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Oct 14, 2023

Meet Spot, the robot dog that is helping map radiation

Posted by in categories: mapping, robotics/AI, security

Radiation mapping has evolved over the past decade, but there are still areas researchers would like to improve.

Scientists at the Berkeley Lab in the US are training a four-legged robot to detect and map radiation in any environment. This could revolutionize nuclear safety, security, and emergency response.


Thor Swift/Berkeley Lab.

Continue reading “Meet Spot, the robot dog that is helping map radiation” »

Oct 14, 2023

Quantum Erasure: A breakthrough in error detection

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Bahadır Eroğlu/iStock.

Wouldn’t it be great if researchers could use a special quantum eraser to remove their mistakes?

Oct 14, 2023

NASA’s SPICES sensor to assess the origins of matter in space

Posted by in categories: futurism, space

It will detect plasma in space and track it back to the Sun, planetary atmospheres, comet tails, and interstellar space.

NASA is working on a concept similar to a hidden decoder ring with which you can read a secret message containing significant information about the objects around you: where they originated from, why they are there, and what will happen to them in the future.

Now, consider the secret decoder ring, a sensor that can be launched into space to reveal secrets about matter in the solar system. Where did this matter come from, how did it get electrified, and how can it affect humanity on Earth and in space?

Oct 14, 2023

Meta is paying $5 million to celebrities for their AI likeness

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Celebrities like Tom Brady, Kendall Jenner, and Snoop Dogg have inked deals with Meta.

Meta announced last month that it’s adding artificial intelligence characters of celebrities based on their likeness to its platforms, and according to The Information.

The compensation will be paid over two years, said a person close to the matter. As per the report, Meta’s initial budget was $1 million to use the celebrity’s likeness, but it ended up paying $5 million to creators. The insider didn’t take names of who got the $5 million deal.

Oct 14, 2023

Google deals a deadly blow to passwords, switches to passkey

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, internet

The tech giant is following Uber and eBay’s lead in ditching passwords and could have the greatest impact in making it happen.

The death of passwords is imminent and Google has taken a giant step in ensuring it by suggesting users switch to an easier option – passkeys. Starting immediately, Google users will be able to create passkeys and use them to sign in to their accounts, avoiding passwords when possible, the company said in a recent blog post.

Since the advent of the internet passwords have been the most hated component of the entire experience. Early on, users could get away with using simpler combinations of letters and numbers but as cybersecurity risks grew, passwords started becoming longer, tougher, and harder to remember.

Oct 14, 2023

Raising awareness of spina bifida

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Spina bifida is the most common birth defect of the central nervous system and the second most common of all structural birth defects. To learn more about it, From the Labs sat with Dr. Richard H. Finnell, whose lab at Baylor College of Medicine focuses on discovering the role of folic acid in the prevention of birth defects and in identifying the genes that determine susceptibility to human neural tube defects such as spina bifida.

FTL: What is spina bifida?

RHF: Spina bifida is a condition that occurs during very early development affecting the neural tube, which will give rise to the spinal cord and brain. It can be diagnosed during pregnancy or after the baby is born. Typically, the neural tube closes by the 28th day after conception. In babies with spina bifida, a portion of the neural tube doesn’t close properly, resulting in a malformed spinal cord and problems in the bones of the spine. The neural tube exposed to amniotic fluid results in bladder and bowel dysfunction and in orthopedic problems that limit the child’s ability to walk.

Oct 14, 2023

An Explanation of The Quantum Vacuum Interstellar Ramjet: The Game Changing Drive You Haven’t Heard

Posted by in categories: media & arts, quantum physics, space travel, sustainability

