Monday, June 6, 2016

We talked to the Oxford philosopher who gave Elon Musk the theory that we are all computer simulations and other top stories.

  • We talked to the Oxford philosopher who gave Elon Musk the theory that we are all computer simulations

    We talked to the Oxford philosopher who gave Elon Musk the theory that we are all computer simulations
    Earlier this week, Elon Musk put forward a provocative argument: The odds are overwhelming that we’re characters in an advanced civilization’s computer simulation. Our own video games have advanced at a rapid pace, from Pong in the 1970s to immersive virtual reality today, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO noted in a Q&A session at Recode’s Code conference: So given that we’re clearly on a trajectory to have games that are indistinguishable from reality, and those games could be played on any set-top bo..
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  • Birth of baby 'dragons' in ancient cave in Slovenia

    Birth of baby 'dragons' in ancient cave in Slovenia
    Dragons are still the stuff of legend. But in Slovenia, a bizarre, cave-dwelling olm salamander serves as a worthy, real-life stand-in.For the past four months, biologists have been closely watching a clutch of "dragon" eggs at the Postojna Cave in southwestern Slovenia. No one had ever witnessed the birth of an olm outside of a lab until Wednesday, when two baby olms emerged from their eggs, to researchers' delight."Our first dragon literally shot itself out of the egg in a single attempt," Po..
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  • Researchers introduce first flat optical lens that would be cheaper than convectional lens

    Researchers introduce first flat optical lens that would be cheaper than convectional lens
    Optical lenses we have so far are not compact or thin, so researchers from the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have presented first planar lens that works with high efficiency within the visible spectrum of light, capable of covering all colors. The planar that researchers have come up with is a lens that can resolve nanoscale features separated by distances smaller than the wavelength of light. The lens uses an ultrathin array of tiny waveguides, know..
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  • Scientists propose new model for dog domestication

    Scientists propose new model for dog domestication
    Scientists have come up with a new model for dog domestication, as per which, wolves got domesticated two times. They said that our furry friends were domesticated once in eastern Eurasia, and once in western Eurasia. For thousands of years, dogs have been living with humans. Both humans and dogs in fact become best friend much before humans started settling down and farming, making dogs the four legged creature first domesticated animal. In our history, the story of the first Fido is a main..
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  • New RNA-Snipping Crispr Gene-Editing System May Help Treat Huntington's And Other Diseases

    New RNA-Snipping Crispr Gene-Editing System May Help Treat Huntington's And Other Diseases
    Researchers have developed a way to use Crispr to target the RNA in cells instead of DNA. If this technique proves successful, it could lead to better methods to modify the proteins in cells, or even eliminate cancer cells.  ( Broad Institute | YouTube ) With scientists learning more about the potential of Crispr as a tool for gene-editing, it is now becoming increasingly possible to develop better forms of treatment that can target specific malignancies in the body. One such rec..
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  • NASA Found 39 Unreported Man-Made Sources of Toxic Air Pollution

    NASA Found 39 Unreported Man-Made Sources of Toxic Air Pollution
    Jun 06, 2016 02:45 AM EDT NASA's satellites also function as an observatory for climate change and weather behavior on Earth. These satellites were proven to be helpful in the recent findings by NASA scientists in partnership with the Environment and Climate Change Canada, who discovered that there are 39 unreported sources of toxic air pollution on Earth.   Satellite finds unreported and major human-made sources of toxic sulfur dioxide emissions: https://t.co/IgQf6mmtbo pic.twitter.com/8gS..
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  • USGS assesses carbon potential of Alaska lands

    USGS assesses carbon potential of Alaska lands
    In comparison to the lower 48 states, Alaskan forests, wetlands and permafrost contain larger stores of carbon, according to the first-of-its-kind assessment recently completed by the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Forest Service and the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. "This benchmark assessment establishes significant baseline information to better understand carbon dynamics in Alaskan ecosystems," said Interior's Deputy Secretary Mike Connor. "It provides the latest example of how..
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  • Mysterious underwater Greek 'city' built by microbes, say scientists

    Mysterious underwater Greek 'city' built by microbes, say scientists
    When divers off the shores of Greece's Zakynthos island found smooth floors and what looked to be circular column bases, they thought that they had found the remains of an ancient civilization. The divers' discovery may be more ancient than they ever imagined, according to research published Friday – but it wasn't built by human hands. The site was not created and abandoned in ancient Grecian times, but rather in the Pliocene era, approximately five million years ago. And credit goes to microbe..
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  • Purdue team finds convection could produce Pluto's polygons

    Purdue team finds convection could produce Pluto's polygons
    Data reported by NASA's New Horizons New Horizons mission to the Pluto system shows unusual terrain in this region, which features a large deposit of nitrogen ice with a pattern of polygons that are thickest at their centers and dip at their edges. Purdue University researchers have proposed that the polygons seen in the images could be individual Rayleigh-Benard convection cells. A paper detailing the work was published in the journal Nature. Purdue graduate student Alex Trowbridge, und..
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Making nice, Donald Trump to meet with NM Gov. Susana Martinez 'in near future' .LeBron James praying his hero Muhammad Ali makes a full recovery .
Cancer survivorship to be celebrated at tonight's dinner .Google's Magenta project just wrote its first piece of music, and thankfully it's not great .

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