3 Genes With Intelligence Impact Identified
Three genetic variants that each might account for about 0.3 points of IQ difference were found in a study of over 100,000 people. These might be false positives. Researchers estimate they need about 10 times more study subjects (over 1 million people) to tease out 15% of the genes that impact IQ and other cognitive traits. Here is the paper on PNAS. Among the notable names on the authors list: long time IQ genes researcher Robert Plomin, Scottish IQ researcher Ian Deary, and even Harvard psychologist and prolific author Steven Pinker. The problem: differences in cognitive performance are due to a very large number of gene...
Source: FuturePundit - September 8, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
Super Cruise in Cadillac 2017 Models
A lead car in a convoy will be able to play "follow me" with computers behind it exchanging information. You find yourself riding behind some other car for hours on a long trip? This feature would automate the driving in that case. It would also reduce the work of stop-and-go driving in heavy traffic. What would make a great enhancement: links to DMV driving histories so you don't start following a maniac who gets into accidents. Ditto for black box histories. Does the other driver do lots of high lateral g force driving? Then get a dashboard notice of the risks of following that driver. These Cads will have Vehicle To Veh...
Source: FuturePundit - September 7, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
Moral Dilemmas For Autonomous Vehicles
An essay in Wired points out that a robotic car can be faced with either killings its occupants or killing pedestrians. If the car suddenly finds pedestrians in front of it on the road in some situations fatalities can be unavoidable. The choice could be between hitting the pedestrians or hitting a tree or wall. Should autonomous vehicles have a moral dilemmas configuration page where you decide what choice to make in these situations? Suppose the car is going to hit a tree but the computer has a choice: hit the tree with the left or right side and therefore do more damage to the driver or passenger. What choice to make? W...
Source: FuturePundit - September 7, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
Renewable Power Makes Electricity Expensive In Germany
Residential customers in Germany pay dearly for electric power. In 2010, Germany introduced Energiewende, or ?energy transformation,? which is its plan to increase electricity production from renewable sources to 80 percent by 2050 and to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent from 1990 levels. In addition, Germany wants to phase out nuclear power by 2022. Prior to Energiewende, the country had introduced other policies related to increasing renewable energy production, such as the feed-in-tariff, that provided lucrative subsidies to renewable technologies paid mostly by residential customers. Due the feed-in ta...
Source: FuturePundit - August 31, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
Few Electric Vehicles Sold In Significant Volumes
An article by John Voelcker at Green Car Reports claims that of the electric cars (including pluggable hybrids like the Volt) on the market only the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, and Tesla Model S are being widely marketed and sold. Some of the EVs are only sold in California and a few other states in very limited numbers just to meet state regulatory requirements. Those are the Chevy Spark EV, Fiat 500e, Honda Fit EV, and Toyota RAV4 EV. In June 2014 the Fusion Energi outsold the Chevy Volt and the plug-in version of the Prius. But Energi sales fell in July and Energi dropped back a couple of places in the sales rankings of EV...
Source: FuturePundit - August 25, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
Mobile Phone Ransomware: Dark Portents For Cyborgs
Hackers are planting bugs on mobile phones and demanding ransoms to get them removed. The continued successes of virus and malware authors do not bode well for cyborgs. Some people are eager to become cyborgs, mixtures of flesh and powerful computing machines with perhaps robotic extensions thrown in. Well, if someone ever offers to implant an AI computer in your skull ask them how often one of these computers get taken over by hackers. Imagine losing control of your body because your embedded computer gets hacked and suddenly your body walks itself to your bank to get all your money to send to a foreign address. Or, your ...
Source: FuturePundit - August 23, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
Testosterone Increases Male Brain Response To Threat
Our hormones alter our emotional reactions. The researchers recruited 16 healthy young male volunteers, who completed two test days on which they received either testosterone or placebo. On both testing days, the men first received a drug that suppressed their testosterone. This step ensured that testosterone levels were similar among all study participants. The amount of testosterone administered in this study only returned testosterone levels to the normal range. Subjects then completed a face-matching task while undergoing a functional magnetic resonance imaging scan. Data analyses revealed that, compared with placebo, ...
Source: FuturePundit - August 19, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
Natural Selection For Less Aggression Enabled Complex Societies
In order for human societies to grow in complexity and sophistication humans first had to evolve to become less aggressive. A greater capacity for cooperation was needed. Well, 50,000 years ago human skulls developed more rounded appearances with and brows became less heavy. Technology boom 50,000 years ago correlated with apparent reduction in testosterone DURHAM, N.C. -- Modern humans appear in the fossil record about 200,000 years ago, but it was only about 50,000 years ago that making art and advanced tools became widespread. A new study appearing Aug. 1 in the journal Current Anthropology finds that human skulls chang...
