APPLE NEURAL ENGINE

The Next Generation of iPhones May Be Coming With an Artificial Intelligence Chip

Your next smartphone might be more “intelligent” than anyone could have guessed. Apple is working on artificial intelligence (AI) chips for the iPhone that could increase battery life and perform tasks that currently require a human, according to an informant who wants to remain anonymous.

The chips, which are reportedly known internally as the “Apple Neural Engine” and would be integrated into all Apple devices, are specifically designed to cope with the high processing power that AI demands. Currently, Apple uses the main processor and graphics chips to deal with AI features like Siri, iPhotos’ facial recognition, and predictive typing — but, because the hardware not designed specifically for this purpose, battery life suffers.

Apple is characteristically secretive about the reports, and has declined to comment. However, we may hear more concerning the AI chip at the developer’s conference coming up in June — as we did concerning Google’s AI plans at their own conference earlier this month.

APPLE AND Artificial Intelligence

Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, said at a press call in March that the company is planning to expand into the Augmented Reality market — this chip would be vital if this is the case.

The development of an AI chip for iPhones, iPads, and MacBook makes sense in the context of other recent Apple news, too. The company has recently purchased Lattice Data, which uses AI to structure “dark data” (data that cannot be used from an analytics standpoint). In addition, Apple’s self-driving car software, currently mounted on a Lexus, has been approved for road testing — it incorporates features like a radar, GPS, laser measuring, and computer vision.

Apple’s interest in the future of the AI industry is also reflected in the company joining the “Partnership on AI to Benefit People and Society,” a multi-corporation think tank that explores the responsible implementation of the technology. Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft are also partners in the project to make AI a useful tool for all humanity.

References: The Verge - All Posts, Bloomberg

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF EATING

These life hacks can make your weight loss journey easy.

1. EAT IN A SMALLER PLATE 
The quantity of food in both the plates is same. However, when we eat in a smaller plate our eyes trick our brain into thinking that we are having more food. While eating in a larger plate, we tend to pile up more food to fill the plate.

2. CONTRAST THE COLOR OF YOUR PLATE AND FOOD  

You may end up eating 25 percent more if you choose the red plate below. So, if you want to eat less, the trick is to choose a plate which has high contrast to the food served on the plate.

3. DRINK IN TALL SKINNY GLASSES 
Visually the tall skinny glass appears to hold more liquid than the short glass. So, you can limit cold drinks and alcoholic drinks by serving them in tall skinny glasses. This way, you will be drinking 20 percent less.

4. AVOID EATING WHEN DISTRACTED 
Research shows that people end up eating 30 percent more while watching TV, working on laptop or when distracted by something. Instead, practice mindful eating and lose weight.

5. KEEP SNACKS OUT OF SIGHT 

If you are a snacker then this psychological hack is for you. When we see yummy treats like chocolates, our brain sends the signal to eat it even when we are not hungry. It is always better to keep them out of sight by storing in a non transparent container etc.

6. BRUSH YOUR TEETH AFTER DINNER 
Brush your teeth 1 hour after dinner. This way it is less likely that you will indulge in late night munching.

7. BUY SMALL PACKS INSTEAD OF ONE LARGE PACK 

When a snack is in front of you, no matter what is the size of it, you will tend to finish it in one sitting. Therefore, opt for smaller packs and eat less.

8. LEAVE EVIDENCE BEHIND 

This trick works in a party. Give yourself visual clues of how much you have eaten. Experiments have shown that we tend to eat 25 percent more when we leave behind no evidence of the food eaten.

Some interesting Life Hacks!

Dear all....here some Life Hacks for you all!

One of the tricks to catch someone telling a lie is to see if they repeatedly look to their left while talking to you or do not make any eye contact.

Although it is tough but if you can get into the habit of not only remembering someone’s name when you first meet them, but using their name in the subsequent conversation you have, they’ll find you terribly charming and wonderful.

To appear more confident, self-assured, thoughtful and knowledgeable - avoid using many filler words like 'uh' 'umm' 'err' etc. Instead, use the silence (not too long) to order your thoughts and more coherently communicate whatever it is you are trying to get across.

