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Deep AI training gets more stable by predicting its own errors

Artificial intelligence now plays Go, paints pictures, and even converses like a human. However, there remains a decisive difference: AI requires far more electricity than the human brain to operate. Scientists have long asked the question, “How can the brain learn so intelligently using so little energy?” KAIST researchers have moved one step closer to the answer.

A research team led by Distinguished Professor Sang Wan Lee of the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences has developed a new technology that applies the learning principles of the human brain to deep learning, enabling stable training even in deep artificial intelligence models.

Our brain does not passively receive the world. Instead of merely perceiving what is happening in the present, it first predicts what will happen next and, when reality differs from that prediction, adjusts itself to reduce the difference (i.e., prediction error). This is similar to anticipating an opponent’s next move in Go and changing strategy if the prediction turns out to be wrong. This mode of information processing is known as “Predictive Coding.”

DNA barcoding reveals which gene-therapy nanoparticles reach targets in vivo

Drug delivery researchers have vastly improved the potential of genetic therapies by overcoming the challenge of consistently getting genes and gene-editing tools where they need to be within cells. Findings of the study spearheaded by Oregon State University College of Pharmacy graduate student Antony Jozić are published in Nature Biotechnology.

When gene therapies enter a cell, they are often sent to lysosomes, the cell’s trash and recycling centers, where therapeutic genetic material is broken down before it can work. For gene therapies to succeed, they must avoid disposal and reach the part of the cell where they can function.

Martian volcanoes could be hiding massive glaciers under a blanket of ash

When we think of ice on Mars, we typically think of the poles, where we can see it visibly through probes and even ground-based telescopes. But the poles are hard to access, and even more so given the restrictions on exploration there due to potential biological contamination. Scientists have long hoped to find water closer to the equator, making it more accessible to human explorers. There are parts of the mid-latitudes of Mars that appear to be glaciers covered by thick layers of dust and rock.

So are these features really holding massive reserves of water close to where humans might first step foot on the red planet? They might be, according to a new paper from M.A. de Pablo and their co-authors, recently published in Icarus.

The key might be a small, volcanic island in Antarctica. Known as Deception Island, it’s a volcano that has covered some massive glaciers surrounding it with ash and dust from a series of eruptions in the 60s and 70s. The authors think they found a volcano on Mars with a similar history known as Hecates Tholus.

Quantum materials could enable the solar-powered production of hydrogen from water

Hydrogen fuel is a promising alternative to fossil fuels that only emits water vapor when used and could thus help to lower greenhouse gas emissions on Earth. In the future, it could potentially be used to fuel heavy-duty transport vehicles, such as trucks, trains, and ships, as well as industrial heating and decentralized power generation systems.

Unfortunately, most current methods to produce hydrogen rely on the burning of fossil fuels, which limits its environmental advantages. Given its potential, many energy engineers worldwide have been trying to devise more sustainable strategies to produce hydrogen on a large scale.

One proposed method for the clean production of hydrogen is known as photocatalytic water splitting. This approach entails splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, using photocatalysts (i.e., materials that respond to sunlight and prompt desired chemical reactions).

PV inhibitory neurons, not overall prefrontal cortex decline, linked to cocaine-seeking relapse

Drug addiction carries an extremely high risk of relapse, as cravings can be reignited by minor stimuli even long after one has stopped using. Previously, this phenomenon was attributed to a decline in the function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which regulates impulses. However, a joint international research team has recently revealed that the cause of addiction relapse is not a simple decline in brain function, but rather an imbalance in specific neural circuits.

Google AI rivals radiologists in breast cancer detection

New research on 175,000 women—the largest NHS study to date—on the use of AI in breast cancer screening shows that AI detected more cases of invasive cancer, more cases overall, had fewer false positives, and recalled fewer women having their first scan than humans did. For one part of the study, AI reduced the time spent reading scans by almost a third.

Resident Macrophages Play a Role in Maintaining Murine Intraocular Pressure

Through their study, the researchers tracked fluorescently tagged resident tissue macrophages in mouse eyes. When they selectively removed these cells, the eye’s drain, or outflow, became clogged, fluid built up, and eye pressure increased.

The discovery could lead to the development of future glaucoma treatments. The next step will be research to identify these resident macrophages in human eye tissue. “This research helps us understand the role of the immune system in regulating eye pressure,” said Katy Liu, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the department of ophthalmology at Duke University School of Medicine. “Our findings show that resident macrophages are essential for maintaining healthy eye pressure,” said Liu. “Disruption of this system may contribute directly to the development of glaucoma.”

Added W. Daniel Stamer, PhD, the Joseph A.C. Wadsworth Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology, and co-vice chair for basic science research, “Now we have a specific target for developing new therapies that can normalize the eye pressure and stop vision loss, in contrast to current medications that do not target the source of disease.”

Performance characteristics of genome-sequencing–based CHIP calling and impact on epidemiologic associations

Do we need better ways to detect clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP)?

In this Research Letter, Alexander G. Bick & team find epidemiology studies underestimate the strength of the association between clonal hematopoiesis and disease due to false negatives from shallow, whole-genome versus deep targeted sequencing.

Address correspondence to: Alexander Bick, 2,200 Pierce Ave., 550 RRB, Nashville, Tennessee, 37,232, USA. Email: [email protected].

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1Department of Internal Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

NASA finds extreme star collision in unlikely spot

A fleet of NASA missions has likely uncovered a collision between two ultradense stars in a tiny galaxy buried in a huge stream of gas. Astronomers have never seen this type of explosive event in an environment like this before—and it may help solve two outstanding cosmic mysteries. A paper describing these results is forthcoming in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and currently available on the arXiv preprint server.

Neutron stars are the cores left behind after a star much heavier than the sun runs out of fuel, collapses on itself, and then explodes. They are small (only a dozen or so miles across) but slightly more massive than the sun, making them amazingly dense. Astronomers consider them to be some of the most extreme objects in the universe.

In recent years, astronomers have collected data on collisions, or mergers, of two neutron stars inside of moderately sized or large galaxies. This latest discovery, however, shows that a neutron star collision may take place inside a tiny galaxy.

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