The debate over artificial superintelligence (ASI) can tend toward extremes, with predictions that it will either save humanity or destroy it. E. Glen Weyl has a different perspective: Superintelligence is already here, and it has been for…
Category: 1. Edi-Choice
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First, male gets heated up, then female, and then, you know — Harvard Gazette
Brace yourself for a hot story about plant sex.
Harvard researchers have discovered that cycads — an ancient lineage of seed plants — heat their reproductive organs to attract beetle pollinators, which in turn evolved specialized infrared…
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Scientists find dark chocolate ingredient that slows aging
A natural chemical in dark chocolate may play a role in slowing certain signs of biological aging. Researchers at King’s College London have identified theobromine, a plant compound found in cocoa, as a possible contributor to this effect.
The…
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‘Consciousness’ — Harvard Gazette
In the movies, a comatose patient can be unreachable one moment, just fine the next.
“That suggests there’s a clearly demarcated border between unconsciousness and consciousness,” said Joseph Giacino, a professor of physical medicine…
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Science needs contrarians, and contrarians need support — Harvard Gazette
Picture a scientist with a provocative hypothesis — something that defies conventional wisdom or verges on the outlandish.
Supporting the pursuit of that big, bold claim is the goal of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science’s new
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Cracking the code of why, when some choose to ‘self-handicap’ — Harvard Gazette
Partying the night before a big exam. Preparing last-minute for a work presentation. Running a 5K in a 10-pound Halloween costume. All are examples of what psychologists call “self-handicapping” — creating obstacles to success to order to…
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Scientists capture flu viruses surfing into human cells in real time
Fever, aching limbs and a runny nose — as winter returns, so too does the flu. The disease is triggered by influenza viruses, which enter our body through droplets and then infect vulnerable cells.
A research team from Switzerland and Japan has…
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How memory works (and doesn’t) — Harvard Gazette
Venki Murthy: Memory is just not something that’s stored on a tape and it just sits around, right? It’s really astonishing how you can remember anything at all. So for me, this now really brings to the point — where is the stability in the…
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A tiny ocean worm just revealed a big secret about how eyes evolve
A research team from the University of Vienna and the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven has uncovered how the eyes of adult marine bristleworms continue to increase in size throughout their entire lifespan. The work shows that this constant…
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Science one step ahead | CNRS News
Imagining and preparing for the future in order to guide research and public policy is the very purpose of foresight. A perilous exercise, scientists point out. And one that requires dialogue between disciplines, along with solid models…
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