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Apr 14, 2019

The rise of the killer robots – and the two women fighting back

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Today, the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots is following a similar roadmap. The UN has held several rounds of talks in Geneva, including a session at the end of March. But the CSKR has lost faith in that process, and is now focusing on individual western states.


Jody Williams and Mary Wareham were leading lights in the campaign to ban landmines. Now they have autonomous weapons in their sights.

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Apr 13, 2019

Standby, Stabilization and Transport Services

Posted by in category: futurism

Suspended Animation

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Apr 13, 2019

You Need Vitamin D to Live. How Could This Woman Survive With None in Her Blood?

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

She had a series of bone fractures, but when doctors did blood tests, the supplements she took for treatment were nowhere to be found.

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Apr 13, 2019

Heads in the cloud: Scientists predict internet of thoughts ‘within decades’

Posted by in categories: computing, internet, neuroscience

Summary: Researchers predict the development of a brain/cloud interface that connects neurons to cloud computing networks in real time. Source: FrontiersImagine a future technology that would.

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Apr 13, 2019

Longevity Myth Busting — Aubrey de Grey

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, life extension

Allison Duettmann challenges Aubrey De Grey with the top objections against longevity to be debunked and debated before opening up the floor to the public.

Aubrey de Grey, Ph.D.

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Apr 13, 2019

How to biohack your cells to fight cancer — Greg Foot

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

Check out the science of biohacking, where biologists go into a patient’s genetic code and reprogram their immune system to recognize and fight cancer cells.

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Apr 13, 2019

The world’s largest plane just flew for the first time

Posted by in categories: space, transportation

After years of development in the desert north of Los Angeles, a gigantic, six-engined mega jet with the wingspan of an American football field flew Saturday morning for the first time.

“We finally did it,” said Stratolaunch Systems CEO Jean Floyd at a news conference from the hangar at Mojave Air & Space Port. “It was an emotional moment to watch this bird take flight.”

Stratolaunch, the company founded in 2011 by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, conducted the first test flight of the world’s largest plane.

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Apr 13, 2019

Google’s Next Big Money Maker Could Be the Maps on Your Phone

Posted by in categories: business, economics, mobile phones

Indeed, Schindler stressed that Google would generate personalized Maps recommendations in “privacy-sensitive, opt-in ways.”

The company is betting that adding more data about places and businesses to Maps will lead people to spend more time on the service. As users expect more from Maps, Google has extra space to introduce more ads.

“We want to be able to highlight things that are around you and surface them nearby to you in a way that’s not disrupting your experience,’’ said Rajas Moonka, director of product management for Google Maps. Because so much of what users are looking for in Google Maps is commercial in nature, ads can be a helpful addition to the experience, he said.

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Apr 13, 2019

Inside the lab using mind-changing psychology experiments to solve the Israel-Palestine conflict

Posted by in categories: electronics, neuroscience

To read a man’s mind, first you have to outline his skull.

Last November, I watched a psychologist use a digital pen to draw the circumference of a man’s head. The coordinates of his brain were quickly mapped, pinpointing the precise areas within his skull that process emotions. Behind him, a massive magnetic mind-reader—a neuroimaging device called a magnetoencephalography, or MEG—emerged from the wall, funneling into an oversized white helmet. It took two scientists to slowly maneuver the apparatus into position around his head.

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Apr 13, 2019

Sustained rescue of prefrontal circuit dysfunction

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

A better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the action of antidepressants is urgently needed. Moda-Sava et al. explored a possible mode of action for the drug ketamine, which has recently been shown to help patients recover from depression (see the Perspective by Beyeler). Ketamine rescued behavior in mice that was associated with depression-like phenotypes by selectively reversing stress-induced spine loss and restoring coordinated multicellular ensemble activity in prefrontal microcircuits. The initial induction of ketamine’s antidepressant effect on mouse behavior occurred independently of effects on spine formation. Instead, synaptogenesis in the prefrontal region played a critical role in nourishing these effects over time. Interventions aimed at enhancing the survival of restored synapses may thus be useful for sustaining the behavioral effects of fast-acting antidepressants.

Science, this issue p. eaat8078; see also p. 129.

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