Lifeboat Foundation

Summary: The revolutionary field of bio-computing is making waves as DishBrain, a neural system combining 800,000 living brain cells, learns to play Pong. Recognizing the pressing need for ethical guidelines in this emerging domain, the pioneers behind DishBrain have joined forces with bioethicists in a study.

The research explores the moral considerations around biological computing systems and their potential consciousness. Beyond its innovation, the technology offers vast environmental benefits, potentially transforming the energy-consuming IT industry.

Quantum behavior is a strange, fragile thing that hovers on the edge of reality, between a world of possibility and a Universe of absolutes. In that mathematical haze lies the potential of quantum computing; the promise of devices that could quickly solve algorithms that would take classic computers too long to process.

For now, quantum computers are confined to cool rooms close to absolute zero (−273 degrees Celsius) where particles are less likely to tumble out of their critical quantum states.

Breaking through this temperature barrier to develop materials that still exhibit quantum properties at room temperatures has long been the goal of quantum computing. Though the low temperatures help keep the particle’s properties from collapsing out of their useful fog of possibility, the bulk and expense of the equipment limits their potential and ability to be scaled up for general use.

Pigs with human kidneys? Brain-powered computer chips? Science is creating new kinds of living things – and our moral understanding needs to catch up fast.

Summary: New research delves into the distinctive human trait of sequential memory, setting us apart from bonobos. A recent study has also highlighted the joy in chasing passions over accomplishments. Groundbreaking discoveries show the human brain’s computational prowess, mirroring high-powered computers.

Additionally, the footprint of Big Tobacco is evident in the modern American diet through the promotion of hyperpalatable foods. Lastly, understanding the range of mind’s visualization abilities, from hyperphantasia to aphantasia, opens avenues for innovative treatments.

Quantum computing has provided new insights into a fundamental aspect of photochemical reactions that has previously proven difficult to study. The findings could improve scientists’ understanding of light-driven processes such as photosynthesis, smog formation and ozone destruction.

Photochemical processes occur when atomic nuclei and their electrons take on different configurations after absorbing a photon. Some of these reactions are guided by a quantum phenomenon called a conical intersection, where the potential energy surfaces that describe a molecule in its ground state and in its excited state converge. In these situations, quantum mechanical interference can prevent certain molecular transformations from taking place – a constraint known as a geometric phase. This limits the path that the reaction can take and affects the reaction outcome. The geometric phase has been known about since the 1950s, but due to the femtosecond timescales involved, it has never been directly observed in a molecular system.

Retention is an alternative to Attention in Transformers that can both be written in a parallel and in a recurrent fashion. This means the architecture achieves training parallelism while maintaining low-cost inference. Experiments in the paper look very promising.

OUTLINE:
0:00 — Intro.
2:40 — The impossible triangle.
6:55 — Parallel vs sequential.
15:35 — Retention mechanism.
21:00 — Chunkwise and multi-scale retention.
24:10 — Comparison to other architectures.
26:30 — Experimental evaluation.

Continue reading “Retentive Network: A Successor to Transformer for Large Language Models (Paper Explained)” »

Conventional manufacturing methods such as soft lithography and hot embossing processes can be used to bioengineer microfluidic chips, albeit with limitations, including difficulty in preparing multilayered structures, cost-and labor-consuming fabrication processes as well as low productivity.

Materials scientists have introduced digital light processing as a cost-effective microfabrication approach to 3D print microfluidic chips, although the fabrication resolution of these microchannels are limited to a scale of sub-100 microns.

In a new report published in Microsystems and Nanoengineering, Zhuming Luo and a scientific team in biomedical engineering, and chemical engineering in China developed an innovative digital light processing method.

While semiconductor lithography gets the bulk of the attention in chipmaking, other processes are equally important in producing working integrated circuits (ICs). Case in point: packaging. An IC package provides the electrical, thermal, and mechanical transition from the semiconductor die or chip to the circuit board, which is often called a motherboard. One key element of the IC package is the substrate, which is essentially a miniature circuit board with copper traces that bonds to the input/output (I/O), power and ground pads on the chip and electrically connects these pads to the circuit board. The substrate provides a solid mechanical home for the chip and is also thermally matched to… More.

The release also quotes Babak Sabi, Intel senior vice president and general manager of Assembly and Test Development, who said: “After a decade of research, Intel has achieved industry-leading glass substrates for advanced packaging. We look forward to delivering these cutting-edge technologies that will benefit our key players and foundry customers for decades to come.”

Research into using glass substrates for chipmaking is nothing new. As Intel’s release says, the company has been working on this technology for at least a decade, as have other organizations such as the 3D Systems Packaging Research Center located at Georgia Tech, which was founded in 1994 – nearly 30 years ago. Last year, the Georgia Tech PRC launched an industry advisory board with Intel Fellow Ravi Mahajan as one of the initial board members. Intel has already spent more than a billion dollars to develop a glass-substrate manufacturing facility at its site in Chandler, Arizona.

Continue reading “Intel’s Glass Substrates Are Essential For Future IC Development” »

A new record time for quantum coherence is reported, with a single-photon qubit encoded for 34 milliseconds. This is 55% longer than the previous record set in 2020.

In classical computing – such as the PC, smartphone, or other device you are currently using – information is processed with bits, which exist in a binary state of either a 0 or a 1. Quantum computing, by contrast, involves the processing of information with quantum bits, or qubits, which can exist in a “superposition” of both 0 and 1 simultaneously. This allows quantum computers to do certain types of calculations much faster than classical computers.