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Nov 25, 2021

Engineering teams have determined NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is safe and ready for fueling after having completed a series of safety checks and tests

Posted by in categories: engineering, space

Preparations continue toward a target launch date of Dec. 22: https://blogs.nasa.gov/webb/2021/11/24/testing-confirms-webb…-22-launch

Nov 25, 2021

AI-Scientists May Usher in A Bright Future in the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Posted by in categories: alien life, particle physics, policy, robotics/AI

It’s almost Time to use our AI Brothers to search for and Welcome our Space Brothers. Welcome AI and Space friends.


The best public policy is shaped by scientific evidence. Although obvious in retrospect, scientists often fail to follow this dictum. The refusal to admit anomalies as evidence that our knowledge base may have missed something important about reality stems from our ego. However, what will happen when artificial intelligence plays a starring role in the analysis of data? Will these future ‘AI-scientists’ alter the way information is processed and understood, all without human bias?

The mainstream of physics routinely embarks on speculations. For example, we invested 7.5 billion Euros in the Large Hadron Collider with the hope of finding Supersymmetry 0, without success. We invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the search for Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs) as dark matter 0, and four decades later, we have been unsuccessful. In retrospect, these were searches in the dark. But one wonders why they were endorsed by the mainstream scientific community while less speculative searches are not?

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Nov 25, 2021

How molecular clusters in the nucleus interact with chromosomes

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, genetics

A cell stores all of its genetic material in its nucleus, in the form of chromosomes, but that’s not all that’s tucked away in there. The nucleus is also home to small bodies called nucleoli — clusters of proteins and RNA that help build ribosomes.

Using computer simulations, MIT chemists have now discovered how these bodies interact with chromosomes in the nucleus, and how those interactions help the nucleoli exist as stable droplets within the nucleus.

Their findings also suggest that chromatin-nuclear body interactions lead the genome to take on a gel-like structure, which helps to promote stable interactions between the genome and transcription machineries. These interactions help control gene expression.

Nov 25, 2021

In MIT visit, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston ’05 explores the accelerated shift to distributed work

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

When the cloud storage firm Dropbox decided to shut down its offices with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, co-founder and CEO Drew Houston ’05 h.

Nov 25, 2021

Robots and AI assist in designing and building Swiss university’s ‘hanging gardens’

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, information science, robotics/AI

Architecture and construction have always been, rather quietly, at the bleeding edge of tech and materials trends. It’s no surprise, then, especially at a renowned technical university like ETH Zurich, to find a project utilizing AI and robotics in a new approach to these arts. The automated design and construction they are experimenting with show how homes and offices might be built a decade from now.

The project is a sort of huge sculptural planter, “hanging gardens” inspired by the legendary structures in the ancient city of Babylon. (Incidentally, it was my ancestor, Robert Koldewey, who excavated/looted the famous Ishtar Gate to the place.)

Begun in 2019, Semiramis (named after the queen of Babylon back then) is a collaboration between human and AI designers. The general idea of course came from the creative minds of its creators, architecture professors Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler. But the design was achieved by putting the basic requirements, such as size, the necessity of watering and the style of construction, through a set of computer models and machine learning algorithms.

Nov 25, 2021

SpaceX has pushed back delivery times for some Starlink preorders and apologized to customers, saying that silicon shortages have slowed production of its internet kit

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, internet, space

Elon Musk’s SpaceX told Starlink customers they’d have internet service by mid-to late 2021, but some customers say it’s now been delayed to 2022.

Nov 25, 2021

New Link Between a Disrupted Body Clock and Inflammatory Diseases

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Summary: Study identifies a significant way in which a disrupted circadian clock drives inflammation in the body’s immune cells.

Source: RCSI

New research from RCSI has demonstrated the significant role that an irregular body clock plays in driving inflammation in the body’s immune cells, with implications for the most serious and prevalent diseases in humans.

Nov 25, 2021

Kayak on Titan? Soar past exoplanets? Epic new NASA video envisions future space travel

Posted by in category: space travel

A new NASA video advertises a suite of its real-life missions as previewing an “Exoplanet Travel Bureau” of the future.

Nov 25, 2021

This Synthetic DNA Factory Is Building New Forms of Life

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, cybercrime/malcode, food, robotics/AI

In this DNA factory, organism engineers are using robots and automation to build completely new forms of life.
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Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston company specializing in “engineering custom organisms,” aims to reinvent manufacturing, agriculture, biodesign, and more.

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Nov 25, 2021

How Science Can Help Us to Understand the Past but also Tackle Earth´s Future Challenges

Posted by in categories: science, space

Breakthrough Initiatives held an exciting scientific meeting at the beginning of this week, from exoplanets to technosignatures and the future of life on Earth:


Earlier this week, the Breakthrough Initiatives held the scientific meeting Life in the Universe 2021: Our Past, Present, and Future Selves.