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Jan 6, 2020

Google and Amazon are now in the oil business

Posted by in categories: business, robotics/AI

Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are teaming up with Big Oil to squeeze more oil and gas out of the ground using machine learning technology.

Sources:
Brian Merchant (Gizmodo) https://gizmodo.com/how-google-microsoft-and-big-tech-are-au…1832790799
Christopher M. Matthews (Wall Street Journal) https://www.wsj.com/articles/silicon-valley-courts-a-wary-oil-patch-1532424600
Matt Novak (Gizmodo) https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/article-from-1975-the-world-…1732903871
Kasia Tokarska
Daniel Civitarese
Ghassan AlRegib — https://ghassanalregib.info/

Continue reading “Google and Amazon are now in the oil business” »

Jan 5, 2020

Nearly 500,000,000 animals have been killed in Australia’s wildfires

Posted by in category: futurism

Experts believe entire species may have been wiped out in the bushfires that have been raging since September.

Jan 5, 2020

Mysterious Respiratory Virus Strikes 44 People in China

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

People have speculated that the viral infection may be a highly contagious disease called SARS.

Jan 5, 2020

New Particle Accelerator Fits on a Silicon Chip

Posted by in categories: computing, particle physics

The device uses lasers to accelerate electrons along an etched channel.

Jan 5, 2020

Israeli treatment could delay deadly effects of ALS – new study

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Specifically, AstroRx is a cell therapy product containing functional healthy astrocytes derived from human embryonic stem cells that aim to protect diseased motor neurons. The cells are injected in the patient through the spinal canal.

The company initiated its first ALS clinical trials in March 2018.

Prof. Michel Revel, founder and CEO of the company and winner of both the EMET Prize and the Israel Prize, said that the clinical trial results “provide the confidence needed to move forward” with cohorts B and C, which he said both “hold the potential for a prolonged response.”

Jan 5, 2020

This Robot’s Journey to an Icy Alien Moon Starts Beneath Antarctica

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space

NASA scientists completed field tests in November of a floating rover they hope will one day travel to Europa, the frozen ocean moon of Jupiter.

Jan 5, 2020

Why Neuro-Symbolic Artificial Intelligence Is The A.I. Of The Future

Posted by in categories: futurism, robotics/AI

At the start of a new decade, one of IBM’s top researchers thinks artificial intelligence needs to change. Welcome to the world of neuro-symbolic A.I., a fresh approach that could keep advances coming for long into the 2020s. Here’s how it works — and why it could be so important.

Jan 5, 2020

SpaceX’s New Starship Prototype Could Fly in Just 3 Months, Elon Musk Says

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space travel

SpaceX’s newly redesigned prototype of its Mars-colonizing Starship craft could get off the ground for the first time just two or three months from now, company founder and CEO Elon Musk said.

SpaceX’s New Starship Prototype Could Fly in Just 3 Months, Elon Musk Says :

Jan 5, 2020

Engrams emerging as the basic unit of memory

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

Experiments in rodents have revealed that engrams exist as multiscale networks of neurons. An experience becomes stored as a potentially retrievable memory in the brain when excited neurons in a brain region such as the hippocampus or amygdala become recruited into a local ensemble. These ensembles combine with others in other regions, such as the cortex, into an “engram complex.” Crucial to this process of linking engram cells is the ability of neurons to forge new circuit connections, via processes known as “synaptic plasticity” and “dendritic spine formation.” Importantly, experiments show that the memory initially stored across an engram complex can be retrieved by its reactivation but may also persist “silently” even when memories cannot be naturally recalled, for instance in mouse models used to study memory disorders such as early stage Alzheimer’s disease.

“More than 100 years ago Semon put forth a law of engraphy,” wrote Josselyn, Senior Scientist at SickKids, Professor of Psychology and Physiology at the University of Toronto and Senior Fellow in the Brain, Mind & Consciousness Program at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, (CIFAR) and Tonegawa, Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at the RIKEN-MIT Laboratory for Neural Circuit Genetics at MIT and Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. “Combining these theoretical ideas with the new tools that allow researchers to image and manipulate engrams at the level of cell ensembles facilitated many important insights into memory function.”

“For instance, evidence indicates that both increased intrinsic excitability and synaptic plasticity work hand in hand to form engrams and that these processes may also be important in memory linking, memory retrieval, and memory consolidation.”

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Jan 5, 2020

Researchers Crack Newton’s Elusive ‘3-Body’ Problem That Has Baffled Scientists for Centuries

Posted by in categories: information science, space

It’s been nearly 350 years since Sir Isaac Newton outlined the laws of motion, claiming “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” These laws laid the foundation to understand our solar system and, more broadly, to understand the relationship between a body of mass and the forces that act upon it. However, Newton’s groundbreaking work also created a pickle that has baffled scientists for centuries: The Three-Body Problem.

After using the laws of motion to describe how planet Earth orbits the sun, Newton assumed that these laws would help us calculate what would happen if a third celestial body, such as the moon, were added to the mix. However, in reality, three-body equations became much more difficult to solve.