Last March, Chinese researchers announced an ingenious and potentially devastating attack against one of America’s most prized technological assets—a Tesla electric car.
The team, from the security lab of the Chinese tech giant Tencent, demonstrated several ways to fool the AI algorithms on Tesla’s car. By subtly altering the data fed to the car’s sensors, the researchers were able to bamboozle and bewilder the artificial intelligence that runs the vehicle.
National Eye Institute (NEI) researchers profiling epigenomic changes in light-sensing mouse photoreceptors have a clearer picture of how age-related eye diseases may be linked to age-related changes in the regulation of gene expression. The findings, published online April 21 in Cell Reports, suggest that the epigenome could be targeted as a therapeutic strategy to prevent leading causes of vision loss, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD). NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health.
“Our study elucidates the molecular changes and biological pathways linked with aging of rod photoreceptors, light-sensing cells of the retina. Future investigations can now move forward to study how we can prevent or delay vision loss in aging and hopefully reduce the risk of associated neurodegeneration” said the study’s lead investigator, Anand Swaroop, Ph.D., senior investigator and chief of the NEI Neurobiology, Neurodegeneration, and Repair Laboratory.
Each organism is born with a genome, a library of genes that control all the body’s cellular and tissue functions. Expression of those genes—when information stored in DNA is converted into instructions for making proteins or other molecules—is modulated and maintained by the organism’s epigenome. The epigenome tags the DNA code to modify gene expression in ways that can be favorable and unfavorable for survival.
Circa 2011
The U.S. Air Force is working to produce its next-generation fighter jet, and word has it that the energy around the project is going to be electric. Literally.
It’s called the “F-X” concept (not to be confused with the VFAX/VFX/FX concepts of the 1960s and ’70s) and it’s intended to enter service in 2030.
The fighter is supposed to focus on energy efficiency, which the Air Force believes could allow for new weapons and capabilities, The Diplomat reports. The concept is referred to as the “More-Electric Aircraft,” and while the name doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, the point is to rethink the vehicle much in the same way automakers rethought the car for electric powertrains.
Circa 2018
The ubiquitous particles are helping to map the innards of pyramids and volcanoes, and spot missing nuclear waste.
After ‘reanalyzing’ data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope, scientists have discovered an Earth-size planet, named Kepler-1649c, residing in its star system’s habitable zone. Full Story: https://www.space.com/earth-size-exoplanet-habitable-zone-kepler.html
: Space.com / animation: NASA/Kepler Mission/Dana Berry / Kepler-1649c illustrations: NASA/Ames Research Center/Daniel Rutter / produced & edited by Steve Spaleta (http://www.twitter.com/stevespaleta)
When people say quantum computing is “hot” right now they are most definitely talking metaphorically; today’s leading devices have to operate at close to absolute zero. Now two research groups have demonstrated technology that run s 15 times hotter, which could be a big step towards making the devices affordable and practical.
The reason quantum computers have to be run at such low temperatures is that the quantum states they rely on are incredibly fragile, and the slightest disturbance can cause the information encoded in them to be lost. To prevent this these devices are chilled to near absolute zero, where vibrations and thermal fluctuation are almost non existent.
But reaching these temperature requires incredibly powerful refrigeration technology, and it can easily cost millions of dollars to keep even today’s experimental devices at operating temperatures.
On the eve of his memoir ‘Permanent Record’ being published, NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden talked at length from Moscow with MSNBC’s Brian Williams in an exclusive interview. This is their discussion in its entirety, edited down slightly for clarity.
Aired on 9/17/2019.
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday unveiled a coronavirus ‘heat map’ powered by Facebook data which is aimed at helping track the spread of the disease and plan for reopening society. The first map (pictured) is based on more than two million responses to surveys which asked users in the US to self-report symptoms over a period of 10 days in April.
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon and the University of Pittsburgh today published research showing how they’d solved a frustrating problem for people who use a brain-computer interface (BCI) to control prosthetic devices with their thoughts.
While the research itself is interesting – they created an algorithm that keeps the devices from constantly needing to be re-calibrated to handle the human brain’s fluctuating neuronal activity – the real takeaway here is how close we are to a universal BCI.
BCIs have been around for decades in one form or another, but they’re costly to maintain and difficult to keep working properly. Currently they only make sense for narrow use – specifically, in the case of those who’ve lost limbs. Because they’re already used to using their brain to control an appendage, it’s easier for scientists and researchers to harness those brainwaves to control prosthetic devices.
