Taken from JRE #1919 w/Bret Weinstein:
As we prepare to leave 2022 behind, letโs take a look at a few of the most noteworthy scientific breakthroughs that happened this year.
๐๐๐-๐ ๐ซ๐จ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐๐ค๐ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐๐๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐๐ฎ๐ฅ ๐๐จ๐ง๐ง๐๐๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ, ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ง ๐๐จ๐จ๐ซ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ข๐๐๐ฅ ๐ญ๐ซ๐ข๐๐ฅ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ญ๐ซ๐๐๐ญ ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐๐ง๐๐ฌ๐ฌ
๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐๐ก ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐จ ๐๐ง๐ค๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐๐ง๐ค๐ข ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ข ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐จ ๐๐๐ฃ ๐ง๐๐๐๐ ๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ฃ๐๐๐ฉ ๐ฌ๐๐ฉ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐๐๐๐๐ค๐ง๐จ, ๐๐๐๐ค๐ง๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ฉ๐ช๐๐ฎ, ๐๐ค๐ข๐ฅ๐ก๐๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ โ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐จ๐๐๐ ๐โ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฉ ๐ข๐๐ฎ ๐จ๐๐ค๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐จ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ง๐๐๐๐ฎ ๐๐ค๐ง ๐ฉ๐ง๐๐๐ก๐จ ๐๐ฃ ๐๐ช๐ข๐๐ฃ๐จ ๐ฌ๐๐ฉ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ง๐๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐๐๐จ๐ค๐ง๐๐๐ง๐จ.๐๐๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐๐ก ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐จ ๐๐ง๐ค๐ฌ๐ฃ ๐๐ง๐ค๐ข ๐จ๐ฉ๐๐ข ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐จ ๐๐๐ฃ ๐ง๐๐๐๐ ๐ค๐ช๐ฉ ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ฃ๐๐๐ฉ ๐ฌ๐๐ฉ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐๐๐๐๐ค๐ง๐จ, ๐๐๐๐ค๐ง๐๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ฉ๐ค ๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ฌ ๐จ๐ฉ๐ช๐๐ฎ, ๐๐ค๐ข๐ฅ๐ก๐๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐ โ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐จ๐๐๐ ๐โ ๐ฉ๐๐๐ฉ ๐ข๐๐ฎ ๐จ๐๐ค๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐๐ก๐ก๐จ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ง๐๐๐๐ฎ ๐๐ค๐ง ๐ฉ๐ง๐๐๐ก๐จ ๐๐ฃ ๐๐ช๐ข๐๐ฃ๐จ ๐ฌ๐๐ฉ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ง๐๐ฉ๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐๐๐จ๐ค๐ง๐๐๐ง๐จ.
Retinal cells grown from stem cells can reach out and connect with neighbors, according to a new study, completing a โhandshakeโ that may show the cells are ready for trials in humans with degenerative eye disorders.
Over a decade ago, researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison developed a way to grow organized clusters of cells, called organoids, that resemble the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. They coaxed human skin cells reprogrammed to act as stem cells to develop into layers of several types of retinal cells that sense light and ultimately transmit what we see to the brain.
ChatGPT integration with Bingโs search engine.
Microsoftโs Bing search engine might soon become more attuned to usersโ needs and return results in a more human-like fashion. According to The Information, the tech giant is planning to incorporate the OpenAI software powering ChatGPT into Bing in hopes that it can help the company catch up to (or maybe even outshine) Google. Microsoft invested $1 billion in OpenAI back in 2019, and more recent reports said itโs in talks with the Elon Musk-founded startup for a follow-up investment. Now, The Information is reporting that Microsoftโs initial investment included an agreement to incorporate some aspects of GPT into Bing.
OpenAI developed GPT as a language model that uses deep learning to generate human-like text responses. Late last year, it launched a program called ChatGPT that quickly skyrocketed in popularity due to its ability to return responses that seem like they were written by actual people. Educators raised concerns that it could easily be used for cheating, since those who tried the tool said they wouldโve given its responses a good grade if a student claimed to have written them. ChatGPT is free for now, but OpenAI intends to charge for its use in the future.
What GPT integration would mean for Bing isnโt clear at this point. It doesnโt have the capability to scrape the internet for results, so Microsoft will still use its own search engine technology. However, The Information said it could help Bing present results to users in a friendlier way. A source โfamiliar with Bingโs systemsโ told the publication that Microsoft could use the technology to present search results as full sentence answers with the source for the information. If Bing suggests related queries to the original one, GPT could explain their relevance in a meaningful manner. The technology could help Bing suggest better keywords or key phrases to users, as well.
