Menu

Blog

Page 5259

Sep 5, 2021

Gut Bacteria Influence Brain Development

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Summary: An overgrowth in the gastrointestinal tract of the bacteria Klebsiella in preterm babies was associated with an increased presence of certain immune cells and the development of neurological damage. The findings suggest a link between microbiota and brain development.

Source: University of Vienna.

Extremely premature infants are at high risk for brain damage. Researchers at the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna have now found possible targets for the early treatment of such damage outside the brain: Bacteria in the gut of premature infants may play a key role.

Sep 5, 2021

Jeff Hawkins (Thousand Brains Theory)

Posted by in categories: electronics, neuroscience

The ultimate goal of neuroscience is to learn how the human brain gives rise to human intelligence and what it means to be intelligent. Understanding how the brain works is considered one of humanity’s greatest challenges.

Jeff Hawkins thinks that the reality we perceive is a kind of simulation, a hallucination, a confabulation. He thinks that our brains are a model reality based on thousands of information streams originating from the sensors in our body. Critically — Hawkins doesn’t think there is just one model but rather; thousands.

Continue reading “Jeff Hawkins (Thousand Brains Theory)” »

Sep 5, 2021

CRISPR gene editing and the human race

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

Learn More.

Ian Bremmer.

If you could cure genetic diseases by editing DNA sequences, would you?

Continue reading “CRISPR gene editing and the human race” »

Sep 5, 2021

Your Brain Is Not a Computer. It Is a Transducer

Posted by in categories: computing, space

A new theory of how the brain works — neural transduction theory — might upend everything we know about consciousness and the universe itself.

Sep 5, 2021

The size and shape of the world’s rockets from 1957

Posted by in categories: futurism, satellites

‘How far will future rockets go?’


The SpaceX Starship might be the next rocket to take humans to the moon, but it won’t be the first, and likely not the last.

Continue reading “The size and shape of the world’s rockets from 1957” »

Sep 5, 2021

Stunning image shows dark tendrils masking giant Centaurus A galaxy near Earth

Posted by in category: space

In the image, Centaurus A, which is located more than 12 million light-years away from Earth in the southern constellation Centaurus (The Centaur), ripples across space.

Sep 5, 2021

Roaming! NASA’s Space Communications User Terminal

Posted by in categories: government, satellites

Roaming isn’t available in space, so network access is an issue as satellites and spacecraft orbit the Earth. This will soon change as NASA develops a new Wideband Ka-band communications terminal, which is a transceiver that operates over government and commercial Ka-band spectrum allocations (17.7 GHz – 31 GHz).

Sep 5, 2021

Large-Scale Simulations Of The Brain May Need To Wait For Quantum Computers

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience, quantum physics

And, we have Quantum Computers of course, and they’ll be radically more advanced by 2025.


Why quantum computers, if successfully built, might be what neuroscientists need to carry out large multi-scale simulations of the brain. In fact, it will likely be impossible to do so without them, or some computationally equivalent technology.

Sep 5, 2021

Afrofuturists imagine space in 2051

Posted by in categories: alien life, futurism

The big picture: Black science fiction writers and artists known as Afrofuturists say the next 30 years of space exploration could address legacies of racial terror on Earth if people of color join ventures and help reimagine human life among the planets.

Expensive tourism, Mars expeditions, even alien encounters could define space in 2051 — and the Earthly burdens of race could also follow humans to orbit and beyond.

Sep 5, 2021

NASA starts flight testing with Joby’s electric air taxi

Posted by in categories: business, drones

NASA just took an important step toward making flying taxis a practical reality. The agency has started flight testing with Joby Aviation’s electric VTOL aircraft to help model and simulate future airspace with these taxis in service. The dry run began quietly, on August 30th, and will last through September 10th. The effort will include noise check using 50 microphones to gauge the “acoustic profile” of the air taxi throughout the course of a given flight.

This is the first eVTOL test as part of an Advanced Air Mobility campaign meant to spot gaps in the Federal Aviation Administration’s rules and ensure the agency is ready for commercial use of flying taxis alongside delivery drones and other unconventional aircraft. The data from the flight program will help with a fuller set of campaign tests in 2022 involving both other taxis and more complicated flight situations.

The overall program could better prepare the US for a glut of low-altitude air traffic if and when flying taxis enter widespread use. The early testing is also a minor coup for Joby. It’s ushering in crucial testing not long after buying Uber’s air taxi business and taking a $394 million investment from Toyota. There’s no telling if Joby will continue to play a prominent role, but this is clearly the kind of collaboration it was hoping for.