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Submission Summary: 0 pending, 2 declined, 3 accepted (5 total, 60.00% accepted)

Submission + - New Theory Suggests Dinosaurs Were Already Dying When Asteroid Hit (phys.org)

the gmr writes: Gordon Gallup, professor of Evolutionary Pyschology at the University at Albany New York, and Michael Frederick of the University of Baltimore recently published a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Ideas in Ecology and Evolution asserting that failure to develop taste aversion to toxic plants was killing off the dinosaurs long before the massive asteroid primarily believed to be the cause of their extinction struck the earth. As reported at the site phys.org, the dinosaur population had been drastically decreasing before the asteroid impact. Gallup and Frederick cited that the appearance of the first flowering plants--angiosperms--in the fossil record coincides with the gradual disappearance of the dinosaurs. "Gallup and Frederick claim that as plants were evolving and developing toxic defenses, dinosaurs continued eating them despite gastrointestinal distress." As a point of comparison for evolutionary development of taste aversions, Gallup and Frederick examined the abilities of creatures believed to be descended from dinosaurs: birds and crocodilians.

They found that the birds, rather than forming aversions to taste, developed aversions to the visual features of whatever made them sick. Still, they knew what they shouldn't eat in order to survive. In a previous study in which 10 crocodilians were fed different types of meat, some slightly toxic, Gallup discovered that like dinosaurs, crocodilians did not develop learned taste aversions.

The scientists concluded that though the asteroid played a role in the extinction of dinosaurs, the "plants had already placed severe strain on the species," Gallup said.

"The prevailing view of dinosaur extinction based on the asteroid impact implies that the disappearance of dinosaurs should have been sudden and the effects should have been widespread, but the evidence clearly shows just the opposite: Dinosaurs began to disappear long before the asteroid impact and continued to gradually disappear for millions of years afterward."


Submission + - New Technology allows Computers To Process and Remember - More Like Human Brains

the gmr writes: According to a recent article published in the journal Nature, Researchers at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering have developed a "memtransistor," a device that both stores information in memory and processes information, reported an article on Futurism. The combined transistor and memory resistor works more like a neuron and purports to make computing more brain-like. The new "memtransistor" would use less energy than digital computers and eliminate the need to run memory and processing as separate functions while also being more brain-like.

Lead researcher Mark C. Hersam clarified the brain-like efficacy of the memtransistor:

in the brain, we don’t usually have one neuron connected to only one other neuron. Instead, one neuron is connected to multiple other neurons to form a network. Our device structure allows multiple contacts, which is similar to the multiple synapses in neurons... [but] making dozens of devices, as we have done in our paper, is different than making a billion.

Hersam reported no barriers to scaling up to billions of devices. This new technology would make smart devices more capable and possibly more seemingly-human. The devices may also promote advances in neural networks and brain-computer interfaces, new technologies also recently reported at Futurism.

Submission + - Elon Musk Steps Down from OpenAI Board Due to Conflict of Interest

the gmr writes: According to an announcement on the OPEN AI BLOG
Elon Musk has stepped down from the board of directors of the nonprofit Open AI, which he co-founded in 2015, due potential conflict of interest with his company Tesla. As explained in a post on Futurism, the move away from Open AI may indicate that Tesla may be moving forward with more AI projects than most people may realize. Musk's departure may mean that Tesla is closer to delivering vehicles capable of Level 5 autonomy, "fully self-driving" vehicles that 35,000 Tesla customers paid for even though technology does not yet exist.

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