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Jun 1, 2019

Black female physicist pioneers technology that kills cancer cells with lasers

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, education, nanotechnology, neuroscience

Dr. Hadiyah-Nicole Green is one of fewer than 100 black female physicists in the country, and the recent winner of $1.1 million grant to further develop a technology she’s pioneered that uses laser-activated nanoparticles to treat cancer.

Green, who lost her parents young, was raised by her aunt and uncle. While still at school, her aunt died from cancer, and three months later her uncle was diagnosed with cancer, too. Green went on to earn her degree in physics at Alabama A&M University, being crowned Homecoming Queen while she was at it, before going on full scholarship to University of Alabama in Birmingham to earn her Masters and Ph.D. There Green would become the first to work out how to deliver nanoparticles into cancer cells exclusively, so that a laser could be used to remove them, and then successfully carry out her treatment on living animals.

As she takes on her growing responsibilities, Green still makes time to speak at schools, Boys & Girls Clubs and other youth events. “Young black girls don’t see those role models (scientists) as often as they see Beyonce or Nicki Minaj,” says Green. “It’s important to know that our brains are capable of more.”

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Jun 1, 2019

A Frozen Tardigrade Has Been Brought Back to Life After 30 Years

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

A tardigrade that had been frozen solid for more than 30 years has been brought back to life by researchers in Japan, and has gone on to produce 14 healthy babies. That’s record-smashing stuff right there, because before this tough little water bear came back to life, the world record for reviving a frozen tardigrade was nine years.

The researchers also thawed out an egg that was collected and frozen with the tardigrade in 1983, and not only did a healthy baby hatch from it six days later, but it went on to successfully produce offspring of its own.

Just a few months after scientists debated the unprecedented amount of foreign DNA that is or isn’t looped up into the tardigrade genome, and the discovery that they turn into ‘bioglass’ when they desiccate, a team from the National Institute of Polar Research in Japan has managed to bring a frozen Antarctic tardigrade (Acutuncus antarcticus) back to life with its reproductive organs fully intact.

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Jun 1, 2019

The Experiment That Will Probe the Deepest Recesses of the Atom

Posted by in category: particle physics

Where do protons and neutrons get their mass and spin? Surprisingly, we don’t know. A new facility promises to peek inside these particles to find answers.

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Jun 1, 2019

To defend against phages, bacteria take ‘naps’

Posted by in category: biological

Microbes under attack by bacteriophages turn their defenses on their enemies and themselves. It doesn’t kill them, though.

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Jun 1, 2019

Physicists create stable, strongly magnetized plasma jet in laboratory

Posted by in categories: particle physics, space

When you peer into the night sky, much of what you see is plasma, a soupy amalgam of ultra-hot atomic particles. Studying plasma in the stars and various forms in outer space requires a telescope, but scientists can recreate it in the laboratory to examine it more closely.

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Jun 1, 2019

Researchers use magnetically actuated microrobots to deliver stem cells to tissue targets

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

A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in South Korea and one in Switzerland has demonstrated that it is possible to use magnetically actuated microrobots to deliver stem cells to targeted tissue. In their paper published in the journal Science Robotics, the group describes creating the tiny bots and how well they worked when tested.

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Jun 1, 2019

Over the next 20 years, he says, our penchant for making things smarter and smarter will have a profound impact on nearly everything we do

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

. Kelly explores three trends in artificial intelligence we need to understand in order to embrace it and steer its development. “The most popular AI product 20 years from now that everyone uses has not been invented yet,” Kelly says. “That means that you’re not late.”

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Jun 1, 2019

MIT 6.S099: Artificial General Intelligence class takes an engineering approach to exploring possible research paths toward building human-level intelligence

Posted by in categories: engineering, neuroscience, Ray Kurzweil, robotics/AI

. The lectures introduce our current understanding of computational intelligence and ways in which strong AI could possibly be achieved, with insights from deep learning, reinforcement learning, computational neuroscience, robotics, cognitive modeling, psychology, and more.

Lex Fridman

Ray Kurzweil is one of the world’s leading inventors, thinkers, and futurists, with a thirty-year track record of accurate predictions. Called “the restless genius” by The Wall Street Journaland “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes magazine, Kurzweil was selected as one of the top entrepreneurs by Inc. magazine, which described him as the “rightful heir to Thomas Edison.” PBS selected him as one of the “sixteen revolutionaries who made America.”

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Jun 1, 2019

Alex Garland continues to cultivate his reputation as one of the most exciting and challenging voices in modern science fiction cinema

Posted by in categories: entertainment, robotics/AI

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Annihilation is an upcoming science fantasy action horror film written for the screen and directed by Alex Garland based on the novel of the same name by Jeff VanderMeer. The film stars Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, and Oscar Isaac.

Having previously written screenplays for cult classics like 28 Days Later and Dredd, Garland’s Ex Machina is arguably the definitive film about artificial intelligence (and killer robots) of the 21st century. And that was only his directorial debut.

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Jun 1, 2019

The Brave New World of Artificial Intelligence

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Artificial intelligence is a game-changer. It could boost global productivity from 0.8% to 1.4% a year. But with thorny issues like job automation and data privacy, does AI-spurred growth come at a cost?

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