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Jun 1, 2021

Register for free to the 2021 Space Renaissance Congress!

Posted by in categories: government, space

https://2021.spacerenaissance.space/index.php/registration/

Jun 1, 2021

Google helps map one cubic millimeter of human brain tissue

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience, robotics/AI

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This sample tissue was anonymously donated from patients that have undergone surgery to treat epilepsy at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston (MGH). It was then given to researchers at Harvard’s Lichtman laboratory.

The Harvard researchers cut the tissue into ~5300 individual 30 nanometer sections using an automated tape collecting ultra-microtome, mounted those sections onto silicon wafers, and then imaged the brain tissue at 4 nm resolution in a customized 61-beam parallelized scanning electron microscope for rapid image acquisition.

Continue reading “Google helps map one cubic millimeter of human brain tissue” »

Jun 1, 2021

New universal law of human mobility

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, mapping, mobile phones

Mapping how humans move will help in future pandemics.


How people move around cities follows a predictable and universal pattern, scientist say, which will be crucial not only for urban planning but also controlling pandemics.

By analysing mobile-phone tracking data from across four continents, the team confirmed that people visit places more often when they don’t have to travel far to get there.

Continue reading “New universal law of human mobility” »

Jun 1, 2021

25 Years of Quantum Error Correction

Posted by in category: quantum physics

The first quantum error-correcting code was devised by Peter Shor 25 years ago. Ever since there have been numerous advances on both the theoretical and experimental fronts, and quantum error correction turned out to have unexpected applications.

Jun 1, 2021

The First-Ever Evidence of the Multiverse

Posted by in category: cosmology

Scientists determined that the ‘Cold Spot’ isn’t caused by a lack of galaxies, but may have been caused by our universe bumping into another universe.

Jun 1, 2021

COVID-19 can infiltrate insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, study suggests

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

The coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can infect insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, reducing their ability to secrete insulin and sometimes causing cell death, a new study suggests.

Damaging these insulin-producing cells, known as beta cells, can potentially worsen symptoms of diabetes, particularly type 1 diabetes, wherein the pancreas already makes little to no insulin, according to the study authors. “If you imagine that there are some patients who already have diabetes, if the virus comes in and nails the remaining beta cells you have, that’s not good,” said co-senior author Peter Jackson, a professor in the department of microbiology and immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Jun 1, 2021

Curiosity Spots Carbon Dioxide-Ice Clouds in Martian Skies

Posted by in category: space

In March 2021, NASA’s Curiosity rover observed clouds made of carbon dioxide (CO2) ice at high altitudes in the atmosphere of Mars.

But two Earth years ago, the Curiosity team members spotted clouds in the Martian atmosphere earlier than expected.

Jun 1, 2021

Why NASA needs to return to a moon they haven’t visited in 35 years

Posted by in category: space travel

Miranda is a Solar System enigma — and maybe the most unexpected place we could actually find life.


The last time a spacecraft visited Uranus was more than 30 years ago, and scientists are arguing that it’s time to go back.

Jun 1, 2021

Tesla files trademark for restaurant services

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, food, sustainability

Tesla has filed a new trademark for its brand under restaurant services as the automaker is expected to expand amenities around its charging infrastructure, including actual restaurants.

At face value, Tesla doesn’t seem to have much to do with the restaurant industry, but the automaker has actually been talking about going into the food industry for a while.

In 2018, CEO Elon Musk said that Tesla plans to open an “old-school drive-in, roller skates & rock restaurant at one of the new Tesla Supercharger locations in Los Angeles.”

Jun 1, 2021

Deepfake maps could really mess with your sense of the world

Posted by in categories: existential risks, government, mapping, robotics/AI

Satellite images showing the expansion of large detention camps in Xinjiang, China, between 2016 and 2018 provided some of the strongest evidence of a government crackdown on more than a million Muslims, triggering international condemnation and sanctions.

Other aerial images—of nuclear installations in Iran and missile sites in North Korea, for example—have had a similar impact on world events. Now, image-manipulation tools made possible by artificial intelligence may make it harder to accept such images at face value.

In a paper published online last month, University of Washington professor Bo Zhao employed AI techniques similar to those used to create so-called deepfakes to alter satellite images of several cities. Zhao and colleagues swapped features between images of Seattle and Beijing to show buildings where there are none in Seattle and to remove structures and replace them with greenery in Beijing.