Lifeboat Foundation

Of course, all the algorithmic rigmarole is also causing real-world problems. Algorithms written by humans — tackling harder and harder problems, but producing code embedded with bugs and biases — are troubling enough. More worrisome, perhaps, are the algorithms that are not written by humans, algorithms written by the machine, as it learns.

Profiles in science.

Donald Knuth, master of algorithms, reflects on 50 years of his opus-in-progress, “The Art of Computer Programming.”

Continue reading “The Yoda of Silicon Valley” »

Scientists have long known that synthetic materials—called metamaterials—can manipulate electromagnetic waves such as visible light to make them behave in ways that cannot be found in nature. That has led to breakthroughs such as super-high resolution imaging. Now, UMass Lowell is part of a research team that is taking the technology of manipulating light in a new direction.

New NASA research confirms that Saturn is losing its iconic rings at the maximum rate estimated from Voyager 1 & 2 observations made decades ago. The rings are being pulled into Saturn by gravity as a dusty rain of ice particles under the influence of Saturn’s magnetic field.

“We estimate that this ‘ring rain’ drains an amount of water products that could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool from Saturn’s rings in half an hour,” said James O’Donoghue of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “From this alone, the entire ring system will be gone in 300 million years, but add to this the Cassini-spacecraft measured ring-material detected falling into Saturn’s equator, and the rings have less than 100 million years to live. This is relatively short, compared to Saturn’s age of over 4 billion years.” O’Donoghue is lead author of a study on Saturn’s ring rain appearing in Icarus December 17.

Continue reading “NASA research reveals Saturn is losing its rings at ‘worst-case-scenario’ rate” »

Scientists at Rice University have developed synthetic protein switches to control the flow of electrons.

The proof-of-concept, metal-containing proteins made in the Rice lab of synthetic biologist Joff Silberg are expressed within cells upon the introduction of one chemical and are functionally activated by another chemical. If the proteins have been placed in the cell, they can simply be turned on and off.

“This is not a metaphor for a switch, it is a literal electrical switch built from a protein,” Silberg said.

Un equipo ha implementado, por primera vez, un perceptr\xF3n, la unidad b\xE1sica de las redes neuronales del aprendizaje profundo, en un procesador cu\xE1ntico de cinco c\xFAbits y ha demostrado que funciona. Parece que la nueva revoluci\xF3n del procesamiento de informaci\xF3n est\xE1 cada vez m\xE1s cerca.

In other words, they’re launching 🚀 to suborbital space! Liftoff aboard the Blue Origin #NewShepard reusable rocket is no earlier than 9:30 a.m. EST, Tuesday, Dec. 18. You can watch live on NASA Television: https://go.nasa.gov/2Es92Sc

“It shows that we can successfully prevent rejection,” said Mohuiddin.

One single previous attempt at replacing the function of a baboon heart with that of a pig ended after only 57 days, after which the heart failed and the recipient died.

The new work, led by Dr. Bruno Reichart and others at LMU Munich, aimed to push that limit.

The Seattle-based biotech company will use the funding in its efforts to kill cancerous tumors using the same immune system response pathway that fights the flu.

MIT researchers invented a method of shrinking objects to the nanoscale.

The team can generate structures one-thousandth the volume of the original using a variety of materials, including metals, quantum dots, and DNA.

Existing techniques—like etching patterns onto a surface with light—work for 2D nanostructures, but not 3D. And while it’s possible to make 3D nanostructures, the process is slow, challenging, and restrictive.

Continue reading “MIT Researchers Can Shrink Objects to Nanoscale” »