Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Blog – Page 3814

Despite AI’s impressive track record, its computational power pales in comparison with that of the human brain. Scientists today unveil a revolutionary path to drive computing forward: organoid intelligence (OI), where lab-grown brain organoids serve as biological hardware. “This new field of biocomputing promises unprecedented advances in computing speed, processing power, data efficiency, and storage capabilities – all with lower energy needs,” say the authors in an article published in Frontiers in Science.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has long been inspired by the human brain. This approach proved highly successful: AI boasts impressive achievements – from diagnosing medical conditions to composing poetry. Still, the original model continues to outperform machines in many ways. This is why, for example, we can ‘prove our humanity’ with trivial image tests online. What if instead of trying to make AI more brain-like, we went straight to the source?

Scientists across multiple disciplines are working to create revolutionary biocomputers where three-dimensional cultures of brain cells, called brain organoids, serve as biological hardware. They describe their roadmap for realizing this vision in the journal Frontiers in Science.

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An RNA-Peptide World

“I don’t want to replace the RNA world theory,” Carell said. But “I think we need an extension” to make it more plausible. He thinks that rather than evolving their complexity separately, RNA and peptides did it together as a single molecule, complementing each other’s functions.

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Located in Austrailia, the CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope picked up the strange signal stemming from Proxima Centauri.

CSIRO/A. Cherney.

On 29 April 2019, the Parkes Radio Telescope in New South Wales, Australia, picked up an unusual signal while searching for signs of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. The telescope was observing Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun and host to a number of exoplanets that are potentially habitable.

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Scientists from Denmark and China have estimated germline mutation rates across vertebrates by sequencing and comparing genetic samples from 151 mother, father, and offspring trios from 68 species of mammals, fishes, birds and reptiles. A bioinformatics pipeline was designed to read, analyze and compare the genome mutations that occur yearly and between generations in each species.

The research was published March 1, 2023, in the journal Nature.

Knowing the germline mutation rate could allow a greater understanding of evolutionary drivers and be used to estimate when a species first arose. Despite the variety of evolutionary paths seen in 68 different species, researchers found the germline mutation rate to be relatively conserved.

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