Lifeboat Foundation

Over millions of years retroviruses have been incorporated into our human DNA, where they today make up almost 10 per cent of the total genome. A research group at Lund University in Sweden has now discovered a mechanism through which these retroviruses may have an impact on gene expression. This means that they may have played a significant role in the development of the human brain as well as in various neurological diseases.

Retroviruses are a special group of viruses including some which are dangerous, such as HIV, while others are believed to be harmless. The viruses studied by Johan Jakobsson and his colleagues in Lund are called endogenous retroviruses (ERV) as they have existed in the human genome for millions of years. They can be found in a part of DNA that was previously considered unimportant, so called junk-DNA — a notion that researchers have now started to reconsider.

“The genes that control the production of various proteins in the body represent a smaller proportion of our DNA than endogenous retroviruses. They account for approximately 2 per cent, while retroviruses account for 8–10 per cent of the total genome. If it turns out that they are able to influence the production of proteins, this will provide us with a huge new source of information about the human brain,” says Johan Jakobsson.

Continue reading “Salmonella Could Be Used To Fight Brain Tumors” »

Over millions of years retroviruses have been incorporated into our human DNA, where they today make up almost 10 per cent of the total genome. A research group at Lund University in Sweden has now discovered a mechanism through which these retroviruses may have an impact on gene expression. This means that they may have played a significant role in the development of the human brain as well as in various neurological diseases.

Retroviruses are a special group of viruses including some which are dangerous, such as HIV, while others are believed to be harmless. The viruses studied by Johan Jakobsson and his colleagues in Lund are called endogenous retroviruses (ERV) as they have existed in the human genome for millions of years. They can be found in a part of DNA that was previously considered unimportant, so called junk-DNA — a notion that researchers have now started to reconsider.

“The genes that control the production of various proteins in the body represent a smaller proportion of our DNA than endogenous retroviruses. They account for approximately 2 per cent, while retroviruses account for 8–10 per cent of the total genome. If it turns out that they are able to influence the production of proteins, this will provide us with a huge new source of information about the human brain,” says Johan Jakobsson.

Thanks to Google’s DeepMind AI, Robots can now dream, significantly increasing the speed at which they can learn and ultimately bringing them closer to human like general intelligence.

Although this was published last week; I got a request to share again for those who missed it.

While “product-market fit” may have become the mantra for many tech companies and investors, we believe there are still plenty of companies out there with their eyes set on building true game-changing technologies. In our Game Changers report, we identified 8 categories of innovation that could have the greatest impact on how we live. Among these is next-gen computing — specifically, quantum computers and DNA data-writing technologies, which have the potential to fast-track innovation across industries.

Quantum computers can solve real-world problems much faster than traditional computers — and their capacity is only increasing. Meanwhile, using synthetic DNA to store vastly more data than a typical chip has the potential to revolutionize computers’ memory capacity.

Continue reading “Next-Gen Computing Game Changers: Quantum Computers And Beyond” »

Sharing in case anyone is interested in attending.

What do the Walkie-Talkie, IMAX, the egg carton, instant mashed potatoes and the sport of hockey all have in common? They were all Canadian inventions! You can celebrate Canada’s innovative past, present and future for our country’s 150th anniversary when the Innovation150 National Tour launches at Science World next week. Innovation150 Kick Off at Science World The cross-country Innovation150 tour will celebrate Canadian ingenuity and inspire the innovators of tomorrow. Locally, from January 19 to February 3, 2017, Science World and Innovation150 are organizing a city-wide celebration of Canada’s innovative past, present and future for our country’s 150th anniversary. Innovation.

Syn. Neurons via Q-Dot Laser. Nice.

Greek researchers working at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA) optical communication photonic technology laboratory have developed an artificial “neuron” that simulates fundamental functions of the human brain, at speeds that are many orders of magnitude higher.

A paper on the new breakthrough made by the Greek team, led by Prof. Dimitris Syvridis with Dr. Charis Mesaritakis as main researcher and with Alexandros Kapsalis and Adonis Bogris listed as authors, was published in the “Scientific Reports” section of the science journal “Nature” on December 19.

Continue reading “Greek scientists create artificial neuron with quantum-dot lasers” »

Nice.

A sophisticated cooling technique — using lasers to cool individual atoms — was demonstrated at the National Institute of Standards in Technology in 1978, and is now used in a wide array of precise applications, such as atomic clocks. Using the same principle, NIST physicists have now “cooled a mechanical object to a temperature lower than previously thought possible,” passing the so-called “quantum limit” which imposes limits on accuracy for quantum scale measurements.

Described in a paper titled “Sideband cooling beyond the quantum backaction limit with squeezed light,” published Thursday in the journal Nature, the technique could theoretically be used to cool objects to absolute zero, when matter exhibits almost no energy or motion.

Continue reading “New Cooling Technique Could Aid Development Of Quantum Computers” »

Nice job Geordie and Vern.

Search the universe with qbsolv

Continue reading “D-Wave goes public with open-source quantum-classical hybrid software” »

Novel structures exhibit highly directional emission and provide a template for site-controlled quantum dots and self-aligned nanophotonic cavities.

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) are thought to be a promising candidate for a single-quantum emitter in on-chip systems because of their well-developed growth and fabrication techniques. Semiconductor QDs, however, have a number of inherent limitations that need to be overcome before they can be used in practical applications. For example, QDs in semiconductors are strongly affected by elements (e.g., phonons) in the surrounding environment, which results in short nonradiative decay times and rapid dephasing processes. Despite the high intrinsic radiative decay rates of semiconductor QDs compared with those of other single-quantum emitters (such as atoms and ions), the radiative decay rate needs to be further increased so that these fast nonradiative and dephasing processes can be overcome. Furthermore, the collection efficiency of the light that is emitted from conventional QDs embedded in a high-index planar substrate is typically low (about 4%).

Continue reading “Semiconductor nanopyramids for building high-yield quantum photonic devices” »