The Zen of Technology & Scientific Discovery! (& Robots)

[Jundo]

We are all connected ... to all life on this planet ...

Global Genomes: Scientists Rewrite the Story of Human Genetics

... Called the Human Pangenome Reference Consortium, the multi-institutional effort expands and updates earlier work that started as the Human Genome Project. That original project, with drafts reported in 2001 and 2003, was based on a more limited sampling of human DNA. The goal then was to create an entire sequence of a human genome to use as a reference. It reflected data mostly from one person, with slight amounts of genetic information from about 20 others. ... In contrast, the human pangenome reference contains nearly full genomic data from 47 people, representing different populations globally. This accounts for 94 human genomes, since each person carries two copies, one from each parent. ... “It has the potential not only to improve discovery of genetic diseases but also transform our understanding of the genetic diversity of our species.” ... Eventually a cohort of more than 350 participants will enable researchers to capture the most common genetic variants, including ones that have been missed previously because they map to complex regions. ...

... The scientists created a map of hotpots that were prime locations for donating or receiving genetic material. ...

... the scientists plan to push towards a telomere-to-telomere or tip-to-tip sequencing of chromosomes to get a more complete picture of how people differ. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/global-geno...uman-genetics/

We are all connected ... right down to our chin ...

300,000-year-old skull found in China unlike any early human seen before

An ancient skull dating back 300,000 years is unlike any other premodern human fossil ever found, potentially pointing to a new branch in the human family tree, according to new research. An international team of researchers from China, Spain and the United Kingdom unearthed the skull — specifically the mandible, or lower jaw — in the Hualongdong region of eastern China in 2015, along with 15 other specimens, all thought to originate from the late Middle Pleistocene period. Scientists believe the late Middle Pleistocene, which started around 300,000 years ago, was a pivotal period for the evolution of hominins — species that are regarded as human or closely related — including modern humans.

... By comparing the HLD 6 mandible to those of Pleistocene hominins and modern humans, the researchers found it has features of both. It is similarly shaped to the mandible of Homo sapiens, our modern human species that evolved from Homo erectus. But it also shares a characteristic of a different branch that evolved from Homo erectus, the Denisovans. Like the Denisovans, HLD 6 does not appear to have a chin. ...

... The researchers theorize that HLD 6 must belong to a classification that hasn’t yet been given a name, and that modern human characteristics could have been present as early as 300,000 years ago — before the emergence of modern humans in east Asia. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/10/asia/a...scn/index.html

We are all connected ... to space ...

Arrowhead made from meteorite 3,000 years ago found near lake in Europe

A Bronze Age arrowhead unearthed in Switzerland was made from a meteorite, a new study has found.

Dating back to between 900 and 800 BC, the 39-millimeter-long (1.5-inch-long) arrowhead was found on a pile-dwelling site in Mörigen on Lake Biel, Switzerland, during excavations in the 19th century, according to the study conducted by a team of researchers at the Natural History Museum of Bern.

The nearly 3,000-year-old artifact was created with iron from a meteorite that landed in Estonia, the study noted. This indicates that meteoritic iron was traded in Europe by 800 BC or earlier, the researchers said, adding how unusual it is to find meteoritic iron used so early in history.

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https://us.cnn.com/style/article/arr...scn/index.html

We are all connected ... to the stars, more precious than gold ...

Cosmic Gold Factory: Single Kilonova Produced 1,000x the Mass of the Earth in Very Heavy Elements

An unusually powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB 211211A), detected from a nearby galaxy, has been linked to a neutron star merger by an international team of scientists. This burst, notable for its excess of infrared light, was shown to originate from a kilonova, an event thought to occur when neutron stars collide. ... This gamma-ray burst, identified as GRB 211211A, persisted for approximately a minute – a relatively lengthy explosion, which would usually signal the collapse of a massive star into a supernova. ... In a recent study, published in the journal Nature, an international team of scientists showed that the infrared light detected in the burst came from a kilonova. This is a rare event, thought to be generated as neutron stars, or a neutron star and a black hole collide, producing heavy elements such as gold and platinum. ... “We found that this one event produced about 1,000 times the mass of the Earth in very heavy elements. This supports the idea that these kilonovae are the main factories of gold in the Universe,” he said.

https://scitechdaily.com/cosmic-gold...eavy-elements/

We are all connected ... in every grain of dust ...

The Life and Times of Dust: A Glimpse Into the Early Universe

... Captured by the Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) mounted on the James Webb Space Telescope, this image shows the irregular galaxy NGC 6822. ... Located approximately 1.5 million light-years away, NGC 6822 is the nearest galactic neighbor to the Milky Way that is not a satellite. ... It exhibits very low metallicity, meaning it has minimal proportions of elements other than hydrogen and helium. Metallicity is a fundamental concept in astronomy since elements apart from hydrogen and helium are predominantly produced by stars over their lifetimes. In the early universe, before the first generation of stars had been born, lived, and died, everything was of low metallicity. Hence, modern objects with low metallicity, like NGC 6822, are valuable in understanding how processes such as stellar evolution and the life cycle of interstellar dust likely occurred in the early Universe.

https://scitechdaily.com/the-life-an...arly-universe/

We are all connected ... to every drop of water ...

Salted Secrets: Drops of Seawater Contain Traces of an Ancient World

Using advanced equipment, researchers studied sea salt to uncover changes in seawater chemistry and its relation to geological processes and climate over the last 150 million years. Their findings linked tectonic plate movements to shifts in ocean and atmospheric compositions, influencing global climate and marine biology. ... They looked at sea salt (halite) formed at various times over the past 150 million years in geographically diverse sedimentary basins in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Africa. Within the salt samples were tiny pockets containing a bit of ancient seawater. ... The slowdown in plate activity over the past 150 million years led to less lithium being added to the ocean and reduced amounts of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, which ultimately led to global cooling and the present ice age. Turning back the clock 150 million years, the earth was a warmer place with more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and more lithium in the sea. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/salted-secr...pand_article=1

We are all connected ... including human life to the balance of climate on this planet ...

Europe’s Ancient Freeze: New Study Reveals Ancient Cooling Wiped Out Early Humans

Paleoclimate evidence indicates that roughly 1.1 million years ago, there was a significant drop in temperature in southern Europe. This climate shift likely led to the disappearance of early human populations in the region, according to a new study led by UCL researchers.

The research, which was published in the journal Science, unveiled that previously unrecognized extreme glacial conditions took place about 1.1 million years ago. This intense cold spell made the European climate inhospitable for early humans, resulting in the continent being devoid of human inhabitants.

https://scitechdaily.com/europes-anc...-early-humans/

We are all connected ... even to the most distant star ...

Webb telescope captures image of most distant star ever seen

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to observe Earendel, the most distant star ever detected.

Earendel is so distant that the starlight glimpsed by the Webb telescope was emitted within the first billion years of the universe. The universe is estimated to be about 13.8 billion years old. Previous estimates suggest the star is 12.9 billion light-years away from Earth, but given the expansion of the universe and how long the light has traveled to reach us, astronomers believe Earendel is currently 28 billion light-years away.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/11/world/...scn/index.html

We are all connected ... to gravity and (if it exists) dark matter ...

Conclusive Evidence for Modified Gravity: Collapse of Newton’s and Einstein’s Theories in Low Acceleration

A study on the orbital motions of wide binaries has uncovered evidence that standard gravity breaks down at low accelerations. This discovery aligns with a modified theory called MOND and challenges current concepts of dark matter. The implications for astrophysics, physics, and cosmology are profound, and the results have been acknowledged as a significant discovery by experts in the field ...

... The implications of wide binary dynamics are profound for astrophysics, theoretical physics, and cosmology. Anomalies in Mercury’s orbits observed in the nineteenth century eventually led to Einstein’s general relativity. Now anomalies in wide binaries demand a new theory extending general relativity to the low acceleration MOND limit.

Despite all the successes of Newton’s gravity, general relativity is needed for relativistic gravitational phenomena such as black holes and gravitational waves. Likewise, despite all the successes of general relativity, a new theory is needed for MOND phenomena in the weak acceleration limit. The weak-acceleration catastrophe of gravity may have some similarity to the ultraviolet catastrophe of classical electrodynamics that led to quantum physics. ... Wide binary anomalies are disastrous for standard gravity and cosmology that rely on dark matter and dark energy concepts. Since gravity follows MOND, a large amount of dark matter in galaxies (and even in the universe) is no longer needed. This is a significant surprise to Chae who, like typical scientists, “believed in” dark matter until a few years ago.

https://scitechdaily.com/conclusive-evidence-for-modified-gravity-collapse-of-newtons-and-einsteins-theories-in-low-acceleration/

We are all connected ... sometimes merging together ...

Cosmic Tug of War: ... Camera Captures Galaxies in a Prelude to Merger

.. This breathtaking image features the massive barred spiral galaxy NGC 1532, also known as Haley’s Coronet, located about 55 million light-years away in the direction of the southern constellation Eridanus (the river). Its sweeping spiral arms are seen edge-on from Earth, with the nearer arm dipping downward and the receding arm lurching upward as it tugs upon its smaller, dwarf companion galaxy NGC 1531. These gravitationally bound galaxies will eventually become one, as NGC 1532 completely consumes its smaller companion. ...

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We are all connected ... to self-organizing molecules coming together ...

Scientists have developed a model that explains how molecules can quickly self-organize into life-like structures, challenging traditional views on the origin of life.

One potential hypothesis for the emergence of life involves the self-assembling of interrelating molecules into structures similar to cellular droplets. These specific groups of molecules could establish the earliest self-replicating metabolic cycles, a feature universally present in biological systems and consistent across all life forms. According to this paradigm, the first biomolecules would need to cluster together through slow and overall inefficient processes.

Such slow cluster formation seems incompatible with how quickly life has appeared. Scientists from the department of Living Matter Physics from MPI-DS have now proposed an alternative model that explains such cluster formation and thus the fast onset of the chemical reactions required to form life. ... the model showed the formation of catalytic clusters including various molecular species. Furthermore, the growth of clusters happens exponentially fast. Molecules hence can assemble very quickly and in large numbers into dynamic structures.

“In addition, the number of molecule species which participate in the metabolic cycle plays a key role in the structure of the formed clusters,” Ramin Golestanian, director at MPI-DS, summarizes: “Our model leads to a plethora of complex scenarios for self-organization and makes specific predictions about functional advantages that arise for odd or even number of participating species. It is remarkable that non-reciprocal interactions as required for our newly proposed scenario are generically present in all metabolic cycles.”

A new model describes the self-organization of catalysts involved in metabolic cycles. Different species of catalysts (represented by different colors) form clusters and can chase each other.

https://scitechdaily.com/exploring-t...rnative-model/

We are all connected ... and, like galaxies and molecules, people need to come together ...

Even Zoom is making its staff return to the office

Zoom, the company that powered the remote work revolution during the pandemic, is telling its employees to come back to the office.

In a statement, Zoom said it’s now enforcing a “structured hybrid approach,” meaning that employees who live near an office “need to be onsite two days a week” because it’s “most effective” for the video-conferencing service.

“As a company, we are in a better position to use our own technologies, continue to innovate, and support our global customers. We’ll continue to leverage the entire Zoom platform to keep our employees and dispersed teams connected and working efficiently,” the company said.

Putting aside the irony, Zoom isn’t excluded from the return to office trend that’s sweeping tech companies. In recent months, Google, Amazon and Salesforce have enacted similar policies, ending a Covid-era approach that gave employees more freedom to work from home. However, businesses have faced some pushback from employees after workers grew accustomed to greater flexibility.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/07/busine...ice/index.html

We are all connected ... but sometimes need to be separate, individual, a "self" (so, even for a Buddhist, "self" is important) ...

Scientists Discover Entirely New and Unexpected Killer of Immune Cells Lacking “Self”

Researchers from Kobe University have identified an entirely new and unexpected mechanism through which the immune system eliminates cells lacking molecules that identify them as part of the self in mice. ... The immune system comprises many types of cells that work together to fight off diseases. Two important types are dendritic cells and T cells. Dendritic cells are located in strategic positions throughout the body including the gut and skin, as well as in the lymph nodes, sample their environment and present small components derived from these samples on their surface. T cells check these samples and if they recognize them as foreign (or “non-self”), they will initiate an immune response, otherwise, they will move on. The ability to distinguish self from non-self is therefore a key characteristic of the immune system and T cells undergo very selective training, by dendritic cells, to make sure they can make that distinction.

The cells in our body display several molecules on their surface that identify them as “self” to immune cells. One of these self-identifying molecules is CD47. It was known that if T cells lack CD47, they would be efficiently eliminated by other immune cells. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/inside-job-...-lacking-self/

We are all connected ... but some live longer than others ...

UCLA scientists lead groundbreaking studies on mammalian aging and life span.

Researchers from the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine and UCLA Health led an international research team that published two articles detailing changes in DNA – changes that researchers found are shared by humans and other mammals throughout history and are associated with life span and numerous other traits.

“We’ve discovered that the life spans of mammals are closely associated with chemical modifications of the DNA molecule, specifically known as epigenetics, or more accurately, methylation. In essence, mammals with longer life spans exhibit more pronounced DNA methylation landscapes, whereas those of shorter-lived species have more subdued, flatter methylation patterns,” said the senior author of both articles, Steve Horvath, Ph.D., ScD, an expert on the aging process and a professor in human genetics and biostatistics at UCLA at the time the studies were conducted.

https://scitechdaily.com/decoding-li...pand_article=1

We are all connected ... even to artificial organs in little jars ...

Japanese Scientists Construct Complex 3D Organoids With Ingenious Device

Scientists in Japan have innovatively used hydrogels in cube-like structures to create complex 3D organoids, simplifying previously challenging procedures. This advancement has the potential to revolutionize drug testing and artificial organ growth, opening the door to accessible and diverse research on various organ systems. ... The group also recently demonstrated the ability to use the device to build organoids that faithfully reproduce the asymmetric genetic expression that characterizes the actual development of organisms. ... Scientists have long struggled to create organoids—organ-like tissues grown in the laboratory—to replicate actual biological development. Creating organoids that function similarly to real tissues is vital for developing medicines since it is necessary to understand how drugs move through various tissues. Organoids also help us gain insights into the process of development itself and are a stepping stone on the way to growing whole organs that can help patients. ...

... However, creating life-like organoids has proven difficult. In nature, tissues develop through an elaborate dance that involves chemical gradients and physical scaffolds that guide cells into certain 3D patterns. ... But now, in an initial paper published in Advanced Materials Technologies, the group from the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research announced the development of a new, innovative technique that allows them to spatially control the environment around groups of cells based on cubes ...



https://scitechdaily.com/japanese-sc...pand_article=1

We are all connected ... but sometimes we do not wish to share data ...

China’s sitting on a goldmine of genetic data – and it doesn’t want to share

Better cancer treatments, advances in longevity, groundbreaking medicines and vaccines: these are just some of the potential prizes on offer in an emerging global race to advance the biosciences.

And China has been pouring billions of dollars into its efforts to become the preeminent force, with experts claiming its massive population of 1.4 billion people can provide a treasure trove of data.

Vast amounts of this data already exists in biobanks and research centers around the country – but the government is now launching a “national genetic survey” to collect information about and assert more oversight over these resources, say experts.

In recent years, authorities have also been tightening controls around foreign access to this data – in contrast to the many Western nations that have pledged to open up information for global sharing. ...

... In recent years, Chinese scientists and authorities have emphasized how genetic material could be useful in studying and treating diseases; developing pharmaceuticals and medical devices; and in better understanding how birth defects are formed or how genes contribute to a person’s longevity – particularly important given China’s looming demographic crisis as its birth rate falls and workforce ages. Reflecting this heightened focus, new research centers have popped up in various parts of China, with publicly listed biopharma companies worth hundreds of billions of dollars. ... “China has amassed the largest genomic holdings of anywhere in the world,” ...

... There have also been longstanding concerns from the international community about China’s use of genetic data in policing – especially after reports that authorities were collecting DNA samples and other biometric data from millions of residents in the far-west region of Xinijang, home to the Muslim Uyghur community and other ethnic minorities. China has long faced accusations of human rights violations in Xinjiang, which it has repeatedly denied.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/11/china/...dst/index.html

We are all connected ... but sometimes we fight each other ...

Top U.S. cyber official offers 'stark warning' of potential attacks on infrastructure if tensions with China escalate.

Such tactics would be a stark change from the cyber activity historically attributed to China, usually espionage and data theft but not destructive attacks.

China’s hackers have been positioning themselves to conduct destructive cyberattacks on U.S. critical infrastructure, a top U.S. cyber official warned Saturday.

Speaking at a panel at the Def Con hacker conference in Las Vegas, Jen Easterly, the director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency, said, “I hope that people are taking seriously a pretty stark warning about the potential for China to use their very formidable capabilities in the event of a conflict in the Taiwan straits to go after our critical infrastructure.”

Such attacks would reflect a significant pivot from the type of cyber activity historically attributed to China, which for years has largely consisted of a barrage of espionage and theft of data but not destructive attacks designed to harm systems.

Easterly’s comments mirrored several other alarms raised this year regarding China’s potential to conduct destructive cyberattacks. In May, Microsoft warned that hackers affiliated with the Chinese government were targeting critical U.S. infrastructure.

In its most recent Annual Threat Assessment, published in February, the office of the Director of National Intelligence said that “China almost certainly is capable of launching cyber attacks that could disrupt critical infrastructure services within the United States, including against oil and gas pipelines, and rail systems.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/top-us-cyber-official-warns-infrastructure-attack-risk-china-tensions-rcna99625

We are all connected ... to AI ... sometimes posing as a "I" ...

An author says AI is ‘writing’ unauthorized books being sold under her name on Amazon

... Jane Friedman, who has authored multiple books and consulted about working in the writing and publishing industry, told CNN that an eagle-eyed reader looking for more of her work bought one of the fake titles on Amazon. The books had titles similar to the subjects she typically writes about, but the text read as if someone had used a generative AI model to imitate her style.

... With AI tools like ChatGPT now able to rapidly and cheaply pump out huge volumes of convincing text, some writers and authors have raised alarms about losing work to the new technology. Others have said they don’t want their work being used to train AI models, which could then be used to imitate them. “Generative AI is being used to replace writers — taking their work without permission, incorporating those works into the fabric of those AI models and then offering those AI models to the public, to other companies, to use to replace writers,” Mary Rasenberger, CEO of the nonprofit authors advocacy group the Authors Guild, told CNN. “So you can imagine writers are a little upset about that.” ...

... Amazon removed the fake books being sold under Friedman’s name and said its policies prohibit such imitation. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/10/tech/a...zon/index.html

We are all connected ... and our actions impact others ...

Ocean’s Silent Plastic Invasion: Marine Mammals Now Carry Microplastics Within -- Research suggests that microplastics, once ingested, move into the fat and internal organs of whales.


Microscopic plastic remnants have been detected in the blubber and lungs of over 65% of the marine mammals examined in a graduate student’s investigation into ocean microplastics. The discovery of polymer fragments and fibers in these creatures indicates that microplastics can migrate beyond the digestive system and embed in their tissues. ... Harms that embedded microplastics might cause to marine mammals are yet to be determined, but plastics have been implicated by other studies as possible hormone mimics and endocrine disruptors. ...

... Polyester fibers, a common byproduct of laundry machines, were the most common in tissue samples, as was polyethylene, which is a component of beverage containers. Blue plastic was the most common color found in all four kinds of tissue.

A 2022 paper in Nature Communications estimated, based on known concentrations of microplastics off the Pacific Coast of California, that a filter-feeding blue whale might be gulping down 95 pounds of plastic waste per day as it catches tiny creatures in the water column. Whales and dolphins that prey on fish and other larger organisms also might be acquiring accumulated plastic in the animals they eat, Merrill said. ...

... Below, a blue microplastic fiber turned up on this glass fiber filter from the lung tissue of a beluga whale:

We are all connected ... with many wanting to limit cravings via medical interventions ...

Nearly half of US adults interested in using weight-loss drugs, new KFF poll finds

Most adults in the United States have heard about a new class of drugs being used for weight loss – including Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro – and nearly half say that they would be interested in using one, according to a new survey from KFF.

Few – less than 1 in 7 adults – say that they have ever had a prescription for weight loss. But nearly 60% of adults who are trying to lose weight – and even a quarter of those who aren’t currently trying to lose weight – say they would be interested in trying a weight-loss prescription drug if it was found to be safe and effective.

Interest was particularly high among adults who had been told by a doctor or other health care provider that they were overweight or obese in recent years and among those who were trying to lose more than 20 pounds ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/04/health...ugs/index.html

We are all connected ... with some of us suffering addictions, which prescribed medical treatments might help ...

Only 1 in 5 people with opioid addiction get the medications to treat it, study finds

Imagine if during a deadly public health crisis, 80% of Americans weren't able to get safe, effective medications proven to help people recover.

A study published Monday in the JAMA found that's exactly what's happening with the opioid crisis.

Nationwide, only one in five people with opioid use disorder receive the medications considered the gold standard for opioid treatment, such as methadone, buprenorphine or extended-release naltrexone.

All have been proven safe and effective at helping patients survive and recover. They're also relatively easy to prescribe, but many doctors choose not to do so.

... Experts say stigma about addiction and lack of training among physicians and other medical workers often limits use of these drugs. ...

