Category Archives: Singularity

BIOTECH

In a First, Man Receives a Heart From a Genetically Altered PigRoni Caryn Rabin | The New York TimesA 57-year-old man with life-threatening heart disease has received a heart from a genetically modified pig, a groundbreaking procedure that offers hope to hundreds of thousands of patients with failing organs. It is the first successful transplant of a pigs heart into a human being.

Second Lifes Creator Is Back to Build a Metaverse That Doesnt Harm PeopleMark Sullivan | Fast CompanyAs Second Life positions itself as an alternative to a metaverse dominated by big tech, founder Philip Rosedale is returning as an advisor. In his advisory role at Linden, Rosedale will focus on product development, with the aim of shaping Second Lifes version of the future metaverse.

Jack Dorseys Block Is Working to Decentralize Bitcoin MiningJon Porter | The VergeBlock, the payment company formerly known as Square, is working on building an open Bitcoin mining system, itsCEO Jack Dorsey has announced. In a thread, Blocks general manager for hardwareThomas Templeton outlined the companys goals for the system, which is for it to be easily available, reliable, performant, and relatively power efficient compared to its hashrate. The overall aim is to make mining more decentralized, in turn making the overall Bitcoin network more resilient.

The Radical Intervention That Might Save the Doomsday GlacierJames Temple | MIT Technology ReviewEven if the world immediately halted the greenhouse-gas emissions driving climate change and warming the waters beneath the ice shelf, that wouldnt do anything to thicken and restabilize the Thwaitess critical buttress, saysJohn Moore, a glaciologist and professor at the Arctic Centre at the University of Lapland in Finland. So the only way of preventing the collapse is to physically stabilize the ice sheets, he says. That will require what is variously described as active conservation,radical adaptation, or glacier geoengineering.

First Transplant of a Genetically Altered Pig Heart Into a Person Sparks Ethics QuestionsMegan Molteni | StatThe groundbreaking procedure raises hopes that animal organs might one day be routinely used for human transplants, which would shorten waiting listswhere thousands of seriously ill people languish and die every year. But its also raising a few eyebrows and a lot of questions from bioethicists. Theres still relatively little known about how safe this is to try in humans, so Im viewing this with a little apprehension, said Arthur Caplan, the founding director of New York University School of Medicines Division of Medical Ethics.

Is Norway the Future of Cars?Shira Ovide | The New York TimesLast year, Norway reached a milestone. Only about 8 percent of new cars sold in the countryran purely on conventional gasoline or diesel fuel. Two-thirds of new cars sold were electric, and most of the rest were electric-and-gasoline hybrids. electric car enthusiasts are stunned by the speedat which the internal combustion engine has become an endangered species in Norway.

All Hail the Ariane 5 Rocket, Which Doubled the Webb Telescopes LifetimeEric Berger | Ars TechnicaNASAs Mission Systems Engineer for the Webb telescope, Mike Menzel, said the agency had completed its analysis of how much extra fuel remained on board the telescope. Roughly speaking, Menzel said, Webb has enough propellant on board for 20 years of life. This is twice the conservative pre-launch estimate for Webbs lifetime of a decade, and it largely comes down to the performance of the European Ariane 5 rocket that launched Webb on a precise trajectory on Christmas Day.

Cecilia DAnastasio | WirediWhen I look at other directors dealing with the theme of the internet, it tends to be kind of negative, like a dystopia, says Hosoda. But I always look at the internet as something for the young generation to explore and create new worlds in. And I still, to this day, have that take on the internet. So its always been optimistic. WatchingBelle, its easy to become absorbed in that optimism. Its visually stunning, with both its rural landscapes and a digital megalopolis packed tight with a breathtaking number of pixels.

The Subversive Genius of Extremely Slow EmailIan Bogost | The AtlanticDmitry Minkovsky has been working on [slow email app] Pony over the past three years, with the goal of recovering some of the magic that online life had lost for him. I used to find such projects appealing for their subversiveness: as art objects that make problems visible rather than proposing viable solutions to them. But now its clear that the internet needs design innovationsandbrake mechanismsto reduce its noxious impact. Our suffering arises, in part, from the speed and volume of our social interactions online. Maybe we can build our way toward fewer of them.

Image Credit:Pawel Czerwinski / Unsplash

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This Week's Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through January 15) - Singularity Hub

This week, astrophysicists presented the biggest map of the universe yet.

Having nailed down the position of 7.5 million galaxies, the map is larger and more detailed than all its predecessors combined. And its nowhere near complete. Using the ultra-precise Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), the team is adding the coordinates of a million galaxies a month with plans to run through 2026. The final atlas will cover a third of the sky and include 35 million galaxies up to 10 billion light years away.

Of course, this particular map wont have much practical value for space explorers. Even at the speed of light, itd take us tens of thousands to millions of years to reach our closest galactic neighbors. Absent a convenient network of intergalactic wormholes, were likely stuck in our home galaxy for the foreseeable future. But the map has another purpose.

This project has a specific scientific goal: to measure very precisely the accelerating expansion of the universe, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratorys Julien Guy told Wired. By measuring the expansion over time, scientists hope to shine a light on dark energythe mysterious force that seems to be blowing the universe apartand predict the ultimate fate of the cosmos.

To locate galaxies, DESI uses a collection of 5,000 fiber-optic cables positioned by robotic motors to within 10 microns, less than the thickness of a human hair. This precise positioning allows the instrument to sop up the photons of 5,000 distant galaxies at a time, record their spectra in detail, and determine how much the light has been stretched into the redder bits of the spectrum during its journey to Earth. This redshift is caused by the expansion of the universe and indicates how far away a galaxy isthe redder the light, the more distant the galaxythus adding a third dimension to galaxy maps.

Whereas prior efforts like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey were slow and tediouswith scientists manually drilling holes and repositioning sensorsDESI is quick and automated, to the point of boring its operators on any given shift. But those shifts are prodigious, each adding some 100,000 galaxies to the map.

