Lifeboat Foundation

So why not ask the neurons what they want to see?

Read: The human remembering machine

That was the idea behind XDREAM, an algorithm dreamed up by a Harvard student named Will Xiao. Sets of those gray, formless images, 40 in all, were shown to watching monkeys, and the algorithm tweaked and shuffled those that provoked the strongest responses in chosen neurons to create a new generation of pics. Xiao had previously trained XDREAM using 1.4 million real-world photos so that it would generate synthetic images with the properties of natural ones. Over 250 such generations, the synthetic images became more and more effective, until they were exciting their target neurons far more intensely than any natural image. “It was exciting to finally let a cell tell us what it’s encoding instead of having to guess,” says Ponce, who is now at Washington University in St. Louis.

Continue reading “AI Evolved These Creepy Images to Please a Monkey’s Brain” »

Powerful gene-editing tools have the potential to heal—or to harm. Now there’s a race to develop the antidote to the next bioweapon.

But right now, humans are still better merch pickers.

LIVERMORE, Calif. — As the demands on computers are rapidly changing to more data-centric tasks — such as image processing, voice recognition or autonomous driving functions — there quickly arises a need for greater computing efficiencies.

Researchers in Australia are on the verge of discovering a universal flu vaccine — one which would be effective against all strains of the virus. When they do, we won’t have to take a new flu shot every year anymore. We’ll just get this one shot, and never more. It’s a finding that is being heralded as an “extraordinary breakthrough.” It could even end the flu and influenza epidemic once and for all.

The Epidemic

Continue reading “Breakthrough Flu Vaccine Could Soon Eradicate The Virus Forever: One-shot Immunity For Life!” »

Blue Origin, the space company of Jeff Bezos, completed a record breaking launch of its New Shepard rocket on Thursday.

Lifting off from Blue Origin’s facility in West Texas, the mission was the first time the company launched and landed one of its rockets five times. Additionally, the rocket sent a company record 38 research and development experiments to the edge of space.

A blog by Jeff Atwood on programming and human factors.

Eric Kilhstrom (Director of Aging Analytics Agency and former Interim Director of the £98 million Healthy Ageing Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund) is interviewed about the agency’s recent “Longevity Industry in Israel Landscape Overview 2019” report.

New report shows that Israel’s academic and business ecosystem is the optimal base for an internationally recognized longevity industry hub.

Continue reading “Israel fast becoming world hub of aging industry” »

Hidden under your feet is an information superhighway that allows plants to communicate and help each other out. It’s made of fungus.