Category Archives: Science
Science: Computer AI That Debates, Sea Slugs Regrow Entire Bodies (Podcast)
A computer that can participate in live debates against human opponents.
In this episode:
00:43 AI Debater
After thousands of years of human practise, it’s still not clear what makes a good argument. Despite this, researchers have been developing computer programs that can find and process arguments. And this week, researchers at IBM are publishing details of an artificial intelligence that is capable of debating with humans.
Research Article: Slonim et al.
News and Views: Argument technology for debating with humans
10:30 Research Highlights
The sea slugs that can regrow their whole body from their severed head, and evidence of high status women in ancient Europe.
Research Highlight: Now that’s using your head: a sea slug’s severed noggin sprouts a new body
Research Highlight: A breathtaking treasure reveals the power of the woman buried with it
12:56 Briefing Chat
We discuss some highlights from the Nature Briefing. This time, the next generation of gravitational wave detectors, and why 2020 was a record-breaking year for near-Earth asteroids.
Medical Technology: ‘Building Personalized Digital Twin Submodels’
Space Exploration: ‘Lake Salda In Turkey’ – Rock & Minerals Similar To Mars
As NASA’s rover Perseverance explores the surface of Mars, scientists hunting for signs of ancient life on the distant planet are using data gathered at a lake in southwest Turkey.
Lake Salda is a mid-size crater lake in southwestern Turkey, within the boundaries of Yeşilova district of Burdur Province. It lies at a distance of about fifty kilometers to the west from the province seat Burdur.
TOP JOURNALS: RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS FROM SCIENCE MAGAZINE (MAR 12, 2021)
Science: Gravitational Wave Detectors & Special Oil Spill Cleanup Sponges
Science Staff Writer Adrian Cho joins host Sarah Crespi to talk about plans for the next generation of gravitational wave detectors—including one with 40-kilometer arms.
The proposed detectors will be up to 10 times more sensitive than current models and could capture all black hole mergers in the observable universe.
Sarah also talks with Pavani Cherukupally, a researcher at Imperial College London and the University of Toronto, about her Science Advances paper on cleaning up oil spills with special cold-adapted sponges that work well when crude oil gets clumpy.
Covid-19: ‘The Johnson & Johnson Vaccine’ (Video)
Mayo Clinic Insights: Dr. Swift discusses what you need to know about the new Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. For more up to date information about COVID-19, visit https://mayocl.in/3aUioXa
Books: Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-Science (Peter Hotez)
Interviews: Nobel Prize Biochemist Jennifer Doudna – ‘Code Breaker’
Visionary biochemist Jennifer Doudna shared the Nobel Prize last year for the gene-editing technology known as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats), which has the potential to cure diseases caused by genetic mutations. Correspondent David Pogue talks with Doudna about the promises and perils of CRISPR; and with Walter Isaacson, author of the new book “The Code Breaker,” about why the biotech revolution will dwarf the digital revolution in importance.
Nuclear Power: ‘Why Is It So Unpopular?’ (Video)
The meltdown at a nuclear power station in Fukushima, Japan, ten years ago stoked anxieties about nuclear energy. But nuclear is one of the safest, most reliable and sustainable forms of energy, and decarbonising will be much more difficult without it.
Boomers Daily 