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Jun 22, 2019

Florida town pays $600,000 virus ransom

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing

Computers for Riviera Beach have been locked up for more than three weeks following the attack.

Jun 22, 2019

Artificial intelligence learns to recognize nerve cells

Posted by in categories: mapping, robotics/AI

Is it possible to understand the brain? Science is still far from answering this question. However, since researchers have started training artificial intelligence on neurobiological analyses, it seems at least possible to reconstruct the cellular structure of a brain. New artificial neural networks developed by the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology and Google AI can now even recognize and classify nerve cells independently based on their appearance.

The human brain consists of about 86 billion and about as many . In addition, there are about 100 trillion connections between the nerve cells alone. While mapping all the connections of a human brain remains out of reach, scientists have started to address the problem on a smaller scale. Through the development of serial block-face scanning , all cells and connections of a particular brain area can now be automatically surveyed and displayed in a three-dimensional image.

“It can take several months to survey a 0.3 mm piece of brain under an electron microscope,” says Philipp Schubert, doctoral student in Winfried Denk’s Department at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology. “Depending on the size of the brain, this seems like a lot of time for a tiny piece. But even this contains thousands of cells.” Such a data set would also require almost 100 terabytes of storage space. However, it is not the collection and storage but rather the that is the difficult part.

Jun 22, 2019

Forget Moore’s Law — Quantum Computers Are Improving According to a Spooky ‘Doubly Exponential Rate’

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

They’re getting really good, really, really fast.

Jun 22, 2019

Restoring the Body’s Normal Function

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering

Scientists are engineering T-cell to fight diseases and restore the body’s immune function. (Credit: Sensu Film)

Jun 22, 2019

Beagles and other scent hounds could be used to help in early detection of lung cancers, study finds

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

A recent study suggests that dogs with a strong sense of smell could help detect certain lung cancers early.

Jun 22, 2019

Beautiful, solar-powered EV charging stations promise to charge a vehicle in 15 minutes

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability, transportation

See what are possibly the most beautiful and sustainable electric vehicle charging stations in the world — complete with green roofs and solar power.

Jun 22, 2019

NASA Rover on Mars Detects Puff of Gas That Hints at Possibility of Life

Posted by in category: space

The Curiosity mission’s scientists picked up the signal this week, and are seeking additional readings from the red planet.

Jun 22, 2019

A Russian Biologist Wants To Create More Gene-Edited Babies

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, health

Russian Biologist Seeks To Edit Genes Of Human Embryos With CRISPR : Shots — Health News A Moscow scientist claims he has a safe way of editing genes in human embryos — a method that could protect resulting babies from being infected with HIV. Approval of the experiment seems unlikely.

Jun 22, 2019

Automatic Quantum Computer Programming: A Genetic Programming Approach

Posted by in categories: computing, genetics, quantum physics

Provides an introduction to quantum computing for non-physicists, as well as an introduction to genetic programming for non-computer-scientists. The book explores several ways in which genetic programming can support automatic quantum computer programming and presents detailed descriptions of specific techniques, along with several examples of their human-competitive performance on specific problems. Source code for the author’s QGAME quantum computer simulator is included as an appendix, and pointers to additional online resources furnish the reader with an array of tools for automatic quantum computer programming.

Jun 22, 2019

Meet the Companies Trying to Put Humans Back on the Moon

Posted by in category: space travel

NASA wants to put humans back on the Moon’s surface by 2024. Now these companies are scrambling to design spacecraft no engineer has built in 50 years.