Science Archives - SMMRY.ai

February 15, 2023

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• Jasmine Kwasa, a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University, noticed that EEG technology had limited functionality with thick curly, kinky, and textured hair types, leading to potential exclusion from research.
• Biases against physical characteristics like dark skin and thick curly hair are baked into all major neuroimaging technologies, including EEG, fNIRS, and MRI.
• Neurobiological datasets are overwhelmingly white, with 95% of the data collected by the UK Biobank corresponding to white study subjects and the Human Connectome Project (HCP) being 76% white.
• Carla Bailey, a neurophysiologist at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, says she only encounters issues with EEG and Black hair when people don’t remove hair extensions that obscure the scalp.
• Precision Neuroscopics is perfecting the Sevo clip, which holds electrodes against the scalp between cornrows braided to accommodate electrode placement, and collecting evidence that it improves the quality of EEG data.
• A 2022 study found that machine learning algorithms trained on large neuroimaging datasets that favor white populations inaccurately predicted the behavior of Black Americans.

Published February 15, 2023
Visit Nautilus to read Jackie Rocheleau’s original post Neuroscience Has a Race Problem

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Notes on Progress: Breakfast with g [Works in Progress, Works in Progress]

By Spencer Chen

In [Works in Progress]

February 15, 2023

262 views

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• Ben Reinhardt’s career has been a journey from academia to NASA labs to high-growth startups and venture capital, all in search of the right institutional home for creating the world that has never been.
• He found that academia is great for suggesting new technologies, but NASA and the tech industry are better for creating functional systems that can be scaled.
• He tried to start his own startup, but found that the pressure to show results on a compressed timescale led to worse technology or failing to meet expectations.
• He then tried venture capital, but found that the same incentives followed him.
• He eventually decided to build his own institution, Speculative Technologies, which is modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
• Speculative Technologies is a nonprofit research organization that prioritizes functional systems over novel ideas, and aims to create the world that has never been.

Published February 15, 2023
Visit Works in Progress to read Works in Progress’s original post Notes on Progress: Breakfast with g

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Why Science Needs Diversity [Carlee Ingersoll, Nautilus]

By Spencer Chen

In Uncategorized

February 15, 2023

266 views

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• Wilbur Walters, Dean of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology at Jackson State University, discussed his role as an educational leader and activist, the potential of AI to create a more equitable society, and how he sees greater Black representation in STEM fields as transformative to community empowerment.
• The National Science Foundation reported that in 2021, Black representation in STEM fields totaled only 9 percent.
• Walters believes that exposure is the most important factor in increasing Black representation in STEM fields, and that AI can be used for good to eliminate unnecessary jobs and open access to academic or creative labors.
• He also believes that historically Black colleges and universities have an important role to play in driving larger change in STEM fields.
• Nautilus will donate 10 percent of all new member subscriptions toward initiatives to increase opportunities for young Black people to imagine and succeed in STEM career paths.

Published February 15, 2023
Visit Nautilus to read Carlee Ingersoll’s original post Why Science Needs Diversity

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Contra Kavanagh On Fideism [Scott Alexander, Astral Codex Ten]

By Spencer Chen

In Scott Alexander [Astral Codex Ten]

February 14, 2023

255 views

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• Chris Kavanagh recently tweeted about Scott Alexander’s article on Ivermectin, criticizing the rationalist community for ignoring conspiracy ecosystems and how they distort things.
• Rachel responded to Chris’ tweet, suggesting that the article may have persuaded some people to get vaccinated instead of taking Ivermectin.
• Chris responded to Rachel, saying that his critique was orientated towards the rationalist community and what it says it does vs. what he sees.
• The author shares a personal story of how he was once a believer in a conspiracy theory, and how anti-conspiracy bloggers and podcasters could have saved him from a five year wild-goose-chase, but chose not to.
• Kavanagh’s criticism of the author’s 25,000 word essay on ivermectin is accepted, but not from him, as he has devoted his career to the subject.
• The author interprets Kavanagh’s comment as suggesting that it is a mistake to even try to evaluate the evidence, as it suggests there might be evidence on both sides.
• The author points out that there were actually thirty different studies that supported ivermectin, and it was adopted in several countries.
• The author compares Kavanagh’s comment to fideism, the belief that someone who reasons their way to belief in God is a sinner.
• The author argues that the PR argument of Kavanagh’s comment looks bad, as it suggests that doing good science is a near occasion of sin for doing bad science.
• The author argues that conspiracy theorists have the same biases as everyone else, but are slightly worse at applying CONSTANT VIGILANCE.
• The author uses the example of premenstrual dysphoric disorder to illustrate how it is not obvious how to apply the heuristic “trust experts”, and how both sides were trying to make the reader short-circuit their thought process.
• The author argues that it is important to have tolerance for others forming their own opinions, and for science communicators to help guide people through this process.

