Lifeboat Foundation

Scientists have taken a key step toward harnessing a form of artificial intelligence known as deep reinforcement learning, or DRL, to protect computer networks.

When faced with sophisticated cyberattacks in a rigorous simulation setting, deep reinforcement learning was effective at stopping adversaries from reaching their goals up to 95 percent of the time. The outcome offers promise for a role for autonomous AI in proactive cyber defense.

Scientists from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory documented their findings in a research paper and presented their work Feb. 14 at a workshop on AI for Cybersecurity during the annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in Washington, D.C.

In a recent study published in the journal Immunity, researchers reviewed the T cell response in cancer and autoimmunity to propose strategies for more effective immunotherapies.

Review: Learning from the nexus of autoimmunity and cancer. Image Credit: Meletios Verras / Shutterstock.

Visit https://brilliant.org/EventHorizon/ to get started learning STEM for free, and the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual premium subscription.
What if we’re not alone on Earth? Why We May Not Be Alone on Earth…

The shadow biosphere is a hypothetical microbial biosphere of Earth that would use radically different biochemical and molecular processes from that of currently known life.

Continue reading “Why We May Not Be Alone on Earth w/ Janusz Petkowski” »

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. Never email yourself a file again!

Ion thrusters are the future. How far away are we from them becoming the norm? Visit https://brilliant.org/astrum to sample their courses in a 30-day free trial + the first 200 people will get 20% off their annual subscription.

Astrum merch now available!
Apparel: https://teespring.com/stores/astrum-space.
Metal Posters: https://displate.com/promo/astrum?art=5f04759ac338b.

Continue reading “Ion Thrusters Are the Future. How Far Away Are They?” »

Sketches found inside Leonardo da Vinci’s sketchbooks, show that he had already grasped the essence of Einstein’s 1907 ‘Equivalence Principle’ centuries before the physicist.

Silicon, the standard semiconducting material used in a host of applications—computer central processing units (CPUs), semiconductor chips, detectors, and solar cells—is an abundant, naturally occurring material. However, it is expensive to mine and to purify.

How will materials behave under certain conditions? And how to make materials more robust? These two questions are crucial to design advanced materials for structural and functional components and applications. A close look at the underlying atomic structures and especially their defects is necessary to understand and predict material behavior.

Electrical conductivity, strength and fracture resistance are for example influenced by grain boundaries. It is known that grain boundaries—despite being defects—have their own ordered atomic structures, which can influence or even dominate material properties. However, their experimental observation requires precise and time-consuming atomic resolution imaging and is limited to the investigation of specific, individual cases.

But are these cases generalizable for all metals? A researcher team of the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung (MPIE) utilized computer simulations to show that the same atomic arrangements occur in a whole group of metals, namely fcc metals, thus proving that the “special cases” investigated in the experiments are not really exotic, but common.

A new study has identified seven spider species previously unknown to science in the depths of Israeli caves, with the surprise finding that they are evolutionarily closer to arachnids found in southern Europe than to their neighbors at cave entrances in Israel.

The peer-reviewed research, published in the Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution journal, was conducted by scientists from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the University of Madison-Wisconsin.

The study “has extensive scientific implications for uncovering the evolution of speciation in caves and the historical, geographic and climatic processes that occurred in Israel,” the Hebrew University said in a statement.