Changing another world to support Earth life is called terraforming. But maybe it’s a better idea to just change Earth life to live on other worlds.
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Ever since Jules Verne and before — perhaps as early as the 5th century B.C. — writers, philosophers and scientists have brought fantasies to life about spaceships carrying humans to other planets, solar systems and galaxies.
Of all the potential targets, only the moon thus far has hosted Earthling “boots on the ground.” Next on most wish lists is Mars. NASA’s tentative schedule designates the first manned mission sometime around 2030.
Aside from the formidable task of designing a safe, efficient vehicle to transport people and supplies, such a mission — depending on the positions of the two planets and other logistics — would take in the neighborhood of nine months each way. Not only is that a long trip, but it would also expose the human body to ambient space radiation for close to a year. Can’t this travel time, many have asked, be cut down somehow?
Wind turbines in Scotland generated power equivalent to all its electricity needs for four straight days, between December 23 and 26, new analysis from WWF Scotland has shown.
Furthermore, on December 24, 74,042 megawatt hours of electricity generated from wind power was sent to the National Grid, a record.
With electricity demand on Christmas Eve 56,089 megawatt hours, WWF Scotland noted that wind turbines generated the “equivalent of 132 percent of Scotland’s total electricity needs that day.” The environmental group’s figures come from analysis of data provided by WeatherEnergy.
Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have developed a new computational model of a neural circuit in the brain, which could shed light on the biological role of inhibitory neurons — neurons that keep other neurons from firing.
The model describes a neural circuit consisting of an array of input neurons and an equivalent number of output neurons. The circuit performs what neuroscientists call a “winner-take-all” operation, in which signals from multiple input neurons induce a signal in just one output neuron.
Using the tools of theoretical computer science, the researchers prove that, within the context of their model, a certain configuration of inhibitory neurons provides the most efficient means of enacting a winner-take-all operation. Because the model makes empirical predictions about the behavior of inhibitory neurons in the brain, it offers a good example of the way in which computational analysis could aid neuroscience.
In Brief
There’s a new way to make stock market predictions. One company, Numerai, is synthesizing machine intelligence to command the capital of an American hedge fund.
The team outlines the focus of their work, asserting that they take the most accurate and original machine learning models from the world’s best data scientists and synthesize them into “a collective artificial intelligence.” This AI controls the capital in Numerai’s hedge fund.
Can you tell if she is human or robot? 
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Inserting spider DNA into silkworms yields a tough fabric that’s far more flexible than Kevlar.
Spider silk is one of nature’s toughest substances, similar in strength to the Kevlar plastic found in bulletproof vests but much more flexible. Kraig Biocraft, a company out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, genetically altered silkworms to produce a fiber that’s similar to pure spider silk. Today, they announced an Army contract to test this so-called Dragon Silk for possible use in body armor.
There’s a reason that silk from worms is cheap but you can’t buy pajamas made from spider fabric: spiders are territorial and cannibalistic, which makes farming them for fabric production almost exorbitant.
The Pentagon’s research division is betting its high-risk, high-reward programs will change medicine.
