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AI-formulated medicine to be tested on humans for the first time
A drug designed entirely by artificial intelligence is about to enter clinical human trials for the first time. The drug, which is intended to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder, was discovered using AI systems from Oxford-based biotech company Exscientia. While it would usually take around four and a half years to get a drug to this stage of development, Exscientia says that by using the AI tools it's taken less than 12 months.
Human patient put in suspended animation for the first time
Scientists (and sci-fi fans) have been talking about suspended animation for years. The idea that the functions of the human body can somehow be put on "pause" while life-saving medical procedures are performed (or a person is sent into space, a la Alien) has long seemed untenable -- until now. According to New Scientist, doctors have successfully placed humans in suspended animation for the first time, in a trial that could have an enormous influence on the future of emergency room surgery.
Google's new reCAPTCHA doesn't require a click
Google first launched its bot-detection reCAPTCHA system in 2007, which means that for over 10 years we've been deciphering garbled text, identifying street lights and clicking tiny boxes in a bid to prove we're human and subsequently access the sites and pages we want to view. But not anymore. Google's reCAPTCHA v3 completely eliminates the need for user interaction, instead relying on adaptive risk analysis to pick up suspicious traffic.
Scientists confirm a 'new' human organ
For centuries, the mesentery (which links the intestine to the abdomen) has been treated as a group of distinct structures in your digestive system. It wasn't anything special. However, the medical world now has to rethink that belief. Scientists recently determined that the mesentery is really one, cohesive entity -- that's right, they confirmed the existence of a 'new' organ. Researchers first discovered the continuous nature of the mesentery through microscopic examinations in 2012, but the past few years have shown that it has enough function to be considered an organ.
Researchers create skeleton robot with human-like muscles
If robots that mimic animal or human behavior are your nightmare fuel, turn away now. Researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology went one step further with a skeleton robot, giving it human-like muscles to help with movement. The microfilament muscle "tissues" connect to joints and expand/contract just like the real thing. In fact, the robot has the same number of muscles in its legs as we do. At this point, they're not very strong and though the strands help with smoother movements, the skeleton still requires assistance to walk.
Researchers create a headset to turn your jaw into a tiny power plant
We're no strangers to projects that try to capture the power of the human body, but here's one with a peculiar twist. A pair of researchers from Montreal's École de Technologie Supérieure have cooked up a headset that, while extremely goofy-looking, can harness the power of your mighty jaw muscles while you chew, gab on the phone and stress-grind your teeth into a fine powder.
Warlords of Draenor Beta: New character models incoming
One of the things about the beta is, it can still surprise you. CM Zorbrix just posted to the forums about something we've all been wondering about - several of the new character models will be making their appearance in the beta. Both male and female trolls, human males, tauren females and night elf males will all be playable. Zorbrix - Beta Realm Maintenance - 8/21/14 I just wanted to confirm that this build will have 5 new Player Character Models. Troll Male and Female, Human Male, Tauren Female, and Night Elf Male. We've mentioned this before when models are first shown to you folks in beta, but I wanted to stress this point again: These models are a Work-In Progress. Things will not be perfect, and our QA testing of these models (and the subsequent bug fixes) are not yet complete. I do hope you enjoy the models and give constructive feedback as appropriate, but please keep this is mind when looking at the models today. source It's important to note that the night elf male hasn't even had an Artcraft yet. This is definitely a work in progress, as was the case when the draenei male appeared on servers before it was previewed. But I find this amazingly exciting - finally we'll get to see how these models look in action. We've added a slideshow of the new night elf male model below for players to look at.
Bottom's Up for the continued tale of the Mists cinematic
Blizzard decided to post the above video, titled Bottom's Up, to their official Youtube account yesterday, stating that they found some extra footage shot just moments after the Mists of Pandaria cinematic had come to an end. The video features the return of the human and orc featured duking it out in the original cinematic -- only slightly less keen on tearing out each other's throats. Personally, I could watch these two all day. I kind of want to see a series of cinematic shorts about their adventures, now. My only minor complaint is that they didn't use the kazoo music from Pandaria's inns for the backing track. I mean, I understand why, it would have been far too distracting, but man I love that music, and I'm going to miss it when we leave Pandaria's shores for good.
Watch this: Human transforms its app data into striking activity maps
The folks behind Human know a thing or two about aesthetics, having crafted an activity-tracking app for iOS that's quite lovely. The mobile software keeps tabs on walking, running, biking and vehicular motion with goal of racking up at least 30 minutes of physical activity per day. Now, the outfit has taken user data from 30 of the largest cities in the world and constructed visualizations for each locale. Maps for all three of the aforementioned endeavors are included, broken down by activity for further analysis. Don't take our word for it though, watch the cartographic motion take place for yourself after the break.
