The space radiation mutations are a real problem for any space exploration. They would need to line spaceships with lead, which is far too heavy, to prevent mutations. Also, over time, that would lead to mutations in babies born in space or on other planets. This said, maybe that is the future of humanity: mutated humans that may be able to better adapt to other planets.
I don't think I've ever read any science fiction that takes this into account.
Gassho,
Ryūmon (Kirk)
Sat Lah
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Keep in touch ...
Replacement parts ...Our Galaxy Appears to Be Touching Another Galaxy, Scientists Say: The "Milky Way and Andromeda are already overlapping and interacting."
Researchers are suggesting that the outer boundary of our home Milky Way galaxy may stretch much farther into the vastness of space than initially thought — and is in fact already touching its closest neighbor, the galaxy Andromeda.
As detailed in a paper published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the international team of scientists posits a new definition for the boundary between interstellar space and the "circumgalactic medium," (CGM) the cloud of gas that surrounds galaxies. LINK
ChemistrAIGovernment Scientist Investigating Whether Aging Parts of Your Brain Can Be Replaced With Cloned Tissue: "We're... a couple steps away from reversing brain aging."
A biologist with the US government's research and development arm is working on a radical new approach to anti-aging treatments: replacing parts of the human brain with cloned tissues. As the MIT Technology Review reports, researcher Jean Hébert was recently hired by the US Advanced Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) for his revolutionary plan to bring for "functional brain tissue replacement." ...
While there are already transplants for things like hips and kidneys, the concept of replacing one brain for another is terrifying on an existential level because on a fundamental level, our brains make us who we are. Hébert's research, however, is more focused on "progressively" replacing parts of the brain using young, lab-grown tissues. If done slowly enough, the Tech Review explains, the idea is that the brain could adapt by moving around memories and other key identity facets to accommodate its new biological material. LINK
Chinese robots ...AI Discovers the Quantum Code: Revolutionizing Chemistry
A new study by Imperial College and Google DeepMind introduces a neural network-based method to model molecular excited states. This method could significantly enhance the accuracy of computational chemistry, aiding the development of new materials and technologies through simulations before actual laboratory experimentation.
The research shows how the technique can help solve fundamental equations in complex molecular systems.
This could lead to practical uses in the future, helping researchers to prototype new materials and chemical syntheses using computer simulation before trying to make them in the lab.
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A problem for human space travel ... another reason to send the machines ...China's robot makers chase Tesla to deliver humanoid workers
China dominates the market for electric vehicles. Now it's chasing Tesla (TSLA.O) in the race to build battery-powered humanoids expected to replace human workers building EVs on assembly lines. At the World Robot Conference this week in Beijing, over two dozen Chinese companies showed off humanoid robots designed to work in factories and warehouses, with even more displaying the made-in-China precision parts needed to build them. LINK
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How did it spread its legs that far ????Scientists Found Genetic Mutations in Every Astronaut Blood Sample They Studied
When they examined decades-old blood samples from 14 NASA astronauts who flew Space Shuttle missions between 1998 and 2001, researchers found that samples from all 14 astronauts showed mutations in their DNA.
While these mutations are likely low enough not to represent a serious threat to the astronauts' long term health, the research underlines the importance of regular health screenings for astronauts, especially as they embark on longer missions to the Moon and beyond in coming years.
The specific mutations, as identified in a new study published in the journal Nature Communications Biology, were marked by a high proportion of blood cells that came from a single clone, a phenomenon called clonal hematopoiesis.
Mutations like this can be caused by exposure to excess ultraviolet radiation, and other forms of radiation including chemotherapy.
In this case, researchers are suspicious that the mutations may have been the result of space radiation. LINK
That's fast!Matching sets of dinosaur footprints found on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean
Matching sets of footprints discovered in Africa and South America reveal that dinosaurs once traveled along a type of highway 120 million years ago before the two continents split apart, according to new research.
Paleontologists have found more than 260 dinosaur footprints from the Early Cretaceous Period in Brazil and Cameroon, now more than 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) apart on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
The footprints are similar in age, shape and geologic context, said Louis L. Jacobs, a paleontologist at the Southern Methodist University in Texas and lead author of a study describing the tracks published Monday by the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science.
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Hold your breath ...New Microscope So Absurdly Fast It Can See Electrons In Motion
Developed by researchers at the University of Arizona, who have published their work in the journal Science, the microscope uses electron pulses at the speed of a single attosecond — or one quintillionth of a second — to snap "freeze frames" of the subatomic particles, which travel fast enough to circle the Earth in a matter of seconds.
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Another kind of hybrid ...Scientists Create Creature That Doesn't Need to Breathe
The Ludwig Maximilians University researchers injected photosynthetic algae into the tadpoles, creating a symbiotic relationship between amphibian and microbe that keeps the amphibians alive without any environmental oxygen, The Scientist reports. It's an odd experiment that could have important medical value — keeping someone alive when a stroke cuts off their brain's oxygen supply, for example — but it's also a fascinating step forward in biological experimentation in its own right. ...
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DNA Grammar ...Scientists Build Computer From DNA That Can Solve Chess Problems
... scientists say they've created a computer made out of DNA that can play the board game — along with sudoku puzzles, for good measure.
The device can only solve chess and sudoku problems at a basic level, but these capabilities, detailed in a study published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, mark a substantial leap toward powerful — and practical — DNA computing systems.
Part of the secret, the researchers say, was using a synthetic cellulose material to boost the amount of stored DNA strands, which also makes the files they encode more stable. And these strands can store a lot: about 1,000 terabytes per cubic centimeter, according to New Scientist. LINK
The invisible ... mouse ...Scientists Discover “Spatial Grammar” in DNA: Breakthrough Could Rewrite Genetics Textbooks
A breakthrough in genetic research has uncovered a “spatial grammar” in DNA, showing that the positioning of transcription factors critically influences gene activity, potentially reshaping how we understand gene regulation and disease. ... Transcription factors, the proteins that control which genes in one’s genome are turned on or off, play a crucial role in this code. Long thought of as either activators or repressors of gene activity, this research shows the function of transcription factors is far more complex.
“Contrary to what you will find in textbooks, transcription factors that act as true activators or repressors are surprisingly rare,” said WSU assistant professor Sascha Duttke, who led much of the research at WSU’s School of Molecular Biosciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Rather, the scientists found that most activators can also function as repressors.
“If you remove an activator, your hypothesis is you lose activation,” said Bayley McDonald, a WSU graduate student who was part of the research team. “But that was true in only 50% to 60% of the cases, so we knew something was off.”
Looking closer, researchers found the function of many transcription factors was highly position-dependent.
They discovered that the spacing between transcription factors and their position relative to where a gene’s transcription began determined the level of gene activity. For example, transcription factors might activate gene expression when positioned upstream or ahead of where a gene’s transcription begins but inhibit its activity when located downstream, or after a gene’s transcription start site. “It is the spacing, or ‘ambience,’ that determines if a given transcription factor acts as an activator or repressor,” Duttke said. “It just goes to show that similar to learning a new language, to learn how gene expression patterns are encoded in our genome, we need to understand both its words and the grammar.” LINK
Let's hope its true ...Scientific discovery that turns mouse skin transparent echoes plot of H.G. Wells’ ‘The Invisible Man’
commonly used food coloring can make the skin of a mouse temporarily transparent, allowing scientists to see its organs function, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal Science.
The breakthrough could revolutionize biomedical research and, should it be successfully tested in humans, have wide-ranging applications in medicine and health care, such as making veins more visible to draw blood.
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Hope it is true too ...Scientists Say New System Can Recycle Plastic Indefinitely Without Degrading Its Quality
In a new paper for the journal Nature Chemical Engineering, researchers at ETH Zurich detailed a process in which they break apart the chemical bonds in long polymer chains that make up plastic into smaller molecules.
These resulting molecules can serve as base ingredients for more products, such as jet fuel or more plastics, without losing quality.
"It’s every chemical engineer’s dream to have a formula like this at hand for their process," ETH Zurich professor of catalysis engineering and the study's principal investigator Javier Pérez-Ramírez said in a statement about the research. LINK
Hope it is not true ...The Future of Fighting Disease: AI Detects Cancer and Viral Infections With Nanoscale Precision
AINU, an innovative AI, uses high-resolution imaging to identify changes in cells, potentially transforming how diseases like cancer and viral infections are diagnosed and monitored. LINK
Elon makes a lot of claims ...Earth’s Temperature Could Increase by 25 Degrees: Startling New Research Reveals That CO2 Has More Impact Than Previously Thought
Analysis of Pacific Ocean sediments shows doubling atmospheric CO2 might raise Earth’s temperature by up to 14 degrees, exceeding IPCC predictions, with historical data indicating significant future climate impacts.
Doubling the atmospheric CO2 levels could raise Earth’s average temperature by 7 to 14 degrees Celsius (13 to 25.2 degrees Fahrenheit), according to sediment analysis from the Pacific Ocean near California conducted by researchers from NIOZ and the Universities of Utrecht and Bristol.
The results were recently published in the journal Nature Communications.
“The temperature rise we found is much larger than the 2.3 to 4.5 degrees Celsius (4.1 to 8.1 degrees Fahrenheit) that the UN climate panel, IPCC, has been estimating so far,” said the first author, Caitlyn Witkowski. LINK
Elon makes more claims ...Elon Musk Claims He Just Activated the World's Most Powerful AI Supercomputer
Behold Colossus: Elon Musk's new supercomputer, allegedly powered by a staggering 100,000 Nvidia AI chips, which would be more than any single AI system on the planet.
Built in Tennessee for his artificial intelligence startup xAI, Musk announced Monday that the formidable data center was finally brought online over the Labor Day weekend, after spending just 122 days assembling it — a record, according to Nvidia.
"Colossus is the most powerful AI training system in the world," Musk said in a tweet. ... Musk claimed that, in a few months, Colossus will "double" in size to 200,000 AI chips, which will include 50,000 H200 GPUs, a newer version that Nvidia says will have nearly twice the memory capacity as its predecessor, and 40 percent more bandwidth.
... The monstrous supercomputer's launch, however, was preceded by controversy. Last week, Memphis locals who live near the Tennessee data center complained about "untenable levels of smog" created by the supercomputer, which could augur further disputes down the line at the xAI facility.
And that'll just be the beginning of Colossus' troubles. Its title as the most powerful AI training system will surely come under threat, too. It's not likely that other AI leaders, like OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and Meta, will rest on their laurels, some of whom already possess hundreds of thousands of GPUs of their own.
Microsoft, for example, reportedly aims to amass 1.8 million AI chips by the end of the year (though this number sounds highly optimistic, if not infeasible). LINK
Fung-droid ...Musk says SpaceX to launch first uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years
SpaceX will launch its first uncrewed Starships to Mars in two years when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said, opens new tab in a post on social media platform X on Saturday.
"These will be uncrewed to test the reliability of landing intact on Mars," Musk said, adding if those landings go well, his space company will launch its first crewed flights to Mars in four years. LINK
Well, to a point ...Robot controlled by a king oyster mushroom blends living organisms and machines
A wheeled bot rolls across the floor. A soft-bodied robotic star bends its five legs, moving with an awkward shuffle.
Powered by conventional electricity via plug or battery, these simple robotic creations would be unremarkable, but what sets these two robots apart is that they are controlled by a living entity: a king oyster mushroom.
By growing the mushroom’s mycelium, or rootlike threads, into the robot’s hardware, a team led by Cornell University researchers has engineered two types of robots that sense and respond to the environment by harnessing electrical signals made by the fungus and its sensitivity to light.
The robots are the latest accomplishment of scientists in a field known as biohybrid robotics who seek to combine biological, living materials such as plant and animal cells or insects with synthetic components to make partly living and partly engineered entities.
Biohybrid robots have yet to venture beyond the lab, but researchers hope one day robot jellyfish may explore oceans, sperm-powered bots may be able to deliver fertility treatments and cyborg cockroaches could search for survivors in the wake of an earthquake.
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Love on the brain ...Professor of Medicine Says Death Appears to Be Reversible
In an interview with The Telegraph, associate professor of medicine at New York University's Langone Medical Center Sam Parnia insisted that by and large, the medical industry is still very behind on the concepts of death and dying.
According to Parnia, studies from the last five years — including some undertaken by his own eponymous lab at NYU — have suggested that our brains remain "salvageable for not only hours, but possibly days" after death.
In one such Parnia Lab study from last year, for instance, researchers found that some cardiac arrest patients had memories of their death experiences up to an hour after their hearts had stopped, and brain activity from those same patients suggests a similar phenomenon. For 40 percent of those subjects, brain activity also returned to normal or near-normal an hour into cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Combined with other studies, including a particularly gruesome one out of Yale that involved decapitated pig brains being revived up to 14 hours after their beheadings, the seemingly death-defying doctor said that the idea that death is a definitive state is "simply a social convention that does not conform with scientific realities." ... By his reasoning, that process can be reversed not only by using extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines, which acts as a body's heart and lungs when those functions have failed, but also specific cocktails of drugs that have been demonstrated to aid in the process of resurrection in animal studies. ... LINK
Neuroscience Surprise: Different Types of Love Light Up Different Parts of the Brain
A recent study has mapped the brain’s response to different forms of love, showing that areas like the basal ganglia and the striatum light up depending on whether the love is parental, romantic, or for pets. Findings suggest that each type of love activates unique brain circuits, with parental love causing the most significant activity, and even the love for pets reflecting pet ownership. LINK
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Gassho, J
stlahLast edited by Jundo; 09-09-2024, 12:38 PM.Leave a comment:
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This matters ...
Makes me thirsty ...Shattering Big Bang Myths: Surprising Insights Into the Origins of Matter in the Early Universe
New calculations show that up to 70% of certain particles may originate from later reactions rather than the initial quark-gluon soup formed just after the Big Bang. This discovery challenges previous assumptions about the timeline of matter formation and suggests that much of the matter around us formed later than expected. By understanding these processes, scientists can better interpret the results of collider experiments and refine their knowledge of the universe’s origins. LINK
We are dust and water ...Underground reservoir on Mars could fill oceans on the planet’s surface, study finds
A team of scientists estimates that there may be enough water, trapped in tiny cracks and pores of rock in the middle of the Martian crust, to fill oceans on the planet’s surface. The groundwater would likely cover the entirety of Mars to a depth of 1 mile (1.6 kilometers), the study found. The data came from NASA’s InSight lander, which used a seismometer to study the interior of Mars from 2018 to 2022.
Future astronauts exploring Mars would encounter a whole host of challenges if they tried to access the water, because it’s located between 7 and 12 miles (11.5 and 20 kilometers) beneath the surface, according to the study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But the finding uncovers new details about the geological history of Mars — and suggests a new place to search for life on the red planet if the water could ever be accessed. LINK
Galactic belly button lint?Extraterrestrial Chemistry: Are We Really Made of Stardust?
Research into how cosmic radiation interacts with ice particles suggests that prebiotic molecules, potential seeds of life on Earth and elsewhere, may form through these processes.“Our calculations suggest that the number of cosmic-ray-induced electrons within cosmic ice could be much greater than the number of photons striking the ice,” Barnes explains. “Therefore, electrons likely play a more significant role than photons in the extraterrestrial synthesis of prebiotic molecules.” LINK
Cosmic tension relax ...Scientists Puzzled by Weird "Strands" at the Center of Our Galaxy
There are almost 1,000 of them — and we have no idea what they are made of and where they came from ... They are also spaced apart from each other at exactly the same distances. "We still don't know why they come in clusters or understand how they separate, and we don't know how these regular spacings happen," Yusef-Zadeh said. But getting a full understanding will require "more observations and theoretical analyses," he said, a process that "takes time."
