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Oct 24, 2024

DNA stores data in bits after epigenetic upgrade

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, computing, genetics

An innovative method now allows DNA to store information as a binary code — the same strings of 0s and 1s used by standard computers.


‘Bricks’ of DNA, some of which have chemical tags, could one day be an alternative to storing information electronically.

Oct 24, 2024

AI needs decade+ to reach human-like smarts, says pioneer

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

The Turing Award recipient told ET that the path to achieving AGI (artificial general intelligence) is through AI systems being conscious of the physical world, having persistent memory and being able to reason. This may take 6–10 years and still have the intelligence of a cat, he said on the sidelines of Meta’s Build with AI Summit in Bengaluru.

“I don’t like the phrase AGI. I prefer human-level intelligence because human intelligence is not general. Internally, we call this AMI-advanced machine intelligence. We have a pretty good plan on how to get there,” said LeCun is often referred to as a ‘Godfather of AI’

Oct 24, 2024

Global public debt will hit $100 trillion by year-end, says IMF

Posted by in category: finance

Really the global debt and inflation causes the global financial crisis in price values.


The IMF warned of the risks posed by unsustainable public debt levels.

Oct 24, 2024

Stranded NASA SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts set for splashdown within hours

Posted by in categories: climatology, space travel

After weeks of hurricane delays, the crew successfully undocked on Wednesday and are on their way back to Earth.

Oct 24, 2024

Breakthrough Discovery: Freezing Alzheimer’s Progress by Pausing Amyloid Fibrils

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Researchers have identified a key mechanism in the development of Alzheimer’s disease involving the growth and pause of amyloid β fibrils.

A newly discovered antibody can lock these fibrils in their paused state, offering a potential new approach for treatment that targets these critical growth points.

Continue reading “Breakthrough Discovery: Freezing Alzheimer’s Progress by Pausing Amyloid Fibrils” »

Oct 24, 2024

First look: New telescope captures stunning images of solar storm

Posted by in category: space

Revolutionary space-based coronagraph provides unprecedented views of solar storms that could impact Earth.

Oct 24, 2024

Euclid telescope reveals 1st section of largest-ever 3D map of the universe — and there’s still 99% to go

Posted by in categories: mapping, space

The first piece of the Euclid space telescope’s map of the universe is crammed with 14 million galaxies and 100 million sources of light. The mapping project is now 1% done.

Oct 24, 2024

AI helps humans have a 20-minute ‘conversation’ with a humpback whale named Twain

Posted by in categories: alien life, robotics/AI

In a remarkable encounter off the coast of Alaska, human scientists had what they describe as a “conversation” with a humpback whale named Twain. Dr. Brenda McCowan from the University of California Davis was at the heart of this unexpected exchange.

Dr. McCowan and her team, known as Whale-SETI, have been studying how humpback whales communicate. They’re aiming to understand whale communication systems to help in the search for life beyond Earth.

Using an underwater speaker, the team played a recorded humpback “contact” call into the ocean. To their astonishment, Twain approached their boat and began responding.

Oct 24, 2024

Tracking down nuclear fission’s elusive scission neutron with a supercomputer

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, nuclear energy, supercomputing

Nuclear fission—when the nucleus of an atom splits in two, releasing energy—may seem like a process that is fully understood. First discovered in 1939 and thoroughly studied ever since, fission is a constant factor in modern life, used in everything from nuclear medicine to power-generating nuclear reactors. However, it is a force of nature that still contains mysteries yet to be solved.

Researchers from the University of Washington, Seattle, or UW, and Los Alamos National Laboratory have used the Summit supercomputer at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory to answer one of fission’s biggest questions: What exactly happens during the nucleus’s “neck rupture” as it splits in two?

The resulting paper is published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Oct 24, 2024

Scientists successfully increase measurement rate of Raman spectroscopy by 100-fold

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, materials

Researchers Takuma Nakamura, Kazuki Hashimoto, and Takuro Ideguchi of the Institute for Photon Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo have increased by 100-fold the measurement rate of Raman spectroscopy, a common technique for measuring the “vibrational fingerprint” of molecules in order to identify them.

As the measurement rate has been a major limiting factor, this improvement contributes to advancements in many fields that rely on identifying molecules and cells, such as biomedical diagnostics and material analytics. The findings were published in the journal Ultrafast Science.

Identifying various types of molecules and cells is a crucial step in both basic and applied science. Raman spectroscopy is a widely used measurement technique for this purpose. When a is projected onto molecules, the light interacts with the vibrations and rotations of molecular bonds, shifting the frequency of the scattering light. The scattering spectra thus measured is a molecule’s unique “vibrational fingerprint.”

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