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Category: biological

New deep-learning tool can tell if salmon is wild or farmed

A paper published in Biology Methods and Protocols, finds that it is now possible to distinguish wild from farmed salmon using deep learning, potentially greatly improving strategies for environmental protection. The paper is titled “Identifying escaped farmed salmon from fish scales using deep learning.”

Norway is home to the largest remaining wild populations of wild salmon and is also one of the largest producers of farmed salmon. Atlantic salmon abundance in Norway has declined by over 50% since the 1980s and is now at historically low levels. Escaped farmed salmon are an important reason for this decline.

Norway produces over 1.5 million metric tons of farmed Atlantic salmon annually. Each year, however, approximately 300,000 farmed salmon escape into the wild.

The Future of Humanity — What Will We Become?

From cyborgs to hive minds and civilizations of pure thought, we trace the possible futures of our species through the next trillion tomorrows.

Checkout Scav: https://go.nebula.tv/scav?ref=isaacar… Watch my exclusive video Autonomous Space Industry: https://nebula.tv/videos/isaacarthur–… Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur Grab one of our new SFIA mugs and make your morning coffee a little more futuristic — available now on our Fourthwall store! https://isaac-arthur-shop.fourthwall… Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net Join Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a… Facebook Group: / 1,583,992,725,237,264 Reddit: / isaacarthur Twitter: / isaac_a_arthur on Twitter and RT our future content. SFIA Discord Server: / discord Credits: The First Interstellar Colony Humanity’s Leap Beyond Sol Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur Editor: Keith Oxenrider Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images Music by Epidemic Sound: http://nebula.tv/epidemic & Stellardrone Chapters 0:00 Intro 0:15 The Road Ahead 2:24 What Do We Mean by “Human,” “Transhuman,” and “Posthuman”? 7:22 Life Extension – The Oldest Dream 10:33 Intelligence Beyond Biology – AI and Human Integration 14:19 Enhancing the Body and Mind 17:00 Civilizations of the Augmented 19:31 Scavenger Hunt 20:51 Strange Posthuman Pathways 23:11 Outward Migration – Stars and Timelines 25:00 Risks, Fears, and Pushback 26:27 Humanity on Cosmic Timescales 27:43 The Expanding Story.
Watch my exclusive video Autonomous Space Industry: https://nebula.tv/videos/isaacarthur–…
Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.

Grab one of our new SFIA mugs and make your morning coffee a little more futuristic — available now on our Fourthwall store! https://isaac-arthur-shop.fourthwall…

Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net.
Join Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.
Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur.
Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a…
Facebook Group: / 1583992725237264
Reddit: / isaacarthur.
Twitter: / isaac_a_arthur on Twitter and RT our future content.
SFIA Discord Server: / discord.
Credits:
The First Interstellar Colony Humanity’s Leap Beyond Sol.
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur.
Editor: Keith Oxenrider.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.
Music by Epidemic Sound: http://nebula.tv/epidemic & Stellardrone.

Chapters.
0:00 Intro.
0:15 The Road Ahead.
2:24 What Do We Mean by “Human,” “Transhuman,” and “Posthuman”?
7:22 Life Extension – The Oldest Dream.
10:33 Intelligence Beyond Biology – AI and Human Integration.
14:19 Enhancing the Body and Mind.
17:00 Civilizations of the Augmented.
19:31 Scavenger Hunt.
20:51 Strange Posthuman Pathways.
23:11 Outward Migration – Stars and Timelines.
25:00 Risks, Fears, and Pushback.
26:27 Humanity on Cosmic Timescales.
27:43 The Expanding Story

New on-switch for pain signaling pathway could lead to safer treatment and relief

Researchers at Tulane University, with a team of colleagues from eight other universities, have discovered a new nerve cell signaling mechanism that could transform our understanding of pain and lead to safer, more effective treatments.

The study, co-led by Matthew Dalva, director of the Tulane Brain Institute and professor of cell and in the School of Science and Engineering and Ted Price at the University of Texas at Dallas, reveals that neurons can release an enzyme outside the cell that switches on pain signaling after injury. The work, published in Science, offers new insight into how strengthen their connections during learning and memory.

