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May 28, 2021

Scientists Trace The Intricate Oscillations Our Brains Use to ‘Save’ Memories in Sleep

Posted by in category: neuroscience

There’s already a strong link between sleep and memory, and scientists have just found out more about how that relationship works: there are specific patterns of brain activity that open up windows on our past experiences, fixing them in our long-term memory.

These patterns involve the slow oscillations (SOs) of brain waves that normally accompany sleep, and the sharper sleep spindle bursts of activity that happen during dreamless slumber. It now seems that the precise way these two types of brain activity coordinate with each other makes a big difference in how well we remember something.

Our memories are essentially being reactivated during sleep via these two brain activity patterns, the researchers suggest, making us more likely to remember them. The stronger the reactivation, the more likely we are to be able to recall a memory later on.

May 28, 2021

Researchers find four new malware tools created to exploit Pulse Secure VPN appliances

Posted by in category: cybercrime/malcode

There are now at least 16 malware families designed to compromise Pulse Secure VPN products.

May 28, 2021

Diet and Lifestyle Change Reverses Aging

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

It would be nice if they listed their diet.


Summary: Simple dietary changes and adopting lifestyle alterations, including improved sleep schedules, taking probiotics, and exercising, can reduce signs of biological aging by three years in just eight weeks, a new study reports.

Source: Impact Journals

Continue reading “Diet and Lifestyle Change Reverses Aging” »

May 28, 2021

Episode 52 — The Unexpected Origins of Life’s Genetic Code

Posted by in categories: evolution, genetics, physics

Great new episode with guest Ben K.D. Pearce on how and why our own genetic code was able to form in Earth’s warm little ponds as early as 4.5 billion years ago. Please have a listen.


Guest Ben K.D. Pearce, a Ph.D student in astrophysics and astrobiology at McMaster University in Toronto, and an expert on the origins of life’s building blocks here on Earth. We discuss the idea that all the genetic components from which life emerged were incredibly readily available biogenically very early in Earth’s evolution. As early as 4.5 billion years ago. Pearce is part of a group making great strides in learning how this all may have happened in Earth’s very ancient warm little ponds.

Continue reading “Episode 52 --- The Unexpected Origins of Life’s Genetic Code” »

May 28, 2021

Astronomers discover a key life ingredient in a dark cloud in deep space

Posted by in category: space

The stuff of your cell walls forms in space before stars do — meaning the seeds of life could be abundant.

May 28, 2021

In-Flight Anomaly Sends NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on a Wild Ride – Here’s What Happened

Posted by in category: space

On the 91st Martian day, or sol, of NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter performed its sixth flight. The flight was designed to expand the flight envelope and demonstrate aerial-imaging capabilities by taking stereo images of a region of interest to the west. Ingenuity was commanded to climb to an altitude of 33 feet (10 meters) before translating 492 feet (150 meters) to the southwest at a ground speed of 9 mph (4 meters per second). At that point, it was to translate 49 feet (15 meters) to the south while taking images toward the west, then fly another 164 feet (50 meters) northeast and land.

May 27, 2021

Scientists unravel noise-assisted signal amplification in systems with memory

Posted by in categories: energy, media & arts, physics

Signals can be amplified by an optimum amount of noise, but stochastic resonance is a fragile phenomenon. Researchers at AMOLF were the first to investigate the role of memory for this phenomenon in an oil-filled optical microcavity. The effects of slow non-linearity (i.e. memory) on stochastic resonance were never considered before, but these experiments suggest that stochastic resonance becomes robust to variations in the signal frequency when systems have memory. This has implications in many fields of physics and energy technology. In particular, the scientists numerically show that introducing slow nonlinearity in a mechanical oscillator harvesting energy from noise can increase its efficiency tenfold. They have published their findings in Physical Review Letters on May 27th.

It is not easy to concentrate on a difficult task when two people are having a loud discussion right next to you. However, complete silence is often not the best alternative. Whether it is some soft music, remote traffic or the hum of people chatting in the distance, for many people, an optimum amount of noise enables them to concentrate better. “This is the human equivalent of stochastic ,” says AMOLF group leader Said Rodriguez. “In our scientific labs, stochastic resonance happens in nonlinear systems that are bistable. This means that, for a given input, the output can switch between two possible values. When the input is a periodic signal, the response of a non-linear system can be amplified by an optimum amount of noise using the stochastic resonance condition.”

May 27, 2021

Laser pulses travel faster than light without breaking laws of physics

Posted by in category: physics

Pulses of laser light moving through a jet of plasma can surf a wave to travel faster or slower than the speed of light without breaking the laws of physics.

May 27, 2021

“Gistification” – Memory Details Fade Over Time, With Only the Main Gist Preserved

Posted by in category: futurism

What information is retained in a memory over time, and which parts get lost? These questions have led to many scientific theories over the years, and now a team of researchers at the Universities of Glasgow and Birmingham have been able to provide some answers.

Their new study, which is published today (May 26, 2021) in Nature Communications, demonstrates that our memories become less vibrant and detailed over time, with only the central gist eventually preserved. Moreover, this ‘gistification’ of our memories is boosted when we frequently recall our recent experiences.

The work could have implications in a number of areas, including the nature of memories in post-traumatic stress disorder, the repeated questioning of eye-witness testimonies and even in best practice for exam studying.

May 27, 2021

US Energy Department launches the Perlmutter AI supercomputer

Posted by in categories: mathematics, robotics/AI, supercomputing

The US Department of Energy on Thursday is officially dedicating Perlmutter, a next-generation supercomputer that will deliver nearly four exaflops of AI performance. The system, based at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, is the world’s fastest on the 16-bit and 32-bit mixed-precision math used for AI.

The HPE Cray system is being installed in two phases. Each of Phase 1’s GPU-accelerated nodes has four Nvidia A100 Tensor Core GPUs, for a total of 6159 Nvidia A100 Tensor Core GPUs. Each Phase 1 node also has a single AMD Milan CPU.