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Can We Make Computer Chips Act More Like Brain Cells?
The human brain is an amazing computing machine. Weighing only three pounds or so, it can process information a thousand times faster than the fastest supercomputer, store a thousand times more information than a powerful laptop, and do it all using no more energy than a 20-watt lightbulb. Researchers are trying to replicate this success using soft, flexible organic materials that can operate like biological neurons and someday might even be able to interconnect with them. Eventually, soft “neuromorphic” computer chips could be implanted directly into the brain, allowing people to control an artificial arm or a computer monitor simply by thinking about it.
Like real neurons — but unlike conventional computer chips — these new devices can send and receive both chemical and electrical signals. “Your brain works with chemicals, with neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin. Our materials are able to interact electrochemically with them,” says Alberto Salleo, a materials scientist at Stanford University who wrote about the potential for organic neuromorphic devices in the 2021 Annual Review of Materials Research. Salleo and other researchers have created electronic devices using these soft organic materials that can act like transistors (which amplify and switch electrical signals) and memory cells (which store information) and other basic electronic components.
The work grows out of an increasing interest in neuromorphic computer circuits that mimic how human neural connections, or synapses, work. These circuits, whether made of silicon, metal or organic materials, work less like those in digital computers and more like the networks of neurons in the human brain…. An individual neuron receives signals from many other neurons, and all these signals together add up to affect the electrical state of the receiving neuron. In effect, each neuron serves as both a calculating device — integrating the value of all the signals it has received — and a memory device: storing the value of all of those combined signals as an infinitely variable analog value, rather than the zero-or-one of digital computers.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Who Pays for an Act of Cyberwar?
: Act fast to get your free COVID-19 tests; government program will end Sept. 2
Chart Check [Hot 100]: Drake Now Has Most Top 5 Hits In History / Becomes First Act to Boast 100 Top 20 Hits
Drake continues his unprecedented domination of Billboard.
In the 13 years since the release of the 2009 ‘So Far Gone’ mixtape that’s credited with launching his career, the Canadian emcee has managed to rack up the most impressive Hot 100 run of any artist ever.
Among the highlights are most #1 hits among rappers (11), most weeks at #1 among rappers (54),
The post Chart Check [Hot 100]: Drake Now Has Most Top 5 Hits In History / Becomes First Act to Boast 100 Top 20 Hits appeared first on ..::That Grape Juice.net::.. – Thirsty?.
How the Inflation Reduction Act Affects Food and Agriculture
Personal Finance Daily: Mortgage rates dip slightly due to cooling inflation data, but new construction slows and Inflation Reduction Act promises tax credits for new and used electric vehicles — here’s how to claim them
FA Center: Stock buybacks aren’t the threat Congress and the Inflation Reduction Act says they are
: Inflation Reduction Act has been signed into law — what it means for your investments
President Biden signs Inflation Reduction Act to limit climate change
President Joe Biden has signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The sweeping $750 billion legislation includes $369 billion in investments toward climate and clean energy programs. Following months of infighting, House and Senate Democrats passed the bill along party lines last week after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia struck a compromise deal on Biden’s Build Better Back framework. According to one estimate by Princeton University’s Zero Lab, the bill could reduce US greenhouse emissions by about 6.3 billion tons through 2032. The $369 billion set aside by the bill represents the most significant investment to combat climate change in US history.
“This bill is the biggest step forward on climate ever, and it’s going to allow us to boldly take additional steps toward meeting all of the climate goals we set out when we ran,” Biden said before signing the bill. “It includes ensuring that we create clean energy opportunities in frontline and fenceline communities that have been smothered by the legacy of population and fight environmental injustice that has been going on for so long.”
With the law now in place, US consumers can look forward to up to $7,500 in subsidies for electric SUVs, trucks and vans that cost less than $80,000 and cars under $55,000. The act is also set to provide up to $4,000 for buying a used EV. Both subsidies include an income ceiling that would prevent those who make more than the average American from taking advantage. The law also calls for the creation of a $1.5 billion program to incentivize companies to reduce their methane emissions.