Lifeboat Foundation

New images of the Orion Nebula captured by the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed the existence of 150 free-floating objects once considered a scientific impossibility.

South of Orion’s belt is one of the brightest nebulae visible in the night sky, the Orion Nebula, also known as Messier 42, which is home to the Trapezium Cluster of stars. This cluster produces extremely strong ultraviolet radiation fields that cause the surrounding gas to glow, which is the source of the nebulae’s brightness.

Within the cluster is a veritable nursery for the formation of protostars, which the European Space Agency (ESA) recently called “a treasure trove for astronomers studying the formation and early evolution of stars, with a rich diversity of phenomena and objects” that include a mysterious category of celestial phenomena known as free-floating planetary mass objects.

Google’s search engine dominance in the market share is causing a competitive disadvantage to other competitors like Bing, as it uses its power to improve its algorithm, ultimately placing it further.

Moonwalking courtesy Prada.

The fashion brand is teaming up with Axiom Space to outfit astronauts.

Kenya was a leader in mobile money. Now with highways with charging stations every 25km, and this.

Technology company Roam announced the launch of the ‘Made in Kenya’, fully electric, Roam Move shuttle bus mid last month. The zero-emissions shuttle bus and is equipped with a 170 kWh battery pack and can travel 200 kilometres on a single charge. It also has a fast plug-in battery charging that ensures it is fully charged in less than two hours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-2P3MSZrBM

Joscha Bach is the VP of Research at the AI Foundation, previously doing research at MIT and Harvard. Joscha work explores the workings of the human mind, intelligence, consciousness, life on Earth, and the possibly-simulated fabric of our universe.

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Continue reading “Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality” »

A study conducted in Japan has found that individuals exhibiting strong autistic traits are often inclined towards dichotomous thinking. The research suggests that these autistic traits might lead to a heightened intolerance of uncertainty, subsequently increasing the propensity for dichotomous thinking. The study was published in Scientific Reports.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental condition characterized by a wide range of symptoms and challenges. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder typically have restricted interests, difficulties in social interaction and communication. The severity of these challenges can vary greatly from person to person. Some individuals with ASD may have significant language delays and struggle with everyday social interactions, while others may have milder symptoms and excel in certain areas, such as mathematics or art.

Aside from atypical social functioning, autistic individuals tend to exhibit a thinking pattern known as dichotomous, “black-and-white”, or binary thinking. This is a form of cognitive distortion wherein an individual perceives things in a binary way – either black or white, good or bad. There is no middle zone or space for any nuances. The result of this thinking pattern is that the person oversimplifies very complex issues, leading often to inappropriate or obviously poor decisions.

Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov are awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 for the discovery and development of quantum dots. These tiny particles have unique properties and now spread their light from television screens and LED lamps. They catalyse chemical reactions and their clear light can illuminate tumour tissue for a surgeon.

“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore,” is a classic quote from the film The Wizard of Oz. Twelve-year-old Dorothy faints onto her bed when her house is swept away by a powerful tornado, but when the house lands again and she steps outside the door, her dog Toto in her arms, everything has changed. Suddenly she is in a magical, technicolour world.

If an enchanted tornado were to sweep into our lives and shrink everything to nano dimensions, we would almost certainly be as astonished as Dorothy in the land of Oz. Our surroundings would be dazzlingly colourful and everything would change. Our gold earrings would suddenly glimmer in blue, while the gold ring on our finger would shine a ruby red. If we tried to fry something on the gas hob, the frying pan might melt. And our white walls – whose paint contains titanium dioxide – would start generating lots of reactive oxygen species.

Can artificial intelligence (AI) get hungry? Develop a taste for certain foods? Not yet, but a team of Penn State researchers is developing a novel electronic tongue that mimics how taste influences what we eat based on both needs and wants, providing a possible blueprint for AI that processes information more like a human being.

Human behavior is complex, a nebulous compromise and interaction between our physiological needs and psychological urges. While artificial intelligence has made great strides in recent years, AI systems do not incorporate the psychological side of our human intelligence. For example, emotional intelligence is rarely considered as part of AI.

“The main focus of our work was how could we bring the emotional part of intelligence to AI,” said Saptarshi Das, associate professor of engineering science and mechanics at Penn State and corresponding author of the study published recently in Nature Communications.

Discover how newly discovered spiral activity patterns in the brain may advance our understanding of cognition and consciousness.

Key Takeaways:

Analysis of fMRI data uncovered spiral activity patterns propagating across brain regions during rest and cognitive tasks.