Lifeboat Foundation

#29 in our top science stories of 2019.

Shortly after transitioning from sea to land, our egg-laying ancestors may have started parenting their young.

Navigating Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is a challenge. Just getting close is hard enough — it’s hundreds of millions of miles away, after all. But let’s suppose either a robot or a human lands on the surface of the only other body in the Solar System known to have liquid on its surface. They’d need a map — and fortunately, NASA has one ready to go should the occasion ever arise.

In November 2019, scientists made the first ever map detailing the moon’s complicated — and terrifying — terrain. It reveals a moon filled with weird and wonderful geography, including dunes, liquid methane lakes, plains, labyrinthine canyons, and craters.

This is #10 on Inverse’s 20 wildest space discoveries of 2019.

It’s 2050, and you’ve just arrived on Mars. Your first meal awaits: a plate of spaghetti marinara made from fresh vine-ripened tomatoes. Tough to imagine, right?

The idea that astronauts might enjoy the fresh, cherry-red fruits has seemed borderline absurd. Tomato plants, with their sprawling vines and bulbous fruits, take up space—valuable space. And they’re extremely finicky.

But now, scientists have developed a way to genetically modify cherry tomatoes so they grow in tighter bunches and take up less space. This could be a game changer as the push to grow vertical, rooftop gardens increases and as humanity stretches out past low-Earth orbit toward the moon, and eventually, Mars.

Dozens of astronomers from around the world including experts from the USA and Australia have taken to Twitter to discuss the phenomenon and whether it means an explosion is imminent.

“The Artificial Intelligence Contagion” is book and blog which compares A.I. and Robotics researchers to “the worst criminals the world has ever known”. This is my rebuttal to the author’s promotional material he circulated to 86 law professors and A.I. scientists.

A week ago I received an email from David Barnhizer, the author of a new book entitled “The Artificial intelligence contagion” addressed to 86 law professors, attorneys, and A.I. Researchers. I’ve began reading and found the book’s blog and a book review which says that “Those responsible for [artificial intelligence and robotics] are the worst criminals the world has ever known”. This sentiment is repeated throughout the writings, claiming to reflect growing animosity towards the artificial intelligence community.

For this reason, this piece is NOT a review of the book, which I did not read for reasons made obvious further below, for I do not wish to draw any attention to it. But I take exception to comparing me and my fellow scientists and researchers in artificial intelligence to genocidal dictators and war criminals. And Luddite Activism is a real danger.

Continue reading “Not a review of ‘The Artificial Intelligence Contagion’​” »

We believe that reality is exactly what we perceive but really, this is just an illusion of our own brain. This happens because our brain takes shortcuts to interpret information and adapt to our surroundings: heuristics on which the brain relies to understand the reality perceived, but… can we always trust our brain when it utilizes these resources?

Cracks are emerging in the outer space honor system.

We’re already starting to treat the cosmos the way we treat the Earth.

Research led by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has uncovered a new process that may help explain how Type 2 diabetes develops. In tests on live mice and human cells in the lab, the team found a new mechanism besides insulin resistance and high glucose levels that triggers pancreatic cells to begin overproducing insulin.

Type 2 diabetes is the form of the disease that’s usually a result of lifestyle choices, such as poor diet and not enough exercise. It involves a kind of vicious cycle of insulin – beta cells in the pancreas produce too much insulin, which causes the body to become resistant to it. That in turn means the beta cells could produce even more to compensate.

It was long thought that high glucose levels – most commonly caused by eating too much sugary and fatty foods – was the trigger for the beta cells to begin overproducing insulin. But it’s also been shown in the past that even beta cells isolated in a lab dish can over-secrete insulin, without glucose playing a part.