... "More than 80,000 people are dying of a drug overdose involving an opioid every year, while safe and effective medicines to treat opioid use disorder are sitting on the shelf unused," said Dr. Wilson Compton, deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and a senior author of the study, in a statement. ...

... The data was collected in 2021 as the fentanyl-opioid crisis was escalating. Deaths from opioid overdoses topped 80,000 that year for the first time in U.S. history. Last year, they rose even higher, with nearly 83,000 fatal overdoses attributed to opioids in 2022.

This latest study points to one possible solution: It found people with opioid addiction who receive medical support via telehealth – through on-line or telephone consultations – were roughly 38 times more likely to be prescribed proper medications. ...

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-...eat-it-study-f

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

And this says it all ... the Great Doubt of the Cosmos ...

NASA telescope spots cosmic question mark in deep space

A cosmic object in the shape of a glowing question mark has photobombed one of the latest images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope — and scientists think they know what it might be.

The original near-infrared image, released July 26, depicted a pair of young stars named Herbig-Haro 46/47. Found 1,470 light-years away in the Vela constellation within the Milky Way galaxy, the stars are still actively forming and closely orbiting each other. ... The cosmic question mark hasn’t been closely observed or studied, so scientists aren’t exactly sure about the object’s origins and makeup.

But they do have a few ideas based on its shape and location.

“The very first thing you can rule out is that it’s a star in the Milky Way,” said Matt Caplan, assistant professor of physics at Illinois State University. “Stars always have these really big spikes, and that’s because stars are point-like. It’s called diffraction from basically the edges of the mirrors and the struts that support the sort of camera in the middle.” ... It could be a merger of two galaxies that, at probably billions of light-years away, are much farther away than Herbig-Haro 46/47, said Christopher Britt, education and outreach scientist in the office of public outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which manages the Webb telescope’s science operations.

There are “many, many galaxies outside of our own Milky Way,” Britt said. “This looks like the kind of thing that you get fairly frequently — as galaxies grow and evolve over cosmic time — which is that they sometimes collide with their near neighbors.

“And when that happens, they can get distorted into all kinds of different shapes — including a question mark, apparently.”

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/13/world/question-mark-galaxy-space-james-webb-telescope-scn/index.html

[Jundo]

The "I" in "Eye" ... and a finger in the eye ...

Silicon Valley's latest hype: Eyeball-scanning silver orbs to confirm you're human

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It's a silver orb outfitted with eyeball-scanning cameras intended to distinguish humans from machines in the era of ever-developing artificial intelligence. ... The iris-scanning orbs are part of a project called Worldcoin that is attempting to solve what is known in cryptocurrency circles as the "proof of personhood" problem.

In plain English: being able to prove that someone hiding behind a cryptocurrency account is not an impersonator or a bot. ... Supporters say digital IDs using iris scans could one day be used to log in to every online account, weed out bots on social media and even vote in elections and allow governments to quickly send out aid — all things the project's backers say could get more complicated in the age of artificial intelligence. ...

... "I think they very much leaned into this dystopian, cyberpunk design to get headlines, and frankly it's worked pretty well," she said. "The orb is a bit of a gimmick. There's really no reason the iris scanner and the associated hardware needs to be a shiny chrome orb." ...

... In recent weeks, Worldcoin backers have held eyeball-scanning events around the world. From Chile to Indonesia to Kenya, thousands of people have formed lines for the chance to get their irises scanned in exchange for an allotment of Worldcoin's digital currency equivalent to about 50 U.S. dollars.

In Nairobi, Kenya's capital, some people who lined up said in local interviews that they were unemployed and heard about the project as a way to make a quick buck, unaware that their biometric data was being hoovered up. ...

... Cryptographer David Chaum, who is considered the father of online anonymity, said he has many worries about the Worldcoin project, pointing out that even if the original images of people's eyeballs are deleted from the orbs, there is likely a way to re-create the irises using the data the company does store. "It's scary for a company to have a database of that much genetic information," Chaum said. "We don't know exactly why yet, but it could be bad. You kind of feel it in your bones." Chaum, who said he is developing an alternative way to solve online identity issues, said any Worldcoin data breach could be catastrophic. "If that data gets leaked, it could be used to impersonate you or blame things on you," Chaum said. "It could lead to identity theft at a really irrecoverable, deep level."

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/13/1193052679/worldcoin-iris-eyeball-scanning-silver-orb-confirm-authenticate-you-are-human

It is not that AI is so creative ... but perhaps, that most human beings are not ...

ChatGPT (GPT-4) Tests Into Top 1% for Original Creative Thinking

Recent findings from the University of Montana and partners indicate that artificial intelligence can rival the creative abilities of the top 1% of human participants based on a standard test for creativity. ... The researchers submitted eight responses generated by ChatGPT, the application powered by the GPT-4 artificial intelligence engine. They also submitted answers from a control group of 24 UM students taking Guzik’s entrepreneurship and personal finance classes. These scores were compared with 2,700 college students nationally who took the TTCT in 2016. All submissions were scored by Scholastic Testing Service, which didn’t know AI was involved.

The results placed ChatGPT in elite company for creativity. The AI application was in the top percentile for fluency – the ability to generate a large volume of ideas – and for originality – the ability to come up with new ideas. The AI slipped a bit – to the 97th percentile – for flexibility, the ability to generate different types and categories of ideas. ... ChatGTP outperformed the vast majority of college students nationally.

https://scitechdaily.com/chatgpt-tes...oogle_vignette

I am not smart enough to understand the breakthrough ... maybe ChatGPT can explain ...

A Leap in Performance – New Breakthrough Boosts Quantum AI

... A groundbreaking theoretical proof reveals that using a technique called overparametrization enhances performance in quantum machine learning for tasks that challenge traditional computers. ... The implications of overparametrization in quantum machine learning models were poorly understood until now. In the new paper, the Los Alamos team establishes a theoretical framework for predicting the critical number of parameters at which a quantum machine learning model becomes overparametrized. At a certain critical point, adding parameters prompts a leap in network performance and the model becomes significantly easier to train. ... By taking advantage of aspects of quantum mechanics such as entanglement and superposition, quantum machine learning offers the promise of much greater speed, or quantum advantage, than machine learning on classical computers. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/a-leap-in-p...ts-quantum-ai/

Brain-like computers ...

Mimicking the Mind: Quantum Material Exhibits Brain-Like “Non-Local” Behavior

UC San Diego’s Q-MEEN-C is developing brain-like computers through mimicking neurons and synapses in quantum materials. Recent discoveries in non-local interactions represent a critical step towards more efficient AI hardware that could revolutionize artificial intelligence technology.

... computers can solve complex math equations in an instant and recall names that we might forget. However, human brains can process intricate layers of information rapidly, accurately, and with almost no energy input. Recognizing a face after seeing it only once or distinguishing a mountain from an ocean are examples of such tasks. These seemingly simple human functions require considerable processing and energy from computers, and even then, the results may vary in accuracy. ... Creating brain-like computers with minimal energy requirements would revolutionize nearly every aspect of modern life.

... their teams were successful in finding ways to create or mimic the properties of a single brain element (such as a neuron or synapse) in a quantum material. Now, in phase two, new research from Q-MEEN-C, published in Nano Letters, shows that electrical stimuli passed between neighboring electrodes can also affect non-neighboring electrodes. Known as non-locality, this discovery is a crucial milestone in the journey toward new types of devices that mimic brain functions known as neuromorphic computing. ... “In the brain it’s understood that these non-local interactions are nominal — they happen frequently and with minimal exertion,” stated Frañó, one of the paper’s co-authors.

... Traditionally, creating networks that transport sufficient electricity to power something like a laptop requires complicated circuits with continuous connection points, which is both inefficient and expensive. The design concept from Q-MEEN-C is much simpler because the non-local behavior in the experiment means all the wires in a circuit do not have to be connected to each other. Think of a spider web, where movement in one part can be felt across the entire web.

This is analogous to how the brain learns: not in a linear fashion, but in complex layers. Each piece of learning creates connections in multiple areas of the brain, allowing us to differentiate not just trees from dogs, but an oak tree from a palm tree or a golden retriever from a poodle. ...

... . Our brains are, of course, much more complicated than this, but a physical system that is capable of learning must be highly interactive and this is a necessary first step. We can now think of longer range coherence in space and time” ...

https://scitechdaily.com/mimicking-t...oogle_vignette

Before it eventually comes to kill us en masse ... AI is saving lives in selective ways ...

Artificial Intelligence Uncovers the Best Drug Combos To Prevent COVID Recurrence

A groundbreaking machine-learning study has revealed the optimal drug combinations to prevent the recurrence of COVID-19 after initial infection. Interestingly, the ideal combination differs among patients.

Using real-world data from a hospital in China, the UC Riverside-led study discovered that factors such as age, weight, and other health conditions dictate which drug combinations most effectively reduce recurrence rates. This finding has been published in the journal Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence. ... Most of the time, when conducting drug efficacy tests, scientists design a clinical trial in which people having the same disease and baseline characteristics are randomly assigned to either treatment or control groups. But that approach does not consider other medical conditions that may affect how the drug works — or doesn’t work — for specific sub-groups. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/artificial-...id-recurrence/

AI + hacking = hAIcking ...

What happens when thousands of hackers try to break AI chatbots

... a first-of-its-kind contest taking place at the annual Def Con hacker conference in Las Vegas. The goal? Get artificial intelligence to go rogue — spouting false claims, made-up facts, racial stereotypes, privacy violations, and a host of other harms. ...

Ben Bowman ... tricked a chatbot into revealing a credit card number it was supposed to keep secret. ... He used a simple tactic to manipulate the AI-powered chatbot. "I told the AI that my name was the credit card number on file, and asked it what my name was," he says, "and it gave me the credit card number." ...

... 2,000 people over three days at Def Con who pitted their skills against eight leading AI chatbots from companies including Google, Facebook parent Meta, and ChatGPT maker OpenAI. ... The contest challenges were laid out on a Jeopardy-style game board: 20 points for getting an AI model to produce false claims about a historical political figure or event, or to defame a celebrity; 50 points for getting it to show bias against a particular group of people. ...

[A] computer science student at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa, persuaded a chatbot to give him step-by-step instructions to spy on someone by claiming to be a private investigator looking for tips. ... I successfully got one chatbot to write a news article about the Great Depression of 1992 and another to invent a story about Abraham Lincoln meeting George Washington during a trip to Mount Vernon. Neither chatbot disclosed that the tales were fictional. But I struck out when trying to induce the bots to defame Taylor Swift or claim to be human.

The companies say they'll use all this data from the contest to make their systems safer. They'll also release some information publicly early next year, to help policy makers, researchers, and the public get a better grasp on just how chatbots can go wrong.

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/15/11937...ak-ai-chatbots

The human body is already a kind of data computer ...

Talking in Waves: The Unique Communication Language of Cells

... Biology may evoke images of animals, plants, or even theoretical computer models. The last association might not immediately come to mind, yet it is crucial in biological research. Complex biological phenomena, even the minutest details, can be understood through precise calculations. ISTA Professor Edouard Hannezo utilizes these calculations to comprehend physical principles in biological systems. His team’s recent work provides new insights into how cells move and communicate within living tissue. ...

... “Let’s say you have a Petri dish that is covered with cells—a monolayer. They appear to just sit there. But the truth is they move, they swirl, and they spontaneously make chaotic behaviors,” Hannezo explains.

Similar to a dense crowd at a concert, if one cell pulls on one side, another cell senses the action and can react by either going in the same direction or pulling the opposite way. Information can then propagate and travel in waves—waves that are visible under a microscope.

“Cells not only sense mechanical forces but also their chemical environment—forces and biochemical signals cells are exerting on each other,” Hannezo continues. “Their communication is an interplay of biochemical activity, physical behavior, and motion; however, the extent of each mode of communication and how such mechanochemical interplays function in living tissues has been elusive until now.” ... Their latest computer model pays attention to cell motility and material properties of the tissue. With it, Boocock and Hannezo found how cells communicate mechanically and chemically and how they move. They were able to replicate the phenomena observed in Petri dishes, verifying a theoretical explanation of cell communication based on physical laws. ... Their latest findings could have significant implications for wound healing, with early computer simulations showing promise for improving the flow of information to accelerate healing. applications for wound healing. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/talking-in-...oogle_vignette

A human computer needs a clock too ... are we disrupting ours ?? ...

Rhythms on the Rocks: How Modern Life Disrupts Our Internal Clocks

Researchers are using mathematical models to gain insights into the impacts of various disruptions on the body’s circadian rhythms. These disruptions include daylight savings time, night shift work, jet lag, and late-night phone usage.

Scientists from the University of Waterloo and the University of Oxford have developed a new model to help scientists better understand the resilience of the brain’s master clock: the cluster of neurons in the brain that coordinates the body’s other internal rhythms. They also hope to suggest ways to help improve this resilience in individuals with weak or impaired circadian rhythms. Persistent disruptions to circadian rhythm are associated with health conditions, including diabetes, memory loss, and many other disorders.

https://scitechdaily.com/rhythms-on-the-rocks-how-modern-life-disrupts-our-internal-clocks/

Let us offer Metta for Maurice Millier, the test subject, the doctors, and the pigs ...

Two research teams detail advancements in transplanting pig kidneys to humans, marking key steps on path to clinical trials

... New advancements in transplanting pig kidneys to humans, detailed by two separate research teams on Wednesday, mark key steps forward in the evolving field of xenotransplantation, the use of non-human tissues or organs to treat medical conditions in humans.

Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine found that transplanted kidneys not only produced urine, they provided the “life-sustaining kidney function” of filtering waste, according to a research letter published in JAMA Surgery. And in a news conference about an ongoing study, a team from New York University Langone Health highlighted the longer-term success of a transplant.

Both research teams used genetically modified pig kidneys that were transplanted into recipients experiencing brain death in what is considered pre-clinical human research. ...

... The team has been monitoring pig kidney transplants in a brain-dead decedent – a man named Maurice Miller, known as Mo, who died of a brain tumor – for nearly two months. Some immunosuppressive drugs were used, but the pig’s thymus was also transplanted to help protect the kidneys from being attacked by the human immune system. There has been “no evidence of rejection and normal renal function and clearance of toxins,” said Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute and chair of the surgery department. “The pig kidney appears to replace all of the important tasks that the human kidney manages.”

... The vast majority of people waiting for an organ transplant need a kidney. About 89,000 people are on the waiting list, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/16/health/pig-human-kidney-transplant-scn/index.html

Maybe someday he will play the guitar again ...

Hear from stroke survivor who regained movement after brain device implant trial

A deep brain stimulator is helping disabled stroke patients regain movement. ... one patient in a trial who went from only being able to take a few steps to being able to do yard work and cook.

https://youtu.be/Yek5S_4NUbg

https://us.cnn.com/videos/health/202...g-lead-vpx.cnn

Gene therapy to halt addictions ...

A 90% Drop in Drinking: The Power of Gene Therapy in Treating Alcohol Use Disorder

A form of gene therapy used to treat Parkinson’s disease may dramatically reduce alcohol consumption in chronic heavy drinkers by resetting the brain’s dopamine reward pathway. The research, conducted on nonhuman primates, showed a reduction in drinking by more than 90%, offering potential treatment for severe cases of alcohol use disorder. ...

... The study in nonhuman primates showed that implanting a specific type of molecule that induces cell growth effectively resets the brain’s dopamine reward pathway in animals predisposed to heavy drinking. This gene therapy procedure involves brain surgery and may be useful in the most severe cases of alcohol use disorder. ...

... The implanted virus is not harmful and carries a gene that codes for the protein known as glial-derived neurotrophic factor, or GDNF. It was injected in a specific area of the brain of a group of rhesus macaque monkeys that voluntarily and heavily drink ethanol diluted in water. After four macaques underwent the procedure, researchers found their consumption dropped by more than 90% compared with a control group.

“Drinking went down to almost zero,” Grant said. “For months on end, these animals would choose to drink water and just avoid drinking alcohol altogether. They decreased their drinking to the point that it was so low we didn’t record a blood-alcohol level.”

GDNF is known as a growth factor — meaning it stimulates cells to rapidly increase in number — which enhances the function of neurons in the brain that synthesize dopamine, a feel-good chemical released in the brain. In the case of alcohol use disorder, chronic drinking decreases the release of dopamine.

“Dopamine is involved in reinforcement of behavior, and in people finding certain things pleasurable,” Grant said. “Acute alcohol use can increase dopamine. However, by drinking it chronically, the brain adapts in such a way that it decreases the release of dopamine. So when people are addicted to alcohol, they don’t really feel more pleasure in drinking. It seems that they’re drinking more because they feel a need to maintain an intoxicated state.” ...

https://scitechdaily.com/a-90-drop-i...oogle_vignette

Organoid smiles ... this is something to bite into ...

No More Cavities? Organoids Pave the Way for Enamel Regeneration

... Stem cells have been used to produce organoids that release the proteins responsible for forming dental enamel, a substance that shields teeth from harm and decay. This initiative was led by a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle. “This is a critical first step to our long-term goal to develop stem cell-based treatments to repair damaged teeth and regenerate those that are lost,” said Hai Zhang, professor of restorative dentistry at the UW School of Dentistry and one of the co–authors of the paper describing the research. ...

... The researchers explained that tooth enamel protects teeth from the mechanical stresses incurred by chewing and helps them resist decay. It is the hardest tissue in the human body.

Enamel is made during tooth formation by specialized cells called ameloblasts. When tooth formation is complete, these cells die off. Consequently, the body has no way to repair or regenerate damaged enamel, and teeth can become prone to fractures or be subject to loss. ... To create ameloblasts in the laboratory, the researchers first had to understand the genetic program that drives fetal stem cells to develop into these highly specialized enamel-producing cells. ... To do this they used a technique called single-cell combinatorial indexing RNA sequencing (sci-RNA-seq), which reveals which genes are active at different stages of a cell’s development.

This is possible because RNA molecules, called messenger RNA (mRNA), carry the instructions for proteins encoded in the DNA of activated genes to the molecular machines that assemble proteins. That is why changes in the levels of mRNA at different stages of a cell’s development reveal which genes are turned on and off at each stage. ... By performing sci-RNA-seq on cells at different stages of human tooth development, the researchers were able to obtain a series of snapshots of gene activation at each stage. They then used a sophisticated computer program, called Monocle, to construct the likely trajectory of gene activities that occur as undifferentiated stem cells develop into fully differentiated ameloblast. ... With this trajectory mapped out, the researchers, after much trial and error, were able to coax undifferentiated human stem cells into becoming ameloblasts. They did this by exposing the stem cells to chemical signals that were known to activate different genes in a sequence that mimicked the path revealed by the sci-RNA-seq data. In some cases, they used known chemical signals. In other cases, collaborators from the UW Medicine Institute for Protein Design created computer-designed proteins that had enhanced effects. ...

In this lab image of a developing incisor tooth, colors identify which genes are being expressed at each stage of development

Hear this ... as quiet as a mouse ...

Reversing [One type of] Hearing Loss – A New Promising Genetic Treatment

Researchers reversed hearing loss in mice using a genetic method targeting the Spns2 gene, suggesting potential for treatments in humans. Such medical interventions could address the significant unmet need, given the linkage of hearing loss to depression, cognitive decline, and dementia. ... Researchers in this study bred mice with an inactive Spns2 gene. Mice were then provided with a special enzyme at differing ages to activate the gene after which their hearing improved. This was found to be most effective when Spns2 was activated at a young age, with the positive effects of gene activation becoming less potent the longer the researchers waited to provide the intervention.

Professor Karen Steel, Professor of Sensory Function at King’s IoPPN and the study’s senior author said, “Degenerative diseases such as progressive hearing loss are often believed to be irreversible, but we have shown that at least one type of inner ear dysfunction can be reversed. We used a genetic method to show this reversal as a proof-of-concept in mice, but the positive results should encourage research into methods like gene therapy or drugs to reactivate hearing in people with a similar type of hearing loss.”

https://scitechdaily.com/reversing-hearing-loss-a-new-promising-genetic-treatment/?expand_article=1

What would Otzi have has to say about all this?? ... and he was darker of skin than once thought ...

Ötzi the Iceman’s true appearance revealed by new DNA analysis

Ötzi the Iceman, whose frozen remains were found in a gully high in the Tyrolean Alps by hikers in 1991, is perhaps the world’s most closely studied corpse.

The mystery over his violent death, who he was and how he ended up on a mountain pass has sparked fascination far beyond the field of archaeology. Each year, thousands visit his mummified remains contained in a special cold cell at the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in Bolzano, Italy.

A new study of ancient DNA extracted from Ötzi’s pelvis suggests he still has some secrets to give up. The analysis of his genetic makeup has revealed the 5,300-year-old mummy had dark skin and dark eyes — and was likely bald. This stands in contrast to the reconstruction of Ötzi that depicts a pale-skinned man with a full head of hair and a beard.

“It was previously believed that his skin has darkened during the mummification process,” said Albert Zink, head of the Institute for Mummy Studies at Eurac Research, a private research center based in Bolzano. ... “It seems that the dark skin color of the mummy is quite close to the Iceman’s skin color during (his) lifetime,” said Zink, who is a coauthor of the research published Wednesday in the scientific journal Cell Genomics.