Source: FuturePundit - August 10, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
Atherosclerosis In Ancient Mummy Bodies Due To Chronic Infection?
Heart disease and stroke have been characterized products of modern civilization. But is that true? CT scans of ancient mummified bodies turned up just as much atherosclerotic disease as found in modern Egyptians. New research published in Global Heart (the journal of the World Heart Federation) shows that there are no significant differences in the incidence or severity of atherosclerotic disease (narrowing of the arteries with fatty deposits) between ancient and modern Egyptians, showing that atherosclerosis is not just a disease of modern times. The research is by Dr Adel Allam, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt, and Pr...
Source: FuturePundit - August 8, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
Airline Pilots To Be Replaced Before Car Drivers
Aircraft piloting is easier to automate than car driving because the operational environment is much simpler Other aircraft can be spotted with radar. The aircraft never get as close as cars do. No pedestrians and kids on bicycles are bouncing around and popping out of clouds. Automatic pilot systems came to aircraft decades before autonomous vehicles hit the highways. Some say the end is in sight for pilots. I expect the biggest benefit for smaller communities since the cost of a pilot per passenger is a larger percentage of total cost for a 5 or 10 seater airplane than for a jumbo jet. Automated aircraft could lower the ...
Source: FuturePundit - August 7, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
Gene Drive Treatment To Control Invasive Species?
The idea: Use CRISPR genetic editing technology to genetically alter invasive species to make them less problematic for us humans. For example, alter invasive Southeast Asian Tiger mosquitoes so their populations will collapse in a region or make them less able to carry assorted diseases that infect and kill humans. A cross-disciplinary team is calling for public discussion about a potential new way to solve longstanding global ecological problems by using an emerging technology called "gene drives." The advance could potentially lead to powerful new ways of combating malaria and other insect-borne diseases, controlling in...
Source: FuturePundit - August 2, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
Bring Back The Passenger Pigeon With Biotechnology?
An Associated Press article asks: Could science bring back the passenger pigeon? The answer is Yes. Unclear on when. Surely 10 or 20 years from now. Sequence the DNA of a bunch of passenger pigeon specimens. Figure out which DNA sequences are due to decay of specimens. Generate good DNA sequence. Use another pigeon species for an egg. Implant DNA. This would be hard to do today. Doing this with an intact genome that hasn't accumulated damage might be in the range of what a good lab could do today. But I suspect the genome would need to be constructed from lots of sequencing info. That's hard. If we can't use an existing in...
Source: FuturePundit - July 21, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
Shared Genetic Differences In Reading And Numeric Abilities
There is a big overlap in the genes that cause differences in reading ability and the genes that cause differences in mathematical ability. Around half of the genes that influence how well a child can read also play a role in their mathematics ability, say scientists from UCL, the University of Oxford and King's College London who led a study into the genetic basis of cognitive traits. While mathematics and reading ability are known to run in families, the complex system of genes affecting these traits is largely unknown. The finding deepens scientists' understanding of how nature and nurture interact, highlighting the imp...
Source: FuturePundit - July 14, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
Embedded Birth Control Chip: Lasts 16 Years
A company, microchips in Lexington Massachusetts, is going to try to bring it to market. It could be turned off externally to allow a pregnancy. I want embedded sensor systems along with embedded drug delivery systems. With multiple separately controllable reservoirs a series of doses can be delivered. microchips' technology is based on proprietary reservoir arrays that are used to store and protect potent drugs within the body for long periods of time. These arrays are designed for compatibility with preprogrammed microprocessors, wireless telemetry, or sensor feedback loops to provide active control. Individual device re...
Source: FuturePundit - July 10, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
Denisovan DNA Adapts Tibetans To High Altitude Living
Human genetic divergence as humans humans spread across the globe was sped up by mating with other related species. Genetic sequencing of extinct human relatives known as Denisovans has enabled comparison of Han, Tibetan and Denisovan DNA. This has led to discovery of DNA in Tibetans from Denisovans that adapts Tibetans to high altitude living, Shenzhen, July 2, 2014---An international team, led by researchers from BGI and University of California, presented their latest significant finding that the altitude adaptation in Tibet might be caused by the introgression of DNA from extinct Denisovans or Denisovan-related individ...
Source: FuturePundit - July 5, 2014 Category: Research Authors: Randall Parker Source Type: blogs