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Talking brains ... and an AMAZING video ...James Webb Telescope May Have Finally Solved the Crisis in Cosmology
A University of Chicago-led analysis measuring the universe expansion rate, finds there may not be a ‘Hubble tension’.
The “crisis in cosmology,” sparked by differing measurements of the universe’s expansion, may be nearing a resolution thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope. New data analyzed by scientists suggests that the Hubble tension might not be as severe as previously thought. This could mean our current model of the universe remains accurate. LINK
Captured brains ...New Brain-Computer Interface Converts Brain Signals Into Speech With up to 97% Accuracy
This innovative system translates brain signals into speech with up to 97% accuracy, representing a significant breakthrough in neuroprosthetics. A clinical trial participant, Casey Harrell, who has ALS, successfully used the device to regain his ability to communicate. The technology, which uses microelectrode arrays implanted in the brain, has shown remarkable results in real-time speech decoding, offering hope and empowerment to those who have lost the ability to speak. LINK
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Same brains ...Scientists Capture Thought in Stunning New Detail
Recordings from thousands of neurons reveal how a person’s brain abstractly represents acts of reasoning.
Researchers have identified how the brain forms cognitive maps during inferential reasoning by analyzing neurons in epilepsy patients. The hippocampus, traditionally linked to physical space mapping, also structures cognitive processes. This study highlights how experiential and verbal learning impact neural representations, offering insights for potential neurological treatments. Using mathematical tools that Dr. Fusi honed to integrate recordings from thousands of neurons, the researchers recast the volunteers’ brain activity into geometric representations – into shapes, this is – albeit ones occupying thousands of dimensions instead of the familiar three dimensions that we routinely visualize.
“These are high-dimensional geometrical shapes that we cannot imagine or visualize on a computer monitor,” said Dr. Fusi. “But we can use mathematical techniques to visualize much-simplified renditions of them in 3D.” When the researchers compared shapes of brain activity between instances when the subjects made successful inferences with those when their inferences were unsuccessful, stark differences emerged.
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Addicted brains ...Groundbreaking Study Identifies Universal Blueprint for Mammalian Brains
Researchers have developed a new method to describe the cerebral cortex, revealing a universal fractal pattern across mammalian species that could enhance our understanding of brain development and disease. ... The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer of the brain, and is responsible for complex functions such as thought, perception, and decision-making. Cerebral cortex folding, known as gyrification, is the process by which the brain’s surface develops grooves (sulci) and ridges (gyri). This folding increases the surface area of the brain, allowing for a greater number of neurons and more complex information processing. The cortex displays a wide diversity of shapes and sizes across and within species. ... This revealed that, despite the clear visual differences between the species’ cortices, all of them follow a universal scaling law, and resemble the same fractal shape. So, if you take the most complex cortex studied, that of a human, and use the team’s process of ‘melting’ to eliminate the smallest folds, it begins to resemble that of a chimpanzee. If you ‘melt’ the cortex of a chimpanzee, it resembles that of a rhesus monkey, and so on. ... LINK
More addicted brains ...Scientists Uncover Hidden Mechanism Behind Opioid Addiction – Discovery Could Revolutionize Addiction Treatment
In a study published in the journal Science, Smith and his team found that an understudied brain region responsible for aversion, the dorsal peduncular nucleus, is highly responsive to opioids. Surprisingly, the opioid receptors in this brain region respond uniquely to opioids, contradicting the prevailing belief that opioids act primarily through dopamine in the brain. This discovery offers an exciting new area of research. LINK
Seeing clearly seeing ...Scientists Uncover How Cocaine Tricks the Brain Into Feeling Good – Breakthrough Could Lead to New Substance Abuse Treatments
Cocaine blocks the dopamine transporter, leading to unregulated dopamine levels, which causes the brain to perceive all experiences as pleasurable. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have used the world’s most powerful microscope to understand how cocaine binds to the transporter, which could pave the way for treatments for cocaine addiction. LINK
Memory reset ...Decoding Visual Deceptions: How the Brain Predicts and Rewrites Reality
A groundbreaking study reveals how the brain’s complex visual system not only perceives but also predicts and alters our view of the world. This in-depth look shows that our brain integrates past experiences with present visual information to construct reality, which can lead to deceptions or illusions. ... How do we learn to make sense of our environment? Over time, our brain builds a hierarchy of knowledge, with higher-order concepts linked to the lower-order features that comprise them. For instance, we learn that cabinets contain drawers and that Dalmatian dogs have black-and-white patches, and not vice versa. This interconnected framework shapes our expectations and perception of the world, allowing us to identify what we see based on context and experience.
“Take an elephant,” says Leopoldo Petreanu, senior author of the la Caixa-funded study. “Elephants are associated with lower-order attributes such as color, size, and weight, as well as higher-order contexts like jungles or safaris. Connecting concepts helps us understand the world and interpret ambiguous stimuli. If you’re on a safari, you may be more likely to spot an elephant behind the bushes than you would otherwise. Similarly, knowing it’s an elephant makes you more likely to perceive it as grey even in the dim light of dusk. But where in the fabric of the brain is this prior knowledge stored, and how is it learned?” LINK
Animal dawn ...New Research Reveals That Your Brain’s Memory “Resets” Every Night
A new study from Cornell University reveals that sleep not only consolidates memories but also resets the brain’s memory storage mechanism. This process, governed by specific regions in the hippocampus, allows neurons to prepare for new learning without being overwhelmed. This insight opens potential pathways for enhancing memory and treating neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s and PTSD. LINK
Another measure of life's start ... well depends how one measures, but early ...Unlocking the Deep Past: New Study Maps the Dawn of Animal Life
Researchers have linked changes in sea levels and marine oxygen to the evolution of early animals in a study that combines fossil analysis with geological data from 580–510 million years ago, enhancing our understanding of early biodiversity. ... This period witnessed an explosion of biodiversity according to fossil records, the causes of which have baffled scientists since Charles Darwin. The early animals found from this era were all sea-dwellers, at a time when oxygen levels in the air and ocean were much lower than today.
While the very first lifeforms before this time were mostly single-cell, and simple multi-celled organisms, creatures in the Ediacaran Period started to become more complex, with multiple cells organized into body plans that allowed them to feed, reproduce, and move across the ocean floor. This era also marked the emergence of so-called bilaterian animals – which display symmetrical body plans, in common with most present-day species including humans. LINK
BELOW: Fossils of early animals of the Avalon assemblage c.565 million years old at Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, Newfoundland, Canada.
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When Does Human Life Truly Begin? Harvard Scientists Explore a New Perspective
While science has not come closer to setting a zero point for human life, there has been significant progress in our understanding of early mammalian embryogenesis. It has become clear that the 14-day stage does in fact possess features, which make it a foundational time point for a developing human. Importantly, this stage defines the separation of soma from the germline and marks the boundary between rejuvenation and aging. LINK
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And when do we age...
98% ... even 2% is too much ...New Stanford Research Reveals Humans Age in Two Rapid Bursts: At 44 and 60
They found that thousands of molecules and microbes undergo shifts in their abundance, either increasing or decreasing — around 81% of all the molecules they studied showed non-linear fluctuations in number, meaning that they changed more at certain ages than other times. When they looked for clusters of molecules with the largest changes in amount, they found these transformations occurred the most in two time periods: when people were in their mid-40s, and when they were in their early 60s.
Although much research has focused on how different molecules increase or decrease as we age and how biological age may differ from chronological age, very few have looked at the rate of biological aging. That so many dramatic changes happen in the early 60s is perhaps not surprising, Snyder said, as many age-related disease risks and other age-related phenomena are known to increase at that point in life.
The large cluster of changes in the mid-40s was somewhat surprising to the scientists. At first, they assumed that menopause or perimenopause was driving large changes in the women in their study, skewing the whole group. But when they broke out the study group by sex, they found the shift was happening in men in their mid-40s, too. LINK
98% Efficiency: Scientists Unveil Game-Changing Nanoplastic Removal Technology
A team at the University of Missouri has devised a method to eliminate most nanoplastics from water using eco-friendly solvents, suitable for both fresh and saltwater applications. ... “Our strategy uses a small amount of designer solvent to absorb plastic particles from a large volume of water,” said Gary Baker, an associate professor in Mizzou’s Department of Chemistry and the study’s corresponding author. “Currently, the capacity of these solvents is not well understood. In future work, we aim to determine the maximum capacity of the solvent. Additionally, we will explore methods to recycle the solvents, enabling their reuse multiple times if necessary.” LINK
A.I. Good ...
A.I. Bad ...Artificial Intelligence Predicts Earthquakes With Unprecedented Accuracy
An AI algorithm developed by the University of Texas successfully predicted 70% of earthquakes in a trial, showcasing potential improvements in earthquake preparedness and risk management. Its performance in an international competition highlights its accuracy and adaptability. LINK
A.I. Detective ...
Supercomputer Sentience ... (Ben Goertzel's "Sophia" is the aunt of Emi Jido ... )New Startup Analyzing AI Outputs to Find Out Where They're Stolen From - So everyone can get paid.
Are generative AI models mass plagiarism machines? Many would argue that they are. For creating products that regurgitate other people's content, AI companies lock down billions of dollars in investment, while the creators whose works were purloined by the machines get nada.
That's the way tech entrepreneur Bill Gross sees it, and he says he has an answer. His new startup, called ProRata, claims it will launch its own chatbot-slash-search engine that will use a patented algorithm to identify and attribute the work used by AI models, and through revenue-sharing deals, make sure that everyone involved gets compensated. LINK
A.I. Safe ...New Supercomputer Network Going Live in September Could Usher In AGI
One of artificial intelligence's most colorful figures is set to take online a supercomputing network that (he hopes) will usher in the age of human-level artificial general intelligence (AGI).
In a statement to LiveScience, SingularityNET CEO Ben Goertzel — the guy behind Sofia the Robot — said that his company's "multi-level cognitive computing network" will be an integral step in the evolution from AI (as we know it today) to AGI.
Using some of the most advanced hardware in the world, including multiple types of NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs), the firm hopes to build out a new network capable of harnessing the powering of existing systems, to move from data-heavy computing to lean machines that can essentially think and reason for themselves.
This global network of supercomputers will furthermore provide the computing power necessary to host such a huge transitional shift. LINK
In a hurry to leave ...New Research Debunks AI Doomsday Myths: LLMs Are Controllable and Safe
A recent study found that large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT do not pose an existential threat to humanity. These models, while proficient in following instructions and generating sophisticated language, cannot independently learn new skills or develop complex reasoning. The research emphasizes that LLMs remain controllable and predictable, though they could still be misused. The study also dispels fears that AI might develop hazardous abilities, suggesting instead that future research should focus on other risks, such as the generation of fake news. ... According to recent research from the University of Bath and the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany, ChatGPT and other large language models (LLMs) are unable to learn autonomously or develop new skills, and therefore do not present an existential threat to humanity. ... This means they remain inherently controllable, predictable, and safe. LINK
Gassho, JNASA Spots Mysterious Object Moving at 1 Million Miles per Hour
Citizen scientists collaborating with NASA’s Backyard Worlds project have discovered a unique hypervelocity object, CWISE J1249, that is rapidly exiting the Milky Way. ... moving so fast that it will escape the Milky Way’s gravity and shoot into intergalactic space. This hypervelocity object is the first such object found with the mass similar to or less than that of a small star. ... It could be a low-mass star, or if it doesn’t steadily fuse hydrogen in its core, it would be considered a brown dwarf, putting it somewhere between a gas giant planet and a star.
... Why does this object move at such high speed? One hypothesis is that CWISE J1249 originally came from a binary system with a white dwarf, which exploded as a supernova when it pulled off too much material from its companion. Another possibility is that it came from a tightly bound cluster of stars called a globular cluster, and a chance meeting with a pair of black holes sent it soaring away. “When a star encounters a black hole binary, the complex dynamics of this three-body interaction can toss that star right out of the globular cluster,” says Kyle Kremer, incoming assistant professor in UC San Diego’s Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. LINK
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Did we find the Martians?
Lets make Mars like Michigan ...NASA’s Perseverance rover may have just found what it was looking for on Mars
The NASA Perseverance rover may have found a pivotal clue that’s central to its mission on Mars: geological evidence that could suggest life existed on the red planet billions of years ago.
The robotic explorer came across a vein-filled red rock on July 18 that appears to be scattered with leopard spots. The mottling could indicate that ancient chemical reactions occurring within the rock once supported microbial organisms. LINK
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I want a holodeckScientists Propose Low Cost Plan for Terraforming Mars
Until now, most proposals to terraform Mars involve transporting enormous amounts of material from Earth. But new research suggests that we could quickly warm up the Red Planet using specially engineered dust particles made with minerals abundant on its surface.
The study, published in the journal Science Advances, found that injecting these particles into the atmosphere could create a greenhouse effect that would warm Mars by 50 degrees Celsius in a matter of months, allowing the planet's permafrost to finally begin to thaw.
"This suggests that the barrier to warming Mars to allow liquid water is not as high as previously thought," said study coauthor Edwin Kite, an associate professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago, in a statement about the work. LINK
This too ...Researchers Recreate Star Trek’s Holodeck Using AI
In the quest to train robots for real-world tasks, researchers have created “Holodeck,” an AI system capable of generating detailed, customizable 3D environments on demand, inspired by Star Trek’s holodeck technology. This system uses large language models to interpret user requests and generate a vast array of indoor scenarios, helping robots learn to navigate new spaces more effectively.
.... Just like Captain Picard might ask Star Trek’s Holodeck to simulate a speakeasy, researchers can ask Penn’s Holodeck to create “a 1b1b apartment of a researcher who has a cat.” The system executes this query by dividing it into multiple steps: first, the floor and walls are created, then the doorway and windows. Next, Holodeck searches Objaverse, a vast library of premade digital objects, for the sort of furnishings you might expect in such a space: a coffee table, a cat tower, and so on. Finally, Holodeck queries a layout module, which the researchers designed to constrain the placement of objects, so that you don’t wind up with a toilet extending horizontally from the wall. ...
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On the other hand ...Brain Implant Hooked Up to Control VR Headset: "It can transport you to places you never thought you’d see or experience again."
Neuralink competitor Synchron has announced that its brain-computer interface (BCI) can now be hooked up to Apple's expensive Vision Pro virtual reality headset, allowing those with limited mobility to control the device with their thoughts alone.
While the company has yet to receive approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for a broader commercial rollout, .... Unlike Elon Musk's Neuralink, Synchron's brain-computer is inserted via the jugular vein and doesn't require open brain surgery. An antenna collects the data the device collects and passes it on to external devices.
Neuralink has similarly allowed its first human patient to control a laptop, allowing him to even play complex video games.
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Energy from the air ...As Neuralink Implants Second Subject's Brain, First Patient Says His Doesn't Work as Well Anymore
As previous reports indicated, his BCI began glitching soon after it was inserted. Although Neuralink's brightest figured out a workaround, it seems that some of that function loss is permanent.
As the 30-year-old admitted on "The Lex Fridman Podcast," only about 10 to 15 percent of the nodes in his silver dollar-sized brain chip are working — a precipitous loss of function given that the implant has been in Arbaugh's noggin for such a relatively short amount of time.
Arbough's enthusiasm surrounding the implant — and the circumstances that led to its need in the first place — make its decline in functionality all the sadder.
... "It sucked. It was really, really hard," he told the podcaster. "I thought it would've been a cruel twist of fate if I had gotten to see the view from the top of this mountain and then have it all come crashing down after a month."
