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Aug 14, 2019

Amazon’s facial recognition software can now spot fear

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Amazon’s controversial facial recognition technology, called Rekognition, has a new skill. It can now spot fear. The company says it recently launched updates to Rekognition’s facial analysis features, including improved age estimation and the addition of fear to its emotion detection.

“We have improved accuracy for emotion detection (for all 7 emotions: ‘Happy,’ ‘Sad,’ ‘Angry,’ ‘Surprised,’ ‘Disgusted,’ ‘Calm’ and ‘Confused’) and added a new emotion: ‘Fear,’” according to an update from Amazon on Monday. “Lastly, we have improved age range estimation accuracy; you also get narrower age ranges across most age groups.”

Aug 14, 2019

A machine-learning revolution

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

The groundwork for machine learning was laid down in the middle of last century. But increasingly powerful computers – harnessed to algorithms refined over the past decade – are driving an explosion of applications in everything from medical physics to materials, as Marric Stephens discovers.

Aug 14, 2019

Future Bioweapons Could Kill People With Specific DNA

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

In the future, we may have to deal with biological weapons that target specific groups of people, passing over everyone else.

That’s according to a new report out of Cambridge University’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk reviewed by The Telegraph. In it, the Cambridge researchers argue that world governments have failed to prepare for futuristic weapons based on advanced technology like artificial intelligence and genetic manipulation — or even a killer pathogen designed to kill only people of a particular race.

Aug 14, 2019

Light can scatter from light, CERN physicists confirm

Posted by in categories: innovation, physics

Physics World represents a key part of IOP Publishing’s mission to communicate world-class research and innovation to the widest possible audience. The website forms part of the Physics World portfolio, a collection of online, digital and print information services for the global scientific community.

Aug 14, 2019

Methane on Mars Isn’t Being Released

Posted by in category: space

NASA’s Curiosity rover has spotted multiple surges of methane in Mars’ air over the past few years — most recently in June, when levels of the gas inside the Red Planet’s Gale Crater spiked to 21 parts per billion per unit volume (ppbv).

Aug 14, 2019

How a one-time CRISPR shot could obliterate lower back pain

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Today [August 13] the US National Academy of Sciences is hosting the first meeting of the International Commission on the Clinical Use of Human Germline Genome Editing in Washington, to discuss controversial applications of CRISPR to human eggs, sperm, or fertilized ova, in the wake of Chinese researcher He Jiankui announcing the birth of CRISPR twins after a similar meeting in 2017 (See Do China’s controversial CRISPR babies illustrate the need for an undo button?)

Although only one clinical trial is up-and-running for CRISPR to treat body cells, with an initial patient making the media rounds just last week to discuss her cells doctored to counter sickle cell disease, many other applications are in preclinical testing — animal models and human cells and organoids. And they’re not restricted to rare diseases.

Imagine a single injection that quells the inflammation behind lower back pain — perhaps forever. CRISPR may make that possible by dampening the immune system’s cytokine signals, according to a report in the July issue of Human Gene Therapy.

Aug 14, 2019

DARPA Subterranean Challenge: Tunnel Circuit Preview

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

The Tunnel Circuit of the DARPA Subterranean Challenge starts later this week at the NIOSH research mine just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From 15–22 August, 11 teams will send robots into a mine that they’ve never seen before, with the goal of making maps and locating items. All DARPA SubT events involve tunnels of one sort or another, but in this case, the “Tunnel Circuit” refers to mines as opposed to urban underground areas or natural caves. This month’s challenge is the first of three discrete events leading up to a huge final event in August of 2021.

While the Tunnel Circuit competition will be closed to the public, and media are only allowed access for a single day (which we’ll be at, of course), DARPA has provided a substantial amount of information about what teams will be able to expect. We also have details from the SubT Integration Exercise, called STIX, which was a completely closed event that took place back in April. STIX was aimed at giving some teams (and DARPA) a chance to practice in a real tunnel environment.

For more general background on SubT, here are some articles to get you all caught up:

Aug 14, 2019

A Newfound Neuron Might Help Keep the Brain’s Cells in Sync

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience

A long-standing controversy in neuroscience centers on a simple question: How do neurons in the brain share information? Sure, it’s well-known that neurons are wired together by synapses and that when one of them fires, it sends an electrical signal to other neurons connected to it. But that simple model leaves a lot of unanswered questions—for example, where exactly in neurons’ firing is information stored? Resolving these questions could help us understand the physical nature of a thought.

Two theories attempt to explain how neurons encode information: the rate code model and the temporal code model. In the rate code model, the rate at which neurons fire is the key feature. Count the number of spikes in a certain time interval, and that number gives you the information. In the temporal code model, the relative timing between firings matters more—information is stored in the specific pattern of intervals between spikes, vaguely like Morse code. But the temporal code model faces a difficult question: If a gap is “longer” or “shorter,” it has to be longer or shorter relative to something. For the temporal code model to work, the brain needs to have a kind of metronome, a steady beat to allow the gaps between firings to hold meaning.

Every computer has an internal clock to synchronize its activities across different chips. If the temporal code model is right, the brain should have something similar. Some neuroscientists posit that the clock is in the gamma rhythm, a semiregular oscillation of brain waves. But it doesn’t stay consistent. It can speed up or slow down depending on what a person experiences, such as a bright light. Such a fickle clock didn’t seem like the full story for how neurons synchronize their signals, leading to ardent disagreements in the field about whether the gamma rhythm meant anything at all.

Aug 14, 2019

SpaceX’s Starhopper Prototype Is Ready for Its Biggest Hop Test

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, space travel

SpaceX’s silver Starhopper prototype could complete its biggest hop test this weekend, according to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

Starhopper, which is an early prototype for SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft, has completed a couple of tests so far. According to Musk, the Starhopper’s next challenge will be to fly roughly 650 feet off the ground. Musk recently tweeted that the prototype’s next major hop could take place on Aug. 16, Aug. 17, or Aug. 18, as long as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gives SpaceX permission to conduct the test flight.

Just spoke with FAA, so hopefully yes.

Aug 14, 2019

Despite Controversy, Human Studies of CRISPR Move Forward in the U.S.

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

The technology that produced a global scandal in China last year has entered into clinical trials to treat sickle cell anemia and an eye disease.