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Jul 24, 2016

AI: NASA’s Curiosity rover can now choose its own laser targets on Mars

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space

Nice.


Who’s calling the shots now? After nearly four years on the job, NASA’s Curiosity rover is finally making certain scientific decisions on its own. The Martian explorer now picks some of the rock targets to blast with the laser on its ChemCam instrument.

A software upgrade known as AEGIS allows the rover to make key decisions when Mars is out of sync with Curiosity’s handlers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, delivering more data in less time. It’s the first time a robot has been able to choose such science targets autonomously on any planetary mission.

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Jul 24, 2016

Why are we still building space tech down here on Earth?

Posted by in category: space

Want to build stuff for Space; well you may need to move from earth to a spacelab. I can see the job ads “want to see and experience other planetary worlds; live for adventure, see space; sleep near Mars, etc.”


Any robust future in space will almost certainly require a way to build there — and that future might not be as far out as you think!

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Jul 24, 2016

Engineered bacteria deliver an anti cancer tumor toxin in mice before self-destructing

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics

I never get tired of hearing more information on this research.


A synthetic genetic circuit programmed into an attenuated Salmonella enterica subspecies can be used to systemically deliver an anti-tumor toxin into mice with cancer. The circuit allows the bacterial cells inside a tumor to synchronously self-destruct by lysis, releasing the toxin directly in the tumor.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come up with a strategy for using synthetic biology in therapeutics. The approach enables continual production and release of drugs at disease sites in mice while simultaneously limiting the size, over time, of the populations of bacteria engineered to produce the drugs.

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Jul 24, 2016

How Forgotten Baby Memories Rewire Learning in the Brain

Posted by in categories: neuroscience, sex

Interesting article on toddler memories. I was actually speaking with my mother on Sat. and shared with her 3 distinct memories that I had before age 3. One in the crib seeing my grandmother, second was my first rocking horse, and 3rd was 2 pet birds.

She (my mom) thought that I would have remember building a step staircase out of my grandmother’s drawers of her 6ft chest, and climbed up to sit on top of the chest so that I could throw down my grandmother’s powder on the floor. They saw a cloud of smoke from the powder coming out of the room; and found me.

Just sharing because I am always amazed at how brain sensory and memories work.

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Jul 24, 2016

For The First Time Ever, Physicists Made A Quantum Hologram

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

Who wants a Quantum Hologram?


Scientists from Warsaw were able to produce a hologram of a photon. Hopefully, this method may be used to produce holograms of more complex objects and further understand quantum mechanics.

Physicists from the University of Warsaw believe that they may have achieved “the impossible.” They were able to create a hologram of a single particle of light. Previously, scientists believed that the fundamental laws of physics did not allow this, and to that end, their breakthrough allows physicists to further study quantum holography (which may give us a new way to peer into the heart of quantum phenomena).

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Jul 24, 2016

How Instagram’s Head Engineer Is Using Quantum Mechanics To Manage His Team

Posted by in category: quantum physics

Is nothing sacred from Quantum?


James Everingham’s passion for physics predated his management role at Instagram. Here’s how he’s brought one to bear on the other.

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Jul 24, 2016

CRISPR against cancer

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics

Hope; or at least I am hoping.


A novel gene-editing technique with potential to revolutionize cancer treatment has scientists in a race to test it on humans.

As the scientific journal Nature announced last week: “Chinese scientists to pioneer first human CRISPR trial.”

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Jul 24, 2016

An AI Watched 600 Hours of TV and Started to Accurately Predict What Happens Next

Posted by in categories: computing, information science, robotics/AI, security

MIT researchers have created an algorithm that hopes to understand human visual social cues and predict what would happen next. Giving AI the ability to understand and predict human social interaction could one day pave the way to efficient home assistant systems as well as intelligent security cameras that can call an ambulance or the police ahead of time.

MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory created an algorithm that utilizes deep learning, which enables artificial intelligence (AI) to use patterns of human interaction to predict what will happen next. Researchers fed the program with videos featuring human social interactions and tested it to see if it “learned” well enough to be able to predict them.

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Jul 24, 2016

Hello, Monumental Storage. Now You Can Get A 10TB Hard Drive For Your Home PC

Posted by in categories: business, computing

Seagate has just released a trio of storage options, including a 10TB desktop drive, allowing users to get a massive amount of storage.

The natural drive for companies is to provide something bigger than what the competition has to offer. That’s true especially in the storage business, where making drives with higher and higher capacity is the name of the game.

Which is what drove Seagate to make this monumental beast. Say “hello” to 10 TB of hardware storage for your desktop PC. That’s right: a desktop drive with the capacity of an entire server.

Continue reading “Hello, Monumental Storage. Now You Can Get A 10TB Hard Drive For Your Home PC” »

Jul 24, 2016

Paralyzed Man Walks After Nose Cells Transplanted Into Spinal Cord

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Two years after an operation to transplant nerve cells from his nose into his severed spinal cord, a Bulgarian man is walking again.

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