With the death of Ervin Laszlo at the age of 94, the world has lost one of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries’ most prolific advocates of holistic thinking. Philosopher, systems theorist, futurist, concert pianist, and founder of multiple international organizations, Laszlo spent decades arguing that humanity needed a new worldview—one capable of integrating science, ecology, ethics, and spirituality into a coherent vision.
Although many of his more speculative ideas remain controversial, his broader contribution to systems thinking and global consciousness deserves serious attention. Few intellectuals worked as tirelessly to bridge disciplinary divides or to communicate the urgency of planetary interconnectedness.
What rights should AI have—and what responsibilities must it bear? Science fiction legend David Brin goes beyond AI doom and hype, asking how civilization can raise, regulate, and live with its AI heirs.
In this episode, scientist, futurist, and award-winning science fiction author David Brin discusses his new book, AiLIEN MINDS: Advice about — and for — our natural, AI, and hybrid heirs.
We go beyond the usual AI debate between techno-utopian salvation and apocalyptic doom. Brin argues that humanity has faced disruptive expansions of knowledge before — from writing and printing to radio, mass media, and the internet — and that the tools we need for a “soft landing” with AI may already exist in modern civilization.
We discuss why Brin is skeptical of simply “teaching ethics” to AI, why he emphasizes reciprocal accountability instead, and how artificial minds might need durable identities, reputations, and legal responsibilities. We also explore one of the hardest questions ahead: should advanced AI systems eventually receive rights or statutory protections similar to those we extend to children, animals, or other vulnerable beings?
An international collaboration has discovered two of the lowest-density giant planets ever detected: rare “super-puff” planets with densities lower than candy floss. The study—led by the University of Oxford, in collaboration with Université Côte d’Azur/Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur and the University of Birmingham—has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The two planets, named TOI-791 b and TOI-791 c, orbit an F7-type dwarf star located around 1,110 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Volans. Although both planets are roughly the size of Jupiter, they are extraordinarily diffuse: TOI-791 b has a density of just 0.038 grams per cubic centimeter, while TOI-791 c has a density of 0.047 grams per cubic centimeter.
By comparison, Jupiter’s average density is 1.33 grams per cubic centimeter, around 28 to 35 times greater.
While biomethane is flowing into homes across the U.S., Asia and Europe, a renewable replacement for natural gas has yet to reach its full potential in Australia.
New research by University of Melbourne scientists has made it easier for biomethane to be used in heating, cooking and transport.
The team, led by Professor Mohsen Talei, studied key contaminants in biomethane to determine safe concentrations for use in home appliances.
Researchers rebuilt long-extinct versions of a crucial enzyme that helps make nitrogen available to life, offering an unprecedented glimpse into Earth’s distant past. The breakthrough could aid the search for extraterrestrial life while helping scientists tackle future food-production challenges on Earth and beyond.
Come and visit the Roman Colosseum! This guided tour will take you through its rise and downfall, bring you face to face with gladiators, and allow you to experience the glory of roman architecture like never before. Welcome!
🧬 Benjamin Arya interviews me about my research on gene therapy delivery systems, about my first startup company Cathedral Therapeutics (see link to website and a bit about my newer venture towards solving the brain delivery problem.
“Putting an AAV inside of a protein vault shields the AAV from the preexisting antibodies that humans produce.”
When most people think about Alzheimer’s disease, memory loss is usually the first thing that comes to mind. Forgetting a loved one’s name, missing appointments or repeatedly misplacing everyday items are often considered early warning signs.
But what if the disease begins affecting the brain long before memory problems become noticeable? New research suggests that another change in brain function may appear even earlier: difficulty adapting when circumstances change.
In a recent study, researchers found that animal models with Alzheimer’s-related brain changes developed problems with cognitive flexibility months before they showed signs of memory impairment. Cognitive flexibility refers to the brain’s ability to adjust behavior, learn new rules and adapt when situations change.
Infections caused by dengue virus (DENV) result in significant morbidity and mortality. A proportion of infected individuals develop dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF) characterized by circulatory collapse and multiorgan failure. Early detection of individuals likely to develop DHF could lead to improved outcomes for patients and help us use healthcare resources more efficiently. We identified proteins that are differentially regulated during early disease in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of patients who subsequently developed DHF. Four dengue fever (DF), four DHF and two healthy control PBMCs were subjected to tandem mass tag mass spectrometry. Differentially regulated proteins were used to identify up- or down-regulated Gene Ontology pathways. One hundred and sixty proteins were differentially expressed in DENV-infected samples compared to healthy controls. PBMCs from DHF patients differentially expressed 90 proteins compared to DF; these were involved in down-regulation of platelet activation and aggregation, cell adhesion, and cytoskeleton arrangement pathways. Proteins involved in oxidative stress and p38 MAPK signalling were upregulated in DHF samples during early infection compared to DF. This study has identified 90 proteins differentially regulated in PBMCs that could potentially serve as biomarkers to identify patients at risk of developing DHF at an early disease stage.
