How humans, animals and even single-celled organisms cooperate to survive suggests there’s more to life than just competition, argues a cheering study of evolutionary biology.
That is, until we drop an egg, spill our coffee, or an expensive vase falls off a shelf in our homes, reminding us that even the weakest of the four fundamental interactions known to physics, while hidden in plain sight, still exerts a significant influence on everything around us.
Some 1029 times weaker than the appropriately named weak force, which governs the radioactive decay of atoms, gravity is so subtle that it has virtually no effect at the subatomic level. Yet at the scale where interactions between objects are observable to us, gravity is the force that literally commands the motions of planets, as well as that of stars and galaxies. Even light, which universal laws govern to be the fastest thing in existence, cannot escape the influence of gravity.
Despite its ubiquity, gravity also remains one of the great mysteries of modern physics. While there remains no complete or perfect theory as to how gravity works, the best description of it remains the one Einstein gave us in 1915 with the publication of his general theory of relativity. To Einstein, gravity can be thought of not so much as a force acting on objects, but instead as a way to observe the curvature of spacetime itself that results from variances in the distribution of mass throughout the universe.
A national security expert predicts practical quantum computing tools are just three to five years away from integration into the workforce, NextGov is reporting.
Neal Ziring, the Technical Director of the National Security Agency’s (NSA) Cybersecurity Directorate, made the forecast during a recent public sector cybersecurity event hosted by Palo Alto Networks in Palo Alto. As reported by NextGov, Ziring expects the devices to be accessible predominantly through cloud-based platforms.
Ziring added that the impracticality and cost-prohibitive nature of would put on-premise installations for quantum computing systems out of reach for most organizations, including government agencies.
From Caltech & NVIDIA
This explains the prospect of #deeplearning on advancing science, #simulation, and design.
Engineers at MIT are developing a technique that boosts the smarts and flexibility of household robots by using large language models.
“It’s not much you can do about it. Other than fight it and if you fight and you quit, then you are not gonna make it,” he said.
The founders of this Malibu-based class say it challenges the mind and body to work together, getting stronger in the process.
John Wakefield, the creator and co-founder of drumboxing in California, told KCBS, “The connection with rhythm, tying it in with motor skills, really training the brain like you train the body putting it in a situation where it has to react.”
Certain RNA molecules in the nerve cells in the brain last a life time without being renewed. Neuroscientists from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) have now demonstrated that this is the case together with researchers from Germany, Austria and the U.S.
A medication used to treat diabetes appeared to halt the progression of Parkinson’s symptoms in a phase 2 trial of people in the early stages of the disease. While more research is needed to see how large the effect is and how long it might last, the news is encouraging in the hunt for new Parkinson’s treatments.
The challenge: More than 8.5 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s, a progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by the loss of brain cells that produce dopamine, which helps neurons communicate.
Common Parkinson’s symptoms include tremors, stiffness, and impaired cognition. Meds that replace dopamine can help alleviate those, but they don’t address the underlying cause — the loss of dopamine neurons — and so the disease progresses.
A nanosized polymer, developed by a research team from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, can selectively deliver chemotherapeutic drugs to blood vessels that feed tumors and metastases and has emerged as an effective treatment for advanced cancer. The polymer eliminates colorectal cancer liver metastases and prolongs mice survival after a single dose therapy.
