China has just launched the world’s first autonomous flying taxis, cutting a 1-hour drive down to just 7 minutes!
These eVTOL (electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) aircraft feature 16 propellers and carry two passengers up to 30–40 km. They offer a thrilling glimpse into the future of urban transport. Each pilot-free flight is safely monitored from a high-tech command center.
What do you think about this? ☝️
Accumulation of senescent cells drives aging and age-related diseases. Senolytics, which selectively kill senescent cells, offer a promising approach for treating many age-related diseases. Using a senescent cell-based phenotypic drug discovery approach that combines drug screening and drug design, we developed two novel flavonoid senolytics, SR29384 and SR31133, derived from the senolytic fisetin. These compounds demonstrated enhanced senolytic activities, effectively eliminating multiple senescent cell types, reducing tissue senescence in vivo, and extending healthspan in a mouse model of accelerated aging. Mechanistic studies utilizing RNA-Seq, machine learning, network pharmacology, and computational simulation suggest that these novel flavonoid senolytics target PARP1, BCL-xL, and CDK2 to induce selective senescent cell death. This phenotype-based discovery of novel flavonoid senolytics, coupled with mechanistic insights, represents a key advancement in developing next-generation senolyticss with potential clinical applications in treating aging and age-related diseases.
LJN and PDR are cofounders of Itasca Therapeutics, developing senotherapeutics for aging and age-related diseases. LJZ, LJN, PDR and the University of Minnesota have filed a provisional patent on the application of flavonoid analogs, including SR29384 and SR31133, as a strategy to treat age-related diseases.
Joscha Bach, a prominent cognitive scientist and AI researcher, explores the essence of artificial intelligence and consciousness. Bach elaborates on the history and philosophical underpinnings of AI, tracing its roots from Aristotle to contemporary deep learning. He discusses the current challenges and limitations in machine learning, particularly in achieving human-like understanding and consciousness.
Bach raises critical questions about the alignment of AI with human values and the feasibility of building systems smarter and more ethical than humans. He delves into the nature of consciousness, proposing that it is not merely a computational process but a fundamental aspect of how minds perceive and interact with the world. Bach also addresses the potential and risks of advanced AI, emphasizing the need for ethical considerations and a deeper understanding of consciousness to guide future developments.
Created by Protocol Labs and co-curated by Foresight Institute, LabWeek Field Building gathered leading individuals and teams from frontier science to drive progress. The weeklong conference took place at Edge Esmeralda, a pop-up event city in Healdsburg, CA, from June 10–16, 2024. For more info on LabWeek Field Building, go to https://www.labweek.io/24-fb.
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The 3 Body Problem Explored: Cosmic Sociology, Longtermism & Existential Risk — round table discussion with three great minds: Robin Hanson, Anders Sandberg and Joscha Bach — moderated by Adam Ford (SciFuture) and James Hughes (IEET).
Some of the items discussed:
- How can narratives that keep people engaged avoid falling short of being realistic?
- In what ways is AI superintelligence kept of stage to allow a narrative that is familiar and easier to make sense of?
- Differences in moral perspectives — moral realism, existentialism and anti-realism.
- Will values of advanced civilisations converge to a small number of possibilities, or will they vary greatly?
- How much will competition be the dominant dynamic in the future, compared to co-ordination?
- In a competitive dynamic, will defense or offense be the most dominant strategy?
Many thanks for tuning in!
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Joscha Bach is a German artificial intelligence researcher and cognitive scientist who works on on cognitive architectures, mental representation, emotion, social modeling, and multi-agent systems. We got connected over the hard problem of consciousness — namely, why do people seem to think it’s so hard? During our conversation we deal with the foundational questions of the technological future being built in Silicon Valley, the fever dream of machine intelligence, and try to understand why people seem to think that there’s even such a thing as the hard problem of consciousness in the first place.
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A new quantum error correction method developed by a University of Sheffield researcher aims to make quantum measurements more reliable.
A newly discovered protein naturally houses an unusual binding site that can differentiate between rare earth elements, and researchers at Penn State have made it even better. Rare earth elements are key components used in everything from modern tech to gasoline production. The protein, called LanD, enriches neodymium and praseodymium over other similar rare earth elements (REEs) and has the potential to revolutionize industrial mining, researchers said.
Prof. Leslie Leiserowitz first became intrigued by malaria when he was a young boy in South Africa. His father, who scouted the continent in search of wood for the family business, brought back not only tales of elephants and gorillas but also skin rashes and ringing in his ears, side effects of the quinine he took to prevent malaria.
Newly emerging Chinese electric truck maker Windrose has claimed an Australian record for a public fast charge of more than 500 kilowatt hours as it topped up its massive batteries on its flagship heavy electric truck on a drive from Melbourne to Sydney.
The Windrose electric truck features a 729 kWh battery, and at a brief glance appears to be a Tesla Semi look-alike, with streamlined features and a driver’s seat placed in the middle of the cabin. The company claims a range of more than 670 kms, fully loaded to 49 tonnes, and hopes to enter commercial production next year.
The truck made an appearance at the All Energy show in Melbourne last week, before being taken around to show its wares to some major Australian logistics companies,. It then made the trip up the Hume Highway to Sydney on Sunday for another series of demonstrations.