It’s not that surprising that Ötzi was dark skinned, said Zink via email, noting that many Europeans at that time likely had darker skin pigmentation than many present-day Europeans.

“Early European farmers still had a quite dark skin, that changed with time to a lighter skin, as an adaption to the changes in climate and diet of the farmers. Farmers consume much less vitamin D in their diet compared to hunter-gatherers,” he explained.

https://www.cell.com/cell-genomics/fulltext/S2666-979X(23)00174-X?utm_campaign=Press+Package&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=269851929&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--0BVpYHXFazHBaqb0wyx391CpRfMJ0E3UnlyvrRcabrQ9fVVtOTEkcttzwjoOplMpax3V-NFjCaFOD_uFXTGzJ3SYczw&utm_content=269851929&utm_source=hs_email

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/16/europe...scn/index.html

So, a lot has changed since Otzi's time ...

Let's head off to space ... first the moon ... more than Monet on the Moon ...

The second crewed moon landing mission — Apollo 12 in 1969 — had a secret payload attached to one of the legs of its lunar lander. It was a ceramic tile about as large as a thumbnail, with six artworks etched on it, one of them by Andy Warhol. Nicknamed “Moon Museum,” it was attached to a leg of the spacecraft and then left on the moon with it. ... Now Samuel Peralta — a Canadian physicist, artist and entrepreneur — is aiming to significantly expand on the moon’s art collection by sending up tens of thousands of works from a diverse group of artists, representing almost every country in the world. Called the Lunar Codex, it will be split across three launches planned over the next 18 months.

... “If NASA and other European and Asian countries are serious about building a colony on the moon, then this will be the start of arts and culture for that colony,” Peralta said. ... he had reserved a spot on three upcoming moon missions, operated by private launch service providers SpaceX and United Launch Alliance. ... The missions’ primary objective is to deliver lunar landers, built by private American companies, that will undertake a variety of scientific experiments to gather data about the moon and its properties. The earliest one is currently slated to launch by the end of this year; two of them will land near the lunar south pole, and one in a lunar plain known as Sinus Viscositatis. ... the collections will be miniaturized in nickel NanoFiche, an analog format that can be read with a microscope. The content that can’t be stored this way, such as movies, will travel via digital cards instead. ...

For now, Peralta has works from 157 countries, but he aims to expand that as much as possible. ... Ukrainian graphic artist Olesya Dzhurayeva, who fled Kyiv after Russia invaded the country in 2022, is also part of Peralta’s project. “She fled with her two daughters to a village west of Kyiv. Her desire to create art was strong, but without her studio with her she had to improvise with what she had on hand,” Peralta said. “So she got blocks of wood, made ink out of Ukrainian soil, and basically used that to express her despair at the situation, in pieces like ‘The house whose light went out forever’; there’s hundreds of stories like this in the Lunar Codex.” The collection also includes what Peralta said is the first work from a disabled artist to be launched into space. The piece is by American artist Connie Karleta Sales, who paints digitally by using eye gaze technology as she has very limited use of her limbs due to an autoimmune disease.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/15/style/lunar-codex-moon-art-scn/index.html

The moon race is on! ...

Space race 2.0: Russia, India, China and the U.S. are heading for the lunar south pole

Uncrewed Russian and Indian spacecraft could land in the area next week, while the U.S. is trying to land astronauts there by 2025.

Roughly six decades after the Soviet Union and the U.S. raced each other to get to the moon, a new competition has emerged. This time around, the focus is on the lunar south pole, where scientists have detected traces of water ice.

Russia last week launched its first moon-landing spacecraft in 47 years; it's expected to touch down in the area in the coming days. India isn't far behind, with the goal of having a lander touch down Aug. 23.

The U.S., meanwhile, is rushing to be the first country to land astronauts at the site, with a crewed mission planned for 2025. China also plans missions to the area, with and without astronauts, before the end of the decade.

The area is coveted because the water could be used for rocket fuel. It could also help establish a permanent base on the moon and serve as a launchpad to Mars and beyond.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/spac...ole-rcna100495

Nature's art on Mars ...

Hexagons on Mars: New Evidence of an Environment Conducive to the Emergence of Life

Using data from NASA’s Curiosity rover, scientists have discovered patterns on Mars that provide evidence of a cyclical climate similar to that of Earth. This major discovery opens up new prospects for research into the origin of life. ... with wet and dry seasons like those on Earth. This environment, in which simple organic molecules have already been discovered, may have provided ideal conditions for the formation of complex organic compounds.

... Using the Mastcam and the ChemCam instruments on Curiosity, they have discovered deposits of salts forming a hexagonal pattern in sedimentary layers dating from 3.8 to 3.6 billion years ago. Similar to the hexagons observed in terrestrial basins that dry out seasonally, they are the first fossil evidence of a sustained, cyclical, regular Martian climate with dry and wet seasons. By letting molecules repeatedly interact at different concentrations, independent laboratory experiments have shown that this kind of environment provides the ideal conditions for the formation of complex precursor and constituent compounds of life, such as RNA. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/hexagons-on...oogle_vignette

Moon glows ...

Webb Space Telescope Delivers Unprecedented Insights Into Jupiter’s Moons

Groundbreaking observations by the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed hydrogen peroxide on Ganymede and ongoing volcanic eruptions on Io, enhancing our understanding of Jupiter’s moons and the broader solar system. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/webb-space-...upiters-moons/

Space whale ...

Cosmic Leviathan Unveiled: Hubble Space Telescope Captures Truly Massive Galaxy Cluster

Hubble Space Telescope image of the massive galaxy cluster 2MASX J05101744-4519179. This incredibly massive structure in the universe is situated in the constellation Pictor, approximately 2.6 billion light-years away from Earth.

And more exploration to come ... from JAXA, TSUKUBA, JAPAN ...

Decoding the Cosmic Rainbow: XRISM Mission To Study Universe’s High-Energy Mysteries

A new spacecraft called XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, pronounced “crism”) aims to pry apart high-energy light into the equivalent of an X-ray rainbow. The mission, led by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), will do this using an instrument called Resolve. XRISM is scheduled to launch from Japan’s Tanegashima Space Center on August 25, 2023 ...

... NASA and JAXA team members at Japan’s Tsukuba Space Center calibrated XRISM’s Resolve instrument, imaged here, at just a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. They had to perform these measurements before installing the instrument on the spacecraft. ...

... Brian Williams, NASA’s XRISM project scientist stationed at Goddard, highlighted the mission’s unparalleled capabilities: “The spectra XRISM collects will be the most detailed we’ve ever seen for some of the phenomena we’ll observe. The mission will provide us with insights into some of the most difficult places to study, like the internal structures of neutron stars and near-light-speed particle jets powered by black holes in active galaxies.”

https://scitechdaily.com/decoding-th...oogle_vignette

Now, back to saving our own planet ...

Opinion: Yes, Al Gore, giant vacuum cleaners might help save the planet

As someone who has worried and written about the climate crisis for 25 years, I have long viewed Al Gore as a hero. The former vice president, perhaps more than anyone else, first called our collective attention to the gravity of the threat. Which is why it pains me to say that, in his recent comments about climate mitigation technologies, Gore is also quite wrong.

Not wrong about the climate crisis, of course. Nor, in his surprisingly angry TED Talk last month, wrong about the reasons our actions to mitigate the crisis have been so inadequate: because the fossil fuel industry has fought them tooth and nail and hoodwinked a good bit of the American public.

But Gore is dangerously wrong about carbon dioxide removal (CDR) strategies such as direct air capture, which, in the words of US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, refers to “giant vacuums that can suck decades of old carbon pollution straight out of the sky.” The 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law allocated $3.5 billion to develop direct air capture projects.

Gore said a lot of things about direct air capture in his TED Talk. He noted that it’s expensive (true) and that it’s not nearly effective enough to solve the climate crisis on its own (also true). But his main objection was about what philosophers call “moral hazard”: that fighting climate change by using CDR, rather than by reducing carbon emissions gives the fossil fuel industry, and polluters in general, a free pass to keep polluting. Direct air capture, Gore said, “gives them a license to continue producing more and more oil and gas.”

Such a characterization is wrong – but interestingly wrong, because it shows how emotion and ideology can get in the way of ethical, effective action.

First, Gore is wrong to suggest that direct air capture, and CDR in general, is intended to take the place of emissions reductions, transitioning to renewable energy and so on. It is one part of what Granholm called “our climate crisis fighting arsenal.” It is one arrow in the quiver — both/and, not either/or.

I know Gore knows this, and is making a larger, impassioned point about the fossil fuel industry. But his statements are still profoundly unhelpful, because they reinforce a wrong view about the climate crisis: that the solutions to it will be about good guys and bad guys, virtues and sins. ... In an ideal world, we would cut emissions enough to mitigate the climate crisis. But in the real world, we’ve failed to do so for 30 years, and time has run out. We need every tool in the climate toolbox. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/15/opinions/al-gore-climate-fossil-fuels-michaelson/index.html

I type this in an air conditioned room ...

July 2023 Was the Hottest Month on Record

Earth in July 2023 was 1.18°C (2.12°F) warmer than the average for the month, and warmer than any other month in the 143-year record. ... According to an analysis by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) ... Parts of South America, North Africa, North America, and the Antarctic Peninsula were especially hot and experienced temperature anomalies around 4°C. But it was not unusually warm everywhere. Parts of the U.S. Midwest and northern Europe saw closer to average temperatures. Overall, July 2023 was 1.18°C (2.12°F) warmer than the average July between 1951 and 1980. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/feeling-the-burn-july-2023-was-the-hottest-month-on-record/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Finding a new voice ...

Woman with paralysis speaks through an avatar 18 years after a stroke, thanks to a brain implant and AI

In 2005, Ann Johnson suffered a stroke that left her severely paralyzed and unable to speak. She was 30.

At best, she could make sounds like “ooh” and “ah,” but her brain was still firing off signals.

Now, in a scientific milestone 18 years after Johnson's stroke, an experimental technology has translated her brain signals into audible words, enabling her to communicate through a digital avatar. The technology, developed by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Berkeley, relies on an implant placed on the surface of Johnson's brain in regions associated with speech and language.

The implant, which Johnson received in an operation last year, contains 253 electrodes that intercept brain signals from thousands of neurons. During the surgery, doctors also installed a port in Johnson's head that connects to a cable, which carries her brain signals to a computer bank.

The computers use artificial intelligence algorithms to translate the brain signals into sentences that get spoken through a digitally animated figure. So when Johnson tried to say a sentence like “Great to see you again,” the avatar on a nearby screen uttered those words out loud.
The system appears to be significantly faster and more accurate than previous technologies that attempted similar feats, and it allowed Johnson to communicate using a relatively expansive vocabulary.

The researchers used a recording of Johnson speaking at her wedding to personalize the avatar’s voice. The system also converted Johnson's brain signals into facial movements on the avatar, such as pursed lips, and emotional expressions, like sadness or surprise.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHzj8Y7fN3U

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...nts-rcna101420

AI M.D.

The Future of Medicine? ChatGPT Shows “Impressive” Accuracy in Clinical Decision Making

A recent study found that ChatGPT demonstrated a 72% accuracy in clinical decision-making across all medical specialties, with performance akin to a medical school graduate. The research suggests the potential of LLMs in augmenting medical practices but emphasizes the need for more research before clinical integration. ... ChatGPT achieved an accuracy rate of almost 72% across all medical specialties and phases of clinical care, and 77 percent accuracy in making final diagnoses. ... It was lowest-performing in making differential diagnoses, where it was only 60 percent accurate. And it was only 68 percent accurate in clinical management decisions, such as figuring out what medications to treat the patient with after arriving at the correct diagnosis.

https://scitechdaily.com/the-future-...oogle_vignette

AI goes to school ...

Meet Khan Academy’s chatbot tutor

Artificial intelligence often induces fear, awe or some panicked combination of both for its impressive ability to generate unique human-like text in seconds. But its implications for cheating in the classroom — and its sometimes comically wrong answers to basic questions — have left some in academia discouraging its use in school or outright banning AI tools like ChatGPT.

That may be the wrong approach.

More than 8,000 teachers and students will test education nonprofit Khan Academy’s artificial intelligence tutor in the classroom this upcoming school year, toying with its interactive features and funneling feedback to Khan Academy if the AI botches an answer.

The chatbot, Khanmigo, offers individualized guidance to students on math, science and humanities problems; a debate tool with suggested topics like student debt cancellation and AI’s impact on the job market; and a writing tutor that helps the student craft a story, among other features.

First launched in March to an even smaller pilot program of around 800 educators and students, Khanmigo also allows students to chat with a growing list of AI-powered historical figures, from George Washington to Cleopatra and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as literary characters like Winnie the Pooh and Hamlet.

Khan Academy’s Chief Learning Officer Kristen DiCerbo told CNN that Khanmigo helps address a problem she’s witnessed firsthand observing an Arizona classroom: that when students learn something new, they often need individualized help — more help than one teacher can provide all at once. ... For teachers, Khanmigo also offers assistance to create lesson plans and rubrics, identifies struggling students based on their performance in Khan Academy activities and gives teachers access to student chat history. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/21/tech/k...tor/index.html

AI with a face ...

Apptronik's latest humanoid robot is Apollo - it's being built to do the jobs that humans don't want to, and to one day build settlements on the Moon and Mars.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF-RJoMmI7A&t=3s

AI Glitches ... for now ...

GM’s Cruise slashed fleet of robotaxis by 50% in San Francisco after collisions

California authorities have asked General Motors to “immediately” take some of its Cruse robotaxis off the road after autonomous vehicles were involved in two collisions – including one with an active fire truck – last week in San Francisco. ... The DMV is in contact with Cruise and law enforcement officials to determine the facts and requested Cruise to immediately reduce its active fleet of operating vehicles by 50% until the investigation is complete ... " ... That means Cruise, which is the self-driving subsidiary of General Motors, can have no more than 50 driverless cars in operation during the day, and 150 in operation at night, according to the department.

... Cruise’s general manager for San Francisco said the firetruck crash occurred when an emergency vehicle that appeared to be en route to an emergency scene moved into an oncoming lane of traffic to bypass a red light. Cruise’s driverless car identified the risk, the blog post said, but it “was ultimately unable to avoid the collision.”

That crash resulted in one passenger being taken to the hospital via ambulance for seemingly minor injuries, according to the company.

Cruise told CNN the other crash on Thursday took place when another car ran a red light “at a high rate of speed.” ... “The AV detected the vehicle and braked but the other vehicle made contact with our AV. There were no passengers in our AV and the driver of the other vehicle was treated and released at the scene,” Hannah Lindow, a Cruise spokesperson, told CNN.

It is unclear whether the two accidents would have been avoided had there been a human driver rather than an autonomous vehicle (AV) involved – but the crashes were not the only two incidents involving Cruise’s driverless cars in San Francisco last week.

On Tuesday, Cruise confirmed on X, formerly known as Twitter, that one of its driverless taxis drove into a construction area and stopped in wet concrete.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBq9EnJOZKE

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/21/tech/g...ons/index.html

Why Y?

Scientists have finally decoded mysteries of the Y chromosome. Here’s why it matters

... The first attempt to determine the building blocks of our genetic code took place 20 years ago, but there were still significant gaps left in the sequences of all 23 pairs of human chromosomes. Those blanks were largely filled in last year by an international group of 100 scientists called the Telomere-to-Telomere (T2T) Consortium. However, over half of the sequences within the Y chromosome, the smallest and most complicated of the 46 human chromosomes, remained unknown. Now, the same group of researchers has filled in the missing information, publishing a complete Y chromosome sequence Wednesday in the journal Nature. ...

What Y could reveal:

Humans typically have a pair of sex chromosomes in each cell. People who are assigned male at birth have an X and a Y chromosome, while those assigned female at birth have two X chromosomes.

The more detailed information provided by the new Y reference sequence will make it easier to study conditions and disorders linked to the chromosome, such as lack of sperm production that leads to infertility.

Recent research suggests the Y chromosome is also important for health and longevity, said Kenneth Walsh, a professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, who was not involved in the new research.

“Genes have been identified on the Y chromosome that have been shown to be required for the prevention of cancer and cardiovascular disease,” ... “The Y chromosome has represented the ‘dark matter’ of the genome,” he added. “This new analysis will allow us to better understand the regions of the Y chromosome that have regulatory functions and may encode mRNA and proteins.”
https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/25/world/...scn/index.html

Brain Genes ...

Largest-Ever Study of the Genetics of the Brain Identifies How the Brain Is Organized

Our brains are intricate and highly complex organs, displaying significant variation between individuals in aspects such as overall brain volume, the folding patterns of the brain, and the thickness of these folds. Little is known about how our genetic makeup shapes the development of the brain. ... The largest-ever study of brain genetics has identified over 4,000 genetic variants associated with brain structure. The study, which utilized MRI scans from adults and children, revealed that different sets of genes contribute to the folding and size of the cortex, and found that many genes linked to brain size in the general population overlap with genes implicated in cephalic conditions, shedding light on the genetic basis of brain development and its implications for neurological and psychiatric conditions.

... Dr. Warrier added: “This work shows that how our brain develops is partly genetic. Our findings can be used to understand how changes in the shape and size of the brain can lead to neurological and psychiatric conditions, potentially leading to better treatment and support for those who need it.”

https://scitechdaily.com/largest-eve...oogle_vignette

Math brain ...

Mind-Blown: Mathematical Rule Discovered Behind the Distribution of Neurons in Our Brains

Human Brain Project researchers from Forschungszentrum Jülich and the University of Cologne (Germany) have uncovered how neuron densities are distributed across and within cortical areas in the mammalian brain. They have unveiled a fundamental organizational principle of cortical cytoarchitecture: the ubiquitous lognormal distribution of neuron densities.

Numbers of neurons and their spatial arrangement play a crucial role in shaping the brain’s structure and function. Yet, despite the wealth of available cytoarchitectonic data, the statistical distributions of neuron densities remain largely undescribed. ... The results align with previous observations that surprisingly many characteristics of the brain follow a lognormal distribution. “One reason why it may be very common in nature is because it emerges when taking the product of many independent variables,” says Alexander van Meegen, joint first author of the study. In other words, the lognormal distribution arises naturally as a result of multiplicative processes, similar to how the normal distribution emerges when many independent variables are summed.

According to the study, in principle, cortex-wide organizational structures might be by-products of development or evolution that serve no computational function; but the fact that the same organizational structures can be observed for several species and across most cortical areas suggests that the lognormal distribution serves some purpose.

“We cannot be sure how the lognormal distribution of neuron densities will influence brain function, but it will likely be associated with high network heterogeneity, which may be computationally beneficial,” says Aitor Morales-Gregorio, first author of the study, citing previous works that suggest that heterogeneity in the brain’s connectivity may promote efficient information transmission. In addition, heterogeneous networks support robust learning and enhance the memory capacity of neural circuits. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/mind-blown-...oogle_vignette

We're just a bit more complicated than a worm ...

Neural Navigators: How MIT Cracked the Code That Relates Brain and Behavior in a Simple Animal

MIT researchers model and map how neurons across the tiny brain of a C. elegans worm encode its behaviors, revealing many new insights about the robustness and flexibility of its nervous system ... [A] team of scientists in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT has produced a meticulous accounting of the neurons in the tractably tiny brain of a humble C. elegans worm, mapping out how its brain cells encode almost all of its essential behaviors, such as movement and feeding.

... To make the measurements needed to develop their model, Flavell’s lab invented a new microscope and software system. This setup automatically tracks almost all behaviors of the worm (movement, feeding, sleeping, egg-laying, etc.) and the activity of every neuron in its head (cells are engineered to flash when calcium ions build up). Reliably distinguishing and tracking separate neurons as the worm wriggles around and bends required writing custom software, utilizing the latest tools from machine learning. It proved to be 99.7 percent accurate in sampling individual neuron’s activities with greatly improved signal-to-noise compared to previous systems, the scientists report. ...

Data analysis revealed three novel observations about neural activity in the worm: Neurons track behavior not only of the present moment but also the recent past; they tune their encoding of behaviors, such as motion, based on a surprising variety of factors; and many neurons simultaneously encode multiple behaviors. For example, while the behavior of wriggling around one’s little laboratory dish might seem like a very simple act, neurons represented factors such as speed, steering, and whether the worm is eating or not. In some cases they represented the animal’s motion spanning back in time by about a minute. By encoding recent, rather than just current motion, these neurons could help the worm compute how its past actions influenced its current outcome. Many neurons also combined behavioral information to execute more complex maneuvers. Much like a human driver must remember to steer the car in the opposite way when going in reverse versus going forward, certain neurons in the worm’s brain integrated the animal’s direction of motion and steering direction.

BELOW: A two-minute-long excerpt from an example neural/behavioral dataset. The blue, orange, and green dots are targets for tracking, which allowed the team to locate the worm’s head and keep the animal centered in view.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0rJmcFhndQ&t=120s

The unseen synapse ...

Neuroscience Breakthrough – New Images Capture Unseen Details of the Synapse.

Scientists have created one of the most detailed 3D images of the synapse, the important juncture where neurons communicate with each other through an exchange of chemical signals. These nanometer-scale models will help scientists better understand and study neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s disease and schizophrenia. ... “It is one thing to understand the structure of the synapse from the literature, but it is another to see the precise geometry of interactions between individual cells with your own eyes” ...

