Sustaining growth in storage and computational needs is increasingly challenging. For over a decade, exponentially more information has been produced year after year while data storage solutions are pressed to keep up. Soon, current solutions will be unable to match new information in need of storage. Computing is on a similar trajectory, with new needs emerging in search and other domains that require more efficient systems. Innovative methods are necessary to ensure the ability to address future demands, and DNA provides an opportunity at the molecular level for ultra-dense, durable, and sustainable solutions in these areas.

In this webinar, join Microsoft researcher Karin Strauss in exploring the role of biotechnology and synthetic DNA in reaching this goal. Although we have yet to achieve scalable, general-purpose molecular computation, there are areas of IT in which a molecular approach shows growing promise. These areas include storage as well as computation.

Learn how molecules, specifically synthetic DNA, can store digital data and perform certain types of special-purpose computation, like large-scale similarity search, by leveraging tools already developed by the biotechnology industry. Starting with some background on DNA and its storage potential, you’ll explore the advantages of using DNA for this application. Then, you’ll get a closer look at an end-to-end system, including encoding, synthesizing, reading, and decoding DNA. We’ll also look at an affordable full-stack digital microfluidics platform for wet lab preparations and conclude with a discussion of future hybrid systems.

Together, you’ll explore:

■ The intersection between technology and science of DNA data storage and computation.
■ The many advantages for using DNA to store data compared with other methods.
■ A detailed walkthrough of an end-to-end DNA storage system and its stages.
■ How DNA can be used for image similarity search.

Credits: Dan V. Nicolau, Mercy Lard, Till Korten, Falco C. M. J. M. van Delft, Malin Persson, Elina Bengtsson, Alf Månsson, Stefan Diez, Heiner Linke, and Dan V. Nicolau.

PNAS. 2016. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.

Animation explaining the computation principle. In this animation, a network encoding the {1,3} SSP is explained and an example agent is shown to travel the path that encodes the subset {3}. The agent enters the network from the top left-hand corner. It first encounters a split junction where it randomly decides to turn right and exclude the corresponding number. The agent then enters another split junction, where it adds the corresponding number to the subset. The number of pass junctions following each split junction determines the actual value of the integer added to the subset at the respective split junction. The exit numbers correspond to the target sums T (potential solutions) represented by each exit. The example agent arrives at the exit #3 corresponding to the total sum of the subset {3} the agent explored. Finally, the correct results (labeled in green) and incorrect results (where no agents will arrive; labeled in magenta) for this particular set {1, 3} are explained.

Acknowledgment: Dissemination of the results of ABACUS Project, funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration under Grant Agreement no. 613,044 The beneficiaries and partners in ABACUS Consortium are: Lund University, Coordinator, Molecular Sense Ltd. — UK, Linnaeus University – Sweden, Dresden University – Germany and McGill University, Canada. The main result of the Project has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA — 113, 2591–2596 (2016). Authors: Dan V. Nicolau Jr., Mercy Lard, Till Korten, Falco C. M. J. M. van Delft, Malin Persson, Elina Bengtsson, Alf Månsson, Stefan Diez, Heiner Linke, and Dan V. Nicolau For more information on the ABACUS Project you may visit http://abacus4eu.com/

China’s Zuchongzhi-3 ignites a fierce quantum race with Google’s Willow, pushing quantum singularity from theory toward reality faster than skeptics predicted.

Early diagnosis is crucial in disease prevention and treatment. Many diseases can be identified not just through physical signs and symptoms but also through changes at the cellular and molecular levels.

When it comes to a majority of chronic conditions, early detection, particularly at the cellular level, gives patients a better chance for successful treatment. Detection of early changes at the cellular level can also dramatically improve cancer outcomes.

It’s against this backdrop that a University of Rhode Island professor and a former Ph.D. graduate student looked at understanding the smallest changes between two similar cells.

New simulations suggest that habitable worlds could have begun forming only 200 million years after the big bang.

By Conor Feehly edited by Lee Billings

Scientists today are quite sure about how long our universe has existed: it’s been 13.8 billion years, give or take 59 million years, since the cosmos burst into being via the big bang. But they’re much less certain about a related question: When could life have first arisen, somewhere out there? Our solar system formed a mere 4.6 billion years ago, after two thirds of cosmic time had already elapsed, and life seems to have happened here almost as soon as Earth cooled down from its fiery birth to harbor oceans of liquid water.

And soon, we may have proof.

Farming arose on multiple continents among populations with radically different cultures and environments and with no means of communicating with each other – how did it crop up independently at about the same time?

