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Jan 25, 2023

“Rubble pile” asteroids may be surprisingly hard to destroy — study

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

When Japan’s Hayabusa mission traveled to asteroid Itokawa, it collected samples. These successfully reached Earth in 2010.


Near Earth asteroid Itokawa is a rubble pile that formed more than four billion years ago, a new study found. So, these asteroids might be resilient to demise.

Jan 25, 2023

Anti-aging gene rewinds heart age by 10 years

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

A gene called BPIFB4, discovered in a population of centenarians, could help to reverse the aging of human hearts.

Carriers of healthy mutant genes, including people in so-called “blue zones” of the world, often live to 100 years or more and remain in good health. Cardiovascular complications are also rarer in these individuals. Scientists now believe that a gene may help to keep their hearts young by protecting them against diseases linked to aging.

Jan 25, 2023

Mechanical Forces in the Nervous System Play a Corrective Role

Posted by in category: futurism

Summary: Synaptic pruning occurs as a result of mechanical tearing, a new study reveals.

Source: University of Munster.

Nerve cells communicate with one another via long processes known as axons and dendrites, or, more generally, neurites. During development, these processes first grow and form connections with other cells, for example synapses with other nerve cells. Any neurites which are not properly linked, or are no longer needed, are removed by a corrective mechanism known as “pruning”.

Jan 25, 2023

AI can ‘see’ people through walls using WiFi signals

Posted by in categories: internet, robotics/AI

‘This technology may be scaled to monitor the well-being of elderly people or just identify suspicious behaviours at home,’ scientists claim Scientists have figured out how to identify people in a building by using artificial intelligence to analyse WiFi signals. A team at Carnegie Mellon University developed a deep neural network to digitally map human bodies when in the presence of WiFi signals.

Jan 25, 2023

Artificial Intelligence May Hit The Singularity Within 7 Years, Researchers Claim

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, singularity

Researchers have claimed that artificial intelligence (AI) will reach the singularity within seven years, after attempting to quantify its progress.

Translation company Translated, presenting their work at an Association for Machine Translation in the Americas conference, explained that they first began testing machine translation technology in 2011. The team settled on a metric to measure AI progress, which they’ve called “Time to Edit” (TTE). Simply put, it is the time it takes a human translator to edit a translation produced by another human or an AI.

Over the years, the TTE for AI-translated texts has come down fairly consistently, leading Translated to predict the date when AI hits the singularity, when the time is equivalent to human translators.

Jan 25, 2023

An accident in a lab experiment may revolutionize quantum computers

Posted by in categories: computing, nanotechnology, quantum physics

Researchers may have made a massive breakthrough in quantum computing. According to a new study published in Nature Nanotechnology, researchers may have discovered a cheaper way to push large-scale quantum computers.

Quantum computing is an intriguing field that has seen quite a bit of growth over the past several years. However, there’s still a lot holding back the massive computers that researchers are working with – namely, their size and the sheer amount of control required to keep large-scale quantum computers running smoothly.

That’s because the larger you make a quantum computer, the more quantum bits, or qubits, it requires to run. And the entire idea of a quantum computer requires you to control every single one of those qubits to keep things running smoothly and efficiently. So, when you make large-scale quantum computers, you end up with a lot of processing power and a lot more qubits to control.

Jan 25, 2023

ChatGPT bot passes US law school exam

Posted by in categories: education, internet, law, robotics/AI

A chatbot powered by reams of data from the internet has passed exams at a US law school after writing essays on topics ranging from constitutional law to taxation and torts.

ChatGPT from OpenAI, a US company that this week got a massive injection of cash from Microsoft, uses (AI) to generate streams of text from simple prompts.

The results have been so good that educators have warned it could lead to widespread cheating and even signal the end of traditional classroom teaching methods.

Jan 25, 2023

Music-based interventions: exploring the neural basis and establishing reproducibility in an emerging field

Posted by in categories: media & arts, neuroscience

Drs Emmeline Edwards and Wen Chen discuss music-based interventions, their impacts, techniques used to understand them and more!

Jan 25, 2023

YouTube unveils new program that enables students to earn college credits

Posted by in categories: education, mathematics

YouTube announced today that it’s partnering with Arizona State University and educational video company Crash Course to launch a new program that enables students to earn college credit. The Google-owned company says the new program, called College Foundations, is designed to create an affordable and accessible way to earn college credit.

Starting today, students can sign up for four courses that start on March 7, 2023, and are eligible for transfer credit. The program does not require applications or a minimum GPA for enrollment. It includes common first-year college courses, including Intro to Human Communication, Rhetoric and Composition, Real World College Math and US History to 1865.

The program is expected to expand to 12 available courses by January 2025 to give students a chance to receive credit for an entire first year of college. There is a $25 fee if a student elects to sign up and begin coursework, and a $400 fee to receive college credit for each course. Those who sign up before March 7 will receive a $50 discount. Courses can be taken as often as needed until the student is content with their grade. The credit can then be used at institutions that accept credits from Arizona State University.

Jan 25, 2023

Tesla Plans $3.6 Billion Factory Expansion in Nevada

Posted by in categories: business, sustainability, transportation

The EV maker said it would keep growing its lithium-ion battery and electric-truck businesses and employ 3,000 additional workers.