Lifeboat Foundation

The rate of ground-breaking scientific discoveries and technological innovation is slowing down despite an ever-growing amount of knowledge, according to an analysis released Wednesday of millions of research papers and patents.

While previous research has shown downturns in individual disciplines, the study is the first that “emphatically, convincingly documents this decline of disruptiveness across all major fields of science and technology,” lead author Michael Park told AFP.

Park, a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, called disruptive discoveries those that “break away from existing ideas” and “push the whole scientific field into new territory.”

As we prepare to leave 2022 behind, let’s take a look at a few of the most noteworthy scientific breakthroughs that happened this year.

In 2021, one of the record years in biotechnology investments, about 50 drugs were approved by the FDA. 36 of these were small molecules. In my opinion, only about 5 of these were truly innovative targeting novel mechanisms and novel targets. The 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) contained 55,000 codes for diseases, injuries and conditions. Even if we assume that there are only 10,000 diseases, 50 FDA approvals per year seems to be an extraordinarily small number.

The reason for this small number of innovative and effective therapeutics is the long time, high cost, and low probability of success of drug discovery and development. On average, this process takes 12 years, costs over $2 Billion dollars and fails over 90% of the time. The most innovative therapeutics with novel targets have even higher probability of failure. To get these 50 drugs approved in 2021, the pharmaceutical companies globally spent over $100 Billion and over a decade.

The biotechnology industry is very different from any other industry and it is important to understand how it works, and the role China plays in delivering safe and effective medicines to suffering patients worldwide. Sharing risk, expenses, and infrastructure will result in acceleration of global biotechnology and increase the number of innovative drug approvals. Closer collaboration between the US and China in biotechnology would allow investors to share huge risks and returns while benefiting everyone on the planet and making this world a much better place.

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A breakthrough artificial intelligence called SinFusion can now take any video as input and extrapolate a synthetic video as output, either moving forward or backward in time, using a diffusion model. Google AI has released a new robotics transformer (RT-1) that does over 700 tasks using a fleet of 13 different robot arms with 7 degrees of freedom and a 2 fingered gripper manipulator. Researchers from Korea have developed a quadruped robot that is able to walk on walls and ceilings using magnetic elastomers and electromagnets.

AI News Timestamps:
0:00 The Rise of AI Diffusion Models.
1:08 Custom AI Diffusion Model Options.
1:27 What Is SinFusion AI
2:35 How Sinfusion AI Works.
4:04 New Google AI Robot Tech.
6:28 New Robotics That Walk on Walls.

#technology #tech #ai

A science vlogger has given snakes their legs back — and the fact that led him to his mad invention is pretty outrageous.

The technology system will enable the Yanghuopan Power Station in Yulin City, Shaanxi, to save 24,500 tonnes of coal and cut 54,100 tonnes of carbon emissions annually, claims Chinese media.

China claims the “world’s first” power plant equipped with a “natural direct cooling” (NDC) system is now connected to the grid in the Shaanxi Province of the country.

“The technology, described as ‘a revolution in industrial air cooling’ by local newspaper Shaanxi Daily, makes use of the natural airflow in the plant to guide the heat to the air condenser,” said the report.

Continue reading “China claims ‘revolutionary breakthrough’ in cooling power plants” »

Roasting would have been easy. But re-creating the paleo way of boiling water requires a bit more imagination.

https://youtube.com/tomorrowsworldtoday/

Tomorrow’s World Today presents a cutting-edge approach to exploring concepts in science and technology that are changing lives today and making a difference tomorrow. The series introduces innovative pioneers from around the world who are forming new ways to utilize natural and technological resources to create a more sustainable society. Field Reporters Greg Constantino and David Carmine join host George Davison to explore innovation and sustainability across the world.

2022 has been an interesting year with incredible developments, both positive and negative in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Many international leaders have consistently expressed concerns on the hopes or horrors that AI can unleash if humans are not careful in applying ethical AI practices, and also fundamentally thinking harder about the use cases and the societal impacts that AI could have on human civilization.

According to a Gartner study, the revenue from AI in 2022 will reach $62 billion. This is an increase of roughly a 21.3% increase from 2021. Despite the dynamics of the market, AI is continuing to evolve, grow and many outstanding AI innovations are advancing the betterment of human kind — giving us much hope.