Lifeboat Foundation

Machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence systems influence many aspects of people’s lives: news articles, movies to watch, people to spend time with, access to credit, and even the investment of capital. Algorithms have been empowered to make such decisions and take actions for the sake of efficiency and speed. Despite these gains, there are concerns about the rapid automation of jobs (even such jobs as journalism and radiology). A better understanding of attitudes toward and interactions with algorithms is essential precisely because of the aura of objectivity and infallibility cultures tend to ascribe to them. This report illustrates some of the shortcomings of algorithmic decisionmaking, identifies key themes around the problem of algorithmic errors and bias, and examines some approaches for combating these problems. This report highlights the added risks and complexities inherent in the use of algorithmic decisionmaking in public policy. The report ends with a survey of approaches for combating these problems.

April 12 (UPI) — A new composite image captured by researchers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, offers proof galaxies are connected by a web of dark matter.

The universe’s cosmic web of dark matter has remained elusive, but Waterloo researchers were able to tease out its existence by tracing a weak gravitational lensing.

Typically, astronomers used gravitational lensing events to study the light from distant galaxies as the beams are warped by massive galactic structures. But the gravity of smaller cosmic objects can bend light, too — including strands of dark matter.

Continue reading “Image confirms galaxies are connected” »

Clothes that repair themselves.

You can poke a hole in this jacket and it’ll repair itself.

A Mexican engineer has devised a tool that can be used to differentiate between a tumor and healthy tissue while on the operating table, leading to more accurate surgeries and minimizing risks.

Brain surgery is never easy. There is always risk; however, it just got a little bit safer.

If it can figure out what you’re trying to draw, that is.

Octopuses are so clever that they can ignore their genetic programming, in turn slowing down their DNA evolution.

DNA protects itself from damage naturally, and scientists are hoping to gain insight into how the process works. When DNA is bathed in ultraviolet light, it can eject a single proton from a hydrogen atom to rid itself of excess energy, ensuring other chemical bonds remain intact. This protective mechanism is called an excited state proton transfer, and it is the focus of new research by a team of scientists.

The researchers used the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory to generate X-ray laser pulses capable of probing the nitrogen molecule — in the simple molecule 2-thiopyridone — for quadrillionths of a second. The short period of time matters because when molecules are exposed to this kind of light they react incredibly quickly. The brightness of the light is equally important, because only very brilliant illumination renders these ultrafast changes visible to the researchers.

Continue reading “Scientists Witnessed DNA Protecting Itself From Radiation” »

A new report shows Sci-Hub is being used not just in developing countries but in Silicon Valley, the Washington D.C. region, and around major research universities.

“These re-engineered organisms will change our lives over the coming years, leading to cheaper drugs, ‘green’ means to fuel our cars and targeted therapies for attacking ‘superbugs’ and diseases, such as cancer,” wrote Drs. Ahmad Khalil and James Collins at Boston University, who were not involved in the study.

Our brains are often compared to computers, but in truth, the billions of cells in our bodies may be a better analogy. The squishy sacks of goop may seem a far cry from rigid chips and bundled wires, but cells are experts at taking inputs, running them through a complicated series of logic gates and producing the desired programmed output.

Take beta cells in the pancreas, which manufacture and store insulin. If they detect a large spike in blood sugar, then they release insulin; else they don’t. Each cell adheres to commands like these, allowing us—the organism—to operate normally.

Continue reading “Scientists Hacked a Cell’s DNA and Made a Biocomputer Out of It” »