An artificial nerve that is based on a vertical n-type organic electrochemical transistor with a gradient-intermixed bicontinuous structure can operate at high frequencies and mimic basic conditioned reflex behaviour in animals.

Is an in-depth investigation featuring world renowned philosophers and scientists into the most profound philosophical debate of all time: Do we have free will?

Featuring: Sean Carroll, Daniel Dennett, Jerry Coyne, Dan Barker, Heather Berlin, Gregg Caruso, Massimo Pigliucci, Alex O’Conner, Coleman Hughes, Edwin Locke, Robert Kane, Rick Messing, Derk Pereboom, Richard Carrier, Trick Slattery, Dustin Kreuger, Steven Sharper, Donia Abouelatta.

Chapters.

Intro: — 0:00
Chapter 1: What is Free Will? — 4:19
Chapter 2: The Problem of Free Will — 15:29
Interlude: 22:33
Chapter 3: Libertarian Free Will — 23:16
Chapter 4: Compatibilism — 34:47
Chapter 5: Free Will Skepticism — 45:13
Interlude: The 3 Positions of Free Will — 55:45
Chapter 6: The Great Debate — 57:28
Chapter 7: Neuroscience — 1:07:28
Chapter 7: The Interaction Problem — 1:18:37
Chapter 8: Physics — 1:20:10
Chapter 8: Reduction & Emergence — 1:22:14
Chapter 9: Can We Have Determinism and Free Will? — 1:28:57
Chapter 10: Free Will and the Law — 1:45:57
Chapter 11: Should We Stop Using the Term Free Will? — 1:56:37
Outro: 2:00:38

Buy me a coffee and support the channel: https://ko-fi.com/jkzero.
Part 3 of the groundbreaking but less-known theory of quantum mechanics proposed by Louis de Broglie in 1923. In this video de Broglie’s unification of wave and particles using his matter waves to show that Fermat’s principle of ray optics is equivalent to Maupertuis’ principle for the dynamics of particles. Although incomplete, this corresponds to the early development of de Broglie’s pilot-wave theory.

∘ Pilot-wave theory (part 1): the origin of de Broglie’s matter waves https://youtu.be/YQNEziGyDxU
∘ Pilot-wave theory (part 2): explaining Bohr’s atom https://youtu.be/5MMs6iFSiY8
∘ This is how the wave-particle duality of light was discovered https://youtu.be/f7JvywBOGYY
∘ Playlist Quantum Physics https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_UV-wQj1lvVxch-RPQIUOHX88eeNGzVH

∘ L. de Broglie, “Ondes et quanta,” Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l’Aadémie des Sciences (Paris), 177,507 (1923)
∘ L. de Broglie, “Quanta de lumière, diffraction et interférences,” Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l’Aadémie des Sciences (Paris), 177,548 (1923)
∘ L. de Broglie, “Les quanta, la théorie cinétique des gaz et le principe de Fermat,” Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l’Aadémie des Sciences (Paris), 177,630 (1923)
∘ F. Grimaldi, “Physico-mathesis de lumine, coloribus et iride aliisque adnexis” (1665)
∘ I. Newton, “Optiks” (1704)
∘ L. de Broglie, “On the Theory of Quanta,” translation of doctoral thesis, Foundation Louis De Broglie (1924)
∘ A. Einstein, “Quantum theory of the monatomic ideal gas, Part II” Sitzungsber. Preuss. Akad. Wiss. 3, (1925)

M. de Broglie, public domain.
Diffraction half plane with rays, by MikeRun under CC BY-SA 4.0
Oualidia Lagoon, Morocco via Google Earth.
Matter Waves, AT&T Archives and History Center (1961)
Francesco Grimaldi, public domain.
First edition of Opticks, public domain.
Isaac Newton by Sir Godfrey Kneller, public domain.
Light refraction, by ajizai, public domain.
Interference pattern, by J.S. Diaz (own work)
Polarization clamp, by A.Davidhazy under CC BY-SA 4.0
Light bulb through diffraction grating, by R.D. Anderson under CC BY-SA 3.0
Davisson and Germer, public domain.
Davisson-Germer Figure 2, public domain.
Fifth Solvay Conference, AIP
Refraction with soda straw, by Bcrowell under CC BY-SA 1.0
Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, public domain.
P. Langevin, public domain.
Peter Debye, AIP
Portrait of Erwin Schrodinger, AIP
Eels Swimming in Aquarium by M. Ehlers, free use via Pexels https://www.pexels.com/video/eels-swimming-in-aquarium-10106765/

AIP: American Institute of Physics, Emilio Segrè Visual Archives.
CC BY-SA 1.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0/deed.en.
CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en.
CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en.
CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en