The Singularity is Coming

Grab a Pair of Men's Levi's Jeans For Only $30 from Amazon, Today Only http://ift.tt/2ejPxNB If you don’t immediately think jeans when you think Levi’s , I think it’s time to come out of that 100 year old rock you’ve been living under. With men’s 505s and 511s only $30 for Prime members on Amazon , today only, you’ll be able to come out of that rock wearing really great pants. But you’d better hurry, because this deal definitely won’t last as long as your new jeans. Read more... Singularity via http://lifehacker.com October 25, 2016 at 02:17AM

How smartphone cameras took over the world http://ift.tt/2eCEwpv In the early 2000s, the digital photography revolution made it possible for miniaturized camera hardware and image sensors to be packed into cell phones without adding a significant amount of weight. Then the iPhone was announced. As the smartphone war began, the camera became an important part of the ongoing spec race. Competitors tried to beat Apple in making an excellent camera (and app) that was easy to use — and it took until this year for that to start happening . Now, two-thirds of adults in the US own a smartphone. The average smartphone user takes at least 150 photos per month . Instagram has half a billion monthly users. Even if it’s just selfies or pictures of lunch — nothing has familiarized people with photography like smartphone cameras. It’s now a part of our everyday lives. I joined Chris on this week’s What’s Tech to talk about my first camera phones , why the newest smartphones have such eq...

Newborn screening for tyrosinaemia type 1: Benefit unclear http://ift.tt/2eBCWZv Tyrosinaemia type 1 is a rare, hereditary metabolic disease that, if left untreated, can already lead to serious liver and kidney damage in infancy. The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) investigated the benefit and harm of tandem mass spectrometry screening for tyrosinaemia type 1 in newborns. In its report published on 27 September 2016 the Institute concludes that the benefit and harm of this type of screening remain unclear due to a lack of informative studies. However, unnecessary treatments through screening seem to be unlikely, as positive test results can be verified by subsequent gene analysis. Untreated children are at risk of serious liver and kidney damage Tyrosine is an amino acid contained in dietary proteins. In patients with tyrosinaemia type 1, a gene mutation leads to a defect in an enzyme that contributes to breaking down tyrosine. This results ...

The gene of autumn colors http://ift.tt/2e732y9 In plants, the pigment chlorophyll plays a central role in photosynthesis: the process of converting sunlight to energy. This process involves creating a flow of electrons by removing one from a molecule and transferring it to another. The first step happens when an electron is transferred from chlorophyll to a compound called pheophytin a. Autumn leaf colours occur when chlorophyll degrades as a normal part of leaf aging or "senescence", playing an important role in nitrogen recycling. The process of chlorophyll degradation is triggered when an enzyme extracts magnesium (Mg) from chlorophyll. Researchers have named the enzyme Mg-dechelatase, but have never been able to detect its actual presence in experiments. Yousuke Shimoda, Hisashi Ito, and Ayumi Tanaka at Hokkaido University have demonstrated that a gene with known involvement in chlorophyll degradation, called Stay-Green (SGR), codes for Mg-dechelatase. Stay-Gre...

Suicide prevention: Reacting to the tell-tale signs http://ift.tt/2eO2PkM Can search engines save lives? Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich researchers are working on an approach which would enable search engines to more effectively identify users who are at risk of suicide and provide them with information on where to find help. Search engine queries not only reveal a lot about the user's interests and predilections, they also contain information relating to their mood or state of health. In response to recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO), search engines like Google are already responding to search queries containing terms which imply that the user might be contemplating suicide by specifically drawing attention to counseling and other suicide prevention services. "The Internet is playing an increasingly significant role in suicide prevention," says Dr. Florian Arendt of LMU's Department of Communication Science and Media Resea...

This blog is a compendium of the latest news on the Singularity. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity The technological singularity is the hypothesis that accelerating progress in technologies will cause a runaway effect wherein artificial intelligence will exceed human intellectual capacity and control, thus radically changing civilization in an event called the singularity.[1] Because the capabilities of such an intelligence may be impossible for a human to comprehend, the technological singularity is an occurrence beyond which events may become unpredictable, unfavorable, or even unfathomable.[2]