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Jun 12, 2023

UK hobbyist stuns math world with ‘amazing’ new shapes

Posted by in category: mathematics

David Smith, a retired print technician from the north of England, was pursuing his hobby of looking for interesting shapes when he stumbled onto one unlike any other in November.

When Smith shared his with the world in March, excited fans printed it onto T-shirts, sewed it into quilts, crafted cookie cutters or used it to replace the hexagons on a —some even made plans for tattoos.

The 13-sided polygon, which 64-year-old Smith called “the hat”, is the first single shape ever found that can completely cover an infinitely large flat surface without ever repeating the same pattern.

Jun 12, 2023

Researchers “Split” Phonons in Step Toward New Type of Linear Mechanical Quantum Computer

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business, computing, engineering, law, policy, quantum physics

The experiments are the first of their kind and could lead to new advances in computing.

A team at the University of Chicago.

Founded in 1,890, the University of Chicago (UChicago, U of C, or Chicago) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Located on a 217-acre campus in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, near Lake Michigan, the school holds top-ten positions in various national and international rankings. UChicago is also well known for its professional schools: Pritzker School of Medicine, Booth School of Business, Law School, School of Social Service Administration, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, Divinity School and the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies, and Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering.

Jun 12, 2023

Defying Fundamental Laws of Biology — Scientists Discover Real-Life Chimeras

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, law

International researchers studying the yellow crazy ant, or Anoplolepis gracilipes, found that male ants of this species are chimeras, containing two genomes from different parent cells within their bodies. This unique reproductive process, originating from a single fertilized egg that undergoes separate maternal and paternal nuclear division, is unprecedented and challenges the fundamental biological inheritance law stating that all cells of an individual should contain the same genome. Credit: Hugo Darras.

The yellow crazy ant, known scientifically as Anoplolepis gracilipes, is notorious for being one of the most devastating invasive species.

A species is a group of living organisms that share a set of common characteristics and are able to breed and produce fertile offspring. The concept of a species is important in biology as it is used to classify and organize the diversity of life. There are different ways to define a species, but the most widely accepted one is the biological species concept, which defines a species as a group of organisms that can interbreed and produce viable offspring in nature. This definition is widely used in evolutionary biology and ecology to identify and classify living organisms.

Jun 12, 2023

Brain network connections associated with anosognosia identified

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Anosognosia is a condition in which a patient is unaware of their neurological deficit or psychiatric condition. Visual anosognosia, also called Anton syndrome, is associated with complete cortical blindness and unawareness of vision loss.

Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, sought to identify brain network connections associated with anosognosia. The investigators analyzed the connectivity patterns of 267 lesion locations associated with either vision loss (with and without awareness) or weakness (with and without awareness).

Continue reading “Brain network connections associated with anosognosia identified” »

Jun 12, 2023

Where Imagination Lives in Your Brain

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Henry Molaison, known for years as “H.M.,” was famously unable to form new memories. If someone he had met left the room only to return several minutes later, he would greet that person again as if for the first time. Because of surgery to treat intractable epilepsy, H M. lacked a sea-horse-shaped brain structure called the hippocampus and had amnesia. His case helped establish the hippocampus as an engine of memory.

In recent years scientists have discovered another essential deficit that burdens people with hippocampal amnesia: they can’t envision the range of possibilities that must be considered to make future plans. When researchers asked a group of people with hippocampal damage to… More.


The ability to conjure up possible futures or alternative realities is the flip side of memory. Both faculties cohabit in the brain region called the hippocampus.

Continue reading “Where Imagination Lives in Your Brain” »

Jun 12, 2023

AI researcher, Stanford professor Andrew Ng: AI poses ‘no extinction risk’ for humans

Posted by in categories: existential risks, robotics/AI

Unlike many of his peers in the artificial intelligence community, Andrew Ng isn’t convinced about the dangers of AI.

In a video posted to Twitter this week, Ng, a Stanford University professor and founder of several Silicon Valley AI startups, expressed doubt about the doomsday predictions of other executives and experts in the field.

Jun 12, 2023

Can AI actually increase human productivity?

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Explore how artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing industries, unleashing transformative potential, and supercharging efficiency.

Jun 12, 2023

How generative AI language models are unlocking the secrets of DNA

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

From gene expression to protein design, large language models are creating a suite of powerful genomic tools for DNA analysis.

Jun 12, 2023

NASA Team Sets New Space-to-Ground Laser Communication Record

Posted by in categories: computing, internet, satellites

NASA and a team of partners has demonstrated a space-to-ground laser communication system operating at a record breaking 200 gigabit per second (Gbps) data rate. The TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) satellite payload was designed and built by[MIT Lincoln Laboratory]. The record of the highest data rate ever achieved by a space-to-Earth optical communication link surpasses the 100 Gbps record set by the same team in June 2022.


[NASA] and a team of partners has demonstrated a space-to-ground laser communication system operating at a record breaking 200 gigabit per second (Gbps) data rate. The TeraByte InfraRed Delivery (TBIRD) satellite payload was designed and built by [MIT Lincoln Laboratory]. The record of the highest data rate ever achieved by a space-to-Earth optical communication link surpasses the 100 Gbps record set by the same team in June 2022.

Continue reading “NASA Team Sets New Space-to-Ground Laser Communication Record” »

Jun 11, 2023

Computational model mimics humans’ ability to predict emotions

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience

When interacting with another person, you likely spend part of your time trying to anticipate how they will feel about what you’re saying or doing. This task requires a cognitive skill called theory of mind, which helps us to infer other people’s beliefs, desires, intentions, and emotions.

MIT neuroscientists have now designed a that can predict other people’s emotions—including joy, gratitude, confusion, regret, and embarrassment—approximating human observers’ social intelligence. The model was designed to predict the emotions of people involved in a situation based on the prisoner’s dilemma, a classic game theory scenario in which two people must decide whether to cooperate with their partner or betray them.

To build the model, the researchers incorporated several factors that have been hypothesized to influence people’s emotional reactions, including that person’s desires, their expectations in a particular situation, and whether anyone was watching their actions.