Lyft is helping low-income people commute to job interviews and training
Lengthy and costly commutes have long been a scourge for low-income workers. A 2015 study even found a link between longer commutes and smaller chances of upward mobility for low-income families. Seeking to ease this struggle, ride-hailing service Lyft has recently partnered with non-profits to help get people to job
We May Finally Know How the Universe's Heavy Elements Formed
For the first time, scientists have detected a newly born heavy element in space, forged in the aftermath of a collision between a pair of dead stars known as neutron stars. The findings shed light on how the universe’s heaviest elements are created, providing a missing piece of the
MIT just discovered a way to mass-produce graphene in long rolls
Scientists used to make graphene-based membranes in small batches in a laboratory. But a new breakthrough at MIT enables researchers to spool out long rolls of high-quality graphene. The continuous manufacturing process can produce five centimeters of high-quality graphene per minute. The longest run was nearly four hours, and it
These $10 Sensor-Packed Gloves Could Give Robots a Sense of Touch
Machines are mastering vision [https://singularityhub.com/2019/01/28/can-ai-tell-the-difference-between-a-polar-bear-and-a-can-opener/] and language [https://singularityhub.com/2012/05/15/let-the-computer-talk-speech-synthesis-is-giving-machines-the-chance-to-have-their-voices-heard/] , but one sense they’re lagging behind on is touch. Now researchers have created a sensor-laden glove for just $10 and recorded the most comprehensive tactile dataset to date, which
The Crucial Role of Brain Simulation in Future Neuroscience
“Do we have a chance of ever understanding brain function without brain simulations?” So asked the Human Brain Project [https://www.humanbrainproject.eu/en/brain-simulation/] (HBP), the brainchild of Henry Markram [https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/human-brain-project-digital-simulation-neuron/] , in a new paper [https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(19)30290-9?
IBM Introduces ‘Quantum Volume’ to Track Progress Towards the Quantum Age
Quantum computing companies are racing to squeeze ever more qubits into their devices, but is this really a solid sign of progress? IBM is proposing a more holistic measure it calls “quantum volume” (QV) that it says gives a better indication of how close we are to practical devices. Creating
Three Invaluable Ways AI and Neuroscience Are Driving Each Other Forward
DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis [https://www.1843magazine.com/features/deepmind-and-google-the-battle-to-control-artificial-intelligence] once pointed to the human brain as a paramount inspiration for building AI with human-like intelligence. He’s not the only one. The meteoric success of deep learning showcases how insights from neuroscience—memory, learning, decision-making, vision—can be distilled
How Will We Store Three Septillion Bits of Data? Your Metabolome May Have the Answer
Thanks to the cloud, it’s hard to imagine that we’ll ever run out of data storage. But by 2040, we may be swarmed by three septillion bits of data, and Earth will run out of chip-grade silicon. According to one estimate, current data farms will last a century,
First Human CRISPR Trial in the US Aims to Cure Inherited Blindness
Gene editing is advancing at a faster pace than most of us can keep up with. One significant recent announcement was gene editing tool CRISPR’s application to non-genetic diseases thanks to a new ability to edit single letters in RNA [https://singularityhub.com/2019/07/24/editing-rna-expands-crisprs-use-far-beyond-genetic-diseases/] . Even as