Category: Science

Scientists developed a new AI framework to prevent machines from misbehaving


They promised us the robots wouldn’t attack… In what seems like dialogue lifted straight from the pages of a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel, researchers from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Stanford claim they’ve developed an algorithmic framework that guarantees AI won’t misbehave. The framework uses ‘Seldonian’ algorithms, named for the protagonist of Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” series, a continuation of the fictional universe where the author’s “Laws of Robotics” first appeared. According to the team’s research, the Seldonian architecture allows developers to define their own operating conditions in order to prevent systems from crossing certain thresholds while training or optimizing.…

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Why mobile access won’t mend our ‘digital divide’ without fixed-line broadband


Mobile services have had an important and positive impact on developing countries where they are the main means of connecting to the internet. However, mobile services have capacity constraints. They use limited radio frequency spectrum, which means that mobile data typically has usage limits. They also have high prices per unit (per gigabyte), which results in lower use per connection. Fixed-line broadband, on the other hand, has significantly lower prices per unit. It is often offered on an uncapped or unlimited basis and therefore has higher usage per connection. This enables a wider range of services. Fixed lines are expensive…

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Psychologist explains what makes people psychopathic


Millions recently flocked to the cinema to watch Joker, the origin story of Batman’s notorious nemesis. Many have commented that the film is a portrait of a textbook psychopath. But perhaps the bigger question is how many among the audience have similar traits? Indeed, is it possible that you are a psychopath yourself? To answer this question, we need to examine the diagnostic criteria for psychopathy presented in the PCL-R, which was developed by Robert Hare in the 1970s. Thanks to Hare, experts can use the PCL-R to assess whether an individual is exhibiting any of the criteria for psychopathy.…

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The ESA wants to put humans in hibernation for long-term space travel


The European Space Agency is currently exploring human hibernation as a means of addressing the problem of sending humans into deep space. A recent study conducted by the agency determined that putting people to sleep for long voyages would save money, provide health benefits, and allow for more efficient space ship designs. It’ll take about seven months, under the right conditions, for humans to get to Mars. Elon Musk has a plan to get us there, NASA’s all in, and the ESA is exploring its options. There’s just one big problem: it might be a suicide mission. There’s a bunch…

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Yale study shows same-sex sexual behavior provides species-wide benefits


A team of researchers from the Yale school of Forestry and Environmental Studies recently published research indicating scientists have been looking at ‘same-sex sexual behavior‘ (SSB) all wrong. Rather than being anomalous or abnormal, the researchers suggest that SSB is intrinsic to evolution and that ‘different-sex sexual behavior‘ (DSB) shouldn’t be considered a baseline for sexual activity in the animal kingdom. The reason why? Because the other way doesn’t really makes sense. According to a Yale press release: Researchers argue these behaviors may actually have been part of the original, ancestral condition in animals and have persisted because they have…

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Here’s why memories come flooding back when you visit places from your past


We all know our memories get worse as time goes on – your recollection of what you did yesterday is probably a lot better than for the same day three years ago. And yet we often have moments where old and seemingly forgotten memories pop back into mind. Perhaps you have visited your childhood home, walked into your old bedroom, and been hit with a wave of nostalgia. What triggers this rush of memories, and how can you suddenly remember things you may not have thought about for decades? Researchers are realizing that the context in which memories are created…

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Radar tech reveals unseen footprints of mammoths from the Ice Age


The mammoth lumbers through our imaginations when we think about the world during the most recent Ice Age. They’re just one of many giant creatures that our ancestors lived alongside and which became extinct when the climate changed. The giant ground sloth – a large herbivore that was endemic to the Americas – is another. We can study these extinct animals from their bones – but also from the preserved footprints they left in the mud. But these footprints are often hard to find – and while they can tell us about the presence of an animal, they don’t always…

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How humans survived the plague for millenia


One of civilization’s most prolific killers shadowed humans for thousands of years without their knowledge. The bacteria Yersinia pestis, which causes the plague, is thought to be responsible for up to 200 million deaths across human history — more than twice the casualties of World War II. The Y. pestis death toll comes from three widespread disease outbreaks, known as epidemics: the sixth century Justinianic Plague that ravaged the Eastern Roman Empire; the 14th century Black Death that killed somewhere between 40 percent and 60 percent of the European population; and the ongoing Third Pandemic, which began in China in…

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This AI system predicts seizures an hour before they happen with 99.6% accuracy


A pair of researchers from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette have developed an artificial intelligence system that predicts epileptic seizures with 99.6 percent accuracy. The World Health Organization estimates that between 4 and 10 in every 1,000 people suffer from epilepsy-related seizures. According to numerous studies, 70 percent of those afflicted have symptoms that can be mitigated with medication. The problem is that many patients are unable to tell when they enter the preictal stage (the period directly before a seizure occurs) when such intervention would be effective. Professor Magdy Bayoumi and researcher Hisham Daoud, the duo who created…

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Climate change is currently triggering the sixth mass extinction


For more than 3.5 billion years, living organisms have thrived, multiplied and diversified to occupy every ecosystem on Earth. The flip side to this explosion of new species is that species extinctions have also always been part of the evolutionary life cycle. But these two processes are not always in step. When the loss of species rapidly outpaces the formation of new species, this balance can be tipped enough to elicit what is known as “mass extinction” events. A mass extinction is usually defined as a loss of about three-quarters of all species in existence across the entire Earth over…

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