Karen Hurst – Lifeboat News: The Blog https://lifeboat.com/blog Safeguarding Humanity Fri, 30 Aug 2019 02:24:25 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.1 Engineers at MIT and Analog Devices have created the first fully-programmable 16-bit carbon nanotube microprocessor https://lifeboat.com/blog/2019/08/engineers-at-mit-and-analog-devices-have-created-the-first-fully-programmable-16-bit-carbon-nanotube-microprocessor Fri, 30 Aug 2019 02:24:25 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2019/08/engineers-at-mit-and-analog-devices-have-created-the-first-fully-programmable-16-bit-carbon-nanotube-microprocessor

It’s the most complex integration of carbon nanotube-based CMOS logic so far, with nearly 15,000 transistors, and it was done using technologies that have already been proven to work in a commercial chip-manufacturing facility. The processor, called RV16X-NANO, is a milestone in the development of beyond-silicon technologies, its inventors say.

Unlike silicon transistors, nanotube devices can easily be made in multiple layers with dense 3D interconnections. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is hoping this 3D aspect will lead to commercial carbon nanotube (CNT) chips with the performance of today’s cutting-edge silicon but without the high design and manufacturing cost.

Some of the same researchers created a modest one-bit, 178-transistor processor back in 2013. In contrast, the new one, which is based on the open source RISC-V instruction set, is capable of working with 16-bit data and 32-bit instructions. Naturally, the team, led by MIT assistant professor Max Shulaker, tested the chip by running a version of the obligatory “Hello, World!” program. They reported the achievement this week in Nature.

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Metabolic perceptrons for neural computing in biological systems https://lifeboat.com/blog/2019/08/metabolic-perceptrons-for-neural-computing-in-biological-systems Wed, 28 Aug 2019 23:03:34 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2019/08/metabolic-perceptrons-for-neural-computing-in-biological-systems

Synthetic biological circuits are promising tools for developing sophisticated systems for medical, industrial, and environmental applications. So far, circuit implementations commonly rely on gene expression regulation for information processing using digital logic. Here, we present a different approach for biological computation through metabolic circuits designed by computer-aided tools, implemented in both whole-cell and cell-free systems. We first combine metabolic transducers to build an analog adder, a device that sums up the concentrations of multiple input metabolites. Next, we build a weighted adder where the contributions of the different metabolites to the sum can be adjusted. Using a computational model fitted on experimental data, we finally implement two four-input perceptrons for desired binary classification of metabolite combinations by applying model-predicted weights to the metabolic perceptron. The perceptron-mediated neural computing introduced here lays the groundwork for more advanced metabolic circuits for rapid and scalable multiplex sensing.

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US Military Urgently Seeking Enormous Underground Complex for Undisclosed Experiments https://lifeboat.com/blog/2019/08/us-military-urgently-seeking-enormous-underground-complex-for-undisclosed-experiments Wed, 28 Aug 2019 23:02:44 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2019/08/us-military-urgently-seeking-enormous-underground-complex-for-undisclosed-experiments

Hmmmm.


ATTENTION owners of truly massive, human-built tunnels and subterranean complexes: The US military’s secretive research agency urgently needs your underground lair for some undisclosed experiments.

DARPA tweeted on Wednesday that within the next 48 hours it must find a “human-made underground environment spanning several city blocks with complex layout & multiple stories, including atriums, tunnels & stairwells. Spaces that are currently closed off from pedestrians or can be temporarily used for testing are of interest.”

I’m imagining something along the lines of the underground world used by the tethered in the movie Us, though it also sounds like abandoned underground malls, bunkers, cities, and as-to-yet undiscovered sites of lost civilizations may qualify, so long as the space is found by 5 PM Friday (Eastern Time; the government’s hours are very rigid.)

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Worm robot could wiggle its way through arteries in the brain https://lifeboat.com/blog/2019/08/worm-robot-could-wiggle-its-way-through-arteries-in-the-brain Wed, 28 Aug 2019 22:42:40 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2019/08/worm-robot-could-wiggle-its-way-through-arteries-in-the-brain

Just imagine what types of treatments, human enhancements, and other disorders could be solved with this technique. No more invasive GBM surgeries, Dystonia is finally treated and no longer a problem as well as other diseases and disorders that are located in areas like the basal ganglia area of the brain.


By Chris Stokel-Walker

A tiny robotic worm can wiggle its way through a model brain. It could eventually be used to make brain surgeries less invasive.

Yoonho Kim and his colleague Xuanhe Zhao at Massachusetts Institute of Technology created the robot out of a polymer with small magnetic particles embedded throughout, meaning it can be directed using a magnet. It is coated in a self-lubricating material and is less 0.6 millimetres in diameter.