People perceive other people with better posture as more important and confident people.

During negotiations, use silence as a weapon. Most people are uncomfortable with it an they will try to break it by giving up a key point.

If you ask someone a question and they only partially answer, give them a few seconds. By remaining silent and keeping your eye contact, they will usually continue talking.

You can restore your attention by taking a sneak peek of even just 40 seconds of nature. A 2015 Australian study found that looking at a flowering and grassy rooftop helped participants make less mistakes as compared to those staring at a concrete building. The lead author of the study says that even looking at an image of nature can help improve work performance.

Instead of looking for a less populated pathway right in front of you, look in the direction you want to go and point yourself that way. People will instinctively get out of your way, as they tend to watch others' eyes and body language to determine their direction.

Last but not the least,

Happiness is Contagious: 

It's not exactly Ebola, but happiness is contagious. And the effect is impressive - happiness can strengthen your immune system,decreases pain and chronic diseases and provide stress relief. One study even found that happiness can lower your risk of heart disease. Yet another reason to ditch the negative jerks in your life and stay positive. Laugh, and the whole world laughs with you!

Courtesy:-

http://mashable.com/…/…/20/psychological-tips-productivity/…

A World First CRISPR Trial Will Edit Genes Inside the Human Body

A new CRISPR trial, which hopes to eliminate the human papillomavirus (HPV), is set to be the first to attempt to use the technique inside the human body. In the non-invasive treatment, scientists will apply a gel that carries the necessary DNA coding for the CRISPR machinery to the cervixes of 60 women between the ages of 18 and 50. The team aims to disable the tumor growth mechanism in HPV cells.

The trial stands in contradistinction to the usual CRISPR method of extracting cells and re-injecting them into the affected area; although it will still use the Cas9 enzyme (which acts as a pair of ‘molecular scissors’) and guiding RNA that is typical of the process.

20 trials are set to begin in the rest of 2017 and early 2018. Most of the research will occur in China, and will focus on disabling cancer’s PD-1 gene that fools the human immune system into not attacking the cells. Different trials are focusing on different types of cancer including breast, bladder, esophageal, kidney, and prostate cancers.

MODIFYING OUR WORLD

The study, if it succeeds, will be promising for sufferers of HPV and act as a milestone in the CRISPR process. Although HPV is not necessarily cancerous, it can cause cervical cancer. In the U.S. alone, there are more than 3 million new infections every year. Although there is a vaccine for the virus, currently, once you have it you can never get rid of it.

More generally, the CRISPR process could be nothing short of a miracle: if it passes all medical tests it wouldn’t just make medicine a whole new kettle of fish, it would reinvent the kettle…and the fish, for almost any field. It is cheaper than other gene editing therapies, and could potentially save millions of lives by curing diseases we can only deal with therapeutically like cancer, diabetes and cystic-fibrosis. Crops could be altered more effectively using the process. Drugs and materials that were never possible before could be pioneered.

However, it is still extremely nascent technology, and many fear that there could also be a host of unexpected consequences. Recently, it has been found that it causes hundreds of unexpected mutations in DNA. While these concerns are valid, more research is necessary. Which is why the upcoming studies over the next few years are so vital to the future of our health.

References: New Scientist, Newsline, Clinicaltrials.gov

Scientists Hope to Use Stem Cells to Reverse Death in Controversial Study

Researchers seem to be setting their sights on increasingly lofty goals when it comes to the human body – from the world’s first human head transplant, to fighting ageing, and now reversing death altogether. Yes, you read that right. A company called Bioquark hopes to bring people who have been declared clinically brain-dead back to life. The Philadelphia-based biotech company is expected to start on the project later this year.

This trial was originally intended to go forward in 2016 in India, but regulators shut it down. Assuming this plan will be substantially similar, it will enroll 20 patients who will undergo various treatments. The stem cell injection will come first, with the stem cells isolated from that patient’s own blood or fat. Next, the protein blend gets injected directly into the spinal cord, which is intended to foster growth of new neurons. The laser therapy and nerve stimulation follow for 15 days, with the aim of prompting the neurons to make connections. Meanwhile, the researchers will monitor both behavior and EEGs for any signs of the treatment causing any changes.

