#breakthrough

Can this non-alcoholic spirit actually make you tipsy?

I quit drinking in 2022 and have felt so much better for it. Recently, I acquired a bottle of Sentia, the non-alcoholic alcohol alternative that gets you tipsy by targeting the same GABA receptors as alcohol. I have since tried it and can confirm that it does get you tipsy!

· Link post  #alcohol #breakthrough
Inside the startup cleaning up the steel industry

Interesting profile of Electra, which is using renewable electricity to create steel without a coal-fired furnace. The approach they take is dramatically different to the traditional approach. This is inspiring to learn about because it shows there are creative solutions to the hard problems that remain regarding decarbonisation.

· Link post  #breakthrough #energy
There are a lot of potentially habitable planets out there

Astronomers estimate that there are tens of billions of super-Earths in habitable zones where liquid water can exist in the Milky Way alone. The closest is only six-lightyears away.

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Using headset sensors to reconstruct a users pose

A great technical demo (and paper) from Meta. Using only the sensors in the Quest headset (and reinforcement learning) they can recreate the users pose.

· Link post  #ai #breakthrough
Developing a vaccine for meth addiction

Here’s something I never would’ve even considered a possibility. If we have vaccines for drug addiction in the future, the impact on society could be massive.

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Synthetic embryo with brain and beating heart created by scientists

The aim is to create synthetic organs for transplantation — biotech is apparently the new frontier and this sounds like a pretty big development.

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Connecting CCTV footage with social media posts

A creepy example of how easy it is to identify people using security camera footage.

· Link post  #breakthrough #security
FDA-authorised ADHD video game treatment for kids

What other conditions will be treated with video games in the future? Is CBT something you could build into a game?

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NASA is already creating oxygen on Mars

NASA has deployed what is essentially an artificial tree: it breathes in carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen. To colonise Mars, we’ll need to create a lot of resources on the planet because it’s expensive and slow to constantly transport them between Earth and Mars.

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A microbial supply chain for production of the anti-cancer drug vinblastine

Scientists have engineered yeast to produce the cancer therapeutic vinblastine — a very long biosynthetic pathway (i.e., much more complex than other substances we’ve bioengineered with yeast). Yeast manufacturing could be an incredibly impactful technology over the next century.

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Using ML to decode communication between fruit bats, crows, naked mole rats, and whales

I don’t think animals are ever going to want to talk to us, but it will be very interesting if ML upends the notion that animals don’t do a lot of talking to each other.

· Link post  #breakthrough #ai
Wiliot is licensing its ultralight, ambient-power chip technology to third parties

Wiliot has developed a new kind of processor that is ultra thin and light and runs on ambient power.

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