The scale is huge. Individual galaxies, each with hundreds of billions of stars, are reduced to points of light flowing in enormous filaments, clusters, and voids. [These are] the biggest structures in the universe. But within them, you find an imprint of the very early universe, and the history of its expansion since then, Guy said in a statement.

Its by comparing the universes initial conditions just after the Big Bang to its expansion ever since that the team hopes to tease out a better understanding of how dark energy has changed over time.

In the 1990s, studies led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratorys Saul Perlmutter and Australian National Universitys Brian Schmidt attempted to measure the expansion of the universe. It had been assumed that the universes matterincluding stars, planets, dust, gas, and dark matterwould act like a brake on its expansion. Like a ball tossed into the air, gravitys pull would slow the universe down.

If you can measure the universes rate of expansion, you can predict its future trajectory. Will it grind to a halt under the force of its own matter and reverse course, imploding in a big crunch? Will it expand forever, eventually tearing itself apart? Or will it approach equilibrium, where the rate of expansion nears zero?

The teams gathered the light from supernovae with known luminositythese are called standard candles in astrophysicsto measure the expansion rate. Their results were surprising, to put it mildly. Instead of slowing, they found expansion was accelerating over time. Some gargantuan force was counteracting gravity, and scientists didnt have the faintest clue what it was.

Cosmologist Michael Turner dubbed this force dark energy and has called it the most profound mystery in all of science. Now, the race is on to better understand dark energy by putting together a more precise history of the universes evolution.

If expansion continues, the universe will never truly end. Over unimaginable eons, each orders of magnitude longer than the current age of the universe, expansion will pull galaxies apart, snuff out stars, and tear matter into its elementary constituents. The end state of the universe would be a chilly and everlasting dark age.

But scientists dont fully understand dark energy or know the fate of the universe with certainty. Which is why observations from projects like DESI are crucial. By mapping the large structure of the universe over time, scientists hope to chart how the rate of expansionand perhaps the dark energy driving ithas changed and how it might in the future.

DESI isnt the only mapping project out there. Other projects, like those that will be conducted by the European Space Agencys Euclid spacecraft and NASAs Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, will complement DESIs findings by looking deeper into the universe, and cataloging even earlier galaxies from when it was just a few billion years old. Scientists are excited to mine this data hoard to further refine the universes origin story.

In five years, we hope that we will find a deviation from this model of cosmology that will give us a hint of what really happens, Guy told New Scientist. Because today we are a little bit stuck in a simple model that describes perfectly well the data [we have], but doesnt give us any new information.

Image Credit: D. Schlegel/Berkeley Lab (using data from DESI)

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How Will the Universe End? Scientists Seek an Answer in the Biggest Galaxy Map Yet - Singularity Hub

Autonomous delivery was already on multiple companies research and development agenda before the pandemic, but when people stopped wanting to leave their homes it took on a whole new level of urgency (and potential for profit). Besides the fact that the pandemic doesnt seem to be subsidingnote the continuous parade of new Greek-letter variantsour habits have been altered in a lasting way, with more people shopping online and getting groceries and other items delivered to their homes.

This week Nuro, a robotics company based in Mountain View, California unveiled what it hopes will be a big player in last-mile delivery. The companys third-generation autonomous delivery vehicle has some impressive features, and some clever oneslike external airbags that deploy if the vehicle hits a pedestrian (which hopefully wont happen too often, if ever).

Despite being about 20 percent smaller in width than the average sedan, the delivery bot has 27 cubic feet of space inside; for comparisons sake, the tiny SmartForTwo has 12.4 cubic feet of cargo space, while the Tesla Model S has 26. It can carry up to 500 pounds and move at a speed of 45 miles per hour.

Nuro has committed to minimizing its environmental footprintthe delivery bot runs on batteries, and according to the press release, the company will use 100 percent renewable electricity from wind farms in Texas to power the fleet (though its unclear how theyll do this, as Texas is pretty far from northern California, and thats where the vehicles will initially be operating; Nuro likely buys credits that go towards expanding wind energy in Texas).

Nuros first delivery bot was unveiled in 2018, followed by a second iteration in 2019. The company recently partnered with 7-Eleven to do autonomous deliveries in its hometown (Mountain View) using this second iteration, called the R2though in the initial phase of the service, deliveries will be made by autonomous Priuses.

The newest version of the bot is equipped with sensors that can tell the difference between a pile of leaves and an animal, as well as how many pedestrians are standing at a crosswalk in dense fog. Nuro says the vehicle was designed to feel like a friendly member of the community. This sounds a tad dystopianit is, after all, an autonomous robot on wheelsbut the intention is in the right place. Customers will retrieve their orders and interact with the bot using a large exterior touchscreen.

Whether an optimal future is one where any product we desire can be delivered to our door within hours or minutes is a debate all its own, but it seems thats the direction were heading in. Nuro will have plenty of competition in the last-mile delivery market, potentially including an Amazon system that releases multiple small wheeled robots from a large truck (Amazon patented the concept last year, but theres been no further word about whether theyre planning to trial it). Nuro is building a manufacturing facility and test track in Nevada, and is currently in the pre-production phase.

Image Credit: Nuro

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This Autonomous Delivery Robot Has External Airbags in Case It Hits a Person - Singularity Hub

All memory storage devices, from your brain to the RAM in your computer, store information by changing their physical qualities. Over 130 years ago, pioneering neuroscientist Santiago Ramn y Cajal first suggested that the brain stores information by rearranging the connections, or synapses, between neurons.

Since then, neuroscientists have attempted to understand the physical changes associated with memory formation. But visualizing and mapping synapses is challenging to do. For one, synapses are very small and tightly packed together. Theyre roughly 10 billion times smaller than the smallest object a standard clinical MRI can visualize. Furthermore, there are approximately one billion synapses in the mouse brains researchers often use to study brain function, and theyre all the same opaque to translucent color as the tissue surrounding them.

A new imaging technique my colleagues and I developed, however, has allowed us to map synapses during memory formation. We found that the process of forming new memories changes how brain cells are connected to one another. While some areas of the brain create more connections, others lose them.