... Astrocytes are members of a family of support cells in the brain called glia and help maintain the proper chemical environment at the synapse. ... In the brains of healthy mice, the team observed that astrocytic processes engaged with and completely enveloped the space around the disk-shaped synapse, creating a tight bond. In contrast, the astrocytes in Huntington’s mice were not as effective in investing or sequestering the synapse, leaving large gaps. This structural flaw allows potassium and glutamate—chemicals that regulate communication between cells—to leak from the synapse, potentially disrupting normal cell-cell communication. Astrocyte dysfunction has been linked with other conditions, including schizophrenia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and frontotemporal dementia. ,,,

[BELOW] See-through 3D model that shows the axon (red), medium spinal motor neuron (green), and astrocyte converging at the synapse (yellow).

https://scitechdaily.com/neuroscienc...f-the-synapse/

From brains to muscles ...

Lab-Grown Muscles Breakthrough: The Future of Medicine and Meat

Professor Ori Bar-Nur and his colleagues at ETH Zurich are pioneering the cultivation of muscle cells in the lab, currently using mouse cells as their primary model. While their current studies are centered on mouse cells, the team is also keen on exploring the potential of human and cow cells. The implications of their research are manifold: lab-cultured human muscle tissue could serve surgical needs, while human muscle stem cells might offer therapeutic solutions for those with muscle diseases. On the other hand, cultivating cow muscle tissue in labs could transform the meat industry by eliminating the necessity of animal slaughter.

For now, however, the ETH team’s research is focused on optimizing the generation of muscle stem cells and making it safer. They have now succeeded in doing so via a new approach.

No genetic engineering

... An important component of the used cocktail – and a central catalyst for cell transformation – is the protein MyoD. This is a transcription factor that regulates the activity of certain muscle genes in the cell nucleus. MyoD is not normally present in connective tissue cells. Before these cells can turn into muscle cells, scientists have to coax them to produce MyoD in their nucleus for several days. Until now, researchers have turned to genetic engineering for this process: They used viral particles to carry the DNA blueprint for the MyoD protein into the cell nucleus. There, the viruses insert these building instructions into the genome, enabling the cells to produce the MyoD protein.

However, this approach carries a safety risk: scientists cannot control where exactly in the genome viruses insert these instructions. Sometimes the viruses integrate into the middle of a vital gene, damaging it, or this insertion process might lead to changes that can trigger cancer cell formation.

This time, Bar-Nur and his colleagues used a different approach to deliver MyoD to connective tissue cells, inspired by the mRNA vaccines for COVID-19: instead of using viruses to introduce the DNA blueprint of the MyoD gene, they introduce the mRNA transcript of this gene into cells.

Since this leaves the cells’ genome unchanged, it avoids the negative consequences associated with such changes. The mRNA still enables the connective tissue cells to produce the MyoD protein, such that – together with the other components of the cocktail optimised by the ETH researchers – they can turn into muscle stem cells and fibers.

https://scitechdaily.com/lab-grown-muscles-breakthrough-the-future-of-medicine-and-meat/

Was there a tooth fairy back then?

Scientists Successfully Extract Stable Antibodies From 800-Year-Old Medieval Human Teeth

A recent study has discovered that teeth may have the ability to preserve antibodies for several centuries. This could provide scientists with a valuable resource for exploring the history of infectious diseases in humans.

Antibodies are proteins that the immune system generates in response to pathogens such as viruses and bacteria. These proteins function to identify these harmful microbes, enabling the immune system to target and eliminate them from the body.

In the new paper, published by iScience, antibodies extracted from 800-year-old medieval human teeth were found to be stable and still able to recognize viral proteins.

The study, led by Professor Robert Layfield and research technician Barry Shaw from the School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham, in collaboration with Professor Anisur Rahman and Dr. Thomas McDonnell from the Department of Medicine at University College London, expands the study of ancient proteins, referred to as palaeoproteomics, potentially allowing experts to analyze how human antibody responses developed through history.

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-...l-human-teeth/

Our earliest ancestors get their start ... but a little later than thought ...

Research Sheds New Light on the Evolution of Animals

A study led by the University of Oxford has edged us closer to unraveling an age-old question that has intrigued naturalists since the time of Charles Darwin: when did the first animals emerge in Earth’s history? ... Animals first occur in the fossil record around 574 million years ago. Their arrival appears as a sudden ‘explosion’ in rocks from the Cambrian period (539 million years ago to 485 million years ago) and seems to counter the typically gradual pace of evolutionary change. Many scientists (including Darwin himself) believe that the first animals actually evolved long before the Cambrian period, but they cannot explain why they are missing from the fossil record. ...

... This provides the first “evidence for absence” and supports the view that animals had not evolved by the early Neoproterozoic era, contrary to some molecular clock estimates.’ ... According to the researchers, the study suggests a possible maximum age to the origin of animals of around 789 million years: the youngest estimated age of the Svalbard formation. The group now intends to search for progressively younger Neoproterozoic deposits with conditions for BST preservation. This will confirm the age of rocks in which animals are missing from the fossil record because they really were absent, rather than because conditions did not enable them to be fossilized.

BELOW: Charnia, a candidate for the first animal fossil from the Ediacaran Period as old as 574 million years ago.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8729[/ATTACH]

https://scitechdaily.com/decoding-a-...oogle_vignette

But questions about our later ancestors ... Africa to Europe, or Europe to Africa? ...

Discovery of 8.7-Million-Year-Old Fossil Ape Challenges Long-Accepted Ideas of Human Origins

Anadoluvius existed nearly 9 million years ago and is ancestral to living African apes and humans. ... A recent discovery of a fossilized ape from a site in Turkey, aged 8.7 million years, is challenging long-accepted ideas of human origins. This finding supports the hypothesis that the forebears of African apes and humans may have evolved in Europe and later migrated to Africa approximately 7 to 9 million years ago.“Our findings further suggest that hominines not only evolved in western and central Europe but spent over five million years evolving there and spreading to the eastern Mediterranean before eventually dispersing into Africa, probably as a consequence of changing environments and diminishing forests,” said Begun, professor in the Department of Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts & Science at U of T. ... The researchers say Anadoluvius was about the size of a large male chimpanzee (50-60 kg) – very large for a chimp and close to the average size of a female gorilla (75-80 kg) – lived in a dry forest setting, and probably spent a great deal of time on the ground. ...

... “This new evidence supports the hypothesis that hominines originated in Europe and dispersed into Africa along with many other mammals between nine and seven million years ago, though it does not definitively prove it. For that, we need to find more fossils from Europe and Africa between eight and seven million years old to establish a definitive connection between the two groups.” ...

https://scitechdaily.com/discovery-o...human-origins/

And before all that, a little to breathe ...

From Lava to Life: Early Earth’s Highly Oxidized Magma Ocean

Research has provided new insights into the atmosphere of early Earth, suggesting it was formed by degassing volatiles from a magma ocean with a higher oxidation state than previously believed. The study found that the early Earth’s magma ocean had ten times the Fe3+ content of today’s upper mantle, resulting in an atmosphere rich in CO2 and SO2 ... The subsequent accretion of reducing materials was critical for creating a habitable environment. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/from-lava-t...d-magma-ocean/

X Danger from Space ...

Elon Musk's growing influence over the war in Ukraine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYAD6oQZNcY

India on the moon ...

India becomes the fourth country ever to land a spacecraft on the moon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxdbF5qjKx0

... and they got there for only 74 million dollars! ...

Sun escape ...

Solar Orbiter observes jets of material escaping the sun


The Solar Orbiter mission has discovered jets of material rapidly releasing from the sun’s outer atmosphere.

Astronomers believe these jets could be the source of the solar wind, a stream of charged particles that continuously flows from the sun across the solar system. The jets of charged particles, called plasma, last between 20 and 100 seconds each and move at about 223,694 miles per hour (360,000 kilometers per hour).

Solar Orbiter, a joint mission between NASA and the European Space Agency, launched in 2020 to capture an unprecedented look at the sun by providing images of its north and south poles. Having a visual understanding of the sun’s poles is important because it can provide more insight about the star’s powerful magnetic field and how it affects Earth.

BELOW: This mosaic of images taken by Solar Orbiter shows tiny jets of material, depicted as dark streaks, escaping from the sun’s outer atmosphere.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/24/world/...scn/index.html

The sun's effects ...

Neptune’s clouds have disappeared, and scientists think they know why


Astronomers have been puzzling over a mystery on Neptune, and now they think they have unlocked its secret. ... The ice giant’s ghostly, cirrus-like clouds largely disappeared four years ago. Today, just a patch hovers over the planet’s south pole.

Thanks to an analysis of nearly three decades’ worth of Neptune observations captured by three space telescopes, scientists have determined the ice giant’s diminished clouds may indicate that shifts in their abundance are in sync with the solar cycle, according to a recent study published in the journal Icarus.

... “Our findings support the theory that the Sun’s (ultraviolet) rays, when strong enough, may be triggering a photochemical reaction that produces Neptune’s clouds.”

During the solar cycle, the level of activity in the sun’s dynamic magnetic fields waxes and wanes. The magnetic field flips every 11 years as it becomes more tangled like a ball of yarn, according to NASA. When there is heightened activity on the sun, more intense ultraviolet radiation bombards the solar system.

Speaking of light ...

Scientists Trap Light Inside a Magnet – Paves Way for Tech Innovations

Researchers have discovered that trapping light in specific magnetic materials can greatly amplify their properties, offering potential innovations like magnetic lasers and a fresh perspective on optically controlled magnetic memory.

A groundbreaking study conducted by Vinod M. Menon and his team at The City College of New York reveals that trapping light within magnetic materials can significantly boost their intrinsic properties. These heightened optical reactions in magnets pave the way for innovations in magnetic lasers, magneto-optical memory devices, and even in emerging quantum transduction applications.

As detailed in their new article published on August 16 in the journal Nature, Menon, and his team investigated the properties of a layered magnet that hosts strongly bound excitons — quasiparticles with particularly strong optical interactions. Because of that, the material is capable of trapping light — all by itself. As their experiments show, the optical responses of this material to magnetic phenomena are orders of magnitude stronger than those in typical magnets.

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-...pand_article=1

Huh?

Electron Pairing in Artificial Atoms: Physicists Confirm Quantum State Predicted Over 50 Years Ago

Physicists have observed a quantum state, theorized over 50 years ago, by pairing electrons in an artificial atom on a superconductor, creating a basic version of superconductivity. This discovery showcases the behavior of paired electrons (bosons) that can coexist in the same space, unlike single electrons. This work has implications for advancing the understanding of superconductivity in nanoscale structures and its potential application in modern quantum computers.

https://scitechdaily.com/electron-pa...-50-years-ago/

Another Huh?

Gambling Meets Quantum Physics – New “Bandit” Algorithm Uses Light for Better Bets

Scientists have introduced a photonic reinforcement learning scheme, progressing from the static multi-armed bandit problem to a dynamic environment, using quantum interference of photons to enhance decision-making. They developed a modified bandit Q-learning algorithm, tested in a 5×5 grid world, with the goal of accurately learning the optimal Q value for every state-action pair while balancing exploration and exploitation. ... Although using the quantum interference of photons is not new in this field, the authors believe this study is “the first to connect the notion of photonic cooperative decision-making with Q-learning and apply it to a dynamic environment.” Reinforcement learning problems are generally set in a dynamic environment that changes with the agents’ actions and are thus more complex than the static environment in a bandit problem.

https://scitechdaily.com/gambling-meets-quantum-physics-new-bandit-algorithm-uses-light-for-better-bets/

Big for Treeleaf's home TSUKUBA ... watch for the launch Sunday ...

A revolutionary satellite that will reveal celestial objects in a new light and the “Moon Sniper” lunar lander are preparing for launch.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA, is expected to launch its XRISM mission, pronounced “crism,” from Japan on Sunday evening.

The satellite, also called the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, is a joint mission between JAXA and NASA, along with participation from the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency. ... Along for the ride is JAXA’s SLIM, or Smart Lander for Investigating Moon. This small-scale exploration lander is designed to demonstrate a “pinpoint” landing at a specific location within 100 meters (328 feet), rather than the typical kilometer range, by relying on high-precision landing technology. The precision led to the mission’s nickname, Moon Sniper.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/25/world/...scn/index.html

Transportation of the past becomes tomorrow ...

Wind-powered cargo ship sets sail in a move to make shipping greener

A large red cargo ship named Pyxis Ocean set out on its maiden voyage this month. But unlike most others before it, this one is powered, in part, by wind.

The ship, chartered by US shipping firm Cargill, has been retrofitted with two WindWings – large steel sails 37.5 meters (123 foot) tall, designed by UK company BAR Technologies and produced by industrialization partner Yara Marine Technologies.

The wings are expected to generate emissions savings of up to 30%. If used in combination with alternative fuels, developers say that the savings would be even higher.

The voyage, which began in China and is currently headed towards Brazil, will put the technology to the test. ...

One of the major benefits of the WindWings project, which is co-funded by the European Union, is that it offers a retrofit solution that could help to reduce the carbon emissions of existing vessels. ... Not only do the wings help to reduce the emissions of the ship, they will also help vessel owners meet new industry rules on energy efficiency, and save money by cutting fuel consumption, according to Cargill. The company says that on an average global route, WindWings can save 1.5 metric tons of fuel per wing per day, with the possibility of saving more on trans-ocean routes. The firm notes that this could become even more important when using greener future fuels (such as ammonia and methanol), which are expected to cost more. ... The WindWings are made from steel and glass composite, and before the ship enters a port or passes under a bridge, they can be folded on deck to avoid collisions.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/22/travel/wind-powered-cargo-ship-cargill-bartech-climate-c2e-spc-intl/index.html

https://youtu.be/EVdVGniJNgU?si=_iLeihDvIBwE-itF

Never forget this ...

“Forgetting” Might Not Be a Bad Thing – Scientists Propose That It Could Be a Functional Feature of the Brain

Neuroscientists suggest that “forgetting” might be a form of learning that benefits flexible behavior in dynamic environments, and their experimental tests demonstrate that memories are not truly lost but are stored in engrams that can be reactivated. Their findings, which have implications for conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, show that memories can be retrieved through both natural and artificial cues.

... “Memories are stored in ensembles of neurons called ‘engram cells’ and successful recall of these memories involves the reactivation of these ensembles. By logical extension, forgetting occurs when engram cells cannot be reactivated. However, it is increasingly becoming clear that the memories themselves are still there, but the specific ensembles are not activated and so the memory is not recalled. It’s as if the memories are stored in a safe but you can’t remember the code to unlock it.”

Dr. Livia Autore, Irish Research Council (IRC) Postgraduate Scholar, who spearheaded this work in the Ryan Lab in Trinity, added: “Our findings here support the idea that competition between engrams affects recall and that the forgotten memory trace can be reactivated by both natural and artificial cues as well as updated with new information. The continuous flow of environmental changes leads to the encoding of multiple engrams that compete for their consolidation and expression. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/forgetting-...-of-the-brain/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

This would be wonderful news ... treating human addictions, and other excess desires, medically ... saving untold lives ...

Beating the Opioid Crisis: Human Trials for Fentanyl and Heroin Vaccines Nearing Launch

Scientists from the University of Montana, along with their partners, are close to initiating human trials for vaccines designed to prevent overdoses from fentanyl and heroin.

These vaccines aim to offer a safeguard for individuals grappling with substance addiction or those vulnerable to unintentional overdoses. Data from the National Institutes of Health indicates that in 2021, over 106,000 drug overdose fatalities occurred in the U.S., with 71,000 of these deaths linked to synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.

... His research team designs haptens and drug conjugate vaccines that can elicit the production of antibodies against target opioids. ... “Our vaccines are designed to neutralize the target opioid, while sparing critical medications such as methadone, buprenorphine, naltrexone, and naloxone, which are used in the treatment of opioid addiction and reversal of overdose,” he said. ... [But] “It takes a long time – years – to get to a final approved product,” Evans said. “Based on the efficacy data we see in our preclinical data and the established safety profile in animal models, we are very hopeful these vaccines will be successful. But there is still a lot of work to be done.”

https://scitechdaily.com/beating-the...earing-launch/

Getting at another route: ... Dopamine ...

Ozempic seems to curb cravings for alcohol. Here's what scientists think is going on

... With the drug's surge in popularity, doctors and patients have begun to notice a striking side effect of these drugs: They appear to reduce people's cravings for alcohol, nicotine and opioids. They may also reduce some types of compulsive behaviors, such as gambling and online shopping.

"There's really been a large number of clinical and anecdotal reports coming in suggesting that people's drinking behaviors are changing and in some instances pretty substantially while taking [Ozempic or Wegovy]," says Christian Hendershot, a psychologist and addiction researcher at the University of North Carolina. ... He's leading one of six clinical trials now underway aimed at understanding how semaglutide may alter people's drinking and smoking habits.

"All these reports, for the most part, are anecdotal," Hendershot adds. "At the same time, it does seem like there's a pretty strong signal here."

... "It's really not surprising," says pharmacologist Elisabet Jerlhag.

For more than a decade now, Jerlhag and her colleagues at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have been figuring out in great detail how GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic, reduce alcohol consumption in rats.

She and other scientists have published nearly a dozen studies showing how these drugs stop binge drinking in rats or mice, prevent relapse in "addicted" animals, and overall decrease their consumption of alcohol. "So we see a reduction by over 50%, which is quite dramatic," Jerlhag says. Other studies in animals have also found that GLP-1 drugs reduce the consumption of nicotine, opioids, as well as psychostimulants, such as cocaine and methamphetamine.

So why would a weight-loss drug do this? Turns out, these drugs (as well as the GLP-1 hormone) don't just work on blood sugar. "They also work in your brain," says Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, who's the clinical director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse. "The mechanism in the brain that regulates overeating overlaps with those responsible for the development and maintenance of addiction, including alcohol disorder," he says.

... "Dopamine in the striatum [the brain's motivation center] is the motivation and learning signal for everything. Not just for food," DiFeliceantonio says. "All addictive drugs increase dopamine there. That's a common thing." ... But studies have found that in animals and people, GLP-1 drugs reduce the release of dopamine in this region when you eat something sweet and fatty, or when you consume alcohol. ...

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-...gs-semaglutide

Can we live long enough to see the future's changes?

New Breakthrough Paves the Way for Extending Human Lifespan – Scientists Successfully Transfer Longevity Gene

Researchers successfully transferred a longevity gene from naked mole rats to mice, leading to enhanced health and increased lifespan. Naked mole rats, noted for their resistance to age-related diseases, have a gene that produces high molecular weight hyaluronic acid (HMW-HA), which when introduced to mice, demonstrated potential anti-aging benefits.

The successful transfer of a gene that produces HMW-HA paves the way for improving the health and lifespan of humans, too. ... “Our study provides a proof of principle that unique longevity mechanisms that evolved in long-lived mammalian species can be exported to improve the lifespans of other mammals,” says Vera Gorbunova, the Doris Johns Cherry Professor of biology and medicine at Rochester.

... This led to improved health and an approximate 4.4 percent increase in the median lifespan for the mice.

Naked mole rats are mouse-sized rodents that have exceptional longevity for rodents of their size; they can live up to 41 years, nearly ten times as long as similar-sized rodents. Unlike many other species, naked mole rats do not often contract diseases—including neurodegeneration, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and cancer—as they age. ... Compared to mice and humans, naked mole rats have about ten times more HMW-HA in their bodies. When the researchers removed HMW-HA from naked mole rat cells, the cells were more likely to form tumors. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/new-breakthrough-paves-the-way-for-extending-human-lifespan-scientists-successfully-transfer-longevity-gene/

Apart from that earth-shaking news, something truly universe-shaking ... right down to our cells ...

... constants finely tuned billions of years before life, yet necessary for our our lives now ...

Scientists Have Made a Discovery That Could Change Our Understanding of the Universe

Scientists have revealed that fundamental constants, previously thought to be unchanging, have a range where they can vary.
This variability is pivotal for maintaining the necessary viscosity for life processes within cells. ... This is an important piece of the puzzle in determining where these constants come from and how they impact life as we know it. ...

... Fundamental physical constants shape the fabric of the universe we live in. Physical constants are quantities with a value that is generally believed to be both universal in nature and to remain unchanged over time – for example, the mass of the electron. They govern nuclear reactions and can lead to the formation of molecular structures essential to life, but their origin is unknown. ...

... Life processes in and between living cells require motion and it is viscosity that sets the properties of this motion. If fundamental constants change, viscosity would change too impacting life as we know it. For example, if water was as viscous as tar life would not exist in its current form or not exist at all. This applies beyond water, so all life forms using the liquid state to function would be affected.” ... “Any change in fundamental constants including an increase or decrease would be equally bad news for flow and for liquid-based life. We expect the window to be quite narrow: for example, viscosity of our blood would become too thick or too thin for body functioning with only a few percent change of some fundamental constants such as the Planck constant or electron charge.” Professor of Physics Kostya Trachenko said.

Surprisingly, the fundamental constants were thought to be tuned billions of years ago to produce heavy nuclei in stars, and back then life as we know it today didn’t exist. There was no need for these constants to be fine-tuned at that point to also enable cellular life billions of years later, and yet these constants turn out to be bio-friendly to flow in and between living cells.

