Lifeboat Foundation

Professor of Biology at Tufts University Michael Levin shows the remarkable plasticity of somatic (non-neural) cells and the way they communicate through bioelectric signalling to produce different morphologies. He argues that cellular control of growth and form is a type of collective intelligence.

Prof. Levin also shows that by manipulating bioelectric signalling between cells it is possible to change what the cells are going to build. The particular examples include converting one type of tadpole tissue into another, making planaria (a type of flatworm) to regrow two heads, etc. Prof. Levin’s and his team work has profound theoretical contributions towards understanding better biological intelligence, and from the practical side, it may lead to applications in biomedicine (solving birth defects, curing degenerative disease and cancer).

Continue reading “Collective intelligence of cell swarms | Prof. Michael Levin | AI Forward Forum” »

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Stephen Hawking was one of the greatest scientific and analytical minds of our time, says NASA’s Michelle Thaller. She posits that Hawking might be one of the parents of an entirely new school of physics because he was working on some incredible stuff—concerning quantum entaglement— right before he died. He was even humble enough to go back to his old work about black holes and rethink his hypotheses based on new information. Not many great minds would do that, she says, relaying just one of the reasons Stephen Hawking will be so deeply missed. You can follow Michelle Thaller on Twitter at @mlthaller.

Continue reading “What Stephen Hawking would have discovered if he lived longer | NASA’s Michelle Thaller | Big Think” »

The ability to work with ChatGPT is becoming a valuable skill for job seekers, as they need to be able to extract relevant responses to create high-quality content.

Magna’s drivetrain technology is aimed at electrifying the pickup vehicle segment.

Glaxo says the heartburn drug doesn’t cause tumors. But the company was warned by its own scientists and independent researchers about the potential danger.

Found beneath an ancient dump, the mummies shed light on ancient Egyptian mummification practices and the many lives of a necropolis.

A decades-old drug used to treat urinary tract infections (UTIs) appears to have saved the life of a man infected by the “brain-eating” amoeba — and his case highlights the tremendous potential of a new type of genetic sequencing technology.

The patient: In 2021, a 54-year-old man was admitted to a Northern California hospital following a seizure. After an MRI revealed a mass in his brain, he was transferred to the UCSF Medical Center, where the mass was biopsied.

Continue reading “‘Brain-eating’ amoeba beaten by old European drug” »

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Two types of nanotechnology, metalenses and metamaterials, could soon make Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak a reality.