Lifeboat Foundation

At some point these chats will move to our new secret media project blaxxky.

In this episode we discuss science and culture, magic, Elon Musk, Mars, and faster than light travel. The conversation will continue in the next episode.

My Beneficial AGI Summit 2024 pre-event online talk.

Using a metalearning approach to model relational learning, Miconi and Kay show neural mechanisms for structured generalization and rapid learning.

The coordinated activity of brain cells, like birds flying in formation, helps us behave intelligently in new situations, according to a study led by Cedars-Sinai investigators. The work, published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, is the first to illuminate the neurological processes known as abstraction and inference in the human brain.

“Abstraction allows us to ignore irrelevant details and focus on the information we need in order to act, and inference is the use of knowledge to make educated guesses about the world around us,” said Ueli Rutishauser, PhD, professor and Board of Governors Chair in Neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai and co-corresponding author of the study. “Both are important parts of cognition and learning.”

Humans often use these two cognitive processes together to rapidly learn about and act appropriately in new environments. One example of this is an American driver who rents a car in London for the first time.

Why everything in the universe has a pattern which can be identified and understood to determine outcomes, properties, effects of almost everything. I am saying that couldn’t the universe be like patternless, non-deterministic and chaotic. For example why the gravitational force between any two objects has a pattern which always obeys universal law of gravitation and can be predetermined. Couldn’t be the gravitational force between any two given objects would have no pattern and would be completely random and non-deterministic. Is this property of universe in which everything has a pattern is a complete matter of chance or it is a property of even something fundamental.

Deep down, the particles and forces of the universe are a manifestation of exquisite geometry.

By A. Garrett Lisi & James Owen Weatherall

Modern physics began with a sweeping unification: in 1687 Isaac Newton showed that the existing jumble of disparate theories describing everything from planetary motion to tides to pendulums were all aspects of a universal law of gravitation. Unification has played a central role in physics ever since. In the middle of the 19th century James Clerk Maxwell found that electricity and magnetism were two facets of electromagnetism. One hundred years later electromagnetism was unified with the weak nuclear force governing radioactivity, in what physicists call the electroweak theory.

“This is one of the only triple systems where we can tell a story this detailed about how it evolved,” said Dr. Emily Leiner.

What can fast-spinning stars known as “blue lurkers” teach us about star formation and evolution? This is what a recent study being presented at the 245th American Astronomical Society meeting hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated the potential processes responsible for how an unusually fast-spinning blue lurker-white dwarf star within the open star cluster M67 could have evolved into what we see today. This study has the potential to help researchers better understand the formation and evolution of stars throughout the cosmos and what mysterious behavior they can exhibit.

Located approximately 2,800 light-years from Earth, M67 is estimated to be between 3.2 and 5 billion years old. While the exact number of stars within M67 remains up for debate, astronomers used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to identify this blue lurker as being part of a triple star system with the appearance of our Sun. However, it’s the unique spin rate of this star that grabbed the attention of astronomers, who postulate that it gathered material from one of the two other stars, resulting in a spin rate of four days. For context, Sun-like stars typically take approximately 30 days to complete one orbit.

How can computer models help medical professionals combat antibiotic resistance? This is what a recent study published in PLOS Biology hopes to address as a team of researchers from the University of Virginia (UVA) developed computer models that can be used to target specific genes in bacteria to combat antimicrobial resistant (AMR) bacteria. This study has the potential to help scientists, medical professionals, and the public better understand innovative methods that can be used to combat AMR with bacterial diseases constantly posing a risk to global human health.

For the study, the researchers used computer models to produce an assemblage of genome-scale metabolic network reconstructions (GENREs) diseases to identify key genes in stomach diseases that can be targeted with antibiotics to circumvent AMR in these bacterial diseases. The researchers validated their findings with laboratory experiments involving microbial samples and found that a specific gene was responsible for producing stomach diseases, thus strengthening the argument for using targeted antibiotics to combat AMR.

“Using our computer models we found that the bacteria living in the stomach had unique properties,” said Emma Glass, who is a PhD Candidate in Biomedical Engineering at UVA and lead author of the study. “These properties can be used to guide design of targeted antibiotics, which could hopefully one day slow the emergence of resistant infections.”

How will NASA conduct its Mars Sample Return (MSR) Program? This is what the renowned space agency recently discussed as it unveiled two potential landing options for MSR with the goal of determining a final option during the second half of 2026. This comes after NASA tasked a Mars Sample Return Strategic Review team to evaluate 11 proposals in September 2024 for returning samples from Mars to Earth while achieving cost-effectiveness while maximizing mission success.

Both options still call for loading the 30 sample tubes that have been collected and dropped across the Martian surface by NASA’s Perseverance rover during its trek on Mars. However, the Mars Ascent Vehicle, which will lift off from the Martian surface and deliver the samples to the orbiting capsule, will be smaller than previous designs. Additionally, past designs of the landed platform called for solar panels for energy, whereas new designs will incorporate a radioisotope power system for energy needs.

“Pursuing two potential paths forward will ensure that NASA is able to bring these samples back from Mars with significant cost and schedule saving compared to the previous plan,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. “These samples have the potential to change the way we understand Mars, our universe, and – ultimately – ourselves. I’d like to thank the team at NASA and the strategic review team, led by Dr. Maria Zuber, for their work.”