Despite all that, Arbaugh told the podcaster that he's still glad that he can still move a mouse cursor with his mind and have some level of independence left to him that he didn't have before.
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The scientists are very creative to do this ... and it is tied to meditation too ...Scientists Develop Extraordinary Material That Can Transform Sunlight and Water Into Clean Energy
Researchers at Oregon State University have created a highly efficient photocatalyst that can rapidly produce hydrogen from sunlight and water. This catalyst, developed through a combination of metal-organic frameworks and metal oxides, represents a significant advancement in the production of clean energy. It holds promise for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing a sustainable alternative to traditional hydrogen production methods, which rely on fossil fuels. LINK
Remote control mice ...Neuroscientists Have Pinpointed the Origins of Creativity in the Brain
A collaborative study by researchers from the University of Utah Health and Baylor College of Medicine has uncovered the crucial function of the default mode network in creativity using sophisticated brain imaging, highlighting possibilities for future therapeutic interventions. ... “There’s not a creativity cortex.” ... But there’s evidence that creativity is a distinct brain function. Localized brain injury caused by stroke can lead to changes in creative ability—both positive and negative. That discovery suggests that narrowing down the neurological basis of creativity is possible.
Shofty suspected that creative thought might rely strongly on parts of the brain that are also activated during meditation, daydreaming, and other internally focused types of thinking. This network of brain cells is the default mode network (DMN), so called because it’s associated with the “default” patterns of thought that happen in the absence of specific mental tasks. “Unlike most of the functions that we have in the brain, it’s not goal-directed,” Shofty says. “It’s a network that basically operates all the time and maintains our spontaneous stream of consciousness.”
The DMN is spread out across many dispersed brain regions, making it more difficult to track its activity in real-time. The researchers had to use an advanced method of brain activity imaging to understand what the network was doing moment-to-moment during creative thought. ... The researchers saw that during a creative thinking task in which participants were asked to list novel uses for an everyday item, like a chair or a cup, the DMN lit up with activity first. Then, its activity synchronized with other regions in the brain, including ones involved in complex problem-solving and decision-making. Shofty believes this means that creative ideas originate in the DMN before being evaluated by other regions.
What’s more, the researchers were able to show that parts of the network are required specifically for creative thought. When the researchers used the electrodes to temporarily dampen the activity of particular regions of the DMN, people brainstormed uses for the items they saw that were less creative. Their other brain functions, like mind wandering, remained perfectly normal. LINK
The code ...Scientists Use Nanoparticles to Remote Control Brains of Mice
Scientists at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea have developed a new way to control the minds of mice by manipulating nanoparticle-activated "switches" inside their brains with an external magnetic field.
The system, dubbed Nano-MIND (Magnetogenetic Interface for NeuroDynamics), works by controlling targeted regions of the brain by activating neural circuits.
While it's not the first "mind control" experiment involving animals, previous approaches have conventionally relied on invasive surgery and bulky external systems that limit the movement of test subjects, as Science Alert points out.
"This is the world's first technology to freely control specific brain regions using magnetic fields," said Jinwoo Cheon, director of the IBS Center for Nanomedicine, and senior author of a new paper published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, in a statement about the research.
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Artificial rocket power neurons ...Cracking the Code of Life: New AI Model Learns DNA’s Hidden Language
GROVER, a new large language model trained on human DNA by researchers at Dresden University of Technology’s Biotechnology Center, can decode complex genomic information by treating DNA as a language. This innovative tool holds the potential to revolutionize genomics and accelerate personalized medicine. ... “GROVER learned the rules of DNA. In terms of language, we are talking about grammar, syntax, and semantics. For DNA this means learning the rules governing the sequences, the order of the nucleotides and sequences, and the meaning of the sequences. Like GPT models learning human languages, GROVER has basically learned how to ‘speak’ DNA,” explains Dr. Melissa Sanabria, the researcher behind the project. The team showed that GROVER can not only accurately predict the following DNA sequences but can also be used to extract contextual information that has biological meaning, e.g., identify gene promoters or protein binding sites on DNA. GROVER also learns processes that are generally considered to be “epigenetic”, i.e., regulatory processes that happen on top of the DNA rather than being encoded. LINK
Allowing the voiceless to speak ...MIT Claims New Artificial Neuron 1 Million Times Faster Than the Real Thing
Think and you’ll miss it: researchers at MIT claim to have successfully created analog synapses that are one million times faster than those in our human brains.
Just as digital processors need transistors, analog ones need programmable resistors. Once put into the right configuration, these resistors can be used to create a network of analog synapses and neurons, according to a press release.
These analog synapses aren’t just ultra-fast, they're remarkably efficient, too. And that's pretty important, because as digital neural networks grow more advanced and powerful, they require more and more energy, increasing their carbon footprint considerably.
As detailed in a new paper, the researchers hope their findings will advance the field of analog deep learning, a burgeoning field of artificial intelligence. LINK
But AI trained on Ai leads to a mess ...Wexton makes history as first member to use AI voice on House floor
Democratic Rep. Jennifer Wexton of Virginia made history Thursday as the first lawmaker to use an artificial intelligence-generated model of her voice to speak for her on the House floor.
“My battle with progressive Supranuclear palsy, or PSP, has robbed me of my ability to use my full voice and move around in the ways that I used to, rather than striding confidently onto the House floor to vote,” Wexton said on the floor through the AI model. LINK.
AI too much ...When AI Is Trained With AI-Generated Data, It Starts Spouting Gibberish
A fascinating new study published in the journal Nature shows that AI models trained on AI-generated material will experience rapid "model collapse." Basically, as an AI model cannibalizes AI-generated data, its outputs become increasingly bizarre, garbled, and nonsensical, as if synthetic data — as opposed to high-quality, human-made material — breaks its brain.
On the one hand, the study's results serve as another reminder that AI models are incredibly responsive to their training data, and that allowing AI-generated material to seep into those datasets can have serious consequences for AI systems and the billion-dollar companies building them. At the same time, it underscores AI companies' ever-growing need for high-quality human material with which to train its models — an increasingly scarce, and thus increasingly valuable, resource that could stand to put generative AI advancement at a plateau.
"The message is we have to be very careful about what ends up in our training data," study co-author Zakhar Shumaylov, an AI researcher at the University of Cambridge, told Nature, warning that otherwise "things will always, provably, go wrong." LINK
Bringing AI costs down ...MIT Economist Blasts AI Hype, Says It's Too Dumb to Really Impact Jobs: Companies are "over-investing in generative AI and then regretting it.
In an interview with NPR, MIT economist and leading AI skeptic Daron Acemoglu made a case that the tech is simply far too dumb to have a major impact.
When asked if generative AI would usher in revolutionary economic changes, Acemoglu had a straightforward answer.
"No. No. Definitely not," Acemoglu told NPR. "I mean, unless you count a lot of companies over-investing in generative AI and then regretting it, a revolutionary change."
... Generative AI is still struggling with many of the same challenges as when ChatGPT was first made available to the public in late 2022. For one, AI chatbots still have a strong tendency to "hallucinate," meaning that their connection to reality is tenuous at best. As NPR points out, experts have also argued that claims of generative AI intelligence are likely exaggerated, and aren't much more than "autocorrect on steroids": a statistical model that does little more than recognize patterns in data. ... Acemoglu argued that AI isn't capable of most tasks in a modern office. According to the economist, generative AI will only ultimately impact less than five percent of human tasks. He also predicted that the tech will only boost the gross domestic impact by roughly 1.5 percent over the next decade. While that's "nothing to be sneered at," he told NPR, "it's not revolutionary in any shape or form."
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It would explain a lot ... maybe we are in the holodeck? ...Advanced Hardware Device Slashes AI Energy Consumption by 1000x
The University of Minnesota researchers have introduced a hardware innovation called CRAM, reducing AI energy use by up to 2,500 times by processing data within memory, promising significant advancements in AI efficiency. ... “This work is the first experimental demonstration of CRAM, where the data can be processed entirely within the memory array without the need to leave the grid where a computer stores information,” ... LINK
Gassho, JFormer NASA Scientist Doing Experiment to Prove We Live in a Simulation
It's a tantalizing theory, long theorized by philosophers and popularized by the 1999 blockbuster "The Matrix." What if there was a way to find out once and for all if we're living inside a computer?
A former NASA physicist named Thomas Campbell has taken it upon himself to do just that. He devised several experiments, as detailed in a 2017 paper published in the journal The International Journal of Quantum Foundations, designed to detect if something is rendering the world around us like a video game.
Now, scientists at the California State Polytechnic University (CalPoly) have gotten started on the first experiment, putting Campbell's far-fetched hypothesis to the test. ... Campbell's experiments include a new spin on the double-slit experiment, a physics demonstration designed to show how light and matter can act like both waves and particles.
Campbell believes that by removing the observer from these experiments, the actual recorded information never existed in the first place. LINK
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The Black Hole at the HEART of the universe ...
Lookin' at LUCA ...Black Holes: Not Destroyers but Protectors
A study has revealed that galaxies possess a regulatory mechanism similar to a heart and lungs, which controls their growth by limiting gas absorption. ...This mechanism, involving a supermassive black hole and its jet emissions, prevents galaxies from expanding too rapidly, ensuring their longevity and preventing premature aging into “zombie” galaxies.... In their analogy, the researchers compared the supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy to its heart and the two bipolar supersonic jets of gas and radiation they emit to airways feeding a pair of lungs. Pulses from the black hole — or “heart” — can lead to jet shock fronts oscillating back and forth along both jet axes, much like the thoracic diaphragm in the human body moves up and down inside a chest cavity to inflate and deflate both lungs. This can result in jet energy being transmitted widely into the surrounding medium, just as we breathe out warm air, resulting in slowing galaxy gas accretion and growth. LINK
BELOW: This clip shows a supersonic jet generating a “bellows-like action,” by receiving pulses from its black hole “heart,” causing it to expand and contract “like an air-filled lung,” “breathing out warm air” (pressure ripples) into its surroundings.
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Racking my brain ...Unlocking the Secrets of LUCA, Earth’s Earliest Life Form
A University of Bristol-led study found that life on Earth, stemming from a common ancestor called LUCA (Last Universal Common Ancestor), flourished soon after the planet’s formation. Through genetic analysis and evolutionary modeling, researchers pinpointed LUCA’s existence to about 4.2 billion years ago, revealing it as a complex organism with an early immune system integral to Earth’s earliest ecosystems. LUCA is the hypothesized common ancestor from which all modern cellular life, from single-celled organisms like bacteria to the gigantic redwood trees (as well as us humans) descend. LUCA represents the root of the tree of life before it splits into the groups, recognized today, Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. Modern life evolved from LUCA from various different sources: the same amino acids used to build proteins in all cellular organisms, the shared energy currency (ATP), the presence of cellular machinery like the ribosome and others associated with making proteins from the information stored in DNA, and even the fact that all cellular life uses DNA itself as a way of storing information. ... Co-author Professor Davide Pisani said: “Our study showed that LUCA was a complex organism, not too different from modern prokaryotes, but what is really interesting is that it’s clear it possessed an early immune system, showing that even by 4.2 billion years ago, our ancestor was engaging in an arms race with viruses.”
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Size is not everything ...Are Lab-Grown Brains Ethical? According to Scientists, There Is No No-Brainer Answer
A study from Hiroshima University highlights the need for stringent ethical and legal frameworks in brain organoid research, especially concerning fetal tissues, advocating for responsible scientific advancement. ... Brain organoids are three-dimensional human brain tissues derived from stem cells, which are capable of developing into many different cell types. They replicate the complexity of the human brain in a laboratory setting, allowing researchers to study brain development and diseases in the hopes of acquiring vital insights and making innovative medical advancements. ... The study highlights the urgent need for a sophisticated and globally harmonized regulatory framework tailored to navigate the complex ethical and legal landscape of fetal brain organoid (FeBO) research. The paper emphasizes the importance of informed consent protocols, ethical considerations surrounding organoid consciousness, transplantation of organoids into animals, integration with computational systems, and broader debates related to embryo research and the ethics of abortion. ... LINK
Mushroom brain ...Brain Size Myth Debunked With New Evolutionary Insights
A new study involving 1,500 species shows that larger animals do not have proportionally bigger brains, challenging old views and introducing a curve model for brain-body size relationships, with significant findings in primates, rodents, and carnivores. ... “For more than a century, scientists have assumed that this relationship was linear – meaning that brain size gets proportionally bigger, the larger an animal is. We now know this is not true. The relationship between brain and body size is a curve, essentially meaning very large animals have smaller brains than expected.” ... LINK
AI has little EmpathAI ...This is your brain on psilocybin
As he began the brain scan, neurologist Dr. Nico Dosenbach wasn’t sure if he’d been given a psychedelic or a placebo as part of a new clinical trial that would capture how the brain works on psilocybin, the main psychoactive ingredient in magic mushrooms. Suddenly he felt a faster heartbeat, a flush of energy and a change in vision. It wasn’t until his brain morphed into a computer, however, that he knew for sure he was on a psychedelic trip. ... Dosenbach is the co-senior author of a very small, pilot study that conducted up to 30 functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans of healthy participants’ brains before, during and three weeks after a psychedelic trip on psilocybin. “We found that psilocybin desynchronizes the brain,” said co-senior author Ginger Nicol of the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
“When psilocybin is on board, the brain is disconnecting from its typical pathways and reconnecting to different parts of the brain,” said Nicol, an associate professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
... Each of the participants had different experiences, with only one not entering a state of mysticism, Dosenbach said.
“My sense of self stretched like I was the universe,” he said. “Other people reported they saw God, and if I was very religious, I could see that, but for me it was more like ‘Oh, I’m the universe.’
“And then it disappeared in what I think psychiatrists call ego death,” he said. “Simultaneously with that I lost my sense of place, and time stopped. It felt like I was literally there for days and then weeks figuring things out.”
One man was able to pinpoint the specific time during the fMRI scan that he had his most vivid mystical experience, Nicol said.
“He felt the light of God was shining on him,” she said. “We were able to actually go to that spot on the scan and pinpoint when he felt that — it happened at the peak of desynchronization(from the brain’s typical pathways).
BELOW: This brain on psilocybin is at the peak of activity, showing how much of the brain reconnects to different pathways than prior to the experience. The most active areas of reconnection are seen in red and orange. f_webp.webp
I can't decide what I think about this ...Cambridge Study: AI Chatbots Have an “Empathy Gap,” and It Could Be Dangerous
New research at the University of Cambridge identifies a significant “empathy gap” in AI chatbots, posing risks to young users who often see these systems as lifelike confidants. Highlighting incidents where AI interactions led to unsafe suggestions, the study advocates for a proactive approach to make AI child-safe. It proposes a comprehensive 28-item framework to help stakeholders, including companies and educators, ensure AI technologies cater responsibly to children’s unique needs and vulnerabilities. ... The study links that gap in understanding to recent cases in which interactions with AI led to potentially dangerous situations for young users. They include an incident in 2021, when Amazon’s AI voice assistant, Alexa, instructed a 10-year-old to touch a live electrical plug with a coin. Last year, Snapchat’s My AI gave adult researchers posing as a 13-year-old girl tips on how to lose her virginity to a 31-year-old. ... LINK
A real looker ...AI Learns To Think Like Humans: A Game-Changer in Machine Learning
Researchers at Georgia Tech are advancing neural networks to mimic human decision-making by training them to exhibit variability and confidence in their choices, similar to how humans operate, as demonstrated in their study published in Nature Human Behaviour. Their model, RTNet, not only matches human performance in recognizing noisy digits but also applies human-like traits such as confidence and evidence accumulation, enhancing both accuracy and reliability. ... Humans make nearly 35,000 decisions each day, ranging from determining if it’s safe to cross the road to choosing what to have for lunch. Each decision involves evaluating options, recalling similar past situations, and feeling reasonably confident about the right choice. What might appear to be a snap decision actually results from gathering evidence from the environment. Additionally, the same person might make different decisions in identical scenarios at different times.