Previously, researchers focused on recording the electrical signals produced by neurons. While these studies have confirmed that neurons change their response to particular stimuli after a memory is formed, they couldnt pinpoint what drives those changes.

To study how the brain physically changes when it forms a new memory, we created 3D maps of the synapses of zebrafish before and after memory formation. We chose zebrafish as our test subjects because they are large enough to have brains that function like those of people, but small and transparent enough to offer a window into the living brain.

Zebrafish are particularly fitting models for neuroscience research. Zhuowei Du and Don B. Arnold, CC BY-NC-ND

To induce a new memory in the fish, we used a type of learning process called classical conditioning. This involves exposing an animal to two different types of stimuli simultaneously: a neutral one that doesnt provoke a reaction and an unpleasant one that the animal tries to avoid. When these two stimuli are paired together enough times, the animal responds to the neutral stimulus as if it were the unpleasant stimulus, indicating that it has made an associative memory tying these stimuli together.

As an unpleasant stimulus, we gently heated the fishs head with an infrared laser. When the fish flicked its tail, we took that as an indication that it wanted to escape. When the fish is then exposed to a neutral stimulus, a light turning on, tail flicking meant that its recalling what happened when it previously encountered the unpleasant stimulus.

Pavlovs dog is the most well-known example of classical conditioning, in which a dog salivates in response to a ringing bell because it has formed an associative memory between the bell and food. Lili Chin/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND

To create the maps, we genetically engineered zebrafish with neurons that produce fluorescent proteins that bind to synapses and make them visible. We then imaged the synapses with a custom-built microscope that uses a much lower dose of laser light than standard devices that also use fluorescence to generate images. Because our microscope caused less damage to the neurons, we were able to image the synapses without losing their structure and function.

When we compared the 3D synapse maps before and after memory formation, we found that neurons in one brain region, the anterolateral dorsal pallium, developed new synapses while neurons predominantly in a second region, the anteromedial dorsal pallium, lost synapses. This meant that new neurons were pairing together, while others destroyed their connections. Previous experiments have suggested that the dorsal pallium of fish may be analogous to the amygdala of mammals, where fear memories are stored.

Surprisingly, changes in the strength of existing connections between neurons that occurred with memory formation were small and indistinguishable from changes in control fish that did not form new memories. This meant that forming an associative memory involves synapse formation and loss, but not necessarily changes in the strength of existing synapses, as previously thought.

Our new method of observing brain cell function could open the door not just to a deeper understanding of how memory actually works, but also to potential avenues for treatment of neuropsychiatric conditions like PTSD and addiction.

Associative memories tend to be much stronger than other types of memories, such as conscious memories about what you had for lunch yesterday. Associative memories induced by classical conditioning, moreover, are thought to be analogous to traumatic memories that cause PTSD. Otherwise harmless stimuli similar to what someone experienced at the time of the trauma can trigger recall of painful memories. For instance, a bright light or a loud noise could bring back memories of combat. Our study reveals the role that synaptic connections may play in memory, and could explain why associative memories can last longer and be remembered more vividly than other types of memories.

Currently the most common treatment for PTSD, exposure therapy, involves repeatedly exposing the patient to a harmless but triggering stimulus in order to suppress recall of the traumatic event. In theory, this indirectly remodels the synapses of the brain to make the memory less painful. Although there has been some success with exposure therapy, patients are prone to relapse. This suggests that the underlying memory causing the traumatic response has not been eliminated.

Its still unknown whether synapse generation and loss actually drive memory formation. My laboratory has developed technology that can quickly and precisely remove synapses without damaging neurons. We plan to use similar methods to remove synapses in zebrafish or mice to see whether this alters associative memories.

It might be possible to physically erase the associative memories that underlie devastating conditions like PTSD and addiction with these methods. Before such a treatment can even be contemplated, however, the synaptic changes encoding associative memories need to be more precisely defined. And there are obviously serious ethical and technical hurdles that would need to be addressed. Nevertheless, its tempting to imagine a distant future in which synaptic surgery could remove bad memories.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image Credit: geralt / 23803 images

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New Research: Memories May Be Stored in the Connections Between Brain Cells - Singularity Hub

Sometimes V is a good boy, other times, hes a bad boy. All of the time, V (real name Kim Taehyung) is a member of the award-winning boy band BTS. With already released solo songs like Christmas Tree and Snow Flower, some fans wonder when V will premiere his mixtape.

BTS resident good boy sometimes releases solo music with the K-pop groups original albums. Map of the Soul: 7 included the personal track Inner Child, co-written in part by V and RM. On Love Yourself: Tear, that was Singularity.

V also released solo music under the same stage name, including Snow Flower and Winter Bear, both are available on YouTube. In 2021, V debuted Christmas Tree, which appeared on the original television soundtrack for Our Beloved Summer.

Within a matter of weeks, the holiday song earned over 10 million Spotify plays. Still, fans anticipate more original music from this vocalist, with V confirming he has some songs already in the works.

Recently, that artist shared that his Myers-Briggs (MBTI) personality type changed from ENFP to INFP. That means that he projects an introverted personality instead of an extroverted personality. That, in turn, impacts his solo music and even his performances on stage but not his confidence.

Whether Im performing on stage, working on my music, or introducing myself, my confidence comes from having a clear conscience and sense of integrity, V continued during an interview with GQ. I believe thats how you can set yourself on the right path.

Even when posting to his individual Instagram account, V offers ARMYs a glimpse into his everyday life. This account even broke records on the social media platform regarding the number of followers V earned in a single day. Some followers shared their love for his selfies and videos of his dog Yeontan.

In addition to performing at the Permission to Dance on Stage concerts, V shared that hes spent time working on his mixtape. There is no set release date for this album, as the BTS members recently embarked on a period of rest and relaxation.

I know this about myself: I need a lot of time to work, V said during the same interview. Im always jotting down ideas and things Id like to write about in a journal or notebook, but I think I need at least three months to do something with it.