After over a decade of research and testing, Caltechโs Space Solar Power Demonstrator arrived above Earth on Tuesday to begin testing.
The NEO Surveyor will be able to detect individual asteroid heat signatures.
NEO Surveyor is, as the name implies, a satellite specifically designed to survey objects near the Earth (NEO). One of its primary contributions will be to look for asteroids and other small bodies that are potentially on an eventual collision course with Earth but are invisible to typical NEO survey missions because of their location in the solar system.
Typically, their signals are just background noise against the overwhelming signal from the Sun. But NEO Surveyor will be able to detect individual asteroid heat signatures, allowing it to isolate potentially dangerous asteroids using this novel technique. With the increased focus on โplanetary defense,โ as it has come to be called, NASA has been interested in the mission, which was initially proposed in 2005, for some time.
The Human Digital Twin
Posted in biotech/medical, health, supercomputing
We are living a data revolution in the biomedical field, and scientific research is advancing at an unprecedented speed to improve modern medicine. One of the key aspects of such medicine is the tailoring of treatments to each patient, by analising the specific changes that led to disease along with the unique characteristics with which the person was born. The use of supercomputers is essential to make sense of the vast amounts of data, and to simulate aspects of our bodies to calculate for instance which drug is more appropriate for each patient for a given disease.
This video showcases some of the research done at the Life Sciences Department of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, contributing to a better understanding of our bodies in health and disease, and to a future where a Human Digital Twin can help to live healthier and longer.
Greg Yang is a mathematician and AI researcher at Microsoft Research who for the past several years has done incredibly original theoretical work in the understanding of large artificial neural networks. Greg received his bachelors in mathematics from Harvard University in 2018 and while there won the Hoopes prize for best undergraduate thesis. He also received an Honorable Mention for the Morgan Prize for Outstanding Research in Mathematics by an Undergraduate Student in 2018 and was an invited speaker at the International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians in 2019.
In this episode, we get a sample of Gregโs work, which goes under the name โTensor Programsโ and currently spans five highly technical papers. The route chosen to compress Tensor Programs into the scope of a conversational video is to place its main concepts under the umbrella of one larger, central, and time-tested idea: that of taking a large N limit. This occurs most famously in the Law of Large Numbers and the Central Limit Theorem, which then play a fundamental role in the branch of mathematics known as Random Matrix Theory (RMT). We review this foundational material and then show how Tensor Programs (TP) generalizes this classical work, offering new proofs of RMT. We conclude with the applications of Tensor Programs to a (rare!) rigorous theory of neural networks.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/timothynguyen.
Part I. Introduction.
Although dark matter is a central part of the standard cosmological model, itโs not without its issues. There continue to be nagging mysteries about the stuff, not the least of which is the fact that scientists have found no direct particle evidence of it. Despite numerous searches, we have yet to detect dark matter particles. So some astronomers favor an alternative, such as Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MoND) or modified gravity model. And a new study of galactic rotation seems to support them.
The idea of MoND was inspired by galactic rotation. Most of the visible matter in a galaxy is clustered in the middle, so youโd expect that stars closer to the center would have faster orbital speeds than stars farther away, similar to the planets of our solar system. We observe that stars in a galaxy all rotate at about the same speed. The rotation curve is essentially flat rather than dropping off. The dark matter solution is that galaxies are surrounded by a halo of invisible matter, but in 1983 Mordehai Milgrom argued that our gravitational model must be wrong.
Australian scientists have created the most detailed map ever of the communication links between the hippocampus, the brainโs memory control center, and the rest of the brain, potentially revolutionizing our understanding of human memory.
โWe were surprised to find fewer connections between the hippocampus and frontal cortical areas, and more connections with early visual processing areas than we expected to see,โ said Dr. Marshall Dalton, a Research Fellow in the School of Psychology at the University of Sydney. โAlthough, this makes sense considering the hippocampus plays an important role not only in memory but also imagination and our ability to construct mental images in our mindโs eye.โ
Located within the brain, the hippocampus is a complex structure that resembles a seahorse. It is essential for the brain and plays a crucial role in memory formation as well as the transfer of memories from short-term to long-term storage. In addition to these functions, the hippocampus also plays a role in navigation, the ability to imagine future or fictitious experiences, the creation of mental imagery, and even in visual perception and decision-making.