Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 35

Identifying and delineating cell structures in microscopy images is crucial for understanding the complex processes of life. This task is called “segmentation” and it enables a range of applications, such as analyzing the reaction of cells to drug treatments, or comparing cell structures in different genotypes.

It was already possible to carry out automatic segmentation of those biological structures, but the dedicated methods only worked in specific conditions and adapting them to new conditions was costly. An international research team led by Göttingen University has now developed a method for retraining the existing AI-based software Segment Anything on over 17,000 with over 2 million structures annotated by hand.

The new model is called Segment Anything for Microscopy and it can precisely segment images of tissues, cells and similar structures in a wide range of settings. To make it available to researchers and medical doctors, they have also created μSAM, user-friendly software to “segment anything” in microscopy images. The work is published in Nature Methods.

Read more | >

I wondered when this would start!

“This means that should everything go according to plan, the humanoid robot will eventually be put to work building itself.” 🤖 🤖

Apptronik, an Austin-based maker of humanoid robots, on Tuesday announced a new pilot partnership with American supply chain/manufacturing stalwart, Jabil. The deal arrives two weeks after Apptronik announced a $350 million Series A financing round aimed at scaling up production of its Apollo robot.

The Jabil deal is the second major pilot announced by Apptronik. It follows a March 2024 partnership that put Apollo to work on the Mercedes-Benz manufacturing floor. While the company tells TechCrunch that its partnership with the automaker is ongoing, it has yet to graduate beyond the pilot stage.

Continue reading “Apptronik’s humanoid robots take the first steps toward building themselves” | >

Could a planet orbiting a black hole sustain life? We dive into the challenges and wonders of living in such an extreme cosmic environment. Discover what it might be like to live near a black hole, where time slows, gravity warps, and the universe takes on a truly alien form.

Watch my exclusive video Big Alien Theory https://nebula.tv/videos/isaacarthur–… Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur Get a Lifetime Membership to Nebula for only $300: https://go.nebula.tv/lifetime?ref=isa… Use the link gift.nebula.tv/isaacarthur to give a year of Nebula to a friend for just $30. Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net Join Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a… Facebook Group: / 1,583,992,725,237,264 Reddit: / isaacarthur Twitter: / isaac_a_arthur on Twitter and RT our future content. SFIA Discord Server: / discord Credits: Black Sun Rising: Living On A Planet Around A Black Hole Episode 487; February 20, 2025 Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur Editor: Briana Brownell Graphics: Jeremy Jozwik, Ken York YD Visual, Udo Scroeter Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator Phase Shift, “Forest Night” Chris Zabriskie, “Unfoldment, Revealment”, “A New Day in a New Sector”, “Oxygen Garden” Stellardrone, “Red Giant”, “Billions and Billions“
Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.
Get a Lifetime Membership to Nebula for only $300: https://go.nebula.tv/lifetime?ref=isa…
Use the link gift.nebula.tv/isaacarthur to give a year of Nebula to a friend for just $30.
Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net.
Join Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.
Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur.
Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a…
Facebook Group: / 1583992725237264
Reddit: / isaacarthur.
Twitter: / isaac_a_arthur on Twitter and RT our future content.
SFIA Discord Server: / discord.
Credits:
Black Sun Rising: Living On A Planet Around A Black Hole.
Episode 487; February 20, 2025
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur.
Editor: Briana Brownell.
Graphics: Jeremy Jozwik, Ken York YD Visual, Udo Scroeter.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator.
Phase Shift, \

Read more | >

The prospect of consciousness in artificial systems is closely tied to the viability of functionalism about consciousness. Even if consciousness arises from the abstract functional relationships between the parts of a system, it does not follow that any digital system that implements the right functional organization would be conscious. Functionalism requires constraints on what it takes to properly implement an organization. Existing proposals for constraints on implementation relate to the integrity of the parts and states of the realizers of roles in a functional organization. This paper presents and motivates three novel integrity constraints on proper implementation not satisfied by current neural network models.

Read more | >

Join cognitive scientist and AI researcher Joscha Bach for an in-depth interview on the nature of consciousness, in which he argues that the brain is hardware, consciousness its software and that, in order to understand our reality, we must unlock the algorithms of consciousness.

Read more | >

Scientists in Switzerland have developed a new method to improve internet security against quantum computing attacks, using quantum-resistant encryption and a new type of hardware.

Read more | >

Designing high performance, scalable, and energy efficient spiking neural networks remains a challenge. Here, the authors utilize mixed-dimensional dual-gated Gaussian heterojunction transistors from single-walled carbon nanotubes and monolayer MoS2 to realize simplified spiking neuron circuits.

Read more | >

Dr. Adomas Valantina: “Mars is still the Red Planet. It’s just that our understanding of why Mars is red has been transformed.”

What can Mars’ red hue that’s been observed for thousands of years teach us about when water existed on its surface potentially millions, or even billions, of years ago? This is what a recent study published in Nature Communications hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated the connection between Mars’ red color and water interactions in the Red Planet’s ancient past. This study has the potential to help researchers better understand the formation and evolution of Mars and whether life could have existed at some point in its history.

For the study, the researchers used a combination of data obtained from Mars orbiters and laboratory experiments to ascertain the iron oxide mineral that is responsible for Mars’ red color and what relation this has to past liquid water that might have existed on the planet’s surface. This study builds upon past research that concluded the mineral hematite was responsible for Mars’ red color, which is a mineral that forms in water-free environments. However, the researchers for this study discovered that ferrihydrite is responsible for Mars’ red color, which is a mineral that forms in cold, watery environments.

“Mars is still the Red Planet,” said Dr. Adomas Valantina, who is a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University and lead author of the study. “It’s just that our understanding of why Mars is red has been transformed. The major implication is that because ferrihydrite could only have formed when water was still present on the surface, Mars rusted earlier than we previously thought. Moreover, the ferrihydrite remains stable under present-day conditions on Mars.”

Continue reading “How Mars’ Red Color Rewrites Its Water History” | >