Recently, weve had a lot to prepare, so I havent had much time to sleep, let alone work, he added. Ive pushed it aside for the moment. When I have some time to rest, Im sure Ill work non-stop.

RELATED: BTS Vs Instagram Post of Him Jamming Out at the Harry Styles Concert Earned Over 28 Million Views

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BTS' V Reveals How His Introverted Side Will Be Reflected in His Mixtape - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

Its that time of year again! With 2021 behind us, were going down memory lane to highlight biotech innovations that shaped the yearwith impact that will likely reverberate for many years to come. Covid-19 dominated the news, but science didnt stand still.

Take gene editing. CRISPR spun off variations with breathtaking speed, expanding into a hefty toolbox packed with powerhouse gene editors far more efficient, reliable, and safer than their predecessors. CRISPRoff, for example, hijacks epigenetic processes to reversibly turn genes on and offall without actually snipping or damaging the gene itself. Prime editing, the nip-tuck of DNA editing that only snipsrather than fully cuttingDNA received an upgrade to precisely edit up to 10,000 DNA letters in a variety of cells. Twin prime editing can rework entire genes. These powered-up CRISPR tools now make it possible to tackle previously untouchable genetic disorders.

Yet were still only scratching the surface of gene editing. Peeking into the CRISPR family tree, scientists found a vast universe of alternative CRISPR-like systems to further explore. AI is now helping identify new CRISPR proteinsand their kill switch. Other ideas jumped ship from CRISPR altogether, tapping into another powerful bacterial system to edit millions of DNA sequences without breaking a single DNA strand. Without doubt, the gene editing toolbox will keep expanding.

In other news, quantum mechanics hooked up with neuroscience to speed up AI. AI is now designing its own hardware chips at Google in an efficient full circle. Hopping into our own brains, in a stunning proof-of-concept, AI-powered brain implants were able to fight depression, with ongoing work to treat chronic pain and translate the brains electrical signals from thought to text. In the medical world, a fierce debate on an Alzheimers treatment sparked a new round of alluring ideas to tackle and tame our long-time mind-eating foe.

Theres a ton more. But here are the top three advances thatll keep reshaping biotech far past 2021, with some runners-up.

I know, I know. Were all tired of hearing about Covid-19 and vaccines. Yet their remarkable ability to fight a completely novel infectious virus is nothing short of miraculous. It also showcased the power of the decades-old technology that previously languished in labs, with a platform thats far faster, simpler, and more adaptable than any previous vaccine technology. Because they no longer rely on physical target proteins from a virusrather, just the genetic code for those proteinsdesigning a vaccine just requires a laptop and some ingenuity. The era of the digital vaccine is here, wrote a team from GlaxoSmithKline.

To enthusiasts, mRNA vaccines could transform current treatments for a wealth of diseases, and the field is exploding. Moderna, for example, launched an HIV vaccine humantrial in August to begin assessing its safety, tackling a virus thats escaped classic vaccine tactics for four decades. Along with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the company also published data on an HIV vaccine candidate that lowered the chance of infection by nearly 80 percent in monkeys, with all subjects developing antibodies against 12 tested strains of HIV. Its no small featthe HIV target, Env, is a formidable target due to its complexity and is coated with a sugar armor to mask vaccine target points. The mRNA vaccine offers new hope.

Viruses aside, mRNA vaccines also represent a new solution to autoimmune or neurodegenerative diseases. BioNTech, the partner of Pfizer for developing Covid-19 vaccines, is applying the technology to tackle multiple sclerosis (MS). In MS, the immune system gradually strips away the insulation on nerve fibers, causing gradual and irreversible damage. Initial results in mice are positive, with the approach highly flexible, fast, and cost efficient, while potentially being personalized to each patient.

Further down the pipeline are mRNA vaccines that tackle cancer or those that deal with antibiotic resistance. Whether the tech can solve some of our toughest diseases remains to be seen, but the field is on a roll.

CRISPRs long been touted as a tool that can radically transform gene therapy. Earlier studies used the gene editing tool to bolster immune T-cells, transforming them into super soldiers that enhance their fight against blood cancers (CAR-T therapy). The tool also scored successes in battling anemia and other symptoms in patients with blood disorders. The down side was that cells needed to be gene-edited outside the body and infused back into the bloodstream. This year elevated CRISPR to the ultimate goal: directly editing genes inside the body, opening the door to curing hundreds of disorders resulting from faulty genetic code.

In a breakthrough, one trial from University College London edited a mutated gene in the liver that eventually leads to heart and nerve damage. Unlike previous attempts, here the CRISPR machinery was delivered into the bloodstream with a single infusion to switch the gene off, sharply decreasing the production of the mutant protein in six patients. Another trial snipped a dysfunctional gene that causes blindness. By directly injecting the treatment into the retina, volunteers were able to better sense light.

Both are edge cases. For the liver trial, CRISPR was delivered using lipid nanoparticleslittle fatty space shipsthat have an affinity for the liver, with more transient gene-editing effects. And unlike the retina, most of our bodys tissues arent immediately accessible to a simple injection. But as proofs of concept, the trials finally bring CRISPR into a vast world of gene-editing possibilities inside the body. Along with advances in delivery, CRISPRand its many upgradesis set to treat the untreatable.

The first few hours and days of a human embryos development are a black boxone we need to crack. Understanding early pregnancy is key to limiting birth defects and pregnancy loss, and improving assistive reproduction technologies.

The problem? Early embryos are hard to come by, and carry significant ethical and legal challenges. This year, several studies circumvented these problems, instead transforming skin cells into blastocysts, a cellular structure that resembles the very first stage of a human embryo.

Torpedoing the usual sperm meets egg narrative, the studies engineered the first complete model of the human embryo using embryonic stem cells and skin cellsno reproductive cells needed. Bathed in a nutritious liquid, the cells developed into blastocysts, containing cell types that eventually lead to all lineages to build our bodies. The artificial embryos are genetically similar to natural ones, stirring up debate on how long they should be allowed to develop. The nightmare scenario? Imagine a mini-brain growing inside an embryo made out of skin cells!

