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Feb 23, 2017

This California gubernatorial candidate wants state-funded ‘universal basic income’ for everyone

Posted by in categories: economics, government, robotics/AI

The Los Angeles Times covered my libertarian campaign for CA governor. I do still support a libertarian version of a basic income due to coming automation—and the fact it will swallow welfare and other government programs, essentially reducing the size of government while distributing money to all residents.


Essential Politics: Lawmaker says California needs an estate tax if the federal version is scrapped, Sanders thanks supporters in Los Angeles

This is Essential Politics, our daily look at California political and government news. Here’s what we’re watching right now:

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Feb 23, 2017

Artificial intelligence in quantum systems, too

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

Quantum biomimetics consists of reproducing in quantum systems certain properties exclusive to living organisms. Researchers at University of the Basque Country have imitated natural selection, learning and memory in a new study. The mechanisms developed could give quantum computation a boost and facilitate the learning process in machines.

Unai Alvarez-Rodriguez is a researcher in the Quantum Technologies for Information Science (QUTIS) research group attached to the UPV/EHU’s Department of Physical Chemistry, and an expert in information technologies. Quantum information technology uses quantum phenomena to encode computational tasks. Unlike classical computation, quantum computation “has the advantage of not being limited to producing registers in values of zero and one,” he said. Qubits, the equivalent of bits in classical computation, can take values of zero, one or both at the same time, a phenomenon known as superposition, which “gives quantum systems the possibility of performing much more complex operations, establishing a computational parallel on a quantum level, and offering better results than classical computation systems,” he added.

The research group to which Alvarez-Rodriguez belongs decided to focus on imitating biological processes. “We thought it would be interesting to create systems capable of emulating certain properties exclusive of living entities. In other words, we were seeking to design protocols whose dynamics were analogous to these properties.” The processes they chose to imitate by means of quantum simulators were natural selection, memory and intelligence. This led them to develop the concept of quantum biomimetics.

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Feb 23, 2017

Private Russian Airline Gets Green Light For Space Launch

Posted by in categories: government, space

The Russian government has given S7 airlines a license for space operations. The company plans its first launch by the year’s end.

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Feb 23, 2017

New Tech Makes Brain Implants Safer and Super Precise

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience, robotics/AI

When Jan Scheuermann volunteered for an experimental brain implant, she had no idea she was making neuroscience history.

Scheuermann, 54 at the time of surgery, had been paralyzed for 14 years due to a neurological disease that severed the neural connections between her brain and muscles. She could still feel her body, but couldn’t move her limbs.

Unwilling to give up, Scheuermann had two button-sized electrical implants inserted into her motor cortex. The implants tethered her brain to a robotic arm through two bunches of cables that protruded out from her skull.

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Feb 23, 2017

Graphene Could Buttress Next-Gen Computer Chip Wiring

Posted by in categories: computing, materials

Nice.


Current can literally blow copper interconnects away, but graphene could keep them intact.

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Feb 23, 2017

Synopsis: Revealing a Hidden Spin Polarization

Posted by in category: materials

Photoemission spectroscopy has detected two different populations of spin-polarized electrons that are “hidden” within a layered, graphene-like material.

The layers inside certain materials can carry spin-polarized electrons, but this polarization is hidden to measurements that aren’t sufficiently localized. A new study using photoemission spectroscopy has detected the hidden spin polarization in a graphene-like material called molybdenum disulfide (MoS22). Unique to this work is the ability to target specific populations of spin-polarized electrons with circularly polarized light.

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Feb 22, 2017

Group develops deep, non-invasive imaging of mouse brain

Posted by in categories: engineering, neuroscience, physics

A three-photon microscopic video of neurons in a mouse brain. The imaging depth is approximately 1 millimeter below the surface of the brain. The firing of the neurons is captured by an indicator that is based on green fluorescent protein GFP, which glows brighter as the neuron sends a signal.

Nearly four years ago, then-President Obama launched the BRAIN (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) Initiative, to “accelerate the development and application of new technologies that will enable researchers to produce dynamic pictures of the brain.”

Several of the program’s initial funding awards went to Cornell’s Chris Xu, the Mong Family Foundation Director of Cornell Neurotech – Engineering, and professor and director of undergraduate studies in applied and engineering physics. Xu’s projects aimed to develop new imaging techniques to achieve large scale, noninvasive imaging of neuronal activity.

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Feb 22, 2017

Why I Will No Longer Do Research Sponsored By The Department Of Homeland Security

Posted by in categories: education, ethics, government, security

“As academics we can sign petitions, but it is not enough.”

As academics we can sign petitions, but it is not enough. Scott Aaronson wrote very eloquently about this issue after the initial ban was announced (see also Terry Tao). My department has seen a dramatic decrease in the number of applicants in general and not just from Iran. We were just informed that we can no longer make Teaching Assistant offers for students who are unlikely to get a visa to come here.

The Department of Homeland Security has demonstrated its blatant disregard for moral norms. Why should we trust its scientific norms? What confidence do we have that funding will not be used in some coercive way? What does it say to our students when we ask them to work for DHS? Yes, the government is big, but at some point the argument that it’s mostly the guy at the top who is bad but the rest of the agency is still committed to good science becomes just too hard to swallow. I decided that I can’t square that circle. Each one of us should think hard about whether we want to.

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Feb 22, 2017

Switched-on DNA spark nano-electronic applications

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, nanotechnology

DNA, the stuff of life, may very well also pack quite the jolt for engineers trying to advance the development of tiny, low-cost electronic devices.

Much like flipping your light switch at home — –only on a scale 1,000 times smaller than a human hair — –an ASU-led team has now developed the first controllable DNA switch to regulate the flow of electricity within a single, atomic-sized molecule. The new study, led by ASU Biodesign Institute researcher Nongjian Tao, was published in the advanced online journal Nature Communications ( DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14471).

“It has been established that charge transport is possible in DNA, but for a useful device, one wants to be able to turn the charge transport on and off. We achieved this goal by chemically modifying DNA,” said Tao, who directs the Biodesign Center for Bioelectronics and Biosensors and is a professor in the Fulton Schools of Engineering.

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Feb 22, 2017

Study Reveals Essential Role of Sympathetic Nerves in Muscle Health

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, health

Contrary to what has long been believed, the role of the sympathetic nervous system in muscle tissue goes far beyond controlling blood flow by contracting or relaxing blood vessels, according to studies conducted at the University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil.

With support from FAPESP and the collaboration of researchers at Mannheim University and Heidelberg University in Germany, a group of Brazilian researchers led by Isis do Carmo Kettelhut and Luiz Carlos Carvalho Navegantes at the University of São Paulo’s Ribeirão Preto Medical School (FMRP USP) have demonstrated the importance of sympathetic innervation for the growth and maintenance of muscle mass and also for the control of movement.

Kettelhut is a full professor at FMRP -USP’s Biochemistry & Immunology Department. Navegantes is a professor in the same institution’s Physiology Department.

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