Lifeboat Foundation

Science and Technology: Google said its quantum computer, based on a computer chip called Willow, needed less than five minutes to perform a mathematical calculation that one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers could not complete in 10 septillion years, a length of time that exceeds the age of the known universe.

Electronic skins (e-skins) are flexible sensing materials designed to mimic the human skin’s ability to pick up tactile information when touching objects and surfaces. Highly performing e-skins could be used to enhance the capabilities of robots, to create new haptic interfaces and to develop more advanced prosthetics.

In recent years, researchers and engineers have been trying to develop e-skins with individual tactile units (i.e., taxels) that can accurately sense both normal (i.e., perpendicular) and shear (i.e., lateral) forces. While some of these attempts were successful, most existing multi-axis sensors are based on intricate designs or require complex fabrication and calibration processes, which limits their widespread deployment.

Continue reading “Soft e-skin utilizes magnetic fields to independently sense three-axis forces” »

Chatbots can wear a lot of proverbial hats: dictionary, therapist, poet, all-knowing friend. The artificial intelligence models that power these systems appear exceptionally skilled and efficient at providing answers, clarifying concepts, and distilling information. But to establish trustworthiness of content generated by such models, how can we really know if a particular statement is factual, a hallucination, or just a plain misunderstanding?

In many cases, AI systems gather external information to use as context when answering a particular query. For example, to answer a question about a medical condition, the system might reference recent research papers on the topic. Even with this relevant context, models can make mistakes with what feels like high doses of confidence. When a model errs, how can we track that specific piece of information from the context it relied on — or lack thereof?

To help tackle this obstacle, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) researchers created ContextCite, a tool that can identify the parts of external context used to generate any particular statement, improving trust by helping users easily verify the statement.

Continue reading “Citation tool offers a new approach to trustworthy AI-generated content” »

The oral mucosa is a critical barrier tissue that is continually exposed to pathogens, but antiviral immune responses in this tissue are poorly understood. Moreover, recent viral outbreaks, including SARS-CoV-2 and mpox, feature oral symptoms. This Review discusses antiviral immunity in the oral cavity and presents current mouse models for the study of oral viral infections.

NIH scientists used multiphoton imaging of live human arteries and other research tools to gain a new and unexpected understanding of how hemoglobin helps regulate blood vessel dilation. The research may lead to new ways to treat malaria and other vascular diseases. Learn more about these studies.

A look inside human arteries reveals a new picture of hemoglobin’s role there and may lead to treatments for malaria and other vascular diseases.

This innovative sterilizer is ideal for remote areas, promoting sanitation and eco-friendly farming.

Seoul, South Korea, December 9: A South Korean company, Palsoo, has unveiled a portable sterilization system that utilizes regular tap water to eliminate 99.8% of airborne bacteria and viruses effectively.

This technology, which combines plasma activation with solar charging, offers a sustainable solution for sanitation in areas lacking electricity or facing harsh conditions.

Continue reading “Portable plasma slays 99.8% germs, turns water into bacteria-killer” »

New research suggests Alzheimer’s drugs may improve cognition by increasing Aβ42 levels rather than just reducing plaques, challenging the amyloid cascade hypothesis and pointing to new therapeutic strategies focused on restoring soluble Aβ42 to maintain brain health.

In 2021, scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, reported an astonishing new form of symbiosis: They found a unique bacterium that lives inside a ciliate—a unicellular eukaryote—and provides it with energy. The symbiont’s role is thus strongly reminiscent of mitochondria, with the key difference that the endosymbiont derives energy from the respiration of nitrate, not oxygen.

Now the researchers from Bremen set out to learn more about the environmental distribution and diversity of these peculiar symbionts. “After our initial discovery of this symbiont in a freshwater lake, we wondered how common these organisms are in nature,” says Jana Milucka from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology. “Are they extremely rare and therefore eluded detection so long? Or do they exist elsewhere and if so, what are their metabolic capacities?”

Summary: Human number cognition may be rooted in the putamen, a deep brain structure traditionally associated with movement rather than abstract thought. Neurosurgery patients demonstrated activity in this area while processing numbers as symbols, words, and concepts, suggesting that numerical understanding emerged early in evolution.

Researchers also observed activity in expected areas like the parietal lobe, highlighting how different brain regions collaborate in number processing. These findings could improve surgical outcomes by protecting areas crucial for number cognition and open pathways to enhancing math learning through targeted interventions.

All DNA is prone to fragmentation, whether it is derived from a biological matrix or created during gene synthesis; thus, any DNA sample will contain a range of fragment sizes. To really exploit the true benefits of long read sequencing, it is necessary to remove these shorter fragments, which might other wise be sequenced preferentially.

DNA size selection can exclude short fragments, maximizing data yields by ensuring that those fragments with the most informational content are not blocked from accessing detection centers (for example, ZMWs) by shorter DNA fragments.

Next-generation size-selection solutions Starting with clean, appropriate-length fragments for HiFi reads can accelerate research by reducing the computation and data processing time needed post-sequencing. Ranger Technology from Yourgene Health is a patent-protected process for automating electrophoresis-based DNA analysis and size selection. Its fluorescence machine vision system and image analysis algorithms provide real-time interpretation of the DNA separation process.