The government in the eastern Chinese province of Jiangsu has unveiled a plan to sequence the genomes of 1 million people for a large DNA sequencing platform and biomedical big data analysis center in Nanjing as well as a genetic information database for Chinese. 1 million genome sequences can crack problems like the genetic basis …
There is spreading awareness in China of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), a procedure that helps couples undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) to avoid passing on genetic mutations that could cause disease or disability in their children. Fertility doctor Qiao typically refuses interview requests, but she’s concerned that people aren’t getting the message about PGD fast …
Gene-based analyses found 536 genes significantly associated with general cognitive function; many were highly expressed in the brain, and associated with neurogenesis and dendrite gene sets. Genetic association results predicted up to 4% of general cognitive function variance in independent samples. There was significant genetic overlap between general cognitive function and information processing speed, as …
By sifting through the genetics of nearly 80,000 people, researchers have uncovered 40 genes that may make certain people smarter. That brings the total number of suspected “intelligence genes” to 52. , The genetic variants identified account for about 5 percent of individual differences in intelligence. Their calculations show that the current results explain up …
Stephen Hsu at Infoproc reports that we now know enough about the genetic architecture of human intelligence to make predictions based on DNA alone. While it is a well-established scientific fact that variations in human cognitive ability are influenced by genes, many have doubted whether scientists would someday decipher the genetic code sufficiently to be …
The Dexmo exoskeleton allows its wearer to touch, grasp, and feel virtual objects as if they were real. A virtual baseball feels firm in the hand, an egg fragile. Pick up a digital rubber duck while wearing the Dexmo, and it can be squished pleasingly between the fingers. The exoskeleton, designed by a team of …
A Southwest Research Institute-led team has discovered an elusive, dark moon orbiting Makemake, one of the “big four” dwarf planets populating the Kuiper Belt region at the edge of our solar system. Makemake’s moon — nicknamed MK2 — is very dark, 1,300 times fainter than the dwarf planet. A nearly edge-on orbital configuration helped it …
Artificial intelligence (AI) developed by a University of Cincinnati doctoral graduate was recently assessed by subject-matter expert and retired United States Air Force Colonel Gene Lee – who holds extensive aerial combat experience as an instructor and Air Battle Manager with considerable fighter aircraft expertise – in a high-fidelity air combat simulator. The artificial intelligence, …
The researcher hired by Toyota Motor Corp. to spearhead its robotics and artificial intelligence efforts says the automaker’s production principles can be applied to build affordable helper robots for rapidly aging societies. Robot makers are struggling with the same scale challenges that the auto industry overcame with the “miracle” that occurred when Henry Ford developed …
Terahertz radiation — the band of electromagnetic radiation between microwaves and visible light — has promising applications in security and medical diagnostics, but such devices will require the development of compact, low-power, high-quality terahertz lasers. In this week’s issue of Nature Photonics, researchers at MIT and Sandia National Laboratories describe a new way to build …
According to the Thai Ministry of Energy’s Integrated Blueprint, up to 5 per cent of the country’s energy requirements will be met by nuclear power by 2036. Nuclear power has advantages over fossil fuels in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, yet the Fukushima disaster reminded the world of the dangers associated with fission plants – …