For now thats technically impossible, but the ethical quandary has stirred up concern at the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), which governs research related to human stem cells and embryos. Yet surprisingly, this year, they relaxed the 14-day rule for culturing embryos, giving permission to push embryo research past two weeks. With relaxed guidelines, upcoming studies could reveal what happens to a human embryo after implanting into the uterus, and gastrulationwhen genetic cues lay out the bodys overall patterning and set the stage for organ development.

Its a decision mired in controversy, but provides an unprecedented opportunity to revise IVF and, for the first time, examine the first stages of human development. Its also bound to raise ethical quandaries: what if the embryosnatural or artificialbegin developing neurons that fire, or heart cells that pulse? As artificial blastocysts increasingly embody their biological counterparts, one thing is clear: with great power comes great responsibility.

AI predicting proteins: DeepMind and the University of Washington both engineered AI that can solve the structure of a protein based purely on its genetic code. Its a once in a generational advance, a breakthrough of the year, and a tool thatll change structural biology forever. Updates to the original AI can now also predict protein complexesthat is, how one protein unit interacts with anotherand even their function. AI is also beginning to solve RNA structure, the messenger that bridges DNA to proteins. From synthetic biology to drug development, the impact is yet to come.

AI-designed drugs: Its been a long time in the making, but the hype is now real. This year, Alphabet, Googles parent company, launched a new venture called Isomorphic Labs to tackle a new world of drug development using AI. Powerful algorithms are making it increasingly easy to screen drug candidates from millions of chemicals. And the first AI-discovered drug is now going into clinical trials in a safety test for a lung disease that irreversibly degrades the organs function. Its a significant milestone, and the trial may pave the road for the first AI-discovered, human-tested drug that treats diseases.

In another year of living with Covid-19, its clear that the pandemic cant hold science down. I cant wait to share the good, the weird, and (holds breath) more breakthroughs of a generation biotech stories in 2022.

Image Credit: Schferle / 94 images / Pixabay

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These 2021 Biotech Breakthroughs Will Shape the Future of Health and Medicine - Singularity Hub

Airships might seem like a technology from a bygone era, but a startup says their new design could become a crucial cog in the green hydrogen supply chain.

While transitioning away from fossil fuels will prove crucial in our efforts to combat climate change, its easier said than done for some industries. While road and rail transport are rapidly electrifying, in aviation, batteries are a long way from being able to provide the weight-to-power ratio required for aviation. And even the largest batteries are still not big enough to power a container ship on long-distance crossings.

Hydrogen is increasingly being seen as a promising alternative for these hard to decarbonize sectors. It has a higher energy density than natural gas and can either be burned in internal combustion engines or combined with oxygen in a fuel cell to create electricity.

While much of todays hydrogen is derived from natural gas and therefore not much better than fossil fuels, in theory you can also make it by using renewable electricity to power electrolyzers that split water into hydrogen and oxygen. Producing green hydrogen economically is still a huge challenge, but there are hopes that it could help wean hard to electrify sectors off polluting fossil fuels.

But transporting hydrogen remains a sticking point: Areas that are abundant in renewable energy such as sun and wind are not always close to where the hydrogen is needed. Shipping large amounts of the gas around the world will clearly be a major logistical challenge, but a start-up called H2 Clipper has an ingenious workaround.

The California company plans to build airships that simultaneously transport hydrogen and use it as a lighter-than-air gas to provide the aircraft with lift. On top of that, its airships will also use hydrogen fuel cells to power their engines.

While the project is still at the concept stage, the company says that thanks to modern aeronautical design, stronger and lighter-weight materials, and modern fabrication techniques, their airship will be faster, safer, and more efficient than its predecessors. And the company was recently selected for inclusion in an accelerator run by software major Dassault Systems.

While it wont be as fast as a plane, the H2 Clipper will be able to cruise at about 175 mph, which would allow it to ferry cargo 7 to 10 times faster than a boat. It also has a cargo volume of 265,000 cubic feet8 to 10 times more than most airfreightersand can carry up to 340,000 pounds of payload 6,000 miles at its standard cruising speed.

Between distances of 1,000 to 6,000 miles, the airship could carry a ton of cargo for as little as $0.177 to $0.247 per milea quarter of the cost of airfreight. And because it can take off and land vertically, it can carry goods straight to where theyre needed rather than having to transfer them onto trucks at an airport.

One potential stumbling block, noted by New Atlas, is the fact that US law currently bans the use of hydrogen as a lift gas in airships. Thats perhaps not surprising, seeing as the era of the airship came to an abrupt end nearly a century ago after the hydrogen-filled Hindenburg went up in flames.

H2 Clipper deals with this issue in their FAQs, pointing out that hydrogen storage technology has undergone rigorous testing in the automotive industry thanks to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, with no recorded explosion to date. The company says this is because hydrogens very fast expansion rate means that it typically disperses too quickly for an explosion to happen. Whether regulators will be convinced remains to be seen though.

The company isnt the only one that thinks airships are due for a reboot. Earlier this year British company Hybrid Air Vehicles unveiled concept images of its forthcoming Airlander 10 aircraft, which it believes could provide a greener and more comfortable alternative to short-haul flights.

There are still many hurdles for both companies to overcome before their visions become a reality, but dont be too surprised if you see Zeppelins passing overhead in the not-too-distant future.

Image Credit: H2 Clipper

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H2 Clipper Will Resurrect Hydrogen Airships to Haul Green Fuel Across the Planet - Singularity Hub

This year, North American bouldering developed at the hands of Canadians. Several of Canadas strongest pushed their way into the upper echelons of difficulty providing new test-pieces for the next generations of climbers. Although 2021 was both a long and a short year on account of lockdown restrictions, Canadian boulderers found a way to push themselves in the sport.

Perhaps the most striking line at the Niagara Glen, Ethan Salvos Vilified comes complete with a bad landing and sweeping overhang. Due to the nature of the hill it sits on, this direct exit to Personal Vendetta appears first as a face. Upon closer inspection, the climb finds itself moving up and out a 50-degree overhang on convex or flat edges. The slick Dolomite makes this climb a high-powered expression of finger strength. Still, the crux comes down to balance, a technical heel, and mental fortitude. The fall is bad if you miss the pads.