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A trip to Mars could cause brain damage. Here’s how NASA aims to protect astronauts https://lifeboat.com/blog/2019/08/a-trip-to-mars-could-cause-brain-damage-heres-how-nasa-aims-to-protect-astronauts Wed, 28 Aug 2019 22:42:25 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2019/08/a-trip-to-mars-could-cause-brain-damage-heres-how-nasa-aims-to-protect-astronauts

During his year in space, Scott Kelly was zapped relentlessly by radiation — the equivalent of 10 chest X-rays a day for more than 11 months starting in March of 2015. The onslaught damaged the astronaut’s DNA and affected his immune system while raising his risk for cancer. And Kelly was aboard the International Space Station, whose tight orbit around Earth lies within the magnetic field that surrounds our planet and blocks the most damaging forms of radiation.

Astronauts who travel to Mars or other destinations in deep space will leave Earth’s protective cocoon for months or years at a time. And a new NASA-funded study suggests that chronic exposure to radiation could harm astronauts’ minds as well as their bodies — potentially affecting space flyers’ moods and even their ability to think.

That could be a big deal.

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‘Nano-immunotherapy’ halts glioblastoma in mice https://lifeboat.com/blog/2019/08/nano-immunotherapy-halts-glioblastoma-in-mice Wed, 28 Aug 2019 22:23:07 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2019/08/nano-immunotherapy-halts-glioblastoma-in-mice

One of the most difficult challenges in treating the brain cancer glioblastoma is that few drugs can pass through the blood-brain barrier. Scientists at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles have developed a system to circumvent this hurdle—one that combines a powerful immuno-oncology drug with a polymer-based delivery vehicle that can cross the blood-brain barrier.

The researchers showed that this “nano-immunotherapy” treatment crossed the blood-brain barrier in mouse models of glioblastoma, and that it stopped tumor cells from multiplying. They published their findings in the journal Nature Communications.

The Cedars-Sinai team used the polymer scaffold to deliver two types of immune checkpoint inhibitors, blocking either CTLA-4 or PD-1. When injected into the bloodstream of mice, the drugs quickly infiltrated brain tumors, but not healthy brain tissue, the researchers reported.

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Smarter experiments for faster materials discovery https://lifeboat.com/blog/2019/08/smarter-experiments-for-faster-materials-discovery Wed, 28 Aug 2019 16:22:37 +0000 https://lifeboat.com/blog/2019/08/smarter-experiments-for-faster-materials-discovery Nice job by Brookhaven.


A team of scientists have designed, created, and successfully tested a new algorithm to make smarter scientific measurement decisions. The algorithm, a form of artificial intelligence (AI), can make autonomous decisions to define and perform the next step of an experiment.

Close.

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I wanted to share an amazing part of US history demonstrating why history matters https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/04/i-wanted-to-share-an-amazing-part-of-us-history-demonstrating-why-history-matters Tue, 11 Apr 2017 00:42:48 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/04/i-wanted-to-share-an-amazing-part-of-us-history-demonstrating-why-history-matters

American Revolution Records from the American Revolutionary War indicate that at least a few Muslims fought on the American side. Among the recorded names of American soldiers are “Yusuf ben Ali” (a member of the Turks of South Carolina community), “Bampett Muhamed” and possibly Peter Salem.

The first country to recognize the United States as an independent nation was the Sultanate of Morocco, under its ruler Mohammed ben Abdallah, in the year 1777. [23] He maintained several correspondences with President George Washington.

Read more

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10 Dangerous Brain-Damaging Habits to Stop Immediately https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/02/10-dangerous-brain-damaging-habits-to-stop-immediately Mon, 27 Feb 2017 04:05:29 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/02/10-dangerous-brain-damaging-habits-to-stop-immediately

Need a new excuse for not working too late and or studying to hard well you have one as it can create brain damage.


The only organ in our body that ‘thinks’ is often the one we think the least about.

Our brain is the single most important organ in our body, controlling everything we do, from breathing, walking, eating, sleeping, etc. It’s the central processor for all our bodily functions, the part that interprets what we see and hear, smell and taste, and even a place where the chemical reaction associated with love occurs.

With all that in mind (excuse the pun), we practice ten common bad habits that actually damage our brain, and should be avoided:

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IARPA Wants Ways to Protect Nation from Genome Editing https://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/02/iarpa-wants-ways-to-protect-nation-from-genome-editing Mon, 27 Feb 2017 04:05:14 +0000 http://lifeboat.com/blog/2017/02/iarpa-wants-ways-to-protect-nation-from-genome-editing

Sorry, you’re way, way too late as that genie is already in the hands to so many (good and bad) if we were going to control this; were over 2 years too late.


Gene editing could create pest-resistant crops, but it could also create new organisms that threaten humans, according to IARPA.

Read more

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