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Nov 7, 2022

Google is testing a new robot that can program itself

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

The robot can understand natural language commands, remember what it learned, and reuse instructions for similar tasks down the line.

Nov 7, 2022

PIONEERS (Animation Short Film)

Posted by in category: media & arts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inpTY8mnwos

Music in this video:
Creator: Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio.
Title: Melancholic Synthwave *No Beat* — Dreams of 1984
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpPI4xiMCD8&list=RDkpPI4xiMCD8&start_radio=1
Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/WhiteBatAudio.

Carl Sagan: Pale Blue Dot (1994) — Wanderers: An Introduction.

Nov 7, 2022

Elon Musk threatens to boot Twitter account impersonators

Posted by in category: Elon Musk

BOSTON (AP) — Elon Musk tweeted Sunday that Twitter will permanently suspend any account on the social media platform that impersonates another.

The platform’s new owner issued the warning after some celebrities changed their Twitter display names — not their account names — and tweeted as ‘Elon Musk’ in reaction to the billionaire’s decision to offer verified accounts to all comers for $8 month as he simultaneously laid off a big chunk of the workforce.

“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying “parody” will be permanently suspended,” Musk wrote. While Twitter previously issued warnings before suspensions, now that it is rolling out “widespread verification, there will be no warning.”

Nov 6, 2022

Spate of polio outbreaks worldwide puts scientists on alert

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

The virus found in these regions is derived from an oral polio vaccine used in some countries. So far, only two cases of polio-related paralysis have been reported, in Jerusalem in February and New York in June1; the New York infection was the first such US case in nearly a decade. But wastewater samples in all three areas suggest that the virus is circulating more widely.

Polio causes irreversible paralysis in less than one in 200 of the susceptible people it infects, so the cases of paralysis suggest that many other people there have been infected, says Walter Orenstein, who studies infectious diseases at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. “Cases like that are just the tip of the iceberg,” he says. “It’s very concerning.”

Nature talked to researchers about the scale of the outbreak, and what can be done to stop it.

Nov 6, 2022

Evolution of immune genes is associated with the Black Death

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, evolution, genetics

Klunk and colleagues identify signatures of natural selection imposed by Yersinia pestis and demonstrate their effect on genetic diversity and susceptibility to certain diseases in the present day.

Nov 6, 2022

Black Death survivors gave their descendants a genetic advantage — but with a cost

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, evolution, genetics

This could give more immunity to viruses with the gene they found helped people survive the black death.


“We all think that COVID-19 was insane and completely changed the world and our societies,” Barreiro says. “COVID has a mortality rate of about 0.05% – something like that. Now try to project – if it’s even possible – a scenario where 30 to 50% of the population dies.”

Now a new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, shows that the Black Death altered more than society: It also likely altered the evolution of the European people’s genome.

Continue reading “Black Death survivors gave their descendants a genetic advantage — but with a cost” »

Nov 6, 2022

AI could lead to surge in lawsuits as people fight over ownership

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

COURTS across the globe are braced for a surge in cases related to AI in years to come as the technology develops at a rapid pace.

Officials are scrambling to come up with new laws on how the advanced systems should be kept in check and ultimately who is responsible for what they do or create.

We recently heard about AI-generated art that won a competition in Colorado, leading to a backlash and questions about fairness.

Nov 6, 2022

Scientists Solve an 80-Year-Old Physics Mystery

Posted by in categories: chemistry, physics, sustainability

Contact electrification (CE) was humanity’s earliest and sole source of electricity until about the 18th century, but its real nature remains a mystery. Today, it is regarded as a critical component of technologies such as laser printers, LCD production processes, electrostatic painting, plastic separation for recycling, and more, as well as a major industrial hazard (damage to electronic systems, explosions in coal mines, fires in chemical plants) due to the electrostatic discharges (ESD) that accompany CE. A 2008 study published in Nature found that in a vacuum, ESDs of a simple adhesive tape are so powerful that they generate enough X-rays to take an X-ray image of a finger.

For a long time, it was believed that two contacting/sliding materials charge in opposing and uniform directions. However, after CE, it was discovered that each of the separated surfaces carries both (+) and (-) charges. The formation of so-called charge mosaics was attributed to experiment irreproducibility, inherent inhomogeneities of contacting materials, or the general “stochastic nature” of CE.

Nov 6, 2022

Quantum Error Correction Will Enable Quantum Telescopes

Posted by in categories: cosmology, quantum physics

Researchers from Australia and Singapore are working on a new quantum technique that could enhance optical VLBI. It’s known as Stimulated Raman Adiabatic Passage (STIRAP), which allows quantum information to be transferred without losses. When imprinted into a quantum error correction code, this technique could allow for VLBI observations into previously inaccessible wavelengths. Once integrated with next-generation instruments, this technique could allow for more detailed studies of black holes, exoplanets, the Solar System, and the surfaces of distant stars.

The interferometry technique consists of combining light from multiple telescopes to create images of an object that would otherwise be too difficult to resolve. Very Long Baseline Interferometry refers to a specific technique used in radio astronomy where signals from an astronomical radio source (black holes, quasars, pulsars, star-forming nebulae, etc.) are combined to create detailed images of their structure and activity. In recent years, VLBI has yielded the most detailed images of the stars that orbit Sagitarrius A* (Sgr A, the SMBH at the center of our galaxy.

Nov 6, 2022

A Novel Instructive Role for the Entorhinal Cortex

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Summary: Researchers have identified a new type of synaptic plasticity they call behavioral timescale synaptic plasticity (BTSP). The study reveals how the entorhinal cortex sends instructive signals to the hippocampus and directs it to specifically reorganize the specific location and activity of a neural subset to achieve altered behavior in response to changes in environment and spatial cues.

Source: Texas Children’s Hospital.

A longstanding question in neuroscience is how mammalian brains (including ours) adapt to external environments, information, and experiences.