BACK FROM THE DEAD

Researchers seem to be setting their sights on increasingly lofty goals when it comes to the human body – from the world’s first human head transplant, to fighting aging, and now reversing death altogether. Yes, you read that right. A company called Bioquark hopes to bring people who have been declared clinically brain-dead back to life. The Philadelphia-based biotech company is expected to start on the project later this year.

This trial was originally intended to go forward in 2016 in India, but regulators shut it down. Assuming this plan will be substantially similar, it will enroll 20 patients who will undergo various treatments. The stem cell injection will come first, with the stem cells isolated from that patient’s own blood or fat. Next, the protein blend gets injected directly into the spinal cord, which is intended to foster growth of new neurons. The laser therapy and nerve stimulation follow for 15 days, with the aim of prompting the neurons to make connections. Meanwhile, the researchers will monitor both behavior and EEGs for any signs of the treatment causing any changes.

CONTROVERSIAL IDEAS

While there is some basis in science for each step in the process, the entire regimen is under major scrutiny. The electrical stimulation of the median nerve has been tested, but most evidence exists in the form of case studies. Dr. Ed Cooper has described dozens of these cases, and indicates that the technique can have some limited success in some patients in comas. However, comas and brain death are very different, and Bioquark’s process raises more questions for most researchers than it answers.

One issue researchers are raising about this study is informed consent. How can participants in the trial consent, and how should researchers complete their trial paperwork – given that the participants are legally dead —and how can brain death be conclusively confirmed, anyway? What would happen if any brain activity did return, and what would the patient’s mental state be? Could anything beyond extreme brain damage even be possible?

As reported by Stat News, In 2016, neurologist Dr. Ariane Lewis and bioethicist Arthur Caplan wrote in Critical Care that the trial is “dubious,” “has no scientific foundation,” and suffers from an “at best, ethically questionable, and at worst, outright unethical nature.” According to Stat News, despite his earlier work with electrical stimulation of the median nerve, Dr. Cooper also doubts Bioquark’s method, and feels “there is no way this technique could work on someone who is brain-dead. The technique, he said, relies on there being a functional brain stem — one of the structures that most motor neurons go through before connecting with the cortex proper. If there’s no functional brain stem, then it can’t work.”

Peadiatric surgeon Charles Cox, who is not involved in Bioquark’s work, agrees with Cooper, commenting to Stat News on Bioquark’s full protocol, “it’s not the absolute craziest thing I’ve ever heard, but I think the probability of that working is next to zero. I think [someone reviving] would technically be a miracle.”

Pastor remains optimistic about Bioquark’s protocol. “I give us a pretty good chance,” he said. “I just think it’s a matter of putting it all together and getting the right people and the right minds on it.”

References: Scientific American, Science, Stat News, Critical Care

What movies can you never get tired of watching?

Please write your 10 best favourite movies 🎥 in the comment box below .

My list (not in an order) - hard to choose 10 though🤔. These are the ones came to my mind first...... probably for a reason

1. The Matrix (1999)
2. One flew over the cuckoos nest (1975)
3. Forrest Gump (1994)
4. Interstellar (2014)
5. The Green Mile (1999)
6. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
7. The Godfather 1 & 2 (1972 &74)
8. When Harry met Sally (1989)
9. Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001)
10. The pursuit of Happiness (2006)

Please write your 10 favourite movies. And please don't forget to share this post to your friends..... Let us see what their favourites are 💞

New Research Shows That Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Isn’t Just “All in Your Head”

Researchers have discovered that people with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis have elevated levels of seven specific species of gut bacteria. This discovery could lead to targeted diagnostic tools and treatments for the disease.

CHRONIC FATIGUE SYNDROME

Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) is a debilitating disorder. The fatigue and other symptoms it causes result in an inability to participate in the daily activities of life for many sufferers. Although more than one million Americans have ME/CFS — more than lupus, multiple sclerosis, and some types of cancer — there is not yet any treatment, or meaningful diagnostic tool. Four times as many women suffer from ME/CFS, and it lasts for years in some patients.