Most recently known for his performance at Canadian Bouldering Nationals, the silver medalist established this beautiful problem just days before flying out to the competition. The three-dimensional squeeze block is probably the prettiest Canadian first ascent of this last year and showcases the talents of one of Canadas fastest developing boulderers. Faulkner has spent a lot of time outdoors this year, and this climb is the culmination of those efforts. It is simply one example of the potential remaining in Utahs Little Cottonwood Canyon. Footage of the ascent will be available in SOHI Studios Confluence.

Aside from being Canadas first female Olympian, Alannah Yip managed to take down numerous outdoor climbs this year completing what became a successful season. Room Service is one of Canadas most recognizable boulder problems, and in April, Yip became the first woman to climb the powerful line. The hard compression style fit the competition climbers powerful preferences. The ascent was reticent of Thomasina Pidgeons ascent of The Summoning Sit, another Squamish classic that had previously only seen male ascents.

Brennan Doyle kicked off 2021 with an early ascent of Uncut Gems Sit, a new V13 he called the best hard line close to Victoria. The new Duncan test-piece represents only one of the 11 double-digit first ascents Doyle put up in this last year. He has likely become the most active if not one of the most active developers of hard climbing on Vancouver Island and is worth following to find some of Canadas most secret and beautiful new climbs.

After such a strong season it is difficult to pin a single ascent down as Vests most influential, but her recent repeat of Masterpiece might make for one of the most exciting within the context of Canadian climbing. Mellows publication not only makes Vest one of a select number of women featured on the channel, but it also makes her the second Canadian to achieve a level of international recognition for an ascent on that platform. Vest climbed many other hard problems this year, found here, for a season that could inspire many to push toward their goals.

Possibly the best climb of this difficulty in the entire country, Cores Merlin is difficult to find but a classic, nonetheless. The sticky granite of Squamish stone is difficult to appreciate from a photo alone, but between the incredible dyke features, as well as the three-dimensional aspects of this climb, few things comes close to the fluidity of the boulder problem.

This notorious Tim Doyle boulder problem has eluded shorter climbers since its inception, but this year, Maria Cheng tackled and completed the historic Niagara Glen boulder problem with an original beta. Cheng had a strong season becoming the first woman to climb both the Gunt and Seppuku, while still managing to tick other difficult climbs. What is notable about Cheng is that she is not a pro climber. Instead, she is a weekend warrior who loves bouldering and works toward progression year-round. Her story is exciting because it shows that it does not take a pro to do something that no one else has done before.

Oscar Baudrand tore through this last year. Not only did he climb well on Lead during the World Cup Series, but he climbed his first V13, his first V14, and his second V14 all within a matter of months. To finish the year, Baudrand continued by putting up two first ascents on previously established climbs. Meadowlark Lemon is one of the most beautiful boulder problems in the West but has seen a lot of damage in recent years. Baudrand re-established the stand after its most recent break giving it a grade of V13. This difficulty was confirmed by Adam Shahar moments later. Baudrand also established the first ascent of a direct finish to Keenan Takahashis Ghost Face V12. The full line adds a few spicy moves that bumps the grade to V13. Baudrand dubbed the climb Ghost Face Killaz.

Elan Jonas Mcrae is an unknown name to those newer to Canadian climbing. The long-time Canadian boulderer has developed numerous hard projects across the country. Although he will post the occasional first ascent, it is rare to find Mcrae on social media. Still, he is one of the strongest Canadian boulderers who has spent time working some of the hardest climbs in North America. In this last year, Mcrae put up two hard climbs in BC. The first, Lord of the Flies, is a nasty little compression in Canadas fastest developing area: Kelowna BC. The second is another brutal climb called Therapy sit. With a proposed difficulty of V13, this climb appears on Constitution Hill on Vancouver Island.

It is difficult to express how much development Gravelle propagated over the last 12 months. He established the first V15 since Squamishs Singularity, and that is only one of the many things he did for Canadian bouldering. He is responsible for Ontario and Quebecs hardest climbs, both put up last this past year. Ontarios Carnage is one of the most extreme looking low-balls and Ontarios hardest problem at V14. So What V15 might be the hardest Canadian first ascent of his last year. Still, Gravelles Turn and Burn or perhaps Widowmaker Stand are arguably more beautiful. For more on Gravelle and his bouldering click here.

Featured image of Sean Faulkners Dunks on Deck Photo by Jake Quilt, check out his website here.

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Canadian Climbers' Best New Boulders and Hard Ascents - Gripped - gripped.com

Could black holes be tunnels to other locations in space-time? Could they be wormholes connecting different regions of the universe? A new study gives a resounding no to these questions.

Black holes are complicated beasts. They have consistently broken our physics and studying them has opened our eyes to the limitations of our knowledge. One crucial problem is the Information Paradox. Matter cant escape black holes so, simplistically, once something gets in, its information is lost forever.

Thats a big no-no in physics. The Information Paradox was one of the areas that the late Stephen Hawking focused on. His, and others', work led to the understanding that black holes evaporate and that information is somehow preserved. Understanding exactly how that takes place could provide crucial insight in the quest for unifying quantum mechanics with a theory of gravity.

One of the ways that herculean task is being attempted is with string theory. String theory posits that the fundamental components of the universe are vibrating strings. So far theres no evidence that this is the ultimate theory of nature but its ability to find solutions to major open questions in physics has been appealing to many.

When it comes to the Information Paradox, there have been multiple proposals on how to solve that in string theory, including the idea that black holes are wormholes, a hypothetical construct very popular in sci-fi. Wormholes are a proposed connection to two different points in space-time but theres no evidence that they exist.

A different theory instead sees black holes in string theory as "fuzzballs", messy constructions that radiate energy (and thus information). Black holes, in this view, are not mostly empty with their whole mass contained in a singularity at its center. They are complex stringy structures.

