Evidence is mounting that there are distinct subtypes of autism, and now, scientists have found that the condition can vary according to the strength of people’s brain connections
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No spacecraft has ever landed in the outer solar system — except one: the Huygens probe
Two decades on, it is still the most distant landing ever made, and it remains the only one in the outer solar system.
Seven years to get there
Huygens was the lander half of the Cassini-Huygens mission, a joint venture between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian space agency. The European-built probe rode piggyback on NASA’s Cassini orbiter, which launched in 1997 and spent nearly seven years crossing the solar system before slipping into orbit around Saturn in 2004.
Roman Yampolskiy: AI Can’t Be Controlled. We Need to Pause Now!
Roman Yampolskiy spent two decades trying to prove superintelligence can be controlled. He couldn’t — and now says the proof runs the other way: not difficult, mathematically impossible.
If he’s right, we’re building the one machine we can never switch off, and the people building it are racing to do it faster.
Roman is a professor of computer science at the University of Louisville and one of the earliest researchers in AI safety.
We cover: why you’re the squirrel in the human-AI intelligence gap, what the halting problem really says about predicting a smarter mind, why he calls all current AI safety \.
Specific cognitive abilities are highly heritable independent of general intelligence
A massive new meta-analysis reveals that individual cognitive abilities, like reading and math, rely on inherited DNA just as much as overall intelligence, suggesting people possess heavily customized genetic cognitive profiles independent of general smarts.
China hits new milestone in space solar power project
XI’AN — Chinese scientists have taken a major step toward building a space solar power station, a giant power plant in space that could one day send energy back to Earth or to spacecraft.
A research team from Xidian University in Northwest China’s Shaanxi province has made significant progress on the Sun Chasing project, or “Zhuri” in Chinese. The team has developed a ground-based test system for wireless power transmission that can charge multiple moving targets at the same time.
In recent tests, the system achieved a wireless power transmission efficiency of 20.8 percent from direct current to direct current over a distance of 100 meters. It delivered 1,180 watts of power. The team has also built a wireless charging system for drones. In a test, a drone flying at 30 kilometers per hour was able to receive 143 watts of stable power from 30 meters away.
Bio-Computing: Making Computers with Human Neurons (Interview with FinalSpark)
Are human brain cells the computer chips of the future? Three companies are competing to make biocomputers out of human neurons, and using them to play Doom, detect explosive molecules, and more.
This is a conversation with Dr. Fred Jordan and Dr. Ewelina Kurtys of FinalSpark. We talk about the differences between AI’s \.
Brain-inspired phototransistor could cut AI energy use by sensing and storing data
Inspired by the human brain, Oregon State University researchers have developed a new light-sensitive device that combines sensing and memory while controlling how digital memories strengthen or fade over time. The research was published in Advanced Functional Materials.
Technology that functions more like the human brain could enable artificial intelligence systems to work faster while consuming less electricity, said Larry Cheng of the OSU College of Engineering.
The new device integrates light sensing, memory and signal processing in a single phototransistor. Current AI hardware, Cheng explains, typically spreads those functions among different components, requiring information to move between them and increasing energy demands while reducing efficiency.