Jeff Sebo on digital minds, and how to avoid sleepwalking into a major moral catastrophe
"The general case for extending moral consideration to AI systems is that they might be conscious or sentient or agential or otherwise significant. And if they might have those features, then we should extend them at least some moral consideration in the spirit of caution and humility."
Source: 80000hours.org
“Meet the patient” session: a strategy to teach medical students about autonomic dysfunction after spinal cord injury
Dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system is an important long-term consequence of spinal cord injury (SCI). Yet, there is a scarcity of teaching resources about this topic for preclinical medical students. Given the association of SCI sequelae with emergency complications and mortality, it is imperative...
Source: biomedcentral.com
AI information retrieval: A search engine researcher explains the promise and peril of letting ChatGPT and its cousins search
A new generation of artificial intelligence-based information access systems, which includes Microsoft’s Bing/ChatGPT, Google/Bard and Meta/LLaMA, is upending the traditional search engine mode of search input and output. These systems are able to take full sentences and even paragraphs as input and...
Source: ampproject.org
Coaching for Clinician Educators
Branzetti, Jeremy. Love, Linda M.. Schulte, Elaine E. Journal of Graduate Medical Education. Clinician educators (CEs) face manifold challenges, such as teaching under increasing clinical productivity pressures, satisfying evolving accreditation requirements, and combatting trainee and faculty burnout....
Source: allenpress.com
Recent waning snowpack in the Alps is unprecedented in the last six centuries - Nature Climate Change Carrer, Marco. Dibona,
Snow cover in high-latitude and high-altitude regions has strong effects on the Earth’s climate, environmental processes and socio-economic activities. Over the last 50 years, the Alps experienced a 5.6% reduction per decade in snow cover duration, which already affects a region where economy and...
Source: nature.com
Was Brexit About Tax Avoidance?
Several years ago I published an article “Is Brexit Really About Tax Avoidance?”, and it’s probably about time to revisit the topic, in the past tense, especially since the Anti Tax Avoidance Directive has now been implemented, and we have the EU/UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement to consider....
Source: politax.com
In the ’80s, We Decided Bike Helmets Make Riders Safe. Cyclists Have Paid for It Ever Since.
Good review of the complex science around cycle helmets and safety. The article also touches on the unintended effects of helmet mandate laws (which have been repealed in many US cities). Shout out to Ian Walker of Swansea University and his heroic measuring of passing distance of vehicles with various...
Source: slate.com
ChatGPT performs well in the USMLE (nearly passes with no training)
This pre-print paper suggests ChatGPT could change how assessments might be done. “We evaluated the performance of a large language model called ChatGPT on the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE), which consists of three exams: Step 1, Step 2CK, and Step 3. ChatGPT performed at or near the...
From Health Care Workforce Recuperation to Regeneration
“educators and health care leaders must intentionally train in teamwork and collaboration, have a growth mindset, and create environments of psychological safety on purpose rather than by chance.” “The Executive Vice Dean and Vice Dean for Education at the UCSF School of Medicine and the Assistant...
Source: nejm.org
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Source: bmj.com
Life-threatening infections on the rise due to drug-resistant bacteria, new WHO report reveals
Over 50 per cent of life-threatening bacterial infections are becoming resistant to treatment, a new World Health Organization (WHO) report published on Friday reveals.
Source: news.un.org
Spem in alium nunquam habui (Hope in any other, never did I have)
This piece of music is probably like nothing you have ever heard. Maybe because it is nearly 500 years old it feels like it is from another world. Maybe because it is written for eight choirs with five voices each the forty parts it's so complex you'd be pressed even to hum some of the tune afterwards....
Source: wikipedia.org
Aymptomatic testing for COVID could reduce hospital admissions
"The city-wide pilot of community based asymptomatic testing for SARS-CoV-2 was associated with substantially reduced covid-19 related hospital admissions. Large scale asymptomatic rapid testing for SARS-CoV-2 could help reduce transmission and prevent hospital admissions."
Source: bmj.com
The First Commercial Sand-based Thermal Energy Storage in the World Is in Operation.
Polar Night Energy’s first commercial sand-based high temperature heat storage is now in operation at Vatajankoski power plant area. The heat storage, which has a hundred tons of sand inside, is producing low emission district heating to the city of Kankaanpää in Western Finland.
Source: polarnightenergy.fi
Extending the lifecycle of clothes during Covid-19
Good example of analysing behaviour by barriers and enablers. “Two studies carried out with the Centre for Behaviour Change examined factors affecting the purchase, repair, repurpose and disposal of clothes by people in the UK before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Source: ucl.ac.uk
Particle physics could be rewritten after shock W boson measurement
“The standard model of particle physics has stood the test of time for decades, but now a new measurement of a particle called the W boson could indicate a chink in its armour.” The scientists took 10 years to do the analysis as it was so complex! “The analysis was so complex that the result took...
Source: newscientist.com
Senior health professionals call for urgent climate briefing of all MPs by the chief scientific adviser: open letter to
Dear prime minister,
We wish to make you aware of our concern for the health of Angus Rose, a 52 year old man, who at the time of writing is on day 34 of a hunger strike outside Parliament, consuming only fluids, vitamins, and minerals.
His not unreasonable demand is that all members of parliament...
Source: bmj.com
Polygenic prediction of educational attainment within and between families from genome-wide association analyses in 3 million
We conduct a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of educational attainment (EA) in a sample of ~3 million individuals and identify 3,952 approximately uncorrelated genome-wide-significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A genome-wide polygenic predictor, or polygenic index (PGI), explains 12–16%...
Source: nature.com
Internet user classification
Grampound it seems is classified as 'e-Rational Utilitarian' ... but who is shouting out for more local facilities and better internet infrastructure? Checks notes ... methodological individualist and political liberals with social stratification (i.e. class, status distinctions) playing a relatively...
Source: cdrc.ac.uk
Fusion energy record demonstrates powerplant future
"Landmark results from EUROfusion scientists and engineers at world-leading UK Atomic Energy Authority’s Joint European Torus (JET) facility in Oxford. "Record-breaking 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy demonstrates powerplant potential and strengthens case for ITER." "The record and scientific...
Source: ukaea.uk
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