Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists in Europe and the United States face an uncertain political landscape in the new year, which could affect funding and collaborations. The threat is most acute in the United Kingdom, which plans to exit the European Union in March but has not settled on the terms of its departure. Some big research findings could share the headlines, however, including the first clear images of the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy, from astronomers in an international collaboration called the Event Horizon Telescope. Science’s news staff forecasts other areas of research and policy likely to make news this year.

Science’s news editors and writers predict this year’s biggest developments.

Anthropologist Alice Roberts and a team of SFX model makers designed the “perfect human,” and it’s fucked up.

Thanks to Authority Magazine and Fotis Georgiadis for the interview — Bioquark inc. (http://www.bioquark.com) — Regeneration, Disease Reversion, Age Rejuvenation — https://medium.com/authority-magazine/the-future-is-now-we-a…cc6dc8ebf1

China could emerge as the world’s biggest spender on research and development, after adjusting for the purchasing power of its currency, once countries publish their 2018 spending data in late 2019. Outlays on science in China have accelerated since 2003, although the country still trails behind the United States on measures of research quality. Over in Europe, officials will try to agree on how to disburse a proposed €100 billion (US$110 billion) through the European Union’s next research-funding programme, Horizon Europe, which begins in 2021. It’s unclear how fully UK researchers will be able to participate, as uncertainty over Brexit continues to plague the country.

Gene-editing, open access and a biosafety rethink are set to shape research.

One small amoeba found a solution to the traveling salesman problem faster than our best algorithms. What does it know that we don’t?

The innovators and discoverers of tomorrow took centre stage in Chesterfield Inlet when Victor Sammurtok School (VSS) hosted its Elementary Science Fair on Dec. 4. Local fairs in schools across the region led up to the Kivalliq Science Educators’ Community’s (KSEC) Kivalliq Regional Science Fair, where students were vying for the right to represent the…

Facial recognition technology is being tested by businesses and governments for everything from policing to employee timesheets. Even more granular results are on their way, promise the companies behind the technology: Automatic emotion recognition could soon help robots understand humans better, or detect road rage in car drivers.

But experts are warning that the facial-recognition algorithms that attempt to interpret facial expressions could be based on uncertain science. The claims are a part of AI Now Institute’s annual report, a nonprofit that studies the impact of AI on society. The report also includes recommendations for the regulation of AI and greater transparency in the industry.

“The problem is now AI is being applied in a lot of social contexts. Anthropology, psychology, and philosophy are all incredibly relevant, but this is not the training of people who come from a technical [computer science] background.” says Kate Crawford, co-founder of AI Now, distinguished research professor at NYU and principal researcher at Microsoft Research. “Essentially the narrowing of AI has produced a kind of guileless acceptance of particular strands of psychological literature that have been shown to be suspect.”

Continue reading “Amazon And Microsoft Claim AI Can Read Human Emotions. Experts Say the Science Is Shaky” »

Scientific study looks at how an open minded people think differently and how it influences their information processing. The study found this switch in thinking occurs on a pre-concious level. Read about the link between creativity, innovation and open mindedness.

As local, federal, and international policies targeting the quality of the air we breathe continue to evolve, questions arise of how effective existing policies have been in improving human health. For example, how many lives have been saved by tough air pollution policies? How many illnesses have been caused by lax policies?

Annual mean levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution declined in the United States between 1990 (left) and 2010 (right), leading to thousands of lives saved, according to researcher Jason West.

Continue reading “NASA Science Shows Human Impact of Clean Air Policies” »