Lifeboat Foundation

Self-assembling molecules that spontaneously organize themselves to form complex structures are common in nature. For example, the tough outer layer of insects, called the cuticle, is rich in proteins that can self-assemble.

Self-assembly is a cost-effective, environmentally sustainable and quick way of manufacturing nanostructures with critical applications in various industries, ranging from therapeutics to self-replicating machines.

Harnessing the self-assembling abilities of proteins from the cuticles of Asian corn borer moth caterpillars (Ostrinia furnacalis), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) scientists have created nanosized capsules that could be used to deliver drugs and messenger RNA (mRNA). mRNA is a molecule that instructs cells to produce proteins and has been used in COVID-19 vaccines.

Washington University in St. Louis scientists have developed a novel material that supercharges innovation in electrostatic energy storage. The material is built from artificial heterostructures made of freestanding 2D and 3D membranes that have an energy density up to 19 times higher than commercially available capacitors.

Electrostatic capacitors play a crucial role in modern electronics. They enable ultrafast charging and discharging, providing energy storage and power for devices ranging from smartphones, laptops, and routers to medical devices, automotive electronics and industrial equipment. However, the ferroelectric materials used in capacitors have significant energy loss due to their material properties, making it difficult to provide high energy storage capability.

Here’s my new Opinion article for Newsweek on brainwave technology and AI. Check it out!

Historically, our greatest strength is our biological form, tested and evolved over millions of years. Instead of spending resources searching for ways to connect technology directly to our minds, we could find ways to use technology to protect our biological thoughts and proclivity. That might mean faraday cages around our brains that no super intelligent AIs signals could crack—as well as encryption where our code perpetually changes randomly.

Another way to protect against AI is for humans to become like bugs—a concept recently explored in the Netflix series 3 Body Problem. Companies are already working on trying to scan the brain—down to its atoms—in real time. Eventually, the hope is we’ll be able to upload our consciousnesses into computers. There’s open debate whether an upload is the real you. But for purposes of protecting ourselves against AI, another important question is how many uploads of you would there be? If AI was inundated with trillions upon trillions of uploaded human minds, it’s possible, like bugs, AI would never win a battle to get rid all of us, even if it wanted to. There would simply be too many of us in the cloud, even if there was just one of us in the flesh.

Continue reading “We’re Looking at Brainwave Technology All Wrong” »

Russellian monism is a theory in the metaphysics of mind, on which a single set of properties underlies both consciousness and the most basic entities posited by physics. The theory is named for Bertrand Russell, whose views about consciousness and its place in nature were informed by a structuralist conception of theoretical physics. On such a structuralist conception, physics describes the world in terms of its spatiotemporal structure and dynamics (changes within that structure) and says nothing about what, if anything, underlies that structure and dynamics. For example, as it is sometimes put, physics describes what mass and charge do, e.g., how they dispose objects to move toward or away from each other, but not what mass and charge are. Thus, Russell writes the following about the events physics describes:

All that physics gives us is certain equations giving abstract properties of their changes. But as to what it is that changes, and what it changes from and to—as to this, physics is silent. (Russell 1959: 18)

Continue reading “Russellian Monism (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)” »

An in situ phase-separation method at microscale level creates stretchable superelastic porous nanocomposite conductors, reduces conductive filler usage and enables strain-resilient wireless wearable and implantable bioelectronics.

It’s not uncommon for tech roles to now receive hundreds or thousands of applicants. Round after round of layoffs since late 2022 have sent a mass of skilled tech workers job hunting, and the wide adoption of generative AI has also upended the recruitment process, allowing people to bulk apply to roles. All of those eager for work are hitting a wall: overwhelmed recruiters and hiring managers.

WIRED spoke with seven recruiters and hiring managers across tech and other industries, who expressed trepidation about the new tech—for now, much is still unknown about how and why AI makes the choices it does, and it has a history of making biased decisions. They want to understand why the AI is making the decisions it does, and to have more room for nuance before embracing it: Not all qualified applicants are going to fit into a role perfectly, one recruiter tells WIRED.

Recruiters say they are met with droves of résumés sent through tools like LinkedIn’s Easy Apply feature, which allows people to apply for jobs quickly within the site’s platform. Then there are third-party tools to write résumés or cover letters, and there’s generative AI built into tools on sites of major players like LinkedIn and Indeed—some for job seekers, some for recruiters. These come alongside a growing number of tools to automate the recruiting process, leaving some workers wondering if a person or bot is looking at their résumé.

Scientists have designed a physical qubit that behaves as an error-correcting “logical qubit,” and now they think they can scale it up to make a useful quantum computer using a few hundred.

Dark energy is one of the biggest mysteries in all the Universe. Is there any way to avoid ‘having to live with it?’

For the first time, researchers have simulated neurological junctions called synapses using the same water and salt ingredients the brain uses, contributing to an emerging field that combines biology with electronics called iontronics.

The team from Utrecht University in the Netherlands and Sogang University in South Korea claim to have been inspired by the functioning of the human brain, which also uses charged particles called ions dissolved in water to transmit signals within neurons.

An important feature of the brain’s ability to process information is synaptic plasticity, which allows neurons to adjust the strength of connections between them in response to input history.