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Oct 13, 2023

How Tumors Tire Out T Cells

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Researchers investigated how cancer antigenicity drives unique forms of T cell exhaustion and hypofunctionality.

Oct 13, 2023

Hybrid transistors with silk protein set stage for integration of biology and microelectronics

Posted by in categories: biological, computing, mobile phones

Your phone may have more than 15 billion tiny transistors packed into its microprocessor chips. The transistors are made of silicon, metals like gold and copper, and insulators that together take an electric current and convert it to 1s and 0s to communicate information and store it. The transistor materials are inorganic, basically derived from rock and metal.

But what if you could make these fundamental electronic components part biological, able to respond directly to the environment and change like living tissue?

This is what a team at Tufts University Silklab did when they created transistors replacing the insulating material with biological silk. They reported their findings in Advanced Materials.

Oct 13, 2023

This engineering course has students use their brainwaves to create performing art

Posted by in category: engineering

Art and science combine in this engineering course to let students turn their brainwaves into creative works.

Oct 13, 2023

A New Study Challenges Newton and Einstein’s Theory of Gravity

Posted by in categories: physics, space

A new study reports conclusive evidence for the breakdown of standard gravity in the low acceleration limit from a verifiable analysis of the orbital motions of long-period, widely separated, binary stars, usually referred to as wide binaries in astronomy and astrophysics.

The study carried out by Kyu-Hyun Chae, professor of physics and astronomy at Sejong University in Seoul, used up to 26,500 wide binaries within 650 light years (LY) observed by European Space Agency’s Gaia space telescope. The study was published in the 1 August 2023 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

For a key improvement over other studies Chae’s study focused on calculating gravitational accelerations experienced by binary stars as a function of their separation or, equivalently the orbital period, by a Monte Carlo deprojection of observed sky-projected motions to the three-dimensional space.

Oct 13, 2023

Mystery effect speeds up the universe — not dark energy, says study

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

Dark energy, one of the most controversial physics ideas, is getting another challenge. After all, if this force is supposed to make up about 68% of the mass-energy of the universe, where exactly is it? A new paper by a pair of Russian astrophysicists says dark energy simply doesn’t exist. Instead, they point to the mysterious Casimir effect as the explanation for the accelerating expansion of the universe.

The study, from Professor Artyom Astashenok and undergraduate student Alexander Teplyakov of the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, takes issue with the fact that as far as dark energy’s suggested role, “no one knows what is it and how it works,” as remarks Astashenok in a press release.

Oct 13, 2023

Elon Musk Unveils X.ai: A Game-Changer For Investors

Posted by in categories: business, Elon Musk, robotics/AI, space

The richest man in the world is building a super-intelligent AI to understand the true nature of the universe. This is what the project means for investors.

Elon Musk held a Twitter Spaces event in early July to reveal X.ai, his newest AI business. X.ai researchers will focus on science, while also building applications for enterprises and consumers.

To participate, investors should continue to buy Arista Networks ANET (ANET).

Oct 13, 2023

NASA, SpaceX set to launch Psyche mission to metallic asteroid

Posted by in category: space travel

NASA and SpaceX teams are set to launch the agency’s Psyche mission to metallic asteroid 16 Psyche from Florida on Friday, Oct. 13. Psyche will launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Launch is currently scheduled for 10:19 AM EDT (14:19 UTC). Current weather forecasts from the 45th Weather Squadron predict a 40% chance for favorable weather at liftoff. Should the launch be scrubbed due to weather, backup launch opportunities are available throughout the following days. Psyche’s launch window lasts from Oct. 5 to Oct. 25.

Psyche will be the first mission to ever visit and extensively study a metallic asteroid. 16 Psyche is thought to have once been the core of forming planetesimal back when the solar system was first forming. If this prediction is true, 16 Psyche could provide planetary scientists with incredible amounts of information and insight into how planets form and what the cores of planets like Earth, Mars, and Mercury look like.

Oct 13, 2023

Visual Question Answering with Frozen Large Language Models

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

In this article we’ll use a Q-Former, a technique for bridging computer vision and natural language models, to create a visual question answering system. We’ll go over the necessary theory, following the BLIP-2 paper, then implement a system which can be used to talk with a large language model about an image.

Who is this useful for? Data scientists interested in computer vision, natural language processing, and multimodal modeling.

How advanced is this post? Intermediate. You might struggle if you don’t have some experience in both computer vision and natural language processing.

Oct 13, 2023

New ZenRAT Malware Targeting Windows Users via Fake Password Manager Software

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

🚨 Heads up! A new malware, ZenRAT, is posing as Bitwarden password manager installation packages.

Read:

Make sure to download software from trusted sources only.

Continue reading “New ZenRAT Malware Targeting Windows Users via Fake Password Manager Software” »

Oct 13, 2023

Stoicism and Longevity Research

Posted by in category: life extension

Of the three great Stoics, Seneca always interested me the least. A playwright and professional philosopher, he seemed unlikely to be acquainted with the more mundane forms of suffering that beset humanity. This made him seem unfit to propound upon a philosophy concerned with right conduct under challenging circumstances.

Marcus Aurelius, ruler of an enormous empire, spent most of his reign embroiled in wars he had no desire to fight. Epictetus, a Greek who endured the hardships of slavery, also embodied the Stoic ideal. Cries of “ad hominem!” aside, it is hard to dispute that our experiences shape our outlooks on living. Biographical criticisms can be flimsy, but the central argument in De Brevitate Vitae — an otherwise inspirational classic — was exceptionally naive for the 1st century.

Although Seneca understood intrigue and exile firsthand, he was not privy to the time-sapping vicissitudes of householding or holding down a job.