Lifeboat Foundation

“No organisms are more important to life as we know it than algae. In Slime, Ruth Kassinger gives this under-appreciated group its due. The result is engaging, occasionally icky, and deeply informative.”

—Elizabeth Kolbert, New York Times-bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize-winner The Sixth Extinction

“A book full of delights and surprises. Algae are the hidden rulers of our world, giving us oxygen, food, and energy. This is a beautiful evocation of the many ways that our past and future are entangled in their emerald strands.”

The code used below is on GitHub.

In this project, we’ll be solving a problem familiar to any physics undergrad — using the Schrödinger equation to find the quantum ground state of a particle in a 1-dimensional box with a potential. However, we’re going to tackle this old standby with a new method: deep learning. Specifically, we’ll use the TensorFlow package to set up a neural network and then train it on random potential functions and their numerically calculated solutions.

Why reinvent the wheel (ground state)? Sure, it’s fun to see a new tool added to the physics problem-solving toolkit, and I needed the practice with TensorFlow. But there’s a far more compelling answer. We know basically everything there is to know about this topic already. The neural network, however, doesn’t know any physics. Crudely speaking, it just finds patterns. Suppose we examine the relative strength of connections between input neurons and output. The structure therein could give us some insight into how the universe “thinks” about this problem. Later, we can apply deep learning to a physics problem where the underlying theory is unknown. By looking at the innards of that neural network, we might learn something new about fundamental physical principles that would otherwise remain obscured from our view. Therein lies the true power of this approach: peering into the mind of the universe itself.

But no, it’s not as smart as a high school student.

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Classical computers struggle to crack modern encryption. But quantum computers using Shor’s Algorithm make short work of RSA cryptography. Find out how.

Recent genome-wide association studies have catapulted the search for genes underlying human intelligence into a new era. Genome-wide polygenic scores promise to transform research on individual differences in intelligence, but not without societal and ethical implications, as the authors discuss in this Review.

Are humans born with “intelligence” genes, or is human intelligence determined by environmental factors, such as economic status or easy access to education?

When a team of researchers set out to answer this question, they discovered that more than 500 genes were associated with intelligence. The results, published in Nature Genetics, indicate that intelligence is much more complex than previously thought.

Continue reading “More than 500 Intelligence Genes Discovered” »

Cryotechnology has been used in treating lung cancer for many years, now it is emerging to have a new indication in diagnosing lung diseases. Cryoprobe transbronchial lung biopsy has been introduced into clinical practice as a new technique, providing a larger biopsy specimen, potentially improving the diagnostic yield of transbronchial biopsies in parenchymal lung diseases. Although recent small pilot studies suggest that cryotransbronchial lung biopsies are comparable to conventional transbronchial biopsies in terms of diagnostic yield and safety profile in lung transplant patients, cryoprobe transbronchial lung biopsy is still being evaluated and its role in clinical practice is not well defined. Cryotherapy has been proven as a safe and effective method to debulk endobronchial lesions, providing palliation for advanced central obstructive tumors. Its use and efficacy is also studied in direct cryosurgery and percutaneous application in lung cancer. Cryoprobes can also be used to extract foreign bodies from the airways by causing cryoadhesion. We aim to summarize the therapeutic and diagnostic application of cryotechnology in pulmonary diseases.

In a country where women are seen first and foremost as wives and mothers, Kyrgyzstan’s all-female space agency defies expectations. Aged between 18 and 24, the eight-woman team are building a one-kilo satellite that will be the country’s first foray into the cosmos as an independent state. Based in Bishkek, they told The Calvert Journal what this project means for them— and thousands of girls like them.

Ischemic stroke is a condition in which parts of the brain lose their blood supply, causing nerve damage. Once brain tissue suffers irreparable harm, the patient will experience irreversible disability or death, depending on the extent of neuronal loss. However, glial cells surrounding the neurons are activated by the injury and multiply. Now, scientists have found out how to insert genes into glial cells to convert them into neurons, thus filling in for some of the lost functioning cells to improve motor functions.

There are about 86 billion neurons in the brain, but billions of them can be lost with one moderate-sized stroke. About 800,000 new strokes occur each year in the US alone. The need is to regenerate new brain cells to replace the ones that die, at least partially. This is the only known way to restore motor functions that have been impaired or destroyed by a stroke or other brain injury.