Links for 2021-09-14
Worms found to share "memories" by swapping RNA to warn of danger https://newatlas.com/biology/celegans-worms-share-memories-rna/
Battery prices have fallen 88 percent over the last decade https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/12/battery-prices-have-fallen-88-percent-over-the-last-decade/
"By the time the Manhattan Project needed uranium, the general manager of the Union Miner du haut Katanga already knew that uranium would be useful so he already had half of Africa's production of uranium shipped in secret to New York, where it sat in a warehouse until he was asked to deliver it. "You can have the ore now. It is in New York, a thousand tons of it. I was waiting for your visit."" (via @ArtirKel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Sengier#Manhattan_Project
Book Review: Design Principles of Biological Circuits https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/bNXdnRTpSXk9p4zmi/book-review-design-principles-of-biological-circuits
What can we learn if we invest heavily in reverse engineering a single neural network? https://distill.pub/2020/circuits/
The Quest for a Deeper Understanding of Deep Learning https://annualreports.simonsfoundation.org/2020/the-quest-for-a-deeper-understanding-of-deep-learning/
"Scientists have observed wild cockatoos crafting the equivalent of a crowbar, an ice pick, and a spoon to pry open one of their favorite fruits. The discovery puts parrots on par with primates in terms of toolmaking." https://www.science.org/content/article/wild-cockatoos-make-their-own-cutlery-sets
Perceived outgroup threat elicits ingroup cohesion... not just in humans but in chimpanzees. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0246869
A Colorado high school asked to attend the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women. Before they could get approved by a committee—that China sits on—they had to change an old article on their site to say that Taiwan is a "Province of China.” https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-makes-sure-everyone-writes-taiwans-name-just-soeven-a-colorado-high-school-11631304386?redirect=amp