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Humongous Fungus, a specimen of Armillaria ostoyae, has claimed the title of world’s largest single organism. Though it features honey mushrooms above ground, the bulk of this creature’s mass arises from its vast subterranean mycelial network of filamentous tendrils. It has spread across more than 2,000 acres of soil and weighs over 30,000 metric tons. Yet I would contend that Humongous Fungus represents a mere microcosm of the world’s true largest organism, a creature that I will call Cyborg Earth. What is Cyborg Earth? Eastern religions have suggested that all life is fundamentally interconnected. Cyborg Earth represents an extension of this concept.

All across the globe, biological life thrives. Quintillions upon quintillions of biomolecular computations happen every second, powering all life. Mycoplasma bacteria. Communities of leafcutter ants. The Humongous Fungus. Beloved beagles. Seasonal influenza viruses. Parasitic roundworms. Families of Canadian elk. Vast blooms of cyanobacteria. Humanity. Life works because of complexity that arises from simplicity that in turn arises from whatever inscrutable quantum mechanical rules lay beneath the molecular scale.

All creatures rearrange atoms in various ways. Termites and beavers rearrange larger bunches of atoms than most organisms. As humans progressed from paleolithic to metalwork to industrialization and then to the space age, information revolution, and era of artificial intelligence, they learned to converse with the atoms around them in an ever more complex fashion. We are actors in an operatic performance, we are subroutines of evolution, we are interwoven matryoshka patterns, an epic chemistry.

The procedure is a long, long way from being applicable to humans, the researchers stress. But their findings, published today in Nature Cardiovascular Research, reshape our understanding of the regenerative capabilities of the heart – and possibly other organs – and how they might be enhanced through preventive medical intervention.

“It’s a proof of concept,” says Tzahor, “and it points to new avenues of research that examine giving heart treatment not only after the damage happens, but from a preventive position that increases the capacity for recovery from an injury before the damage even occurs.”

While much-debated AI tools will not automate or elevate every digital assault, phishing scheme or hunt for software exploits, NSA’s Rob Joyce said April 11, what it will do is “optimize” workflows and deception in an already fast-paced environment.

“Is it going to replace hackers and be this super-AI hacking? Certainly not in the near term,” Joyce said at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank. “But it will make the hackers that use AI much more effective, and they will operate better than those who don’t.”

U.S. officials consider mastery of AI critical to long-term international competitiveness — whether that’s in defense, finance or another sector. At least 685 AI projects, including several tied to major weapons systems, were underway at the Pentagon as of early 2021.

In recent years, cancer therapies have often fallen short of expectations, with tumors developing resistance to medication. One such example is alpelisib, a drug approved for use in Switzerland as a treatment for advanced breast cancer.

However, a research group at the Department of Biomedicine of the University of Basel has made a breakthrough in understanding the reasons behind this resistance, publishing their findings in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.

For patients suffering from advanced and metastatic breast cancer, effective treatment options are limited. The PI3K signaling pathway is frequently overactive in breast cancer due to mutations that encourage tumor growth.

After 33 years, the Hubble Space Telescope is still uncovering new cosmic surprises. The venerable instrument recently added to its extensive catalog of finds when it spotted a rare double quasar blazing away in the distant reaches of the universe.

Researchers published a paper detailing the discovery on April 5 in the journal Nature (opens in new tab).

As long as people have been alive, they’ve wanted to stay alive. But unlike finding the fountain of youth or becoming a vampire, uploading your brain to a computer or the cloud might actually be possible. Theoretically, we already know how to do it, and Elon Musk is even trying a brain implant with Neuralink. But technically, we have a long way to go. We explain the main technological advancements that we’ll need to make whole brain emulation a reality.

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What it’ll take to upload our brains to a computer.