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Revolutionary new state of matter created

Matthew Loffhagen
Outer Places
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 11:08 UTC
Atom
© Pixabay/Outer Places
Atomic science is mindblowing. What else has the power to transform Earth both metaphorically and literally and can change history with one small revelation?

Sometimes, when you pull an atom apart, things go boom. At other times, when you shove a bunch of atoms together, you manage to create a teeny tiny version of Voltron .

Scientists from the Vienna University of Technology and Harvard University have been playing around with the empty space within atoms, in the academic equivalent of trying to figure out how many ping pong balls a person can fit inside their mouth.

Atoms have a lot of vacant, empty space, right? So what if we took a big atom with a lot of wiggle room, and jammed it full of smaller atoms?
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Eye 1

Researchers at Harvard create electronic artificial eye


Harvard University
Tue, 27 Feb 2018 00:16 UTC
Artificial Lens
© Image courtesy of the Capasso Lab/Harvard SEASThe adaptive metalens focuses light rays onto an image sensor. An electrical signal controls the shape of the metalens to produce the desired optical wavefronts (shown in red), resulting in better images. In the future, adaptive metalenses will be built into imaging systems, such as cell phone cameras and microscope, enabling flat, compact autofocus as well as the capability for simultaneously correcting optical aberrations and performing optical image stabilization, all in a single plane of control.
Inspired by the human eye, researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed an adaptive metalens, that is essentially a flat, electronically controlled artificial eye. The adaptive metalens simultaneously controls for three of the major contributors to blurry images: focus, astigmatism, and image shift.

The research is published in Science Advances.

"This research combines breakthroughs in artificial muscle technology with metalens technology to create a tunable metalens that can change its focus in real time, just like the human eye," said Alan She, a graduate student at SEAS and first author of the paper.

"We go one step further to build the capability of dynamically correcting for aberrations such as astigmatism and image shift, which the human eye cannot naturally do."

"This demonstrates the feasibility of embedded optical zoom and autofocus for a wide range of applications including cell phone cameras, eyeglasses and virtual and augmented reality hardware," said Federico Capasso, Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at SEAS and senior author of the paper. "It also shows the possibility of future optical microscopes, which operate fully electronically and can correct many aberrations simultaneously."
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Brain

Preterm birth leaves its mark on the functional networks of the brain

University of Helsinki
ScienceDaily
Mon, 26 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
brain and red thing
© Anton TokarievThe figure depicts frontal networks of cortical interactions found in the present study. These networks were disclosed by computer analysis based on newborn brainwaves (electroencephalograph) shown in the background.
Researchers at the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki University Hospital have demonstrated that premature birth has a significant and, at the same time, a very selective effect on the functional networks of a child's brain. The effects can primarily be seen in the frontal lobe, which is significant for cognitive functions.

Premature birth is globally the most important risk factor for life-time disorders and defects in neurocognitive functions. However, current methods have not shed much light on how premature birth affects the early activity of neurons in the frontal lobe, significant specifically to cognitive functions.

A study involving 46 infants exposed to very early prematurity and nearly 70 healthy and mature control infants was recently conducted at the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki University Hospital. Brain function in the infants was monitored and measured with the help of an EEG cap, developed earlier at the clinic, revealing new information on the subject.

"In this study, a new 'source analysis' method was used for the first time to measure functional networks in the infant brain: with the help of a computer model, the measured EEG signals were interpreted as activity in the infant cortex, which enabled the evaluation of the functional networking of neurons in a very versatile manner on the cortical level," says Sampsa Vanhatalo, a professor in clinical neurophysiology and the head of the study.
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Galaxy

Centaurus A's satellites "coherent movement" challenges current dark matter theories (VIDEO)

Alison Klesman
Astronomy
Thu, 01 Feb 2018 11:33 UTC
Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is an active galaxy that likely resulted from the recent merger of an elliptical with a spiral. Astronomers have now shown that 14 of 16 surveyed satellite galaxies rotate around the parent galaxy coherently in a plane.
Centaurus A (NGC 5128) is an active galaxy that likely resulted from the recent merger of an elliptical with a spiral. Astronomers have now shown that 14 of 16 surveyed satellite galaxies rotate around the parent galaxy coherently in a plane.
The force of gravity locks smaller things in place around big ones. This holds true for galaxies, including our own, which maintain systems of satellite galaxies (for example, our Large and Small Magellanic Clouds). While the current standard cosmological model used by astronomers to describe and understand the universe states that these satellites should be randomly distributed and orbit around their parent galaxy in a disorderly fashion, new observations have just shown, for the third time, that this is not the case.

Comment: There are other theories for why the universe behaves as it does: Also be sure to check out SOTT radio's:

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Moon

Water, water everywhere: Evidence from lunar missions finds water is widely distributed across the moon's surface


RT
Sun, 25 Feb 2018 08:26 UTC
Moon
© Goddard Space Flight Center / NASA
Water on the moon is widespread across its surface and appears to be present at all times of the lunar day, according to a new analysis of two lunar missions.

The new evidence contradicts previous research suggesting water was confined to certain areas and depended on lunar days. "We find that it doesn't matter what time of day or which latitude we look at, the signal indicating water always seems to be present," said Joshua Bandfield, a senior research scientist with the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and lead author of a new study published in Nature Geoscience.

"The presence of water doesn't appear to depend on the composition of the surface, and the water sticks around," he added. It's hoped the results will lead to a greater understanding of the origins of the moon's water and offer insight into how it could be used as a resource.