WoW reveals new human and Draenei male models
World of Warcraft character models are on their way to enjoying an eventual facelift, and the latest reveal shows off two new models as they'll appear in the next expansion, Warlords of Draenor. The human and Draenei male character models look to be more detailed and "realistic" as we saw with the female Draenei reveal (that was first done as a not-so-popular April Fools' joke). You can check out more details on the model revamps at the official site.
Know Your Lore: The paladin's charger
The World of Warcraft is an expansive universe. You're playing the game, you're fighting the bosses, you know the how -- but do you know the why? Each week, Matthew Rossi and Anne Stickney make sure you Know Your Lore by covering the history of the story behind World of Warcraft. The steed of a paladin isn't your typical mount. Unlike the early mounts of vanilla, it never existed as a physical object -- it was a spell cast by the paladin that summoned the steed from nowhere. In later years, it has since joined the rest of Warcraft's steeds on the mount tab, but for the longest time, the charger could only be found in the paladin's spellbook. This was no ordinary mount -- and its origins were also far from ordinary. While blood elves, draenei, and tauren were later introduced and given unique mounts of their own, in the original game the paladin class and its unique steed were only available to humans and dwarves. Unfortunately, the days of tracking down and compiling the elusive materials needed to harness a charger have disappeared since the release of Cataclysm, which saw both the quest chain for the Alliance, as well as the chain introduced for the Horde, removed in patch 4.0.1. But although the paladin's charger can now simply be learned at the appropriate level, there was a time where obtaining that steed was a much more difficult task, one with a unique and interesting tale behind it. As is only appropriate for a paladin, it's a tale of Light lost, a tale of redemption and hope.
Faction, race, and World of Warcraft
Would it be World of Warcraft without the Horde and Alliance? Even if they don't need to be in direct conflict, do they need to be for it to be the Warcraft setting? It's certainly been argued in the past, both that the factions are absolutely necessary and that they are not. I've personally argued in the past that, whether or not the game has factions, it shouldn't prevent people from playing with their friends, but the counter argument must be considered - if I can play with my friends on the Horde side, and vice versa, what purpose do factions serve? So let's actually ask that question, then - what purpose do factions serve in World of Warcraft? We can break down the purpose of the faction divide as follows, at least in terms of intent. Factions exist in World of Warcraft because at its heart, the setting was born in the original RTS. The factions help keep this flavor alive. Factions allow for PvP content to be more channeled and to have team-building potential built right in. Horde players fight Alliance players, and vice versa. In the Warcraft setting, you always know who the enemy is. Factions allow for more variety of experience. The quests differ - sometimes vastly so - and there can be elements at every point of the game that make use of the distinction between the factions. There could be more arguments for factional divide - for instance, it's very hard to imagine a WoW where orcs and draenei were on the same faction - but let's discuss how these three work, or if they work.
Microsoft already has six TV series lined up for Xbox and more are coming (updated)
Though Microsoft has yet to produce any original TV programming, it has Netflix-like ambitions, according to a report from Bloomberg. Xbox's TV studio, headed by ex-CBS exec Nancy Tellem, now has at least six series in production and three in development. Those include a sketch show from JASH (founded by Sarah Silverman, Michael Sera and others), a Seth Green stop-animation series and Humans, based on a creepy Swedish thriller about replicant-like robots. Those go along with the previously announced Halo TV series produced by Steven Spielberg, a Halo "digital feature," soccer reality show Every Street United, and an Atari documentary. Xbox's new chief Phil Spencer said all shows will be selected to help draw users to the Xbox platform, and won't be approved unless there's a gaming or interactive angle. There are also a number of others under consideration, so hopefully the budget can stretch to a series with giant brawling robots. Update: Microsoft has told us that the JASH sketch comedy show and Seth Green stop-animation projects are under under development, not in production. The post has been updated to reflect that. Check after the break for a complete list of announced projects.
The Game Archaeologist: EA's Majestic
"This is not a game. Or is it?" Conspiracy theories and paranoia were hot with pop culture in the 1990s, largely thanks to movies like The Net and TV shows like the X-Files, which had the tagline of "I want to believe." With the rise of the internet during the decade and the fantastic leaps and bounds technology had been making, people were not only experiencing new ways to play games but also growing suspicious that these tools could have a sinister side. It was into this niche that EA stepped to create an ambitious $20 million project that would fuse massively multiplayer interactivity, the growing variety of technological mediums, and conspiracy theories together. The project was Majestic, an alternate reality game (ARG) that would be the most expensive and highest profile attempt to date. It generated great amounts of interest and publicity, had a promising start, and then flared out hard by the end of 2001. Considering how ARGs and MMOs have crossed paths since, most recently with The Secret World, I wanted to take a closer look at an attempt to develop a game that would run parallel in many ways with the industry that we love today.