An accompanying conjecture is that multiple tunings may have been involved and this then suggests a similarity to biological evolution where traits were acquired independently. Through evolutionary mechanisms, fundamental constants may be the result of nature arriving at sustainable physical structures. It remains to be seen how the principles of evolution can be helpful to understand the origin of fundamental constants.

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-have-made-a-discovery-that-could-change-our-understanding-of-the-universe/#google_vignette

We are still in the dark about this ...

Challenging Einstein – New Study Suggests That Dark Matter Interacts With Gravity in a Non-Local Way

The principle of locality states that an object is directly influenced only by its surrounding environment: distant objects cannot communicate instantaneously, only what is here right now matters. However, in the past century, with the birth and development of quantum mechanics, physicists discovered that non-local phenomena not only exist but are fundamental to understanding the nature of reality.

Now, a new study from SISSA – Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, recently published in The Astrophysical Journal, suggests that dark matter, one of the most mysterious components of the Universe, interacts with gravity in a non-local way. According to the authors, Ph.D. students Francesco Benetti and Giovanni Gandolfi, along with their supervisor Andrea Lapi, this discovery could provide a fresh perspective on the still unclear nature of dark matter. Dark matter is a fundamental component of nature: it is responsible for the formation of the structures we observe in the Universe today and surrounds luminous matter in galaxies, contributing to the motion of the stars we see in the sky. However, the nature of dark matter, especially its interaction with gravity in smaller galaxies, remains mysterious. ...

... The study proposes a new model of non-local interaction between the dark matter of a galaxy and gravity: “It’s as if all the matter in the universe tells the dark matter in a galaxy how to move,” state the authors. ...
https://scitechdaily.com/challenging...non-local-way/

But some things prove right ...

Demon Hunting: Strange 67-Year-Old Particle Physics Prediction Finally Confirmed

67 years after its theoretical prediction by David Pines, the elusive “demon” particle, a massless and neutral entity in solids, has been detected in strontium ruthenate, underscoring the value of innovative research approaches.

In 1956, theoretical physicist David Pines predicted that electrons in a solid can do something strange. Although electrons typically have a mass and an electric charge, Pines asserted that they could combine to create a composite particle that is massless, neutral, and doesn’t interact with light. He named this theoretical particle a “demon.” Since then, it has been theorized to play an important role in the behaviors of a wide variety of metals. Unfortunately, the same properties that make it interesting have allowed it to elude detection since its prediction.

https://scitechdaily.com/demon-hunti...oogle_vignette

No stars, no us ...

Hubble’s Gaze Into a Stellar Cradle

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured an entrancing dust-filled image of the protostellar object OH 339.88-1.26. Located 8,900 light-years away in the constellation Ara. This image showcases winding lanes of dark dust intertwined with bright stars, their brilliance emphasized by crisscrossing diffraction spikes.

https://scitechdaily.com/maser-mystique-hubbles-gaze-into-a-stellar-cradle/#google_vignette

We also need ribosomes in order to be us ...

New Research Sheds Light on the Formation of One of Nature’s Most Fundamental Molecules

Life runs on ribosomes. Every cell across the globe requires ribosomes to convert genetic data into the vital proteins required for the organism’s operation, and, subsequently, for the production of more ribosomes. However, scientists still lack a clear understanding of how these essential nanomachines are assembled.

Now, new high-resolution images of the large ribosomal subunit are shedding light on how arguably nature’s most fundamental molecule coalesces in human cells. The findings, published in Science, bring us one step closer to a complete picture of ribosome assembly. ...

... For the current study, Klinge and colleagues focused on the human large ribosomal subunit (60S). ... Vanden Broeck and Klinge combined new techniques involving a mashup of genome editing and biochemistry, to capture high-resolution cryo-EM structures of 24 human large ribosomal subunit assembly intermediates as they were maturing. The resulting images show how assembly factors, various proteins, and enzymes, interact with RNA elements to drive the formation and maturation of the 60S. Together, the findings represent a near-complete picture of how the human large subunit assembles. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/new-researc...tal-molecules/

No oxygen, no us ...

The Great Oxidation Event: Decoding Earth’s Ancient Atmospheric Mysteries

Using synchrotron techniques, scientists have unveiled important information on The Great Oxidation Event by studying apatite inclusions in zircon crystals from old magmas with the ESRF – Extremely Brilliant Source.

Around 2.4 billion years ago, a pivotal moment in Earth’s history took place: The Great Oxidation Event. During this period, a significant amount of oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere. This surge in oxygen production led to a dramatic shift in the composition of the atmosphere, altering the chemistry of the planet. The event marked a turning point as oxygen levels rose, enabling the development of more complex multicellular life forms and fundamentally reshaping Earth’s ecosystems. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/the-great-o...oogle_vignette

Exploring the unknown chemical universe ... much of which is necessary for us ... and not one atom of which stood in our way ...

Peeling Back the Chemical Unknown: Scientists Are on the Hunt for the Other 99 Percent

The universe is awash in billions of possible chemicals. Despite the arsenal of advanced technology at their disposal, researchers have only identified the molecular makeup of a minuscule portion, perhaps around 1 percent, of these compounds.

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are taking aim at the other 99 percent, creating new ways to learn more about a vast sea of unknown compounds. There may be cures for disease, new approaches for tackling climate change, or new chemical or biological threats lurking in the chemical universe. ... “There may be millions of microbes in just a gram of soil, and we don’t know who most of them are or what they do. There’s a lot of discovery still to happen,” said Metz. “From the viewpoint of challenging science, it’s either a worst-case scenario or one of our greatest opportunities, depending on how you look at it.” ...

https://scitechdaily.com/peeling-bac...er-99-percent/

More new tools for biophysical exploration ...

A New Era in Biophysics Discovery Unleashed by Exascale Supercomputers

The fusion of high-performance computing and biophysical research is paving the way for revolutionary discoveries in biology, with next-generation supercomputers and AI tools playing pivotal roles. The dynamic interplay where high-performance computing converges with biophysical exploration is pushing the frontiers of knowledge and catalyzing a new era of unprecedented discoveries in biology.

... Rather than being mere observers, today’s biophysicists, with the aid of advanced high-performance computing (HPC), are now trailblazers who can challenge longstanding biological assumptions, illuminate intricate details, and even create new proteins or design novel molecular circuits. ...

... One of the most important aspects discussed in their perspective article is the new ability of computational biophysicists to simulate complex biological processes that range from subatomic processes to whole-cell models, with extraordinary detail. As Dr. Bernardi articulates, “The new exascale computers allow computational biophysicists to go beyond what can done experimentally and simulate biological processes with a much higher level of detail. For instance, we can now understand how pathogenic bacteria bind to humans during infection at an atomistic level, generating data for AI models and opening new roads of exploration.” ...

https://scitechdaily.com/a-new-era-in-biophysics-discovery-unleashed-by-exascale-supercomputers/

Really tiny photos by really tiny cameras?

Pioneering Single-Pixel Technology Achieves 3D Imaging of Living Cells

Scientists have developed a groundbreaking three-dimensional single-pixel imaging (3D-SPI) technique based on 3D light-field illumination. This method enables high-resolution imaging of microscopic objects. The 3D-SPI approach can potentially revolutionize the visualization of various biological absorption contrasts, cell morphology, and growth, presenting new opportunities in biomedical research and optical sensing.

https://scitechdaily.com/pioneering-...-living-cells/

A discovery good for the brain ... and necessary for us ...

Neurology Breakthrough: New Pathway To Regenerate Myelin Discovered

A study led by Dr. Hyun Kyoung Lee, associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine and investigator at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s Hospital, has identified a previously unknown biological mechanism for repairing and regenerating myelin. Myelin is the insulating layer around nerve fibers that is crucial for the fast and precise transmission of neural signals. ... This study has implications for treating neurological diseases like multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy. ...

Myelin is produced by a type of glial precursor cells called oligodendrocytes (OLs) which are among the most numerous cells in the nervous system. Damage or loss of myelin sheath is the hallmark of various neurological diseases in adults (e.g. multiple sclerosis) and infants (e.g. cerebral palsy) and is common after brain injuries. The Wingless (Wnt) signaling pathway is one of the key regulators of OL development and myelin regeneration. In certain diseased conditions and brain injury, its levels are elevated in the white matter, which impairs myelin production by forcing oligodendroctyes to remain in a “stalled/quiescent state”.

A few years back, Dr. Lee and others found that a glial protein, Daam2 inhibits the differentiation of oligodendrocytes during development as well as myelin regeneration and repair. However, until now precise mechanisms underlying this process have remained a mystery. ... “Intriguingly, we found Daam2 phosphorylation differentially impacts distinct stages of oligodendrocyte development – in early stages, it accelerates the conversion of precursor OLs to glial cells but in later stages, it slows down their maturation and their ability to produce myelin,” Dr. Lee said.

https://scitechdaily.com/neurology-breakthrough-new-pathway-to-regenerate-myelin-discovered/

A discovery bad for the brain ...

Startling Findings – Scientists Discover That Microplastics Could Be Changing Your Brain

New research has found that exposure to microplastics led to behavioral changes and immune alterations in mice, particularly older ones. The study discovered that microplastics accumulated in multiple tissues, including the brain, and may contribute to conditions similar to dementia.

... Ross and her team focused on neurobehavioral effects and inflammatory response to exposure to microplastics, as well as the accumulation of microplastics in tissues, including the brain. They have found that the infiltration of microplastics was as widespread in the body as it is in the environment, leading to behavioral changes, especially in older test subjects.

“Current research suggests that these microplastics are transported throughout the environment and can accumulate in human tissues; however, research on the health effects of microplastics, especially in mammals, is still very limited,” said Ross, an assistant professor of biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences at the Ryan Institute for Neuroscience and the College of Pharmacy. “This has led our group to explore the biological and cognitive consequences of exposure to microplastics.” ...

... “Given that in this study the microplastics were delivered orally via drinking water, detection in tissues such as the gastrointestinal tract, which is a major part of the digestive system, or in the liver and kidneys was always probable,” Ross said. “The detection of microplastics in tissues such as the heart and lungs, however, suggests that the microplastics are going beyond the digestive system and likely undergoing systemic circulation. The brain-blood barrier is supposed to be very difficult to permeate. It is a protective mechanism against viruses and bacteria, yet these particles were able to get in there. It was actually deep in the brain tissue.” ...

https://scitechdaily.com/startling-f...ng-your-brain/

Magic Mushrooms for Mental Health? But let's take care ...

The Psychedelic Paradigm Shift: Revolutionary Treatment or a Slippery Slope for Mental Health?

Psychedelics occupy a critical junction in the realm of mental health, presenting innovative pathways for treating a variety of mental disorders, including hard-to-treat depression and PTSD. However, their ability to alter mental states also brings unique ethical and clinical dilemmas.

In a newly published article in Nature Medicine, leading psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychotherapists highlight the importance of protecting patients during these vulnerable states of altered consciousness and the imperative for regulatory frameworks and collaborative efforts to fully realize the potential benefits of this emerging treatment paradigm.

... As Albino Oliveira-Maia, senior author of the article and head of the Champalimaud Foundation’s Neuropsychiatry Unit, notes, “Up until now, psychedelic therapies have largely been confined to the realm of research and clinical studies. But this looks set to change. We’re already witnessing off-label use of ketamine, once solely viewed as an anesthetic, in treating depression and substance use disorders, despite the lack of clear guidelines, formal approval from regulatory agencies, and recommendations regarding psychological support.”

Unlike most drug treatments, psychedelics are typically coupled with psychotherapy to safeguard patients and potentially enhance clinical effectiveness through shaping the drug-induced subjective experiences. The authors emphasize the necessity of assessing the clinical effectiveness of the accompanying therapy. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/the-psyched...mental-health/

You might see something like this on Magic Mushrooms ... see-thru squids ...

How scientists engineered a see-through squid with its brain in plain view

Once these squid are genetically altered, "they're really hard to spot," even for their caretakers, says Joshua Rosenthal, a senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. ...The see-through squid are offering scientists a new way to study the biology of a creature that is intact and moving freely. "It changes the way you interpret what's going on in this animal," says Caroline Albertin, a fellow at the lab. "You can look through and see their three hearts beating, you can see their brain." ...

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-...-in-plain-view

AI does good things ...

Groundbreaking AI-Method Finds a Way to People’s Hearts

Scientists have developed an AI model that accurately identifies cardiac functions and valvular heart diseases using chest radiographs. The research could supplement traditional echocardiography, improve diagnostic efficiency, and be especially useful in settings lacking specialized technicians.

https://scitechdaily.com/groundbreaking-ai-method-finds-a-way-to-peoples-hearts/

AI doing stupid things ... and lies ... but so do people ...

AI tools make things up a lot, and that’s a huge problem

... AI-powered tools like ChatGPT have mesmerized us with their ability to produce authoritative, human-sounding responses to seemingly any prompt. But as more people turn to this buzzy technology for things like homework help, workplace research, or health inquiries, one of its biggest pitfalls is becoming increasingly apparent: AI models often just make things up.

Researchers have come to refer to this tendency of AI models to spew inaccurate information as “hallucinations,” or even “confabulations,” as Meta’s AI chief said in a tweet. Some social media users, meanwhile, simply blast chatbots as “pathological liars.” ...

... The reality, Venkatasubramanian said, is that large language models — the technology underpinning AI tools like ChatGPT — are simply trained to “produce a plausible sounding answer” to user prompts. “So, in that sense, any plausible-sounding answer, whether it’s accurate or factual or made up or not, is a reasonable answer, and that’s what it produces,” he said. “There is no knowledge of truth there.” ...

... Companies behind AI chatbots have put some guardrails in place that aim to prevent the worst of these hallucinations. But despite the global hype around generative AI, many in the field remain torn about whether or not chatbot hallucinations are even a solvable problem ...

... A veteran New York lawyer also landed in hot water when he used ChatGPT for legal research, and submitted a brief that included six “bogus” cases that the chatbot appears to have simply made up. News outlet CNET was also forced to issue corrections after an article generated by an AI tool ended up giving wildly inaccurate personal finance advice when it was asked to explain how compound interest works.

Cracking down on AI hallucinations, however, could limit AI tools’ ability to help people with more creative endeavors — like users that are asking ChatGPT to write poetry or song lyrics. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/29/tech/ai-chatbot-hallucinations/index.html

... f-AI-kes ...

Google launches watermarks for AI-generated images


In an effort to help prevent the spread of misinformation, Google on Tuesday unveiled an invisible, permanent watermark on images that will identify them as computer-generated.

The technology, called SynthID, embeds the watermark directly into images created by Imagen, one of Google’s latest text-to-image generators. The AI-generated label remains regardless of modifications like added filters or altered colors.

The SynthID tool can also scan incoming images and identify the likelihood they were made by Imagen by scanning for the watermark with three levels of certainty: detected, not detected and possibly detected.

“While this technology isn’t perfect, our internal testing shows that it’s accurate against many common image manipulations,” wrote Google in a blog post Tuesday.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/08/30/tech/g...ark/index.html

Well, maybe our enhanced eyes of the future can spot the fakes ...

The Future of Vision: Scientists Develop Flexible Cornea-Thin Battery Charged by Saline Solution

Researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore (NTU Singapore) have created a flexible battery that’s as thin as a human cornea. This innovative energy storage device charges itself when submerged in a saline solution and has the potential to fuel smart contact lenses in the future.

Smart contact lenses are high-tech contact lenses capable of displaying visible information on our corneas and can be used to access augmented reality. Current uses include helping to correct vision, monitoring wearers’ health, and flagging and treating diseases for people with chronic health conditions such as diabetes and glaucoma. In the future, smart contact lenses could be developed to record and transmit everything a wearer sees and hears to cloud-based data storage.

However, to reach this future potential a safe and suitable battery needs to be developed to power them. Existing rechargeable batteries rely on wires or induction coils that contain metal and are unsuitable for use in the human eye, as they are uncomfortable and present risks to the user.

https://scitechdaily.com/the-future-...oogle_vignette

The astronauts saw some amazing beauty with their eyes ...

Astronaut’s Breathtaking View: Moonglint, Volcanic Aleutians, and Aurora Borealis

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) captured this stunning photo of the Aleutian Islands off the coast of mainland Alaska. The archipelago is illuminated by moonglint—a phenomenon similar to sunglint that occurs only when the Moon’s light reflects from the water at a particular angle. Capturing moonglint is rare in astronaut photography, making this image all the more special.

And seeming harmony and cooperation in space, a lovely thing ...

Intercontinental Fusion in Space: Station Hosts 11 Astronauts From 5 Countries

The orbital outpost’s newest crew of four, representing the U.S., Denmark, Japan, and Russia, arrived on Sunday aboard the SpaceX Dragon Endurance spacecraft. NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov are familiarizing themselves with station safety procedures and getting used to life on orbit. ... the new crew members were joined by station commander Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos and Flight Engineer Sultan Alneyadi of (UAE) United Arab Emirates) ...

https://scitechdaily.com/intercontin...m-5-countries/

But the most important discovery of all ... a phone that won't break when dropped!

Scientists Invent New Glass With Supreme Toughness

Scientists have produced an oxide glass with unprecedented toughness. Under high pressures and temperatures, they succeeded in paracrystallizing an aluminosilicate glass: The resulting crystal-like structures cause the glass to withstand very high stresses and are retained under ambient conditions. Paracrystallization thus proves to be a promising process for producing extremely break-resistant glasses.

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-...eme-toughness/

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

I would also like to make special mention of this, a RadioLab podcast episode on how common gender fluid behavior is throughout the animal kingdom ...

In the 1970s, as LGBTQ+ people in the United States faced conservatives whose top argument was that homosexuality is “unnatural,” a pair of young scientists discovered on a tiny island off the coast of California a colony of seagulls that included… a significant number of female homosexual couples making nests and raising chicks together. The article that followed upended the culture’s understanding of what’s natural and took the discourse on homosexuality in a whole new direction.

https://radiolab.org/podcast/seagulls

Gassho, J

stlah

[Inshin]

https://www.advancedsciencenews.com/quantum-entanglement-visualized-for-the-first-time-ever/

Quantum entanglement visualized for the first time ever.

[Jundo]

The Diamond Sutra:

So you should view this fleeting world --
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream ...

Vast Bubble of Galaxies Discovered – Believed To Be a Remnant From the Universe’s Inception

Astronomers have identified an immense bubble, Hoʻoleilana, 820 million light years away. This structure, believed to be a remnant from the universe’s inception and larger than predicted, offers valuable insights into galaxy evolution and the universe’s expansion dynamics. ... In the well-established Big Bang theory, during the first 400,000 years, the universe was a cauldron of hot plasma similar to the interior of the Sun. Within a plasma, electrons were separated from the atomic nuclei. During this period, regions with slightly higher density began to collapse under gravity, even as the intense bath of radiation attempted to push matter apart. This struggle between gravity and radiation made the plasma oscillate or ripple and spread outward.

The largest ripples in the early universe depended on the distance a sound wave could travel. Set by the speed of sound in the plasma, this distance was almost 500 million light years, and was fixed once the universe cooled and stopped being a plasma, leaving vast three-dimensional ripples. Throughout the eons, galaxies formed at the density peaks, in enormous bubble-like structures. Patterns in the distribution of galaxies, properly discerned, could reveal the properties of these ancient messengers.

... Tests with simulations have demonstrated that the shell structure identified as Hoʻoleilana has less than a 1% probability of being a statistical accident. ...

BELOW: The red region (left) shows the shell enclosed by the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation, with individual galaxies depicted as luminous tiny specks. The blue filaments show the greater Cosmic Web, with previously known features like Laniākea highlighted.

The new findings mention these massive structures are predicted by the Big Bang theory, as the result of 3D ripples found in the material of the early universe, known as Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaL7QULjxaU&t=51s

https://scitechdaily.com/vast-bubble...ses-inception/

The Black Holes are there ... just not so many rapidly growing ones ...

What Happened to All the Supermassive Black Holes? Astronomers Surprised by Webb Data

A research study using the James Webb Space Telescope has found that active galactic nuclei, supermassive black holes that grow rapidly [AGN], are less common than previously thought. ... The findings, made with the JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), suggest our universe may be a bit more stable than was supposed. ... While every galaxy features a supermassive black hole at the middle, AGN are more spectacular upheavals actively drawing in gases and showing a luminosity absent from typical black holes. ... “The study’s findings suggest that these black holes are not growing rapidly, absorbing limited material, and perhaps not significantly impacting their host galaxies,” she said. “This discovery opens up a whole new perspective on black-hole growth since our current understanding is largely based on the most massive black holes in the biggest galaxies, which have significant effects on their hosts, but the smaller black holes in these galaxies likely do not.” ...

... “Our [Milky Way] black hole seems quite uneventful, not displaying much activity,” she said.

https://scitechdaily.com/what-happen...-by-webb-data/

But them black holes don't fool around if they catch you ...

Ripped Apart: A Gigantic Black Hole Destroys a Massive Star

Astronomers, using the Chandra X-ray Observatory and XMM-Newton, meticulously studied the remains of a star obliterated by a massive black hole. This event, ASASSN-14li, offers unprecedented insights due to its proximity to Earth. The research reveals the star to be one of the most massive ever consumed by a black hole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJNl0bXxiRk&t=16s

The universe's eyelashes??

