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Sep 19, 2023

Drug Turns on Self-Destruct Genes in Cancer Cells

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Researchers have designed a molecule that kills blood cancer cells by tricking them into self-destructing, according to results of a new study. Experts say the molecule represents a new class of compounds that could have broad potential as cancer treatments.

Like a cyanide pill hidden in the teeth of a James Bond villain, human cells have a quick means of self-destruction if necessary. This natural safeguard is a way for the body to rid itself of old, damaged, or infected cells—including cancer cells.

But in many types of cancer, those means of self-destruction are subverted or blocked off. In some diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) tumors, for example, genes that orchestrate cell death are shut off by a protein called BCL6.

Sep 19, 2023

Exploring transhumanism

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

What do pacemakers, prosthetic limbs, Iron Man and flu vaccines all have in common? They are examples of an old idea that’s been gaining in significance in the last several decades: transhumanism. The word denotes a set of ideas relating to the increasing integration of humans with their technologies. At the heart of the transhuman conversation, however, lies the oldest question of all: What does it mean to be human?

When talking about transhumanism, it’s easy to get lost because the definition is imprecise. “Transhumanism” can refer to the Transhumanist (with a capital T) movement, which actively pursues a technologically enhanced future, or an amorphous body of ideas and technologies that are closing the bio-techno gap, such as a robotic exoskeleton that enhances the natural strength of the wearer.

At Arizona State University, a diverse set of researchers has been critically examining transhumanism since 2004.

Sep 19, 2023

SINGULARITY and INFOTECHNOLOGY

Posted by in category: singularity

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Sep 19, 2023

From Human Uniqueness to Mental Imagery: This Week’s Top 5 Neuroscience Insights, September 17, 2023

Posted by in categories: computing, food, neuroscience

Summary: New research delves into the distinctive human trait of sequential memory, setting us apart from bonobos. A recent study has also highlighted the joy in chasing passions over accomplishments. Groundbreaking discoveries show the human brain’s computational prowess, mirroring high-powered computers.

Additionally, the footprint of Big Tobacco is evident in the modern American diet through the promotion of hyperpalatable foods. Lastly, understanding the range of mind’s visualization abilities, from hyperphantasia to aphantasia, opens avenues for innovative treatments.

Sep 19, 2023

The Fermi Paradox & Panspermia

Posted by in categories: evolution, existential risks

Our current theory of evolution holds that all life on Earth originated from a single, simple life form billions of years ago. But what if that life did not originate on Earth? In this episode we’ll explore the theory of Panspermia, that origin of life might be extraterrestrial in origin, and that the abiogenesis of that origin life form we descend from might have descended from the sky in a comet or some other alien source. We will explore the impact this concept would have on the Fermi Paradox if true.
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Continue reading “The Fermi Paradox & Panspermia” »

Sep 19, 2023

Quantum computing offers new insight into photochemical processes

Posted by in categories: chemistry, computing, environmental, quantum physics

Quantum computing has provided new insights into a fundamental aspect of photochemical reactions that has previously proven difficult to study. The findings could improve scientists’ understanding of light-driven processes such as photosynthesis, smog formation and ozone destruction.

Photochemical processes occur when atomic nuclei and their electrons take on different configurations after absorbing a photon. Some of these reactions are guided by a quantum phenomenon called a conical intersection, where the potential energy surfaces that describe a molecule in its ground state and in its excited state converge. In these situations, quantum mechanical interference can prevent certain molecular transformations from taking place – a constraint known as a geometric phase. This limits the path that the reaction can take and affects the reaction outcome. The geometric phase has been known about since the 1950s, but due to the femtosecond timescales involved, it has never been directly observed in a molecular system.

Sep 19, 2023

Drug delivery systems for CRISPR-based genome editors

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, nanotechnology

CRISPR-based genome editing has the potential to treat many human genetic diseases, but achieving stable, efficient and safe in vivo delivery remains a challenge. This Review assesses current delivery systems for genome editors—focusing on adeno-associated viruses and lipid nanoparticles—and highlights data from recent clinical trials. Emerging delivery systems and ongoing challenges in the field are discussed.

Sep 19, 2023

Scaled-Up Version Of Solar System Discovered Around Star That Will Go Supernova

Posted by in category: cosmology

Most exoplanets that have been discovered over the last few decades happened to go around stars that are roughly the same size as the Sun. Some are a bit bigger and many a lot smaller. Planets have been discovered around pulsars, the extreme end product of supernovae, so astronomers expect that planets are to be found around the massive star that will one day explode as a supernova. Two such planets have recently been discovered and the whole setup looks like a blown-up version of our own Solar System.

The star in question is called μ2 Sco which is part of the Scorpius-Centaurus association. This is a group of young stars, no older than 20 million years. Among them, μ2 Sco (pronounced Mew two, yes like the legendary Pokemon) is a massive, blue, hot star that weighs about nine times our Sun. The observations conducted in this study suggest the presence of two candidate companions.

These are called CC0 and μ2 Sco b. The first has not been confirmed completely yet. It appears to have a mass of about 18.5 times that of Jupiter. The team is confident in the detection of the second one, which has a mass of about 14.4 Jupiters, so it gets the proper planet name. The team uses the term planet.

Sep 19, 2023

Retentive Network: A Successor to Transformer for Large Language Models (Paper Explained)

Posted by in category: computing

Retention is an alternative to Attention in Transformers that can both be written in a parallel and in a recurrent fashion. This means the architecture achieves training parallelism while maintaining low-cost inference. Experiments in the paper look very promising.

OUTLINE:
0:00 — Intro.
2:40 — The impossible triangle.
6:55 — Parallel vs sequential.
15:35 — Retention mechanism.
21:00 — Chunkwise and multi-scale retention.
24:10 — Comparison to other architectures.
26:30 — Experimental evaluation.

Continue reading “Retentive Network: A Successor to Transformer for Large Language Models (Paper Explained)” »

Sep 19, 2023

Quantum Gauge Networks: A New Kind of Tensor Network

Posted by in categories: energy, information science, quantum physics

Kevin Slagle, Quantum 7, 1113 (2023). Although tensor networks are powerful tools for simulating low-dimensional quantum physics, tensor network algorithms are very computationally costly in higher spatial dimensions. We introduce $\textit{quantum gauge networks}$: a different kind of tensor network ansatz for which the computation cost of simulations does not explicitly increase for larger spatial dimensions. We take inspiration from the gauge picture of quantum dynamics, which consists of a local wavefunction for each patch of space, with neighboring patches related by unitary connections. A quantum gauge network (QGN) has a similar structure, except the Hilbert space dimensions of the local wavefunctions and connections are truncated. We describe how a QGN can be obtained from a generic wavefunction or matrix product state (MPS). All $2k$-point correlation functions of any wavefunction for $M$ many operators can be encoded exactly by a QGN with bond dimension $O(M^k)$. In comparison, for just $k=1$, an exponentially larger bond dimension of $2^{M/6}$ is generically required for an MPS of qubits. We provide a simple QGN algorithm for approximate simulations of quantum dynamics in any spatial dimension. The approximate dynamics can achieve exact energy conservation for time-independent Hamiltonians, and spatial symmetries can also be maintained exactly. We benchmark the algorithm by simulating the quantum quench of fermionic Hamiltonians in up to three spatial dimensions.