“This finding changes our fundamental understanding of how neurons communicate,” Dalva said. “We’ve discovered that an enzyme released by neurons can modify proteins on the outside of other cells to turn on pain signaling—without affecting normal movement or sensation.”

Rethinking where language comes from: Framework reveals complex interplay of biology and culture

A new study challenges the idea that language stems from a single evolutionary root. Instead, it proposes that our ability to communicate evolved through the interaction of biology and culture, and involves multiple capacities, each with different evolutionary histories. The framework, published in Science, unites discoveries across disciplines to explain how the ability to learn to speak, develop grammar, and share meaning converged to create complex communication.

For centuries, philosophers and scientists have wrestled with understanding how human language came about. Language defines us as a species, yet its origins have remained a mystery. In a remarkable international collaboration, 10 experts from different disciplines present a unified framework to address this enduring puzzle, harnessing powerful new methods and insights from their respective scientific domains.

“Crucially, our goal was not to come up with our own particular explanation of language evolution,” says first author Inbal Arnon, “Instead, we wanted to show how multifaceted and biocultural perspectives, combined with newly emerging sources of data, can shed new light on old questions.”

From light to logic: First complete logic gate achieved in soft material using light alone

Researchers from McMaster University and the University of Pittsburgh have created the first functionally complete logic gate—a NAND gate (short for “NOT AND”)—in a soft material using only beams of visible light. The discovery, published in Nature Communications, marks a significant advance in the field of materials that compute, in which materials themselves process information without traditional electronic circuitry.

“This project has been part of my scientific journey for over a decade,” said first author Fariha Mahmood, who began studying the gels as an undergraduate researcher at McMaster and is now pursuing postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge. “To see these materials not only respond to light but also perform a logic operation feels like watching the material ‘think.’ It opens the door to soft systems making decisions on their own.”

Mahmood is joined by authors Anna C. Balazs, distinguished professor of chemical and petroleum engineering, and Victor V. Yashin, research assistant professor at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering; and corresponding author Kalaichelvi Saravanamuttu, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at McMaster.

Scientists Overturn 20 Years of Textbook Biology With Stunning Discovery About Cell Division

Scientists have uncovered an unexpected function for a crucial protein involved in cell division. Reported in two consecutive publications, the finding challenges long-accepted models and standard descriptions found in biology textbooks. Researchers at the Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI) in Zagreb

The Intelligence Foundation Model Could Be The Bridge To Human Level AI

Cai Borui and Zhao Yao from Deakin University (Australia) presented a concept that they believe will bridge the gap between modern chatbots and general-purpose AI. Their proposed “Intelligence Foundation Model” (IFM) shifts the focus of AI training from merely learning surface-level data patterns to mastering the universal mechanisms of intelligence itself. By utilizing a biologically inspired “State Neural Network” architecture and a “Neuron Output Prediction” learning objective, the framework is designed to mimic the collective dynamics of biological brains and internalize how information is processed over time. This approach aims to overcome the reasoning limitations of current Large Language Models, offering a scalable path toward true Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and theoretically laying the groundwork for the future convergence of biological and digital minds.

The Intelligence Foundation Model represents a bold new proposal in the quest to build machines that can truly think. We currently live in an era dominated by Large Language Models like ChatGPT and Gemini. These systems are incredibly impressive feats of engineering that can write poetry, solve coding errors, and summarize history. However, despite their fluency, they often lack the fundamental spark of what we consider true intelligence.

They are brilliant mimics that predict statistical patterns in text but do not actually understand the world or learn from it in real-time. A new research paper suggests that to get to the next level, we need to stop modeling language and start modeling the brain itself.

Borui Cai and Yao Zhao have introduced a concept they believe will bridge the gap between today’s chatbots and Artificial General Intelligence. Published in a preprint on arXiv, their research argues that existing foundation models suffer from severe limitations because they specialize in specific domains like vision or text. While a chatbot can tell you what a bicycle is, it does not understand the physics of riding one in the way a human does.

Asimov Press (@asimovpress)

We just released a curated list of 125+ essays about biology and science. These articles cover pharmaceuticals, the history of molecular biology, timeless arguments and theories, and more. All of them inspired or taught or challenged us to think more deeply.

Check it out here on Substack or on our custom website: https://read.asimov.com

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