Although the disease was previously thought of as some kind of imaginary ailment, ME/CFS is now being taken seriously by researchers. This week, new research published in Microbiome reveals that people who have ME/CFS also have abnormal levels of specific gut bacteria — and the levels of bacteria vary with symptom severity.

“By identifying the specific bacteria involved, we are one step closer to more accurate diagnosis and targeted therapies,” head researcher Ian Lipkin said in a press release from the Center for Infection and Immunity (CII) and the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University.

The team carefully matched, and then followed, 50 ME/CFS patients and 50 healthy controls. They took fecal and blood samples from all participants, and tested the fecal samples for bacterial species and the blood for immune molecules. Seven distinct species of intestinal bacteria were so strongly associated with ME/CFS that an accurate diagnosis could be predicted based on the elevated presence of all of them.

Although this study included a small sample, subject to further verification, this research could be the first step toward targeted diagnostic tools and treatments for the disease.

References: ScienceAlert - Latest, Microbiome Journal, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, CDC

New Research Shows That Time Travel Is Mathematically Possible

Physicists have developed a new mathematical model that shows how time travel is theoretically possible. They used Einstein's Theory of General Relativity as a springboard for their hypothetical device, which they call a Traversable Acausal Retrograde Domain in Space-time (TARDIS).

BENDING TIME

Even before Einstein theorised that time is relative and flexible, humanity had already been imagining the possibility of time travel. In fact, science fiction is filled with time travelers. Some use metahuman abilities to do so, but most rely on a device generally known as a time machine. Now, two physicists think that it’s time to bring the time machine into the real world — sort

“People think of time travel as something as fiction. And we tend to think it’s not possible because we don’t actually do it,” Ben Tippett, a theoretical physicist and mathematician from the University of British Columbia, said in a UBC news release. “But, mathematically, it is possible.”

Essentially, what Tippet and University of Maryland astrophysicist David Tsang developed is a mathematical formula that uses Einstein’s General Relativity theory to prove that time travel is possible, in theory. That is, time travel fitting a layperson’s understanding of the concept as moving “backwards and forwards through time and space, as interpreted by an external observer,” according to the abstract of their paper, which is published in the journal Classical and Quantum Gravity.

Oh, and they’re calling it a TARDIS — yes, “Doctor Who” fans, hurray! — which stands for a Traversable Acausal Retrograde Domain in Space-time.

FEASIBLE BUT NOT POSSIBLE. YET.

“My model of a time machine uses the curved space-time to bend time into a circle for the passengers, not in a straight line,” Tippet explained. “That circle takes us back in time.” Simply put, their model assumes that time could curve around high-mass objects in the same way that physical space does in the universe.

For Tippet and Tsang, a TARDIS is a space-time geometry “bubble” that travels faster than the speed of light. “It is a box which travels ‘forwards’ and then ‘backwards’ in time along a circular path through spacetime,” they wrote in their paper.

Unfortunately, it’s still not possible to construct such a time machine. “While is it mathematically feasible, it is not yet possible to build a space-time machine because we need materials — which we call exotic matter — to bend space-time in these impossible ways, but they have yet to be discovered,” Tippet explained.

Indeed, their work isn’t the first to suggest that time traveling can be done. Various other experiments, including those that rely on photon stimulation, suggest that time travel is feasible. Another theory explores the potential particles of time.

However, some think that a time machine wouldn’t be feasible because time traveling itself isn’t possible. One points to the intimate connection between time and energy as the reason time traveling is improbable. Another suggests that time travel isn’t going to work because there’s no future to travel to yet.

Whatever the case may be, there’s one thing that these researchers all agree on. As Tippet put it, “Studying space-time is both fascinating and problematic.”

References: ScienceAlert, IOP Science, Phys. Org

Can WiFi cause cancer?

WiFi operates in the 2 to 5 GHz range - part of the microwave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This is in the same part of the spectrum where cell phones operate so I may refer to WiFi or cellphone electromagnetic radiation interchangeably. These are radio waves - no different than those used to broadcast television programs - except that they are higher in frequency. They aren't nearly as high a frequency as visible light - and no one worries about getting cancer from visible light (ultraviolet light, on the other hand, causes skin cancer - but this is the minimum energy necessary to cause ionizations that can cause breaks in strands of DNA - which is the mechanism by which cancer cells can be created). There is no credible evidence that non-ionizing radiation has any adverse health effects at all. There is no radiobiologic mechanism that could explain such an association - and absolutely no scientifically valid evidence that this has ever happened.

