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Feb 26, 2020

Katherine Johnson, famed NASA mathematician and inspiration for the film ‘Hidden Figures,’ is dead at 101

Posted by in categories: computing, mathematics, space travel

NASA announced Johnson’s death on Monday.

Johnson was part of NASA’s “Computer Pool,” a group of mathematicians whose data powered NASA’s first successful space missions. The group’s success largely hinged on the accomplishments of its black women members.


Johnson was among a group of black women mathematicians who helped power NASA’s space travel in the early 1960s when the agency was still segregated.

Feb 26, 2020

Stanford scientists turn fossil fuel molecule into pure diamond

Posted by in categories: energy, materials

Research that investigates the mechanisms behind diamond formation, and uncovers new ways to produce synthetic forms of the unique stone, could mean big things, and not just for the coffers of jewelers around the world. A new type of artificial diamond developed by scientists at Stanford University sheds yet more light on this high-pressure production process, with a molecule found in crude oil and natural gas serving as their starting point.

Conventional diamonds take shape hundreds of miles beneath the Earth’s surface, under extreme heat and pressure that causes carbon to crystalize into the valuable stones. The ones we see above ground were shot upwards towards the surface through volcanic eruptions millions of years ago.

Scientists have spent decades tinkering with different ways to turn various materials into synthetic versions, with diamond giant De Beers even getting in on the act. These methods, however, have generally involved massive amounts of energy and require catalysts to trigger the transformation. The researchers at Stanford’s School of Earth, Energy & Environmental Sciences set out to find a simpler way of doing things.

Feb 26, 2020

AI could transform the treatment of brain tumours

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

Artificial intelligence can help doctors and patients with meningiomas make better treatment decisions, according to a new study.

Meningiomas are tumors that arise from the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. They are the most common primary central nervous system tumor, with an incidence of 8.14 per 100,000 population.

While they generally have better outcomes than other brain tumors, there is a great deal of variability in aggressiveness. Being able to predict malignancy and accurately estimate survival is therefore incredibly important in deciding whether surgery is the best option for the patient.

Feb 26, 2020

The Pentagon promises to use artificial intelligence for good, not evil

Posted by in categories: military, robotics/AI

Can you trust them?


The Defense Department announced five ethical principles it plans to live by as it develops and uses artificial intelligence.

Feb 26, 2020

Dr. David Sinclair on aging and age reversal (compilation II on D. Sinclair by A. Grases)

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

Excerpts from Dr. David Sinclair appearances during 2019 and early 2020. The focus I highlight in this compilation is around the research in progress on aging, age-related diseases and biological age reversal.

Dr. Sinclair is a well-known geneticist, researcher and professor, first at MIT and since more than two decades ago, at Harvard University.

Continue reading “Dr. David Sinclair on aging and age reversal (compilation II on D. Sinclair by A. Grases)” »

Feb 26, 2020

How smart syringes, aimed at stopping HIV, work

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, sex

Download PDF sample copy of this Study @ http://bit.ly/2Vpk6YP

#needles #HIV #shots #sex #corona


Only smart syringes that break after one use should be used for injections by 2020, the World Health Organization has announced.

Continue reading “How smart syringes, aimed at stopping HIV, work” »

Feb 26, 2020

Brain injury diagnosed with a finger prick and an optofluidic chip

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience

Researchers in the UK claim to have developed a microfluidic chip that can rapidly tell whether someone has suffered a traumatic brain injury from a finger-prick blood sample. The optofluidic device detects a biomarker linked to brain injury, based on the way that it scatters light (Nat. Biomed. Eng. 10.1038/s41551-019‑0510-4).


An optofluidic device uses Raman spectroscopy to detect a biomarker in blood associated with traumatic brain injury.

Feb 25, 2020

Researchers create new state of light

Posted by in category: futurism

For 20 years, researchers have studied how light rotates around a longitudinal axis parallel to the direction light travels. But could it move in other ways? After two years of research, and thanks to a sabbatical, University of Dayton researchers Andy Chong and Qiwen Zhan became the first to create a new “state of light”—showing it also can rotate around a transverse axis perpendicular to the direction light travels, like a cyclone.

Nature Photonics, an international publisher of top-quality, peer-reviewed research of light generation, manipulation and detection, published their findings Feb. 24.

“The sabbatical allowed us the time to fully concentrate on this research and was very instrumental in putting us in a position to make this discovery,” Chong said.

Feb 25, 2020

Gmail Is Catching More Malicious Attachments With Deep Learning

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Users of Gmail get 300 billion attachments each week. To separate legitimate documents from harmful ones, Google turned to AI—and it’s working.

Feb 25, 2020

New fusion tech utilizes lasers to bypass sun-like temps and get rid of nuclear waste

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, particle physics

You know what this world needs now… aside from love, sweet love, of course? Less nuclear waste. But it also seemingly needs more and more power, which nuclear would be great at providing, if not for all that pesky waste and those darn radioactive meltdowns that can happen when you go around splitting atoms (fission). Which is where nuclear fusion was supposed to help out, but generating Sun-like temperatures to recreate the processes that power our Earth-powering star have kept that technology at bay.

Well, we may be a lot closer to utilizing the power of fusion, thanks to the revolutionary thinking of HB11, a company that recently secured patents in the U.S., Japan, and China for just that kind of forward thinking technology. And if all goes according to plan, it could just change the world of electricity generation as we know it.