These are the kinds of updates we’ve all been waiting for.
Category: robotics/AI
Compact terahertz imaging system brings real-time, non-invasive clinical diagnostics closer
Scientists at the University of Warwick and University of Exeter have developed a fully fiber-coupled terahertz (THz) imaging system that significantly improves the speed, resolution, and clinical practicality of terahertz imaging. The study, published in Nature Communications, demonstrates a high-throughput, compact platform that overcomes key barriers limiting current THz systems—bringing real-time, non-invasive tissue imaging closer to routine clinical use.
“Terahertz imaging has shown immense promise for biomedical diagnostics, but its translation into real-world clinical tools has been hindered by bulky systems and slow acquisition speeds,” said Professor Emma MacPherson, Department of Physics, University of Warwick. “It’s an exciting breakthrough as the fiber coupling means that the system can be flexible and compact, meaning it can function as a handheld device or be integrated with a robot.”
Terahertz waves sit between microwaves and infrared light on the electromagnetic spectrum. Crucially, they are non-ionizing (meaning they do not carry the risks associated with X-rays) and are highly sensitive to water content, which helps reveal differences between healthy and diseased tissue. Despite this promise, most existing terahertz imaging systems are bulky and slow, limiting their use outside specialist labs.
Johns Hopkins awarded $15M to develop platform to study neurological diseases, screen chemicals
The DROID platform will extend current in vitro approaches—test tubes and culture dishes—to modeling learning and memory using brain organoids, addressing a critical gap: Current in vitro assays cannot capture higher-order neural responses, and evaluations of neurotoxicity or drug efficacy still primarily rely on animal behavioral tests.
The researchers will also evaluate brain organoids derived from both healthy individuals and patients with Alzheimer’s disease and individuals with SYNGAP1-related disorders—a rare pediatric condition associated with intellectual disability, seizures, and autism—to test neural responses and sensitivity to pharmacological interventions.
By enabling researchers to assess complex neural responses that currently rely on animal behavioral tests, the DROIDp system aims to improve drug discovery and neurotoxicity testing. Ultimately, the goal of this platform is to provide a more predictive, human-relevant approach for studying neurological diseases and evaluating the safety of drugs and chemicals.
Why Proactive Cybersecurity Is Essential In The AI Era
Please see my latest Forbes article:
Thanks! Chuck Brooks.
“By implementing proactive cybersecurity now, we protect not only our systems and data but also the innovation, economic growth, and social stability made possible by developing technologies. The age of reactivity is over, and the age of anticipation has begun”
#cybersecurity #artificialintellligence, #ai, #tech #future #forbes
The consequences are obvious. We are already working in an AI-driven threat scenario, not getting ready for one. Organizations and countries that embrace proactive cybersecurity as a strategic necessity will be successful in this environment.
Those who demonstrate resilience, adaptability, and insight will reap the rewards in the future of AI. To maximize AI’s defensive potential while reducing its offensive risks, this changing ecosystem needs investments in workforce development, governance frameworks, predictive defenses, and cross-sector cooperation. Those that act with resilience, adaptability, and insight will be rewarded in the AI future.
Automated Classification of Mitral and Tricuspid Regurgitation With Explainability and Real‐World Practice Experience
An explainable AI system enables accurate, flow-aware grading of mitral and tricuspid regurgitation in routine echocardiography.
Mitral regurgitation and tricuspid regurgitation frequently coexist and are evaluated using overlapping echocardiographic views. Although artificial intelligence–based approaches have shown promise, current existing models lack explainability and physiologic constraints, limiting their reliability and adoption in real‐world echocardiographic workflows.
Could ChatGPT be conscious? | Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez, Max Tegmark
Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, and Max Tegmark discuss consciousness, quantum physics, and the possibility of a sentient superintelligent A.I.
Could ChatGPT be conscious?
With a free trial, you can watch the full debate NOW at https://iai.tv/video/cracking-the-code-for-thought?utm_sourc…ed-comment.
The idea that the brain is computational has, from the outset, been central to neuroscience. Like a computer, the brain is a problem-solving machine that stores memories and processes information. But despite the advances in AI, many challenge whether this analogy captures the essence of the mind. Computers use transistors to build elementary logic gates, enabling them to store files exactly, in 0s and 1s. They are precise and repeatable. Human brains, in contrast, are biological—the neurons do not operate as simple logic gates, but have thousands of inputs, and their output is dependent on past activity and their current internal state. Remove a computer’s processor, and it breaks. But humans can survive with only one brain hemisphere. Fundamentally, brains think, they have perception, and are conscious.
Is it a mistake to see the mind as computational? Are computers, at root, limited machines with little in common with the sophistication of living things? Or have computers and mathematics uncovered the essential character of thought—and perhaps even the cosmos itself?
#consciousness #quantum #neuroscience #quantumphysics #ai #artificialintelligence.
Yuval Noah Harari: Why advanced societies fall for mass delusion
Become a Big Think member to unlock expert classes, premium print issues, exclusive events and more: https://bigthink.com/membership/?utm_… Become a Big Think member to unlock Yuval’s full class, AI and the Future of Civilization: https://bigthink.com/my-classes/ai-an…
Up next, Yuval Noah Harari: How to safeguard your mind in the age of junk information ► • Yuval Noah Harari: How to safeguard your m…
“The problem is in our information. Humans, yes, we are generally good and wise, but if you give good people bad information, they make bad decisions.”
Human history is a paradox: we accumulate knowledge at astonishing speed, while remaining vulnerable to deception, superstition, and the stories that steer entire civilizations.
From the first clay tablets to today’s global media systems, the structures that carry our ideas have always shaped what societies can build, believe, and destroy. That paradox is even more important in the age of AI, says Yuval Noah Harari.
0:00 If humans are so smart, why are we on the verge of destruction?
