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Apr 2, 2021

OSIRIS-REx to make final close approach to asteroid before heading back to Earth

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

WASHINGTON — NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will make one final close approach to the asteroid it collected samples from next week before heading back to Earth.

On April 7, the spacecraft will pass 3.7 kilometers above the location on the asteroid Bennu called Nightingale where, in October, the spacecraft briefly touched down and collected as much as several hundred grams of material, now stored in the spacecraft.

Immediately after that sample collection maneuver, the mission had no plans to return to the vicinity of Bennu. However, NASA decided to make a final pass over the touchdown site to see what changes the sampling made to the Nightingale region, like the creation of a crater.

Apr 2, 2021

Building AI That Works Better for Everyone

Posted by in categories: augmented reality, biotech/medical, robotics/AI

AI plays an important role across our apps — from enabling AR effects, to helping keep bad content off our platforms and better supporting our communities through our COVID-19 Community Help hub. As AI-powered services become more present in everyday life, it’s becoming even more important to understand how AI systems may affect people around the world and how we can strive to ensure the best possible outcomes for everyone.

Several years ago, we created an interdisciplinary Responsible AI (RAI) team to help advance the emerging field of Responsible AI and spread the impact of such work throughout Facebook. The Fairness team is part of RAI, and works with product teams across the company to foster informed, context-specific decisions about how to measure and define fairness in AI-powered products.

Apr 2, 2021

Tesla Autopilot tries valiantly before asking for help in Vietnam’s crowded streets

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, robotics/AI, transportation

In the future, Tesla’s Autopilot and Full Self-Driving suite are expected to handle challenging circumstances on the road with ease. These involve inner-city driving, which includes factors like pedestrians walking about, motorcyclists driving around cars, and other potential edge cases. When Autopilot is able to handle these cases confidently, the company could roll out ambitious projects such as Elon Musk’s Robotaxi Network.

Tesla’s FSD Beta, at least based on videos of the system in action, seems to be designed for maximum safety. Members of the first batch of testers for the FSD Beta have shared clips of the advanced driver-assist system handling even challenging inner-city streets in places such as San Francisco with caution. But even these difficult roads pale in comparison to the traffic situation in other parts of the world.

In Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, for example, traffic tends to be very challenging, to the point where even experienced human drivers could experience anxiety when navigating through inner-city roads. The same is true for other countries like India or the Philippines, where road rules are loosely followed. In places such as these, Autopilot still has some ways to go, as seen in a recently shared video from a Tesla Model X owner.

Apr 2, 2021

BrainGate: First Human Use of High-Bandwidth Wireless Brain-Computer Interface

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

Summary: The BrainGate brain-machine interface is able to transmit signals from a single neuron resolution with full broadband fidelity without physically tethering the user to a decoding system.

Source: Brown University.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are an emerging assistive technology, enabling people with paralysis to type on computer screens or manipulate robotic prostheses just by thinking about moving their own bodies. For years, investigational BCIs used in clinical trials have required cables to connect the sensing array in the brain to computers that decode the signals and use them to drive external devices.

Apr 1, 2021

Littlest Shop of Horrors: Hungry Green Algae Prefer to Eat Bacteria Alive

Posted by in categories: climatology, education

New study points to potential widespread phagocytosis among green algae, suggests improved methodology in environmental microbiology.

New research suggests that the ability of green algae to eat bacteria is likely much more widespread than previously thought, a finding that could be crucial to environmental and climate science. The work, led by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History, Columbia University, and the University of Arizona, found that five strains of single-celled green algae consume bacteria when they are “hungry,” and only when those bacteria are alive. The study is published today in The ISME Journal.

“Traditionally, we think of green algae as being purely photosynthetic organisms, producing their food by soaking in sunlight,” said Eunsoo Kim, an associate curator at the American Museum of Natural History and one of the study’s corresponding authors. “But we’ve come to understand that there are potentially a number of species of green algae that also can eat bacteria when the conditions are right. And we’ve also found out just how finicky they are as eaters.”