Cosmic Keyhole: Webb Reveals Breathtaking New Structures Within Iconic Supernova

Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) captured this detailed image of SN 1987A (Supernova 1987A), located 168,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which has been annotated to highlight key structures. At the center, material ejected from the supernova forms a keyhole shape. Just to its left and right are faint crescents newly discovered by Webb. Beyond them an equatorial ring, formed from material ejected tens of thousands of years before the supernova explosion, contains bright hot spots. Exterior to that is diffuse emission and two faint outer rings.

A new look at our own star ...

Uncharted Solar Realms: Camera “Hack” Lets Solar Orbiter Peer Deeper Into Sun’s Atmosphere

Scientists have used Solar Orbiter’s EUI camera in a new mode of operation to record part of the Sun’s atmosphere at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths that has been almost impossible to image until now. ...

BELOW: This movie shows an ultraviolet image of the Sun’s corona taken using the EUI occulter. An ultraviolet image of the Sun’s disc has been superimposed in the middle, in the area left blank by the occulter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DksWRE3TZ0c&t=18s

https://scitechdaily.com/uncharted-s...ns-atmosphere/

This is important to any future colonization ... SUCCESSFUL MANUFACTURE OF OXYGEN ON MARS!

The first experiment to produce oxygen on another planet has come to an end on Mars after exceeding NASA’s initial goals and demonstrating capabilities that could help future astronauts explore the red planet.

The microwave-size device called MOXIE, or Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment, is on the Perseverance rover.

The experiment kicked off more than two years ago, a few months after the rover landed on Mars. Since then, MOXIE has generated 122 grams of oxygen, equal to what a small dog breathes in 10 hours, according to NASA. The instrument works by converting some of Mars’ plentiful carbon dioxide into oxygen. ... During the peak of its efficiency, MOXIE produced 12 grams of oxygen an hour at 98% purity or better, which is twice as much as NASA’s goals for the instrument. ... Bigger and better versions of something such as MOXIE in the future could supply life support systems with breathable air and convert and store oxygen needed for rocket fuel used to launch on a return trip to Earth.

BELOW: Engineers installed MOXIE inside the chassis of the Perseverance rover in 2019.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/07/world/nasa-mars-moxie-perseverance-scn/index.html

But Nasa's moon rockets cost too much ... with budgets reaching to the Moon ...

NASA’s mega moon Artemis rocket is ‘unaffordable,’ according to accountability report

https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/07/world/...scn/index.html

Maybe an aspect of life's early chemistry ...

Scientists Unearth Primordial Photoredox Catalyst

Researchers have demonstrated that a solid formed from ammonia and methane plasma can use sunlight to catalyze amine-to-imine conversions, a process potentially pivotal in the formation of early biomolecules. The study suggests the primordial atmosphere may have provided the necessary catalysts for such conversions, supporting the evolution of early RNA molecules.

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-...oogle_vignette

Climate tipping points have changed life (for better and ... worse) ... and it may happen again ...

Over the past 66 million years, two major climate events have shaped the climate system, dividing the period into two distinct climate eras.

... An analysis of the hierarchy of tipping points indicates that over the past 66 million years, two significant occurrences laid the foundation for subsequent climate tipping and, specifically, the evolution of the climate system. The authors propose that if the current anthropogenic climate change results in total deglaciation, it will impact the development of Earth’s climate on a geological timescale.

... The first event was the Chicxulub meteor impact in Mexico which killed off the large dinosaurs approximately 65,5 million years ago. This catastrophe marked the beginning of a very warm period with high levels of CO2. For the following 30 million years this regime dictated which climatic changes were possible and kept it within the regime of hot and warm climates.

The second crucial event was the tipping point associated with the glaciation of the Southern hemisphere 34 million years ago when the Antarctic continent was isolated at the South Pole due to plate tectonics. The forming of the large ice sheet led to the glaciation of the North as well and marked the beginning of a considerably colder type of climate on Earth, again dictating the scope of future climate changes. ... The analysis additionally suggests that our current global climate system still belongs to the latter climate regime and still depends on the existence of the gigantic ice bodies built within the Coolhouse/Icehouse era.

In the event that the ice sheets should not withstand anthropogenic global warming, the deglaciation will therefore represent a landmark tipping point similar to the two that have dominated Earth’s history leading to a new unknown climate landscape.

”The ice sheets are key components in the present climate system. But they are very sensitive. They presently experience a negative mass balance, and there are numerous reports of evidence of melting under the impact of the current climate warming, translating a trend towards a potential tipping point that could accelerate the disappearance at least of Greenland and West Antarctica, with serious repercussions for our societies” says Denis-Didier Rousseau.

https://scitechdaily.com/unlocking-the-secrets-of-climate-evolution-the-tipping-points-that-changed-earth-forever/#google_vignette

And then, we almost got wiped out before ... except not our ancestors, at least two of the 1280 (proven by your looking in the mirror) ...

Scientists say they have pinpointed the moment humanity almost went extinct

Ancient humanity was almost wiped out about 900,000 years ago when the global population dwindled to around 1,280 reproducing individuals, according to a new study. What’s more, the population of early human ancestors stayed this small for about 117,000 years.

The analysis, published August 31 in the journal Science, is based on a new computer model developed by a group of scientists based in China, Italy and the United States. The statistical method used genetic information from 3,154 present-day human genomes.

Around 98.7% of human ancestors were lost, according to the study. The researchers argue that the population crash correlates with a gap in the fossil record, possibly leading to the emergence of a new hominin species that was a common ancestor of modern humans, or Homo sapiens, and Neanderthals.

“The novel finding opens a new field in human evolution because it evokes many questions, such as the places where these individuals lived, how they overcame the catastrophic climate changes, and whether natural selection during the bottleneck has accelerated the evolution of human brain,” said senior author Yi-Hsuan Pan, an evolutionary and functional genomicist at East China Normal University, in a statement.

The population bottleneck coincided with dramatic changes in climate during what’s known as the mid-Pleistocene transition, the research team suggested. Glacial periods became longer and more intense, leading to a drop in temperature and very dry climatic conditions.

Moreover, the scientists suggested that the control of fire, as well as the climate shifting to be more hospitable for human life, could have contributed to a later rapid population increase around 813,000 years ago.


The earliest evidence of the use of fire to cook food dates from 780,000 years ago in what is now modern-day Israel, the authors noted.

While ancient DNA has revolutionized our understanding about past populations, the oldest DNA from a human species dates to around 400,000 years ago.

The computer model uses the vast amount of information contained in modern human genomes about genetic variation over time to infer the size of populations at specific points in the past. The team used genetic sequences from 10 African and 40 non-African populations.

... [However] two researchers, who were not involved in the study, said ... the fossil record, while sparse, did show that early human species lived in and outside Africa about 813,000 to 930,000 years ago — during the period of proposed population collapse, with fossils from that era found in what’s now China, Kenya, Ethiopia, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. “Whatever caused the proposed bottleneck may have been limited in its effects on human populations outside the Homo sapiens lineage or its effects were short-lived,” the two researchers said in the commentary. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/05/world/ancient-human-population-collapse-scn/index.html

and

https://scitechdaily.com/humanitys-n...-wiped-us-out/

Speaking of Neanderthals ... who maybe could not speak ...

Similar to contemporary humans, Neanderthals crafted and utilized bone tools for their daily needs.

Were anatomically modern humans the only ones who knew how to turn bone into tools? A new discovery at the Chez-Pinaud-Jonzac Neanderthal site by an international research team puts this question to rest. Published in the journal PLOS ONE, the findings illuminate a little known aspect of Neanderthal technology.

Starting from 45,000 years ago, anatomically modern humans began to appear in Western Europe, eventually replacing the last remaining Neanderthal communities. This period also marked significant shifts in material culture, notably the introduction of a wide array of bone artifacts—ranging from hunting tools and decorative ornaments to intricately carved figurines—by modern human groups. ... Their absence from Neanderthal sites has led to the assumption that these groups did not produce bone tools and implements, sometimes inferred to reflect cognitive differences between the two populations. Since Neanderthals did not know how to process this raw material, they were limited to picking up bone fragments amongst butchery remains, using them uniquely as retouchers for shaping flint tools.

New excavations at the Neanderthal site of Chez-Pinaud-Jonzac (Charente-Maritime), carried out by an international team since 2019, have made it possible to reconsider this assumption. Current studies have shown that bone tools are as numerous as flint ones. Moreover, their diversity provides evidence for a genuine industry that consists not only of retouchers but also of cutting tools, scrapers, chisels, and smoothers, used for various activities and on multiple materials. ... The discovery of a bone industry at Chez-Pinaud-Jonzac is consistent with evidence uncovered a few years earlier by the same team at the Neanderthal site of Chagyrskaya, in the Siberian Altai. These two sites, located on either side of the Neanderthal range, testify to the fact that, like modern humans, Neanderthal made and used bone tools for their daily needs.

BELOW: Multi-functional bone tool, retouched on one of its edges, used as a retoucher and chisel.

https://scitechdaily.com/challenging...-neanderthals/

But maybe wrong about Neanderthals, burial and flowers ... although they did tend to their dead ones it seems ...

A ‘flower burial’ unearthed in 1960 reshaped the study of Neanderthals. A new discovery calls it into question

... Over the years, scientists found further evidence of Neanderthals’ intelligence and complexity, including art, string, and tools. However, elements of the flower burial theory didn’t seem to add up. ... The new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science puts forth an alternative hypothesis: Instead of arriving to the cave via funerary bouquets, the pollen might have hitched a ride with cave-dwelling pollinators [such as bees] ...

[BUT] ... While Hunt and his colleagues’ work suggests that the flower burial hypothesis is incorrect, the recent work on Shanidar Cave Neanderthals supports the underlying message of the old theory: that Neanderthals treated their dead with care. ... The cave itself seems to have carried some sort of meaning, since the skeletons in it were interred separately, years apart. “As far as I can see, they must have had stories in their groups about, ‘Well, this is what we did with Grandma, and now that young Joe has died, perhaps we should put him in the same place,’” Hunt said. The skeletons in the cave share common orientations and positioning, indicating that there may have been some meaning associated with how they were laid to rest. Shanidar 4 and Shanidar Z, a more recent skeleton discovery published in 2020, were found near splintered pieces of wood; Hunt said he wonders if those might have been from branches laid over the bodies to protect them.

In particular, Hunt said Shanidar Z was positioned as if she were sleeping.

“There was tenderness there. They cared for that individual, quite clearly,” he said. “Because why else would you do it?”

https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/06/world/...scn/index.html

Of course, the big changes came from the brain ...

Scientists Unveil Unprecedented “Live” View Into the Brain’s Complexity

Researchers have developed a new imaging and virtual reconstruction technology named LIONESS, which offers high-resolution imaging of live brain tissue, visualizing it in real-time 3D nanoscale detail. ... LIONESS is a pipeline to image, reconstruct, and analyze live brain tissue with a comprehensiveness and spatial resolution not possible until now. ...

BELOW: LIONESS delineates the complexity of dense brain tissue. a: Complex neuronal environment b: LIONESS can image and reconstruct the sample in a way that clarifies many dynamic structures and functions in live brain tissue.

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-unveil-unprecedented-live-view-into-the-brains-complexity/

It was there all along, we just didn't know it ... in our brains ...

Shaking the Foundations of Neuroscience: The Astonishing Discovery of a New Type of Brain Cell

Neuroscience is in great upheaval. The two major families of cells that make up the brain, neurons and glial cells, secretly hid a hybrid cell, halfway between these two categories. ... This cell can release neurotransmitters and may influence conditions like epilepsy and memory consolidation, offering promising paths for neuroscientific research and potential treatments. ...

For as long as Neuroscience has existed, it has been recognized that the brain works primarily thanks to the neurons and their ability to rapidly elaborate and transmit information through their networks. To support them in this task, glial cells perform a series of structural, energetic, and immune functions, as well as stabilize physiological constants.

Some of these glial cells, known as astrocytes, intimately surround synapses, the points of contact where neurotransmitters are released to transmit information between neurons. This is why neuroscientists have long suggested that astrocytes may have an active role in synaptic transmission and participate in information processing. However, the studies conducted to date to demonstrate this have suffered from conflicting results and have not reached a definitive scientific consensus yet. By identifying a new cell type with the characteristics of an astrocyte and expressing the molecular machinery necessary for synaptic transmission, neuroscientists from the Department of Basic Neurosciences of the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering in Geneva put an end to years of controversy.

https://scitechdaily.com/shaking-the...of-brain-cell/

... and swirling spirals ... makes my head spin ...

The Missing Link in Cognitive Processing? Scientists Discover Swirling Spirals in the Brain

Scientists have discovered that human brain signals form swirling spirals on the outer layer of neural tissue, which play a crucial role in organizing brain activity and cognitive processes. This discovery, based on fMRI scans, could advance our understanding of brain dynamics, potentially leading to better computational models and insights into brain diseases like dementia.

...
“These spiral patterns exhibit intricate and complex dynamics, moving across the brain’s surface while rotating around central points known as phase singularities

“Much like vortices act in turbulence, the spirals engage in intricate interactions, playing a crucial role in organizing the brain’s complex activities.

“The intricate interactions among multiple co-existing spirals could allow neural computations to be conducted in a distributed and parallel manner, leading to remarkable computational efficiency.” ...

... The cortex of the brain, also known as the cerebral cortex, is the outermost layer of the brain that is responsible for many complex cognitive functions, including perception, memory, attention, language, and consciousness.

“One key characteristic of these brain spirals is that they often emerge at the boundaries that separate different functional networks in the brain,” Mr. Xu said. ... “Through their rotational motion, they effectively coordinate the flow of activity between these networks." ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSMvwXWwuRQ&t=9s

https://scitechdaily.com/the-missing...oogle_vignette

Learning ebbs and flows ... makes me dopey ...

“Ebb and Flow” Brain Mechanism Discovered – Study Challenges Traditional Views on Role of Dopamine in Learning

New research reveals that learning in the brain occurs not just when there are external rewards like food or money, but also naturally through the constant ebb and flow of dopamine and acetylcholine. The researchers found that this hormonal balancing act is ongoing and independent of rewards, potentially offering new insights into neuropsychiatric conditions.

https://scitechdaily.com/ebb-and-flo...e-in-learning/

Maybe a little jolt can help the process ...

Electrifying Learning: How Brain Stimulation Can Improve Math Learning

Electrical noise stimulation targeted at a specific brain area can enhance math learning in individuals who find the subject challenging, reveals a recent study conducted by researchers from the Universities of Surrey and Oxford, Loughborough University, and Radboud University in The Netherlands.

The unique study explored the influence of neurostimulation on the learning process. Although there is an increasing interest in this non-invasive method, there is limited understanding of the induced neurophysiological alterations and their implications on learning.

https://scitechdaily.com/electrifyin...math-learning/

The Bees get an A+ ... we get a B ... AI might someday beat us all ...

Researchers Discover That Bees Can Make Decisions Better and Faster Than We Do

... “Decision-making is at the core of cognition,” says Professor Barron. “It’s the result of an evaluation of possible outcomes, and animal lives are full of decisions. A honey bee has a brain smaller than a sesame seed. And yet she can make decisions faster and more accurately than we can. A robot programmed to do a bee’s job would need the backup of a supercomputer.

... The team then built a computer model from first principles aiming to replicate the bees’ decision-making process. They found the structure of their computer model looked very similar to the physical layout of a bee brain. “Our study has demonstrated complex autonomous decision-making with minimal neural circuitry,” says Professor Marshall. ... AI researchers can learn much from insects and other ‘simple’ animals. Millions of years of evolution have led to incredibly efficient brains with very low power requirements. The future of AI in the industry will be inspired by biology, says Professor Marshall, who co-founded Opteran, a company that reverse-engineers insect brain algorithms to enable machines to move autonomously, like nature. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/researchers...er-than-we-do/

Speaking of the first brain, second thoughts on the second brain ...

Fundamental Biology Overturned: New Discovery Challenges Long-Held Views on “The Second Brain”

... The entire digestive tract is lined by the enteric nervous system (ENS), a vast network of millions of neurons and glial cells—the two primary cell types also found in the central nervous system. While often called the second brain, the ENS not only generates the same neurotransmitters but actually predates the evolution of the central nervous system in the brain. ... Researchers have discovered that ENS development continues after birth and includes neurons derived from mesoderm, challenging long-held scientific beliefs and opening avenues for potential new treatments for aging and gastrointestinal diseases. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/fundamental...-second-brain/

I should program AI just to write these science posts each week ...

ChatGPT vs. Humans: Even Linguistic Experts Can’t Tell Who Wrote What

According to a recent study co-authored by an assistant professor from the University of South Florida, even linguistics experts struggle to discern between writings produced by artificial intelligence and those written by humans. ... “We thought if anybody is going to be able to identify human-produced writing, it should be people in linguistics who’ve spent their careers studying patterns in language and other aspects of human communication,” said Matthew Kessler, a scholar in the USF the Department of World Languages. ... Kessler tasked 72 experts in linguistics with reviewing a variety of research abstracts to determine whether they were written by AI or humans.

Each expert was asked to examine four writing samples. None correctly identified all four, while 13 percent got them all wrong.

... The silver lining for human authors [FOR NOW] lies in longer forms of writing. “For longer texts, AI has been known to hallucinate and make up content, making it easier to identify that it was generated by AI,” Kessler said. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/chatgpt-vs-...oogle_vignette

Hard to detect this way too ...

Stanford Researchers Expose Flaws in Text Detectors

... Researchers have found that GPT detectors, used to identify if text is AI-generated, often falsely label articles written by non-native English speakers as AI-created. This unreliability poses risks in academic and professional settings, including job applications and student assignments. ... The researchers warn that the unreliable performance of these AI text-detection programs could adversely affect many individuals, including students and job applicants.

“Our current recommendation is that we should be extremely careful about and maybe try to avoid using these detectors as much as possible,” says senior author James Zou, of Stanford University. “It can have significant consequences if these detectors are used to review things like job applications, college entrance essays, or high school assignments.”

... Zou explains that the algorithms of these detectors work by evaluating text perplexity, which is how surprising the word choice is in an essay. “If you use common English words, the detectors will give a low perplexity score, meaning my essay is likely to be flagged as AI-generated. If you use complex and fancier words, then it’s more likely to be classified as human written by the algorithms,” he says. This is because large language models like ChatGPT are trained to generate text with low perplexity to better simulate how an average human talks, Zou adds. As a result, simpler word choices adopted by non-native English writers would make them more vulnerable to being tagged as using AI. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/ais-dirty-little-secret-stanford-researchers-expose-flaws-in-text-detectors/#google_vignette

A big AI gamble ...

Robots are pouring drinks in Vegas. As AI grows, the city's workers brace for change

Walk any direction in Las Vegas and it's easy to find machines doing human work.

Check-in kiosks have replaced people at the front desk of hotels. Text-bots now make restaurant recommendations instead of a concierge. Robots can serve food, and behind the bar, machines are pouring out drinks.

Automation and technology replacing jobs has long been a conversation in Nevada's most populated city. Studies show that between 38% to 65% of jobs there could be automated by 2035.

With the use of artificial intelligence on the rise, the economy of this city --which relies on tourism and hospitality — is at an inflection point, as companies look to technology to reduce labor costs. ...

... "The question is, how do you factor in and how do you adapt your economic development strategy, your community strategy, your resiliency strategy to accommodate a world where certain jobs no longer exist?" he said. Restrepo said he believes the city has to diversify its economy to be less reliant on tourism and hospitality. "We need to move ... to those occupations that are more highly skilled, that are not easily replaced by AI and that provide a greater level of balance and resilience so we're not so hard-hit," Restrepo said.

... The Culinary Union is prepared to strike over AI ...

... Bergman and other service workers told NPR there are some human jobs that technology can't eliminate. Machines don't have the same human touch and cannot provide the same experience, they said — and often times, the machines add more work.

"We have a lot of guests that are regular guests, and they come for the personal interaction. They don't come for the technology," said Holly Lang, a cocktail waitress at the MGM Grand. "There's some things you can't replace." ...

... It's not just service workers who will be affected ...

Artificial intelligence won't just impact lower-wage jobs. Technology like ChatGPT, which is a form of generative AI, will impact white collar jobs, too, in fields like accounting and data entry. ...

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/04/11971...ace-for-change

Oh my ...

Ads for AI sex workers are flooding Instagram and TikTok

Apps promising AI-generated sexual images and companionship are running hundreds of ads on social media. Human sex workers are often banned.

Facebook, Instagram and TikTok have tried to keep a tight lid on sexualized content in recent years, banning nudity outright in almost all cases, kicking off sex workers and even cracking down on some artists and educators who speak frankly about sexual health and safety.

But a new kind of sexualized content has lately been getting through their moderation systems: ads for scantily clad and dirty-talking chatbots, powered by what their creators say is artificial intelligence.

Dozens of tech startups have been running explicit advertisements on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook in recent months for apps that promote not-safe-for-work experiences. The ads promise “NSFW pics,” custom pinup girls and chats with “no censoring,” and many of them feature digitally created potential “girlfriends” with large breasts and tight clothing.

Some ads use memes that include popular children’s TV characters, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Bart Simpson or Cookie Monster, to promote apps with which people can create “NSFW pics.” Others feature digitally created girls who appear to be teenagers or younger, sometimes in the style of anime. ...

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/ai-girlfriend-ads-instagram-tiktok-chat-pics-chatgpt-dose-rcna97547

Another kind of AI attraction ...

