Cyborg Insects
September 19th, 2015Via: Vice:
I asked Anthes why she thought the military was so keen to work with insects. “I’d imagine there are several reasons,” she said. “Firstly those creatures are simpler to work with, biologically speaking. It’s much easier to commandeer an insect’s nervous system than a dog’s or a human’s. But also, for the specific applications they were imagining, I believe they wanted small, inconspicuous animals.”
The reasoning behind their call was also similar to that behind the Acoustic Kitty decades earlier: technology piggybacking on an already-living, remote control “insect drone” would be easier than building a robot from scratch. In this case, the creature would have the advantage of natural flight.
75% in U.S. See Widespread Government Corruption
September 19th, 2015Via: Gallup:
Three in four Americans (75%) last year perceived corruption as widespread in the country’s government. This figure is up from two in three in 2007 (67%) and 2009 (66%).
Scientists Claim They Have Grown Human Sperm in the Lab
September 19th, 2015Via: Independent:
Human sperm cells have been made in the laboratory for the first time by culturing immature cells taken from the testes of infertile men. The breakthrough promises to help young boys made sterile by cancer treatments and adult men who cannot make their own sperm, scientists have claimed.
The sperm cells made in an artificial “bioreactor” look identical to those produced naturally. The technology could be used in two to four years to help infertile men have their own biological children, according to researchers based at a French national research institute in Lyon.
Scientists have been trying for two decades to find a way of producing human sperm in the test tube (in vitro). But no one has been able to complete the complicated cycles of cell division and development that lead the immature “germ cells” in the male testes to become fully mature sperm cells capable of successfully fertilising eggs.
Analysis of Antidepressant Paxil Finds Data on Teen Risk Was Held Back
September 18th, 2015Via: Reuters:
A medical journal criticised British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline on Thursday for delaying access to key data from a trial of its antidepressant paroxetine (Seroxat, Paxil) that would have shown earlier that it is neither safe or effective in adolescents.
The widely used medicine is linked to an increased risk of suicide in young people and has carried a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “black box warning” advising against its use in adolescents since 2004.
Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency recommended in 2003 that antidepressants like paroxetine should not be used in children or adolescents, and European regulators followed suit in 2005.
But, writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), researchers who re-analysed a paroxetine study first published in 2001 said the drug’s dangerous side effects could easily have been highlighted years earlier.
“This is fundamentally about correcting the scientific record,” said Peter Doshi of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in the United States, a BMJ associate editor.
The re-analysis used previously unseen data from records of patients involved in the trial and found that at least 12 out of 93 children taking the drug had developed suicidal thoughts.
American Airlines Flights Grounded Nationwide
September 17th, 2015Via: CBS:
The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday that American Airlines has grounded flights nationwide due to computer issues.
American Airlines sent out a tweet responding to customers, saying it was “working to resolve technical issues.”
Barbie Wants to Get to Know Your Child
September 17th, 2015I would assume that every utterance from children playing with the dolls will be archived.
Check this out:
The writers marked important questions with ‘‘flags,’’ and this enabled Hello Barbie’s most unnerving power: She could remember the answers and use them for conversation starters days or weeks later. ‘‘She should always know that you have two moms and that your grandma died, so don’t bring that up, and that your favorite color is blue, and that you want to be a veterinarian when you grow up,’’ Wulfeck said.
Via: New York Times Magazine:
With the help of A.I., America’s most famous doll tries to fulfill a timeless dream — convincing little girls that she’s a real friend. What will happen if they believe her?
Deep Learning Machine Teaches Itself Chess in 72 Hours, Plays at International Master Level
September 16th, 2015Via: MIT Technology Review:
In a world first, an artificial intelligence machine plays chess by evaluating the board rather than using brute force to work out every possible move.
Increased Use of Computers in Classrooms: “More Likely to be Associated with Lower Results”
September 16th, 2015Via: BBC:
Investing heavily in school computers and classroom technology does not improve pupils’ performance, says a global study from the OECD.
The think tank says frequent use of computers in schools is more likely to be associated with lower results.
The OECD’s education director Andreas Schleicher says school technology had raised “too many false hopes”.
Tom Bennett, the government’s expert on pupil behaviour, said teachers had been “dazzled” by school computers.
The report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development examines the impact of school technology on international test results, such as the Pisa tests taken in more than 70 countries and tests measuring digital skills.
It says education systems which have invested heavily in information and communications technology have seen “no noticeable improvement” in Pisa test results for reading, mathematics or science.
Unplugged
“If you look at the best-performing education systems, such as those in East Asia, they’ve been very cautious about using technology in their classrooms,” said Mr Schleicher.
“Those students who use tablets and computers very often tend to do worse than those who use them moderately.”
…
Among the seven countries with the highest level of internet use in school, it found three experienced “significant declines” in reading performance – Australia, New Zealand and Sweden – and three more had results that had “stagnated” – Spain, Norway and Denmark.
Watch 50 Drones Controlled at Once in a Record-Breaking Swarm
September 16th, 2015Via: New Scientist:
A team at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, has succeeded in launching 50 drones that were all controlled by a single person.
“To our knowledge, this is a world record for the number of UAVs under single operator control, by quite a long way,” says project lead Kevin Jones.
The team aims to develop swarming behaviours that give the benefits of having multiple drones without the need for a large number of operators.
Another Attack on Bay Area Fiber Optic Cables
September 16th, 2015Via: USA Today:
Someone deliberately severed two AT&T fiber optic cables in the Livermore, Calif., Monday night, the latest in a string of attacks against the Internet’s privately run backbone.
AT&T is offering a $250,000 reward in connection with the latest attacks. AT&T’s fiber optic network is legally considered a critical piece of the nation’s Internet infrastructure, and any attackers are subject to both state and federal prosecution. The FBI already has an open investigation into 14 similar attacks on California Internet backbones since last summer.