Neural networks do the opposite, making the same decisions each time. Now, Georgia Tech researchers in Associate Professor Dobromir Rahnev’s lab are training them to make decisions more like humans. This science of human decision-making is only just being applied to machine learning, but developing a neural network even closer to the actual human brain may make it more reliable, according to the researchers.
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Here's to youthful grannies ...The first Miss AI has been crowned — and she’s a Moroccan lifestyle influencer
Meet Kenza Layli, a Moroccan lifestyle influencer who hopes to bring “diversity and inclusivity” to the AI creator landscape. With nearly 200,000 Instagram followers, and a further 45,000 on TikTok, Layli is entirely AI-generated, from her images to her captions and buzzword-filled acceptance speech.
“Winning Miss AI motivates me even more to continue my work in advancing AI technology,” Layli said in a video of the speech. “AI isn’t just a tool; it’s a transformative force that can disrupt industries, challenge norms and create opportunities where none existed before… As we move forward, I am committed to promoting diversity and inclusivity within the field, ensuring that everyone has a seat at the table of technological progress.” ... Judges included the AI influencer Aitana Lopez and the (human) pageantry historian Sally-Ann Fawcett, who told CNN last month that she was looking for contestants “with a powerful, positive message.”
But experts have also expressed concern about the implications of an AI beauty pageant, as stylized AI-generated images may further homogenize beauty standards.
“I think we’re starting to increasingly lose touch with what an unedited face looks like,” Dr. Kerry McInerney, a research associate at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, told CNN in a video interview after the shortlist had been selected. (Among the competition’s 10 finalists, Layli, a hijab-wearing North African avatar, was an outlier.)
“These tools are made to replicate and scale up existing patterns in the world,” McInerney added. “They’re not made necessarily to challenge them, even if they’re sold as tools that enhance creativity so when it comes to beauty norms… They’re capturing the existing beauty norms we have which are actively sexist, actively fatphobic, actively colorist, then they’re compiling and reiterating them.” LINK
SimulSashimi ... but nobody says how it tastes ...SCIENTISTS INTRIGUED BY DRUG THAT EXTENDED LIFESPANS OF MICE WHILE KEEPING THEM YOUNG-LOOKING
In a new study, lab mice given an experimental drug were jokingly referred to as "supermodel grannies" because they looked so youthful even while aging beyond their expected lifespan.
As the BBC reports, the trials for a drug believed to flush out a protein known as interleukin-11 — which in early development helps build our bones but later in life causes the kinds of inflammation that triggers much of the illness of aging — have already had intriguing success in mice. ... The drug also, per a press release from the UK government's research arm, extended the median lifespan of male mice by 22.4 percent and female mice by 25 percent.... LINK
Gassho JMajor Japanese food processing firm launches plant-based 'tuna sashimi' for restaurants
A major Japanese food processing company began selling "tuna sashimi" made from plant-based ingredients to domestic restaurants. The aroma and texture of the red meat of tuna are reproduced, and it can be eaten as sashimi.
As the decline of marine resources becomes a global problem, the development of "alternative seafood" using soybeans and other ingredients is growing. LINK
Osaka-based NH Foods Ltd. has focused on tuna, which is one of the top domestic purchases among seafood products. Using powdered konjac, dietary fiber and other ingredients, the company has reproduced the unique texture of tuna after a year of development that started in the summer of 2023.
stlahLast edited by Jundo; 07-21-2024, 11:55 PM.Leave a comment:
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I'm going to cancel my LiveScience newsletter subscription; this is wonderful (and scary to some/most). On a very basic level these are all part of Reality, just the way things are, when I think about it (or not think about it) but people who do separate themselves into this/that or then/now etc. have a visceral dread of changes and feel their selves threatened. I do understand that feeling but my hope is that technology and innovation is used more for good than bad (yes I'd like to see a tipping of the scales toward good/peace/harmony). Anyway, that's just some random thoughts after I read this. Thank you Master Jundo!
Bill
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The merger begins ... let humans be very, very careful ...
A leg up ...SCIENTISTS CREATE ROBOT CONTROLLED BY BLOB OF HUMAN BRAIN CELLS
Chinese scientists create robot with brain made from human stem cells- Researchers have developed brain-on-chip technology to train the robot to perform tasks such as gripping objects
It is no game ...NEW BIONIC LEG CAN BE CONTROLLED BY THE WEARER'S BRAIN
Researchers at MIT have developed a new prosthetic leg that can be controlled via brain signals, an achievement that could greatly enhance the experience of walking with a bionic limb for amputees. As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Nature Medicine, the researchers found that their "neuroprosthetic" increased walking speed by a whopping 41 percent compared to a control group who received conventional prostheses, "enabling equivalent peak speeds to persons without leg amputation." Better yet, such a device could adapt in real-time to a variety of environments such as "slopes, stairs and obstructed pathways," the researchers argue. A video released by the team shows off just how natural it is for the user to climb a set of stairs.
Tongue power ...FIRST NEURALINK PATIENT SAYS IMPLANT HAS GIVEN HIM INCREDIBLE GAMING SKILLS
Earlier this year, Noland Arbaugh became the first patient to receive a brain-computer chip implanted by Elon Musk's startup Neuralink. The 29-year-old lost control over his limbs after a diving accident eight years ago, but has since gained the ability to move a cursor with his mind alone thanks to the coin battery-sized device implanted in his skull and brain. ... — the upgrade is giving Arbaugh sick new gaming skills. "I basically have an aimbot in my head," ... referring to bots that automatically lock onto their opponents in video games, giving cheating players seemingly superhuman reflexes. "They’ll probably have different leagues for people like me because it’s just not fair." LINK
Can the students be proven intelligent?Revolutionizing Accessibility: Tongue-Controlled MouthPad Enables Computer Interaction for Paralyzed Users
Tomás Vega developed the MouthPad through his startup, Augmental, to help people with disabilities interact with technology using just their tongues and head movements.
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Let's stop all those fake Jundos running around ...AI Outperforms Students in Real-World “Turing Test”
A study at the University of Reading revealed that AI-generated exam answers often go undetected by experienced exam markers, with 94% of such answers going unnoticed and achieving higher grades than student submissions. The researchers call for the global education sector to develop new policies and guidance to address this issue. The study emphasizes the need for a sector-wide agreement on the use of AI in education and highlights the responsibility of educators to maintain academic integrity. The University of Reading is already taking steps to incorporate AI in teaching and assessment to better prepare students for the future. LINK
The Dark Side for sure ... GPT Hijack ...YOUTUBE NOW LETS YOU REQUEST THE REMOVAL OF AI CONTENT THAT IMPERSONATES YOU
Submitting a request is not a guarantee of removal, however, and YouTube's stated criteria leaves room for considerable ambiguity. Some of the listed factors YouTube says it will consider include whether the content is disclosed as "altered or synthetic," whether the person "can be uniquely identified," and whether the content is "realistic."
But here comes a huge and familiar loophole: whether the content can be considered parody or satire, or even more vaguely, to contain some value to "public interest" will also be considered — nebulous qualifications that show that YouTube is taking a fairly soft stance here that is by no means anti-AI. LINK
More AI abuse ...Sneaky Virus Uses ChatGPT to Send Human-Like Emails to Your Contacts to Spread Itself: It can even evade antivirus scans by rewriting its own code.
Researchers have developed a computer virus that can leverage the power of ChatGPT to first disguise itself by changing its own code — and then, in a particularly devious twist, spread by attaching itself to AI-generated emails that sound like they were written by a human. ... As a result, the "synthetic cancer," as the researchers call the virus, isn't even detectable by antivirus scans, making it the perfect camouflaged intruder. Once established on the victim's system, the virus then opens up Outlook and starts writing contextually relevant email replies — while including itself as a seemingly harmless attachment. It's a terrifying example of how AI chatbots can be exploited to efficiently spread malware. Worse yet, experts warn the tools themselves could even aid bad actors in making them even harder to detect. LINK
AI now throwing parties ...MICROSOFT ACKNOWLEDGES "SKELETON KEY" EXPLOIT THAT ENABLES STRIKINGLY EVIL OUTPUTS ON ALMOST ANY AI: "EXPLOSIVES, BIOWEAPONS, POLITICAL CONTENT, SELF-HARM, RACISM, DRUGS, GRAPHIC SEX, AND VIOLENCE."
... It's a problem that likely isn't going to go away anytime soon. In a blog post last week, Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich acknowledged the existence of a new jailbreaking technique that causes "the system to violate its operators’ policies, make decisions unduly influenced by a user, or execute malicious instructions." ... LINK
A logical leap?RESEARCHERS LET 25 AI BOTS LOOSE INSIDE A VIRTUAL TOWN. THE RESULTS WERE FASCINATING.
A team of researchers from Stanford University and Google let 25 AI-powered bots loose inside a virtual town — and they acted a lot more like humans than you might expect. ... the researchers trained 25 different "generative agents," using OpenAI's GPT-3.5 large language model, to "simulate believable human behavior" such as cooking up breakfast, going to work, or practicing a specific profession like painting or writing. A virtual town called "Smallville" allowed these agents to hop from school to a cafe, or head to a bar after work. In other words, it's a bit like a game of "The Sims," but without any human intervention. ... The researchers found that their agents could "produce believable individual and emergent social behaviors." For instance, one agent attempted to throw a Valentine's Day party by sending out invites and setting a time and place for the party. A Smallville mayoral race also included the kind of drama you'd expect to occur in a small town. "To be honest, I don't like Sam Moore," an agent called Tom said after being asked what he thought of the mayoral candidate. "I think he's out of touch with the community and doesn't have our best interests at heart." LINK
A smile only skin deep ...Programmatic Breakthrough: AI’s Leap From Language to Logic To Solve Complex Problems
Researchers have developed a technique called natural language embedded programs (NLEPs) that improves the performance of large language models by generating Python programs to solve complex tasks. This method not only enhances accuracy and efficiency but also increases transparency, as users can directly see and modify the generated code. NLEPs allow large models like GPT-4 to solve a broader range of tasks with higher precision and could potentially improve data privacy and the performance of smaller models without extensive retraining. ... “We want AI to perform complex reasoning in a way that is transparent and trustworthy. There is still a long way to go, but we have shown that combining the capabilities of programming and natural language in large language models is a very good potential first step toward a future where people can fully understand and trust what is going on inside their AI model,” says Hongyin Luo PhD ’22, an MIT postdoc and co-lead author of a paper on NLEPs. ... LINK
Kinda looks the same?See robot smile with 'living' skin
A team of researchers at the Institute of Industrial Science at the University of Tokyo released a study showing how they made a robot with 'living' skin be able to smile.
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Is this the new "house call" ??It may look like pink Jello but scientists hope this new invention could revolutionize meat
Researchers in South Korea say they’ve developed a new way to make lab-grown meat taste like the real deal. It may look like a transparent, bubble gum pink-colored disc, but scientists hope it could revolutionize the meat on people’s plates. Lab-grown meat — also called cultured meat or cell-based meat — is emerging as an alternative to conventional meat, offering the same nutritional benefits and sensory experience without the carbon footprint It’s made by cultivating animal cells directly in a lab grown on 3D structures called “scaffolds,” which allow the cells to multiply, eliminating the need to raise and farm animals. LINK
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Drone attack ... and it had to be in Florida ...Hologram in this hospital allows doctors to 'teleport' to meet patients
A newly installed holographic display in Crescent Regional Hospital in Lancaster, Texas, is allowing doctors to meet with patients in real-time and helping them reduce travel time.
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Finding generosity within us ...ELDERLY FLORIDA MAN ARRESTED FOR SHOOTING WALMART DELIVERY DRONE
... Winn, who reportedly believed he was being surveilled by the drone, is facing a number of charges including shooting at an aircraft, criminal mischief, and discharging a firearm on public or residential property, according to the sheriff's office. ... Armed Americans could pose a headache for air deliveries. ...
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The roots of addiction within is ...The Neuroscience of Generosity: Why Some Give More Than Others
Researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience investigated the neural basis of altruism by studying individuals who physically feel others’ pain, known as mirror-pain synaesthetes. Their study found that these individuals are more inclined to make sacrifices to help others, driven by heightened activity in brain areas involved in sensory experiences. LINK
Can't get my fill ...Neuroscience Breakthrough: A Non-Invasive New Therapy for Addiction, Depression, and OCD
EPFL researchers are advancing non-invasive brain stimulation methods to target and modify deep brain regions involved in neurological disorders. Their innovative approach offers potential for less invasive, personalized treatments with wide applicability and minimal side effects. ... Their research, leveraging transcranial Temporal Interference Electric Stimulation (tTIS), specifically targets deep brain regions that are the control centers of several important cognitive functions and involved in different neurological and psychiatric pathologies. ... LINK
Big (yet tiny) discovery at the big collider ...Controlling Appetite Before It Starts: Scientists Identify Group of Neurons Linked to Feeling Full
Recent research demonstrates that GLP-1 receptor agonists, which are medications that mimic the gut hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 to stimulate insulin release, help increase feelings of fullness before eating by influencing neural pathways in the hypothalamus, potentially aiding in obesity management by modifying responses to food cues and perceptions.
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More Large Hadron happenings ... spooky happenings ...Large Hadron Collider Achieves Groundbreaking Measurement in Particle Physics
The CMS collaboration’s measurement of the electroweak mixing angle showcased unprecedented precision, affirming the Standard Model and setting the stage for future collider physics. LINK
Please avoid typos ...Faster Than the Speed of Light: Information Transfer Through “Spooky Action at a Distance” at the Large Hadron Collider
Physicists have demonstrated quantum entanglement in top quarks and their antimatter partners, a discovery made at CERN. This finding extends the behavior of entangled particles to distances beyond the reach of light-speed communication and opens new avenues for exploring quantum mechanics at high energies. LINK
and ...A “Word Processor” for Genes – Scientists Unveil Fundamentally New Mechanism for Biological Programming
Arc Institute scientists have discovered the bridge recombinase mechanism, a revolutionary tool that enables fully programmable DNA rearrangements. Their finding, detailed in a recent Nature publication, is the first DNA recombinase that uses a non-coding RNA for sequence-specific selection of target and donor DNA molecules. This bridge RNA is programmable, allowing the user to specify any desired genomic target sequence and any donor DNA molecule to be inserted. LINK
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Have some backbone ...The University of Sydney introduces SeekRNA, a gene-editing tool superior to CRISPR
... , offering direct DNA insertion with high precision. This innovation promises significant advancements in genetic engineering by enabling cleaner and more accurate edits, with potential applications across various fields including health and agriculture. ... LINK
Ant doctors ...The extinct sea creature was one of the first animals to have a precursor of a backbone.
An extinct ribbonlike sea creature about the size of a human thumb was one of the earliest animals to evolve a precursor of a backbone. Scientists recently identified the animal’s nerve cord by using a topsy-turvy twist. They turned its fossils upside down. ... Paleontologist Charles Doolittle Wolcott first encountered fossils of Pikaia in the Burgess Shale deposits of British Columbia, dating to 508 million years ago, and described them in a 1911 treatise. The animal measured roughly 1.6 inches (4 centimeters) long on average and had a flattened, sinuous body and a tiny head, tipped with two tentacles and fringed with external gills. These were originally thought to be rudimentary legs, so the animal was positioned with these structures facing downward. ... According to the researchers, earlier anatomical interpretations positioned the animal wrong side up. ... LINK
Old ants ...Carpenter ants amputate the legs of their nestmates to save their lives, study says
Humans aren’t the only ones capable of performing amputations to save lives.
