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PARIS (AP) — The French government has outlined measures to ensure early diagnostic testing for young children with autism and help for them going to school.

In a statement following a Cabinet meeting Monday, the government promised that expenses linked to diagnostic testing will be fully reimbursed.

Measures include opening specific classes at preschools and elementary schools, and putting in place teacher and medical staff training and research to better understand autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder.

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What happens when Earth’s resources run out? Well, if science fiction has taught us anything, it’s that humanity will seek a new and habitable planet somewhere in the cosmos on which to keep the species going in perpetuity. When that day comes, we’ll need a viable way to procreate and deliver children in the vastness of outer space.

Enter SpaceLife Origin, a one-of-a-kind tech company that is seeking to make it possible for humans to give birth in the vacuum of space by 2024, a goal titled “Mission Cradle.” While that is its ultimate goal, SpaceLife is also striving to become the first company to “safe-guard human ‘Seeds-of-Life’ in space [Mission Ark] by 2020 [and] make embryo conception in space feasible [Mission Lotus] by 2021,” according to its official website.

The gallery below offers a glimpse at the patent-pending “Ark” designs. Vials of human DNA will be protected within the radiation-shielded spheres that are to be kept on Earth and satellites surrounding the planet. SpaceLife Origin describes this as an insurance policy for the continuation of mankind in case a catastrophe hits and we need to leave in a hurry.

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101 votes and so far on Reddit.

My mission is to drastically improve your life by sharing how you can quickly break bad habits and build and keep new healthy habits. I read the books and do all the research and share my findings with you in my YouTube videos! Not a bad deal, eh?

This video is a book review of Telomere Lengthening: Curing all diseases including cancer & aging by Dr. Bill Andrews and Jon Cornell.

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WASHINGTON: The annual Templeton Prize, which recognizes outstanding contributions to “affirming life’s spiritual dimension,” was awarded Tuesday to Brazilian Marcelo Gleiser-a theoretical physicist dedicated to demonstrating science and religion are not enemies. A physics and astronomy professor whose specializations include cosmology, 60-year-old Gleiser was born in Rio de Janeiro, and has been in the United States since 1986. An agnostic, he doesn’t believe in God-but refuses to write off the possibility of God’s existence completely.

“Atheism is inconsistent with the scientific method,” Gleiser said Monday from Dartmouth College, the New Hampshire university where he has taught since 1991. “Atheism is a belief in non-belief. So you categorically deny something you have no evidence against.” “I’ll keep an open mind because I understand that human knowledge is limited,” he added. The prize is funded by the John Templeton Foundation-a philanthropic organization named after the American Presbyterian who made his fortune on Wall Street, and who set on “seeking proofs of divine agency in every branch of science”, as The Economist put it.

Gleiser joins Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama and dissident Soviet author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn as recipients of the prize, first awarded in 1973. At £1.1 million, the prize money well surpasses that of the Nobels. The physicist focuses on making complex subjects accessible. He has written on climate change, Einstein, hurricanes, black holes, the human conscience-tracing the links between the sciences and the humanities, including philosophy.

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One of the birthplaces of artificial intelligence, MIT, has announced a bold plan to reshape its academic program around the technology. With $1 billion in funding, MIT will create a new college that combines AI, machine learning, and data science with other academic disciplines. It is the largest financial investment in AI by any US academic institution to date.

New school: The new college of computing is being built with $350 million in funding from Stephen A. Schwarzman, the CEO and cofounder of Blackstone, a private equity firm. Schwarzman has already donated billions to other institutions for studying issues related to AI. MIT’s new Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing will create 50 new faculty positions and numerous fellowships for graduate students. The school will open next September and will be housed in existing buildings at MIT before moving to its own space, expected in 2022.

Data everywhere: Data and computing are already having a major impact on disciplines like the humanities, and machine learning and AI may have an even bigger one. Rafael Reif, the president of MIT, said in an announcement that the new approach was necessary because of the way computing, data, and AI are “reshaping the world,” and he added that students and researchers will be taught to use AI in their disciplines from first principles, instead of dividing their time between computer science and other departments. “Computing is no longer the domain of the experts alone,” Reif said. “It’s everywhere, and it needs to be understood and mastered by almost everyone.”

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In Plato’s “Apology,” the Greek philosopher quotes Socrates, who is having one of his famous discourses with another philosopher, as saying, “Although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is — for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows. I neither know nor think that I know.”

Sadly, the “Socratic Paradox” is not much taught in schools these days. And that’s a shame because Socrates — who was forced to drink a fatal dose of hemlock after being charged with not believing in “the gods of the state” — has much to teach us about the true nature of knowledge.

Some, though, appear to still be reading Socrates’ works. Like Marcelo Gleiser.

Continue reading “Award-Winning Physicist: ‘Science Does Not Kill God’” »

One of the perks of being President of the United States of America is that you get to submit your budget recommendations to the US Congress before any decisions are made. While it’s up to Congress to make the budget and the President to sign it into law, the recommendations for the next fiscal year are where the administration gets to set their agenda and announce to the world the direction it wants to go in.

Last year, the https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2018/02/12/the-…e-science/” target=”_self” data-ga-track=” InternalLink: https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2018/02/12/the-…e-science/”>Trump administration proposed cutting a number of Earth Science missions, ending NASA Astrophysics’ flagship mission for the 2020s, WFIRST, and eliminating NASA’s Office of Education. Then-acting administrator Robert Lightfoot https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-acting-administrator…t-proposal” target=”_blank” rel=” nofollow noopener noreferrer” data-ga-track=” ExternalLink: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-acting-administrator…t-proposal”>put out a statement mentioning hard choices and an inability to do everything with a limited budget, but Congress overturned these cuts and restored funding for these programs. This year, the assault is even worse, and has a better chance of succeeding. Here’s why.

“Human Nature” is the best CRISPR documentary yet.