Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: futurism – Page 37

How 3 imaginary physics demons tore up the laws of nature

Science has a rich tradition of physics by imagination. From the 16th century, scientists and philosophers have conjured ‘demons’ that test the limits of our strongest theories of reality.

Three stand out today: Laplace’s demon, capable of perfectly predicting the future; Loschmidt’s demon, which could reverse time and violate the second law of thermodynamics; and Maxwell’s demon, which create a working heat engine at no cost.

Though imaginary, these paradoxical beings have pushed physicists towards sharper theories. From quantum theory to thermodynamics, these demons have legacies that we still feel today.

Image: Antonio Sortino

Three thought experiments involving “demons” have haunted physics for centuries. What should we make of them today?

Circadian clock control of ribosome composition promotes rhythmic translation and termination fidelity

Lamb et al. show that the circadian clock rhythmically remodels ribosome composition in Neurospora crassa. Clock-regulated incorporation of the ribosomal protein eL31 is required for rhythmic translation and translation fidelity, linking temporal ribosome remodeling to daily changes in proteome diversity.

Freezing salty water reveals dynamic brine migration and evolving ice patterns

Imagine holding a narrow tube filled with salty water and watching it begin to freeze from one end. You might expect the ice to advance steadily and push the salt aside in a simple and predictable way. Yet the scene that unfolded was unexpectedly vivid.

Based on X-ray computed tomography (Micro-CT), our study, published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, realized the 4D (3D + time) dynamic observation and modeling of the whole process of ice crystal growth and salt exclusion.

When we monitored brine as it froze, the microstructure evolved far more dynamically than expected. Immediately after nucleation, ice crystals (dark areas) formed rapidly and trapped brine (bright areas) within a porous network. As freezing progressed, this network reorganized into striped patterns that moved either downward or upward depending on boundary conditions.

This Photonic AI Chip is the FUTURE of Computer Vision

This AI chip doesn’t use electricity to compute — it uses light.

FlexiSpot is having mega sales now! Use my code “CODEOLENCES” to get EXTRA $30 off on the E7 Pro standing desk! If you’re shopping on a budget, the FlexiSpot premium E7 is a great option. It would be greatly appreciated if you could leave a note saying “Codeolences” at checkout. FlexiSpot E7 Pro standing desk:

USA: https://bit.ly/497nWv1
CAN: https://bit.ly/4iTaKNO

▀▀▀
Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have built a photonic neural network capable of classifying nearly 2 billion images per second, operating at speeds millions of times faster than today’s electronic computer vision systems.

In this video, we explore how photonic neural networks work, why traditional image recognition is so computationally expensive, and how light-based hardware could overcome fundamental limits of GPUs and silicon. We go over how convolution layers, weighted sums, and activation functions are implemented directly on a photonic chip — without memory, clock cycles, or digital logic.

⚛️⚛️⚛️

Continue reading “This Photonic AI Chip is the FUTURE of Computer Vision” | >

Feeling happier starts with kindness: Compassion tied to higher life satisfaction

People who treat others with compassion often feel more at ease themselves. This is the key finding of a new study by Majlinda Zhuniq, Dr. Friedericke Winter, and Professor Corina Aguilar-Raab from the University of Mannheim. Their study was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.

While the link between self-compassion and well-being is well established, this effect has hardly been researched with respect to compassion for others. In a meta-analysis, the research team analyzed data from more than 40 individual studies.

The results showed that people who empathize with others, support them, or want to help them report greater overall life satisfaction, experience more joy, and see more meaning in life. On average, these people’s psychological well-being was higher. The link between compassion and a reduction in negative feelings, such as stress or sadness, was weaker. However, slight positive trends could also be seen in this respect.

/* */