#spacetravel #quantumvacuum IRIS-AsteronX & The Eos Project.
Website: www.asteronx.com Links to research papers: Shinichi Seike, 1969, “Quantum Electric Space Vehicle”, 8th Symposium on Space Technology and Science, Tokyo. Froning, H. D., “Propulsion Requirements for a Quantum Interstellar Ramjet”, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, vol. 33, p. 265, 1980.Froning, H. D., “Investigation of a quantum ramjet for interstellar flight” (AIAA Preprint 81–1534, 1981).Robert L. Forward, Extracting Electrical Energy From the Vacuum by Cohesion of Charged Foliated Conductors, Physical Review B, Vol. 30, pp. 1700–1702 (1984).“Casimir-cavity-induced conductance changes,” G. Moddel, A. Weerakkody, D. Doroski, D. Bartusiak, Physical Review Research, 3, L022007 (2021); DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.3.L022007.Garret Moddel: Zero-Point Energy Technology.
https://www.colorado.edu/faculty/moddel/research/zero-point-…gyJennifer Chu, “Quantum fluctuations can jiggle objects on the human scale”, MIT News Office, 2020.Dr Gregory L. Matloff, The Zero-Point Energy (ZPE) Laser and Interstellar Travel, Academia.edu, posted by Adam Crowl.
https://www.academia.edu/Ivlev, B.I… (2016). Conversion of zero point energy into high-energy photons. Revista mexicana de física, 62, 83–88. Recuperado en 18 de junio de 2022, de http://www.scielo.org.mx/.X. Jiang, X. Zhou and W. Peng, “Extraction of clean and cheap energy from vacuum,” 2013 International Conference on Materials for Renewable Energy and Environment, 2013, pp. 467–471, https://doi.org/10.1109/.H. David Froning, Morgan Boardman, Less Labored Acceleration and Faster-than-Light Travel in Higher Dimensional Realms, published in Faster Than Light Warp Drive and Quantum Vacuum Power by H. David Froning. Physicists are planning to build lasers so powerful they could rip apart empty space.
https://www.science.org/Terrance W. Barrett. The toroid antenna as a conditioner of electromagnetic fields into (low energy) gauge fields. Speculations in Science and Technology 21291–320 (1999). Originally presented at the Progress in Electromagnetics Research Symposium 1998, (PIERC’ 98), 13th-17th July, Nantes France. Daniel C. Cole and Harold E. Puthoff, Extracting energy and heat from the vacuum, Physical Review, Vol E48, #2, pp. 1562–1565 (August 1993).Harold White. Paul March. Advanced Propulsion Physics: Harnessing the Quantum Vacuum. (2011). https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/nets2012/pdf/3082.pdfFong, K.Y., Li, HK., Zhao, R. et al. Phonon heat transfer across a vacuum through quantum fluctuations. Nature 576243–247 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1800-4Music: Songs from the YouTube audio library.
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Oct 14, 2023

Abstraction of Reward Context Facilitates Relative Reward Coding in Neural Populations of the Macaque Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Posted by in categories: biological, finance, mapping, neuroscience

The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is believed to be involved in many cognitive processes, including linking goals to actions and tracking decision-relevant contextual information. ACC neurons robustly encode expected outcomes, but how this relates to putative functions of ACC remains unknown. Here, we approach this question from the perspective of population codes by analyzing neural spiking data in the ventral and dorsal banks of the ACC in two male monkeys trained to perform a stimulus-motor mapping task to earn rewards or avoid losses. We found that neural populations favor a low dimensional representational geometry that emphasizes the valence of potential outcomes while also facilitating the independent, abstract representation of multiple task-relevant variables. Valence encoding persisted throughout the trial, and realized outcomes were primarily encoded in a relative sense, such that cue valence acted as a context for outcome encoding. This suggests that the population coding we observe could be a mechanism that allows feedback to be interpreted in a context-dependent manner. Together, our results point to a prominent role for ACC in context setting and relative interpretation of outcomes, facilitated by abstract, or untangled, representations of task variables.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The ability to interpret events in light of the current context is a critical facet of higher-order cognition. The ACC is suggested to be important for tracking contextual information, whereas alternate views hold that its function is more related to the motor system and linking goals to appropriate actions. We evaluated these possibilities by analyzing geometric properties of neural population activity in monkey ACC when contexts were determined by the valence of potential outcomes and found that this information was represented as a dominant, abstract concept. Ensuing outcomes were then coded relative to these contexts, suggesting an important role for these representations in context-dependent evaluation. Such mechanisms may be critical for the abstract reasoning and generalization characteristic of biological intelligence.

Oct 14, 2023

Actually, neuroscience suggests “the self” is real

Posted by in category: neuroscience

However, underlying this scientific skepticism was also an ideological shift. Reductionism can be thought of as the antithesis or critique of the concepts of a premodern worldview. The rejection of the self was motivated by a hidden agenda to rid science of any ideas that remotely felt supernatural or religious. Since the self seemed intertwined with the idea of a soul, scientific pushback on ideological grounds was inevitable, and from that point on, findings from neuroscience and psychology were interpreted through a reductionist lens. The fact that scientists could not identify a localized region that precisely corresponded to the self seemed to verify the belief that it is an “illusion,” though to most people that statement has little meaning, if any.

This reductionist ideology recently found an ally in what is called “nondual” Eastern philosophy. According to this quasi-mystical doctrine, embracing the idea that we aren’t our thoughts or ego can lead to a more compassionate world — one free of self-blame and blame toward others. If none of us are in control of our actions or thoughts, then punishment is pointless and immoral. By not placing undue importance on the self, individuals might find themselves more attuned to the interconnected nature of existence, shifting toward a holistic worldview where “we’re all in this together.”

However, there’s a dark side to this denial of the self, and it’s extremely troubling to those who think about this stuff deeply. If we have no self and no control over our thoughts and actions, then we are slaves to a billiard ball universe, trapped in a nihilistic nightmare in which we cannot change our fate or the fate of humanity. For those who take the hardline reductionist stance seriously, this can lead to cognitive dissonance, and in rarer cases, crippling depression or psychosis.

Oct 14, 2023

Teaching household robots where to find requested objects

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Leveraging a large vision-language foundation model enables state-of-the-art performance in remote-object grounding.