News

SpaceX reveals mystery moon passenger, and he’s a billionaire

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has been talking up its plans to shoot tourists around the moon since early 2017. It’s finally starting to feel a little more real as Musk announced the company’s first paying passenger on Monday. The deep-pocketed space explorer is Yusaku Maezawa, a 42-year-old Japanese billionaire and founder of online fashion mall Zozotown.

Google AI Tool Identifies a Tumor’s Mutations From an Image

The What-If Tool: Code-Free Probing of Machine Learning Models

How would changes to a datapoint affect my model’s prediction? Does it perform differently for various groups–for example, historically marginalized people? How diverse is the dataset I am testing my model on?

It’s Hard for Doctors to Unlearn Things. That’s Costly for All of Us.

EU approves controversial Copyright Directive, including internet ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’

Carnegie Mellon Researchers Develop New Deepfake Method

Deepfakes, ultrarealistic fake videos manipulated using machine learning, are getting pretty convincing. And researchers continue to develop new methods to create these types of videos, for better or, more likely, for worse. The most recent method comes from researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, who have figured out a way to automatically transfer the “style” of one person to another.

Researchers Identify Molecule With Anti-Aging Effects On Vascular System

A molecule produced during fasting or calorie restriction has anti-aging effects on the vascular system, which could reduce the occurrence and severity of human diseases related to blood vessels, such as cardiovascular disease, according to a study led by Georgia State University. In this study, the research team explores the link between calorie restriction (eating less or fasting) and delaying aging, which is unknown and has been poorly studied. The findings are published in the journal Molecular Cell.

UBC breakthrough opens door to $100 ultrasound machine

Engineers at the University of British Columbia have developed a new ultrasound transducer, or probe, that could dramatically lower the cost of ultrasound scanners to as little as $100. Their patent-pending innovation—no bigger than a Band-Aid—is portable, wearable and can be powered by a smartphone. Conventional ultrasound scanners use piezoelectric crystals to create images of the inside of the body and send them to a computer to create sonograms.

‘Ground-breaking’ diabetes insulin drug trialled in Cardiff

A ‘ground-breaking’ drug that helps people with diabetes re-grow insulin-making cells has been developed. About 19,000 people live with Type 1 of the condition in Wales and 90% have less than 5% of these cells left. This means they have to inject insulin

Report: billionaire Sackler family, accused of encouraging the opioid epidemic