Guild Wars 2 writer laments racial lopsidedness
It's never been a secret that a majority of MMO players tend to gravitate toward human (and the most human-like) races when it comes to rolling characters, so if you thought Guild Wars 2 was going to break that trend with interesting races like the Asura and Sylvari, think again. ArenaNet Writer Peter Fries sent out a recent tweet in which he lamented the lopsided racial balance: "Guild Wars 2 race popularity makes me sad. People avoiding Charr and Asura are missing the strongest story stuff in our game, IMO." According to a numberless chart from Game Economist John Smith, Humans were by far the most popular race in the game, often twice as much as the others. Norn have the second place, with the remaining races roughly equal.
Allen Institute completes gene expression map of the human brain in high-resolution 3D
As a species, we've spent a lot of time learning how the human brain works, but we've had to go without a true, thorough map of how genes manifest themselves in our craniums; previous maps have been limited to the simpler minds of mice. The Allen Institute for Brain Science is now known to have solved that mystery by recently finishing an extensive, detailed 3D atlas of genetic expression within our own brain tissue. Accomplishing the feat required no small amount of resources, including the definition of 900 subdivisions, conducting over 62,000 gene expression probes and producing the MRI scans of two and a half brains, but the result is a potentially vital tool for neuroscience and education. Curious web users can see a visual map of gene expression based on virtually any criteria they need, whether it's a physical region of the brain, a disease type or the exact gene they'd like to track down. For many, the best news about the map may simply be that it's free and public: anyone with enough experience in genetics can learn more about what makes the mind tick through their browsers, and what they find might just lead to new discoveries.
Max Planck Institute sequences genome of Siberian girl from 80,000 years ago, smashes DNA barriers
We've known little of the genetic sequences of our precursors, despite having found many examples of their remains: the requirement for two strands in traditional DNA sequencing isn't much help when we're usually thankful to get just one. The Max Planck Institute has devised a new, single-strand technique that may very well fill in the complete picture. Binding specific molecules to a strand, so enzymes can copy the sequence, has let researchers make at least one pass over 99.9 percent of the genome of a Siberian girl from roughly 80,000 years ago -- giving science the most complete genetic picture of any human ancestor to date, all from the one bone you see above. The gene map tells us that the brown-skinned, brown-eyed, brown-haired girl was part of a splinter population known as the Denisovans that sat in between Neanderthals and ourselves, having forked the family tree hundreds of thousands of years before today. It also shows that there's a small trace of Denisovans and their Neanderthal roots in modern East Asia, which we would never have known just by staring at fossils. Future discoveries could take years to leave an impact, but MPI may have just opened the floodgates of knowledge for our collective history.
New fan videos detail racial armor in Guild Wars 2 [Updated]
One of Massively's own livestreamers has put together four videos highlighting the racial armors of the Sylvari, Norn, Asura, Humans, and Charr in Guild Wars 2. Richie Procopio, aka Bog Otter, offers fans not only a look at the appearance of the cultural armor sets but also exact details on where to obtain the armor, how much it will cost, and what level you'll need to be to wear it. Richie even gives players the scoop on how to get the appearance of the sets before attaining the appropriate level to wear them. Each race has multiple sets of armor, and the pieces can be dyed different colors. Watch as Richie models all the individual pieces (and offers amusing commentary on things such as the brussel sprout and pine cone helms) in the four videos after the cut. Also be sure to watch more of Richie during his Massively livestreams each week! [Update: Richie has added the Charr race to the collection of racial armor set video previews. Check it out below!]
City of Steam schedules debut of a new playable race each alpha weekend
Players anticipating alpha testing City of Steam have only a few more days to wait before diving into the steampunk world as this weekend begins the first of three alpha testing weekends. Each weekend will focus on different aspects of the game and will debut a new bundle of playable races: July 20th through 22nd will introduce four types of humans, July 27th through 29th will bring two types of elves, and August 3rd through 5th will have the three greenskin races. Fans who do not yet have an alpha key but want to participate need to sign up for the City of Steam newsletter on the official site. The keys are limited, so the sooner you sign up, the better your chance. The developers are also offering a guaranteed way to obtain a key by purchasing collaborator packs filled with City of Steam swag.
Amazon stores 1,700 human genomes in the cloud
Not content with speeding up web browsing and hosting federal data, Amazon Web Services are now helping in the fight against disease. Bezos' crew is donating a chunk of free cloud storage to the 1000 Genomes project, which aims to make it easier for scientists to search for genetic variations linked to diseases. These gene-hunters can also use Amazon's Elastic Cloud Compute service to analyze data and discover patterns, although those functions won't come gratis. The DNA sequences of 1,700 mostly anonymous Homo sapiens from around the world have already been logged, but the project has to upload another 1,000 samples before it meets statistical requirements. If it ever needs fresh volunteers, perhaps a free USB gene sequencer and a Prime subscription might do the trick?
