathways and using that information, figured out what medications are already approved for modifying those existing pathways.
... They identified at least eight medications that could potentially be repurposed for smoking cessation, such as dextromethorphan, which is commonly used to treat coughs caused by cold and flu, and galantamine, which is used to treat Alzheimer’s disease. The study was published in Nature Genetics. ...
https://scitechdaily.com/machine-lea...n-medications/
And an ancient Chinese invention, published by the famous archeologist I.P. Dailey of Dunlong Pu University ...MIT Breakthrough: How To Efficiently Remove Carbon Dioxide From the Ocean
A new method for removing the greenhouse gas from the ocean could be far more efficient than existing systems for removing it from the air.
As carbon dioxide continues to build up in the Earth’s atmosphere, research teams around the world have spent years seeking ways to remove the gas efficiently from the air. Meanwhile, the world’s number one “sink” for carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is the ocean, which soaks up some 30 to 40 percent of all of the gas produced by human activities. Recently, the possibility of removing carbon dioxide directly from ocean water has emerged as another promising possibility for mitigating CO2 emissions, one that could potentially someday even lead to overall net negative emissions. But, like air capture systems, the idea has not yet led to any widespread use, though there are a few companies attempting to enter this area.
Now, a team of researchers at MIT says they may have found the key to a truly efficient and inexpensive removal mechanism. ...
Researchers have found an effective new method for removing carbon dioxide from the ocean.
It could be implemented by ships that would process seawater as they travel, or at offshore drilling platforms or aquaculture fish farms.
Gassho, J2,400-year-old flush toilet discovered in China could be one of the oldest ever
... Broken parts of the 2,400-year-old lavatory, as well as a bent flush pipe, were unearthed last summer by a research team among ancient palace ruins in the Yueyang archaeological site in the central city of Xi'an, according to Chinese state media. Details of the find were released last week, sparking widespread interest in China and offering a rare insight into the privileged and comparatively advanced world of the country's ancient ruling elite. Described by researchers as a "luxury object," the toilet was thought to have been located inside the palace, with a pipe leading to an outdoor pit ...
... the toilet would have likely been reserved for high-ranking officials during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) and the later Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220). He added that servants would likely have poured water into the toilet bowl every time it was used. ...
... Prior to the newly announced discovery, the invention of the first flush toilet was widely credited to English courtier John Harington, who supposedly installed one for Queen Elizabeth in the 16th century, though 4,000-year-old drainage systems that might have been connected with toilets have been found in northwest India. ...
stlahLast edited by Jundo; 02-28-2023, 04:27 AM.Leave a comment:
Leave a comment: