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POPSTransformers - The Nature of Alien Life
The driving factor is a pragmatic desire to improve mental capacity. Alien beings may have already reached a point in their evolution where, having exhausted the potential of their biological brains, they have taken the next logical step and opted for robotic brains equipped with artificial intelligence. This brain swap may not be as far off for humans as one might think. In only a few decades, the computer revolution here on Earth has produced supercomputers capable of performing more than a quadrillion calculations per second. According to research by Hans Moravec, an artificial-intelligence expert at Carnegie Mellon University, that rate trumps the human brain’s estimated top speed of 100 trillion calculations per second. Some scientists speculate that in a few decades, an event called the technological singularity will occur, and machines armed with computer brains will become sentient and surpass human intelligence. Civilizations equipped with technology light-years ahead
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POPSWhy we may overlook extra-terrestrial life Ammonia, for example, has many of the same properties as water. An ammonia or ammonia-water mixture, stays liquid at much colder temperatures than plain water.Hydrogen fluoride methanol, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen chloride, and formamide have all been suggested as suitable solvents that could theoretically support alternative biochemistry. All of these “water replacements” have pros and cons when considered in our terrestrial environment. What needs to be considered is that with a radically different environment, comes radically different reactions. Water and carbon might be the very last things capable of supporting life in some extreme planetary conditions. In any case, it is not beyond the realm of feasibility that our first encounter with extra-terrestrial life will not be a solely carbon-based occasion.
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POPSEnzymes made to order Making enzymes is a tricky business. Even the names of the techniques sound mind-boggling, with the process involving a mix of 'quantum mechanical computation', 'advanced protein engineering' and 'directed evolution'. while naturally occurring enzymes speed reaction rates by many billion (or even trillion) fold, the synthetic enzymes gave more conservative boosts – around 100,000 fold. "The acceleration is really rather modest by comparison to Nature," admits Houk – but it's still incredibly exciting
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POPSBreakthrough in Solar Energy: Scientists mimic plants' energy storage system 'GIANT LEAP' FOR CLEAN ENERGY Sunlight has the greatest potential of any power source to solve the world's energy problems, said Nocera. In one hour, enough sunlight strikes the Earth to provide the entire planet's energy needs for one year. James Barber, a leader in the study of photosynthesis who was not involved in this research, called the discovery by Nocera and Kanan a "giant leap" toward generating clean, carbon-free energy on a massive scale. "This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem."
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POPSAlife, i.e. artificial life ahead "Just as 19th-century engineers studied the flight of birds and dreamed of being airborne, he says, so today's computer engineers marvel at the intelligence in all forms of life and contemplate the potential of more efficient computation." It may be sooner that expected, are we ready for it? does it matter? I think it does. I think we as a human society much put more effort in thinking the future ahead of us.
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POPSDo we share Earth with alternative life forms? "The reason why biology’s standard tools would fail to detect an RNA-based organism is because they assume that all metabolisms must be similar to our own." “Why did life have to happen only once on Earth? There’s no real deep reason why.” "One way to find out is to try to create alternative life-forms ourselves and see how they do alongside their bacterial brethren."
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POPSFear can be cured, soon; somewhat disquieting. One little (or not so little) concern regarding these wonderful news, is that the same mechanism can be selectively used to implant fears not only to cure them, an hardly resistible temptation for those hungry for power & control.
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POPSHow to be a good Democrat/Republican I love this clip. It uses humour to speak truth. Sure, it is a tad exagerated, but they have the essentials down perfectly. It shows the hypocricy on both sides of the aisle, and in my opinion, how both the Republicans and Democrats are essential the same. They both satisfy their special interests using similar tactics with a slightly different focus. http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/07A587D8-22C3-4E0B-B534-593BA9D2803B/
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POPSSciTalks SciTalks collects talks and lectures by scientists on a variety of topics.
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POPSUniversity Research Labs Produces Too Much CO2 Hervé Philippe, a Université de Montréal professor of biochemistry, is a committed environmentalist who found that his own research produces 44 tonnes of CO2 per year. The average American citizen produces 20 tonnes. Hervé Philippe“I did my PhD on nucleotide sequencing in the hope of advancing our knowledge of biodiversity, but I never thought that the research itself could have a negative impact on biodiversity,” he said, during a recent biology department symposium. He doesn’t believe in one magical solution, but rather in transformations adapted to each area. For universities, he recommends having less frequent international conferences, increasing the use of videoconferences, avoiding research on well explored topics, reducing publications and evaluating the amount of CO2 produced by research projects. On the web: About the Université de Montréal: http://www.umontreal.ca/english/index.htm.
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POPSProblem-based learning (PBL) in a biochemistry course Hal White of the University of Delaware (a major center for developing PBL strategies) gives an informal introduction to his style of using current and classic research to develop the "problems" that his students will tackle in the classroom.
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POPSThe case against evolution There are so many reasons for schools to present another theory other than the Victorian era theory of Evolution. It doesn't stand up to empirical evidence.
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POPSFasting: Is it beneficial to your health? ...fasting has been shown to be effective in treating high blood pressure, however, medical journals won't publish the research. Why not? No profit to be earned from recommending that people skip a few meals??
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