Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Blog – Page 4036

About one-third of individuals suffering from depression are at risk for treatment resistance. Whereas inhaled 50% nitrous oxide has early antidepressant effects on individuals with treatment-resistant major depression (TRMD), adverse effects can occur at this concentration. In this phase 2 clinical trial, Nagele et al. studied the effects of a single 1-hour treatment with 25% nitrous oxide on depression symptoms in those with TRMD, finding that this lower concentration had comparable efficacy to 50% nitrous oxide over several weeks but was associated with significantly fewer adverse effects. These results highlight that lower concentrations of nitrous oxide may be a useful treatment for TRMD.

Twenty-five percent inhaled nitrous oxide improves symptoms of treatment-resistant major depression with fewer adverse effects than the 50% concentration.

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Two and a half years ago, MIT entered into a research agreement with startup company Commonwealth Fusion Systems to develop a next-generation fusion research experiment, called SPARC, as a precursor to a practical, emissions-free power plant.

-Sept 2020

MIT researchers have published seven papers outlining details of the physics behind the ambitious SPARC fusion research experiment being developed by MIT and Commonwealth Fusion Systems.

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Engineering student Priyanjali Gupta does not have tall tales of the inspiration behind her AI model that translates American Sign language (ASL) into English immediately.

Instead, the driving factor was her mum, who asked her “to do something now that she’s studying engineering”, a statement echoed by most Indian mums. Gupta is a third-year computer science student specializing in data science from the Vellore Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu.

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Humanity has taken yet another step toward the inevitable war against the machines (which we will lose) with the creation of Vall-E, an AI developed by a team of researchers at Microsoft that can produce high quality human voice replications with only a few seconds of audio training.

Vall-E isn’t the first AI-powered voice tool— xVASynth (opens in new tab), for instance, has been kicking around for a couple years now—but it promises to exceed them all in terms of pure capability. In a paper available at Cornell University (opens in new tab) (via Windows Central (opens in new tab) ), the Vall-E researchers say that most current text-to-speech systems are limited by their reliance on “high-quality clean data” in order to accurately synthesize high-quality speech.

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A team of scientists from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has found the missing puzzle piece in the mystery of how melanoma tumors control their mortality.

In a paper published in Science, they describe how they identified the specific genetic changes that allow tumors to grow rapidly while also preventing their own death. This discovery could have significant implications for the way melanoma is understood and treated by oncologists.

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Google announced a new HD version of its Maps service for cars with the Android Automotive operating system. The new HD maps will provide more detailed road markings, lane-level localization, road barriers and signs. The feature will debut on the Volvo EX90 and Polestar 3 models and will benefit from the lidar, radar and camera sensors on vehicles to ensure a safer driving experience.

Volvo EX90 using Google HD maps
Volvo EX90 using Google HD maps.

Volvo’s HD maps demo shows users will get a detailed model of their vehicle on the screen which mimics all actions undertaken by the driver. HD maps will be available only on vehicles that use Google Automotive Services.

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Scientists believe they’ve discovered a cache of gemstones on the surface of Mars.

No, we’re not talking about diamonds — according to a study published last month in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets by a team of Arizona State University and NASA-affiliated researchers, the Red Planet’s Gale Crater is teeming with opals.

Let’s get it out of the way: bling iced out with precious gems from another planet sounds like the coldest flex in the solar system. But there’s also scientific significance to the finding, which suggests that the area held vast reserves of water far more recently than we previously thought. That means the discovery could also force us to rewrite theories of ancient life on Mars.

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The satellite had an expected two-year-service life, but it blew past that mark. “For 21 of its years in orbit, the ERBS actively investigated how the Earth absorbed and radiated energy from the Sun, and made measurements of stratospheric ozone, water vapor, nitrogen dioxide, and aerosols,” NASA said.

Spacefaring machines that come back to Earth are subject to an intense reentry process. NASA expected most of ERBS to burn up, “but for some components to survive the reentry.” The return trajectory over a body of water means anything that wasn’t toast likely fell harmlessly into the sea.

The satellite’s uneventful fall back to its home planet is a bit of good news at a time when orbital space is increasingly crowded with junk, debris and defunct satellites. ERBS went out in a blaze of glory after its distinguished service to science.

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A protein that helps lethal skin cancer spread through the body has been identified, according to scientists, offering new hope for cancer treatment. Protein LAP1 allows cancer cells to become more aggressive by letting them change the shape of their nucleus and migrate around the body. The most serious type of cancer cells, melanoma, was found to harbour LAP1 and high levels of it were linked to poor prognosis.

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