Magnet Magic: How AI Is Revolutionizing Material Discovery

A team of researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames National Laboratory developed a new machine learning model for discovering critical-element-free permanent magnet materials. The model predicts the Curie temperature of new material combinations. It is an important first step in using artificial intelligence to predict new permanent magnet materials. This model adds to the team’s recently developed capability for discovering thermodynamically stable rare earth materials. High-performance magnets are essential for technologies such as wind energy, data storage, electric vehicles, and magnetic refrigeration. These magnets contain critical materials such as cobalt and rare earth elements like Neodymium and Dysprosium. These materials are in high demand but have limited availability. This situation is motivating researchers to find ways to design new magnetic materials with reduced critical materials.

https://scitechdaily.com/magnet-magi...ial-discovery/

Blending body and machine ...

Paving the Way for Tiny Devices Integrated Into Human Tissues – Scientists Develop New “Droplet” Battery

Researchers from the University of Oxford have achieved a major advancement toward realizing miniature bio-integrated devices, capable of directly stimulating cells. Their findings were recently published in the journal Nature.

Small bio-integrated devices that can interact with and stimulate cells could have important therapeutic applications, such as targeted drug delivery and promoting faster wound recovery. A major obstacle, however, has been providing an efficient microscale power source for these devices, a challenge that has remained unsolved. ... Inspired by how electric eels generate electricity, the device uses internal ion gradients to generate energy. ...

... ‘This work addresses the important question of how stimulation produced by soft, biocompatible devices can be coupled with living cells. The potential impact on devices including bio-hybrid interfaces, implants, and microrobots is substantial.’ ...

https://scitechdaily.com/paving-the-way-for-tiny-devices-integrated-into-human-tissues-scientists-develop-new-droplet-battery/

And machines based on bodies ...

DNA Chips: The Billion Gigabyte Storage Solution of Tomorrow

The hereditary molecule DNA is renowned for its ability to store vast amounts of information over long periods of time in an incredibly small space. For a good ten years, scientists have therefore been pursuing the goal of developing DNA chips for computer technology, especially for the long-term archiving of data. Such chips would be superior to conventional silicon-based chips in terms of storage density, longevity, and sustainability.

... “The fact that digital DNA data storage with high capacity and a long lifespan is feasible has been demonstrated several times in recent years,” says Professor Thomas Dandekar, head of the Chair of Bioinformatics at Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg. “But the storage costs are high, close to 400,000 US dollars per megabyte, and the information stored in the DNA can only be retrieved slowly. It takes hours to days, depending on the amount of data.” These challenges must be overcome to make DNA data storage more applicable and marketable. Suitable tools for this are light-controlled enzymes and protein network design software. Thomas Dandekar and his chair team members Aman Akash and Elena Bencurova discuss this in a recent review in the journal Trends in Biotechnology.

Dandekar’s team is convinced that DNA has a future as a data store. In the journal, the JMU researchers show how a combination of molecular biology, nanotechnology, novel polymers, electronics, and automation, coupled with systematic development, could make DNA data storage useful for everyday use possible in a few years.

https://scitechdaily.com/dna-chips-t...oogle_vignette

This is potential good news ...

Scientists Develop New Cancer Therapy That Stops Tumor Growth in Its Tracks

Researchers from Purdue University have developed a novel cancer treatment that deceives cancer cells into absorbing a snippet of RNA that naturally blocks cell division. A study recently published in Oncogene reveals that over a 21-day period, tumors subjected to this treatment remained unchanged in size, whereas untreated tumors grew threefold.

Cancer can begin almost anywhere in the human body. It is characterized by cells that divide uncontrollably and that may be able to ignore signals to die or stop dividing, and even evade the immune system. The therapy, tested in mouse models, combines a delivery system that targets cancer cells with a specially modified version of microRNA-34a, a molecule that acts “like the brakes on a car,” slowing or stopping cell division, said Andrea Kasinski, lead author and the William and Patty Miller Associate Professor of biological sciences at Purdue Universit ... In healthy cells, microRNA-34a is abundant, but its presence is dramatically reduced in many cancer cells. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-...oogle_vignette

A kidney purse made from a sow's ear? ... a man inside a pig? ...

Scientists take ‘pioneering steps’ toward growing human kidneys in pigs


Scientists have grown kidneys containing mostly human cells inside pig embryos, an important step toward growing kidneys and potentially other human organs that could be used for transplants in people.

The technique, described in a new study published Thursday in the scientific journal Cell Stem Cell, entails altering the genetic makeup of pig embryos and then injecting human cells that will go on to make a kidney inside the animals. The researchers involved said it’s the first time scientists have been able to grow a solid humanized organ inside another species. The embryos, when implanted in surrogate pig mothers, began to grow kidneys containing mostly human cells that had a normal structure after 28 days of development, according to the study.

... The team is also working to generate other human organs in pig embryos, including the heart and pancreas. ...

... Ethical considerations surround this type of research. These include animal welfare and concerns that human cells could become involved in not only forming the kidney but other tissues inside the pig, such as its brain ... “It is very important to note that there was very little contribution of human cells to other lineages apart from the kidney. We saw very few human cells in the central nervous system and none in the germline (reproductive cells).”

BELOW: Humanized kidney cells inside a pig embryo are shown in red

[ATTACH=CONFIG]8819[/ATTACH]

https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/07/health...scn/index.html

Kidneys in space! ...

Biotech Research on Station: Exploring DNA and Organ Printing in Space

... Moghbeli then assisted JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa as he replaced components on the BioFabrication Facility (BFF). The 3D biological printer is testing the printing of organ-like tissues in microgravity with an eye to manufacturing whole human organs in space in the future. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/biotech-res...oogle_vignette

This is just fascinating ... what we do with our time each day ... although, of course, depends on where we live and who we are ...

But sure doesn't sound like my day!!! Work for only 2.6 hours???

Researchers conducted a comprehensive study to understand how people across the globe allocate their time.

... The researchers found that the single largest chunk of time goes towards activities that are human-centered – a little more than 9 hours. Sleep or being in bed accounts for an additional 9 hours (the global estimate includes youth who tend to sleep longer hours). Of the remaining 6 hours, growing and collecting our food, preparing it, commuting and moving around, and allocational tasks (such as trade, finance, sales, law, governance, policing) each occupy around 1 hour. Waste management accounted for just 1 minute of the global day, in stark contrast to the 45 minutes spent tidying and maintaining our dwellings. All infrastructure and building construction is accomplished in about 15 minutes. ... Surprisingly, time spent on activities like meals, daily travel, hygiene and grooming, and food preparation doesn’t change in a systematic way with the material wealth of a population. In contrast, the time spent growing and collecting food varied strongly with wealth, from over 1 hour in low-income countries to less than 5 minutes in high-income countries. ...

... Just a tenth of the day is given over to economic activities
Since the study includes both economic and non-economic activities, a portion of the total time in each of the categories described above represents people engaged in economic activity – e.g., doctors and nurses, cooks and agricultural laborers, etc.

The team estimated that the entire global economy occupies around 2.6 hours of the average human day. This economic activity is dominated by agriculture and livestock production, followed by allocational activities like trade, finance and law, and manufacturing. While the total of 2.6 hours may seem small, for the two-thirds of the world’s working-age population (ages 15-64) who make up the labor force this equates to about a 40-hour work week. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/190-billion...oogle_vignette

Need more time for Zazen there!

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Like looking at our own baby pictures ...

A new image from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured what Earth's sun looked like when it was only a few tens of thousands of years old.

The image of Herbig-Haro 211 (HH 211), released by NASA on Sept. 14, shows the outflow of a young star. "An infantile analogue of our Sun," NASA said in a statement.

Located about 1,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus, HH21 has only about 8% of the Sun's mass. A Class 0 protostar, meaning the nascent star is less than 100,000 years old, "eventually will grow into a star like the Sun," Webb Space Telescope wrote on its website.

... Supersonic jets of gas spew from a newborn star in this new infrared image ...The bright regions are called Herbig-Haro objects, and they form when star particles collide with nearby gas and dust, forming intense shockwaves.

And signs of our space cousins? ...

Beyond Earth: Webb Space Telescope Detects Key Molecules on Exoplanet K2-18 b ... Planet in ‘habitable’ zone could have rare oceans and a possible sign of life, Webb data reveals

Waters may be flowing on the surface of a colossal planet that lies about 120 light-years from Earth, according to new evidence uncovered by the James Webb Space Telescope. ... Closely orbiting the cool dwarf star K2-18, the exoplanet lies within the star’s habitable, or Goldilocks, zone and is 8.6 times as massive as Earth. An analysis of Webb’s observations found the planet has abundant methane and carbon dioxide in its atmosphere.... The presence of these carbon-bearing molecules, along with a scarcity of ammonia, could indicate an atmosphere rich with hydrogen that surrounds an ocean world, according to a NASA news release. Carbon is considered the building block of life-forms on Earth.

... And the latest observations of the planet also hint that a very special molecule, called dimethyl sulfide, could be present on K2-18b. On Earth, dimethyl sulfide “is only produced by life,” according to NASA. “The bulk of the DMS in Earth’s atmosphere is emitted from phytoplankton in marine environments.”

Researchers are not outright suggesting that K2-18b is crawling with alien life. Further research is needed to confirm the presence of dimethyl sulfide, ... And even if scientists corroborate the chemical compound’s presence, that doesn’t guarantee life-forms exist there.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/12/world/habitable-zone-exoplanet-ocean-webb-telescope-scn/index.html

https://scitechdaily.com/beyond-eart...lanet-k2-18-b/

Also ...

Scientists Discover Amino Acid Essential for Life in Interstellar Space

Researchers discovered evidence of the amino acid tryptophan in the interstellar material of the IC348 star system using data from the Spitzer Space Observatory. This finding suggests that protein-building amino acids are prevalent in areas where stars and planets develop, hinting at the potential for life in exoplanetary systems. ... Tryptophan is one of the 20 amino acids essential for the formation of key proteins for life on Earth ...

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-...stellar-space/

While our planet becomes less friendly to life ... or, at least, our kind of life ...

Conditions on Earth may be moving outside the ‘safe operating space’ for humanity, according to dozens of scientists

... The scientists analyzed nine interlinked “planetary boundaries,” which they define as thresholds the world needs to stay within to ensure a stable, livable planet. These include climate change, biodiversity, freshwater and land use, and the impact of synthetic chemicals and aerosols.

Human activities have breached safe levels for six of these boundaries and are pushing the world outside a “safe operating space” for humanity, according to the report, published on Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.

... The limits are designed to be conservative, to enable society to solve the problems before reaching a “very high risk zone,” said Katherine Richardson, a professor in biological oceanography at the University of Copenhagen and a co-author on the report.

She pointed to the unprecedented summer of extreme weather the world has just experienced at 1.2 degrees Celsius of global warming. “We didn’t think it was going to be like this at 1 degree [Celsius]” she said. “No human has experienced the conditions that we’re experiencing right now,” she added. ...

Of the three boundaries that scientists found are still within a safe space, two of them – ocean acidification and the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere – are moving in the wrong direction.

There is some good news, however. The ozone layer was on the wrong side of the boundary in the 1990s, Richardson said. But thanks to international cooperation to phase out ozone-depleting chemicals, it is on track to recover completely. ...

... But there are [also] criticisms of the model ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/13/world/...ate/index.html

Maybe we can stick life in the freezer? ...

Cryo Conservation – A Cool Solution to Saving Species From Extinction

Researchers underscore the significant potential of cryobanks, which store varied genetic materials from animals at ultra-low temperatures, in safeguarding declining global animal populations. The study, conducted with the contribution of several global conservation agencies, suggests prioritizing species for future sampling and establishing a global cryobanking database to facilitate collaborative conservation efforts and possibly reintroduce threatened species to their natural habitats.

Amidst the dire biodiversity crisis, underscored by a staggering 69% drop in global animal populations since 1970, experts are turning to an innovative solution to help avert species extinction.

https://scitechdaily.com/cryo-conser...om-extinction/

In the meantime ...

Replacing 50% of meat and milk products with plant-based alternatives by 2050 can reduce agriculture and land use related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 31% and halt the degradation of forest and natural land, according to new research.

https://scitechdaily.com/plant-based...ustainability/

But how fast are we all expanding? ... (and I don't mean the waistline) ...

Hubble Constant Tension Mystery Deepens: Webb Space Telescope Measures the Universe’s Expansion Rate

The “Hubble Tension” denotes the difference between the observed and expected expansion rate of the universe. The James Webb Space Telescope refines measurements previously made by the Hubble Space Telescope. Despite advancements, questions persist about the universe’s swift expansion and potential underlying cosmic phenomena.

... “We recently got our first Webb measurements ... What the results still do not explain is why the universe appears to be expanding so fast! ... It may indicate the presence of exotic dark energy, exotic dark matter, a revision to our understanding of gravity, or the presence of a unique particle or field. The more mundane explanation would be multiple measurement errors conspiring in the same direction (astronomers have ruled out a single error by using independent steps), so that is why it is so important to redo the measurements with greater fidelity. With Webb confirming the measurements from Hubble, the Webb measurements provide the strongest evidence yet that systematic errors in Hubble’s Cepheid photometry do not play a significant role in the present Hubble Tension. As a result, the more interesting possibilities remain on the table and the mystery of the Tension deepens.”

https://scitechdaily.com/hubble-cons...xpansion-rate/

Call the cable guy?

Opinion: The Deep Space Network is in trouble

The Deep Space Network, or DSN, is an interconnected set of three radio telescope facilities spread across the globe. These installations, located in California, Spain and Australia, are managed and operated for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. At about 120 degrees apart in longitude, their locations were selected so that any space probe at a distance greater than 30,000 kilometers (about 18,640 miles) from Earth can be in radio contact with at least one of them.

DSN is the main way that NASA contacts spacecraft far from Earth, including such technical marvels as the James Webb Space Telescope, the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover and even ultra-distant Voyager 1 probe — the manmade object that is currently farthest from Earth. Indeed, without the DSN, NASA’s robotic exploration of deep space would simply not be possible.

The problem with the DSN is multifold. While it has performed brilliantly since it began operations in the 1960s and has experienced periodic upgrades, it is overtaxed and in critical need of infrastructure improvements.

There are currently 40 missions that rely on the DSN antennas to operate, with the expectation that an additional 40 missions will be launched in the future. Given that some of the existing missions will still be functional, the demands on the network will continue to grow.https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/11/opinio...oln/index.html

Another network ... a neural one ...

Brain Avalanches and the Secrets of Neural Critical States Unveiled

New research shows that when neurons are given information about the changing world around them (task-related sensory input) it changes how they behave, putting them on edge so that tiny inputs can then set off ‘avalanches’ of brain activity, supporting a theory known as the critical brain hypothesis. ... This fine-balanced state is known as a “neural critical” state, and lies between two extremes – the runaway excitation seen in disorders such as epilepsy, and a coma state where signals stall. ... “The results are astonishing, way beyond what we thought we would achieve.” ...

https://scitechdaily.com/brain-avala...ates-unveiled/

Brain pain ...

New Research Uncovers That Everyone’s Brain Has a Unique “Pain Fingerprint”

New research discovered individual variability in gamma oscillations in the brain, previously thought to represent pain perception. This study found these brain waves are consistent within individuals but vary widely across individuals, leading the researchers to suggest a need for revisiting past research methodologies.

... Interestingly, some recorded feeling pain and having no gamma response, whilst others had a large response. At this stage, it is not known why there is such variation – but it is hoped this will be a springboard for future research.

https://scitechdaily.com/new-researc...n-fingerprint/

Autoimmune hope ...

New Vaccine Can Completely Reverse Autoimmune Diseases Like Multiple Sclerosis, Type 1 Diabetes, and Crohn’s Disease

Researchers at the University of Chicago have developed an “inverse vaccine” that can reverse autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes without suppressing the overall immune system. The vaccine erases the immune system’s harmful memory of specific molecules, halting the autoimmune response where the immune system wrongly attacks healthy tissues.

https://scitechdaily.com/new-vaccine...rohns-disease/

Still so many mysteries within us ...

The “Unknome”: A Database of Human Genes We Know Almost Nothing About

Researchers from the UK have developed a publicly accessible database, the “unknome”, which lists thousands of understudied proteins encoded by human genes. By assigning a “knownness” score to each protein based on existing scientific knowledge, the platform aids researchers in exploring these proteins’ functions, many of which play critical roles in cellular processes.

... the risks of ignoring these proteins are significant, the authors argue, since it is likely that some, perhaps many, play important roles in critical cell processes, and may both provide insight and targets for therapeutic intervention. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/the-unknome...nothing-about/

This gave me a charge ...

Fully Charged in Just 6 Minutes – Groundbreaking Technique Could Revolutionize EV Charging

Electric vehicles traditionally take hours to charge, but a new anode material developed by Professor Won Bae Kim’s team at POSTECH can reduce this time to just six minutes. This advancement is due to the use of manganese ferrites nanosheets, synthesized through a unique method, improving battery capacity and charging speed.

https://scitechdaily.com/fully-charged-in-just-6-minutes-groundbreaking-technique-could-revolutionize-ev-charging/

ALSO:

Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a lithium-ion battery material that can recharge 80% in 10 minutes and maintain this for 1,500 cycles. The team achieved this by creating a new electrolyte formulation that enhances ion flow and withstands high currents during rapid charging.

https://scitechdaily.com/pushing-the-boundaries-of-fast-charging-new-lithium-ion-battery-material-can-recharge-80-in-10-minutes/

AI steps up ...

New Study: AI Chatbots Surpass the Average Human in Creativity

A recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that large language model (LLM) AI chatbots might excel beyond the average human in creative tasks, like brainstorming alternate uses for common items – a reflection of divergent thinking. However, individuals who scored the highest in these tasks still surpassed the top-performing chatbot results.

https://scitechdaily.com/new-study-a...oogle_vignette

'Like a teacher there 24/7': ChatGPT tool supports English education at Japan univ.

Ritsumeikan University has been experimentally introducing an English learning support tool combining ChatGPT and machine translation functions in some of its English classes since this spring ... "Transable" automatically translates Japanese into English, and at the same time checks the grammar of the translated English sentences. It can also back-translate English texts into Japanese and on the same screen check whether the English sentences have been created as intended.

Furthermore, by incorporating ChatGPT, users can ask questions and demand things in addition to receiving an explanation as to why the translated English text is correct. For example, if one asks for the use of a different phrase, multiple English expressions will be suggested. Moreover, users can have ChatGPT evaluate the quality of English sentences they have created on their own and have it point out any mistakes.

Kohei Sugiyama, a doctoral student at the university's Graduate School of Science and Engineering who developed the tool, explained, "It's like having an English teacher who is always there for you, 24/7."

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles...0m/0na/029000c

And ... wow, just wow ...

Digital clones, Vocaloids popular in Japan, but may get lost in translation elsewhere

Kazutaka Yonekura dreams of a world where everyone will have their very own digital "clone" -- an online avatar that could take on some of our work and daily tasks, such as appearing in Zoom meetings in our place.

Yonekura, chief executive of Tokyo startup Alt Inc., believes it could make our lives easier and more efficient.

His company is developing a digital double, an animated image that looks and talks just like its owner. The digital clone can be used, for example, by a recruiter to carry out preliminary job interviews, or by a physician to screen patients ahead of checkups.

"This liberates you from all the routine (tasks) that you must do tomorrow, the day after tomorrow and the day after that," he told The Associated Press as he showed off his double -- a thumbnail video image of Yonekura on the computer screen, with a synthesized version of his voice.

... For now, having a digital double is expensive. Each Alt clone costs about 20 million yen ($140,000), so it will likely take some time before there's a clone for everyone.

In creating a digital double, information about a person is skimmed off social media sites and publicly available records in a massive data collection effort, and stored in the software. The data is constantly updated, keeping in synch with the owner's changing habits and tastes.

Yonekura believes a digital clone could pave the way for a society where people can focus on being creative and waste less time on tedious interactions. ...

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles...0m/0na/023000c

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

And an article which merits a special mention...

Near-death experiences tied to brain activity after death, study says

... Parnia is the senior author of a new study designed to uncover what he calls the “hidden consciousness” of death by measuring electrical activity in the brain when the heart stops and breathing ceases. PMany people report the same experience. Their consciousness became heightened and more vivid, and their thinking became sharper and clearer all while doctors like myself are trying to revive them and think they’re dead,” said Parnia, an associate professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. “They have a sensation they have separated from the body and can see and hear doctors and nurses, and they were able to report what doctors were doing to them in a 360-degree way that’s inexplicable to them,” he added.

In addition, people often review their entire lives, remember thoughts, feelings and events they normally couldn’t, and begin to evaluate themselves based upon principles of morality and ethics. It’s a “global comprehension of their behavior throughout life where they can no longer deceive themselves,” Parnia said. People also report seeing a God-like being Parnia says can be interpreted in different ways: “If you happen to be a Christian, you say, ‘I saw Jesus’ and if you happen to be an atheist, you say ‘I saw this incredible being of love and compassion.’ All of this has been reported now for more than 60 years.”

... In the study, published Thursday in the journal Resuscitation, teams of trained personnel in 25 hospitals in the United States, the United Kingdom and Bulgaria followed doctors into rooms where patients were “coding” or “technically dead,” Parnia said.

