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Mar 23, 2018

More Sinkholes Could Form as Texas is ‘Punctured Like a Pin Cushion’

Posted by in category: futurism

There are two large sinkholes in West Texas, both near the town of Wink. These sinkholes are growing and are thought to be the result of destabilized ground caused by oil production in the area. A new study shows that Wink is not the only part of West Texas that suffers from shaky terrain.

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Mar 23, 2018

The space race: NZ’s push into a $320 billion market

Posted by in categories: business, entertainment, media & arts, space travel

Space has suddenly become big in New Zealand, but Rocket Lab is just one example of what is starting to look like exponential growth in commercial activity. Business consultant and self-confessed space junkie Kevin Jenkins looks into how things are shaping up.

One space narrative is about disappointment. The 1950s and 1960s were about possibilities, and landing on the Moon seemed to prove that the science fiction of the 20th century really was just history written before it happened. But the promise of space seemed to peter out. The Apollo moon programme came to look more like a peak or end-point, rather than the trial run for Mars some in the space programme had hoped it would be.

After Apollo, “space” seemed to shift back to being more of a popular culture theme. For example, the famous song, album and movie Space is the Place is by one of my favourite jazz weirdos, Sun Ra, who was adamant he came from Saturn. Space became a dominant meme in pop and rock music too, as well as a mainstay in novels and films.

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Mar 23, 2018

Ballet of interacting galaxies

Posted by in category: space

The pair of galaxies NGC 1531/2, engaged in a spirited waltz, is located about 70 million light-years away towards the southern constellation Eridanus (The River). The deformed foreground spiral galaxy laced with dust lanes NGC 1532 is so close to its companion — the background galaxy with a bright core just above the centre of NGC 1532 — that it gets distorted: one of its spiral arms is warped and plumes of dust and gas are visible above its disc. The cosmic dance leads to another dramatic effect: a whole new generation of massive stars were born in NGC 1532 because of the interaction. They are visible as the purple objects in the spiral arms.

This exquisite image was made using the 1.5-metre Danish telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory, Chile. It is based on data obtained through three different filters: B, V and R. The field of view is 12 × 12 arcmin.

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Mar 23, 2018

A Tour of Earth’s Spaceports

Posted by in category: space travel

Will the wagers of a few entrepreneurs yield a golden age in space exploration?

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Mar 23, 2018

There’s an algorithm to simulate our brains. Too bad no computer can run it

Posted by in categories: information science, robotics/AI

An international team of researchers recently unveiled an algorithm that can be scaled to simulate the human brain’s entire neural network. But there’s a slight catch.

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Mar 23, 2018

AI can quickly and accurately analyze heart scans, study says

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Researchers find machine learning can classify heart anatomy on an ultrasound scan faster, more accurately and more efficiently than a human.

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Mar 23, 2018

IBM Bets Company On Exponential Innovation In AI, Blockchain, And Quantum Computing

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, quantum physics, robotics/AI

On the Right Track

In the final analysis, while IBM clearly has more work to do, it’s on the right track. Its investments in cloud and AI are already paying off, while blockchain and quantum computing bets are looking promising.

Furthermore, while IBM’s progress overall is clearly a massive team effort, Big Blue’s execution is due in large part to Rometty’s six years of leadership.

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Mar 22, 2018

Changing Regulations Mean Genetically Modified Meat Could Soon Be on Your Plate

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

Biotech lobbyists and companies are trying to get the Trump administration to hand regulation of genetically edited animals over to the USDA, which has more lenient rules than the FDA, which currently regulates animals.

Low-fat pigs? Chickens with cancer-fighting eggs?

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Mar 22, 2018

AI tackles the Vatican’s secrets

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Intelligent Machines

AI tackles the Vatican’s secrets

Even church archivists don’t know what mysteries lie hidden in the Vatican Secret Archives, since many of its documents have never been transcribed. A machine-vision system for medieval text is about to change that.

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Mar 22, 2018

Powerful New Algorithm Is a Big Step Towards Whole-Brain Simulation

Posted by in categories: computing, information science, neuroscience

The renowned physicist Dr. Richard Feynman once said: “What I cannot create, I do not understand. Know how to solve every problem that has been solved.”

An increasingly influential subfield of neuroscience has taken Feynman’s words to heart. To theoretical neuroscientists, the key to understanding how intelligence works is to recreate it inside a computer. Neuron by neuron, these whizzes hope to reconstruct the neural processes that lead to a thought, a memory, or a feeling.

With a digital brain in place, scientists can test out current theories of cognition or explore the parameters that lead to a malfunctioning mind. As philosopher Dr. Nick Bostrom at the University of Oxford argues, simulating the human mind is perhaps one of the most promising (if laborious) ways to recreate—and surpass—human-level ingenuity.

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