Florida carpenter ants have been observed biting off the injured limbs of nestmates, depending on the location of the wounds, to help their counterparts survive, according to a new study.
About 90% to 95% of the ants receiving amputations make it through the process and continue with their duties within the nest just fine despite losing a leg, researchers found.
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Water-oide ...Scientists stunned to discover oldest inhabited termite mounds have been active for 34,000 years
Scientists in South Africa have been stunned to discover that termite mounds that are still inhabited in an arid region of the country are more than 30,000 years old, meaning they are the oldest known active termite hills. ... Francis said the mounds existed while saber-toothed cats and woolly mammoths roamed other parts of the Earth and large swathes of Europe and Asia were covered in ice. They predate some of the earliest cave paintings in Europe. ... LINK
Hanging on by a thread ...Surprising asteroid sample reveals Bennu may have originated from an ocean world
An early analysis of a sample collected from the asteroid Bennu suggests that the space rock had an unexpectedly water-rich past — and it may have even splintered off from an ancient ocean world. The NASA OSIRIS-REx mission scooped up the 4.3-ounce (121.6-gram) pristine sample from the near-Earth asteroid in 2020 and returned it to Earth last September. ... During a new analysis of the sample, the team discovered that Bennu’s dust is rich in carbon, nitrogen and organic compounds, all of which helped form the solar system. These ingredients are also essential to life as we understand it and could help scientists better understand how Earth-like planets evolve. ... “The presence and state of phosphates, along with other elements and compounds on Bennu, suggest a watery past for the asteroid,” said co-lead study author Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for OSIRIS-REx and regents professor at the University of Arizona, Tucson, in a statement. “Bennu potentially could have once been part of a wetter world. Although, this hypothesis requires further investigation.” LINK
Spinning backwards ... the whole world is kinda backwards ...SCIENTIST WARNS THAT NASA’S VOYAGER PROBES ARE “DODGING BULLETS OUT THERE” - COSMIC RAYS ARE BEATING UP OUR SPACECRAFTS, THE SCIENTIST EXPLAINS
In an interview with Mashable, Alan Cummings, a cosmic ray physicist at NASA and Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who's been on the probes' missions from the very start, explained that Voyagers 1 and 2 are in greater danger than ever now that they've left the Sun's protective bubble.
Webb finds a mysterious web of galaxies ...Earth’s core has slowed so much it’s moving backward, scientists confirm.
... A growing body of evidence suggests the core’s spin has changed dramatically in recent years, but scientists have remained divided over what exactly is happening — and what it means ... LINK
No place to stand ... and the specialness of our little planet ...Scientists Baffled: Webb Uncovers Ancient Galaxies That Defy Explanation
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed mysterious objects in the early universe that challenge current theories of galaxy and supermassive black hole evolution. ... These objects contain old stars and massive black holes, much larger than expected, suggesting a rapid and unconventional form of early galaxy formation. The findings highlight significant discrepancies with existing models, and the objects’ unique properties indicate a complex early cosmic history. LINK
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In the fun house ...Geoscientists Unlock the Mystery: Why We Haven’t Met Aliens Yet
Geoscientists propose that the lack of certain geological features on exoplanets, such as oceans and continents along with sustained plate tectonics, could be why advanced extraterrestrial civilizations are so rare, revising the expectations of the Drake equation. ... LINK
Gassho, JTHE UNIVERSE MAY BE SHAPED LIKE A HALL OF MIRRORS, SCIENTISTS SAY
For decades now, scientists have argued about how the universe is shaped, in the sense of complex parameters that govern the rules of space and time. Is it a simple open expanse, like a bigger version of the spaces we're used to? Does it wrap around on itself like a donut? Or something even stranger?
Now, new research published in the journal Physical Review Letters, in the inaugural paper from a new consortium of cosmologists known as the COMPACT Collaboration, found that the "topology" of the universe — the shape of its geometry, basically — is likely anything but simple.
... The researchers looked at the universe's cosmic microwave background, which is basically the inherent "glow" of space, dating back to ancient radiation at the dawn of time.
While they didn't nail down any one definite topology for the universe, they did find that data on the universe's background radiation doesn't rule out some seriously exotic shapes — and in fact, we might just live in something akin to an infinite hall of mirrors. ... Take the main focus of the paper, a shape known as a "3-torus." As the American Physical Society explained in a summary of the paper, that would be like if there was a cube on which each set of opposing sides were connected — meaning that no matter how large the universe appears, if you peer deep enough into its depths, you'll see the back of your head. ...
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stlahLast edited by Jundo; 07-10-2024, 04:34 AM.Leave a comment:
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About the Amazonian tribes:
Recently, some media vehicles spread fake news about amazonian tribes being addicted in Porn because of the internet and this is not accurate . They are people like us and they like the same things as us. For this reason, when they started to use the internet, also they started to deal with the same problems as our modern society. Nothing in the original source refer anything about amerindians being addicted to adult content.
The only reference about porn was one cacique/morubixaba (chief) that said that some young boys are watching porn. In our society the kids also do this and this do not make all of us addicted, right?
There are many fake news spread everywhere by the media and the brazilian one is really good doing that. They spread any convenient information, sometimes distorted using their influence to affect the society opinion. In this case, the attack focused Elon Musk (owner of Starlink that provide internet to the tribes) after he criticize the Brazilian government.
I am just providing information here. I am not here to judge who is right or wrong and I will not extend this as a political thread. As a student of the way of Buddha I refuse to enter in political discussions or anything that could divide people or the Sangha.
Gassho!
SatLah
Leave a comment:
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About the Amazonian tribes:
Recently, some media vehicles spread fake news about amazonian tribes being addicted in Porn because of the internet and this is not accurate . They are people like us and they like the same things as us. For this reason, when they started to use the internet, also they started to deal with the same problems as our modern society. Nothing in the original source refer anything about amerindians being addicted to adult content.
The only reference about porn was one cacique/morubixaba (chief) that said that some young boys are watching porn. In our society the kids also do this and this do not make all of us addicted, right?
There are many fake news spread everywhere by the media and the brazilian one is really good doing that. They spread any convenient information, sometimes distorted using their influence to affect the society opinion. In this case, the attack focused Elon Musk (owner of Starlink that provide internet to the tribes) after he criticize the Brazilian government.
I am just providing information here. I am not here to judge who is right or wrong and I will not extend this as a political thread. As a student of the way of Buddha I refuse to enter in political discussions or anything that could divide people or the Sangha.
Gassho!
SatLahLast edited by Junsho; 06-18-2024, 09:48 PM.Leave a comment:
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(continued)
A little fern, A LOT of genes ...
The Horsemen ...Unlocking the Genetic Giant: Tiny Fern Has the Largest Genome of Any Organism on Earth
Researchers have identified Tmesipteris oblanceolata, a fern from New Caledonia, as having the largest genome recorded, surpassing the previous record-holder Paris japonica. This discovery, detailed in the iScience journal, reveals that this fern contains over 50 times more DNA than humans and highlights the significant implications larger genomes have on plant biology and adaptation. ...- Stretched out, the Tmesipteris oblanceolata genome is taller than Big Ben’s tower in London
- Discovery poses new questions about just how much DNA can be stored in cells
Oh my, the things we spread ... good and not ...BEWARE THE THREE HORSEMEN OF THE OCEAN APOCALYPSE.
Extreme heat, acidification, and deoxygenation are all fearsome forces on their own. Combine two or more of them, and they can be catastrophic: they cause what's known as column-compound extreme events (CCX), which turn affected areas of the ocean virtually uninhabitable.
The research, which focused on the effects in the upper one thousand feet of the ocean, found that these compound events are growing, and now threaten up to 20 percent of global ocean volume. The waters of the North Pacific and the tropics are the most hard hit, as the only areas faced with full-blown triple CCX — at least so far.
To make matters worse, the events are only getting more extreme, lasting three times longer — up to 30 days — and are six times more intense compared to the 1960s, per the Guardian. And wherever they occur, they can cut down the amount of habitable space by up to 75 percent.
"The impacts of this have already been seen and felt," study lead author Joel Wong, a researcher at ETH Zurich, told the newspaper. "Intense extreme events like these are likely to happen again in the future and will disrupt marine ecosystems and fisheries around the world."
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AI vs Plastic ...REMOTE AMAZON TRIBE FINALLY GETS INTERNET, GETS HOOKED ON PORN AND SOCIAL MEDIA
The New York Times reports on what may sound a bit familiar: young people poring over social media feeds, streaming soccer games, and of course, gossiping over WhatsApp. Evenings are spent lounging around on their phones and playing first-person shooters and other video games.
"When it arrived, everyone was happy," said Tsainama Marubo, 73. "But now, things have gotten worse."
Some of the young men are especially getting a kick out of it. Alfredo Marubo, a leader of an association of the tribe's villages, lamented that the boys, now with their own group chats, were sharing porn and other explicit videos — which is unprecedented in their culture that considers kissing in public taboo.... "Everyone is so connected that sometimes they don't even talk to their own family," he told the NYT.
Tsainama echoed those fears, but was more conflicted. "Young people have gotten lazy because of the internet," she said. "They're learning the ways of the white people. But please don't take our internet away." ... New job opportunities have opened up. Villages can now easily coordinate over group chats, and also reach out to local authorities.
"It's already saved lives," Enoque Marubo, who was one of the first in the tribe to push for an internet connection, told the NYT, such as in the case of venomous snakebites, which need immediate medical treatment.
"The leaders have been clear," he added. "We can't live without the internet."
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Si, si AI ...Scientists used machine learning to discover what they say could be a new way to speed up the process of breaking down plastic significantly
As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Nature, a research team from the University of Texas at Austin modified an enzyme to break down the individual components of polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a commonly used plastic that makes up a staggering 12 percent of global waste.
Impressively, the modified enzyme also reduced the amount of time it takes for the plastic to degrade from months to a just single week.
The process, called depolymerization, has the added benefit of allowing the broken down monomers to be reconstituted back into virgin PET plastic, a potentially revolutionary way of recycling the astronomical amounts of plastic waste we've accumulated.
That all depends, though, on figuring out a reliable and affordable way to scale up and industrialize the process.
LIKE
Part man, part Tardigrade ...Bilingual AI brain implant helps stroke survivor communicate in Spanish and English
The implant uses a form of AI to turn the man's brain activity into sentences, allowing him to participate in a bilingual conversation and "switch between languages."
... Nearly a dozen scientists from the university’s Center for Neural Engineering and Prostheses have worked for several years to design a decoding system that could turn the man's brain activity into sentences in both languages and display them on a screen.
An article published May 20 in Nature Biomedical Engineering outlining their research identifies the man as Pancho. At age 20, he became severely paralyzed as a result of a stroke he had in the early 2000s. Pancho can moan and grunt but can't articulate clear words. He is a native Spanish speaker who learned English as an adult.
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That's using your brains! ...SCIENTISTS SPLICE MATERIAL FROM CREATURE THAT CAN SURVIVE OUTER SPACE INTO HUMAN CELLS
In a new study led by the University of Wyoming, an international team of researchers found that when looking into the incredible durability of the itty bitty tardigrade — known affectionately as the "water bear" or "moss piglet" — proteins from the creature might help slow aging in humans, too. ... "Amazingly, when we introduce these proteins into human cells, they gel and slow down metabolism, just like in tardigrades," Silvia Sanchez-Martinez, a senior research scientist at UW's molecular biology department and the lead author of the study, said in the school's statement. "Just like tardigrades, when you put human cells that have these proteins into biostasis, they become more resistant to stresses, conferring some of the tardigrades' abilities to the human cells." ...
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It seems that they break this record every few weeks now ...SCIENTISTS CONNECT 16 MINI BRAINS MADE OF HUMAN TISSUE TO CREATE A "LIVING COMPUTER"
Switzerland-based startup FinalSpark claims to have built a unique computer processor made from 16 mini brains made from human brain tissue, Tom's Hardware reports — and they are positioning this "living computer" as an alternative to silicon-based computing.
And now, other researchers can remotely access the startup's biocomputer, the Neuroplatform, to conduct studies on, say, artificial intelligence, which typically requires enormous resources.
"One of the biggest advantages of biological computing is that neurons compute information with much less energy than digital computers," FinalSpark scientist and strategic advisor Ewelina Kurtys wrote in a company blog post earlier this month. "It is estimated that living neurons can use over 1 million times less energy than the current digital processors we use."
The startup takes brain organoids, small samples of human brain tissue derived from neural stem cells, and places them in a special environment that keeps these organoids alive. They then hook up these mini brains to specialized electrodes to perform computer processing and digital analog conversions to transform neural activity into digital information.
The concept of living computers has been around for quite some time now. Last year, for instance, scientists hooked up neurons to electrical circuits, resulting in a device that could perform voice recognition.
These unusual machines have some noteworthy advantages over their silicon-based counterparts, including a significantly smaller carbon footprint.
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A topic dear to my heart ... to make it more likely that we will see the future of the universe ...Webb Uncovers Most Distant Known Galaxy – “Most Significant Extragalactic Discovery to Date”
This infrared image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (also called Webb or JWST) was taken by the NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) for the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey, or JADES, program. The NIRCam data was used to determine which galaxies to study further with spectroscopic observations. One such galaxy, JADES-GS-z14-0 (shown in the pullout), was determined to be at a redshift of 14.32 (+0.08/-0.20), making it the current record-holder for the most distant known galaxy. This corresponds to a time less than 300 million years after the Big Bang.
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Gassho, JHow Brain Damage Illuminates the Pathways of Generosity
A study reveals that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) plays a crucial role in our willingness to help others, impacting global challenges and treatments for social disorders. The research showed that damage to this brain region significantly reduces motivation to engage in prosocial behaviors. ... Patients with vmPFC damage were less willing to choose to help others, exerted less force on even after they did decide to help, and earned less money to help others compared to the control groups. ...
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stlahLeave a comment:
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Dark Holes ...
And a lot of early booms ...Scientists may have found an answer to the mystery of dark matter.
... The study, published June 6 in the journal Physical Review Letters, reveals that these black holes must have appeared in the first quintillionth of a second of the big bang: “That is really early, and a lot earlier than the moment when protons and neutrons, the particles everything is made of, were formed,” Alonso-Monsalve said.
...
“You cannot find quarks and gluons alone and free in the universe now, because it is too cold,” Alonso-Monsalve added. “But early in the big bang, when it was very hot, they could be found alone and free. So the primordial black holes formed by absorbing free quarks and gluons.”
