Menu

Blog

Page 9188

Mar 19, 2019

A Real World ‘Star Trek’ Replicator Is Now Possible Thanks To New Breakthrough

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, energy, nanotechnology

A startup with alumni from MIT and Yale says it’s made a breakthrough in creating a next-generation material that should make it possible to 3D print literally anything out of thin air.

New York-based Mattershift has managed to create large-scale carbon nanotube (CNT) membranes that are able to combine and separate individual molecules.

“This technology gives us a level of control over the material world that we’ve never had before,” said Mattershift Founder and CEO Dr. Rob McGinnis in a release. “For example, right now we’re working to remove CO2 from the air and turn it into fuels. This has already been done using conventional technology, but it’s been too expensive to be practical. Using our tech, I think we’ll be able to produce carbon-zero gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels that are cheaper than fossil fuels.”

Continue reading “A Real World ‘Star Trek’ Replicator Is Now Possible Thanks To New Breakthrough” »

Mar 19, 2019

Politician who opposed mandatory chickenpox vaccine has been hospitalized after getting chickenpox

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

The Onion is well known for biting satire. This is NOT The Onion.


Massimiliano Fedriga, a member of Italy’s far-right League party, is dead-set against the country’s mandatory vaccination laws. Guess who contracted chickenpox and had to spend four days in the hospital?

Read more

Mar 19, 2019

What makes evolution go backwards?

Posted by in categories: evolution, food

Instead, new research by McMaster behavioural scientists shows that in certain cases evolution works in the opposite direction, reversing individual improvements to benefit related members of the same group.

The research appears in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, where lead author David Fisher shows that the increased evolution of selfless traits — such as sharing food and keeping watch for one another — is mathematically equivalent to the decreased evolution of individually beneficial traits.

“They’re two sides of the same coin,” Fisher explains. “On one side, traits evolve that benefit your kin, but don’t benefit you, because you’re helping your siblings or cousins. On the other side, traits that benefit you but cost your neighbours don’t evolve, because you’re causing damage to related individuals.”

Read more

Mar 19, 2019

Correcting the scientific record on gender incongruence: The PLOS ONE blog

Posted by in category: futurism

I’ve posted or commented several times about relying on what I call single-study-science. The tendency to see some awesome scientific report and base one’s entire position on that one paper. This can be a problem in all areas of science.


A few months ago, PLOS ONE published a study of parental reports on gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults, which was the subject of strong criticism and debate shortly after publication (see example here or here). We also received a large volume of personal communication, which I have personally reviewed. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to contact us with their assessment of this study.

Read more

Mar 19, 2019

Tool Discovered in 15th-Century Shipwreck Makes the Guinness Book of Records

Posted by in category: futurism

“I have conducted numerous shipwreck projects around the world, many in depths greater than 4,000 and 5,000 meters,” Mearns says. “But I have never worked harder and had such fun as I did diving with our British and Omani team every day on this rewarding project.”

“You can only dream about finding such a rare and precious artifact as an astrolabe, but then to find such a historically important one in relatively good condition was a huge bonus.”

Read more

Mar 19, 2019

Marcelo Gleiser Wins Templeton Prize For Quest To Confront ‘Mystery Of Who We Are’

Posted by in category: futurism

Templeton Prize Awarded To Marcelo Gleiser, Who Tackles ‘Mystery Of Who We Are The prestigious award comes with nearly $1.5 million in winnings. The physicist, who teaches at Dartmouth and has written for NPR, says he’s driven by the “many questions we still have no clue about.”

Read more

Mar 19, 2019

Karen Uhlenbeck Is First Woman to Win Abel Prize for Mathematics

Posted by in categories: mathematics, particle physics, quantum physics

For the first time, one of the top prizes in mathematics has been given to a woman.

On Tuesday, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced it has awarded this year’s Abel Prize — an award modeled on the Nobel Prizes — to Karen Uhlenbeck, an emeritus professor at the University of Texas at Austin. The award cites “the fundamental impact of her work on analysis, geometry and mathematical physics.”

One of Dr. Uhlenbeck’s advances in essence described the complex shapes of soap films not in a bubble bath but in abstract, high-dimensional curved spaces. In later work, she helped put a rigorous mathematical underpinning to techniques widely used by physicists in quantum field theory to describe fundamental interactions between particles and forces.

Continue reading “Karen Uhlenbeck Is First Woman to Win Abel Prize for Mathematics” »

Mar 19, 2019

ResTORbio Announces Phase 3 Human Trials

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Last year, resTORbio announced the positive results of its phase 2b human trial, which targeted the aging immune system with an immune system-boosting drug. Now, the company has announced the news that its therapy is moving to a phase 3 study later this year after successful negotiation with the FDA.

Targeting the mTOR pathway of aging

ResTORbio is a biopharmaceutical company that is developing therapies that directly target the aging processes in order to prevent or cure age-related diseases. Its primary candidate drug is RTB101, which targets part of the mTOR pathway, one of the pathways involved in aging.

Read more

Mar 19, 2019

The implausibility of intelligence explosion

Posted by in categories: business, climatology, existential risks, robotics/AI, sustainability

In 1965, I. J. Good described for the first time the notion of “intelligence explosion”, as it relates to artificial intelligence (AI):

Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an “intelligence explosion,” and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control.

Decades later, the concept of an “intelligence explosion” — leading to the sudden rise of “superintelligence” and the accidental end of the human race — has taken hold in the AI community. Famous business leaders are casting it as a major risk, greater than nuclear war or climate change. Average graduate students in machine learning are endorsing it. In a 2015 email survey targeting AI researchers, 29% of respondents answered that intelligence explosion was “likely” or “highly likely”. A further 21% considered it a serious possibility.

Continue reading “The implausibility of intelligence explosion” »

Mar 19, 2019

Latest Space Based Solar Power Concepts and Experiments at Caltech

Posted by in categories: solar power, space travel, sustainability

Space Solar Power Initiative (SSPI) is a multi-year research in the field of Space Solar Power Initiative conducted by Caltech team in collaboration with Northrop Grumman (NG) Aerospace and Mission Systems division.

SSPI approach: • Enabling technologies developed at Caltech • Ultra-light deployable space structures • High efficiency ultra-light photovoltaic (PV) • Phased Array and Power Transmission • Integration of concentrating PV, radiators, MW power conversion and antennas in single cell unit • Localized electronics and control for system robustness, electronic beam steering • Identical spacecraft flying in formation • Target is specific power over 2000 Watts per kilogram. This would cost competitive with ground-based power.

Continue reading “Latest Space Based Solar Power Concepts and Experiments at Caltech” »