Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Blog – Page 976

Long before humans began creating nuclear reactors to fulfill our ridiculous energy needs, back when the Earth was dominated by microbes, in fact, nature beat us to it and built the first nuclear reactor on Earth.

In May 1972, a physicist at a nuclear processing plant in Pierrelatte, France, was conducting analysis on uranium samples when he noticed something pretty strange. In usual uranium ore deposits, three different isotopes are found; uranium 238, uranium 234, and uranium 235. Of these, uranium 238 is the most abundant, while uranium 234 is the rarest. Isotope 235 makes up around 0.72 percent of uranium deposits, and is the most coveted, as if you can enrich it past 3 percent it can be used to create a sustained nuclear reaction.

In the samples from the Oklo deposits in Gabon, Africa, isotope 235 was found to make up 0.717 percent of the total. That might not sound like much of a difference, but it’s pretty weird.

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However, the IMO warned that lava may still continue to flow beneath this solidified crust toward the protective barriers near the Blue Lagoon, though its advance has significantly slowed.

Over the last week, the constant flow of the lava has gradually engulfed the tourist destination’s car park and continues to grow in size.

The Blue Lagoon was evacuated ahead of the lava’s arrival, as were 50 homes in the town of Grindavík, which is home to 3,800 residents.

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Originally published on Towards AI.

ABSTRACT: The fundamental problem of causal inference defines the impossibility of associating a causal link to a correlation, in other words: correlation does not prove causality. This problem can be understood from two points of view: experimental and statistical. The experimental approach tells us that this problem arises from the impossibility of simultaneously observing an event both in the presence and absence of a hypothesis. The statistical approach, on the other hand, suggests that this problem stems from the error of treating tested hypotheses as independent of each other. Modern statistics tends to place greater emphasis on the statistical approach because, compared to the experimental point of view, it also shows us a way to solve the problem. Indeed, when testing many hypotheses, a composite hypothesis is constructed that tends to cover the entire solution space. Consequently, the composite hypothesis can be fitted to any data set by generating a random correlation. Furthermore, the probability that the correlation is random is equal to the probability of obtaining the same result by generating an equivalent number of random hypotheses.

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Using generative artificial intelligence, a team of researchers at The University of Texas at Austin has converted sounds from audio recordings into street-view images. The visual accuracy of these generated images demonstrates that machines can replicate human connection between audio and visual perception of environments. The research team describes training a soundscape-to-image AI model using audio and visual data gathered from a variety of urban and rural streetscapes and then using that model to generate images from audio recordings.

Read Full Story.

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Researchers at the University of Chicago have developed a new method for enhancing quantum information systems by integrating trapped atom arrays with photonic devices.

This innovation allows for scalable quantum computing and networking by overcoming previous technological incompatibilities. The design features a semi-open chip that minimizes interference and enhances atom connectivity, promising significant advances in computational speed and interconnectivity for larger quantum systems.

Merging technologies for enhanced quantum computing.

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From a handheld soldering gun to the ‘playbird mansion’ and, of course, the marvel of a smartphone microscope, there are some gadgets that we come across that we instantly want – and this wireless ultrasonic cutter is definitely another.

And much like the soldering gun, this little jigger has such a broad range of applications that, while it’s aimed at the do-it-yourself maker and crafter, its appeal is certainly not limited to this.

The Hanboost C1 wireless ultrasonic cutter can precisely slice through a vast array of materials – wood, plastics, leather, rubber, paper – silently, using 40,000 vibrations per second to make even the most fiddly jobs look easy. No tearing, no scratching or scoring, it just glides through calmly, slowly and with effortless precision.

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Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory scientists developed an AI algorithm inspired by the genome’s efficiency, achieving remarkable data compression and task performance.

In a sense, each of us begins life ready for action. Many animals perform amazing feats soon after they’re born. Spiders spin webs. Whales swim. But where do these innate abilities come from? Obviously, the brain plays a key role as it contains the trillions of neural connections needed to control complex behaviors.

However, the genome has space for only a small fraction of that information. This paradox has stumped scientists for decades. Now, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professors Anthony Zador and Alexei Koulakov have devised a potential solution using artificial intelligence.

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