Lifeboat Foundation

Billions of years from now, Earth’s night sky will change as the Andromeda galaxy rushes toward a merger with the Milky Way.

Combing through historical seismic data, researchers using a machine learning model have unearthed distinct statistical features marking the formative stage of slow-slip ruptures in the earth’s crust months before tremor or GPS data detected a slip in the tectonic plates. Given the similarity between slow-slip events and classic earthquakes, these distinct signatures may help geophysicists understand the timing of the devastating faster quakes as well.

“The machine learning model found that, close to the end of the slow slip cycle, a snapshot of the data is imprinted with fundamental information regarding the upcoming failure of the system,” said Claudia Hulbert, a computational geophysicist at ENS and the Los Alamos National Laboratory and lead author of the study, published today in Nature Communications. “Our results suggest that slow-slip rupture may well be predictable, and because slow slip events have a lot in common with earthquakes, slow-slip events may provide an easier way to study the fundamental physics of earth rupture.”

Slow-slip events are earthquakes that gently rattle the ground for days, months, or even years, do not radiate large-amplitude seismic waves, and often go unnoticed by the average person. The classic quakes most people are familiar with rupture the ground in minutes. In a given area they also happen less frequently, making the bigger quakes harder to study with the data-hungry machine learning techniques.

Pleased to welcome author and NPR commentator Adam Frank, a professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Rochester in upstate New York. He is author of the 2018 WW Norton title “Light of the Stars: Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth.” Frank and colleagues just recently received a NASA grant to hunt for the signatures of advanced alien technology within our galaxy. Stay tuned.

Humans will soon have new bodies that forever blur the line between the natural and synthetic worlds, says bionics designer Hugh Herr. In an unforgettable talk, he details “NeuroEmbodied Design,” a methodology for creating cyborg function that he’s developing at the MIT Media Lab, and shows us a future where we’ve augmented our bodies in a way that will redefine human potential — and, maybe, turn us into superheroes. “During the twilight years of this century, I believe humans will be unrecognizable in morphology and dynamics from what we are today,” Herr says. “Humanity will take flight and soar.”

Check out more TED Talks: http://www.ted.com

Continue reading “How we’ll become cyborgs and extend human potential | Hugh Herr” »

Newswise — Most of modern medicine has physical tests or objective techniques to define much of what ails us. Yet, there is currently no blood or genetic test, or impartial procedure that can definitively diagnose a mental illness, and certainly none to distinguish between different psychiatric disorders with similar symptoms. Experts at the University of Tokyo are combining machine learning with brain imaging tools to redefine the standard for diagnosing mental illnesses.

“Psychiatrists, including me, often talk about symptoms and behaviors with patients and their teachers, friends and parents. We only meet patients in the hospital or clinic, not out in their daily lives. We have to make medical conclusions using subjective, secondhand information,” explained Dr. Shinsuke Koike, M.D., Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of Tokyo and a senior author of the study recently published in Translational Psychiatry.

“Frankly, we need objective measures,” said Koike.

For decades, Hollywood has made millions off of our fears that artificial intelligences such as HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey and Skynet in The Terminator could one day control us or even wipe out humanity.

O,…o!

The first male Asian giant hornet to be detected in the U.S. was caught near Custer. Now researchers are searching for the nest.

Health officials have confirmed a case of plague at South Lake Tahoe — the first in California in five years.

El Dorado County officials said Monday that the California Department of Public Health had notified them of the positive test of a resident who is under medical care while recovering at home.

Plague bacteria are most often transmitted by fleas that have acquired it from infected squirrels, chipmunks and other wild rodents. Dogs and cats may also carry plague-infected fleas.

Two Chinese air force J-20 stealth fighters have appeared at an air base in China’s far west as the mountain stand-off between India and Chine enters its fourth month.

The twin-engine J-20s are visible in commercial satellite imagery of Hotan air base, in the Uighur autonomous region of Xinjiang. Chinese social-media users first spotted the planes.

The J-20 deployment, however temporary, signals Beijing’s resolve as China wrestles with India for influence over a disputed region of the Himalayas. But a pair of warplanes, no matter how sophisticated, don’t represent much actual combat power.