Such a formation would make them fundamentally different from the astrophysical black holes that scientists normally observe in the universe, which are the result of collapsing stars. Also, a primordial black hole would be much smaller — only the mass of an asteroid, on average, condensed into the volume of a single atom. But if a sufficient number of these primordial black holes did not evaporate in the early big bang and survived to this day, they could account for all or most dark matter. ... LINK
Like X-Ray vision ...Webb Is a Supernova Discovery Machine: 10x More Supernovae in Early Universe
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is proving to excel as a supernova hunter! Thanks to its extreme infrared sensitivity, Webb is discovering far-off supernovae almost everywhere it looks.A team has identified 10 times more far-off supernovae than were previously known using data from a deep Webb survey of the early universe. This study is the first major step toward more extensive surveys of ancient supernovae with Webb. ... LINK
Complete insertion ...Webb Does the “Impossible” – Space Telescope Captures First Glimpse of an Exoplanet’s Interior
James Webb Space Telescope data reveals WASP-107 b has significantly less methane than expected and a surprisingly large core, providing key insights into its atmospheric chemistry and internal dynamics. ... A giant planet wrapped by a scorching atmosphere as fluffy as cotton, WASP-107 b orbits a star about 200 light-years away. It is puffy because of its build: a Jupiter-sized world with only a tenth of that planet’s mass. ... “Looking into the interior of a planet hundreds of light-years away sounds almost impossible, but when you know the mass, radius, atmospheric composition, and hotness of its interior, you’ve got all the pieces you need to get an idea of what’s inside and how heavy that core is,” said lead author David Sing, a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. “This is now something we can do for lots of different gas planets in various systems.” LINK
Air Drone ...Biomedicine Breakthrough: Complete Gene Insertion Now Possible in Human Cells
Researchers at the Broad Institute have improved gene-editing to efficiently insert entire genes into human cells, offering potential for single-gene therapies for diseases like cystic fibrosis. This method combines prime editing with new enzymes to enhance editing efficiency, potentially revolutionizing gene therapy. ... The new method uses a combination of prime editing, which can directly make a wide range of edits up to about 100 or 200 base pairs, and newly developed recombinase enzymes that efficiently insert large pieces of DNA thousands of base pairs in length at specific sites in the genome. This system, called eePASSIGE, can make gene-sized edits several times more efficiently than other similar methods, and is reported in Nature Biomedical Engineering.[LINK]
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Decoding Disease: UC San Diego’s Leap in Gene Editing
UC San Diego researchers developed new genome editing tools, multiplexed orthogonal base editors (MOBEs), which efficiently install multiple point mutations at once. This tool enhances the understanding and modeling of genetic diseases by allowing for controlled variant installation in the lab, offering a new approach to studying complex diseases. LINK
mAIyor ... It has my vote! ...AI Unleashed: Revolutionizing Autonomous Drone Navigation
A leading-edge project led by University of Missouri researchers aims to equip drones with autonomous visual navigation capabilities, potentially transforming the way drones operate and assist in critical scenarios like natural disasters.
AI algorithms are being developed to allow drones to autonomously navigate and perform complex tasks, especially in GPS-compromised environments, utilizing advancements in sensor technology and high-performance computing. ,... Thanks to smart algorithms powered by artificial intelligence (AI), drones could one day pilot themselves — no humans needed — using visual landmarks to help them navigate from one point to another. LINK
Not the vacuum cleaner ... but in the vacuum of space ...AUTHORITIES INVESTIGATING AI RUNNING FOR MAYOR IN WYOMING
An AI chatbot named VIC, or Virtually Integrated Citizen, is trying to make it onto the ballot in this year's mayoral election for Wyoming's capital city of Cheyenne. But as reported by Wired, Wyoming's secretary of state is battling against VIC's legitimacy as a candidate — and now, an investigation is underway. ... According to Wired, VIC, which was built on OpenAI's GPT-4 and trained on thousands of documents gleaned from Cheyenne council meetings, was created by Cheyenne resident and library worker Victor Miller. Should VIC win, Miller told Wired that he'll serve as the bot's "meat puppet," operating the AI but allowing it to make decisions for the capital city.
And why should VIC run? According to its creator: paperwork!
"My campaign promise," Miller told Wired, "is he's going to do 100 percent of the voting on these big, thick documents that I'm not going to read and that I don't think people in there right now are reading." (Also, VIC is a "he," apparently.)
Unfortunately for the AI and its — his? — meat puppet, however, they've already made some political enemies, most notably Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray. As Gray, who has challenged the legality of the bot, told Wired in a statement, all mayoral candidates need to meet the requirements of a "qualified elector."
This "necessitates being a real person," Gray argues. And VIC, of course, is not a real boy.
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Know your Nova ...‘Dyson spheres’ were theorized as a way to detect alien life. Scientists say they’ve found potential evidence
What would be the ultimate solution to the energy problems of an advanced civilization? Renowned British American physicist Freeman Dyson theorized it would be a shell made up of mirrors or solar panels that completely surrounds a star — harnessing all the energy it produces.
“One should expect that, within a few thousand years of its entering the stage of industrial development, any intelligent species should be found occupying an artificial biosphere which completely surrounds its parent star,” wrote Dyson in a 1960 paper in which he first explained the concept. ... Now, a new study that looked at 5 million stars in the Milky Way galaxy suggests that seven candidates could potentially be hosting Dyson spheres — a finding that’s attracting scrutiny and alternate theories. ... “It’s difficult for us to find an explanation for these sources, because we don’t have enough data to prove what is the real cause of the infrared glow,” he said. “They could be Dyson spheres, because they behave like our models predict, but they could be something else as well.”
Among the natural causes that could explain the infrared glow are an unlucky alignment in the observation, with a galaxy in the background overlapping with the star, planetary collisions creating debris, or the fact that the stars may be young and therefore still surrounded by disks of hot debris from which planets would later form.
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Martian Volc Water ...‘Once-in-a-lifetime’ explosion will bring a new star to the night sky
Astronomers are expecting a “new star” to appear in the night sky anytime between now and September in a celestial event that has been years in the making, according to NASA.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event that will create a lot of new astronomers out there, giving young people a cosmic event they can observe for themselves, ask their own questions, and collect their own data,” said Dr. Rebekah Hounsell, an assistant research scientist specializing in nova events at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in a statement. “It’ll fuel the next generation of scientists.”
The expected brightening event, known as a nova, will occur in the Milky Way’s Corona Borealis, or Northern Crown constellation, which is located between the Boötes and Hercules constellations.
While a supernova is the explosive death of a massive star, a nova refers to the sudden, brief explosion from a collapsed star known as a white dwarf. The dwarf star remains intact, releasing material in a repetitive cycle that can occur for thousands of years.
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Brain Genes ...Water frost detected on Mars volcanoes in ‘unexpected’ first
The deposits are extremely thin — just one-hundredth of a millimeter thick, or one-sixth of a human hair, according to Valantinas — but they are spread over such a large surface area that they amount to a lot of water. “Based on rough estimates, it’s about 150,000 metric tons of water ice, the equivalent of 60 Olympic swimming pools,” he said. LINK
Kidney Stones on Mars ...Researchers have created a detailed catalog of gene-isoform variations in the developing human brain, revealing significant implications for understanding and treating neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.
... Their work has uncovered over 214,000 unique isoforms and highlighted the dynamic changes in isoform expression that occur during brain development. ... New study could improve the ability to make genetic diagnoses and treat neurodevelopmental disorders.- Regulation of isoforms — varied versions of RNA and proteins that can be produced from a single gene — is a critical tool in understanding brain development and genetic risk for neuropsychiatric disorders.
- Using new sequencing technologies, UCLA and University of Pennsylvania researchers uncovered 214,516 unique isoforms in the developing neocortex — over 70% of which have not been previously studied.
- The findings could have far-reaching implications for our understanding of the brain’s maturation and in developing therapeutic trials for individuals harboring rare mutations associated with psychiatric or neurodevelopmental disorders.
Space Map ... don't lose your way ...Could Your Kidneys Handle a Trip to Mars?
A new study highlights how space flight alters kidney function, showing structural changes and potential permanent damage due to microgravity and cosmic radiation. This poses risks for long-term space travel, such as missions to Mars.
The structure and function of the kidneys are altered by space flight, with galactic radiation causing permanent damage that would jeopardize any mission to Mars. This is according to a new study led by researchers from UCL. LINK
Brain Map: Why no Brain GPS?Beyond Einstein: Groundbreaking Map of the Universe Redefines Cosmic Models
The DESI collaboration is conducting a groundbreaking experiment to understand the universe’s expansion and acceleration. Their work with the DESI instrument has enabled them to map the cosmos from its early stages to the present, challenging existing models of the universe. Initial findings suggest there may be more to discover about dark energy and cosmic acceleration. The project’s innovative approach, including a fully blinded analysis, ensures that their conclusions are based on unbiased data, paving the way for future discoveries in astrophysics.
BELOW: DESI has made the largest 3D map of our universe to date. Earth is at the center of this thin slice of the full map. In the magnified section, it is easy to see the underlying structure of matter in our universe.
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A positive achievement ... negative eons ...Pushing the Limits of Neuroscience: BARseq Is Mapping the Brain at a Million-Neuron Scale
Understanding the connections between different brain regions could lead to better treatment options for conditions like Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, and depression. In 2019, a technique known as BARseq was developed to map these connections by identifying brain cells through the genes they express and tracing their neural circuitry. Initially capable of mapping thousands of pathways using RNA “barcodes,” this technique has now been enhanced to map millions of neurons. The research has expanded into the visual cortex, investigating how brain function changes when neural pathways are disrupted, providing deeper insights into brain development and functioning.
BELOW: Left: Each colored dot in this image of the brain’s outer layer, or cortex, is an individual gene. Right: Using BARseq, scientists can see how genes are clustered and identify the corresponding neurons, the larger colored dots seen here. LINK
Hubble Trouble ...CHINESE LANDER INSTRUMENT DETECTS NEGATIVE IONS ON FAR SIDE OF MOON
Within just over 48 hours, China's Chang'e-6 lunar touched down on the far side of the Moon, successfully scooped up samples, and kicked off once again.
... These ions are created when charged particles from the Sun pelt the lunar surface, causing particles there to react and become negatively charged. Here on Earth, the planet's magnetic field stops these particles from ever reaching the surface.
But since the Moon doesn't have a magnetic field, its surface is extremely vulnerable to these charged particles. Unlike positively charged particles, however, they never make it back into orbit, forcing scientists to study them on the surface instead.
Before making its observations, the NILS instrument went through cycles of reboots and blackouts as it adjusted to the extreme conditions on the lunar surface.
Fortunately it prevailed, sending back usable data. The observations could have considerable implications for our understanding of what goes on in other spots in our celestial neighborhood that aren't protected by a magnetic field either.
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It is all connected ...The storied Hubble telescope has gone into ‘safe mode.’ Here’s NASA’s plan to keep it alive
... Over the past six months, one of the three remaining gyroscopes has been returning faulty readings that have caused the telescope to enter “safe mode” multiple times and cease its observations of the universe, Clampin said.
The Hubble team has been able to reset the gyro from the ground, but these fixes have been temporary, and the problem has appeared more frequently, said Patrick Crouse, the Hubble Space Telescope’s project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. ... The team has long considered shifting the telescope to one-gyro mode to prolong its lifespan after developing the plan more than 20 years ago.
“We believe this is our best approach to support Hubble science through this decade and into the next since most of the observations in space will be completely unaffected by this change,” Clampin said. ... he change doesn’t come without limitations, Crouse said.
The telescope will need more time to shift and lock onto the objects it is observing, which reduces its efficiency and flexibility. It also won’t be able to track moving objects that are closer to Earth than Mars, but historically, Hubble has rarely observed such targets, Crouse said.
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TO BE CONTINUED ...Interstellar Intruder: The Cosmic Event That Rewrote Earth’s Climate History
Two million years ago, the solar system encountered a dense interstellar cloud that may have significantly influenced Earth’s climate by compressing the heliosphere and exposing the planet to high levels of cosmic radiation and galactic rays. ... In a new paper published today (June 10) in Nature Astronomy, lead author and astrophysicist Merav Opher—an astronomy professor at Boston University and fellow at Harvard Radcliffe Institute— found evidence that some two million years ago, the solar system encountered an interstellar cloud so dense that it could have interfered with the sun’s solar wind. Opher and her co-authors believe this shows that the sun’s location in space might shape Earth’s history more than previously considered
LINKLast edited by Jundo; 06-18-2024, 10:38 PM.Leave a comment:
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I think I saw this in an old movie ...
PLAN TO TRANSPLANT A HUMAN HEAD FROM ONE BODY TO ANOTHER
Hashem Al-Ghaili, a biologist and filmmaker, presents in the video a gory yet goofy illustration of how the bizarre experiment could be carried out: two identical autonomous robots, each with multiple arms, would simultaneously operate on the healthy brain-dead donor body and the presumably worn-out body that's the source of the head and brain.
Labeling the whole concept under the catchy brand name of "BrainBridge," Al-Ghaili conceives that this process would unfold like an assembly line, with one robot surgically removing the recipient's entire head while the other robot does the same to the donor's. Then a mobile platform would shift the recipient's head to the healthy donor body and suture these two disparate pieces together.
https://futurism.com/neoscope/cgi-tr...uman-head-body
WARNING: THE ABOVE IS LIKELY A HOAX!
Universal glitch ...
Well, maybe they will come right away when you push the button ...A 'cosmic glitch' in gravity: New model may explain strange behavior on a cosmic scale
Einstein's "model of gravity has been essential for everything from theorizing the Big Bang to photographing black holes," said lead author and Waterloo mathematical physics graduate Robin Wen in a statement about the research. "But when we try to understand gravity on a cosmic scale, at the scale of galaxy clusters and beyond, we encounter apparent inconsistencies with the predictions of general relativity."
"It's almost as if gravity itself stops perfectly matching Einstein's theory," he added. "We are calling this inconsistency a 'cosmic glitch': gravity becomes around one percent weaker when dealing with distances in the billions of light years."
https://phys.org/news/2024-05-cosmic...-behavior.html
The AI nurses can treat our wounds from the AI assassins ...NVIDIA ANNOUNCES AI-POWERED "AGENTS" TO REPLACE NURSES IN HOSPITALS
... cost hospitals and other health providers $9 an hour, a fee that barely falls above the US minimum hourly wage, and far below the average hourly wage for registered nurses (RNs.) ... The company also claims that the agents won't be doing any diagnostic work, and will instead be doing "low-risk," "patient-facing" tasks that can take place via video call.
Nvidia showcased what such a call might look like in a demo video in which a very inhuman-feeling AI "nurse" checks in with a post-appendectomy patient, offering aftercare advice and answering questions about whether certain antibiotics are safe for the patient, who says they're allergic to penicillin and diabetic, to take. The exchange goes swimmingly, as controlled, advertised demos generally do. Hippocratic AI also claims that according to its own research, AI agents generally outperform their human counterparts in most categories. ...
Don't assume that AI is not people ... the ugliest side of people...AI experts recommend significant investment in AI risk mitigation and stricter global regulations to prevent misuse and guide AI development safely.
Leading AI scientists warn of the significant risks associated with the rapid development of AI technologies in a Policy Forum. They propose that major technology firms and public funders dedicate at least one-third of their budgets to risk assessment and mitigation. They also advocate for stringent global standards to prevent AI misuse and emphasize the importance of proactive governance to steer AI development towards beneficial outcomes and avoid potential disasters. ... The authors urge major technology companies and public funders to invest more, allocating at least one-third of their budgets to assessing and mitigating these risks. They also call for global legal institutions and governments to enforce standards that prevent AI misuse. ...
... They highlight the race among technology companies worldwide to develop generalist AI systems that may match or exceed human capabilities in many critical domains. However, this rapid advancement also brings about societal-scale risks that could exacerbate social injustices, undermine social stability, and enable large-scale cybercrime, automated warfare, customized mass manipulation, and pervasive surveillance.
Among the highlighted concerns is the potential to lose control over autonomous AI systems, which would make human intervention ineffective. ...
... Large-scale cybercrime, social manipulation, and other harms could escalate rapidly. In open conflict, AI systems could autonomously deploy a variety of weapons, including biological ones. Consequently, there is a very real chance that unchecked AI advancement could culminate in a large-scale loss of life and the biosphere, and the marginalization or extinction of humanity. ...
