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Oct 13, 2021

Migraines Caused by Alterations in Metabolite Levels

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, genetics, health, neuroscience

“Lower levels of DHA are associated with inflammation, cardiovascular and brain disorders, such as depression, which are all linked to migraine risk.”

Professor Nyholt said LPE(20:4) was a chemical compound that blocked the production of an anti-inflammatory molecule called anandamide.


Summary: Researchers have identified causal genetic links to three blood metabolite levels that increase migraine risks.

Continue reading “Migraines Caused by Alterations in Metabolite Levels” »

Oct 13, 2021

Chinese AI Research and Business is Booming, but America is Still King

Posted by in categories: business, robotics/AI

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) is on the cusp of achieving significant disruption across several sectors in the world — one can simply look to companies like American company Alfi (NASDAQ: ALF) which is attempting to revolutionize the ad-tech industry with privacy-conscious AI —. It is becoming a key driver of productivity and gross domestic product growth for many nations and is pushing the boundaries of technology as we know it.

According to a report, the United States leads the AI pack today, with China in a close 2nd and the European Union in 3rd. Out of 100 total available points in the report’s scoring methodology, the United States leads with 44.2 points, China with 32.3, and the European Union with 23.5.

Although it may seem like the U.S. has an unassailable lead, the fact is that China is rapidly catching up and stands today as a full-spectrum peer competitor of the U.S. in many applications of AI.

Oct 13, 2021

China’s closing the AI gap with U.S.

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

China’s national share of smart-computing power is 52%, compared to 19% in the U.S.

Recently, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) released a white paper on the country’s computing power. According to the paper, which was translated by ChinAI, the country’s computing power reached 135 exaFlops (EFlops), an increase of 48 EFlops from last year. One EFlop is equivalent to the computing power of roughly two million laptops.


So, what’s the point in all this computing speed? China is accelerating its computing power for a faster AI adoption. It is evident in the way it prioritizes its resources for next-generation computing. Beijing divides its AI needs into basic-, smart-, and super-computing. Between 2016 and 2,020 the country dropped its basic-computing share to 57% from 95% and increased smart-computing to 41% from 3%.

Continue reading “China’s closing the AI gap with U.S.” »

Oct 13, 2021

Scientists Genetically Modify Plants to Grow Meat Protein

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, genetics

Researchers in Iceland are growing over 100,000 genetically modified barley plants inside a greenhouse for a very unusual purpose: creating lab-grown meat, the BBC reports.

The altered barley gets harvested and purified to extract “growth factor” proteins, which, in turn, can be used to cultivate lab-grown meat — an innovation that could make the lab-grown meat industry rely even less on live animals in the future.

The company behind the greenhouse, ORF Genetics, is growing the biogenetically engineered barley over 22,000 square feet using high-tech hydroponic cultivation methods.

Oct 13, 2021

ECMO Support May Save Lives in COVID-19

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

In patients with severe lung disease caused by viral infections, physicians sometimes turn to ECMO—a life support machine that takes over the functions of the lungs, heart, or both when other support options appear to be failing. But initial reports of ECMO use in patients with COVID-19 described very high mortality, and some physicians recommended against its use.

New data from Columbia University and other ECMO centers throughout the world now show that more than 60% of severe COVID-19 patients who received ECMO have survived.

“The results of this large-scale international registry study, while hardly definitive evidence, provide a real-world understanding of the potential for ECMO to save lives in a highly select population of COVID-19 patients,” says senior author Daniel Brodie, MD, professor of medicine at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and director of the Adult ECMO Program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

Oct 13, 2021

NASA’s Perseverance Initiates Remarkable Sample Return Mission

Posted by in category: space

NASA, along with the European Space Agency, is developing a campaign to return the Martian samples to Earth.

Oct 13, 2021

How to watch NASA’s Lucy asteroid mission launch this week online

Posted by in category: space

NASA is getting ready to launch a new science spacecraft Saturday (Oct. 16) to study asteroids near Jupiter, and you can watch mission coverage live all week.

Lucy — which will study Trojan asteroids, or asteroids that share the orbit of the giant planet — will fly to space from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket. With blast-off targeting 5:34 a.m. EDT (0934 GMT), live launch coverage will begin at 5 a.m. EDT (0900 GMT) on NASA Television, the NASA app, NASA social media channels and here at Space.com.

Oct 13, 2021

Physicists Have Made the World’s Most Precise Measurement of Neutron Lifetime

Posted by in category: physics

An international team of researchers has made the world’s most precise measurement of the neutron’s lifetime, which may help answer questions about the early universe.

An international team of physicists led by researchers at Indiana University Bloomington has announced the world’s most precise measurement of the neutron’s lifetime.

The results from the team, which encompasses scientists from over 10 national labs and universities in the United States and abroad, represent a more than two-fold improvement over previous measurements — with an uncertainty of less than one-tenth of a percent.

Oct 13, 2021

The Human Brain Project: six achievements of Europe’s largest neuroscience programme

Posted by in categories: neuroscience, robotics/AI

Human Brain atlas.


From robotic hands to brain-like computers, the Human Brain Project has produced some intriguing results.

Continue reading “The Human Brain Project: six achievements of Europe’s largest neuroscience programme” »

Oct 13, 2021

Autonomous drones can now zip through the woods at insane speeds

Posted by in categories: drones, information science, robotics/AI

Thanks to artificial intelligence, drones can now fly autonomously at remarkably high speeds, while navigating unpredictable, complex obstacles using only their onboard sensing and computation.

This feat was achieved by getting the drone’s neural network to learn flying by watching a sort of “simulated expert” – an algorithm that flew a computer-generated drone through a simulated environment full of complex obstacles. Now, this “expert” could not be used outside of simulation, but its data was used to teach the neural network how to predict the best trajectory, based only on the data from the sensors.