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Dec 13, 2023

MitoRx raises $5 million to advance mitochondrial dysfunction therapeutics

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Headquartered in Oxford, UK, MitoRx is working on orally delivered mitochondrial protective therapeutics targeting mitochondrial dysfunction linked to the progression of conditions such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy and Huntington’s disease, along with other neurodegenerative diseases. The company says the new funding will be allocated towards its preclinical work in Huntington’s disease, activating its first neurodegenerative disease program, and exploring research collaborations and partnerships.

MitoRx anticipates delivering preclinical results in Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Huntington’s disease, and COPD next year.

“Interim results in our Duchenne program demonstrate that our muscle-penetrative lead asset preserves strength in oxidative muscle, and confirms mitochondrial modulation,” said Dr Christine Charman, Chief Development Officer at MitoRx. “These results will be presented at the Muscular Dystrophy Association Clinical and Scientific Conference in Orlando during March 2024.”

Dec 13, 2023

Using Digital Intelligence Against Criminal Use of AI

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, security

This post is also available in: he עברית (Hebrew)

Nowadays, many malicious elements online use AI to digitally expand their operations, and experts claim that such AI-generated fraud is only expected to worsen.

This increasing criminal use of AI challenges security agencies as they look to capture and convict criminals. Unfortunately, most agencies do not have the resources to handle the increased volume of cases, and those that do struggle immensely with differing regulations across jurisdictions. Furthermore, the lack of federal legislation on AI leaves agencies largely on their own to navigate these evolving challenges.

Dec 13, 2023

Snail: A Protein That May Help the Injured Brain Heal

Posted by in category: neuroscience

A new study has illustrated how a protein called Snail helps brain cells coordinate in response to injury, showing that how much Snail is produced affects whether an injury heals efficiently.

Dec 13, 2023

Wild new NASA plasma tech reduces drag during hypersonic flight

Posted by in categories: chemistry, government, military, satellites

According to a notice the agency posted on the government contracting portal SAM.gov on Thursday (Dec. 7), the technology was developed by researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia and has been studied for use in a simulated entry into Neptune’s atmosphere. A separate 2021 study of the same technology studied it for use in the atmosphere of Mars.

Related: Space Force wants ‘Foo Fighter’ satellites to track hypersonic missiles

The agency claims its MHD system is “simpler than conventional methods for control of hypersonic craft (e.g., chemical propulsion, shifting flight center of gravity, or trim tabs) and enables new entry, descent, and landing mission architectures.”

Dec 13, 2023

Physicists Hope to Finally Resolve Whether Gravity is Quantum by Levitating Micro Diamonds

Posted by in categories: particle physics, quantum physics

If successful, the experiments would not only affirm some of the theories proposing the quantum nature of gravity but could also finally unify general relativity with theories of quantum mechanics.

Unifying General Relativity with Quantum Mechanics Has Proven Elusive

“General relativity and quantum mechanics are the two most fundamental descriptions of nature we have,” explains the press release announcing the new experiments. “General relativity explains gravity on large scales while quantum mechanics explains the behaviour of atoms and molecules.”

Dec 13, 2023

Next-Gen fMRI Improves Spatial Resolution 10-Fold

Posted by in category: neuroscience

A suite of improvements enables the NexGen 7T to image sub-microliter neuron clusters.

Dec 13, 2023

AI Networks are more Vulnerable to Malicious Attacks than previously thought

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

Artificial intelligence tools hold promise for applications ranging from autonomous vehicles to the interpretation of medical images. However, a new study finds these AI tools are more vulnerable than previously thought to targeted attacks that effectively force AI systems to make bad decisions.

At issue are so-called “adversarial attacks,” in which someone manipulates the data being fed into an AI system in order to confuse it. For example, someone might know that putting a specific type of sticker at a specific spot on a stop sign could effectively make the stop sign invisible to an AI system. Or a hacker could install code on an X-ray machine that alters the image data in a way that causes an AI system to make inaccurate diagnoses.

“For the most part, you can make all sorts of changes to a stop sign, and an AI that has been trained to identify stop signs will still know it’s a stop sign,” says Tianfu Wu, co-author of a paper on the new work and an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University. “However, if the AI has a vulnerability, and an attacker knows the vulnerability, the attacker could take advantage of the vulnerability and cause an accident.”

Dec 13, 2023

Weight Loss through Slimming found to Significantly Alter Microbiome and Brain Activity

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, health, neuroscience

Worldwide, more than one billion people are obese. Obesity is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some cancers. But permanently losing weight isn’t easy: complex interactions between body systems such as gut physiology, hormones, and the brain are known to work against it. One method for weight loss is intermittent energy restriction (IER), where days of relative fasting alternate with days of eating normally.

“Here we show that an IER diet changes the human brain-gut-microbiome axis. The observed changes in the gut microbiome and in the activity in addition-related brain regions during and after weight loss are highly dynamic and coupled over time,” said last author Dr. Qiang Zeng, a researcher at the Health Management Institute of the PLA General Hospital in Beijing. The study has been published in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology.

The authors used metagenomics on stool samples, blood measurements, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study changes in the composition of the gut microbiome, physiological parameters and serum composition, and brain activity in 25 obese Chinese women and men on an IER diet. Participants were on average 27 years old, with a BMI between 28 and 45.

Dec 13, 2023

Second “Code of Life” Cracked by AI

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Researchers have cracked the second ‘code of life’. In an exclusive interview with Technology Networks they explain how.

Dec 13, 2023

Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing, and Space are 3 Tech areas to Watch in 2024

Posted by in categories: business, quantum physics, robotics/AI, space

By Chuck Brooks


Every new year creates a new opportunity for optimism and predictions. In the past couple of years, emerging technology has permeated almost all areas of our lives. There is much to explore! In this article, I focus on three evolving technology areas that are already impacting our future but are only at the early stages of true potential: artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and space systems.

In addition to my own thoughts and perspectives, I reached out to several well-known subject matter experts on those very topic areas to share their valued insights.

Continue reading “Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing, and Space are 3 Tech areas to Watch in 2024” »