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Archive for the ‘education’ category

Dec 16, 2024

What bacteria taught me about metaphysics

Posted by in categories: biological, education

Documentary filmmaker Hans Busstra shares with us, with the aid of amazing and scientifically accurate animations of the molecular world, the background story of his journey from imaging the hardcore science of molecular biology to the fundamental insights of metaphysics.

Dec 14, 2024

Harvard Makes 1 Million Books Available to Train AI Models

Posted by in categories: education, mathematics, robotics/AI

Data is the new oil, as they say, and perhaps that makes Harvard University the new Exxon. The school announced Thursday the launch of a dataset containing nearly one million public domain books that can be used for training AI models. Under the newly formed Institutional Data Initiative, the project has received funding from both Microsoft and OpenAI, and contains books scanned by Google Books that are old enough that their copyright protection has expired.

Wired in a piece on the new project says the dataset includes a wide variety of books with “classics from Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Dante included alongside obscure Czech math textbooks and Welsh pocket dictionaries.” As a general rule, copyright protections last for the lifetime of the author plus an additional 70 years.

Foundational language models, like ChatGPT, that behave like a verisimilitude of a real human require an immense amount of high-quality text for their training—generally the more information they ingest, the better the models perform at imitating humans and serving up knowledge. But that thirst for data has caused problems as the likes of OpenAI have hit walls on how much new information they can find—without stealing it, at least.

Dec 14, 2024

Inside OpenAI’s MLE-Bench: A New Benchmark for Evaluating Machine Learning Engineering Capabilities of AI Agents

Posted by in categories: education, robotics/AI

Author(s): Jesus Rodriguez Originally published on Towards AI. Created Using IdeogramI recently started an AI-focused educational newsletter, that already has over 170,000 subscribers. TheSequence is a no-BS (meaning no hype, no news, etc) ML-oriented newsletter that takes 5 minutes to read. The goal is to keep you up to date with machine learning projects, research papers, and concepts. Please give it a try by subscribing below:

Dec 14, 2024

Physicists introduce approach to control wave patterns via fluid flows

Posted by in categories: biological, chemistry, education, physics

The reliable control of traveling waves emerging from the coupling of oscillations and diffusion in physical, chemical and biological systems is a long-standing challenge within the physics community. Effective approaches to control these waves help to improve the present understanding of reaction-diffusion systems and their underlying dynamics.

Researchers at Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Université de Rennes recently demonstrated a promising approach to control chemical waves in a type of known as hyperbolic flow. Their experimental methods, outlined in Physical Review Letters recently, entail the control of chemical waves via the stretching and compression of fluids.

“At a summer school in Corsica, discussions between the Brussels and Rennes team triggered the curiosity to see how chemical waves studied at ULB in Brussels would behave in hyperbolic flows analyzed in Rennes,” Anne De Wit, senior author of the paper, told Phys.org. “The primary objective was to see how a non-trivial flow would influence the dynamics of waves.”

Dec 13, 2024

Rewriting Evolution: Study Shows Neanderthals and Humans Were Not the Same Species

Posted by in categories: education, evolution, genetics

A study suggests that by the time H. sapiens expanded, the differentiation between the two species had progressed to the extent that they were distinct and recognizable as separate species.

A recent study conducted by researchers from London’s Natural History Museum and the Institute of Philosophy at KU Leuven has strengthened the argument that Neanderthals and modern humans (Homo sapiens) should be classified as distinct species to more accurately trace our evolutionary history.

Different researchers have different definitions as to what classifies as a species. It is undisputed that H. sapiens and Neanderthals originate from the same parental species, however studies into Neanderthal genetics and evolution have reignited the debate over whether they should be classed as separate from H. sapiens or rather a subspecies (H. sapiens neanderthalensis).

Dec 13, 2024

New insights into the evolution and paleoecology of mosasaurs

Posted by in categories: education, evolution

Mosasaurs are extinct marine lizards, spectacular examples of which were first discovered in 1766 near Maastricht in the Netherlands, fueling the rise of the field of vertebrate paleontology. Paleontologist Michael Polcyn presented the most comprehensive study to date on the early evolution and ecology of these extinct marine reptiles.

On 16 December, Polcyn will receive his Ph.D. from Utrecht University for his research into the evolution of the mosasaurs. Mosasaurs are a textbook example of macroevolution, the emergence of new and distinct groups of animals, above the level of species. Although they have been studied for centuries, new discoveries, novel research approaches, and the application of technology, are still teaching us about their relationships and behaviors, some of which continue to surprise us.

For example, through the use of detailed comparative anatomy aided by micro-CT scanning technology, we have gained a much better understanding of what group of lizards mosasaurs likely evolved from.

Dec 11, 2024

New look at dopamine signaling suggests neuroscientists’ model of reinforcement learning may need to be revised

Posted by in categories: education, food, neuroscience

Dopamine is a powerful signal in the brain, influencing our moods, motivations, movements, and more. The neurotransmitter is crucial for reward-based learning, a function that may be disrupted in a number of psychiatric conditions, from mood disorders to addiction.

Now, researchers led by MIT Institute Professor Ann Graybiel have found surprising patterns of dopamine signaling that suggest neuroscientists may need to refine their model of how occurs in the brain. The team’s findings were published recently in the journal Nature Communications.

Dopamine plays a critical role in teaching people and other animals about the cues and behaviors that portend both positive and negative outcomes; the classic example of this type of learning is the dog that Ivan Pavlov trained to anticipate food at the sound of bell.

Dec 11, 2024

Explore the world of artificial intelligence with online courses from MIT

Posted by in categories: education, robotics/AI

Through MIT OpenCourseWare, MITx, and MIT xPRO learn about machine learning, computational thinking, deepfakes, and more, all for free.

With the rise of artificial intelligence, the job landscape is changing — rapidly. MIT Open Learning offers online courses and resources straight from the MIT classroom that are designed to empower learners and professionals across industries with the competencies essential for succeeding in an increasingly AI-powered world.

Dec 10, 2024

What makes physics beautiful? We asked some top researchers

Posted by in categories: education, quantum physics

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder – and for physicists, beauty is in numbers.

Pedro Vieira, Clay Riddell Dirac Chair in Theoretical Physics at Perimeter Institute, is currently teaching a non-credit minicourse about ‘beautiful’ papers in physics. The course alternates between lectures on nine influential papers and student-led presentations about how these monumental papers influenced physics.

This is Vieira’s second time running the course and his first time offering it at Perimeter. He says the course is a way to cover spectacular papers while helping students understand the language of quantum field theory.

Dec 9, 2024

AI-powered tutor, teaching assistant tested as a way to help educators and students

Posted by in categories: chemistry, education, robotics/AI

We are about to show you a technological innovation that could, one day, change the way every child in every school in America is taught. It’s an online tutor powered by artificial intelligence designed to help teachers be more efficient… and students learn more effectively. It’s called Khanmigo–conmigo means “with me,” in Spanish. And Khan…is its creator…Sal Khan, the well-known founder of Khan Academy — whose lectures and educational software have been used for years by tens of millions of students and teachers in the U.S. and around the world. Khanmigo was built with the help of OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. Its potential is staggering, but it’s still very much a work in progress. It’s being piloted in 266 school districts in the U.S. in grades three-12. We went to Hobart High School in Indiana to see how it works.

Melissa Higgason: Good morning, just a normal day in chem, right?

At eight in the morning Melissa Higgason knows it’s not always easy to get 30 high schoolers excited about chemistry.

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