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First steps toward a quantum brain


Radbound University
Mon, 01 Feb 2021 17:38 UTC
Quantum Brain
© Radbound University
An intelligent material that learns by physically changing itself, similar to how the human brain works, could be the foundation of a completely new generation of computers. Radboud physicists working toward this so-called "quantum brain" have made an important step. They have demonstrated that they can pattern and interconnect a network of single atoms, and mimic the autonomous behaviour of neurons and synapses in a brain. They report their discovery in Nature Nanotechnology on 1 February.

Considering the growing global demand for computing capacity, more and more data centres are necessary, all of which leave an ever-expanding energy footprint. 'It is clear that we have to find new strategies to store and process information in an energy efficient way', says project leader Alexander Khajetoorians, Professor of Scanning Probe Microscopy at Radboud University.

'This requires not only improvements to technology, but also fundamental research in game changing approaches. Our new idea of building a 'quantum brain' based on the quantum properties of materials could be the basis for a future solution for applications in artificial intelligence.'
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Beaker

Best of the Web: New analysis claims to prove COVID is lab-made virus with 99.8% probability


The National Pulse
Sat, 30 Jan 2021 21:40 UTC
dna lab
A new COVID-19 study concludes there is a "99.8% probability SARS-CoV-2 came from a laboratory."

The 193-page paper published January 29th is titled "A Bayesian analysis concludes beyond a reasonable doubt that SARS-CoV-2 is not a natural zoonosis but instead is laboratory derived."

"The purpose of the analysis was to determine the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Beginning with a likelihood of 98.2% that it was a zoonotic jump from nature with only a 1.2% probability it was a laboratory escape, twenty-six different, independent facts and evidence were examined systematically. The final conclusion is that it is a 99.8% probability SARS-CoV-2 came from a laboratory and only a 0.2% likelihood it came from nature," a summary notes.

The author, Dr. Steven Quay, has 360+ published medical studies and has been cited over 10,000 times, placing him in the top one percent of scientists worldwide.

What's more, he holds nearly 90 US patents and has invented seven FDA-approved pharmaceuticals.

"By taking only publicly available, scientific evidence about SARS-CoV-2 and using highly conservative estimates in my analysis, I nonetheless conclude that it is beyond a reasonable doubt that SARS-CoV-2 escaped from a laboratory. The additional evidence of what appears to be adenovirus vaccine genetic sequences in specimens from five patients from December 2019 and sequenced by the Wuhan Institute of Virology requires an explanation. You would see this kind of data in a vaccine challenge trial, for example. Hopefully the WHO team can get answers to these questions," he adds.

Comment: Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying appeared on Bill Maher's show last night to argue the same thing.



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Galaxy

More on astronomer Avi Loeb's approach to intelligent design inferences

Paul A. Nelson
Evolution News
Thu, 28 Jan 2021 18:32 UTC
Oumuamua, prvi međuzvjezdani asteroid, nešto što se do sada nije vidjelo
© European Southern ObservatoryOumuamua
Avi Loeb, Harvard astronomer and outspoken advocate for searching for evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence, has a new trade book out making his case: Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth.

In support of the book, Loeb has been conducting a press campaign, including appearing on podcasts such as Sean Carroll's Mindscape.

What interests me about Loeb's work is not the specifics of his case for the artificial origin of the 'Oumuamua object. (See "Avi Loeb: 'Nature Does Not Produce Such Things.'") I don't know enough observational astronomy and physics to have a decent opinion about that.

ID in Mainstream Science

Rather, I am VERY interested in the logical structure of Loeb's argument, as it currently represents the most salient example of risky intelligent design reasoning in mainstream science. "Risky" is the appropriate adjective here, because while design inferences are commonplace throughout science, where any human activity is concerned (e.g., remote sensing of industrial pollutants, archaeological discovery, cryptanalysis), they are exceedingly rare or non-existent when the intelligence in question is not human. (I am excluding animals, such as crows, chimps, or octopuses.) Loeb's inference is risky because he is pushing against conventional wisdom, extending intelligent causation as a hypothesis to non-human, extraterrestrial agents.

