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Oct 27, 2020

Best way to detect ‘deepfake’ videos? Check for the pulse

Posted by in category: futurism

With video editing software becoming increasingly sophisticated, it’s sometimes difficult to believe our own eyes. Did that actor really appear in that movie? Did that politician really say that offensive thing?

Some so-called ‘deepfakes’ are harmless fun, but others are made with a more sinister purpose. But how do we know when a video has been manipulated?

Researchers from Binghamton University’s Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science have teamed up with Intel Corp. to develop a tool called FakeCatcher, which boasts an accuracy rate above 90%.

Oct 27, 2020

Recording Brain Activity Through the Mouth

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Neuroscientists introduce a new tool to detect hippocampal activity.

Oct 27, 2020

Effect predicted by Albert Einstein spotted in a double-star system

Posted by in category: space

This effect, known as gravitational redshift, is critical for maintaining GPS on Earth.


Gravitational redshift, an effect predicted by Albert Einstein that is crucial for maintaining the Global Positioning System (GPS) on Earth, has been observed in a star system in our galaxy.

Oct 27, 2020

NASA scientists spot ‘really unexpected’ molecule in atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan

Posted by in category: space

NASA is prepping its Dragonfly mission to go look for signs of life on the enticing moon.

Oct 27, 2020

If a robot is conscious, is it OK to turn it off? The moral implications of building true AIs

Posted by in categories: ethics, robotics/AI

Philosophers say now is the time to mull over what qualities should grant an artificially intelligent machine moral standing.

Oct 27, 2020

90,000-year-old Human Hybrid Found in Ancient Cave

Posted by in category: futurism

Researchers have just discovered the remains of a hybrid human.

Oct 27, 2020

Record neutron numbers at Sandia Labs’ Z machine fusion experiments

Posted by in category: nuclear energy

A relatively new method to control nuclear fusion that combines a massive jolt of electricity with strong magnetic fields and a powerful laser beam has achieved its own record output of neutrons—a key standard by which fusion efforts are judged—at Sandia National Laboratories’ Z pulsed power facility, the most powerful producer of X-rays on Earth.

The achievement, from a project called MagLIF, for magnetized liner inertial fusion, was reported in a paper published Oct. 9 in the journal Physical Review Letters.

“The output in neutrons in the past two years increased by more than an order of magnitude,” said Sandia physicist and lead investigator Matt Gomez. “We’re not only pleased that the improvements we implemented led to this increase in output, but that the increase was accurately predicted by theory.”

Oct 27, 2020

Armenian email campaign asks SpaceX not to aid Turkish regime with satellite launch

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, government, satellites

SpaceX staff and members of the media have been inundated this morning with emails ostensibly from concerned Armenians around the world, asking the company to cancel a launch contract with the Turkish government. The concerns are valid — and the mass-email method surprisingly effective.

In the form email, received by TechCrunch staff hundreds of times in duplicate and with minor variations, the senders explain that they represent or stand in solidarity with Armenians worldwide, an ethnic and national group that has suffered under the authoritarian rule and regional influence of Turkey’s President, Tayyip Erdogan.

SpaceX is slated to launch the Turkish satellite Turksat-5A in the next month or two, a geostationary communications satellite built by Airbus that will serve a large area of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The deal has been on the books for a long time, and SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk even traveled to Turkey to meet with Erdogan regarding the satellite in 2017.

Oct 27, 2020

Study shows how tiny compartments could have preceded cells

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, chemistry

One of the most important questions in science is how life began on Earth.

One theory is that wet-dry cycling on the early Earth—whether through rainy/dry periods, or through phenomena such as geysers—encouraged molecular complexity. The hydration/rehydration cycle is thought to have created conditions that allowed membraneless compartments called complex coacervates to act as homes for chemicals to combine to create life.

Using the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory, scientists in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) at the University of Chicago studied these compartments as they undergo phase changes to understand just what happens inside them during wet-dry cycle.

Oct 27, 2020

Europe will help build orbiting Gateway space station

Posted by in categories: habitats, space

Europe will provide a habitat module and a refueling module for the Gateway outpost.


Europe signed a memorandum of understanding on Tuesday (Oct. 27) formalizing its collaboration on Gateway, NASA’s planned outpost in lunar orbit.