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Aug 18, 2020

Coming this week to Cosmic Controversy!

Posted by in category: alien life

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.

Aug 18, 2020

How we’ll become cyborgs and extend human potential | Hugh Herr

Posted by in categories: business, cyborgs, transhumanism

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” »

Aug 18, 2020

Future mental health care may include diagnosis via brain scan and computer algorithm

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, information science, neuroscience, robotics/AI

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.

Aug 18, 2020

Survey finds science fiction one of many factors impacting views of AI technology

Posted by in categories: futurism, robotics/AI

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.

Aug 18, 2020

7th Asian giant hornet caught in Whatcom County as researchers search for nest

Posted by in category: futurism

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.

Aug 18, 2020

California’s first plague case in 5 years is confirmed in South Lake Tahoe

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

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.

Aug 18, 2020

Chinese Stealth Fighters Head West To Confront India

Posted by in categories: military, robotics/AI

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.

Aug 18, 2020

Physicist predicts the ‘mindboggling’ number of years before the universe ends

Posted by in category: cosmology

The universe may never end if we refuel it.


Tick-Tock. The universe’s perpetual clock keeps on clicking off the seconds, even in peculiar times such as these, when work weeks seem to fly past like hours and months are a silent blur.

But just to put things into proper perspective for how insignificant our strictly-defined daily blocks of time truly are, one inquisitive scientist has devised a formula to predict just when cosmic existence will finally come to a screeching halt and the final supernova erupts.

Continue reading “Physicist predicts the ‘mindboggling’ number of years before the universe ends” »

Aug 18, 2020

NASA confirms that the dent in Earth’s protective shield is splitting into two as it gets bigger

Posted by in category: space

The weak spot in Earth’s magnetic field, the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA), is splitting into two and getting wider, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Aug 18, 2020

Using a public restroom? Mask up!

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing

Think you don’t need to worry about COVID-19 while using a public restroom? A group of researchers from Yangzhou University in China recently reported that flushing public restroom toilets can release clouds of virus-laden aerosols for you to potentially inhale.

If that’s not cringeworthy enough, after running additional computer simulations, they’ve concluded that flushing urinals does likewise. In Physics of Fluids, the group shares its work simulating and tracking virus-laden particle movements when urinals are flushed.

The researchers’ work clearly shows public restrooms can be dangerous places for potentially becoming infected from a virus, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other work has shown that both feces- and urine-based virus transmission is possible.