Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailWhen Elon Musk and DARPA both hop aboard the cyborg hypetrain, you know brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) are about to achieve the impossible.BMIs, already the stuff of science fiction, facilitate crosstalk between biological wetware with external computers, turning human users into literal cyborgs. Yet , microelectrode “nerve patches”, or “memory Band-Aids” are still purely experimental medical treatments for those with nervous system impairments.With the , DARPA is looking to . This month, the project tapped six academic teams to...…Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailWhen Elon Musk and DARPA both hop aboard the cyborg hypetrain, you know brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) are about to achieve the impossible.BMIs, already the stuff of science fiction, facilitate crosstalk between biological wetware with external computers, turning human users into literal cyborgs. Yet , microelectrode “nerve patches”, or “memory Band-Aids” are still purely experimental medical treatments for those with nervous system impairments.With the , DARPA is looking to . This month, the project tapped six academic teams to...WW…

Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailCRISPR is revolutionary. It’s also a total brute.The classic version of the gene editing wunderkind literally slices a gene to bits just to turn it off. It’s effective, yes. But it’s like putting an electrical wire through a paper shredder to turn off a misbehaving light bulb. Once the wires are cut, there’s no going back.Why not add a light switch instead?This month, a team from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) reimagined to do just that. Rather than directly acting on genes—irrevocably dicing away or swapping genetic...…Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailCRISPR is revolutionary. It’s also a total brute.The classic version of the gene editing wunderkind literally slices a gene to bits just to turn it off. It’s effective, yes. But it’s like putting an electrical wire through a paper shredder to turn off a misbehaving light bulb. Once the wires are cut, there’s no going back.Why not add a light switch instead?This month, a team from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) reimagined to do just that. Rather than directly acting on genes—irrevocably dicing away or swapping genetic...WW…

Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailWe all know how human reproduction works: sperm meets egg, fertilized egg kicks off its journey, transforms into a human embryo, then becomes a fetus and ultimately a baby.But what if boy meets girl isn’t the only way?Last week, in Nature torpedoed the classic narrative of the beginning of life. Two independent teams coaxed ordinary skin cells into a living cluster that resembled a fertilized human egg—and the very first stages of a developing human embryo.To be clear, the teams did not engineer an artificial embryo that could develop...…Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailWe all know how human reproduction works: sperm meets egg, fertilized egg kicks off its journey, transforms into a human embryo, then becomes a fetus and ultimately a baby.But what if boy meets girl isn’t the only way?Last week, in Nature torpedoed the classic narrative of the beginning of life. Two independent teams coaxed ordinary skin cells into a living cluster that resembled a fertilized human egg—and the very first stages of a developing human embryo.To be clear, the teams did not engineer an artificial embryo that could develop...WW…

Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailWhen it comes to Alzheimer’s versus science, science is on the losing side.Alzheimer’s is cruel in the most insidious way. The disorder creeps up in some aging brains, gradually eating away at their ability to think and reason, whittling down their grasp on memories and reality. As the world’s population ages, Alzheimer’s is rearing its ugly head at a shocking rate. And despite decades of research, we have no treatment—not to mention a cure.Too much of a downer? The National Institutes of Health (NIH) agrees. In in biology, the NIH is...…Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailWhen it comes to Alzheimer’s versus science, science is on the losing side.Alzheimer’s is cruel in the most insidious way. The disorder creeps up in some aging brains, gradually eating away at their ability to think and reason, whittling down their grasp on memories and reality. As the world’s population ages, Alzheimer’s is rearing its ugly head at a shocking rate. And despite decades of research, we have no treatment—not to mention a cure.Too much of a downer? The National Institutes of Health (NIH) agrees. In in biology, the NIH is...WW…

Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailThe little pigs bouncing around the lab looked exceedingly normal. Yet their adorable exterior hid a remarkable secret: each piglet carried two different sets of genes. For now, both sets came from their own species. But one day, one of those sets may be human.The piglets are chimeras—creatures with intermingled sets of genes, as if multiple entities were seamlessly mashed together. Named after the Greek lion-goat-serpent monsters, chimeras may hold the key to an endless supply of human organs and tissues for transplant. The crux is...…Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailThe little pigs bouncing around the lab looked exceedingly normal. Yet their adorable exterior hid a remarkable secret: each piglet carried two different sets of genes. For now, both sets came from their own species. But one day, one of those sets may be human.The piglets are chimeras—creatures with intermingled sets of genes, as if multiple entities were seamlessly mashed together. Named after the Greek lion-goat-serpent monsters, chimeras may hold the key to an endless supply of human organs and tissues for transplant. The crux is...WW…

Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailThanks to neural implants, mind reading is no longer .As I’m writing this sentence, a tiny chip with arrays of electrodes could sit on my brain, listening in on the crackling of my neurons firing as my hands dance across the keyboard. Sophisticated algorithms could then decode these electrical signals in real time. My brain’s inner language to plan and move my fingers could then be used to guide a hand to do the same. Mind-to-machine control, voilà!Yet as the name implies, even the most advanced neural implant has a problem: it’s an...…Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailThanks to neural implants, mind reading is no longer .As I’m writing this sentence, a tiny chip with arrays of electrodes could sit on my brain, listening in on the crackling of my neurons firing as my hands dance across the keyboard. Sophisticated algorithms could then decode these electrical signals in real time. My brain’s inner language to plan and move my fingers could then be used to guide a hand to do the same. Mind-to-machine control, voilà!Yet as the name implies, even the most advanced neural implant has a problem: it’s an...WW…

Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailFew things in science freak people out more than human-animal hybrids. Named chimeras, after the mythical Greek creature that’s an amalgam of different beasts, these part-human, part-animal embryos have come onto the scene to transform our understanding of what makes us “human.”If theoretically grown to term, chimeras would be an endless resource for replacement human organs. They’re a window into the very early stages of human development, allowing scientists to probe the mystery of the first dozen days after sperm-meets-egg. They...…Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailFew things in science freak people out more than human-animal hybrids. Named chimeras, after the mythical Greek creature that’s an amalgam of different beasts, these part-human, part-animal embryos have come onto the scene to transform our understanding of what makes us “human.”If theoretically grown to term, chimeras would be an endless resource for replacement human organs. They’re a window into the very early stages of human development, allowing scientists to probe the mystery of the first dozen days after sperm-meets-egg. They...WW…

Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailDeep reinforcement learning is having a superstar moment.Powering smarter robots. Simulating human neural networks. Trouncing physicians at medical diagnoses and crushing humanity’s best gamers at Go and . While far from achieving the flexible, quick thinking that comes naturally to humans, this powerful machine learning idea seems unstoppable as a harbinger of better thinking machines.Except there’s a massive roadblock: they take forever to run. Because the concept behind these algorithms is based on trial and error, a reinforcement...…Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailDeep reinforcement learning is having a superstar moment.Powering smarter robots. Simulating human neural networks. Trouncing physicians at medical diagnoses and crushing humanity’s best gamers at Go and . While far from achieving the flexible, quick thinking that comes naturally to humans, this powerful machine learning idea seems unstoppable as a harbinger of better thinking machines.Except there’s a massive roadblock: they take forever to run. Because the concept behind these algorithms is based on trial and error, a reinforcement...WW…

Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailWhile all eyes were on the dramatic descent of NASA’s last month, a team into another alien world, one closer to home: the deep sea.With its towering undersea mountains, dramatic geological features, and unique creatures—many of which remain mysterious—the deep sea is the last uncharted environment on Earth. The inaccessibility isn’t surprising. Sinking any intrepid explorer into blackened waters means facing freezing temperatures and crushing pressure. Ever listened to the sound of metal creaking under pressure? It’s absolutely...…Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailWhile all eyes were on the dramatic descent of NASA’s last month, a team into another alien world, one closer to home: the deep sea.With its towering undersea mountains, dramatic geological features, and unique creatures—many of which remain mysterious—the deep sea is the last uncharted environment on Earth. The inaccessibility isn’t surprising. Sinking any intrepid explorer into blackened waters means facing freezing temperatures and crushing pressure. Ever listened to the sound of metal creaking under pressure? It’s absolutely...WW…

Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailThe translucent chip attached to the mouse’s leg looked nothing like a neuron. Dotted with a series of sensors and channels and smaller than a human finger, it looked—and flexed—like a Band-Aid. Yet when doused with dopamine, the chip worked its magic. The mouse’s leg began to twitch and stretch. Depending on the dose of dopamine, the chip controlled the limb like a marionette.The chip is an artificial neuron, but nothing like previous chips built to mimic the brain’s electrical signals. Rather, it adopts and adapts the brain’s other...…Sign inPassword recoveryRecover your passwordyour emailThe translucent chip attached to the mouse’s leg looked nothing like a neuron. Dotted with a series of sensors and channels and smaller than a human finger, it looked—and flexed—like a Band-Aid. Yet when doused with dopamine, the chip worked its magic. The mouse’s leg began to twitch and stretch. Depending on the dose of dopamine, the chip controlled the limb like a marionette.The chip is an artificial neuron, but nothing like previous chips built to mimic the brain’s electrical signals. Rather, it adopts and adapts the brain’s other...WW…