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Mar 20, 2024

Can algae save the world? | DW Documentary

Posted by in category: education

Using algae to solve humanity’s most pressing problems — that’s the ambitious aim of a team of researchers from Germany. After all, algae are posessed of staggering superpowers: for example, the ability to bind CO2. Algae can also be used to make plastic substitutes and even medication.

For a research project called \.

Mar 20, 2024

Spatial study of lung cancer reveals immune markers of response to immunotherapy

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, education, evolution, genetics

Through Broad’s Scientists in the Classroom program, Broad researchers visit every 8th grade classroom in Cambridge each year to talk about genetics and evolution.

Every summer, 18 high school students spend six weeks at Broad working side-by-side with mentors on cutting-edge research.

In November 2022, Broad’s Genomics Platform sequenced its 500,000th whole human genome, a mere four years after sequencing its 100,000th.

Mar 20, 2024

SCIN: A new resource for representative dermatology images

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, education, health, robotics/AI

Google Research releases the Skin Condition Image Network (SCIN) dataset in collaboration with physicians at Stanford Med.

Designed to reflect the broad range of conditions searched for online, it’s freely available as a resource for researchers, educators, & devs → https://goo.gle/4amfMwW

#AI #medicine

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Mar 19, 2024

Teens’ Transcendent Thinking Spurs Brain Growth

Posted by in categories: education, neuroscience

Summary: Adolescents engaging in “transcendent thinking”—the practice of looking beyond the immediate context to understand deeper meanings and implications—can significantly influence their brain development. The study highlights how this complex form of thinking fosters coordination between the brain’s executive control and default mode networks, crucial for psychological functioning.

Analyzing high school students’ responses to global teen stories, researchers found that transcendent thinking not only enhances brain network coordination over time but also predicts key psychosocial outcomes in young adulthood. These groundbreaking findings underline the potential of civically minded education in supporting adolescents’ cognitive and emotional development.

Mar 18, 2024

Urban humans have lost much of their ability to digest plants

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, education, food

Cellulose is the primary component of the cell walls of plants, making it the most common polymer on Earth. It’s responsible for the properties of materials like wood and cotton and is the primary component of dietary fiber, so it’s hard to overstate its importance to humanity.

Given its ubiquity and the fact that it’s composed of a bunch of sugar molecules linked together, its toughness makes it very difficult to use as a food source. The animals that manage to extract significant calories from cellulose typically do so via specialized digestive tracts that provide a home for symbiotic bacteria—think of the extra stomachs of cows and other ruminants.

Amazingly, humans also play host to bacteria that can break down cellulose—something that wasn’t confirmed until 2003 (long after I’d wrapped up my education). Now, a new study indicates that we’re host to a mix of cellulose-eating bacteria, some via our primate ancestry, and others through our domestication of herbivores such as cows. But urban living has caused the number of these bacteria to shrink dramatically.

Mar 17, 2024

New Insights on How Galaxies are Formed

Posted by in categories: cosmology, education, space travel, supercomputing

Astronomers can use supercomputers to simulate the formation of galaxies from the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago to the present day. But there are a number of sources of error. An international research team, led by researchers in Lund, has spent a hundred million computer hours over eight years trying to correct these.

The last decade has seen major advances in computer simulations that can realistically calculate how galaxies form. These cosmological simulations are crucial to our understanding of where galaxies, stars and planets come from. However, the predictions from such models are affected by limitations in the resolution of the simulations, as well as assumptions about a number of factors, such as how stars live and die and the evolution of the interstellar medium.

To minimise the sources of error and produce more accurate simulations, 160 researchers from 60 higher education institutions – led by Santi Roca-Fàbrega at Lund University, Ji-hoon Kim at Seoul National University and Joel R. Primack at the University of California – have collaborated and now present the results of the largest comparison of simulations done ever.

Mar 15, 2024

Will digital intelligence replace biological intelligence?

Posted by in categories: biological, education, information science, life extension, robotics/AI

The Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society and the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, in collaboration with the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Cosmic Future Initiative at the Faculty of Arts \& Science, present Geoffrey Hinton on October 27, 2023, at the University of Toronto.

0:00:00 — 0:07:20 Opening remarks and introduction.
0:07:21 — 0:08:43 Overview.
0:08:44 — 0:20:08 Two different ways to do computation.
0:20:09 — 0:30:11 Do large language models really understand what they are saying?
0:30:12 — 0:49:50 The first neural net language model and how it works.
0:49:51 — 0:57:24 Will we be able to control super-intelligence once it surpasses our intelligence?
0:57:25 — 1:03:18 Does digital intelligence have subjective experience?
1:03:19 — 1:55:36 Q\&A
1:55:37 — 1:58:37 Closing remarks.

Continue reading “Will digital intelligence replace biological intelligence?” »

Mar 12, 2024

Watch: Kerala School gets India’s First AI Teacher, Iris

Posted by in categories: education, robotics/AI

Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala: A school in Kerala is taking what may be called a revolutionary step towards revamping education with the introduction of Iris, claimed to be the first-ever AI teacher robot in the state.

The KTCT Higher Secondary School, a venture of the Kaduvayil Thangal Charitable Trust, unveiled Iris last month in collaboration with Makerlabs Edutech Private Limited. The Iris robot is designed to be more than just a robot. Built as part of the Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) project by NITI Aayog, Iris is equipped to answer complex questions across various subjects in three different languages. It can also provide personalized voice assistance and facilitate interactive learning experiences.

Mar 11, 2024

The Butlerian Jihad: Frank Herbert’s Warning Against A.I. | Dune Lore Explained

Posted by in categories: education, robotics/AI, space travel

An exploration of Frank Herbert’s implicit and explicit warnings against the unmitigated advancement and dependence on AI (Artificial Intelligence), while also examining how these fundamental concerns, leading to AI’s prohibition, consistently resonate throughout the series. One of its less explored, but equally compelling, elements is its commentary on the rise of artificial intelligence. Dune is set in the far future taking place in an interstellar empire that is devoid of thinking machines after a universal ban against computing technology that is made in the likeness of a human mind. The reasons behind this prohibition not only serve as a caution against the perils of artificial intelligence, but they also underscore broader warnings present throughout Herbert’s Dune books.

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Continue reading “The Butlerian Jihad: Frank Herbert’s Warning Against A.I. | Dune Lore Explained” »

Mar 10, 2024

The Dream of Building an Underground City on Mars (Sci-Fi Documentary)

Posted by in categories: education, environmental, habitats, robotics/AI, space

This is a sci-fi documentary, looking at what it takes to build an underground city on Mars. The choice to go underground is for protection, from the growing storm radiation that rains down on the surface every day. And to further advance the Mars colonization efforts.

Where will the materials to build the city come from? How will the crater be covered to protect the inhabitants? And what will it feel like to live in this city, that is in a hole in the ground?

Continue reading “The Dream of Building an Underground City on Mars (Sci-Fi Documentary)” »

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