Certain diseases transmitted from animals to humans could kill 12 times as many people in 2050 than they did in 2020, researchers have claimed. Experts from U.S. biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks called for "urgent action" to address the risk to global public health. Epidemics caused by zoonotic diseases—also known as spillovers—could be more frequent in [...]
There are many creatures on our planet with more advanced senses than humans. Turtles can sense Earth's magnetic field. Mantis shrimp can detect polarized light. Elephants can hear much lower frequencies than humans can. Butterflies can perceive a broader range of colors, including ultraviolet (UV) light. Inspired by the enhanced visual system of the [...]
Northwestern Medicine scientists have developed a more effective way of creating nanotherapeutic vaccines and medicines, according to a new study published in ACS Nano. "Over the last decade, spherical nucleic acid, or SNA, technology has emerged as a broad therapeutic platform for a wide variety of diseases, including cancer and other illnesses," said Chad Mirkin, Ph.D., professor [...]
One question has relentlessly followed ChatGPT in its trajectory to superstar status in the field of artificial intelligence: Has it met the Turing test of generating output indistinguishable from human response? Two researchers at the University of California at San Diego say it comes close, but not quite. ChatGPT may be smart, quick and [...]
Mountains of used plastic bottles get thrown away every day, but microbes could potentially tackle this problem. Now, researchers report in ACS Central Science that they've developed a plastic-eating E. coli that can efficiently turn polyethylene terephthalate (PET) waste into adipic acid, which is used to make nylon materials, drugs and fragrances. Previously, a team of researchers including [...]
Images that humans perceive as completely unrelated can be classified as the same by computational models. Human sensory systems are very good at recognizing objects that we see or words that we hear, even if the object is upside down or the word is spoken by a voice we’ve never heard. Computational models known [...]
Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed modular nanoparticles that can be easily customized to target different biological entities such as tumors, viruses or toxins. The surface of the nanoparticles is engineered to host any biological molecules of choice, making it possible to tailor the nanoparticles for a wide array of [...]
A new tool lets artists add invisible changes to the pixels in their art before they upload it online so that if it’s scraped into an AI training set, it can cause the resulting model to break in chaotic and unpredictable ways. The tool, called Nightshade, is intended as a way to fight back [...]
You can’t blame your brain for your actions! Neuroscientists at HSE University have challenged the famous studies that question the free will of our decisions. You can’t shift responsibility for your actions to the brain. The results of the new work were recently published in the journal Neuropsychologia. Historical Context of the Free Will Debate [...]
Summary: AI’s remarkable abilities, like those seen in ChatGPT, often seem conscious due to their human-like interactions. Yet, researchers suggest AI systems lack the intricacies of human consciousness. They argue that these systems don’t possess the embodied experiences or the neural mechanisms humans have. Therefore, equating AI’s abilities to genuine consciousness might be an oversimplification. [...]
