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Apr 15, 2019

Cause of cancer is written into DNA of tumours, scientists find, creating a ‘black box’ for origin of disease

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, sustainability

The cause of cancer is written into the DNA of tumours, scientists have discovered, in a breakthrough which could finally show how much disease is attributable to factors like air pollution or pesticides.

Until now the roots of many cancers have proved elusive, with doctors unable to tease out the impact of a myriad of carcinogenic causes which people encounter everyday.

Even with lung cancer, it is not known just how much can be attributed to smoking and how much could be linked to other factors, such as living by a busy road, or inhaling pollutants at work.

Continue reading “Cause of cancer is written into DNA of tumours, scientists find, creating a ‘black box’ for origin of disease” »

Apr 15, 2019

Viruses Have a Secret, Altruistic Social Life

Posted by in category: futurism

Researchers are beginning to understand the ways in which viruses strategically manipulate and cooperate with one another.

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Apr 15, 2019

Even more frightening than military AI: an AI President of the Republic?

Posted by in categories: government, military, robotics/AI, supercomputing

A recent survey by the IE University in Madrid reveals that one in four Europeans would be ready to put an artificial intelligence in power. Should we be concerned for democracy or, on the contrary, welcome Europeans’ confidence in technology?

Europeans ready to elect an AI?

According to the study in question, about one in four out of the 25,000 Europeans surveyed would be prepared to be governed by an AIt worth noting that there are significant variations between countries, because where the European average is around 30%, respondents in the Netherlands are much more open to having a government run by a supercomputer (+ 43%) than in France (+ 25%). “The idea of a pragmatic machine, impervious to fraud and corruption” is one of the reasons that seems most compelling to the interviewees. Added to this are the options that Machine Learning would enable: in fact, the AI described would be able to improve by studying and selecting the best political decisions in the world… It would then be able to make better decisions than existing politicians.

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Apr 15, 2019

Bioethicists Concerned over Japan’s Chimera Embryo Regulations

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, ethics

Many researchers see the move to relax the rules as a welcome change, yet some are worried the revisions don’t take public concerns enough into consideration.


Apr 15, 2019

Israeli scientists ‘print’ world’s first 3D heart with human tissue

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, materials

A team of Tel Aviv University researchers revealed the heart, which was made using a patient’s own cells and biological materials.

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Apr 15, 2019

Israeli Researchers Print 3D Heart Using Patient’s Own Cells

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, materials

Israeli researchers have printed a 3D heart using a patient’s own cells, something they say could be used to patch diseased hearts — and possibly, full transplants.

The heart the Tel Aviv University team printed in about three hours is too small for humans — about 2.5 centimeters, or the size of a rabbit’s heart. But it’s the first to be printed with all blood vessels, ventricles and chambers, using an ink made from the patient’s own biological materials.

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Apr 15, 2019

Too much information? Sure looks like it

Posted by in category: mathematics

Mathematicians have confirmed that humanity’s collective attention span is getting shorter. And it’s not just social media that’s to blame.


Research reveals ‘social acceleration’ occurring across different domains. Samantha Page reports.

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Apr 15, 2019

Travel through wormholes is possible, but slow

Posted by in categories: cosmology, physics, space travel

A Harvard physicist has shown that wormholes can exist: tunnels in curved space-time, connecting two distant places, through which travel is possible.

But don’t pack your bags for a trip to other side of the galaxy yet; although it’s theoretically possible, it’s not useful for humans to through, said the author of the study, Daniel Jafferis, from Harvard University, written in collaboration with Ping Gao, also from Harvard and Aron Wall from Stanford University.

“It takes longer to get through these wormholes than to go directly, so they are not very useful for ,” Jafferis said. He will present his findings at the 2019 American Physical Society April Meeting in Denver.

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Apr 15, 2019

Removing Fuel Rods, Japan Hits Milestone in Fukushima Nuclear Cleanup

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, robotics/AI

The operator of Japan’s ruined Fukushima nuclear power plant began removing radioactive fuel rods on Monday at one of three reactors that melted down after an earthquake and a tsunami in 2011, a major milestone in the long-delayed cleanup effort.

Thousands of former residents have been barred from the area around the plant for years as crews carried out a large-scale radioactive waste cleanup in the aftermath of the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. The process of removing the fuel rods from a storage pool had been delayed since 2014 amid technical mishaps and high radiation levels.

The plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power, said in a statement that workers on Monday morning began removing the first of 566 spent and unspent fuel rods stored in a pool at the plant’s third reactor. A radiation-hardened robot had first located the melted uranium fuel inside the reactor in 2017.

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Apr 14, 2019

One Month, 500,000 Face Scans: How China Is Using A.I. to Profile a Minority

Posted by in categories: government, information science, robotics/AI

In a major ethical leap for the tech world, Chinese start-ups have built algorithms that the government uses to track members of a largely Muslim minority group.

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