AI makes better killing machines, and then better heals soldiers ...AFRICAN WORKERS DOING OPENAI'S TRAINING SAY THEY'RE BEING SUBJECTED TO "MODERN DAY SLAVERY"
Low-paid AI workers in Africa who perform AI and social media content moderation work for major Silicon Valley companies like Meta and OpenAI have published an open letter imploring US President Joe Biden to help ensure fair working conditions in a system that the letter's 97 signees say amounts to "modern day slavery," Wired reports. ...
To build AI models, like OpenAI's DALL-E image creator or Meta's "Llama" language model, those companies require a massive — and endless — amount of data, which has generally been acquired by a process of scraping the web. But AI models are what they eat: if you feed them a ton of wretched, unsafe, or low-quality material, their outputs will reflect those undesirable qualities.
That's where these workers come in. Their job is effectively to clean AI training datasets, removing bad or unsafe content and providing labels for text, images, and other inputs. But this job takes a toll; these folks are tasked with constantly consuming the worst aspects of humanity, all to ensure the safety of what those on the other side of the process experience as a human-free tool.
This work is done at an incredibly low wages. Largely based in Kenya, African content moderators are often paid a measly sum of less than two dollars an hour. In the letter, the moderators also say their work has left them with life-altering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); the signees further claim that they "weren't warned about the horrors of the work" before starting. ... "US tech giants export their toughest and most dangerous jobs overseas," the document continues. "Our work involves watching murder and beheadings, child abuse and rape, pornography and bestiality, often for more than 8 hours a day." ...
The Military-AI-Industrial Complex ... 1984 in 2024 ...How AI and bionics are helping Ukrainian soldiers return to action
Since the start of the war, an estimated 20,000 Ukrainians have lost limbs. Such injuries typically end military careers, but advancements in bionics are enabling some veterans to resume what they see as their duty.
“For me, prosthetics were made in such a way that I’m returning back to the army,” Kucherenko told CNN.
Kucherenko was fitted with two bionic hands that are new to the market. The Esper Hand is the first product from Esper Bionics, a Ukrainian-US based company focused on next-generation prosthetics. ...
Chinese war dogs ...‘I’m the new Oppenheimer!’: my soul-destroying day at Palantir’s first-ever AI warfare conference
America’s military-industrial complex took center stage at AI Expo for National Competitiveness, where a fire-breathing panel set the tone
... . The vibe for the expo, according to the Guardian, was quickly set by a panel of speakers that included billionaire former Google CEO and current drone manufacturing hopeful Eric Schmidt, billionaire Palantir cofounder Alex Karp, CIA deputy director David Cohen, and Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.
Much of the panel's conversation reportedly centered on the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine. And Karp — whose company inked its most recent contract with the US Army in March, this one worth a cool $178 million — used the platform to spew his strikingly candid views on the conflict, US war efforts, and, uh, paganism.
Speaking about campus protests, for instance, Karp blamed student backlash against Israel's response in Gaza on "pagan religion infecting our universities" and referred to demonstrations as an "infection inside of our society," according to the Guardian. He chillingly added that a US failure to quell public dissent against a conflict could be chalked up to an ideological failure, declaring that "if we lose the intellectual debate, you will not be able to deploy any armies in the west ever."
"The peace activists are war activists," Karp — who, again, is a military contractor — continued, according to the Guardian. "We are the peace activists."
https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...war-technology
A secure quantum call ... Boston to Boston ...China shows off its robot ‘dogs of war’ in Cambodia
The hardware on show included the so-called “robodogs” — remote-controlled four-legged robots with automatic rifles mounted on their backs.
Handlers kept the dogs of war on the leash, demonstrating only their walking capabilities to watching journalists and top brass — not their shooting skills.
Opening the exercises, Cambodian armed forces commander-in-chief Vong Pisen said that they would “enhance the capabilities” of the two armies in the fight against terrorism. ...
Russian space war ...Harvard Physicists Demonstrate First Metro-Area Quantum Network in Boston
Imagining a quantum internet capable of transmitting hacker-proof information globally through photons superimposed in different quantum states is one thing; demonstrating its feasibility in the real world is quite another.
That’s exactly what Harvard physicists have done. They used existing Boston-area telecommunication fiber in a demonstration of the world’s longest fiber distance between two quantum memory nodes to date. Think of it as a simple, closed internet between points A and B, carrying a signal encoded not by classical bits like the existing internet, but by perfectly secure, individual particles of light. ... The Harvard team established the practical makings of the first quantum internet by entangling two quantum memory nodes separated by an optical fiber link deployed over a roughly 22-mile loop through Cambridge, Somerville, Watertown, and Boston. The two nodes were located a floor apart in Harvard’s Laboratory for Integrated Science and Engineering. ... “Showing that quantum network nodes can be entangled in the real-world environment of a very busy urban area, is an important step towards practical networking between quantum computers,” Lukin said. ,,,
Simpler than the simplest ...US assesses Russia likely launched a counter space weapon last week
... It is not the first time Russia has launched a counter space weapon, which is designed to incapacitate or destroy satellites. But the last time it did so was in 2022, said Wood, who serves as the US alternative representative for Special Political Affairs at the UN....
A colorful brain ...Beyond Hydrogen: Discovery of Tiny New Atom Tauonium With Massive Implications
Recent discoveries in quantum physics have revealed simpler atomic structures than hydrogen, involving pure electromagnetic interactions between particles like electrons and their antiparticles. This advancement has significant implications for our understanding of quantum mechanics and fundamental physics, highlighted by new methods for detecting tauonium, which could revolutionize measurements of particle physics. ...
https://scitechdaily.com/beyond-hydr...-implications/
Big Brain Bringer ...Nanoscale 3D Mapping Reveals Revolutionary Insights Into Brain Structure
Using more than 1.4 petabytes of electron microscopy (EM) imaging data, researchers have generated a nanoscale-resolution reconstruction of a millimeter-scale fragment of human cerebral cortex, providing an unprecedented view into the structural organization of brain tissue at the supracellular, cellular, and subcellular levels. The human brain is a vastly complex organ and, to date, little is known about its cellular microstructure, including the synaptic and neural circuits it supports. Disruption of these circuits is known to play a role in myriad brain disorders.
BELOW: Six layers of excitatory neurons color-coded by depth.
Brain I.D. ...Epiregulin: The Growth Factor Redefining Human Brain Evolution
A new study uncovers that a growth factor, epiregulin, significantly contributes to the expansion of the human neocortex, enhancing our comprehension of what makes humans unique in cognitive functions. ...
https://scitechdaily.com/epiregulin-the-growth-factor-redefining-human-brain-evolution/
Don't panic ...A New Frontier in Neuroscience: Groundbreaking Study Reveals How Our Brains Develop Unique Cellular Identities
A study by the Allen Institute for Brain Science, using an advanced mapping tool called BARseq, revealed that specific combinations of neurons provide distinct identities to brain regions in mice. Sensory experiences, such as vision, are crucial in maintaining these unique cellular signatures, as shown by the significant changes in the visual cortex when sight is deprived. This technique offers a new and efficient way to explore brain organization and the impact of sensory inputs on neural architecture.
https://scitechdaily.com/a-new-front...ar-identities/
This story makes me emotional ...How a Newly Mapped Brain Circuit Could Transform Panic Disorder Treatment
Salk researchers have identified a specific brain circuit outside the amygdala that could lead to new treatments for panic disorder. This circuit involves neurons that communicate via a neuropeptide called PACAP, which, when activated during a panic attack, triggers receptor neurons and produces panic symptoms. This discovery points to PACAP and its receptor as potential targets for future therapeutics, fundamentally different from current treatments that focus on the serotonin system.
Robot on his mind ...Dartmouth Researchers Have Mapped How the Brain Regulates Emotions
A new study by Dartmouth researchers identifies specific brain regions involved in emotion regulation and explores the neurochemical interactions that influence our emotional responses. The findings, which have potential clinical implications, highlight the importance of combining psychological and pharmaceutical approaches in mental health treatments. ... The new study reveals that emotion regulation, also known in neuroscience as “reappraisal,” involves particular areas of the anterior prefrontal cortex and other higher-level cortical hierarchies whose role in emotion regulation had not previously been isolated with this level of precision. These regions are involved in other high-level cognitive functions and are important for abstract thought and long-term representations of the future.
https://scitechdaily.com/dartmouth-r...ates-emotions/
Don't forget ... sleep on it ...FIRST NEURALINK PATIENT WANTS TESLA ROBOT HE CAN CONTROL WITH HIS MIND: "IT WOULD ELIMINATE PROBABLY 90 PERCENT OF THE THINGS THAT I NEED OTHER PEOPLE FOR."
Now that the first Neuralink patient, Noland Arbaugh, is a whiz at playing video games and noodling around his laptop with the power of his new brain implant, he's told Wired he'd like to go one step further and get a Tesla Optimus robot and control it with his mind.
"I think it would be so freakin’ cool if I had a [Tesla] Optimus robot that I could control with it that would do basically everything for me and be a caretaker," Arbaugh, a quadriplegic, told Wired. "It would eliminate probably 90 percent of the things that I need other people for."
Arbaugh would also like a Tesla vehicle that he could connect to via the Neuralink device in his brain and get around town.
"If I could do all that on my own, man, it would change everything," he said.
... The major hiccup that has happened since he got his implant was that some wires inside his brain came loose and his implant stopped working as effectively until Neuralink tweaked the software.
"It seems like the threads have stabilized, and even some that were pulled out of my brain had found their way back in," he said. "I’m not worried about it now."
...
https://futurism.com/neoscope/neural...nt-tesla-robot
I'm trying to learn the guitar ... or my brain is trying ...Unlocking Memory: Neuroscientists Reveal How the Brain Decides What To Remember
Neuroscientists have determined that some daily experiences are transformed into permanent memories during sleep through a process facilitated by the brain. A recent study led by NYU Grossman School of Medicine has identified “sharp wave-ripples” in the hippocampus as the key mechanism that selects which memories to retain permanently. These ripples occur during idle moments and play a crucial role in determining which experiences, followed closely by multiple ripples, are consolidated into long-lasting memories during sleep.
For all our advanced brains, we are pretty dumb ...Rewiring the Brain: How Practice Really Makes Perfect
Practice makes perfect” is no mere cliché, according to a new study from researchers at Rockefeller University and UCLA. Instead, it’s the recipe for mastering a task, because repeating an activity over and over solidifies neural pathways in your brain.
As they describe in Nature, the scientists used a cutting-edge technology developed by Rockefeller’s Alipasha Vaziri to simultaneously observe 73,000 cortical neurons in mice as the animals learned and repeated a given task over two weeks. The study revealed that memory representations transform from unstable to solid in working memory circuits, giving insights into why performance becomes more accurate and automatic following repetitive practice.
https://scitechdaily.com/rewiring-th...makes-perfect/
Shedding light on the sun ...Ocean water is rushing miles underneath the ‘Doomsday Glacier’ with potentially dire impacts on sea level rise
Ocean water is pushing miles beneath Antarctica’s “Doomsday Glacier,” making it more vulnerable to melting than previously thought, according to new research which used radar data from space to perform an X-ray of the crucial glacier.
As the salty, relatively warm ocean water meets the ice, it’s causing “vigorous melting” underneath the glacier and couldmean global sea level rise projections are beingunderestimated, according to the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica — nicknamed the “Doomsday Glacier” because its collapse could cause catastrophic sea level rise — is the world’s widest glacier and roughly the size of Florida. It’s also Antarctica’s most vulnerable and unstable glacier, in large part because the land on which it sits slopes downward, allowing ocean waters to eat away at its ice.
Thwaites, which already contributes 4% to global sea level rise, holds enough ice to raise sea levels by more than 2 feet. But because it also acts as a natural dam to the surrounding ice in West Antarctica, scientists have estimated its complete collapse could ultimately lead to around 10 feet of sea level rise — a catastrophe for the world’s coastal communities.
https://us.cnn.com/2024/05/20/climat...ntl/index.html
What was healthy is unhealthy ... and the unhealthy now healthy???Scientists say they’ve found where the sun’s magnetic field originates
The sun has a powerful magnetic field that creates sunspots on the star’s surface and unleashes solar storms such as the one that bathed much of the planet in beautiful auroras this month.
But exactly how that magnetic field is generated inside the sun is a puzzle that has vexed astronomers for centuries, going back to the time of Italian astronomer Galileo,who made the first observations of sunspots in the early 1600s, and noticed how they varied over time.
Researchers behind an interdisciplinary study have put forth a new theory in a report published Wednesday in the journal Nature. In contrast to previous research that assumed the sun’s magnetic field originates from deep within the celestial body, they suspect the the source is much closer to the surface.
https://us.cnn.com/2024/05/22/world/...scn/index.html
Gassho, JAlarming Study: The Hidden Dangers of Fish Oil Supplements on Heart Health
A comprehensive study published in BMJ Medicine reveals that while regular fish oil supplement usage might increase the risk of heart disease and stroke in individuals with no prior cardiovascular issues, [but] it could also slow disease progression and reduce mortality in those with existing conditions.
New Research Suggests That Eggs Might Not Actually Be Bad for Your Heart
Recent research suggests that eating fortified eggs regularly does not negatively impact cholesterol levels or heart health in high-risk individuals, challenging previous beliefs about the risks of egg consumption.
and
https://scitechdaily.com/new-research-suggests-that-eggs-might-not-actually-be-bad-for-your-heart/
stlahLast edited by Jundo; 05-27-2024, 04:27 PM.Leave a comment:
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PS - By the way, I want to especially highlight this demonstration of the new ChatGpT-4o from all of the above post ... Be sure to watch. If it is not overly rehearsed, quite something ... Showing the new voice, humor and video recognition capability, plus composing songs with another 4o interface ...
Last edited by Jundo; 05-17-2024, 03:36 AM.Leave a comment:
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Google Brain ....
The Fire and the Fury ... we depend on balance in its wrath ...Google and Harvard unveil most detailed ever map of human brain
A collaborative effort between Harvard and Google has led to a breakthrough in brain science, producing an extensive 3D map of a tiny segment of human brain, revealing complex neural interactions and laying the groundwork for mapping an entire mouse brain. ... A cubic millimeter of brain tissue may not sound like much. But considering that tiny square contains 57,000 cells, 230 millimeters of blood vessels, and 150 million synapses, all amounting to 1,400 terabytes of data, Harvard and Google researchers have just accomplished something enormous. ... The latest map in Science contains never-before-seen details of brain structure, including a rare but powerful set of axons connected by up to 50 synapses. ...
BELOW:
... and on the receiving end, here on Earth ...Solar Fury Unleashed: Twin X-Class Flares Light Up the Sky
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured these images of the solar flares — as seen in the bright flashes in the left image (May 8 flare) and the right image (May 7 flare). The image shows a subset of extreme ultraviolet light that highlights the extremely hot material in flares and which is colorized in orange.
Further and earlier ...
Light em up ...MIT Researchers Discover the Universe’s Oldest Stars
MIT astronomers discovered three of the oldest stars in the universe, and they live in our own galactic neighborhood. The stars are in the Milky Way’s “halo” — the cloud of stars that envelopes the main galactic disk — and they appear to have formed between 12 and 13 billion years ago, when the very first galaxies were taking shape. ... The researchers have coined the stars “SASS,” for Small Accreted Stellar System stars, as they believe each star once belonged to its own small, primitive galaxy that was later absorbed by the larger but still growing Milky Way. Today, the three stars are all that are left of their respective galaxies. They circle the outskirts of the Milky Way, where the team suspects there may be more such ancient stellar survivors.