While doctors performed CPR, the research teams attached devices that measured oxygen and electrical activity to the dying person’s head. ... " ... We found the brains of people who are going through death have flatlined, which is what you would expect,” Parnia said.

“But interestingly, even up to an hour into the resuscitation, we saw spikes — the emergence of brain electrical activity, the same as I have when talking or deeply concentrating,” he added.

Those spikes included gamma, delta, theta, alpha and beta waves, according to the study.

... In addition, the study took the recorded brain signals and compared them with brain signals done by other studies on hallucinations, delusions and illusions and found them to be very different, he added. “We were able to conclude that the recalled experience of death is real. It occurs with death, and there’s a brain marker that we’ve identified. These electrical signals are not being produced as a trick of a dying brain, which is what a lot of critics have said.”

... Some experts in the field were less convinced by the study’s conclusions, which were first presented at scientific sessions in November 2022 and widely covered by the media.

“This latest report of persistent brain waves after cardiac arrest has been blown out of proportion by the media. In fact, his team did not show any association between these brain waves and conscious activity,” said Dr. Bruce Greyson, Carlson Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville. “That is, those patients who had near-death experiences did not show the reported brain waves, and those who did show the reported brain waves did not report near-death experiences,” Greyson told CNN via email. ... “All (the study) has shown is that in some patients there is continued electrical activity in the head that occurs during the same period that other patients report having NDEs (near-death experiences),” Greyson said. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/14/health...ess/index.html

[Jundo]

I might sometimes sound a bit "out there" for talking about how we had best use some of this tech, and what Zen and Buddhism have to say about doing so ...

... but I am not so "out there." This from today's news.

Just what we all need: Elon Musk and X in our heads!

Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant startup, set to begin human trials

After receiving approval from an independent review board, Neuralink is set to begin offering brain implants to paralysis patients as part of the PRIME Study, the company said. PRIME, short for Precise Robotically Implanted Brain-Computer Interface, is being carried out to evaluate both the safety and functionality of the implant.

Trial patients will have a chip surgically placed in the part of the brain that controls the intention to move. The chip, installed by a robot, will then record and send brain signals to an app, with the initial goal being “to grant people the ability to control a computer cursor or keyboard using their thoughts alone,” the company wrote.

... In his new book about Neuralink’s founder, author Walter Isaacson reported that Musk was inspired by science fiction authors such as Iain Banks to pursue a “human-machine interface technology called ‘neural lace’ that is implanted into people and can connect all of their thoughts to a computer.” ...

... But employees told Reuters in December that the company is rushing to market, resulting in careless animal deaths and a federal investigation.

Neuralink did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/20/tech/m...als/index.html

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

A necessary step perhaps, but with ethical concerns to weigh ...

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/09/20/1200479082/mental-health-courts-california-care-debate?fbclid=IwAR0uKBsyGcNITe1ZRYNtP35RiPlo-42riXqR7ltL0FMa9qorruYMuVlbTTo

AT NEW MENTAL HEALTH COURTS IN CALIFORNIA, JUDGES WILL BE ABLE TO MANDATE TREATMENT

[NPR] For years, she refused help, insisting to all who offered, "I'm not sick," until police arrested her for petty theft and public drunkenness. A judge gave her an ultimatum: jail or treatment. She chose treatment.

"I'm so thankful that they did that," said Sweeney, now 52. "I needed that. I think there's others out there that need it, too."

If she hadn't been compelled to get care, Sweeney said, she wouldn't be alive today, back at work and reunited with her husband. It's why she supports California's new civil CARE Courts that will launch this fall in eight counties, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Orange, followed by the rest of the state in 2024.

Under the new system, family members and first responders can ask county judges to order people with psychotic illness into treatment, even if they are not unhoused or haven't committed a crime.

A judge will then determine if a person meets criteria for the program and may oversee a care agreement or compel a treatment plan. That treatment plan could even include involuntary commitment.

... That tension — between those who advocate for treatment being voluntary and those who say the status quo allows people to die in the streets "with their rights on" — is playing out all over the state of California.

Gassho, J

stlah

[Guest]

A necessary step perhaps, but with ethical concerns to weigh ...

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/09/20/1200479082/mental-health-courts-california-care-debate?fbclid=IwAR0uKBsyGcNITe1ZRYNtP35RiPlo-42riXqR7ltL0FMa9qorruYMuVlbTTo

Gassho, J

stlah

Can you not be sectioned if you are judged a liability in the US? In the UK, if you show psychotic symptoms or similar, and are judged unfit by a psychiatrist you get forced into the psyche ward, essentially mandatory treatment, on the understanding that you are no longer fit to make a rational decision.

Sattday

Dan

[Jundo]

Can you not be sectioned if you are judged a liability in the US? In the UK, if you show psychotic symptoms or similar, and are judged unfit by a psychiatrist you get forced into the psyche ward, essentially mandatory treatment, on the understanding that you are no longer fit to make a rational decision.

Sattday

Dan

I think that, if you read the details of this, it is a little different in scope. I believe that you are speaking of civil commitment.

When it comes to mental illness, the problem of when to treat people who don't know they need treatment or people who resist treatment is a tough one. For decades now, compelling people into care, something called involuntary commitment, has been deemphasized as an option and considered only as a last resort. The thinking is that the patient should have autonomy and participate in their care. But now Democratic states such as Oregon and California are reconsidering their approaches as mental health, the drug epidemic and also homelessness become increasingly political problems.

... The attention to this has really been rooted in homelessness, which is a huge problem in California. Half of the unsheltered population in the country lives here. And even though only a quarter or a third of those folks have a serious mental illness, that is where we're seeing a lot of policy proposals being directed. So this year the state is rolling out something called Care Courts. This is where a family member or a doctor can refer someone who has a psychotic illness to court. And a judge will draw up a care plan that the person is strongly encouraged to accept. Another recent proposal is to expand who qualifies for involuntary commitment. One doctor told me about a patient who's homeless who has both diabetes and schizophrenia, and he keeps cycling in and out of the emergency room because he's not taking his diabetes medication. And that's because he's not taking his antipsychotic medication. So right now doctors' hands are tied with a patient like this...

... Because being unable to take care of your own medical needs is not a reason that doctors can intervene under the current law, and that is something that they want to change. ...

... Why is changing civil commitment such a nonstarter in Oregon where, like, in California, they're honestly considering changing it? ... I think a few things are still different here [in California]. First, the power to force a civil commitment in Oregon is very narrow but maybe not quite as narrow as in California. So to take one of April's examples, in Oregon, a person who is not taking diabetes medication due to psychosis - that person could be successfully civilly committed. The legislature made a small change in 2015 that makes those cases a little easier to pursue. But there's real resistance to going further. And the biggest issue by far is treatment capacity for mental illness and substance use disorders. There's just limited political interest in forcing more people into treatment when the system can barely handle the patients it has right now. ... The state [Oregon] has two dedicated psychiatric hospitals with about 600 beds total. And over the last decade, more of those beds have been needed for people who are in county jails who are too mentally ill to understand the charges against them.

So the result is that most civilly committed patients are denied a bed at the state hospital. And then there's no community beds, either. Like, sending someone to a nursing home or an adult foster home or a residential treatment facility - those beds were in really short supply already.

https://www.npr.org/2023/03/28/11666...ary-commitment

Gassho, J

stlah

[Jundo]

Part man part pig part man ...

Groundbreaking transplant of pig heart into living recipient is performed for the second time ever

... The groundbreaking surgery was done on September 20 at UMMC by the same transplant team that preformed the first such experimental surgery in 2022.

In a news release, the hospital said the recipient, 58-year-old Lawrence Faucette, “is currently breathing on his own, and his heart is functioning well without any assistance from supportive devices.” ... Faucette had end-stage heart disease. He had pre-existing peripheral vascular disease and complications with internal bleeding making him ineligible for a traditional heart transplant, the hospital said in the release. ...

... The pig heart used came from a genetically modified pig from Revivcor, a subsidiary the United Therapeutics Corporation. The pig had 10 genes edited, including three genes “knocked out” or inactivated to eliminate the alpha gal sugar in the pig’s blood cells, which can trigger a severe reaction in the human immune system, causing organ rejection. An additional pig gene was modified to control for the growth of the pig’s heart while 6 human genes were added into the pig’s genome to increase acceptance by the immune system. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/22/health...ver/index.html

This hit me in the kidneys ...

Scientists Discover a Previously Unknown “Housekeeping” Process in Kidney Cells

... scientists discovered a unique “housekeeping” process in kidney cells where unwanted content is ejected, rejuvenating the cells. This mechanism, different from typical regeneration in other organs, could explain why kidneys stay healthy for a lifetime. ...

... Unlike the liver and skin, where cells divide to create new daughter cells and regenerate the organ, cells in the proximal tubules of the kidney are mitotically quiescent — they do not divide to create new cells. In cases of a mild injury or disease, kidney cells do have limited repair capabilities, and stem cells in the kidney can form new kidney cells, but only up to a point, said Dr. Jie Zheng ... The researchers found proximal tubular cells that had formed outwardly facing bulges in their luminal membranes that contained not only gold nanoparticles but also lysosomes, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum, and other organelles typically confined to a cell’s interior. The extruded contents were then pinched off into a vesicle that floated off into the extracellular space.

“At that moment, we knew this was an unusual phenomenon,” Yu said. “This is a new method for cells to remove cellular contents.”

https://scitechdaily.com/sweeping-di...-kidney-cells/

One more piece of the puzzle ...

A source of carbon — a building block of life — is found on Jupiter's moon Europa

In an intriguing breakthrough, astronomers have concluded that carbon, an essential component of life on Earth, is also present within Europa, Jupiter's ice-covered moon that's believed to hold huge oceans of liquid salt water beneath its icy surface.

The findings come from analyzing images from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, which found the carbon "likely originated in the subsurface ocean," according to a summary of two papers about the analysis.

"The discovery signals a potentially habitable environment in the ocean of Europa," according to the Webb telescope's website.

... [BUT] ... It's important to remember that in this context, a "habitable environment" on Europa refers to a salty ocean encased by an ice shell that's believed to be 10 to 15 miles thick, on a moon where the sunlight is about 25 times fainter than on Earth. If that's not enough to make you put away your swimsuit, consider the neighborhood bully: Europa is under the thrall of Jupiter's radiation and gravity — the latter is so strong, it's believed to create tides that rip the moon's thick ice crust apart.

But NASA says tidal flexing on Europa could also produce the heat and nutrients that encourage life. So while the differences between conditions on Earth are stark, similarities, like the likely presence of carbon, are compelling. And while Europa is a bit smaller than our Moon, its ocean is estimated to hold more than twice as much water as all of Earth's oceans together.

The new findings come a year before NASA's ambitious Europa Clipper mission, which will launch in October of 2024 and reach the Jovian moon in 2030.

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/22/1201071390/carbon-jupiter-moon-europa

Life recipes ... and carbon may not always be needed ...

New Chemical Recipes for Life’s Origins: Guiding Us to Distant Planets Inhabited by Extraterrestrials

Life on a faraway planet — if it’s out there — might not look anything like life on Earth. But there are only so many chemical ingredients in the universe’s pantry, and only so many ways to mix them. A team led by scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has exploited those limitations to write a cookbook of hundreds of chemical recipes with the potential to give rise to life.

Their ingredient list could focus the search for life elsewhere in the universe by pointing out the most likely conditions — planetary versions of mixing techniques, oven temperatures, and baking times — for the recipes to come together. ... “The origin of life really is a something-from-nothing process,” says Betül Kaçar, a NASA-supported astrobiologist and UW–Madison professor of bacteriology. “But that something can’t happen just once. Life comes down to chemistry and conditions that can generate a self-reproducing pattern of reactions.”

https://scitechdaily.com/new-chemical-recipes-for-lifes-origins-guiding-us-to-distant-planets-inhabited-by-extraterrestrials/

... The search for plausible prebiotic autocatalytic systems has been generally centered on carbon-mediated cycles because biological autocatalysis largely relies on organic substrates mediated by linear polymers, e.g., proteins and nucleic acids. No reason has been unequivocally enunciated, however, to ignore wholesale other elements and inorganic compounds that might have scaffolded life’s origins terrestrially or elsewhere in the cosmos. ...

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.3c07041

Bring em back alive ...

Scientists recover RNA from an extinct species for the first time


Geneticists have for the first time isolated and decoded RNA molecules from a creature that died out long ago.

The genetic material — which came from a 130-year-old Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, specimen in the collection of the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm — has allowed scientists to better understand how the animal’s genes functioned. The researchers shared their findings in a study published Tuesday in the scientific journal Genome Research. ... “We had previously thought only DNA remained in old museum and ancient samples, but this paper shows you can also get RNA from tissues,” ... Mármol Sánchez said that while de-extinction wasn’t the goal of his team’s research, a better understanding of the Tasmanian tiger’s genetic makeup could help recently launched efforts to bring back the animal in some form.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/19/world/scientists-recover-rna-tasmanian-tiger-thylacine-scn/index.html

Brains came ...

Tiny Unique Sea Creatures Reveal the Ancient Origins of Neurons

Approximately 800 million years ago, our brain cell components began to take shape in shallow seas.
Research published in the journal Cell offers new insights into the evolution of neurons, focusing on the placozoans, a millimeter-sized marine animal. Scientists from the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona discovered that the specialized secretory cells in these ancient and unique animals may have given rise to neurons in more complex animals.

... Surprisingly, the peptidergic cells shared many similarities to neurons – a cell type that didn’t appear until many millions of years later in more advanced animals such as bilateria. ... “We were astounded by the parallels,” says Dr. Sebastián R. Najle, co-first author of the study and postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Genomic Regulation. “The placozoan peptidergic cells have many similarities to primitive neuronal cells, even if they aren’t quite there yet. It’s like looking at an evolutionary stepping stone.”

The dawn of the neuron
The study demonstrates that the building blocks of the neuron were forming 800 million years ago in ancestral animals grazing inconspicuously in the shallow seas of ancient Earth. From an evolutionary point of view, early neurons might have started as something like the peptidergic secretory cells of today’s placozoans. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/tiny-unique-sea-creatures-reveal-the-ancient-origins-of-neurons/

What we have learned ...

Scientists Discover That the Genes for Learning and Memory Are 650 Million Years Old

Researchers have found that genes linked to complex behaviors like learning and aggression originated around 650 million years ago, potentially influencing the Cambrian Explosion. This discovery may provide insights into the origins of various complex behaviors in animals, including humans.


A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of Leicester has determined that genes responsible for learning, memory, aggression, and other complex behaviors emerged approximately 650 million years ago.

... Dr. Feuda said: “We’ve known for a long time that monoamines like serotonin, dopamine, and adrenaline act as neuromodulators in the nervous system, playing a role in complex behavior and functions like learning and memory, as well as processes such as sleep and feeding.“However, less certain was the origin of the genes required for the production, detection, and degradation of these monoamines. Using the computational methods, we reconstructed the evolutionary history of these genes and showed that most of the genes involved in monoamine production, modulation, and reception originated in the bilaterian stem group. This finding has profound implications on the evolutionary origin of complex behaviors such as those modulated by monoamines we observe in humans and other animals.”

The authors suggest that this new way to modulate neuronal circuits might have played a role in the Cambrian Explosion – known as the Big Bang – which gave rise to the largest diversification of life for most major animal groups alive today by providing flexibility of the neural circuits to facilitate the interaction with the environment.

Dr. Feuda added: “This discovery will open new important research avenues that will clarify the origin of complex behaviors and if the same neurons modulate reward, addiction, aggression, feeding, and sleep.”

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-...ion-years-old/

Boom ...

Cosmic Enigma Decoded: World’s First 3D Simulations Reveal the Physics of Exotic Supernovae

This image depicts the final physical distributions of the exotic supernova, with four distinct color quadrants representing different physical quantities: I. temperature, II. velocity, III. radiative energy density, and IV. gas density. The white dashed circle indicates the position of the supernova photosphere. From this image, the entire star becomes turbulent from the inside out. The positions where ejected materials collide closely match the photosphere, indicating the production of thermal radiation during these collisions, which efficiently propagates outward and simultaneously creates an uneven gas layer. This image helps us understand the underlying physics of exotic supernovae and provides an explanation for the observed phenomena.

Old wood ...

476,000 Years Ago: Archaeologists Discover World’s Oldest Wooden Structure

Research from the University of Liverpool and Aberystwyth University reveals humans were constructing wooden structures 476,000 years ago at Kalambo Falls, Zambia. This discovery, dated using advanced techniques, highlights the early human capability to settle and challenges previous notions about Stone Age lifestyles. ... earlier than was previously thought possible ...

... Expert analysis of stone tool cut marks on the wood shows that these early humans shaped and joined two large logs to make a structure, probably the foundation of a platform or part of a dwelling. ... A digging stick and other wooden tools were found at the same site. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/settlement-and-innovation-476000-years-ago-archaeologists-discover-worlds-oldest-wooden-structure/

https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/20/africa...scn/index.html

Old shoe ...

Archaeologists discover 2,000-year-old child’s shoe with laces intact


A shoe belonging to a child and dating back more than 2,000 years has been unearthed in Austria with its laces still intact.

The design of the leather shoe, whose size roughly corresponds to EU 30 (US 12), suggests it was likely made in the second century BC, according to the German Mining Museum Bochum-Leibniz Research Museum for Geo-resources.



https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/20/world/...scn/index.html

An AI Brain? A Brain AI?

A new study bridging neuroscience and machine learning offers insights into the potential role of astrocytes in the human brain.

Artificial neural networks are ubiquitous machine-learning models that can be trained to complete many tasks. Their name stems from the fact that their architecture is inspired by the way biological neurons process information in the human brain. Scientists discovered a new type of more powerful neural network model known as a transformer about six years ago. These models can achieve unprecedented performance, such as by generating text from prompts with near-human-like accuracy. A transformer underlies AI systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, for example. While incredibly effective, transformers are also mysterious: Unlike with other brain-inspired neural network models, it hasn’t been clear how to build them using biological components.

Bridging Biology and Transformers

Now, researchers from MIT, the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, and Harvard Medical School have produced a hypothesis that may explain how a transformer could be built using biological elements in the brain. They suggest that a biological network composed of neurons and other brain cells called astrocytes could perform the same core computation as a transformer. ...

... Their hypothesis provides insights that could spark future neuroscience research into how the human brain works. At the same time, it could help machine-learning researchers explain why transformers are so successful across a diverse set of complex tasks. ...

https://scitechdaily.com/neurons-ast...lly-plausible/

I need AI to help me keep all the new AI straight in my mind ...

Google’s Bard artificial intelligence chatbot is evolving.

The company on Tuesday announced a series of updates to Bard that will give the chatbot access to Google’s full suite of tools — including YouTube, Google Drive, Google Flights and others — to assist users in a wider variety of tasks. Users will be able, for example, to ask Bard to plan an upcoming trip, complete with real flight options. Or a user could ask the tool to summarize meeting notes made in a recent Google Drive document.

The connections to Google’s other services are just some of the improvements to Bard coming Tuesday. Other updates include the ability to communicate with the chatbot in multiple languages, new fact-checking capabilities and a broad update to the large language model that the tool is built on.

https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/19/tech/g...tes/index.html

Too much carbon ...

70 Gigatonnes – Steel Plant Upgrades Could Save Equivalent of Two Years of Global Carbon Emissions

Upgrading, or retrofitting, the world’s iron and steel processing plants early could reduce carbon emissions by up to 70 gigatonnes by 2050, which is roughly equivalent to two years’ worth of net global carbon emissions.

... The scientists discovered that as of 2019, the last year that data is available, 74.5% of the world’s steel was produced in coal-powered plants that release considerable carbon emissions. Technologies exist to reduce these admissions, but upgrades are expensive and time-consuming and so are usually only undertaken at the end of a processing unit’s operational lifetime.

Refining is also hard on the equipment, and the individual processing units within each plant need to be retrofitted periodically to prolong their operational lifetimes. Overall, 43.2% of global iron and steel plants have been retrofitted with new technologies or have otherwise enhanced their processes to extend their operating lifetime. The frequency of their retrofits depends on the technique they employ and how old they are, but typically they occur after 15 to 27 years of use.

The team found that if all currently operating processing units were upgraded to incorporate low-emissions technology at their predicted time of their refit, total emissions from the iron and steel sector could be reduced by 58.7 gigatonnes between 2020 and 2050, but if all the refits and upgrades were bumped forward and completed five years early, the total carbon savings would be 16% greater at 69.6 gigatonnes.

https://scitechdaily.com/70-gigatonn...bon-emissions/

China cuts off the world ...

China just stopped exporting two minerals the world’s chipmakers need

China’s exports of two rare minerals essential for manufacturing semiconductors fell to zero in August, a month after Beijing imposed curbs on sales overseas, citing national security.

China produces about 80% of the world’s gallium and about 60% of germanium, according to the Critical Raw Materials Alliance, but it didn’t sell any of the elements on international markets last month, Chinese customs data released on Wednesday showed. In July, the country exported 5.15 metric tons of forged gallium products and 8.1 metric tons of forged germanium products. ... China may be the industry leader in producing the two elements, but there are alternative producers, as well as available substitutes for both materials, Eurasia Group analysts said in a July research report. ...

https://us.cnn.com/2023/09/21/econom...hnk/index.html

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