Lifeboat Foundation

Computer scientists at the University of California San Diego are showing how soil microbes can be harnessed to fuel low-power sensors. This opens new possibilities for microbial fuel cells (MFCs), which can power soil hydration sensors and other devices.

Led by Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Assistant Professor Pat Pannuto and Gabriel Marcano, a Ph.D. student working with Pannuto, this research was presented today at the first Association for Computer Machinery (ACM) Workshop on No Power and Low Power Internet of Things.

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In biology, symmetry is typically the rule rather than the exception. Our bodies have left and right halves, starfish radiate from a central point and even trees, though not largely symmetrical, still produce symmetrical flowers. In fact, asymmetry in biology seems quite rare by comparison.

Does this mean that evolution has a preference for symmetry? In a new study, an international group of researchers, led by Iain Johnston, a professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Bergen in Norway, says it does.

Which, to me, sounds both unimaginably complex and sublimely simple.

Sort of like, perhaps, like our brains.

Building chips with analogs of biological neurons and dendrites and neural networks like our brains is also key to the massive efficiency gains Rain Neuromorphics is claiming: 1,000 times more efficient than existing digital chips from companies like Nvidia.

First “decadal survey” into biological physics says further advances can only emerge in the subject with additional investment.

Techniques from computer science may help explain the tendency in biology for structures to repeat themselves.

Artificial intelligence could help humanity solve many of the global issues in a positive way. See more about what AI-powered algorithms can do when influenced by human abuse.

Research On Humans Adapting, Living & Working In Space — Colonel (ret) Dr. Samantha Weeks, Ph.D., Polaris Dawn, Science & Research Director

Colonel (ret) Dr. Samantha “Combo” Weeks, Ph.D. is the Science & Research Director, of the Polaris Dawn Program (https://polarisprogram.com/dawn/), a planned private human spaceflight mission, operated by SpaceX on behalf of Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Isaacman, planned to launch using the Crew Dragon capsule.

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This disparity gets at the difference between one’s chronological age — how old they are in years — and their biological age, which is how their body has aged naturally and in response to its environment. The two can diverge in ways that are either blessings or curses. Hence why those who grow up under extreme stress or in polluted environments may look much older than they actually are.

And yellow-bellied marmots can tell us something about these two ages.

Yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventer) are no burrow-dwelling meteorologists like the groundhog. They may sound craven, but these quirky critters, also known as whistle pigs, make for fascinating subjects: the cat-sized rodents have a longer lifespan than expected for a mammal of their size. On average, marmots live 15 years.

An is an external information processing system that augments the brain’s biological high-level cognitive processes.

An individual’s would be comprised of external memory modules 0, processors 0, IO devices and software systems that would interact with, and augment, a person’s biological brain. Typically this interaction is described as being conducted through a direct brain-computer interface 0, making these extensions functionally part of the individual’s mind.

Individuals with significant exocortices can be classified as transhuman beings.