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

[Jundo]

I would just like to mention the passing of Notre Dame Catherdral today, a loss to world culture, art and spirituality. All things are impermanent.

However, I have been encouraged to read that the building may be the first world treasure to have all its art and architecture stored electronically, then restored in part by digital and 3-D printing!

Thus, I mention it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaqOquFn5Og

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PjIb65r3pQ

Four years ago, an art historian used lasers to digitally map Notre Dame Cathedral. His work could help save it

https://us.cnn.com/2019/04/16/world/andrew-tallon-notre-dame-laser-scan-trnd/index.html

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

Israeli scientists 3D-print heart with human tissue in world first

A team of Israeli scientists "printed" a heart with a patient's own cells in a world first, researchers say.

Past researchers had been able to print simple tissues without blood vessels, the team said. This development was the first time "anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers," Tal Dvir of Tel Aviv University told The Jerusalem Post.

Dvir and his team reported their findings Monday in Advanced Science.

The heart, about the size of a rabbit's, is too small for a human, but the process used to create it shows the potential for one day being able to 3D-print patches and maybe full transplants, the team said.

Because the heart is made from the patient's own biological material, it reduces the chance the transplant would fail, according to the research paper.

The team used fatty tissues then separated and "reprogrammed" the cellular and a-cellular materials. Stem cells that become heart cells were then created.

The development is being touted as a "major breakthrough" in medicine and one that could help battle heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Patients will no longer have to wait for transplants or take medications to prevent their rejection," Tel Aviv University said in a statement, per Bloomberg. "Instead, the needed organs will be printed, fully personalized for every patient."

However, the medical research is still a ways off from being able to transplant the 3D-printed hearts into humans, the team says.

Dvir told Bloomberg the heart the team printed will need another month before cells mature enough to beat and contract. Tests on animals would need to be done before the technology could be tried in humans, he added.

It also would take a whole day and billions, rather than millions, of cells to print a human heart, Dvir told Bloomberg.

But Dvir remains hopeful. "Maybe, in 10 years, there will be organ printers in the finest hospitals around the world, and these procedures will be conducted routinely," he told the Times of Israel.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...newstopstories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPcoct9nLVg

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

A meteor from another solar system may have hit Earth, and the implications are fascinating

It could take humanity hundreds, if not thousands, of years to develop the capability to explore interstellar space. Until then, interstellar space can just come to us.

A new study by two Harvard researchers reveals the cosmos may have already deposited the first such far-flung visitor onto our doorstep five years ago in 2014, when a small meteor crashed into Earth near Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific. According to their research, this 1.5-foot-wide object most likely came all the way from another solar system.
...
"Almost all of the objects that hit the Earth originate for the solar system," explains Dr. Abraham Loeb, the chair of the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University, and the co-atuhor of the study. "They are made of the same materials that made the solar system. Those that are interstellar originate from another source. It's sort of like getting a message in a bottle from a distant location.

... Of all of the possibilities wrapped up in this relatively small object, perhaps the most exciting is the idea that, theoretically, interstellar objects could carry life from other solar systems.
"Most importantly, there is a possibility that life could be transferred between stars," Loeb says. "In principle, life could survive in the core of a rock. Either bacteria, or tardigrades (a microscopic, water-dwelling animal); they can survive harsh conditions in space and arrive right to us."

https://us.cnn.com/2019/04/17/us/int...rnd/index.html

Scientists have detected the earliest Big Bang molecule in space

When the universe formed during the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, the chemical reactions of the aftermath formed the first molecules. Those first molecules were crucial in helping form everything we know, but they're also absent.

And although HeH+, the helium hydride ion, has been proposed for years as that first molecule, scientists couldn't find any evidence of its existence in space -- until now. The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

https://us.cnn.com/2019/04/17/world/...scn/index.html

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

Scientists turn brain signals into speech with help from AI
The technology could lead to devices that restore speaking ability to people who have lost it as a result of brain injury or neurological disorders.

