Militaries have for years tinkered with armed drones, robo-dogs, mechanical mules and more.
A study investigating the effect of sleep on brain performance has found a link between an individual’s preference for morning or evening activity and their brain function, suggesting that self-declared “night owls” generally tend to have higher cognitive scores.
Researchers at Imperial College London looked at data from more than 26,000 people to find out how different aspects of sleep—including duration, patterns, and quality—affected mental sharpness and overall cognitive ability.
Using data from the extensive UK Biobank database, they analyzed information on U.K. adults who had completed a number of cognitive tests—including whether people described themselves as a “morning person” or an “evening person,” referring to which time of the day they felt more alert and productive.
Cyborg Civilizations
Posted in cyborgs, media & arts
We often contemplate cyborgs, people enhanced by machines, but what would a civilization built upon cybernetics be like?
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Human history can be seen as a catalogue of our technological pushback against nature. Our earliest technologies—including fire and clothing—enabled us to endure relentlessly harsh climates, and subsequent eras saw our creativity give birth to anesthetics, electricity, antibiotics, and vaccines.
Singularity is the point where AI could surpass human intelligence. How might it affect society—if it ever comes to be?
How does cannabis alleviate the symptoms associated with chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) pain in patients? This is what a recent study published in the Journal of Cannabis Research hopes to address as a team of researchers from Canada investigated patient perception regarding cannabis use and treating their MSK symptoms. This study comes as an increasing number of MSK patients have turned to cannabis to alleviate their pain symptoms without hard data to support that use.
For the study, the researchers conducted a self-reported survey with 629 MSK patients in Canada with an average age of 56 years old and comprised of 44 percent men and 56 percent women. For the surveys, the patients were asked to privately disclose their past or present cannabis use in managing their MSK pain. In the end, 144 (23 percent) of participants reported past or present cannabis use with 63.7 percent disclosing that cannabis was effective at treating their MSK pain and 26.6 percent disclosing it as “slightly effective”, per the study.
The researchers concluded, “One in five patients presenting to an orthopaedic surgeon with chronic MSK pain are using or have used cannabis with the specific intent to manage their pain, and most report it to be effective. Among non-users, two-thirds reported an interest in using cannabis to manage their MSK pain, but common barriers to use existed. Future double-blind placebo-controlled trials are required to understand if this reported efficacy is accurate, and what role, if any, cannabis may play in the management of chronic MSK pain.”
Advances in artificial intelligence are coming to your freezer, in the form of robot-assembled prepared meals.
Chef Robotics, a San Francisco–based startup, has launched a system of AI-powered robotic arms that can be quickly programmed with a recipe to dole out accurate portions of everything from tikka masala to pesto tortellini. After experiments with leading brands, including Amy’s Kitchen, the company says its robots have proved their worth and are being rolled out at scale to more production facilities. They are also being offered to new customers in the US and Canada.
CEO Elon Musk teased it in April for the first time, and it was set to bring unprecedented momentum to the company’s years of development of Full Self-Driving and fully autonomous driving technologies.
However, Tesla is not quite ready to roll out the Robotaxi prototypes.
First reported by Bloomberg, Tesla is said to need more time to build the first units of the Robotaxi. Because it is built upon the automaker’s next-generation platform, which is to blame for the company’s lack of growth in 2024, more development is needed.
Wriggling critters armed with enzymes can break down plastics that would otherwise take decades, or even centuries to degrade.
At first glance there’s nothing particularly remarkable about waxworms. The larval form of wax moths, these pale wriggling grubs feed on the wax that bees use to make their honeycomb. For beekeepers, the pests are something to swiftly get rid of without a second thought.
But in 2017 molecular biologist Federica Bertocchini, who at the time was researching the embryonic development of vertebrates at the Spanish National Research Council, stumbled on a potentially game-changing discovery about these creatures.