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Apr 15, 2021

Learning the molecular grammar of protein condensates from sequence determinants and embeddings

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

The tendency of many cellular proteins to form protein-rich biomolecular condensates underlies the formation of subcellular compartments and has been linked to various physiological functions. Understanding the molecular basis of this fundamental process and predicting protein phase behavior have therefore become important objectives. To develop a global understanding of how protein sequence determines its phase behavior, we constructed bespoke datasets of proteins of varying phase separation propensity and identified explicit biophysical and sequence-specific features common to phase-separating proteins. Moreover, by combining this insight with neural network-based sequence embeddings, we trained machine-learning classifiers that identified phase-separating sequences with high accuracy, including from independent external test data.

Intracellular phase separation of proteins into biomolecular condensates is increasingly recognized as a process with a key role in cellular compartmentalization and regulation. Different hypotheses about the parameters that determine the tendency of proteins to form condensates have been proposed, with some of them probed experimentally through the use of constructs generated by sequence alterations. To broaden the scope of these observations, we established an in silico strategy for understanding on a global level the associations between protein sequence and phase behavior and further constructed machine-learning models for predicting protein liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS). Our analysis highlighted that LLPS-prone proteins are more disordered, less hydrophobic, and of lower Shannon entropy than sequences in the Protein Data Bank or the Swiss-Prot database and that they show a fine balance in their relative content of polar and hydrophobic residues.

Apr 15, 2021

Measurement of the Positive Muon Anomalous Magnetic Moment to 0.46 ppm

Posted by in category: futurism

Measurements of the muon magnetic moment strengthen a previously reported tension with theoretical predictions, ushering in a new era of precision tests of the standard model.

Apr 15, 2021

Malware Variants: More Sophisticated, Prevalent and Evolving in 2021

Posted by in categories: cybercrime/malcode, evolution

Employees play a vital role in ensuring their company’s cybersecurity bubble remains intact. Many malware campaigns begin by sending an e-mail communication to employees. To learn basic cybersecurity hygiene, employees must become familiar with password management, identify and report security threats, and recognize suspicious behavior. Regular content and training will assist employees in countering any malware threats they encounter.

Adopt a culture of comprehensive security.

Given the ongoing evolution of malware attacks and their capability to surpass what they were capable of, organizations should prioritize a strong malware protection strategy. Consultation with experienced cybersecurity experts like Indusface can help them create a solution that meets their needs.

Apr 15, 2021

1-Click Hack Found in Popular Desktop Apps — Check If You’re Using Them

Posted by in categories: bitcoin, cybercrime/malcode, internet

Multiple one-click vulnerabilities have been discovered across a variety of popular software applications, allowing an attacker to potentially execute arbitrary code on target systems.

The issues were discovered by Positive Security researchers Fabian Bräunlein and Lukas Euler and affect apps like Telegram, Nextcloud, VLC, LibreOffice, OpenOffice, Bitcoin/Dogecoin Wallets, Wireshark, and Mumble.

“Desktop applications which pass user supplied URLs to be opened by the operating system are frequently vulnerable to code execution with user interaction,” the researchers said. “Code execution can be achieved either when a URL pointing to a malicious executable (.desktop,.jar,.exe, …) hosted on an internet accessible file share (nfs, webdav, smb, …) is opened, or an additional vulnerability in the opened application’s URI handler is exploited.”

Apr 15, 2021

A Casino Gets Hacked Through a Fish-Tank Thermometer

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Are your fish tanks secure?

Apr 15, 2021

NASA’s New Horizons probe reaches rare distance, looks out to farthest Voyager

Posted by in category: space

New Horizons is the fifth most distant spacecraft from Earth.

Pioneer 10, which was launched in 1972 and was the first probe to pass through the asteroid belt and to fly by Jupiter, reached 50 AU on Sept. 22, 1990. Today, it is approximately 129 AU from Earth.

Its sister ship, Pioneer 11, reached 50 AU a year later in 1991. It was launched in 1973 and in addition to flying by Jupiter, was the first to make direct observations of Saturn. It is now about 105 AU from Earth.

Apr 15, 2021

Crew Dragon’s Short Hop Begins The Era Of Valet Parking At The ISS

Posted by in categories: habitats, robotics/AI, space

They weren’t scheduled to return to Earth until April 28th at the earliest, so why did NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, along with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, suit up and climb aboard the Crew Dragon Resilience on April 5th? Because a previously untested maneuver meant that after they closed the hatch between their spacecraft and the International Space Station, there was a chance they weren’t going to be coming back.

On paper, moving a capsule between docking ports seems simple enough. All Resilience had to do was undock from the International Docking Adapter 2 (IDA-2) located on the front of the Harmony module, itself attached to the Pressurized Mating Adapter 2 (PMA-2) that was once the orbital parking spot for the Space Shuttle, and move over to the PMA-3/IDA-3 on top of Harmony. It was a short trip through open space, and when the crew exited their craft and reentered the Station at the end of it, they’d only be a few meters from where they started out approximately 45 minutes prior.

Continue reading “Crew Dragon’s Short Hop Begins The Era Of Valet Parking At The ISS” »

Apr 15, 2021

Cancer patient saw disease all but vanish after catching Covid

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

That might actually make sense. Cancer spreads through the body because the immune system doesn’t see the threat for what it is and so takes no action. But if the body has Cancer AND covid the immune system sends in it’s heaviest guns on a search and destroy mission. Then, while attacking cov8d it detects something ELSE that shouldn’t be there and kills it too.

I’m no expert, but it does make a lot of sense 5o me.


Covid may have caused a cancer patient’s tumours to vanish, according to doctors, who said it could have sparked an “anti-tumour immune response” in the man.

Continue reading “Cancer patient saw disease all but vanish after catching Covid” »

Apr 15, 2021

Open Source, Is it Good for AGI Research or a Suicide Pact? Help us know for sure

Posted by in categories: ethics, robotics/AI

Those that have grown up with open source in the past 20 years know that open source is popular. It’s popular because of a number of reasons including that it fosters innovation, speeds up delivery, and helps us all collectively learn from each other.

We ourselves at the AGI Lab have just assumed this was a good thing. We believe that Open Source research helps everyone. Many research groups in AGI research are already open sourcing including Open Cog, Open Nars, and more.

From an ethical standpoint, we use a system called SSIVA Theory to teach ethics to systems we work on such as Uplift and so we assumed we should release some of our code (which we have here on this blog and in papers) and we planned on open sourcing a version of the mASI or collective system that we work on that uses an AGI Cognitive Architecture.

Apr 15, 2021

Part-human, part-monkey embryos grown in lab dishes

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, life extension

Scientists injected dozens of human stem cells into developing monkey embryos, and the resulting hybrids survived for up to 20 days in lab dishes.

These human-monkey embryos could someday serve as helpful models for human disease, embryonic development and aging, the study authors noted in a new report, published April 15 in the journal Cell. By zooming in on the interaction of human and animal cells in the embryos, scientists could also learn how to help human cells survive amongst animal cells, potentially advancing the effort to grow human organs in living animal models.