Comment: Scientists now think a deep reservoir of water exists beneath the moon's surface that could help support a colony

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Beaker

The chimera is real: Scientists just made sheep-human hybrids

Peter Dockrill
sciencealert.com
Mon, 19 Feb 2018 14:56 UTC
chimera
© (Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte)Pig-human hybrid embryo from earlier research
Researchers have achieved a new kind of chimeric first, producing sheep-human hybrid embryos that could one day represent the future of organ donation - by using body parts grown inside unnatural, engineered animals.

With that end goal in mind, scientists have created the first interspecies sheep-human chimera, introducing human stem cells into sheep embryos, resulting in a hybrid creature that's more than 99 percent sheep - but also a tiny, little bit like you and me.

Admittedly, the human portion of the embryos created in the experiment - before they were destroyed after 28 days - is exceedingly small, but the fact it exists at all is what generates considerable controversy in this field of research.

Comment: Scientists working on making actual 'sheeple' so they can harvest human organs from sheep
To create a part-human, part-animal embryo, the researchers use a gene-editing technique. First, they deleted genes needed for developing a certain organ in an animal embryo, then they injected human stem cells, which can become any cell in the body and are supposed to fill the void. In 2010, the Japanese scientists were the first to use this method to create a mouse and rat chimera, where the rat cells were introduced into a mouse to form a missing pancreas.


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Frog

Helix structure discovered in tail of human sperm (PHOTO)

Mike Mcrae
Science Alert
Wed, 21 Feb 2018 12:12 UTC
sperm ovum
© (BlackJack3D/iStock / Getty Images Plus)
How have we never seen this?

The sperm's tail is perhaps one of the most iconic structures among all of the cells in the human body, so it's odd to think there are still some things we don't know about it.

It turns out there is a weird kind of helix right at the very tip of the tail nobody has noticed before. The researchers responsible for the discovery are yet to work out what it does, but figuring it out could help us understand why some sperm are better swimmers than others.

Researchers from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden and the University of Colorado used an imaging trick that combines electron microscopy with the 'slice-by-slice' action of CT scans.

Comment: While its true purpose remains to be known, it is a fascinating discovery when we consider how prevalent the helix structure is in nature:

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Cardboard Box

Thinking outside the box of quantum physics: How the mind can make sense of the quantum quagmire in more ways than one

Bernardo Kastrup
Scientific American
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 00:00 UTC
Quantum physics box
© PM Images Getty Images
The counterintuitive predictions of quantum theory have now been experimentally confirmed with unprecedented rigor. Yet, the question of how to interpret the meaning of these predictions remains controversial. A Wikipedia table summarizing different interpretations of quantum mechanics included no less than fourteen entries at the time of this writing. New interpretations regularly appear.

The problem is that quantum theory contradicts our intuitive understanding of what "real" means. According to the theory, if two real particles A and B are prepared in a special way, what Alice sees when she observes particle A depends on how Bob concurrently observes particle B, even if the particles - as well as Alice and Bob - are separated by an arbitrary distance. This "spooky action at a distance," as Einstein called it, contradicts either local causation or the very notion that particles A and B are "real," in the sense of existing independently of observation. As it turns out, certain statistical properties of the observations, which have been experimentally confirmed, indicate the latter: that the particles do not exist independently of observation. And since observation ultimately consists of what is apprehended on the mental screen of perception, the implication may be that "the Universe is entirely mental," as put by Richard Conn Henry in his 2005 Nature essay.
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Grey Alien

Any contact with ETs could cause chaos for life on Earth

Andrew Griffin
Independent
Wed, 14 Feb 2018 12:58 UTC
alien football
Messages sent by aliens from space could destroy life as we know it on Earth if we're not careful about how we read them, scientists have warned.

A new paper explores how we might read and understand a message that came to us from space. And it finds that it would be impossible to know that a message was dangerous before we opened it.

In fact, the messages are so dangerous that it would be safest to simply discard them without ever reading them, scientists have warned.

It's unlikely that any alien civilisation we came into contact with would be harmful, researchers Michael Hippke and John G. Learned write in a new study posted on arXiv.org. But since it's impossible to know what the message would say before we read it, the safest scenario would be to avoid doing so entirely.


Comment: Considering reports of the UFO/alien phenomena, it's actually quite likely they don't have our best interests at heart: Karla Turner - UFO & Military Abductions - 1994 Lecture


Comment: See: Also check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Hyperdimensional Planet Earth - Are human beings really at the top of the food chain?

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Laptop

New trojan malware could mind-control neural networks

Chris Mahon
Outer Places
Fri, 23 Feb 2018 10:47 UTC
Trojan
© Pixabay
Each new technological breakthrough comes seemingly prepackaged with a new way for hackers to kill us all: self-driving cars, space-based weapons, and even nuclear security systems are vulnerable to someone with the right knowledge and a bit of code. Now, deep-learning artificial intelligence looks like the next big threat, and not because it will gain sentience to murder us with robots (as Elon Musk has warned): a group of computer scientists from the US and China recently published a paper proposing the first-ever trojan for a neural network.

Neural networks are the primary tool used in AI to accomplish "deep learning," which has allowed AIs to master complex tasks like playing chess and Go. Neural networks function similar to a human brain, which is how they got the name. Information passes through layers of neuron-like connections, which then analyze the information and spit out a response.

These networks can pull off difficult tasks like image recognition, including identifying faces and objects, which makes them useful for self-driving cars (to identify stop signs and pedestrians) and security (which may involve identifying an authorized user's face). Neural networks are relatively novel pieces of tech and aren't commonly used by the public yet but, as deep-learning AI becomes more prevalent, it will likely become an appealing target for hackers.
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