What we found from string theory is that all the mass of a black hole is not getting sucked into the center, Professor Samir Mathur from Ohio State University explained in a statement. The black hole tries to squeeze things to a point, but then the particles get stretched into these strings, and the strings start to stretch and expand and it becomes this fuzzball that expands to fill up the entirety of the black hole.

Professor Mathur, who amongst others, put forward the idea of black holes as fuzzballs 18 years ago, put both the fuzzball hypothesis and the wormhole paradigm to the test. Publishing their paper in the Turkish Journal of Physics, Mathur and colleaguespretty much concluded the wormhole approach doesnt work.

"In each of the versions that have been proposed for the wormhole approach, we found that the physics was not consistent," Mathur said. "The wormhole paradigm tries to argue that, in some way, you could still think of the black hole as being effectively empty with all the mass in the center. And the theorems we prove show that such a picture of the hole is not a possibility."

The study is certainly intriguing but there is still a huge debate whether string theory is the correct way to explain reality. So black holes might be even weirder than wormholes and fuzzballs. Or not.

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Black Holes Cannot Lead To Other Places In The Universe, Claims New Study - IFLScience

READER QUESTION: My understanding is that nothing comes from nothing. For something to exist, there must be material or a component available, and for them to be available, there must be something else available. Now my question: Where did the material come from that created the Big Bang, and what happened in the first instance to create that material? Peter, 80, Australia.

The last star will slowly cool and fade away. With its passing, the universe will become once more a void, without light or life or meaning. So warned the physicist Brian Cox in the recent BBC series Universe. The fading of that last star will only be the beginning of an infinitely long, dark epoch. All matter will eventually be consumed by monstrous black holes, which in their turn will evaporate away into the dimmest glimmers of light. Space will expand ever outwards until even that dim light becomes too spread out to interact. Activity will cease.

Or will it? Strangely enough, some cosmologists believe a previous, cold dark empty universe like the one which lies in our far future could have been the source of our very own Big Bang.

But before we get to that, lets take a look at how materialphysical matterfirst came about. If we are aiming to explain the origins of stable matter made of atoms or molecules, there was certainly none of that around at the Big Bangnor for hundreds of thousands of years afterwards. We do in fact have a pretty detailed understanding of how the first atoms formed out of simpler particles once conditions cooled down enough for complex matter to be stable, and how these atoms were later fused into heavier elements inside stars. But that understanding doesnt address the question of whether something came from nothing.

So lets think further back. The first long-lived matter particles of any kind were protons and neutrons, which together make up the atomic nucleus. These came into existence around one ten-thousandth of a second after the Big Bang. Before that point, there was really no material in any familiar sense of the word. But physics lets us keep on tracing the timeline backwardsto physical processes which predate any stable matter.

This takes us to the so-called grand unified epoch. By now, we are well into the realm of speculative physics, as we cant produce enough energy in our experiments to probe the sort of processes that were going on at the time. But a plausible hypothesis is that the physical world was made up of a soup of short-lived elementary particles, including quarks, the building blocks of protons and neutrons. There was both matter and antimatter in roughly equal quantities: each type of matter particle, such as the quark, has an antimatter mirror image companion, which is near identical to itself, differing only in one aspect. However, matter and antimatter annihilate in a flash of energy when they meet, meaning these particles were constantly created and destroyed.

But how did these particles come to exist in the first place? Quantum field theory tells us that even a vacuum, supposedly corresponding to empty spacetime, is full of physical activity in the form of energy fluctuations. These fluctuations can give rise to particles popping out, only to be disappear shortly after. This may sound like a mathematical quirk rather than real physics, but such particles have been spotted in countless experiments.

The spacetime vacuum state is seething with particles constantly being created and destroyed, apparently out of nothing. But perhaps all this really tells us is that the quantum vacuum is (despite its name) a something rather than a nothing. The philosopher David Albert has memorably criticized accounts of the Big Bang which promise to get something from nothing in this way.

Suppose we ask: where did spacetime itself arise from? Then we can go on turning the clock yet further back, into the truly ancient Planck epocha period so early in the universes history that our best theories of physics break down. This era occurred only one ten-millionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. At this point, space and time themselves became subject to quantum fluctuations. Physicists ordinarily work separately with quantum mechanics, which rules the microworld of particles, and with general relativity, which applies on large, cosmic scales. But to truly understand the Planck epoch, we need a complete theory of quantum gravity, merging the two.

We still dont have a perfect theory of quantum gravity, but there are attempts, like string theory and loop quantum gravity. In these attempts, ordinary space and time are typically seen as emergent, like the waves on the surface of a deep ocean. What we experience as space and time are the product of quantum processes operating at a deeper, microscopic level processes that dont make much sense to us as creatures rooted in the macroscopic world.

In the Planck epoch, our ordinary understanding of space and time breaks down, so we cant any longer rely on our ordinary understanding of cause and effect either. Despite this, all candidate theories of quantum gravity describe something physical that was going on in the Planck epochsome quantum precursor of ordinary space and time. But where did that come from?

Even if causality no longer applies in any ordinary fashion, it might still be possible to explain one component of the Planck-epoch universe in terms of another. Unfortunately, by now even our best physics fails completely to provide answers. Until we make further progress towards a theory of everything, we wont be able to give any definitive answer. The most we can say with confidence at this stage is that physics has so far found no confirmed instances of something arising from nothing.

To truly answer the question of how something could arise from nothing, we would need to explain the quantum state of the entire universe at the beginning of the Planck epoch. All attempts to do this remain highly speculative. Some of them appeal to supernatural forces like a designer. But other candidate explanations remain within the realm of physicssuch as a multiverse, which contains an infinite number of parallel universes, or cyclical models of the universe, being born and reborn again.

The 2020 Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose has proposed one intriguing but controversial model for a cyclical universe dubbed conformal cyclic cosmology. Penrose was inspired by an interesting mathematical connection between a very hot, dense, small state of the universeas it was at the Big Bangand an extremely cold, empty, expanded state of the universeas it will be in the far future. His radical theory to explain this correspondence is that those states become mathematically identical when taken to their limits. Paradoxical though it might seem, a total absence of matter might have managed to give rise to all the matter we see around us in our universe.

