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Feb 18, 2021

Artificial Neural Nets Finally Yield Clues to How Brains Learn

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

The learning algorithm that enables the runaway success of deep neural networks doesn’t work in biological brains, but researchers are finding alternatives that could.

Feb 18, 2021

D-Wave demonstrates performance advantage in quantum simulation of exotic magnetism

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

D-Wave Systems Inc. today published a milestone study in collaboration with scientists at Google, demonstrating a computational performance advantage, increasing with both simulation size and problem hardness, to over 3 million times that of corresponding classical methods. Notably, this work was achieved on a practical application with real-world implications, simulating the topological phenomena behind the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics. This performance advantage, exhibited in a complex quantum simulation of materials, is a meaningful step in the journey toward applications advantage in quantum computing.

Feb 18, 2021

Quantum leap: how we discovered a new way to create a hologram

Posted by in categories: holograms, media & arts, security

Once, holograms were just a scientific curiosity. But thanks to the rapid development of lasers, they have gradually moved center stage, appearing on the security imagery for credit cards and bank notes, in science fiction movies—most memorably Star Wars—and even “live” on stage when long-dead rapper Tupac reincarnated for fans at the Coachella music festival in 2012.

Feb 18, 2021

Reverse Age

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cryonics, genetics, life extension, neuroscience

This is the FIRST part of the interview with Rodolfo Goya.


In this video Professor Goya talks about his role in the original experiment and the progress in his current study to reproduce the results with young blood plasma.

Continue reading “Reverse Age” »

Feb 18, 2021

WE THE PEOPLE did it! #NASA has landed on Mars for the search for extraterrestrial life

Posted by in category: alien life

Feb 18, 2021

Now that NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover successfully landed on the Red Planet after a nearly seven-month journey

Posted by in categories: climatology, robotics/AI, space

mission experts will talk about the robotic scientist’s touchdown in the most challenging terrain on Mars ever targeted.

Perseverance, which launched July 302020, will search for signs of ancient microbial life, collect carefully selected rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) samples for future return to Earth, characterize Mars’ geology and climate, and pave the way for human exploration beyond the Moon.

Tune in to watch a live broadcast from the Von Karman Auditorium at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Feb 18, 2021

A Spanish startup is offering trips to space in helium balloons as a cheaper alternative to SpaceX

Posted by in category: space travel

Zero 2 Infinity wants to launch passengers 40 kilometers into space with helium balloons at a much lower price, at just over $130000.

Feb 18, 2021

Plants Talk. Plants Listen. Here’s How

Posted by in category: chemistry

When a leafy plant is under attack, it doesn’t sit quietly. Back in 1983, two scientists, Jack Schultz and Ian Baldwin, reported that young maple saplings getting bitten by insects release a spurt of chemicals that float through the air. You and I wouldn’t notice, but these chemicals carry a slight odor that neighboring plants can detect. It’s a little like a silent scream.

These chemicals come from the injured parts of the plant and seem to be an alarm. Maybe not an intentional warning like, “Watch Out! Aphid Attack!” but more like a simple distress call like, “Aphids! Aphids! Aphids!” or, “Attack! Attack!” The chemicals the plants pump through the air are a blend of organic molecules — alcohols, aldehydes, ketones and esters — known as volatile organic compounds, VOCs for short.”


Animals bark, sing, growl and chat. Plants, one would think, just sit there. But it turns out that plants bark, growl and chat as well. Here’s how they do it.

Continue reading “Plants Talk. Plants Listen. Here’s How” »

Feb 18, 2021

Single dogecoin account holds $2 billion fortune

Posted by in categories: cryptocurrencies, Elon Musk, humor

Dogecoin may have started as a joke, but one of its holders is sitting on some serious dough.

A single cryptocurrency account contains about $2 billion worth of the meme-inspired coin whose price has been pumped up by celebrities such as Elon Musk, Snoop Dogg and Gene Simmons.

The account holds about 36.8 billion dogecoins — a massive stash that accounts for more than 28 percent of all the coins currently in circulation, according to cryptocurrency data website Bitinfocharts.

Feb 18, 2021

NASA rover lands on Mars to look for signs of ancient life

Posted by in category: space

A NASA rover streaked through the orange Martian sky and landed on the planet Thursday, accomplishing the riskiest step yet in an epic quest to bring back rocks that could answer whether life ever existed on Mars.