Comment:

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Mars

Mineral jarosite often found on Mars discovered deep in Antarctic ice

Bob Yirka
Phys.org
Fri, 29 Jan 2021 12:00 UTC
jarosite
© Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20705-zThe morphology of mineral grains in deep TALDICE investigated through SEM.
An international team of researchers has found evidence of the mineral jarosite in ice cores extracted from Antarctica. In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers describe how the discovery came about and why they believe it could bolster theories regarding the presence of the same mineral on the surface of Mars.

Jarosite is very rarely found on Earth — it is generally seen in mining waste that has been exposed to air and rain. The researchers with this new effort were not looking for it in their ice cores — they were focused on minerals in deep ice cores that might help to better understand ice age cycles. But when they came across the yellow-brown mineral, their interest was piqued. X-ray absorption testing and electron microscopy showed it be jarosite.

Comment: One wonders whether Pierre Lescaudron's article Did Earth 'Steal' Martian Water? could go some way towards explaining the presence of jarosite as well as its possible connection to the ice age cycles.

See also:

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Better Earth

First evidence that water can be created on the lunar surface by Earth's magnetosphere

Emmanuel Masongsong, UCLA Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences
Phys.org
Thu, 28 Jan 2021 12:00 UTC
magnetosphere Moon
© E. Masongsong, UCLA EPSS, NASA GSFC SVS.Artist’s depiction of the Moon in the magnetosphere, with “Earth wind” made up of flowing oxygen ions (gray) and hydrogen ions (bright blue), which can react with the lunar surface to create water. The Moon spends >75% of its orbit in the solar wind (yellow), which is blocked by the magnetosphere the rest of the time.
Before the Apollo era, the moon was thought to be dry as a desert due to the extreme temperatures and harshness of the space environment. Many studies have since discovered lunar water: ice in shadowed polar craters, water bound in volcanic rocks, and unexpected rusty iron deposits in the lunar soil. Despite these findings, there is still no true confirmation of the extent or origin of lunar surface water.

The prevailing theory is that positively charged hydrogen ions propelled by the solar wind bombard the lunar surface and spontaneously react to make water (as hydroxyl (OH-) and molecular (H2O)). However, a new multinational study published in Astrophysical Journal Letters proposes that solar wind may not be the only source of water-forming ions. The researchers show that particles from Earth can seed the moon with water, as well, implying that other planets could also contribute water to their satellites.

Comment: See also:

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Comet 2

New Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard)

Adriano Valvasori & Ernesto Guido
Remanzacco Blogspot
Sun, 31 Jan 2021 01:38 UTC
CBET 4907 & MPEC 2021-A99, issued on 2021, January 10, announce the discovery of a comet (magnitude ~19.5) by Gregory J. Leonard on CCD images taken on Jan. 3.54-3.56 UT with the Mount Lemmon Survey's 1.5-m reflector. The new comet has been designated C/2021 A1 (Leonard).

We performed follow-up measurements of this object while it was still on the PCCP webpage.

Stacking of 14 unfiltered exposure, 120 seconds each, obtained remotely on 2021, January 6.4 from H06 (iTelescope network, New Mexico) through a 0.43 m f/4.5 Reflector + CCD, shows that this object is a comet with a diffuse coma about 7" in diameter.

Our confirmation image (click on it for a bigger version; made with TYCHO software by D. Parrott):
Comet C/2021 A1 (Leonard)
© Remanzacco Blogspot
M.P.E.C. 2021-A99, assigns the following nearly parabolic orbital elements to comet C/2021 A1: T 2022 Jan. 3.3; e= 0.99; Peri. = 225.09; q = 0.6; Incl.= 132.68
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Hearts

Specific bacteria in the gut prompt mother mice to neglect their pups

Salk Institute
Phys.org
Fri, 29 Jan 2021 12:00 UTC
Escherichia E. coli)
© fusebulb/Shutterstock.comEscherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria, pictured here, is a common gut bacteria in both humans and animals. There are many different strains, some of which cause disease.
As scientists learn more about the microorganisms that colonize the body — collectively called the microbiota — one area of intense interest is the effect that these microbes can have on the brain. A new study led by Salk Institute scientists has identified a strain of E. coli bacteria that, when living in the guts of female mice, causes them to neglect their offspring.

The findings, published January 29, 2021, in the journal Science Advances, show a direct link between a particular microbe and maternal behavior. Although the research was done in mice, it adds to the growing body of science demonstrating that microbes in the gut are important for brain health and can affect development and behavior.