Using electrodes and artificial intelligence, scientists in California have built a device that can translate brain signals into speech. They say their experimental decoder could lead ultimately to a brain implant that restores the ability to speak to people who have lost it as a result of stroke, traumatic brain injury or neurological diseases like multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. ... For their research, Chang and his collaborators recorded the brain activity of five epilepsy patients (who already had brain implants as part of their treatment) as they read aloud a list of sentences. Then a pair of neural networks — artificial intelligence algorithms specially designed for pattern recognition — began the decoding process. They first used the brain signals to predict the instructions being sent to the lips, tongue, jaw and throat to produce the words. The second turned the predicted movements into synthesized speech produced by a computer. ...

... The results varied depending on how many options transcribers had to choose from, but on average, the listeners were able to correctly identify 70 percent of the words. When given 25 options per word, they got 69 percent of the words correct; with 50 they got 47 percent correct. ...

... The researchers’ approach could also quell fears that an individual’s private thoughts might be broadcast to the world ,,, “Decoding the brain signals related to the mouth movements that create speech has the advantage of only decoding things that the person intended to say,” she said in an email. “So it minimizes privacy concerns that could occur with decoding other types of brain activity.” ,,,

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science...-ai-ncna998551

Amazing ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbX9FLJ6WKw

Gassho, J

STLah

[Kyoshin]

Wow! That's amazing! I remember reading an article that interviewed people who had recovered from comas. Some said it was like being asleep, but others said that they were conscious or semi conscious and able to hear and understand what was going on around them. It really shook me, I can't imagine how awful that would be, to know your loved ones are right there but unable to move or speak to them. What a wonderful gift this technology could be. Just incredible.

Gassho
Kyōshin
Satlah

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[Jundo]

University of Tokyo plans experiment to grow human organs in pigs within about a year

The University of Tokyo plans to start an experiment to grow human pancreases in pigs for transplantation using induced pluripotent stem cells, better known as iPS cells, a professor leading the project said recently.

Professor Hiromitsu Nakauchi said he hopes to launch the first project in the country to grow human organs in animals within a year or so, once it clears government and university screening committees, and use genetically engineered pancreases in the treatment of disorders such as serious diabetes within 10 years.

The decision by Nakauchi’s research team comes after the Japanese government lifted a ban on producing animals with embryos containing human cells, as the supply of donated organs continues to lag behind demand from patients awaiting transplants.

Nakauchi’s team will inject human iPS cells, which can grow into any kind of cells, into a pig embryo genetically modified so that it lacks the ability to develop a pancreas. The embryo will then be placed in a surrogate sow’s uterus.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/20.../#.XMbxgdSLTX4

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99uWHUQ-dC0

This image is a 'history book' of the universe

At first glance, it looks like a starry night. But this is a very different perspective of the vast darkness of space pitted by little points of light.

Those bright points aren't stars; they're entire galaxies. The image is a mosaic that combines 7,500 images from 16 years worth of the Hubble Space Telescope's deep surveys and looks back over 13.3 billion years of our universe's history.

You're looking at 265,000 individual galaxies that extend all the way back to just 500 million years after the Big Bang ...

This new mosaic contains 100 times as many galaxies as previous deep surveys, making it the most complete portrait of the universe to date.

... The image functions like a history book, scientists say, because looking back in space also allows for a look back in time. Although some of these galaxies are reduced to tiny points of light, it's because they are only one ten-billionth of their actual brightness. They are the farthest out, and without a telescope, this is the best the human eye can do.

The image also shows galactic evolution, which contributes to the universe's expansion. Galaxies start out small and grow into giants. By studying them, astronomers can learn about how elements were created, how the conditions for life began on Earth and how physics works in the universe. ...

