Lifeboat Foundation

Experiments promote a curious flipside of decaying monopoles: a reality where particle physics is quite literally turned on its head.

The field of quantum physics is rife with paths leading to tantalizing new areas of study, but one rabbit hole offers a unique vantage point into a world where particles behave differently—through the proverbial looking glass.

Dubbed the “Alice ring” after Lewis Carroll’s world-renowned stories on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the appearance of this object verifies a decades-old theory on how monopoles decay. Specifically, that they decay into a ring-like vortex, where any other monopoles passing through its center are flipped into their opposite magnetic charges.

Normally, when we think of a rolling object, we tend to imagine a torus (like a bicycle wheel) or a sphere (like a tennis ball) that will always follow a straight path when rolling. However, the world of mathematics and science is always open to exploring new ideas and concepts. This is why researchers have been studying shapes, like oloids, sphericons and more, which do not roll in straight lines.

All these funky shapes are really interesting to researchers as they can show us new ways to move objects around smoothly and efficiently. For example, imagine reducing the energy required to make a toy robot move, or mixing ingredients more thoroughly with a unique-looking spoon. While these peculiar shapes have been studied before, scientists have now taken it a step further.

Consider a game where you draw a path on a tilted table—similar to tilting a pinball table to make the ball go in a particular direction. Now, try to come up with a 3D object that, when placed at the top of the table, will roll down and exactly follow that path, instead of just going straight down. There are a few other rules of this game: the table needs to be inclined slightly (and not too much), there should be no slipping during rolling, and the initial orientation of the object can be chosen at launch. Plus, the path you draw must never go uphill and must be periodic. It must also consist of identical repeating segments—somewhat like in music rhythm patterns.

Proponents of artificial intelligence say its potential is limitless. But cyber scammers could also use it to their advantage.

Analysts explained to AFP how the technology could increase the risk from online crime.

Chatbots are the best-known of all AI tools thanks to the rampant success of ChatGPT and many that have come afterwards, not least Google’s Bard.

Metal halide perovskites are semiconducting materials with advantageous optoelectronic properties, low defects and low costs of production. In contrast with other emerging semiconductors, these materials can be easily synthesized via affordable solution processing methods.

In recent years, some engineers have been exploring the potential of metal halide perovskites for creating highly solar cells and light emitting diodes (LEDs). Their favorable characteristics, however, could also facilitate their use for fabricating next-generation electronic components, including transistors.

Researchers at Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea, the Chinse Academy of Sciences and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China recently introduced a new strategy to develop transistors based on a metal halide perovskite, specifically tin perovskite. In their paper, published in Nature Electronics, they showed that the resulting tin perovskite-based transistors could attain performances comparable to those of existing silicon-based transistors.

In the 1939 neuroscientists began cutting living human brains in two in order to treat certain types of epileptic seizures. Subsequent experiments on those patients gave science an unnerving window into the nature of human consciousness. It turns out that there might be more versions inside of your own brain than you might be comfortable with.

#splitbrain #consciousness #malcovich #neuroscience.

Continue reading “The Unsettling Truth about Human Consciousness | The Split Brain experiment that broke neuroscience” »

New research found sophisticated reasoning in AI models that could enable situational awareness, posing safety risks if left uncontrolled.

Netherlands: The use of proton pump inhibitors (PPI) among kidney transplant recipients may lead to severe fatigue, fatigue severity, and lower mental and physical health-related quality of life, a new study has suggested. The study was published online in the American Journal Of Kidney Diseases.

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are commonly prescribed medications for the management of acid-related gastrointestinal disorders.

Tim J. Knobbe and colleagues aimed to investigate the potential association between PPI use and fatigue as well as health-related quality of life among 937 kidney transplant recipients. Participants were at least one-year post-transplantation and were enrolled in the TransplantLines Biobank and Cohort Study.

Human curiosity remains an irreplaceable element in scientific exploration and discovery. Despite the impressive capabilities of AI, it is human curiosity that drives new ideas, inspires new directions in research and development, and leads to a constant stream of innovation and discovery. We must continue cultivating and nurturing human curiosity to ensure scientific advancement and discovery progress.

Combining AI and human curiosity can lead to even more outstanding results. Although AI may eventually improve and replicate certain aspects of human curiosity, interest is an integral part of being human and is necessary for scientific progress. In the future, AI and human curiosity will work together in a complementary way to achieve even more impressive scientific discoveries.

Some argue that AI still needs to gain common sense, creativity and a deep understanding of the world that humans possess. Human curiosity drives researchers to ask questions, seek new knowledge and explore new ideas, which is essential for advancing AI research. Human expertise and creativity are also critical for developing effective responses to crises like the Covid-19 pandemic. While AI can replace some tasks, it cannot replace human problem-solving skills. Therefore, combining the strengths of AI and human curiosity is necessary to achieve outstanding results in scientific pursuits.

In a nutshell: Every September, the Guinness Book of World Records sits in on a little drag race between college students. The seat is reserved because these mostly untelevised races are known for pushing the absolute limits of tiny electric cars, and frequently, a team makes acceleration history.

Applied sciences students from ETH Zurich and Lucerne University have broken the world record for acceleration in an electric car. The University of Stuttgart held the previous record, set last year when it sent its car screaming down the track, going from zero to 100 km/h (62.15 mph) in 1.461 of a second. This week, the students from Zurich crushed that showing with a time of just under one second (0.956 of a second) and a distance of 12.3 meters.

The students are Academic Motorsports Club Zurich (AMZ) members and spent a year building the car they named “Mythen.” The team suffered several setbacks and had to spend every minute of their free time tuning and swapping components. All their hard work paid off as driver Kate Maggetti set the world acceleration record for electric vehicles in front of Guinness judges on a test track in Duebendorf, Switzerland.