Indra's Net ... jewels reflected within jewels ...Rare Stellar Explosions Shape the Building Blocks of Life
Researchers propose that ONe novae, stellar explosions from white dwarfs rich in oxygen, neon, and magnesium, are significant sources of phosphorus, crucial for life on Earth. This model predicts phosphorus abundance peaked around 8 billion years ago, aligning with the formation of the Solar System ...
Hole in one ...THE UNIVERSE MAY BE SHAPED LIKE A HALL OF MIRRORS, SCIENTISTS SAY
New research published in the journal Physical Review Letters, in the inaugural paper from a new consortium of cosmologists known as the COMPACT Collaboration, found that the "topology" of the universe — the shape of its geometry, basically — is likely anything but simple.
The researchers looked at the universe's cosmic microwave background, which is basically the inherent "glow" of space, dating back to ancient radiation at the dawn of time.
While they didn't nail down any one definite topology for the universe, they did find that data on the universe's background radiation doesn't rule out some seriously exotic shapes — and in fact, we might just live in something akin to an infinite hall of mirrors. ... that would be like if there was a cube on which each set of opposing sides were connected — meaning that no matter how large the universe appears, if you peer deep enough into its depths, you'll see the back of your head.
https://scitechdaily.com/one-nova-to...locks-of-life/
The answer is a vacuum in the vacuum of space??NASA Simulation’s Plunge Into a Black Hole
This new, immersive visualization produced on a NASA supercomputer represents a scenario where a camera — a stand-in for a daring astronaut — enters the event horizon, sealing its fate. Goddard scientists created the visualizations on the Discover supercomputer at the NASA Center for Climate Simulation. The destination is a supermassive black hole with 4.3 million times the mass of our Sun, equivalent to the monster located at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. To simplify the complex calculations, the black hole is not rotating. A flat, swirling cloud of hot, glowing gas called an accretion disk surrounds the black hole and serves as a visual reference during the fall. So do glowing structures called photon rings, which form closer to the black hole from light that has orbited it one or more times. A backdrop of the starry sky as seen from Earth completes the scene.
Putin in Space ...The problem with space junk – and how to solve it
Proponents of a circular space economy advocate for a transformative departure from this wasteful paradigm. Much like embracing reusable materials on Earth, transitioning to a circular space economy means designing space systems with reuse, refurbishment and recyclability in mind. Satellites should be built to have extended lifespans, allowing for upgrades and modifications rather than being discarded after a single mission. ... Rather than leaving defunct satellites to drift aimlessly in orbit or plunge unpredictably to Earth we must adopt controlled reentry procedures. This means purposefully making the satellite burn up in the atmosphere, while at the same time ensuring that the particles produced by this process don’t pollute it. That requires us to utilize research and engineering to determine the best materials and designs for satellites. This would ensure that objects safely burn up, minimizing the risk of debris scattering across our lands and oceans and not polluting the atmosphere in the process. ...
https://us.cnn.com/2024/05/09/opinio...jah/index.html
Life finds a way ,,,A Russian weapon could wipe out US space edge
Early this month, senior US officials publicly shared their startling concern that a Russian anti-satellite weapon could make parts of space critical to American economic and national security unusable for up to a year. ... an adversary could use a weapon that leaves the US military without access to some or all of its space capabilities. Such a loss would be devastating for US national security and, more broadly, our livelihoods. ...
DId we find some?Researchers Discover Life 13 Feet Below Earth’s Most Inhospitable Desert
A study has uncovered microbial life deep under Chile’s Atacama Desert, indicating that similar subsurface environments on Mars could also harbor life, supported by materials like gypsum. ... Higher life forms are almost entirely absent, but the hyper-arid soil, rich in salts and sulfates, does harbor bacteria. ...
But, say the doctors, the cause of death WAS NOT the kidney ...Did the Webb Telescope Find Alien Life on Exoplanet K2-18b?
Recent reports of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope finding signs of life on a distant planet understandably sparked excitement. A new study challenges this finding, but also outlines how the telescope might verify the presence of the life-produced gas. ...
https://scitechdaily.com/did-the-web...-what-we-know/
Baby baby baby ,,,First living recipient of pig kidney dies months after transplant
A 62-year-old man has died months after becoming the world’s first living recipient of a genetically edited pig kidney transplant, hailed as a medical milestone.
Rick Slayman received the kidney at Massachusetts General in March after he had been diagnosed with end-stage kidney disease last year. The hospital emphasized there is no indication his death was a result of the transplant.
https://us.cnn.com/2024/05/12/health/pig-kidney-recipient-transplant-death/index.html
Epic Epigenome Editing ...The Contractile Forces of Life: New Discovery Reshapes Our Understanding of Embryo Formation
A breakthrough study by the Institut Curie reveals that embryonic cell compaction in humans is caused by cell contraction, offering new insights to enhance assisted reproductive technology success rates.
In human development, the compaction of embryonic cells is a vital process in the early stages of an embryo’s formation. Four days post-fertilization, the cells tighten together, helping to form the embryo’s initial structure. If compaction is flawed, it can hinder the development of the essential structure needed for the embryo to attach to the uterus.
BELOW:Human embryo at the 4-cell stage. Cell DNA appears in red and their actin cytoskeleton in blue. The cell on the right has just split its genome into two and is about to divide.
Not yet Geordi from Star Trek ...New Epigenome Editing Platform Enables the Precise Programming of Epigenetic Modifications
In a study published today (May 9) in Nature Genetics, scientists from the Hackett Group at European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Rome have developed a modular epigenome editing platform – a system to program epigenetic modifications at any location in the genome. The system allows scientists to study the impact of each chromatin modification on transcription, the mechanism by which genes are copied into mRNA to drive protein synthesis.
Chromatin modifications are thought to contribute to the regulation of key biological processes such as development, response to environmental signals, and disease. ...
VR clip ons ...New Breakthrough Paves the Way for Vision Implants That Can Restore Sight
Researchers have developed a tiny implant with neuron-sized electrodes that can remain intact in the body, offering potential for future vision implants for the blind. This implant could stimulate the brain’s visual cortex, creating images with numerous electrodes acting as individual pixels. ... [But] This image would not be the world as someone with full vision would be able to see it. The image created by electrical impulses would be like the matrix board on a highway, a dark space, and some spots that would light up depending on the information you are given. The more electrodes that ‘feed’ into it, the better the image would be,” says Maria Asplund, who led the technology development part of the project and is Professor of Bioelectronics at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.
But Neuralink is Neuraloose ...Stanford Scientists Develop Revolutionary AR Headset: Holographic Tech Turns Ordinary Glasses Into 3D Wonderland
Researchers in the innovative field of spatial computing have created a prototype augmented reality headset that projects full-color, 3D dynamic images onto the lenses of what looks like regular glasses. This new model provides a visually immersive 3D experience in a sleek, comfortable design that is easy to wear all day, unlike today’s bulkier augmented reality systems.
“Our headset appears to the outside world just like an everyday pair of glasses, but what the wearer sees through the lenses is an enriched world overlaid with vibrant, full-color 3D computed imagery ... " 41586_2024_7386_Fig1_HTML.webp
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07386-0
Vision, and a voice that is astounding ... WOW! ...Neuralink was forced to admit that wires in the patient's neural implant had become loose
And now Reuters reports, citing unnamed sources at the company, that the startup has known for years that wires in its brain chip are known to "retract" — meaning the Musk's venture knew about the safety issue and forged ahead with the patient's brain surgery anyway.,,, But the US Food and Drug Administration apparently knew about the ongoing wire issues before approving the human trial, Reuters reports, and declined to comment on this recent news. It did tell the news agency that it's observing Neuralink test subjects.
In January, Neuralink disclosed its first human trial and called it a success because its subject, Noland Arbaugh, a 29-year-old quadriplegic, was able to play video games like Mario Kart with his mind using Neuralink's brain-computer interface implanted in his skull. ...
... Neuralink says it compensated for the issue by making the device's algorithms more sensitive. ...
... Hopefully these kinks can get worked out. As seen in Arbaugh's case, the brain chips hold enormous promise for disabled people — but that's obviously not an excuse to scrimp on safety. ...
Keeping up ...
OpenAI's new GPT-40 model will be available to users for free ... users can search for real-time information through conversations with the tool, which has advanced data analysis that allows users to upload information like charts for analysis. ... In one demonstration, the ChatGPT voice assistant was able to read out a bedtime story in different voices, emotions and tones. In another, the ChatGPT voice assistant used its vision capabilities to walk through solving a math equation written on a sheet of paper. ...
DON'T MISS THIS ...
This is no lie ...Google shows off astonishing vision for how AI will work with Gmail, Photos and more
A day after OpenAI impressed with a startlingly improved ChatGPT AI model, Google showed off an equally stunning vision for how AI will improve the products that billions of people use every day. ... ... Google showed how it wants its AI products to become a bigger part of users’ lives, such as by sharing information, interacting with others, finding objects around the house, making schedules, shopping and using an Android device. Google essentially wants its AI to be part of everything you do.
Pichai kicked off the event by highlighting various new features powered by its latest AI model Gemini 1.5 Pro. One new feature, called Ask Photos, allows users to search photos for deeper insights, such as asking when your daughter learned to swim or recall what your license plate number is, by looking through saved pictures.
He also showed how users can ask Gemini 1.5 Pro to summarize all recent emails from your child’s school by analyzing attachments, and summarizing key points and spitting out action items.
Meanwhile, Google executives took turns demonstrating other capabilities, such as how the latest model could “read” a textbook and turn it into a kind of AI lecture featuring natural-sounding teachers that answer questions.
...
Google also showed off Gemini’s latest abilities to take different kinds of input — “multimodal” capabilities to take in text, voice or images — as a direct response to ChatGPT’s efforts. A Google executive also demoed a virtual “teammate” that can help stay on top of to-do lists, organize data and manage workflow.
The company also highlighted search improvements by allowing users to ask more natural or more focused questions, and providing various versions of the responses, such as in-depth or summarized results. It can also make targeted suggestions, such as recommending kid friendly restaurants in certain locations, or note what might be wrong with a gadget, such as a camera, by taking a video of the issue via Google Lens. The goal is to take the legwork out of searching on Google, the company said.
... The company also briefly teased Project Astra, developed by Google’s DeepMind AI lab, whichwill allow AI assistants to help users’ everyday lives by using phone cameras to interpret information about the real world, such as identifying objects and even finding misplaced items. It also hinted at how it would work on augmented reality glasses.
Google said that later this year it will integrate more AI functions into phones. For example, users will be able to drag and drop images created by AI into Google Messages and Gmail and ask questions about YouTube videos and PDFs on an Android device.
And in a move that will likely appeal to many, a new built-in tool for Android will help detect suspicious activity in the middle of a call, such as a scammer trying to imitate a user’s bank.
...
https://us.cnn.com/2024/05/14/tech/g...nce/index.html
And they make things up ...Researchers Warn: AI Systems Have Already Learned How To Deceive Humans
Numerous artificial intelligence (AI) systems, even those designed to be helpful and truthful, have already learned how to deceive humans. In a review article recently published in the journal Patterns, researchers highlight the dangers of AI deception and urge governments to quickly establish robust regulations to mitigate these risks.
“AI developers do not have a confident understanding of what causes undesirable AI behaviors like deception,” says first author Peter S. Park, an AI existential safety postdoctoral fellow at MIT. “But generally speaking, we think AI deception arises because a deception-based strategy turned out to be the best way to perform well at the given AI’s training task. Deception helps them achieve their goals.” ...
But still more honest than many people ...AI-generated "advice" — which is often flawed, sometimes with devastating consequences.
This week, during its splashy I/O conference, the company made yet another blunder. As The Verge reports, the tech giant showed off its Gemini AI offering suggestions for what to do when the lever on a manual film camera isn't moving all the way — except that it made some genuinely horrible suggestions.
Among Gemini's dubious "things you can try," was a highlighted bullet point to "open the back door" of the camera to gently remove the jammed film — which as any film photographer knows, would expose most if not the entire roll, thereby ruining any photos you may have taken so far.
The blunder highlights glaring issues with the current crop of AI tools, which are still prone to confidently misleading users by hallucinating facts or wildly misinterpreting existing information on the web. ...
My kids will never be rid of me ...AI Ethics Surpass Human Judgment in New Moral Turing Test
Recent research indicates that AI is often perceived as more ethical and trustworthy than humans in responding to moral dilemmas, highlighting the potential for AI to pass a moral Turing test and stressing the need for a deeper understanding of AI’s societal role. ... [The] study revealed that when individuals are given two solutions to a moral dilemma, the majority tend to prefer the answer provided by artificial intelligence (AI) over that given by another human. ...
Good robots ...Cambridge Experts Warn: AI “Deadbots” Could Digitally “Haunt” Loved Ones From Beyond the Grave
According to researchers at the University of Cambridge, artificial intelligence that allows users to hold text and voice conversations with lost loved ones runs the risk of causing psychological harm and even digitally “haunting” those left behind without design safety standards.
‘Deadbots’ or ‘Griefbots’ are AI chatbots that simulate the language patterns and personality traits of the dead using the digital footprints they leave behind. Some companies are already offering these services, providing an entirely new type of “postmortem presence.”
AI ethicists from Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence outline three design scenarios for platforms that could emerge as part of the developing “digital afterlife industry,” to show the potential consequences of careless design in an area of AI they describe as “high risk.” .... The research, published in the journal Philosophy and Technology, highlights the potential for companies to use deadbots to surreptitiously advertise products to users in the manner of a departed loved one, or distress children by insisting a dead parent is still “with you.”
When the living sign up to be virtually re-created after they die, resulting chatbots could be used by companies to spam surviving family and friends with unsolicited notifications, reminders and updates about the services they provide – akin to being digitally “stalked by the dead.” ...
SWEEET!Microrobots Swarm the Seas, Capturing Microplastics and Bacteria
Researchers have developed microrobots capable of removing microplastics and bacteria from water, addressing the dual threat of pollution and disease spread in aquatic environments. ... In a study in ACS Nano, researchers describe swarms of microscale robots (microrobots) that captured bits of plastic and bacteria from water. Afterward, the bots were decontaminated and reused. Watch a video of them swarming:
Whale talk ...Cheap Catalyst Made Out of Sugar Has the Power To Destroy CO2
A Northwestern University study introduces a cost-effective catalyst made from molybdenum and table sugar that converts CO2 into carbon monoxide, presenting a viable method to transform captured carbon into useful products like fuel precursors. ,,, “We’re not the first research group to convert CO2 into another product,” said Northwestern’s Omar K. Farha, the study’s senior author. “However, for the process to be truly practical, it necessitates a catalyst that fulfills several crucial criteria: affordability, stability, ease of production, and scalability. Balancing these four elements is key. Fortunately, our material excels in meeting these requirements.
Gassho, JScientists say they’ve discovered a ‘phonetic alphabet’ in whale calls
Scientists have accomplished a whale of a feat. They’ve identified previously unknown complexity in whale communication by analyzing thousands of recorded sequences of sperm whale clicks with artificial intelligence.
Variations in tempo, rhythm and length of the whales’ click sequences, called codas, weave a rich acoustic tapestry. These variables hint that whales can combine click patterns in multiple ways, mixing and matching phrases to convey a broad range of information to one another.
What sperm whales are saying with their clicks remains a mystery to human ears. Still, uncovering the scope of whales’ vocal exchanges is an important step toward linking whale calls to specific messages or social behaviors, the scientists reported May 7 in the journal Nature Communications.
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