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Dec 25, 2019

Planet Hunter TESS Is Already Spotting Hundreds of Crazy New Worlds

Posted by in category: space

The first data from the space telescope’s mission tallies more than 200 potential planets, including some just 50 light-years away.

Dec 25, 2019

The United States Needs a Strategy for Artificial Intelligence

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Without one, it risks missing out on all the technology’s benefits—and falling behind rivals such as China.

Dec 25, 2019

This Ear Was Made With Vincent Van Gogh’s DNA

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

What secrets have been whispered into this creepy, living copy of the most famous ear in art history?

Dec 25, 2019

The ‘Quantum Computing’ Decade Is Coming—Here’s Why You Should Care

Posted by in categories: computing, encryption, internet, mathematics, quantum physics

The ability to process qubits is what allows a quantum computer to perform functions a binary computer simply cannot, like computations involving 500-digit numbers. To do so quickly and on demand might allow for highly efficient traffic flow. It could also render current encryption keys mere speedbumps for a computer able to replicate them in an instant. #QuantumComputing


Multiply 1,048,589 by 1,048,601, and you’ll get 1,099,551,473,989. Does this blow your mind? It should, maybe! That 13-digit prime number is the largest-ever prime number to be factored by a quantum computer, one of a series of quantum computing-related breakthroughs (or at least claimed breakthroughs) achieved over the last few months of the decade.

An IBM computer factored this very large prime number about two months after Google announced that it had achieved “quantum supremacy”—a clunky term for the claim, disputed by its rivals including IBM as well as others, that Google has a quantum machine that performed some math normal computers simply cannot.

Continue reading “The ‘Quantum Computing’ Decade Is Coming—Here’s Why You Should Care” »

Dec 25, 2019

Aging Is Reversible—at Least in Human Cells and Live Mice

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Study shows changes to gene activity that occur with age can be turned back.

Dec 25, 2019

Study Finds New Key To Longevity — And It’s In The Gut

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Having a healthy gut should always be a priority when dealing with any health-related issues. It’s connected to various problems like IBS, asthma, thyroid disorders, and even diabetes. A new study, however, is giving us another reason to promote gut health—and we’re excited about it.

Using mice, an international research team has discovered a specific microorganism living in the gut that may affect the aging process.

Dec 25, 2019

In leap for quantum computing, silicon quantum bits establish a long-distance relationship

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Imagine a world where people could only talk to their next-door neighbor, and messages must be passed house to house to reach far destinations.

Until now, this has been the situation for the bits of hardware that make up a silicon quantum computer, a type of quantum computer with the potential to be cheaper and more versatile than today’s versions.

Now a team based at Princeton University has overcome this limitation and demonstrated that two quantum-computing components, known as silicon “spin” qubits, can interact even when spaced relatively far apart on a computer chip. The study was published in the journal Nature.

Dec 25, 2019

Astrophysicists Developed a New Theory to Explain ‘Dark Energy’

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics

The fact that our Universe is expanding was discovered almost a hundred years ago, but how exactly this happens, scientists realized only in the 90s of the last century, when powerful telescopes (including orbital ones) appeared and the era of exact cosmo.

International Journal of Modern Physics has published an article by the IKBFU Physics and Mathematics Institute Artyom Astashenok and the Institute’s MA student Alexander Teplyakov. The article refers to the issue of the “Dark Enegry” and an assumption is made that the Universe has borders.

Artyom Astashenok told:

Dec 25, 2019

A molecular map of the brain’s decision-making area

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have come one step closer toward understanding how the part of our brain that is central for decision-making and the development of addiction is organized on a molecular level. In mouse models and with methods used for mapping cell types and brain tissue, the researchers were able to visualize the organization of different opioid-islands in striatum. Their spatiomolecular map, published in the journal Cell Reports, may further our understanding of the brain’s reward-system.

Striatum is the inner part of the brain that among other things regulates rewards, motivation, impulses and motor function. It is considered central to decision-making and the development of various addictions.

In this study, the researchers created a molecular 3D-map of the nerve cells targeted by opioids, such as morphine and heroin, and showed how they are organized in . It is an important step toward understanding how the brain’s network governing motivation and drug addiction is organized. In the study, the researchers described a spatiomolecular code that can be used to divide striatum into different subregions.

Dec 25, 2019

Free of Heavy Metals, New Battery Design Could Alleviate Environmental Concerns

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

Today, IBM Research is building on a long history of materials science innovation to unveil a new battery discovery. This new research could help eliminate the need for heavy metals in battery production and transform the long-term sustainability of many elements of our energy infrastructure.

As battery-powered alternatives for everything from vehicles to smart energy grids are explored, there remain significant concerns around the sustainability of available battery technologies.

Many battery materials, including heavy metals such as nickel and cobalt, pose tremendous environmental and humanitarian risks. Cobalt in particular, which is largely available in central Africa, has come under fire for careless and exploitative extraction practices.1