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Objective Collapse Theories offer a explanation of quantum mechanics that is at once brand new and based in classical mechanics. In the world of quantum mechanics, it’s no big deal for particles to be in multiple different states at the same time, or to teleport between locations, or to influence each other faster than light. But somehow, none of this strangeness makes its way to the familiar scale of human beings — even though our world is made entirely of quantum-weird building blocks. The explanations of this transition range from the mystical influence of the conscious mind to the grandiose proposition of multiple realities. But Objective Collapse Theories feels as down to earth as the classical world that we’re trying to explain. Let’s see if it makes any sense.

Continue reading “Is The Wave Function The Building Block of Reality?” | >

A revolutionary pacemaker that re-establishes the heart’s naturally irregular beat is set to be trialed in New Zealand heart patients this year, following successful animal trials.

“Currently, all pacemakers pace the heart metronomically, which means a very steady, even pace. But when you record heart rate in a healthy individual, you see it is constantly on the move,” says Professor Julian Paton, a lead researcher and director of Manaaki Manawa, the Centre for Heart Research at the University of Auckland.

Manaaki Manawa has led the research and the results have just been published in the leading journal Basic Research in Cardiology.

Read more | >

A team of researchers from Japan’s RIKEN Guardian Robot Project has created an android child called Nikola capable of successfully displaying six basic emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust.

While the android child is definitely not at the Ex Machina level, the project, led by Wataru Sato from RIKEN, is significant since it’s the first time the quality of these six android-expressed emotions has been examined and validated.

How does it work?

The humanoid robot is equipped with 29 pneumatic actuators that control the movements of artificial muscles within its face. It also uses six extra actuators to move its head and eyeballs, making it even more life-like.

Continue reading “Scientists develop an ‘android child’ that can convey six facial expressions” | >

Strategies built by data definitely work.

The overall strength of a professional sports team is measured with one straightforward metric: wins. However, winning one game, let alone a championship, is extremely difficult in professional sports leagues. As the popularity of sports has grown worldwide over the last century, so has the level of competition in professional sports leagues and what it takes to win. Athletes today are bigger, faster, stronger, and more skilled than their counterparts from previous generations. Professional sports organizations need to look for any advantage to help put their teams in the best position to win. More and more pro sports organizations have turned to data science in search of competitive advantages in recent years. One sports team that has consistently used data science as part of its recipe for success is the English football club Liverpool FC. Although all professional football teams feature an analytics department, Liverpool is unique in its approach.

Full Story:

Continue reading “Can data science make your team win? Some teams prove so” | >

Why waste a perfectly good (but obsolete) fighter?

It sure looks like China is converting Cold War fighters into flying drones. Dozens of Shenyang J-16 fighter planes, spotted in satellite photos, are still present at China’s military airfields, despite the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) retiring the type in 2010. China could use the planes in a conflict, either masquerading them as modern jets, or using the drones to carry out combat missions of their own.

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Continue reading “It Sure Looks Like China Is Turning Old Fighter Jets Into Drones” | >

“[It is] encouraging to see this long-term, collaborative approach to privacy-protective personalized advertising from Google,” Graham Mudd, vice president of product marketing, ads and business at Facebook said on Twitter. “We look forward to continued work with them and the industry on privacy-enhancing tech through industry groups.”

Google said it will continue to support the current identifiers for the next two years, which means other companies have time to implement changes.

Apple was criticized by Facebook and other companies for rolling out its App Tracking Transparency feature, which reduces targeting capabilities by limiting advertisers from accessing an iPhone user identifier. With that change, users were given a pop-up window that let them block apps from tracking their data for advertising purposes.

Read more | >