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Nov 30, 2024

Can Models of Human Consciousness Enhance AI Capabilities?

Posted by in categories: information science, neuroscience, robotics/AI

Some researchers propose that advancing AI to the next level will require an internal architecture that more closely mirrors the human mind. Rufin VanRullen joins Brian Greene to discuss early results from one such approach, based on the Global Workspace Theory of consciousness.

This program is part of the Big Ideas series, supported by the John Templeton Foundation.

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Nov 30, 2024

Modified ribosomes could be a new possible mechanism of antibiotic resistance

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A recent study from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona reveals that bacteria can adapt their ribosomes when exposed to widely used antibiotics, potentially playing a role in the development of antibiotic resistance. These small changes can modify the drug-binding sites on ribosomes, reducing the effectiveness of antibiotics.

The research focused on Escherichia coli (E. coli), a usually harmless bacterium that can lead to serious infections. The team exposed E. coli to two antibiotics, streptomycin and kasugamycin.

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Nov 30, 2024

Brains grew faster as humans evolved

Posted by in categories: evolution, neuroscience

A new study by the University of Reading on human brain evolution has found that modern humans, Neanderthals, and other recent relatives evolved larger brains much more rapidly than earlier species. This challenges previous ideas, suggesting that brain size increased gradually within each ancient human species, rather than through sudden leaps between species.

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Nov 30, 2024

Why Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol Is A Big Step In The Evolution Of AI Agents

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Anthropic, a leading AI model provider, has proposed a protocol and architecture for providing language models with the necessary context obtained from external systems.

Nov 30, 2024

World’s youngest patient receives groundbreaking gene therapy in Cincinnati

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, media & arts

Nov 30, 2024

New hybrid catalyst developed for clean oxygen production

Posted by in categories: chemistry, energy, sustainability

A research team at the Institute of Materials Chemistry at TU Wien, led by Professor Dominik Eder, has developed a new synthetic approach to create durable, conductive and catalytically active hybrid framework materials for (photo)electrocatalytic water splitting. The study is published in Nature Communications.

The development of technologies for sustainable energy carriers, such as hydrogen, is essential. A promising way to produce hydrogen (H2) is from splitting water into H2 and oxygen (O2), either electrochemically or using light, or both—a path that the team follows. However, this process requires a catalyst that accelerates the reaction without being consumed. Key criteria for a catalyst include a large surface area for the adsorption and splitting of water molecules, and durability for .

Zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs), a class of hybrid organic/inorganic materials with molecular interfaces and numerous pores, offer record surface areas and ample adsorption sites for water as catalysts. They consist of single metal ions, such as cobalt ions, which are connected by specific organic molecules, called ligands, through what is called coordination bonds. Conventional ZIFs only contain a single type of organic ligand.

Nov 30, 2024

Ryugu asteroid samples indicate damage from microscopic meteoroid bombardment

Posted by in categories: particle physics, space

Asteroids are remnants of the formation of our solar system, and while many can be found within the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, some cannot. One such object is asteroid (162173) Ryugu, a 1 km-wide near-Earth asteroid believed to have originated in the asteroid belt. However, it has since moved to cross Earth’s orbit, located 300 million km from our planet.

The asteroid is constantly bombarded by debris in space and new research, published in The Astrophysical Journal, has suggested that even can have damaging effects.

Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launched the Hayabusa2 spacecraft to conduct and sample collection on the asteroid in 2018 and 2019. Laboratory work on these samples identified a distinct pattern of dehydration of phyllosilicates (sheet-like silicate minerals, such as magnesium-rich serpentine and saponite), whereby the bonds between the included oxygen and hydrogen atoms are broken.

Nov 30, 2024

An unexpected delay in a standard quantum optical process generates pairs of photons

Posted by in categories: encryption, energy, quantum physics

Since it was first demonstrated in the 1960s, spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) has been at the center of many quantum optics experiments that test the fundamental laws of physics in quantum mechanics, and in applications like quantum simulation, quantum cryptography, and quantum metrology.

SPDC is the spontaneous splitting of a photon into two after it passes through a nonlinear object like certain crystals. The process is nonlinear and instantaneous, and the two output photons (called the signal photon and idler photon) satisfy conservation of energy and momentum compared to the input photon (the pump photon). SPDC is often used with a specially designed crystal to create pairs of entangled photons.

A research team from Canada has discovered that there is a delay between the detection of the two output photons, one that depends on the intensity of the incoming light that impacts the crystal. They call this a “gain-induced group delay.”

Nov 30, 2024

Higher-density storage technique could allow diamond disk to store equivalent of 2,000 Blu-ray discs

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics

A team of engineers at the University of Science and Technology of China has developed a new way to code data onto a diamond with higher density than prior methods. In their paper published in the journal Nature Photonics, the group notes that such optical discs could hold data safely at room temperature for millions of years.

Prior research has shown that it is possible to code data onto a diamond, allowing for much longer data than any other known method. But such efforts have produced low-density storage. In this new effort, the research team developed a new method for etching data onto a diamond that allows for much denser data storage, and thus for storing more information onto a single diamond.

In their work, the researchers used diamond pieces just a few millimeters in length—they were pursuing a proof of concept, not a true storage medium. Future versions, they note, could be the size of a Blu-ray disc. The new method involved the use of a to remove single carbon atoms from the surface of the diamond, leaving a tiny cavity. The cavity, the researchers note, exhibits a certain level of brightness when another laser is shone on it.

Nov 30, 2024

Dawn and dusk satellite quantum key distribution using time- and phase-based encoding and polarization filtering

Posted by in categories: quantum physics, security, space

Free-space optical communication links promise better security and increase bandwidths but can suffer from noise in daylight. This is particularly detrimental in quantum communications where current mitigation techniques, such as spectral, temporal, and spatial filtering, are not yet sufficient to make daylight tolerable for satellite quantum key distribution (SatQKD). As all current SatQKD systems are polarization-encoded, polarization filtering has not been investigated. However, by using time-and phase-encoded SatQKD, it is possible to filter in polarization in addition to existing domains. Scattered daylight can be more than 90% polarized in the visible band, yielding a reduction in detected daylight between 3 dB and 13 dB, such that polarization filtering can reduce the brightness of 780 nm daylight to below the unfiltered equivalent at 1,550 nm. Simulations indicate that polarization filtering increases the secure key rate and allows for SatQKD to be performed at dawn and dusk. This could open the way for daylight SatQKD utilizing shorter near-infrared wavelengths and retaining their benefits.

Published by Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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