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Jun 5, 2020

Faces, Bodies, Spiders, and Radios: How the Brain Represents Visual Objects

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

When Plato set out to define what made a human a human, he settled on two primary characteristics: We do not have feathers, and we are bipedal (walking upright on two legs). Plato’s characterization may not encompass all of what identifies a human, but his reduction of an object to its fundamental characteristics provides an example of a technique known as principal component analysis.

Now, Caltech researchers have combined tools from machine learning and neuroscience to discover that the brain uses a mathematical system to organize visual objects according to their principal components. The work shows that the brain contains a two-dimensional map of cells representing different objects. The location of each cell in this map is determined by the principal components (or features) of its preferred objects; for example, cells that respond to round, curvy objects like faces and apples are grouped together, while cells that respond to spiky objects like helicopters or chairs form another group.

The research was conducted in the laboratory of Doris Tsao (BS ‘96), professor of biology, director of the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Center for Systems Neuroscience and holder of its leadership chair, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. A paper describing the study appears in the journal Nature on June 3.

Jun 5, 2020

AI Controlled Quantum Error Correction System Capable of Learning

Posted by in categories: quantum physics, robotics/AI

Learning quantum error correction: the image visualizes the activity of artificial neurons in the Erlangen researchers’ neural network while it is solving its task. © Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light.

Neural networks enable learning of error correction strategies for computers based on quantum physics

Quantum computers could solve complex tasks that are beyond the capabilities of conventional computers. However, the quantum states are extremely sensitive to constant interference from their environment. The plan is to combat this using active protection based on quantum error correction. Florian Marquardt, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light, and his team have now presented a quantum error correction system that is capable of learning thanks to artificial intelligence.

Jun 5, 2020

Why Sleep Deprivation Kills

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Going without sleep for too long kills animals but scientists haven’t known why. Newly published work suggests that the answer lies in an unexpected part of the body.

Jun 5, 2020

This startup is using AI to give workers a “productivity score”

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

In the last few months, millions of people around the world stopped going into offices and started doing their jobs from home. These workers may be out of sight of managers, but they are not out of mind. The upheaval has been accompanied by a reported spike in the use of surveillance software that lets employers track what their employees are doing and how long they spend doing it.

Companies have asked remote workers to install a whole range of such tools. Hubstaff is software that records users’ keyboard strokes, mouse movements, and the websites that they visit. Time Doctor goes further, taking videos of users’ screens. It can also take a picture via webcam every 10 minutes to check that employees are at their computer. And Isaak, a tool made by UK firm Status Today, monitors interactions between employees to identify who collaborates more, combining this data with information from personnel files to identify individuals who are “change-makers.”

Jun 5, 2020

Discovery unlocks ‘hot’ electrons for more efficient energy use

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

Highly energetic, “hot” electrons have the potential to help solar panels more efficiently harvest light energy.

But scientists haven’t been able to measure the energies of those electrons, limiting their use. Researchers at Purdue University and the University of Michigan built a way to analyze those energies.

“There have been many theoretical models of hot electrons but no direct experiments or measurements of what they look like,” said Vladimir “Vlad” Shalaev (shal-AYV), Purdue University’s Bob and Anne Burnett Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, who led the Purdue team in this collaborative work.

Jun 5, 2020

The ‘mole’ on Mars is finally underground after a push from NASA’s InSight lander

Posted by in category: space

The mole instrument on NASA’s Mars InSight lander has made some progress burrowing into the Red Planet.

Jun 5, 2020

How Australia could harness its tides for energy

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability

Although tidal energy is still in its infancy, it could help to reduce Australia’s dependence on fossil fuels.

“The majority of the energy in the national grid is from coal,” explained Jenny Hayward, a research scientist at Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO. “We also have wind and solar PV [photovoltaic].”

Jun 5, 2020

T cell immunity in the elderly

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

A study by Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) expands the understanding of the molecular pathways that control T cell function and survival and how it relates to declining T cell immunity in the elderly.

The findings, published in Nature Communications, led by Monash BDI’s Professor Nicole La Gruta and Dr. Kylie Quinn (formerly of Monash University BDI, now Vice-Chancellor’s Research Fellow at RMIT University), outline that the of T cells observed with advanced age was an indication that they were working harder merely to survive.

This contradicts previous knowledge, which suggested an increased metabolism was indicative of T cell function, and will have implications for the development of targeted interventions such as vaccines or immunotherapies to treat age-related immune dysfunction.

Jun 5, 2020

Metasurface design methods can make LED light act more like lasers

Posted by in category: virtual reality

UC Santa Barbara researchers continue to push the boundaries of LED design a little further with a new method that could pave the way toward more efficient and versatile LED display and lighting technology.

In a paper published in Nature Photonics, UCSB electrical and computer engineering professor Jonathan Schuller and collaborators describe this new approach, which could allow a wide variety of LED devices—from to automotive lighting—to become more sophisticated and sleeker at the same time.

“What we showed is a new kind of photonic architecture that not only allows you to extract more photons, but also to direct them where you want,” said Schuller. This improved performance, he explained, is achieved without the external packaging components that are often used to manipulate the emitted by LEDs.

Jun 5, 2020

Air Force Pilots Are About to Do Battle With Autonomous Drones

Posted by in categories: drones, military, robotics/AI, satellites

Changing Course

The Air Force announced an AI initiative called “Skyborg” last March with the goal of flying fighter jets without anyone at the controls. Now, Shanahan says that the Air Force may be more interested in swarm drones and other uses for AI than necessarily taking the pilot out of a fighter plane’s cockpit.

“Maybe I shouldn’t be thinking about a 65ft-wingspan, maybe it is a small autonomous swarming capability,” Shanahan told BBC News. “The last thing I would claim is that carriers and fighters and satellites are going away in the next couple of years.”