Researchers have discovered that a nine–amino acid microexon spliced into the DAAM1 gene is critical for memory formation, functioning exclusively in neurons.

Are you eager to enhance your artificial intelligence skills? We’ve curated a fantastic selection of free AI books to aid your learning journey!

We live in extraordinary times.

I’ve been writing about this for the past decade, analysing AI and other exponential technologies and their impact on society. As you get started with Exponential View, I wanted to introduce you first to five charts — depicting key dynamics — to help you understand why the pace of change has increased.

Today’s supercomputers are enormously powerful, but the work they do − running AI and tackling difficult science − is pushing them to their limits. Building bigger supercomputers won’t be easy.

One of the reasons why this has never happened before is that spiders themselves are difficult organisms to work with within the laboratory. They are a diverse group, have a complex genome structure, and their cannibalistic nature means that they have to be reared individually, otherwise their cage neighbors would be gobbled up. Despite this, new developments in Parasteatoda tepidariorum have allowed this species to become a research model.

The research team looked into spider silk as the target. Spider silk is an incredibly strong and scientifically interesting substance, as it is five times stronger than a steel cable of the same weight, tear-resistant, while also being biodegradable, lightweight, and elastic.

To genetically modify this arachnophobe’s nightmare, the scientists developed an injection solution. This had a gene-editing system that also included a red fluorescent protein gene sequence. This solution was then injected into oocytes inside unfertilized female spiders, when these spiders mated with males, it resulted in the genetically modified offspring.

The idea was first hypothesized about 70 years ago.

These AI’s won’t just respond to prompts – although they will do that too – they are working in the background acting on your behalf, pursuing your goals with independence and competence.

Your main interface to the world will, as it is today, be a device; a smartphone or whatever replaces it. It will host your personal AI agent, not a stripped-down thing with limited capabilities of knowledge. It’s a sophisticated model, more capable than GPT-4 is today. It’ll run locally and privately, so all your core interactions are yours and yours alone. It will be a digital Chief of Staff, an extension of your will, with a separate initiative.

In Alan Kay’s visionary Knowledge Navigator video from 1987, we saw an early, eerily prescient depiction of an AI-powered assistant: a personable digital agent helping a university professor manage his day. It converses naturally, juggles scheduling conflicts, surfaces relevant academic research, and even initiates a video call with a colleague — all through a touchscreen interface with a calm, competent virtual presence.

A new study reveals how a soft, compliant robotic hand, built with silicone skin, springs, and bendable joints, can self-organize grasps without needing precise environmental data or complex programming.

One of the most terrifying things about Dune is the fact that it rather accurately predicted what the next front of warfare will look like: genetic warfare. In twenty twenty five, gene manipulation is the biggest threat in the theatre of war, because one gene-altering weapon can render an enemy force infertile at best, and terribly mutated at worst. But that’s not something that happens to the products of breeding programmes in the Dune-verse, at least on a physical level. In this video, we will take a look at every breeding programme in Frank Herbert’s creation, and talk about their horrifying histories in detail.

I was just thinking about the 1871 book Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There by mathematician, logician, Anglican deacon, writer, and photographer, the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll).

Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass continue to influence us today, not just as beloved children’s stories but as enduring works that challenge the boundaries of logic, language, and imagination.

At their heart, both books are filled with logical conundrums, puzzling paradoxes, and playful reasoning, reflecting Charles’ background in math and logic. He employed nonsensical situations and absurd dialogues to explore profound ideas about meaning, identity, time, and even mathematics, all disguised within fantastical storytelling.