Apr 1, 2021

The Menu for Mars: Designing a Deep Space Food System

Posted by in category: space travel

NASA is working to make sure that future astronauts headed to the Moon and Mars have food that is safe, nutritious, palatable, and more.

Apr 1, 2021

TSMC to Spend $100 Billion Over Three Years to Grow Capacity

Posted by in categories: computing, robotics/AI

In 2020, TSMC spent a record $18 billion on building new factories for their chips. TSMC just announced they are spending $100 billion on new factories over the next 3 years. This will radically change the chip landscape. Many other companies, including Samsung and Intel, are upping their spending as well.

Of course, at some point there will be a chip glut again but this greatly increased chip capacity will change the world that we live in. It will also make AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) that much closer to reality… (All this money gives companies an incentive to spend R&D on smaller transistors, etc.)

Apr 1, 2021

Businesses Take a Hurry-Up-and-Wait Approach to AI

Posted by in categories: business, economics, robotics/AI

But whenever companies experiment with a new technology that has the potential to transform entire business models, like electricity, it can take decades before changes yield real-world results, Mr. Brynjolfsson said, speaking on Wednesday at The Wall Street Journal Pro AI Executive Forum. The Digital Economy Lab is part of Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI.

Companies leading the charge in adopting AI tools and platforms are taking time to target spending in the right digital capabilities and talent, he said.

“We’re having a few superstars doing really well,” Mr. Brynjolfsson said. “But the whole reason it takes so long in the first place is that it’s not easy.” He expects to see a “productivity J-curve” as companies figure out how best to deploy AI in their daily operations.

Apr 1, 2021

Could CRISPR Gene-Editing Technology Be an Answer to Chronic Pain?

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

Gene editing has shown great promise as a non-heritable way to treat a wide range of conditions, including many genetic diseases and more recently, even COVID-19. But could a version of the CRISPR gene-editing tool also help deliver long-lasting pain relief without the risk of addiction associated with prescription opioid drugs?

In work recently published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers demonstrated in mice that a modified version of the CRISPR system can be used to “turn off” a gene in critical neurons to block the transmission of pain signals [1]. While much more study is needed and the approach is still far from being tested in people, the findings suggest that this new CRISPR-based strategy could form the basis for a whole new way to manage chronic pain.

This novel approach to treating chronic pain occurred to Ana Moreno, the study’s first author, when she was a Ph.D. student in the NIH-supported lab of Prashant Mali, University of California, San Diego. Mali had been studying a wide range of novel gene-and cell-based therapeutics. While reading up on both, Moreno landed on a paper about a mutation in a gene that encodes a pain-enhancing protein in spinal neurons called NaV1.7.

Apr 1, 2021

Dr Shawna Pandya MD — Physician, Scientist, Astronaut Candidate, Aquanaut, Martial Artist, Sky-Diver

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience, singularity, space travel, virtual reality

Dr. Shawna Pandya MD, is a scientist-astronaut candidate with Project PoSSUM, physician, aquanaut, speaker, martial artist, advanced diver, skydiver, and pilot-in-training.

Dr. Pandya is also the VP of Immersive Medicine with the virtual reality healthcare company, Luxsonic Technologies, Director of the International Institute of Astronautical Sciences (IIAS)/PoSSUM Space Medicine Group, Chief Instructor of the IIAS/PoSSUM Operational Space Medicine course, Director of Medical Research at Orbital Assembly Construction (a company building the world’s first rotating space station providing the first artificial gravity habitat), clinical lecturer at the University of Alberta, podcast host with the World Extreme Medicine’s WEMCast series, Primary Investigator (PI) for the Shad Canada-Blue Origin student micro-gravity competition, member of the ASCEND 2021 Guiding Coalition, Life Sciences Team Lead for the Association of Spaceflight Professionals, sesional lecturer for the “Technology and the Future of Medicine,” course at the University of Alberta, and Fellow of the Explorers’ Club.

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