Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Using human brain organoids, an international team of researchers, led by scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Sanford Consortium, has shown how the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 infects cortical neurons and specifically destroys their synapses — the connections between brain cells that allow them to communicate with each other.

The findings, published in the November 3, 2022 issue of PLOS Biology, also report that the antiviral drug sofosbuvir, already an approved treatment for hepatitis C, effectively inhibited SARS-CoV-2 replication and reversed neuronal alterations in infected brain organoids.

“Vaccines and emerging treatments have reduced the health consequences of COVID-19 in most patients,” said senior study author Alysson R. Muotri, PhD, professor in departments of Pediatrics and Cellular and Molecular at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “But the phenomenon of Long COVID, characterized by persisting symptoms that include neurological impairment, remains poorly understood and without any specific remedy.

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Los Alamos National Laboratory researchers have developed a novel method for comparing neural networks that looks into the “black box” of artificial intelligence to help researchers comprehend neural network behavior. Neural networks identify patterns in datasets and are utilized in applications as diverse as virtual assistants, facial recognition systems, and self-driving vehicles.

“The artificial intelligence research community doesn’t necessarily have a complete understanding of what neural networks are doing; they give us good results, but we don’t know how or why,” said Haydn Jones, a researcher in the Advanced Research in Cyber Systems group at Los Alamos. “Our new method does a better job of comparing neural networks, which is a crucial step toward better understanding the mathematics behind AI.”

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To foster empathy in conversation, scientists at Kyoto University developed a shared-laughter AI system that reacts properly to human laughter.

What makes something hilarious has baffled philosophers and scientists since at least the time of inquiring minds like Plato. The Greeks believed that feeling superior at others’ expense was the source of humor. Sigmund Freud, a German psychologist, thought humor was a means to let off pent-up energy. In order to make people laugh, US comedian Robin Williams tapped his anger at the absurd.

No one appears to be able to agree on the answer to the question, “What’s so funny?” So picture attempting to train a robot to laugh. But by creating an AI that gets its signals from a shared laughing system, a team of researchers at Kyoto University in Japan is trying to do that. The researchers describe their novel technique for creating a funny bone for the Japanese robot ‘Erica’ in the journal Frontiers in Robotics and AI.

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Is a Gerontologist and Clinical Social Worker on a mission to rethink aging, longevity & mental health.

Ms. Anderson was also the former lead singer of the American Rock group, The Donnas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Donnas), where she was the lead vocalist for 20 years, performing throughout the U.S., as well as internationally, and had performances / appearances on major network shows including Saturday Night Live, David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Ms. Anderson received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Stanford University, her MSG, Gerontology from the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, and her Master of Social Work — MSW, from the.
UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

Now pursuing a career as a licensed geriatric social worker, Ms. Anderson hopes to integrate her creative and business experience, with her gerontological knowledge, to better meet the needs of our rapidly aging population.

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If you wake up early Sunday morning and see a small, bright object streaking through the sky, it could be a rocket that is being launched from the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia.

NASA officials say the rocket may be visible from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia, along with Connecticut and lower New York state, shortly after liftoff — scheduled for 5:50 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 6.

The Northrop Grumman Antares rocket will be delivering supplies and science experiments to the International Space Station, NASA said. It will be the agency’s 18th resupply mission for the space station.

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Bias in AI systems is proving to be a major stumbling block in efforts to more broadly integrate the technology into our society.

A new initiative that will reward researchers for finding any prejudices in AI systems could help solve the problem.

The effort is modeled on the bug bounties that software companies pay to cybersecurity experts who alert them of any potential security flaws in their products.

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A spectacular and explosive volcanic eruption in January 2022 produced the highest plume of steam and ash in recorded history.

The towering column that arose from Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai reached a tremendous altitude of 57 kilometers (35 miles) above sea level.

That height makes it the first-ever volcanic eruption seen to have punched completely through the stratosphere to breach the mesosphere.

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