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Elon Musk’s Neuralink is looking for a volunteer for its first clinical trial of a brain implant chip. The trial, which begins next year, has attracted thousands of prospective patients. The ideal candidate must be an adult under 40 with all four limbs paralyzed. The procedure involves inserting electrodes and wires into the brain, with a small computer replacing part of the skull. The computer will collect and analyze brain activity, sending the data wirelessly to a nearby device. Neuralink aims to translate thoughts into computer commands. However, the company has faced criticism for animal testing practices.

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MIT scientists have developed a deep learning system, Air-Guardian, designed to work in tandem with airplane pilots to enhance flight safety. This artificial intelligence (AI) copilot can detect when a human pilot overlooks a critical situation and intervene to prevent potential incidents.

The backbone of Air-Guardian is a novel deep learning system known as Liquid Neural Networks (LNN), developed by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL). LNNs have already demonstrated their effectiveness in various fields. Their potential impact is significant, particularly in areas that require compute-efficient and explainable AI systems, where they might be a viable alternative to current popular deep learning models.

Previous attempts at trapping them in 2D had failed.


Successful electron trapping in 3D

The MIT team looked for materials that could be used to work out 3D lattices in kagome patterns and came across pyrochlore — a mineral with highly symmetric atomic arrangements. In 3D, pyrochlore’s atoms formed a repeating pattern consisting of cubes in a kagome-like lattice.

To test their hypothesis, the team synthesized the pyrochlore using calcium and nickel. After heating the ingredients to very high temperatures, the mix was cooled, and the atoms arranged themselves into a kagome-like structure.

The system shows potential for drug development in delicate environments such as coral reefs.


ACS

To better comprehend this, researchers have presented a proof-of-concept device that “sniffs” seawater, capturing dissolved chemicals for analysis. The underwater device “catches and concentrates dissolved substances generated by sponges or other marine animals while causing no damage to the source or the environment,” said a statement.

“That’s one less cosmic hazard we have to worry about!”

A huge cosmic catastrophe has been averted!A massive rogue dead star was initially predicted to brush through our solar system roughly 29,000 years from now. Fortunately, updated calculations show that our planet will be spared from the damage…


Nazarii Neshcherenskyi/iStock.

A massive rogue dead star was initially predicted to brush through our solar system roughly 29,000 years from now.

The rim-less electric motor promises to offer similar performance figures when compared to its fossil-fuelled counterparts.


An electric jet engine is silently taking flight in the suburbs of Prince Edward Island in North America that promises to deliver similar performance to its fossil-fuelled counterparts.

Canada-based Duxion Motors has successfully completed the ground test of its patented eJet Motor, which, according to it, is “poised to make high-speed electric aviation a reality,” said its website. The ground tests with a scaled prototype included both low-speed and high-speed testing.

According to its founders, the automobile sector has made significant progress toward sustainable transportation, whereas the aviation industry has lagged. One of the key factors contributing to this gap is a lack of high-power, lightweight electric propulsion, which it aims to fulfill.

The hope is that people who are unable to speak because of neurological conditions may one day be able to communicate again thanks to this modern technology.


Helping people with motor disorders

“There are many patients who suffer from debilitating motor disorders, like ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) or locked-in syndrome, that can impair their ability to speak,” said Gregory Cogan, Ph.D., a professor of neurology at Duke University’s School of Medicine and one of the lead researchers involved in the project.

“But the current tools available to allow them to communicate are generally very slow and cumbersome.”

The development arrives days after Elastic Security Labs disclosed the Lazarus Group’s use of a new macOS malware called KANDYKORN to target blockchain engineers.

Also linked to the threat actor is a macOS malware referred to as RustBucket, an AppleScript-based backdoor that’s designed to retrieve a second-stage payload from an attacker-controlled server.

In these attacks, prospective targets are lured under the pretext of offering them investment advice or a job, only to kick-start the infection chain by means of a decoy document.