Lifeboat Foundation

The recent breakthroughs in quantum physics expand on work down nearly two decades ago. So how far away are useful quantum computers?

With huge suites of data, we can extract plenty of signals where we know to look for them. Everything else? That’s where AI comes in.

Russia’s economy has been stagnating since 2014, and the money isn’t there for more costly military adventures.

An engineer in California has an invention that she hopes will someday help people with damaged lungs breathe easier.

Stanford University’s Annelise Baron has developed a synthetic version of something called lung surfactant. Lung surfactant coats the tiny air sacs in the lung. Without it, every breath would be a struggle, like blowing up millions of little balloons. With surfactant, breathing is as easy as blowing soap bubbles.

Scientists inferred the existence of lung surfactant in the 1950s, and then Dr. Mary Ellen Avery showed that premature infants were unable to make surfactant, explaining the often fatal respiratory distress syndrome they suffered from.

Continue reading “Experimental Lung Treatment Could Make Breathing Easier” »

1. Predictive analytics

Imagine being able to project a customer’s worth as soon as he buys your service. Sounds impossible, right? Well, in the course of our AI-as-triage work, we helped a leading online registry predict the lifetime value of its patrons within a few days of sign-up with 90 percent accuracy. Now, the registry can make more informed decisions about its customer service, delivering as much value as possible to its most loyal users.

Of course, creating a predictive solution requires a complete record of your customer interactions. Building this database takes time, but many of the necessary components are available off the shelf. Even if predictive analytics are a way off for your business, start collecting customer data now so you’ll have it when you decide to tap into AI.

The idea that intelligence can differ between populations has made headlines again, but the rules of evolution make it implausible.

Kevin Mitchell

Associate professor of genetics and neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin.

Continue reading “Why genetic IQ differences between ‘races’ are unlikely” »

Life is moving faster and faster. Just about everything—transportation, weapons, the flow of information—is accelerating. How will decisionmakers preserve our personal and national security in the face of hyperspeed?

Urbanist Brent Toderian reflects on which suburbs can be saved and made more walkable.

European public spaces are becoming more original, but also more homogeneous. The author of an architecture thesis, written at EPFL, explains this paradox and calls on critics and public authorities to do something about it.

For almost two decades, designers of public spaces throughout Europe have been striving to give passers-by unique experiences. Using a multitude of materials, shapes, interactive street furniture and sensory effects, these squares, streets and walkways are becoming genuine tourist attractions for their cities. The problem is that, rather than integrating with the existing urban environment, the public spaces of the 21st century are tending to diverge from it intentionally and, most importantly, to look alike.

This is one of the findings in Sonia Curnier’s thesis, which she researched at EPFL’s Theory and History of Architecture Laboratory (LTH2), supervised by Bruno Marchand. Until now, academic research has mainly focused on the use of public spaces, for example observing whether or not passers-by really connect with them, but spent very little time looking at their design. This is the novel approach taken by Curnier’s thesis, which offers the first comprehensive overview of the subject. The public defense of his Ph.D. will take place on 2 May at EPFL.