... ... future telescopes, like the James Webb Space Telescope that's slated for launch in the early 2020s, will push farther into the legacy field and identify the first galaxies born in the universe, the researchers said

https://us.cnn.com/2019/05/02/world/...scn/index.html

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99uWHUQ-dC0

Somebody wrote to say that, seeing all these numberless galaxies, made them feel very very small in the universe. I told them that it is not necessarily so.

It should make you feel very BIG ... BIGGER AND BIGGER each time your see the expanding universe ... because it is all just you too.

Gassho, J

STLah

[Geika]

I agree. Sometimes just switching perspectives can "fill the glass half full," so to speak.

Gassho

Sat today, lah

[Jundo]

Alas, not all scientific reports are happy ones. All things are impermanent, including our planet ... but no need to rush things.

UN Report: One million species threatened with extinction because of humans.

One million of the planet's eight million species are threatened with extinction by humans, scientists warned Monday in what is described as the most comprehensive assessment of global nature loss ever.

Their landmark report paints a bleak picture of a planet ravaged by an ever-growing human population, whose insatiable consumption is destroying the natural world.

The global rate of species extinction "is already tens to hundreds of times higher than it has been, on average, over the last 10 million years," according to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), a UN committee, whose report was written by 145 experts from 50 countries.

Shrinking habitat, exploitation of natural resources, climate change and pollution are the main drivers of species loss and are threatening more than 40% of amphibians, 33% of coral reefs and over a third of all marine mammals with extinction, the IPBES report said.

https://us.cnn.com/2019/05/06/world/...ntl/index.html

Cleaning this planet and preserving the environment can be as much Buddhist Practice as cleaning a Zendo floor or preserving a temple building. Saving beings, including ourselves, can come in many forms.

Gassho, J

STLah

Gassho,

[Geika]

I just read about this, and it often fills me with a sense of urgency... as it should, but with an unbearable helplessness. I will keep sitting. And keep collecting zero waste tools... and try to eat less meat... many sighs.

Gassho

Sat today, lah

[Jundo]

Although I still have my doubts, this seems to be an actual thing ...

japanese multinational company TDK has created ‘bons-AI’, the artificially intelligent and interactive bonsai plant with the ability to offer emotional support. it features a soil sensor, miniature camera to control its movements, and an LED panel to convey its emotions.

bons-AI moves around and searches for sunlight by itself using an axis sensor which aids its stability. when it finds it, it lights up the LED lines integrated into its pot signalling its satisfaction. the plant is part of TDK’s attracting tomorrow project, an initiative which hopes to develop various tools and content that to bring us closer to the future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckHtIpKOIb0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHD-h2-Wm9I

Gassho, J

STLah

[Geika]

�� I want it.

Gassho

Sat today, lah

[Shonin Risa Bear]

If robots become sentient, do we vow to save them?

Gassho
Meishin
sat today

Only if they experience dukkha.

gassho
doyu sat today/lent a hand

[Jundo]

$2.5 trillion 'Holy Grail' found? Breakthrough discovery could lead to 100 percent recyclable plastics, scientists say

Plastic pollution in the world's oceans may have a $2.5 trillion impact, negatively affecting "almost all marine ecosystem services," including areas such as fisheries, recreation and heritage. But a breakthrough from scientists at Berkeley Lab could be the solution the planet needs for this eye-opening problem – recyclable plastics.

The study, published in Nature Chemistry, details how the researchers were able to discover a new way to assemble the plastics and reuse them "into new materials of any color, shape, or form."

“Most plastics were never made to be recycled,” said lead author Peter Christensen, a postdoctoral researcher at Berkeley Lab’s Molecular Foundry, in the statement. “But we have discovered a new way to assemble plastics that takes recycling into consideration from a molecular perspective.”

Known as poly(diketoenamine), or PDK, the new type of plastic material could help stem the tide of plastics piling up at recycling plants, as the bonds PDK forms are able to be reversed via a simple acid bath, the researchers believe.

https://www.foxnews.com/science/holy...lable-plastics

Gassho, J

STLah