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The headline-grabbing release here is Gemma 2, the next generation of Google’s open-weights Gemma models, which will launch with a 27 billion parameter model in June.

Already available is PaliGemma, a pre-trained Gemma variant that Google describes as “the first vision language model in the Gemma family” for image captioning, image labeling and visual Q&A use cases.

So far, the standard Gemma models, which launched earlier this year, were only available in 2-billion-parameter and 7-billion-parameter versions, making this new 27-billion model quite a step up.

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In a new study recently published by Science Advances, Michigan State University researchers reveal an unexpected genetic revelation about the sugars found in “tomato tar,” shedding light on plant defense mechanisms and their potential applications in pest control.

Tomato tar, a familiar nuisance of avid gardeners, is the sticky, gold-black substance that clings to hands after touching the plant. It turns out that the characteristic stickiness of the substance serves an important purpose. It’s made of a type of sugar called acylsugar that acts as a natural flypaper for would-be pests. “Plants have evolved to make so many amazing poisons and other biologically active compounds,” said Michigan State researcher Robert Last, leader of the study. The Last lab specializes in acylsugars and the tiny, hair-like structures where they’re produced and stored, known as trichomes.

In a surprising discovery, researchers have found acylsugars, once thought to be found exclusively in trichomes, in tomato roots as well. This finding is a genetic enigma that raises as many questions as it does insights.

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Currently, treatments are largely limited to symptomatic relief rather than addressing the underlying disease progression. Given this gap in treatment options, there is a significant need for new therapies that can protect brain cells and potentially reverse damage.

Cannabinol (CBN), a compound derived from the cannabis plant, has emerged as a candidate for such treatments due to its neuroprotective properties, which are evident without the psychoactive effects associated with other cannabinoids like THC.

Previous studies indicated that CBN could help preserve mitochondrial function in brain cells, an essential factor for cell survival and energy production. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a common feature in several neurodegenerative diseases, often leading to cell death. By focusing on CBN and its derivatives, researchers aimed to develop new pharmacological strategies to prevent or mitigate the cellular mechanisms that lead to neurodegeneration.

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ChatGPT 4O can now speak and sing in real time. It can even view the real world through your phone’s camera and describe what’s happening in real time.

The AI race has just shifted into high gear, with US artificial intelligence pioneers OpenAI rolling out its new interface that works with audio and vision as well as text. The new model, called GPT-4o, has gone beyond the familiar chat-bot features and is capable of real-time, near-natural voice conversations. The developer OpenAI will also make it available to free users.

ChatGPT was already able to talk to users, but with long pauses to process the data. It often seemed a bit sluggish. This was because the feature required three internal applications, the company explained: transcribing the spoken text, processing and generating, and converting the response to speech. This caused delays.

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