Dr Garry Larson MD, Medical Director- Procure Proton Therapy Center OKC states that he has treated patients with cancer for over thirty years as a board certified radiation oncologist and he is familiar with every carcinogenic agent known to man - He is with absolute certainty that radio waves cannot harm you (unless perhaps you were in the path of a multi-megawatt microwave beam in which case they might cook you - but as far as he knows, there is no likelihood that this danger even exists).

There has never been (and will never be) a randomised trial assessing the cause and effect relationship between radio frequency emissions and neoplastic disease. In order to have a randomised study, half of the randomly selected subjects would need to avoid cellphone use and that's not going to happen.

Humans have been exposed to man-made radio frequency radiation for over 100 years and we have always been exposed to microwave radiation from the Cosmos.

For example, the latency period for radiation induced malignancies is, on the average say 20 years, but epidemiologic studies of large groups of people (that only require a few thousand patients to reach stastistical significance) exposed to ionizing radiation start showing an increase above baseline by seven years. So conservatively, there should be at least a few excess cases of glioma, caused by cellular (or WiFi) electromagnetic radiation by now.

See this reference which looks at all the reported cases of gliomas caused by ionizing radiation (where we have a plausible explanation for cause and effect). Millions of people have received brain irradiation and only 73 cases of radiation induced gliomas have been reported.

A Report on Radiation-Induced Gliomas

We do have evidence that cellphones (or WiFi) do NOT cause an increase in brain tumors. Look at the time period over which cellphone use became common - say over the last twenty years. During that time, the incidence of brain tumours has remained absolutely flat. With over four billion people using cellphones (or WiFi) today, if there was any influence on the development of brain tumors, we would be seeing that by now.

The data from the National Cancer Institute below shows no increase in the incidence of primary brain tumours over the period of time that cell phones have been in use.

Say someone found a potential association between carrying coins in your pocket and the risk of a particular type of tumour. It would set off a frenzy of activity among a group of people who were convinced that this association was real. They would lobby for a law requiring that warning signs be placed on change machines. The effect would snowball until some people would demand that the government stop minting coins.

So lets review

There is no biologic mechanism to explain why non ionizing radiation (like the cellphone's emission of radio waves) could induce any type of tumour
We do have a mechanism to explain the association between ionizing radiation and tumour induction, but out of millions of people who have received radiation therapy to their brain, only 73 radiation induced gliomas have been reported in the world's literature.
For radiation induced neoplasms in general, epidemiologic studies can show an increase in the likelihood of tumours with only a few thousand people over a time period less than ten years

At least something on the order of millions (if not billions) of people have used cell phones for over two decades now and there is no evidence that the incidence of brain tumors has increased over that time period
Now lets get down to why this sort of irrational belief takes hold and, among other things, prompts five questions on this subject (at least that I have seen) in the time that I have been reading Quora (less than two months).

We have essentially no control over whether we live or die - except that we should avoid dangerous behaviours like smoking, becoming obese, not wearing seat belts, texting while driving, etc. Otherwise, over a trillion cells carry on countless biochemical processes that we have no control over. One out of four people will get cancer - beyond avoiding foolish behaviour, we can't influence that risk.

Since we have this subconscious, ever present fear of death (see below*), we employ magical thinking to give us a false sense of power over it. When we create artificial threats to our survival in our imagination - and then avoid practicing behaviours that make us vulnerable to those threats - we feel we have some power over whether we live or die. These are also know as superstitions.

Primitive cultures made sacrifices to imaginary gods so they wouldn't destroy their village - Children learn to avoid stepping on cracks - The germaphobe may engage in compulsive hand washing - and some people avoid putting their cellphone right next to their skin.

Vivek Murthy, MD, Replaced as Surgeon General of America

The Trump administration removed Vivek Murthy, MD, on April 21 from his position as surgeon general in the middle of his 4-year term.