In this view, the Big Bang arises from an almost nothing. Thats whats left over when all the matter in a universe has been consumed into black holes, which have in turn boiled away into photonslost in a void. The whole universe thus arises from something that, viewed from another physical perspective, is as close as one can get to nothing at all. But that nothing is still a kind of something. It is still a physical universe, however empty.

How can the very same state be a cold, empty universe from one perspective and a hot dense universe from another? The answer lies in a complex mathematical procedure called conformal rescaling, a geometrical transformation which in effect alters the size of an object but leaves its shape unchanged.

Penrose showed how the cold dense state and the hot dense state could be related by such rescaling so that they match with respect to the shapes of their spacetimesalthough not to their sizes. It is, admittedly, difficult to grasp how two objects can be identical in this way when they have different sizesbut Penrose argues size as a concept ceases to make sense in such extreme physical environments.

In conformal cyclic cosmology, the direction of explanation goes from old and cold to young and hot: the hot dense state exists because of the cold empty state. But this because is not the familiar oneof a cause followed in time by its effect. It is not only size that ceases to be relevant in these extreme states: time does too. The cold dense state and the hot dense state are in effect located on different timelines. The cold empty state would continue on forever from the perspective of an observer in its own temporal geometry, but the hot dense state it gives rise to effectively inhabits a new timeline all its own.

It may help to understand the hot dense state as produced from the cold empty state in some non-causal way. Perhaps we should say that the hot dense state emerges from, or is grounded in, or realized by the cold, empty state. These are distinctively metaphysical ideas which have been explored by philosophers of science extensively, especially in the context of quantum gravity where ordinary cause and effect seem to break down. At the limits of our knowledge, physics and philosophy become hard to disentangle.

Conformal cyclic cosmology offers some detailed, albeit speculative, answers to the question of where our Big Bang came from. But even if Penroses vision is vindicated by the future progress of cosmology, we might think that we still wouldnt have answered a deeper philosophical questiona question about where physical reality itself came from. How did the whole system of cycles come about? Then we finally end up with the pure question of why there is something rather than nothingone of the biggest questions of metaphysics.

But our focus here is on explanations which remain within the realm of physics. There are three broad options to the deeper question of how the cycles began. It could have no physical explanation at all. Or there could be endlessly repeating cycles, each a universe in its own right, with the initial quantum state of each universe explained by some feature of the universe before. Or there could be one single cycle, and one single repeating universe, with the beginning of that cycle explained by some feature of its own end. The latter two approaches avoid the need for any uncaused eventsand this gives them a distinctive appeal. Nothing would be left unexplained by physics.

Penrose envisages a sequence of endless new cycles for reasons partly linked to his own preferred interpretation of quantum theory. In quantum mechanics, a physical system exists in a superposition of many different states at the same time, and only picks one randomly, when we measure it. For Penrose, each cycle involves random quantum events turning out a different waymeaning each cycle will differ from those before and after it. This is actually good news for experimental physicists, because it might allow us to glimpse the old universe that gave rise to ours through faint traces, or anomalies, in the leftover radiation from the Big Bang seen by the Planck satellite.

Penrose and his collaborators believe they may have spotted these traces already, attributing patterns in the Planck data to radiation from supermassive black holes in the previous universe. However, their claimed observations have been challenged by other physicists and the jury remains out.

Endless new cycles are key to Penroses own vision. But there is a natural way to convert conformal cyclic cosmology from a multi-cycle to a one-cycle form. Then physical reality consists in a single cycling around through the Big Bang to a maximally empty state in the far futureand then around again to the very same Big Bang, giving rise to the very same universe all over again.

This latter possibility is consistent with another interpretation of quantum mechanics, dubbed the many-worlds interpretation. The many-worlds interpretation tells us that each time we measure a system that is in superposition, this measurement doesnt randomly select a state. Instead, the measurement result we see is just one possibilitythe one that plays out in our own universe. The other measurement results all play out in other universes in a multiverse, effectively cut off from our own. So no matter how small the chance of something occurring, if it has a non-zero chance then it occurs in some quantum parallel world. There are people just like you out there in other worlds who have won the lottery, or have been swept up into the clouds by a freak typhoon, or have spontaneously ignited, or have done all three simultaneously.

Some people believe such parallel universes may also be observable in cosmological data, as imprints caused by another universe colliding with ours.

Many-worlds quantum theory gives a new twist on conformal cyclic cosmology, though not one that Penrose agrees with. Our Big Bang might be the rebirth of one single quantum multiverse, containing infinitely many different universes all occurring together. Everything possible happensthen it happens again and again and again.

For a philosopher of science, Penroses vision is fascinating. It opens up new possibilities for explaining the Big Bang, taking our explanations beyond ordinary cause and effect. It is therefore a great test case for exploring the different ways physics can explain our world. It deserves more attention from philosophers.

For a lover of myth, Penroses vision is beautiful. In Penroses preferred multi-cycle form, it promises endless new worlds born from the ashes of their ancestors. In its one-cycle form, it is a striking modern re-invocation of the ancient idea of the ouroboros, or world-serpent. In Norse mythology, the serpent Jrmungandr is a child of Loki, a clever trickster, and the giant Angrboda. Jrmungandr consumes its own tail, and the circle created sustains the balance of the world. But the ouroboros myth has been documented all over the world including as far back as ancient Egypt.

The ouroboros of the one cyclic universe is majestic indeed. It contains within its belly our own universe, as well as every one of the weird and wonderful alternative possible universes allowed by quantum physicsand at the point where its head meets its tail, it is completely empty yet also coursing with energy at temperatures of a hundred thousand million billion trillion degrees Celsius. Even Loki, the shapeshifter, would be impressed.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image Credit: NASA

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How Could the Big Bang Arise From Nothing? - Singularity Hub