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NASA has selected a new crew of four volunteers to participate in a simulated mission to Mars within a habitat at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Jason Lee, Stephanie Navarro, Shareef Al Romaithi, and Piyumi Wijesekara will step into the agency’s Human Exploration Research Analog, or HERA, on Friday, May 10. Once inside, the team will live and work like astronauts for 45 days. The crew will exit the facility on June 24 after they “return” to Earth. Jose Baca and Brandon Kent are this mission’s alternate crew members.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has announced a series of structural changes and leadership appointments aimed at accelerating the company’s AI initiatives.

The restructuring sees the Gemini app team, led by Sissie Hsiao, joining Google DeepMind under the leadership of Demis Hassabis.

“Bringing the teams closer together will improve feedback loops, enable fast deployment of our new models in the Gemini app, make our post-training work proceed more efficiently and build on our great product momentum,” Pichai explained.

A flow battery, also known as a reduction-oxidation (Redox) flow battery, is an electrochemical cell that uses two moving liquid electrolytes to generate electricity.

Ion transfer occurs across the cell membrane, accompanied by current flow through an external circuit, while the liquids circulate in their respective spaces. The liquids required are stored in separate tanks until required.

Continue reading “All electric without batteries: Are flow batteries the future of EVs?” »

Experts are divided on what it’ll take to achieve artificial general intelligence — a still hypothetical form of robot intelligence that mimics human abilities.

According to Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind and a recently minted Nobel laureate, there isn’t any secret formula to get there.

Astronomers have published a gigantic infrared map of the Milky Way containing more than 1.5 billion objects — the most detailed one ever made. Using the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope, the team monitored the central regions of our Galaxy over more than 13 years. At 500 terabytes of data, this is the largest observational project ever carried out with an ESO telescope.

“We made so many discoveries, we have changed the view of our Galaxy forever,” says Dante Minniti, an astrophysicist at Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile who led the overall project.

This record-breaking map comprises 200,000 images taken by ESO’s VISTA — the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy. Located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, the telescope’s main purpose is to map large areas of the sky. The team used VISTA’s infrared camera VIRCAM, which can peer through the dust and gas that permeates our galaxy. It is therefore able to see the radiation from the Milky Way’s most hidden places, opening a unique window onto our galactic surroundings.

Research from the University of California, Irvine has revealed how disruption of the circadian clock, the body’s internal, 24-hour biological pacemaker, may accelerate the progression of colorectal cancer by affecting the gut microbiome and intestinal barrier function. This discovery offers new avenues for prevention and treatment strategies.

The study, published online today in the journal Science Advances, offers a more comprehensive understanding of how important changes occur in the function and composition of the gut microbiome when the circadian clock is disturbed in the presence of colorectal cancer.

“There is an alarming rise in early-onset colorectal cancer in adults under the age of 50,” said corresponding author Selma Masri, associate professor of biological chemistry. “Circadian misalignment through extended light exposure, late-night meals and other environmental factors could [be] driving these cases. Our study suggests that clock disruption, particularly through lifestyle choices, may play a significant role in gut health and, subsequently, cancer risk.”

Residents on Chicago’s Southeast Side are urging city and state officials to slow down the development of a quantum computing campus.

Imagine tires that charge a vehicle as it drives, streetlights powered by the rumble of traffic, or skyscrapers that generate electricity as the buildings naturally sway and shudder.

These energy innovations could be possible thanks to researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute developing environmentally friendly materials that produce electricity when compressed or exposed to vibrations.

In a recent study published in the journal Nature Communications, the team developed a polymer film infused with a special chalcogenide perovskite compound that produces electricity when squeezed or stressed, a phenomenon known as the piezoelectric effect. While other piezoelectric materials currently exist, this is one of the few high-performing ones that does not contain lead, making it an excellent candidate for use in machines, infrastructure as well as bio-medical applications.

In 2005, the futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted that by 2045, machines would become smarter than humans. He called this inflection point the “singularity,” and it struck a chord. Kurzweil, who’s been tracking artificial intelligence since 1963, gained a fanatical following, especially in Silicon Valley.

Now comes The Singularity is Nearer: When We Merge with A.I. where Kurzweil steps up the Singularity’s arrival timeline to 2029. “Algorithmic innovations and the emergence of big data have allowed AI to achieve startling breakthroughs sooner than expected,” reports Kurzweil. From winning at games like Jeopardy! and Go to driving automobiles, writing essays, passing bar exams, and diagnosing cancer, chunks of the Singularity are arriving daily, and there’s more good news just ahead.

Very soon, predicts Kurzweil, artificial general intelligence will be able to do anything a human can do, only better. Expect 3D printed clothing and houses by the end of this decade. Look for medical cures that will “add decades to human life spans” just ahead. “These are the most exciting and momentous years in all of history,” Kurzweil noted in an interview with Boston Globe science writer Brian Bergstein.