Category: Technology

Hybrid Computers

When we think of computers, the first thing that comes to mind is that they are artificial intelligence, manmade and have no biological component. They function similar to us, but have no biological properties. What if that were not true anymore? What if we were to develop a computer that had a biological component that aided its performance? This is where hybrid computers come into play.

A company has started to create computer chips that are powered by human neurons. It’s a weird concept and might seem very unnatural to many, however, at the same time it is brilliant too.  An Australian startup called Cortical Labs has begun the development and production of chips which they claim will help AI run on a much lower amount of power.

In normal AI machinery, there has to be a substantial power source available to it, however, Cortical labs wants to change that idea. They believe that their chips will operate by mimicking the power of the human brain which does not require as much energy.

They want to build a chip that will use synthetic biology and mimic the full power of the human brain. This would result in solving many of the challenges that are faced by AI developers.

The neurons that are extracted from embryos of mice, while the ones extracted from humans are made by turning skin cells into stem cells and then into neurons.

Many might think that this idea is a new discovery by the company. However, this isn’t true. The announcement of the development of these chips by Cortical Labs comes only a week after European researchers were successful in creating neural connections between brain cells and silicone brain cells made synthetically on the Internet. Even researchers at MIT have tried to use bacteria to power AI chips.

The plan that is proposed by the Cortical Labs researchers is that the chips will use less power than a dragon fly’s brain which is pretty small. The first step the company plans to take is to get the chips to play a game of pong. This might seem odd, but previously a company called Deepmind did something similar with their artificial intelligence chips and was successful. So the researchers at Cortical Labs have decided to do something similar to test out their artificial intelligence chips.

The CEO Hon Wang Chon believes that through these chips, they will be able to shape the behavior of the extracted neurons and use them to their benefit, and help give a boost to hybrid technology which has recently begun to gain progress in the tech world.

Living Robots

There have been many movies focused on robots – plots that glorify robots, and plots that show them in a negative light, or even taking over the human race. In reality the time isn’t far off when robots will equal human intelligence. And interestingly, the first living robot has already been created.

A team of scientists claim to have built living robots called Xenobots which can pick up things, move around and most importantly, they can heal themselves. Just like we see in the movies.

The reasoning given behind the creation of these robots is that the researchers hope that one day these robots could be used to clean up microplastics in the ocean, helping the environment. And secondly, they could be used to inject drugs inside humans.

The robots are made from cells taken from frog embryos which are then rearranged to create primitive beings. The scientists believe these are one of a kind living machines. They are not robots in the traditional sense; however, they are not human beings either. They have synthesized the two together and created a new class altogether. They are living beings that are easily programmable.

The robots are a millimeter in length and were developed with the help of a supercomputer that uses an evolutionary algorithm. The supercomputer first tested thousands of 3D designs to create a form of life. The scientists then chose a handful of designs and tested them to see whether they could move or perform a basic task that was assigned to them.

The robots only have a lifespan of about 10 days as the heart cells are only able to contract and relax for that specific duration on their own. The functions the robots perform vary. They can go from pushing pellets into a central location to actually moving around objects.

Another advantage of these robots is that they are completely biodegradable. They cause no harm to the Earth, unlike robots that are made from other materials like steel and metal. There are no traces left behind of their existence.

Right now these robots are very tiny but researchers plan to expand their size and they believe that they could be built with nerve cells and other cells that are used to give cognitive abilities at some point in the near future.

When we consider the reality of the situation, it seems we are much closer to a world where humans and robots live together side by side. It may seem odd to many, however, with such discoveries and inventions, that the idea of robots becoming equal to humans is becoming stronger and stronger.

What Would Happen in a Nuclear War?

With talks of another world war in the news, it is a frightening thought of what actually would happen if the United States were to become involved in a war with Russia or Iran. As we live in the modern age, wars have changed greatly compared to the last world war. We have better-developed weapons, we have better ammunition, and worst of all, many of the world’s countries have nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons have the ability to kill substantial portions of the population of a country or state. The thought of such a war happening is heartbreaking and frightening.

Historians and climatologists have tried to map out exactly what would happen if a nuclear war were to occur and as expected the results were horrendous. They believe that the people within a specific radius of the bomb would be obliterated immediately, but the impact would not stop there. Every part of the world would feel the impact of the bomb, including the oceans and wildlife.

They refer to the nuclear bomb as the sun coming to the surface of the Earth for a flash of a second and destroying everything with fire and storm. The nuclear bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima proved just how devastating they can be at ground zero. Those two nuclear bombs contained 15 kilotons of ammunition and incinerated everything in the two cities.

Scientists report that in a nuclear war that there would be so much smoke and dust generated that it could block the Sun’s light for up to 5 years. They believe that not only would it be much colder with a significant lack of sunlight, but also there will be excess UV rays as the ozone layer would become damaged or even destroyed during a nuclear war. Lower temperatures, due to smoke and dust blocking the sun would result in freezing, even in the summers, destroying fruit, vegetable and grain crops.

The impact of nuclear war on the Earth’s climate would not be limited to the land areas of Earth. Increasing the carbon dioxide content of the Earth’s air would mean that the air absorbed by water would turn the water acidic. The water would become acidic enough to dissolve shelled creatures and kill aquatic plants resulting in the extinction of marine life.

With a little study, it is obvious that there would be no winners in a nuclear war. All of humanity and Earth as we now know it would be lost.

