Lifeboat Foundation

In my 50s, too old to become a real expert, I have finally fallen in love with algebraic geometry. As the name suggests, this is the study of geometry using algebra. Around 1637, René Descartes laid the groundwork for this subject by taking a plane, mentally drawing a grid on it, as we now do with graph paper, and calling the coordinates x and y. We can write down an equation like x + y = 1, and there will be a curve consisting of points whose coordinates obey this equation. In this example, we get a circle!

It was a revolutionary idea at the time, because it let us systematically convert questions about geometry into questions about equations, which we can solve if we’re good enough at algebra. Some mathematicians spend their whole lives on this majestic subject. But I never really liked it much until recently—now that I’ve connected it to my interest in quantum physics.

If we can figure out how to reduce topology to algebra, it might help us formulate a theory of quantum gravity.

Continue reading “The Math That Takes Newton Into the Quantum World” »

They shared a placenta, but on the ultrasound, one looked like a boy, and the other a girl.

Opinion

Forget government-issued food pyramids. Let an algorithm tell you how to eat.

Credit Credit Erik Blad

Continue reading “The A.I. Diet” »

You’ve probably never heard of many of the data firms registered under a new law, but they’ve heard a lot about you. A list, and tips for opting out.

[Source image: ksenia_bravo/iStock].

Human memory happens in many parts of the brain at once, and some types of memories stick around longer than others.

Termitomyces titanicus’s cap can measure three feet across.

Just as most of the matter in the universe is thought to be “dark matter,” much of Earth is populated by a kind of microbial analogue: microorganisms that are known to exist but have never been grown in a laboratory.

A new study, published last September in mSystems, suggests such microbes could account for up to 81 percent of all bacterial genera that live outside the human body. These little-known organisms could hold the secrets to new tools for treating disease and could help us understand life in extreme environments, such as those on other planets.

Two huge bubbles, thousands of light-years across, have been discovered jiggling near the center of a distant galaxy. They could be spitting all over Earth.

A startup called CogitAI has developed a platform that lets companies use reinforcement learning, the technique that gave AlphaGo mastery of the board game Go.

Gaining experience: AlphaGo, an AI program developed by DeepMind, taught itself to play Go by practicing. It’s practically impossible for a programmer to manually code in the best strategies for winning. Instead, reinforcement learning let the program figure out how to defeat the world’s best human players on its own.

Drug delivery: Reinforcement learning is still an experimental technology, but it is gaining a foothold in industry. DeepMind has talked of using it to optimize the performance of data centers and wind turbines. Amazon recently launched a reinforcement-learning platform, but it is aimed more at researchers and academics. CogitAI’s first commercial customers include those working in robotics for drug manufacturing. Its platform lets the robot figure out the optimal way to process drug orders.

Continue reading “Now any business can access the same type of AI that powered AlphaGo” »