Lasers have been used to throw and catch extremely cold, single atoms. The technique could be used to assemble quantum computers in the future.
From cyborgs to the Sugababes, IT expert Robert Anderson talks about a world where the line between humans and machines becomes blurred. Drawing on his personal experiences of facing prejudices and bigotry while growing up, he shares his insight on how we can avoid repeating the mistakes of the past in order to create a society where humans and transhumans can live together in an open and equal manner. He urges us to take action now because as he says, “Transhumanism is coming and it’s coming sooner than you think. We cannot afford to have the fear of the other rule this world.“
Robert Anderson has been interested in how technology can improve humans’ lives ever since he can remember. He started programming computers at age 10 and has been working in IT for the past 20 years with blue-chip companies to develop IT strategies and roadmaps.
Robert says he likes how ‘TEDxFolkstone cares about developing a group of people who are speakers, not just about people who are doing TED talks.’
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Most viewed blog of mine on Big Think in 2022 with about 175,000 views:
Was there an intelligent, technologically advanced species long before humans existed? Could there have been a dinosaur civilization?
When you stop and think about bubbles, you realize that they’re everywhere: in the dishwasher, on the top of your beer, on the crests of waves, in the saliva between your teeth, and, of course, in bubble gun toys.
That means the physics of bubbles are important in all kinds of scenarios. With that in mind, researchers from the Université Paris-Saclay in France have made an intriguing discovery about the film surrounding bubbles.
This film can, in some cases, be up to 8°C (14.4°F) cooler than the environment around it, the researchers say. The findings build on previous investigations into how changes in temperature can trigger the thinning and evaporation of a liquid film.
Ordinarily, to measure an object we must interact with it in some way. Whether it’s by a prod or a poke, an echo of sound waves, or a shower of light, it’s near impossible to look without touching.
In the world of quantum physics, there are some exceptions to this rule.
Researchers from Aalto University in Finland propose a way to ‘see’ a microwave pulse without the absorption and re-emission of any light waves. It’s an example of a special interaction-free measurement, where something is observed without being rattled by a mediating particle.
For humans to ever venture out among the stars, we will have to solve some hefty logistical problems.
Not the least of these is the travel time involved. Space is so large, and human technology so limited, that the time it would take to travel to another star presents a significant barrier.
The Voyager 1 probe, for instance, would take 73,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun, at its current speed.
Scientists have found an extremely subtle twist in the genetics of aging cells, one that seems to make them increasingly less functional as time goes on.
R esearchers from Northwestern University have revealed animals like mice, rats, killifish, and even humans show a gradual imbalance of long and short genes in virtually every cell in their body as they age.
The discovery suggests there aren’t specific genes that control the aging process. Instead, old age seems to be governed by systems-level changes with complex effects. And this can impact thousands of different genes and their respective proteins.
Gate’s team of scientists observed genetic changes in the CSF immune cells in older healthy individuals that made the cells appear more activated and inflamed with advanced age.
“The immune cells appear to be a little angry in older individuals,” Gate said. “We think this anger might make these cells less functional, resulting in dysregulation of the brain’s immune system.”
In the cognitively impaired group, inflamed T-cells cloned themselves and flowed into the CSF and brain as if they were following a radio signal, Gate said. Scientists found the cells had an overabundance of a cell receptor — CXCR6 — that acts as an antenna. This receptor receives a signal — CXCL16 — from the degenerating brain’s microglia cells to enter the brain.
