Originally shared by Neuroscience News
The Problem with Solving Problems
When problems become rare, we count more things as problems. Our studies suggest that when the world gets better, we become harsher critics of it, and this can cause us to mistakenly conclude that it hasn’t actually gotten better at all.
The research is in Science. (full access paywall)
This writer did a lot of work researching an experience that she wasn’t part of in order to get it right. Kudos.
Originally shared by Conscious Style Guide
“Was I reinforcing stereotypes, or combatting them? And was I stealing attention from first-hand narratives, or shedding light on them? The first question was a matter of good writing—something I had control over. The second was stickier.”
#fiction #writers #writingtip #writingadvice
[Image: A red “Wrong Way” sign in front of distant mountains.]
For your anti-ageing and recovery-from-brain-injury story needs.
Also, wasn’t Tony Stark in Ultimate Marvel drinking because practically his whole body had turned into neural tissue, making him highly intelligent but also in constant pain?
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Transdifferentiation Can Create An Endless Supply of Brain Cells—And Fast https://suhub.co/2K7J4Yp
The most frequent believability issue I see in “solarpunk” SF is the lack of awareness of how much power you can realistically get from a solar panel or store in a battery.
Because of power-per-weight issues, we would need to improve the energy density of batteries about six times from current levels to make electric aviation feasible on a large scale. But a 6x improvement is not out of the question; we’ve seen much bigger improvements than that in various technologies over the past few years.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Are Electric Planes the Future of Aviation? https://suhub.co/2Na6j1U
To read later – Jo Walton is super-smart, so I imagine this will be good.
Via Adriel Wiggins.
Originally shared by Rick Liebling
Hello! Economics isn’t usually a major consideration in world-building, but it permeates everything that happens in a society.
Jo Lindsay Walton, an editor of Vector, the British Sci-Fi magazine, sat down for a truly amazing Q&A to talk about science fiction economics. It’s a must read if you’re a Sci-Fi writer:
Key takeaway: Things are still not as they should be, but the trend is good. Both parts of that are important.
(Thanos, and real-life politicians like him, should know about #2.)
Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh
Bill Gates like the website. You should too. “One of my favorite websites is OurWorldInData.org. Based at the University of Oxford, it uses statistics—on everything from health and population growth to war, the environment, and energy—to give you phenomenal insight into how living conditions are changing around the world. I asked its founder, Oxford economist Max Roser, to share three facts from the site that everyone should know. Here’s what Max had to say. – Bill Gates
[Max Roser] In the past few years, it has become easy to find many of the important statistics on global development with a quick online search. And since it is now so easy to find the information you need, many argue that it doesn’t make sense to actually remember these statistics. ‘Just look them up when you need them!’ they say.
I disagree with this. Yes, for some details, it makes sense to just search for them when you need them. But for the large global developments, it is important to know some basic statistics that describe living conditions currently and the direction of change that we have seen over the past few decades. Knowing the facts on global changes gives you the context for the daily news and allows you to make sense of new information that you learn. And it must be the basis for political debate, so that we can discuss what we should and shouldn’t do as a society.
And so I compiled a short list of three facts about global living conditions that I want to remember. Each of them describes the current situation and the direction of change.”
Very early days, but there’s some interesting stuff being worked on – including roads that detect traffic accidents or power streetlamps from the vibration of traffic.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
The Smart Road Tech That’s Making Driving Faster, Safer, And Just Better https://suhub.co/2Mugb58
Science is a thing we need more of, especially in public policy.
Originally shared by Kam-Yung Soh
“Housing, IVF treatment, species monitoring, special needs education and road safety policies are just a few of the life-defining issues where affected communities struggle repeatedly to get decision-makers to pay attention to the evidence. These groups often run ahead of government in engaging expertise, self-educating and gathering data so decisions can be reasoned on the facts. For example, by demonstrating the effects of “mini-Holland” street schemes, the London Cycling Campaign has rebuffed claims they cause gridlock. The beekeepers of Somerset have engaged Exeter University to monitor hornet invasions and build a databank.
We are not living in a “post-truth” society. We only need to look around at the many people and groups from all walks of life who are investigating claims and marshalling evidence to work out the nature of problems and how to tackle them. They expect parliament to be doing the same.
That is why the first “evidence week” in the UK parliament, opening on Monday, is not some esoteric conversation between analysts and MPs but a national victory. Community groups from all over the UK will share personal stories of why evidence matters to them and others like them. A gym instructor is raising the absence of standards in claims about supplements; Aberdeen Multicultural Centre thinks evidence on climate change has cut through its community’s differences; Men’s Shed in Sheffield is asking for better knowledge about loneliness in older men.
They are calling for parliament to make good use of evidence and expertise to shape regulations and to test them in the light of new information.”
Because this is Peter Diamandis, whose glasses are so rose-coloured it’s a wonder he doesn’t walk into walls, I automatically assume that the wonderful picture he paints here is massively overhyped.
With that caveat, this is an interesting idea: use massive computational resources and machine learning to identify and even generate drug configurations which match particular diseases.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
How Artificial Intelligence Could Help Us Live Longer https://suhub.co/2KaksgK
:: Colorado State University polymer chemists have taken another step toward a future of high-performance, biorenewable, biodegradable plastics. Publishing in Nature Communications, the team led by Professor of Chemistry Eugene Chen describes chemical synthesis of a polymer called bacterial poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) – or P3HB. The compound shows early promise as a substitute for petroleum plastics in major industrial uses. P3HB is a biomaterial, typically produced by bacteria, algae and other microorganisms, and is used in some biomedical applications. Its high production costs and limited volumes render the material impractical in more widespread commodity applications, however. ::
#chemistry #polymer