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Feb 21, 2019

You Can Now Check the Weather on Mars Every Day

Posted by in categories: climatology, space

Instruments aboard NASA’s InSight lander are now gathering meteorological data from the Martian surface, allowing for daily weather reports that are being made available to the public.

The daily weather reports from Elysium Planitia began on February 11, and contain information about air temperature, wind speed, and air pressure, reports NASA.

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Feb 21, 2019

These New Computer Chips Are Made From Wood

Posted by in categories: computing, mobile phones

Circa 2015


A new technique replaces the bulk of smartphone-friendly microchips with a transparent, flexible material made from wood pulp.

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Feb 21, 2019

Watch Samsung unveil the Galaxy Fold

Posted by in category: mobile phones

Samsung’s first foldable phone costs $1,980 and goes on sale April 26. Here is the announcement at the company’s event in San Francisco.

Samsung’s foldable phone is here!

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Feb 21, 2019

Scientist Who Gene-Hacked Babies “Likely” Boosted Their Brainpower

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

He Jiankui did more than make the twins immune to HIV.

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Feb 21, 2019

China’s CRISPR twins might have had their brains inadvertently enhanced

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

New research suggests that a controversial gene-editing experiment to make children resistant to HIV may also have enhanced their ability to learn and form memories.

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Feb 21, 2019

Mysterious signals are probably coming from space every second and no one can explain why

Posted by in category: space

No one knows what it is, just where it comes from.


Feb 21, 2019

Neuralink’s ‘Neural Lace’ vs a Digital Brain

Posted by in category: neuroscience

In this post we discuss the differences between a Neuralink-style ‘Neural Lace’ and how this compares to a digital brain.

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Feb 21, 2019

India Just Swore in Its First Robot Police Officer

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

India just swore in its first robotic police officer, which is named KP-Bot.

The animatronic-looking machine was granted the rank of sub-inspector on Tuesday, and it will operate the front desk of Thiruvananthapuram police headquarters, according to India Today.

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Feb 21, 2019

A philosopher argues that an AI can never be an artist

Posted by in categories: mathematics, Ray Kurzweil, robotics/AI

Advances in artificial intelligence have led many to speculate that human beings will soon be replaced by machines in every domain, including that of creativity. Ray Kurzweil, a futurist, predicts that by 2029 we will have produced an AI that can pass for an average educated human being. Nick Bostrom, an Oxford philosopher, is more circumspect. He does not give a date but suggests that philosophers and mathematicians defer work on fundamental questions to “superintelligent” successors, which he defines as having “intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest.”


Creativity is, and always will be, a human endeavor.

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Feb 21, 2019

Israeli team develops way to find genetic flaws in fetus at 11 weeks

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, genetics, health, information science

Researchers at Tel Aviv University say they have developed a new, noninvasive method of discovering genetic disorders that can let parents find out the health of their fetus as early as 11 weeks into pregnancy.

A simple blood test lets doctors diagnose genetic disorders in fetuses early in pregnancy by sequencing small amounts of DNA in the mother’s and the father’s blood. A computer algorithm developed by the researchers analyzes the results of the sequencing and then produces a “map” of the fetal genome, predicting mutations with 99 percent or better accuracy, depending on the mutation type, the researchers said in a study published Wednesday in Genome Research.

The algorithm is able to distinguish between the genetic material of the parents and that of the fetus, said Prof. Noam Shomron of Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine led the research, in a phone interview with The Times of Israel.

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