Deep Space Signal

The question of whether alien life exists or not has been debated, pondered and experimented upon for decades. People have been trying to find a sign or a signal that will indicate life beyond our planet. Now, a Harvard professor believes we might be receiving a signal that may prove that aliens do exist.

In Canada, researchers discovered a very powerful radio signal that they believe could be coming from another distant galaxy. This signal seems to repeat itself every 16 days. A Harvard professor, who is the chair of the Harvard Astronomy Department, believes that this signal could be a sign of an alien civilization. However, he does acknowledge that signals could also be generated through young neutron stars or another phenomenon that is not familiar to us yet. The signal is called a fast radio bust or FBR.

He believes that a possibility could be that alien life could be using a beam of energy to transport something within space. The signal that is being received by the Canadian researchers is the energy or radiation that is being leaked from that. However, the amount of energy needed for such a beam would be equivalent to the energy needed to sustain Earth, which seems unlikely.

The Canadian researchers do not seem to have the same point of view as the Harvard researchers and have said that non-professionals claim it as extraterrestrial life when they do not believe so. However, the Harvard professor is insistent that it is a possibility that needs to be considered and should be looked into with detail, with regards to possible natural causes and phenomena.

If we think about how our lives will change if alien contact is made, the thought itself is staggering. When the news of this signal spread, some people began to express their worry and fear while others wanted to know more. Scientists believe that actual contact with such life are close to impossible, because traveling in space is too difficult for them to come to Earth, or for humans to meet them where they are situated.

At times, such news may show some signs of extraterrestrial life and may have researchers excited for what they may discover; however, there has never been any substantial proof of whether life exists beyond Earth.

Cyborg Jellyfish

When we consider jellyfish, we never think of them as cyborgs. They are fish in the sea that are usually transparent and sting when you get near their tentacles, sometimes powerful enough to kill a human. However, scientists have created cyborg jellyfish to explore the ocean in a more efficient way.

A team of scientists and researchers from world-class universities such as Caltech and Stanford decided to attach microelectronics that are low powered onto Jellyfish. These electronics will enable the jellyfish to swim three times as fast as the original, creating a bio-hybrid jellyfish.

The reason that researchers have done this is to enable themselves to look within area of the ocean where humans have been unable to explore. If we consider submarines, they are able to cover certain depths, however there is a limit to which they can go down. The jellyfish will be installed with sensors that will enable scientists to look and explore the depths of the oceans.

In the trials that were conducted by the scientists, the researchers were able to shock the jellyfish with the electronic device they had installed and it led to the jellyfish swimming faster and more efficiently. Hence proving to the researchers that exploring the oceans through jellyfish may actually be a very real possibility.

They claim that they have shown that jellyfish can move much faster with the help of the technology the scientists have installed without any effect to their metabolism. Normally jellyfish do not have the need to swim fast, but do hold the capability to swim much faster than their usual speed.

The simplicity of the electronics that have been designed by the researchers is such that the electronics use very little power, even less than aquatic robots, which is what makes them so efficient and well suited.

This discovery could revolutionize the way oceans are explored. Scientists believe they can take this electronic device a step further by making modifications to the design to allow measuring of temperature and depth, as well as directing and controlling the jellyfish.

This would change the way we see oceans. We will be able to see creatures that live far deeper than we’ve ever explored before and better understand life beneath the waves.

Time Machine

Inspired from many stories and movies like “Back to the Future”, everyone dreams of traveling back in time for many different reasons. Scientists and Astrophysicists are also keen to pursue this subject and after an immense struggle, they have been able to say that they know how to turn this fictional idea into a reality.

One such astrophysicist named Ron Mallett was confident that he had theoretically found a way to travel to the past. In an interview with CNN, he said that he has written a scientific equation that can be used as the basis for the actual time machine. He further said that using this equation, he had made a preliminary version of the time machine to demonstrate the main components of his theory to the world.

Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity performed an exceptional role in the making of Mallett’s time machine. Einstein’s theory of relativity states that time accelerates or decelerates depending upon the speed at which an object is moving. Based on this theory Mallett thought that if a person is traveling at the speed of light in a spaceship, time will pass slowly compared to the time passed by someone on Earth. Basically, this means that an astronaut can go around space in less than a week, but a decade would pass by the time of his return to earth.

Many physicists do agree that while going forward in time is possible, traveling back in time is not. This raised another issue, but Mallett proposed that by using lasers he can make that possible too.

For traveling back in time, the astrophysicist again used Einstein’s theory that states that space-time is bent by gigantic objects subject to gravity. The stronger the gravity is, the slower time passes and vice versa. Mallett told CNN that in Einstein’s theory when we talk of space, we involve time in it too and that’s why it is called space time, whatever you do to space also happens with time. He further said that if you can bend space, the possibility exists that you can twist it too.

Mallett argued that it is possible to bend time into a hoop or a loop, doing this will allow time to travel to the past. Using lasers, he even built a prototype and argued that by carefully studying the type of gravitational field that was produced by a ring laser, a new way of looking at the possibility of a time machine could be found based on a circulating ray of light.

Mallet is extremely positive about the success of his work, but his colleagues are doubtful whether he is on the right path to a working time machine or not. Astrophysicist Paul Sutter expressed his reservations on Mallett’s work as he identified some mathematical errors and mistakes in his theory.