Comment: As reported in the article Honeybee microbes shape colony's social behaviour, similar findings were recently discovered in bees:
[...] both a bee's birth hive and the hive in which it grew up influences the insect's gut microbiome, which in turn influenced CHC composition.

Bees inoculated with a bacterium commonly found in the bee gut accepted other bees inoculated with the same bacterium, but rejected — by biting, stinging, or dragging — bees inoculated with a bacterium typically found on trees, regardless of how genetically related those bees were. "This is the first case where the microbiome is showed to play a role in the basic social biology of the insect, rather than health-related aspects,"
See also:

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Info

USGS: Largest gravity changes ever recorded - 2018 Kīlauea eruption

USGS
YouTube
Tue, 26 Jan 2021 13:37 UTC
Kīlauea’s 2018 eruption Talk by Mike Poland
© YouTube/USGS (screen capture)
The largest gravity changes ever recorded: Continuous gravity monitoring of the onset of Kīlauea's 2018 eruption Talk by Mike Poland-USGS Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Scientist-in-Charge and former USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geophysicist.

Talk originally presented at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting 2020. Eruptive activity at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi, in April-May 2018 occurred at sites that were well monitored by continuous gravity. Draining of the lava lake from the summit eruptive vent starting May 1, recorded by a gravimeter on the vent rim, was accompanied by a drop of ~1300 microgals over 9 days. At the rim of the Puʻu ʻŌʻō eruptive vent, 20 km [12 miles] down the East Rift Zone from the summit, a gravity decrease of ~200 microgals over 8 minutes, followed by an increase of ~350 microgals over the subsequent 9 minutes, accompanied the formation of an eruptive fissure on the flank of the cone on April 30. About 45 minutes later, a decrease of ~1500 microgals occurred over 2 hours as lava drained from the vent. These gravity changes are the largest ever recorded anywhere in the world.

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HAL9000

Spotify is developing speech-recognition tech to detect your mood and suggest music

Harry Domanski
TechRadar
Fri, 29 Jan 2021 08:37 UTC
spotify
© George Dolgikh / Shutterstock.com
Global music-streaming giant Spotify has recently been granted a patent for a new technology which will allow it to analyze its users' voice data - including speech recognition and background noise - with an eye to suggesting music based on what it finds.

As reported by Music Business Worldwide, this patent was first applied for in February 2018 and was granted January 2021. The filing states that Spotify's intention is to use audio recognition to identify traits such as "an emotional state, a gender, an age, or an accent of the speaker" and then recommend content based on this model.

This isn't the first time the Swedish company has toyed with what some might view as 'overly personal' personalization techniques - a previous patent that Spotify had granted involved customizing a user's experience based on their 'personality traits'.

In both cases, the aim for Spotify is to target users with more relevant and appropriate content, whether it be music or podcast recommendations, or potentially advertising.

Comment: See also:

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Info

Doctors studied last moments of life to figure out when death begins

Ed Cara
Gizmodo
Thu, 28 Jan 2021 17:46 UTC
Hospital Beds
© Alex Wong (Getty Images)
New research suggests that doctors are, thankfully, skilled at correctly identifying a person's time of death — a crucial aspect of ensuring healthy organs for donation. At the same time, the body can sometimes show flitters of cardiac activity even after death has become truly irreversible, according to the study published in the New England of Medicine.

There's no shortage of morbid curiosity surrounding death. But according to the researchers behind this project, known as the Death Prediction and Physiology after Removal of Therapy Study, or DePPaRT, there's a lot we don't know for sure about a person's last minutes of life.

Since 2014, they've been collecting vital sign data from dying patients in Canada, the UK, and the Czech Republic as part of their work. Their main goal has been to document as much as possible about the process of dying, particularly in critically ill people who are taken off life support. They've also been studying how and why families decide to donate the organs of their loved ones soon before death and how the donation affects them. People in the study — around 600 in total — were only included after express consent from their families. The project received funding from the Canadian government as well as the Canadian Donation and Transplantation Research Program.

Though some organs, like the kidneys, can be kept viable for over a day before being transplanted, others, like the heart, have to be transplanted within hours. Any delay can be literally the difference between life and death for the organ recipients. But people are understandably sensitive about death, and many families and some doctors may hold out hope of a miraculous recovery even after a person is taken off life support.
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