Menu

Blog

Latest posts

Jul 7, 2024

In Photos: NASA Reveals Spacecraft To Take Four Humans To The Moon

Posted by in category: space

NASA shows off human-rated Orion spacecraft as preparations continue for Artemis 2, the first crewed lunar flyby of the 21st century.

Jul 7, 2024

Webb Telescope reveals Asteroid Collision in Neighboring Star System

Posted by in categories: asteroid/comet impacts, existential risks

Astronomers have captured what appears to be a snapshot of a massive collision of giant asteroids in Beta Pictoris, a neighboring star system known for its early age and tumultuous planet-forming activity.

The observations spotlight the volatile processes that shape star systems like our own, offering a unique glimpse into the primordial stages of planetary formation.

“Beta Pictoris is at an age when planet formation in the terrestrial planet zone is still ongoing through giant asteroid collisions, so what we could be seeing here is basically how rocky planets and other bodies are forming in real time,” said Christine Chen, a Johns Hopkins University astronomer who led the research.

Jul 7, 2024

Sugar Substitute Linked to Increased Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke, study finds

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Xylitol is a common zero-calorie sweetener found in sugar-free candy and toothpaste. Cleveland Clinic researchers found higher amounts of the sugar alcohol xylitol are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events like heart attack and stroke.

The team, led by Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.D., confirmed the association in a large-scale patient analysis, preclinical research models and a clinical intervention study. Findings were published today in the European Heart Journal.

Xylitol is a common sugar substitute used in sugar-free candy, gums, baked goods and oral products like toothpaste. Over the past decade, the use of sugar substitutes, including sugar alcohols and artificial sweeteners, has increased significantly in processed foods that are promoted as healthy alternatives.

Jul 7, 2024

The Five Stages Of AI Grief

Posted by in categories: futurism, robotics/AI

Grief-laden vitriol directed at AI fails to help us understand paths to better futures that are neither utopian nor dystopian, but open to radically weird possibilities.

Jul 7, 2024

What’s Optimal For Grip Strength During Aging?

Posted by in category: life extension

Join us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/MichaelLustgartenPhDDiscount Links: NAD+ Quantification: https://www.jinfiniti.com/intracellular-nad-test/Use Cod…

Jul 7, 2024

Glaze — What is Glaze

Posted by in categories: economics, education, habitats, robotics/AI

Generative AI models have changed the way we create and consume content, particularly images and art. Diffusion models such as MidJourney and Stable Diffusion have been trained on large datasets of scraped images from online, many of which are copyrighted, private, or sensitive in subject matter. Many artists have discovered significant numbers of their art pieces in training data such as LAION-5B, without their knowledge, consent, credit or compensation.

To make it worse, many of these models are now used to copy individual artists, through a process called style mimicry. Home users can take art work from human artists, perform “fine-tuning” or LoRA on models like stable diffusion, and end up with a model that is capable of producing arbitrary images in the “style” of the target artist, when evoked with their name as a prompt. Popular independent artists find low quality facsimilies of their artwork online, often with their names still embedded in the metadata from model prompts.

Continue reading “Glaze — What is Glaze” »

Jul 7, 2024

Schrödinger’s cat among insects: non-invasive Raman spectroscopy to determine live and dead insects in diapause

Posted by in category: neuroscience

Diapause is a peculiar sleep of insects in which the animal’s motor activity completely ceases. During this period, insects become a good target for parasitoids, freely attacking them with their mobile ovipositors. We found that the parasitic wasp, Eupelmus messene (Hymenoptera, Eupelmidae, Cynipidae), stirs the internal contents of the diapausing host pupa of Aulacidea hieracii (Bouché, 1834) with its long and flexible ovipositor “making a shake” inside the pupa. However, the attacked pupae stay morphologically indistinguishable from healthy diapausing ones for several months. Using non-invasive Raman spectroscopy (RS), we, for the first time, studied the molecular composition of live diapausing and parasitized A. hieracii pupae.

Jul 7, 2024

Inside The Secret Deals Between Tech Companies And Nuclear Power Plants

Posted by in categories: business, climatology, economics, nuclear energy, robotics/AI

Tech companies, including Amazon Web Services, are striking deals with U.S. nuclear power plants to secure electricity for their data centers, driven by the skyrocketing demands of artificial intelligence. This move promises 24/7 carbon-free power but stirs controversy, as it could divert existing energy supplies, raise prices, and increase reliance on natural gas. These nuclear-powered data centers might accelerate the AI race, but they also spark debates over economic development, grid reliability, and climate goals. Could this be the future of tech or a risky gamble with unforeseen consequences?

As reported by WSJ, tech businesses searching the country for electrical supplies have focused on one important target: America’s nuclear power facilities.

The owners of about one-third of the United States’ nuclear power reactors are in negotiations with technology companies about providing electricity to new data centers needed to satisfy the needs of an artificial intelligence boom.

Jul 7, 2024

Ultra-detailed brain map shows neurons that encode words’ meaning

Posted by in category: neuroscience

For the first time, scientists identify individual brain cells linked to the linguistic essence of a word.

Jul 7, 2024

Quantum sensors: How does the flow profile affect flow measurements?

Posted by in categories: electronics, quantum physics

Researchers at Fraunhofer IPM have developed a contactless flow measurement method based on magnetic fields. For the first time, they have been able to show the quantitative impact of the flow profile on the magnetic signal. This opens up new possibilities for improving the measurement method.

The results were recently published in the Journal of Applied Physics.

There are many manufacturing processes across various industries where flowing liquids play a key role. Controlling or automating such processes requires reliable data on the rate of the liquids. The -based flow measurement technique developed at Fraunhofer IPM provides accurate flow data without any contact with the liquid.

Page 1 of 11,41112345678Last