Lifeboat Foundation

General interest.

IBM researchers are developing a new computer architecture, better equipped to handle increased data loads from artificial intelligence. Their designs draw on concepts from the human brain and significantly outperform conventional computers in comparative studies. They report on their recent findings in the Journal of Applied Physics.

Today’s computers are built on the von Neumann architecture, developed in the 1940s. Von Neumann computing systems feature a central processer that executes logic and arithmetic, a memory unit, storage, and input and output devices. Unlike the stovepipe components in conventional computers, the authors propose that brain-inspired computers could have coexisting processing and memory units.

Continue reading “A new brain-inspired architecture could improve how computers handle data and advance AI” »

It might already feel like social media is taking up too much of our mental space, but just wait until it’s literally inside of our brains.

Physicists and neuroscientists have developed the world’s first “brain-to-brain” network, using electroencephalograms (EEGs), which record electrical activity in the brain, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which can transmit information into the brain, to allow people to communicate directly with each other’s brains — a new and thrilling (and a little terrifying?) example of science fiction brought to life.

Researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle announced last week that they successfully used their interface, which they call BrainNet, to have a small group of people play a collaborative “Tetris-like” game — with their minds.

Continue reading “The Next Social Networks Could Be Brain-to-Brain” »

Only the third woman to win Nobel in Physics.

The 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to a woman for only the third time since the award began.

University of Michigan professor and Frenchman Gerard Mourou won a Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for work with lasers. (Photo: Getty Images)

Two new studies contradict each other. Under our current model, they can’t both be right.

Illuminating mathematics, physics, biology and computer science research through public service journalism.

Physicists recently addressed a persistent flaw in a test that defines reality.

The world’s greatest clockmaker sent a clock to the new world, and everything went haywire. The reason why will shock you.

Los Alamos engineers are working on a tiny, steel-encased core regulated by physics, not pumps.