Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
As artificial intelligence software and advanced computers revolutionize modern technology, some researchers see a future where computer programmers leap from silicon to organic molecules.
Scientists with Johns Hopkins University are investigating the possibility of “biocomputers” – programs modelled from organic molecules such as human DNA or proteins – unlocking new insights on human biology and advancing the processing power of future tech.
Much of these technological anticipations derive from something called “organoids,” which are lab-grown tissues resembling fully grown organs, sharing similar biological complexities to tissues comprised in kidneys, lungs and brain cells.
Organoids, which have become more prominent in labs over the last two decades, currently offer scientists a more ethical alternative to animal or human testing, mimicking basic functions of cells and advancing scientific understandings towards how those cells operate.
Most recently, scientists with Johns Hopkins have been assessing the nature of “brain organoids,” which are orbs the size of a pen dot that mirror the basic neural functions of learning and remembering in the human brain, according to a news release.
“This opens up research on how the human brain works,” Thomas Hartung, a professor of environmental health sciences at Johns Hopkins, said in the release, adding that deeper insights into human cognition can also serve as a roadmap for unlocking greater computing power in future technology.
“Computing and artificial intelligence have been driving the technology revolution but they are reaching a ceiling,” he said. “Biocomputing is an enormous effort of compacting computational power and increasing its efficiency to push past our current technological limits.”
Hartung and his team first began growing brain organoids in 2012 by using cells from human skin samples that they reprogrammed to multiply and mirror the functions of other cells. Each of these organoids consist of approximately 50,000 cells, and Hartung and his team envision building a futuristic computer that uses the organization of these cells as a basis for new forms of computer programming.
Despite the fact that computer calculations involving numbers and data are far superior to brains in terms of speed and volume, Hartung pointed out that humans are currently more efficient in arriving at complex logical decisions with substantially less processing power required.
For instance, our ability to tell the difference between a cat and a dog based on a quick glance requires much less processing power than a computer program would require, despite the fact that an advance computer would be able to provide way more information on each species than the average person.
Through using the complexity of brain organoids and training them with artificial intelligence, Hartung believes “biocomputers” can reach new computing speed, processing power, storage capabilities, and general data efficiency.
“Computers that run on this ‘biological hardware’ could in the next decade begin to alleviate energy consumption demands of supercomputing that are becoming increasingly unsustainable,” he said.
He added that it could be decades before an organoid-based computer would effectively function, but that the possibility remains as the field of organoid research expands.
Lena Smirnova, a Johns Hopkins assistant professor of environmental health and engineering, who is co-leading the investigation, added that such research could revolutionize drug testing research for neurodegeneration and neurodevelopmental disorders.
“The tools we are developing towards biological computing are the same tools that will allow us to understand changes in neuronal networks specific for autism, without having to use animals or to access patients,” she said in the news release. By advancing bio-computing, Smirnova believes researchers can “understand the underlying mechanisms of why patients have these cognition issues and impairments.”
Smirnova and Hartung further outlined their plans for assessing the future of organoid intelligence and bio-computing in the journal Frontiers in Science last month.
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
The Parole Board of Canada has granted full parole to one of three men convicted in the brutal murders of three McDonald's restaurant workers in Cape Breton more than 30 years ago.
Nearly 20 hours after a man climbed and remained perched on top of the Reconciliation Bridge in downtown Calgary, the situation came to a peaceful resolution.
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of U.S. President George Washington's younger brother Samuel and his kin.
A spokesman for a regional Muslim advocacy group says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's stance on the Israel-Hamas war could complicate his party's relationship with Muslim Canadians.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is officially selling a copy of the Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, 'God Bless the USA.' But the concept of a Bible covered in the American flag has raised concern among religious circles.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.
There’s a group of people in Saskatoon that proudly call themselves dumpster divers, and they’re turning the city’s trash into treasure.
Ontario is facing a larger than anticipated deficit but the Doug Ford government still plans to balance its books before the next provincial election.