Published February 15, 2023
Visit Astral Codex Ten to read Scott Alexander’s original post Contra Kavanagh On Fideism

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If Technology Only Had a Heart [Sian E. Harding, Nautilus]

By Spencer Chen

In [Nautilus]

February 14, 2023

262 views

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• The history of the total artificial heart is punctuated with both brilliant innovation and continual clinical failure.
• In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson funded a program to develop the first functional self-contained artificial heart.
• The first total artificial heart was implanted in 1969, but a reliable off-the-shelf version is still out of reach.
• The original goal was to replace the failing heart completely, but the goal changed to keeping the patient alive until a transplant donor could be found.
• The development of ciclosporin in the early 1980s dramatically improved the success of heart transplantation.
• Ventricular assist devices (VADs) take blood out of the ventricle of the heart and push it into the aorta at high pressure.
• Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have become a therapy in themselves, with survival rates of over 50 percent seen at seven years.
• Solutions for a completely implantable total artificial heart seem tantalizingly close, but no one is anticipating an easy ride.

Published February 14, 2023
Visit Nautilus to read Sian E. Harding’s original post If Technology Only Had a Heart

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The Algae That Might Save Earth’s Coral Reefs [Juli Berwald, Nautilus]

By Spencer Chen

In [Nautilus]

February 1, 2023

242 views

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• Scientists have discovered a new species of algae, *Durusdinium*, which may be a key factor in the survival of coral reefs, and Rob Rowan, who inspired the research, has mysteriously disappeared.
• The term “symbiosis” was coined by German botanist Anton de Bary in 1879.
• Karl Andreas Heinrich Brandt discovered that the small amber orbs lining the digestive tissues of marine creatures were not part of them, but a type of symbiotic algae, which he named “zooxanthellae”.
• Rob Rowan realized that DNA had the power to reveal what microscopes could not.
• Rowan and Dennis Powers published a genetic analysis of zooxanthellae in the journal Science, which revealed that zooxanthellae are not all the same and that there are at least three species.
• Andrew Baker and Rowan found that corals hosting the species *Durusdinium* did not bleach during a historic El Niño system, and that these corals became more common.
• Australian scientists discovered that juvenile coral hosting *Durusdinium* grew two to three times slower than their siblings hosting other symbionts.
• Baker believes that “people have been maybe too willing to label *Durusdinium* as being selfish” and suggests that something about *Durusdinium* stresses coral out, toughening them up so they can withstand future conditions.
• Baker and his colleagues followed the fates of more than 100 corals around the central Pacific island of Kiribati during a severe, 10-month-long heat wave and found that corals already hosting *Durusdinium* didn’t bleach, but few survived.
• In 2014, near Miami, coral researchers noticed that many brain coral, maze coral, and boulder coral were dying from Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease.
• Baker’s graduate student Caroline Dennison performed experiments bleaching *Breviolum* from the coral and then providing them with *Durusdinium* and found that the corals hosting *Durusdinium* were two to three times less susceptible to the disease.
• Rob Rowan, a scientist who inspired both the author and Andrew Baker, has disappeared without a trace.
• Baker is a scientist studying coral and their symbiotic relationship with algae.
• A new species of algae, *Durusdinium*, is being found in coral reefs and may be a key factor in their survival.
• Baker is unsure if this new species will save coral, but believes it will be a big part of their biology.

Published February 1, 2023
Visit Nautilus to read Juli Berwald’s original post The Algae That Might Save Earth’s Coral Reefs

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Prenatal Testing Deep Dive [Emily Oster, ParentData]

By Spencer Chen

In Emily Oster [ParentData]

January 30, 2023

182 views

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• Dr. Aaron Carroll is a professor of pediatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine and a health policy researcher.
• He has written extensively on the evolution of prenatal testing, including cell-free fetal DNA testing, amniocentesis, CVS tests, and PGT.
• He explains that cell-free fetal DNA testing is extremely accurate for detecting the primary trisomies (21, 13, 18), with a 99.4% detection rate and a 0.1% false-positive rate.
• Invasive testing is also highly accurate, but carries a small risk of miscarriage.
• Ultrasound findings rarely provide much information if cell-free fetal DNA testing has already been done, and no additional information if invasive testing has been done.

Published January 30, 2023
Visit ParentData to read Emily Oster’s original post Prenatal Testing Deep Dive

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Techno-optimism for 2023 [Noah Smith, Noahpinion]

By Spencer Chen

In Noah Smith [Noahpinion]

December 11, 2022

213 views

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Technological advances in the 2010s were often undervalued and dismissed, but 2020 has seen a surge of cutting-edge technology helping to sustain society and defeat the pandemic.
Generative AI applications, predictive AI, and protein folding have all seen major advances.
The solar revolution is going from theoretical to actual, with a huge surge of global investment and the IEA predicting that renewables will generate more electricity than either coal or oil five years from now.
Batteries are also seeing cost drops and promise to transform our physical world, while green hydrogen may help resolve the solar intermittency problem.
Biotech is seeing advances in mRNA vaccines, synthetic bio, stem cells, Crispr, and more, while launch costs are transforming the space industry and quantum computing is seeing steady advances.

Click HERE for original. Published December 11, 2022

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TagScience

Neuroscience Has a Race Problem [Jackie Rocheleau, Nautilus]

Notes on Progress: Breakfast with g [Works in Progress, Works in Progress]

Why Science Needs Diversity [Carlee Ingersoll, Nautilus]

Contra Kavanagh On Fideism [Scott Alexander, Astral Codex Ten]

If Technology Only Had a Heart [Sian E. Harding, Nautilus]

The Algae That Might Save Earth’s Coral Reefs [Juli Berwald, Nautilus]

Prenatal Testing Deep Dive [Emily Oster, ParentData]

Techno-optimism for 2023 [Noah Smith, Noahpinion]

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