His temporary replacement is a nurse, Sylvia Trent-Adams, RN, PhD, formerly the deputy surgeon general.

The 39-year-old Dr Murthy was a holdover from the Obama administration who was confirmed by the Senate in a mostly party-line 51-to-43 vote in December 2014. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that Dr Murthy was asked to resign and ""relieved of his duties"" after assisting the new administration in its transition. HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD, "thanks him for his dedicated service to the nation," according to the agency's news release, adding that Dr Murthy will continue to serve as a member of the US Public Health Service (USPHS) Commissioned Corps.
The USPHS Commissioned Corps and its 6600 uniformed health professionals are overseen by the surgeon general.

Surgeon generals have 4-year terms, and some have begun their term under one party's flag and finished it — or served out much of it — under another flag. The most recent example was former Surgeon General David Satcher, MD, PhD, a Bill Clinton appointee who completed his 4 years during the George W. Bush administration.

HHS did not give a reason why Dr Murthy was relieved of his duties. However, his track record holds some possible clues. Senate Republicans opposed his nomination in part because they viewed him as a political partisan. During the 2008 presidential election, Dr Murthy co-chaired a group called Doctors for Obama, and he later helped lead a successor group called Doctors for America that supported passage of the Affordable Care Act. He also incurred the wrath of the National Rifle Association and its congressional allies for declaring gun violence a public health issue.
Georges Benjamin, MD, the executive director of the American Public Health Association, said he was surprised by Dr Murthy's dismissal.

"I knew he anticipated completing his four years," Dr Benjamin told Medscape Medical News, noting that he had been in touch with Dr Murthy. "He was expecting to do that."
The Trump administration's removal of Dr Murthy "is another way of politicizing the job, which is inappropriate," said Dr Benjamin. "The reason why the surgeon general has a term is to depoliticize the position."
Efforts to reach Dr Murthy for an interview were unsuccessful. However, he did speak for himself in a post on his Facebook page. There, he said that he had been terminated for taking a principled stand.
"Many have asked why I chose not to resign as Surgeon General when I was asked to do so," he wrote. "My reason was simple: because I would never willfully abandon my commitment to my Commissioned Corps officers, to the American people, and to all who have stood with me to build a healthier and more compassionate America."

Lesson Learned: "Choose Love"

Before serving as surgeon general, Dr Murthy was a hospitalist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. He also cofounded a nonprofit group promoting HIV/AIDS education and a company that makes software for clinical trials.
One of Dr Murthy's top priorities as surgeon general was what he called "tobacco and drug-free living." To that end, he sent a letter to more than 1 million prescribers in November 2016 asking them to help battle the opioid epidemic, in part through better prescribing habits. Later that month, he released a major report on substance abuse that was likened to the surgeon general's landmark report on smoking issued in 1964.
In December 2016, Dr Murthy followed up with a report that called e-cigarettes a public health crisis for the nation's youth.
"I thought he was visible on the right issues," said the APHA's Dr Benjamin.
In another post on his Facebook page, Dr Murthy reflected on his brief tenure as surgeon general.

"For the grandson of a poor farmer from India to be asked by the president to look out for the health of an entire nation was a humbling and uniquely American story," he wrote. "While I had hoped to do more to help our nation tackle its biggest health challenges, I will be forever grateful for the opportunity to have served."
He listed a number of lessons he picked up on the job.

"We will only be successful in addressing addiction — and other illnesses — when we recognize the humanity within each of us," he wrote. "People are more than their disease. All of us are more than our worse mistakes."
And this: "The world is locked in a struggle between love and fear. Choose love. It is the world's oldest medicine."

Dr Murthy said the nation will be in "capable and compassionate hands" with Dr Trent-Adams taking over as acting surgeon general.
A 24-year veteran of the USPHS Commissioned Corps, Dr Trent-Adams has served as chief nursing officer of the USPHS and the deputy associate administrator for the HIV/AIDS Bureau in HHS. Before joining the USPHS Commissioned Corps, she was a nurse in the US Army and a research nurse at the University of Maryland.