Toggle light / dark theme

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Ecologists from Mexico’s National Autonomous university on Friday relaunched a fundraising campaign to bolster conservation efforts for axolotls, an iconic, endangered fish-like type of salamander.

The campaign, called “Adoptaxolotl,” asks people for as little as 600 pesos (about $35) to virtually adopt one of the tiny “water monsters.” Virtual adoption comes with live updates on your axolotl’s health. For less, donors can buy one of the creatures a virtual dinner.

In their main habitat the population density of Mexican axolotls (ah-ho-LOH’-tulz) has plummeted 99.5% in under two decades, according to scientists behind the fundraiser.

One of ray kurzweils wonder machines are already here self assembled nanobots called foglet machines. This could allow for future avatars that people could pilot for daily life.


Colloidal magnetic nanoparticles are candidates for application in biology, medicine and nanomanufac-turing. Understanding how these particles interact collectively in fluids, especially how they assemble and aggregate under external magnetic fields, is critical for high quality, safe, and reliable deployment of these particles. Here, by applying magnetic forces that vary strongly over the same length scale as the colloidal stabilizing force and then varying this colloidal repulsion, we can trigger self-assembly of these nanoparticles into parallel line patterns on the surface of a disk drive medium. Localized within nanometers of the medium surface, this effect is strongly dependent on the ionic properties of the colloidal fluid but at a level too small to cause bulk colloidal aggregation.

Part 2 ||||| You can find Part 1 here: https://youtu.be/aaf3Gwp_bfQ
Chapter list:
00:00:00 — (14) A Rabble In Arms 01
00:46:09 — (15) A Rabble In Arms 02
01:12:19 — (16) A Rabble In Arms 03
01:46:14 — (17) A Rabble In Arms 04
02:14:56 — (18) A Rabble In Arms 05
02:56:08 — (19) A Rabble In Arms 06
03:17:59 — (20) A Rabble In Arms 07
03:32:50 — (21) A Rabble In Arms 08
03:59:34 — (22) A Rabble In Arms 09
04:27:51 — (23) “Tanstaafl!” 01
04:39:45 — (24) “Tanstaafl!” 02
05:00:44 — (25) “Tanstaafl!” 03
05:27:54 — (26) “Tanstaafl!” 04
05:52:31 — (27) “Tanstaafl!” 05
06:14:53 — (28) “Tanstaafl!” 06
06:42:52 — (29) “Tanstaafl!” 07
06:48:24 — (30) “Tanstaafl!” 08

Like these books? Want to help?
These books come from the National Library Services.
I encourage you to donate:
https://www.loc.gov/nls/about/donate/

“Luna is a twenty-first-century penal colony but, since no one can stand Earth gravity after being on the moon for a few weeks, all who are sent there must stay. When the liberated people rise against the authority, they receive unexpected help from a computer with a personality.“
Part 1 ||||| You can find Part 2 here: https://youtu.be/P1jI2Oh4-lo.
Chapter list:
00:00:00 — (i) Book info.
00:02:25 — (01) That Dinkum Thnkum 01
00:27:06 — (02) That Dinkum Thnkum 02
00:57:20 — (03) That Dinkum Thnkum 03
01:35:45 — (04) That Dinkum Thnkum 04
02:03:08 — (05) That Dinkum Thnkum 05
02:34:06 — (06) That Dinkum Thnkum 06
03:09:22 — (07) That Dinkum Thnkum 07
03:30:53 — (08) That Dinkum Thnkum 08
03:49:45 — (09) That Dinkum Thnkum 09
04:46:19 — (10) That Dinkum Thnkum 10
05:12:25 — (11) That Dinkum Thnkum 11
05:47:51 — (12) That Dinkum Thnkum 12
06:08:50 — (13) That Dinkum Thnkum 13

Like these books? Want to help?
These books come from the National Library Services.
I encourage you to donate:
https://www.loc.gov/nls/about/donate/

5th BigBrain Workshop 2021
22 September 2021 — Applications.
Chair: Kathleen Rockland.

The Unique Cytoarchitecture and Wiring of The Default Mode Network.
Casey Paquola.

Background. Complex behaviours benefit from parallel distributed processing in multiple brain networks. The roles of certain networks are well-defined, while others remain elusive. Arguably, none are so elusive as the default mode network (DMN); a distributed set of brain regions that decrease in activity during many externally oriented tasks. Revealing the cytoarchitectural composition and connectional layout of the DMN is crucial to defining its role in complex behaviours.

Method. We examined the cytoarchitectural composition of the DMN using an established cortical type atlas (García-Cabezas et al., 2020; Von Economo and Koskinas, 1925) and by applying non-linear dimensionality reduction to BigBrain-derived staining intensity profiles (Paquola et al., 2019). Next, we used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to explicate structural wiring and effective connectivity of the whole brain. In both modalities, we examined the influence of cytoarchitecture on extrinsic connectivity of the DMN. Finally, we evaluated the uniqueness of the DMN relative to other large-scale functional brain networks.

Basically on the pro side it could be something good to help earth but really if is on the bad side we probably want to cloak the earth with an invisibility cloak and force fields ideally so they don’t wipe us out.


An experiment aboard NASA’s Psyche mission achieved “first light” by sending and receiving its first deep-space laser communications from far beyond the moon.

An amazing graph theoretic analysis of the C. elegans neuropeptide connectome!


Neuromodulation by peptides is essential for brain function. By comprehensively mapping neuropeptide signaling in the nematode C. elegans, Ripoll-Sánchez et al. define a dense wireless network whose organization differs in important ways from wired brain circuits. This network is a prototype for understanding neuropeptide signaling networks in larger brains.

Just weeks before the management shakeup at OpenAI rocked Silicon Valley and made international news, the company’s cofounder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever explored the transformative potential of artificial general intelligence (AGI), highlighting how it could surpass human intelligence and profoundly transform every aspect of life. Hear his take on the promises and perils of AGI — and his optimistic case for how unprecedented collaboration will ensure its safe and beneficial development. (Recorded October 17, 2023)

If you love watching TED Talks like this one, become a TED Member to support our mission of spreading ideas: https://ted.com/membership.

Follow TED!
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TEDTalks.
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ted.
Facebook: https://facebook.com/TED
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ted-conferences.
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tedtoks.

The TED Talks channel features talks, performances and original series from the world’s leading thinkers and doers. Subscribe to our channel for videos on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. Visit https://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.