Lifeboat Foundation

Could the astonishing language abilities of LLMs hint at a deeper, more fundamental consciousness woven into the fabric of reality itself?

Something seems to be missing from the universe, and the favored model of physics calls it “dark matter” – but despite a century of searching, it remains a no-show. A new paper proposes an alternative hypothesis, showing how gravity could exist without mass and produce many of the same effects we ascribe to dark matter.

Einstein’s theory of general relativity is still our best model for describing gravity. As you might remember from high school physics class, gravity is the force that arises from masses resting on the fabric of spacetime. The more mass an object has, the deeper the “dip” in spacetime and the stronger the gravitational pull.

But starting in the 1930s, some strange astronomical observations began to raise questions. Galaxy clusters seemed to be moving much too fast to stay stable based on visible matter, suggesting that far more matter was present than we could see. That led to the hypothesis that huge amounts of invisible stuff – which was dubbed dark matter – pervaded the universe. The idea has held surprisingly strong in observations in the decades since, backed up by the motions of stars within galaxies and the bending and magnifying of light through gravitational lenses.

Temporarily holding on to information depends on coordinated brain waves.

Quantum computing is one of those “just around the corner” technologies that have the scientific community split. Tech outfits such as Google and IBM have gone full throttle with both research and development and marketing as if they’re already here, while many independent researchers have claimed quantum computers will never work.

Most people working in the field, however, believe that quantum computers will be able to solve problems that classical computers can’t solve within the next 10 years.

This is according to a recent survey of 927 people with associations to the field of quantum computing (researchers, executives, press, enthusiasts, etc.) conducted by QuEra. Of those surveyed, 74.9% “expect quantum to be a superior alternative to classical computing for certain workloads” within the next 10 years.

Fyodor Urnov explains how retuning genes can restore health harmony.

Photon Bose–Einstein condensation is observed in a semiconductor laser, where thermalization and condensation of photons occur using an InGaAs quantum well and an open microcavity. The distinction between regimes of photon Bose–Einstein condensation and conventional lasing are clearly identified.

Anyone who’s tried to neatly gather a fitted sheet can tell you: folding is hard. Get it wrong with your laundry and the result can be a crumpled, wrinkled mess of fabric, but when folding fails among the approximately 7,000 proteins with an origami-like complexity that regulate essential cellular functions, the result can lead to one of a multitude of serious diseases ranging from emphysema and cystic fibrosis to Alzheimer’s disease.

A very dangerous position to be in the world community of scientist should gather in agreement those friendly to the values and principles of democracy to advance science for the good humanity and freedom.

The U.S. sorely needs a coordinated national research strategy, says Marcia McNutt, president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

By Saima S. Iqbal

Continue reading “American Science is in Dangerous Decline while Chinese Research Surges, Experts Warn” »

For decades, scientists have focused on how the brain processes information in a hierarchical manner, with different brain areas specialized for different tasks. However, how these areas communicate and integrate information to form a coherent whole has remained a mystery.

Now, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine have brought us closer to solving it by observing how neurons synchronize across the human brain while reading. The findings are published in Nature Human Behavior and are also the basis of a thesis by UC San Diego School of Medicine doctoral candidate Jacob Garrett.

“How the activity of the brain relates to the subjective experience of consciousness is one of the fundamental unanswered questions in modern neuroscience,” said study senior author Eric Halgren, Ph.D., professor in the Departments of Neurosciences and Radiology at UC San Diego School of Medicine.