YOUR BRAIN’S MUSIC CIRCUIT HAS BEEN DISCOVERED – FACTS SO ROMANTIC
Their discovery that certain neurons have “music selectivity” stirs questions about the role of music in human life. Why do our brains contain music-selective neurons? Could some evolutionary purpose have led to neurons devoted to music? McDermott says the study can’t answer such questions. But he is excited by the fact that it shows music has a unique biological effect. “We presume those neurons are doing something in relation to the analysis of music that allows you to extract structure, following melodies or rhythms, or maybe extract emotion,” he says.
Read moreHOW LYFT, MASTERCARD, AND DRONE COMPANIES ARE EXPERIMENTING WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Several businesses like Mastercard and fast-growing drone companies are exploring ways that AI technologies like machine learning can better verify people’s identities and process insurance claims. Source: fortune.com
FDA PERMITS MARKETING OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-BASED DEVICE TO DETECT CERTAIN DIABETES
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today permitted marketing of the first medical device to use artificial intelligence to detect greater than a mild level of the eye disease diabetic retinopathy in adults who have diabetes. Source: fda.gov
WHY IS THE HUMAN BRAIN SO EFFICIENT?
The brain is complex; in humans it consists of about 100 billion neurons, making on the order of 100 trillion connections. It is often compared with another complex system that has enormous problem-solving power: the digital computer. Both the brain and the computer contain a large number of elementary units—neurons and transistors, respectively—that are wired into complex circuits to process information conveyed by electrical signals. At a global level, the architectures of the brain and the computer resemble each other, consisting of largely separate circuits for input, output, central processing, and memory.
Read moreIS THE CHINESE LANGUAGE A SUPERSTITION MACHINE?
English speakers are sanguine about homophony—often blithely, so that they make little attempt to clarify meanings even when the context leaves open the possibility of more than one. In one study led by Victor Ferreira, people were asked to describe objects in visual scenes that showed both a baseball bat and a flying bat—but they ambiguously referred to either of these as simply “the bat,” under some conditions as often as 63 percent of the time.
Read moreSEEING MORE WITH IN SILICO LABELING OF MICROSCOPY IMAGES
In the fields of biology and medicine, microscopy allows researchers to observe details of cells and molecules which are unavailable to the naked eye. Transmitted light microscopy, where a biological sample is illuminated on one side and imaged, is relatively simple and well-tolerated by living cultures but produces images which can be difficult to properly assess. Fluorescence microscopy, in which biological objects of interest (such as cell nuclei) are specifically targeted with fluorescent molecules, simplifies analysis but requires complex sample preparation.
Read moreTHE ELECTRONICS COOLING SYSTEM 400 MILLION YEARS IN THE MAKING
Over hundreds of millions of years of evolution,water-repellant skin has enabledtiny insects, called springtails,to breathe through their skinwithout suffocating in damp soil flooded by rainwater. More recently, such natural engineering has inspired a new approach to cooling new generations of miniaturized electronic devices. Source: ieee.org
QUANTUM MECHANICS USED FOR BETTER RANDOM NUMBERS
Researchers have come up with a way to generate truly random numbers using quantum mechanics. The method uses photons to generate a string of random ones and zeros, and leans on the laws of physics to prove that these strings are truly random, rather than merely posing as random. Source: newatlas.com
NASA LIKELY TO FLY FIRST DEEP SPACE MISSION ON LESS POWERFUL ROCKET
NASA will likely launch its first astronauts into deep space since the Apollo program on a less powerful version of its Space Launch System rocket than originally planned. Although it has not been officially announced, in recent weeks mission planners at the space agency have begun designing ‘Exploration Mission 2’ to be launched on the Block 1 version of the SLS rocket, which has the capability to lift 70 tons to low Earth orbit.
Read moreCURING DISEASE NOT A “SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODEL,” GOLDMAN SACHS ANALYSTS SAY
The potential to deliver “one shot cures” is one of the most attractive aspects of gene therapy, genetically engineered cell therapy, and gene editing. However, such treatments offer a very different outlook with regard to recurring revenue versus chronic therapies… While this proposition carries tremendous value for patients and society, it could represent a challenge for genome medicine developers looking for sustained cash flow. Source: arstechnica.com