Hades Wins A Hugo Award, Making History As First Video Game To Ever Do So

The indie darling and beloved roguelike won in the newly created "Best Video Game" category

By Zack Zwiezen

Image: Supergiant Games

Yesterday, Hades made history by becoming the first video game to ever win a Hugo Award, an annual literary award presented to the best science fiction or fantasy works from the previous year.

Hades was developed by Supergiant Games and released after a period in early access last year. Supergiant Games creative director, Greg Kasvin, tweeted his reaction to Hades winning the historic award, stating that although he wasn’t able to make it to the award ceremony, he was “grateful” that the Hugo Awards are “recognizing work in this category, much less the work we did!”

Hades, developed by Supergiant Games, was a smash hit last year, winning plenty of awards. We even called it one of the best games of 2020. The roguelike was based on Greek mythology and told the story of Hades’ son Zagreus escaping the underworld, after dying a lot.

The other games nominated by the Hugo Awards this year were: Spiritfarer, The Last of Us 2, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and Blaseball.

The Hugo Awards are an annual literary award given to various sci-fi and fantasy works at the World Science Fiction Convention every year. Normally, video games aren’t nominated for the award, however, this year a new category was introduced for video games. This follows years of conversations among the governing members behind the prestigious and long-running Hugo Awards. The new category is only, at least for now, a one-off thing, but it could continue in the future.

In recent years, the Hugo Awards have continued to expand beyond traditional literary works and authors. Past new categories added to the prestigious awards include Best Fanzine or Best Fancast, an award honoring great sci-fi and fantasy-focused podcasts and video series. It’s likely that, as gaming becomes more popular and continues to tell bigger, better stories involving sci-fi or fantasy, the Hugo Awards will look to add a more permanent award category for video games.

Parable Of The Sower Wins Hugo Award 2021 For Best Comic

Posted on December 19, 2021 

by Rich Johnston

|

Comments

Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, written by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy,  illustrated by John Jennings and published by Harry N. Abrams has won the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story or Comic, beating out nominees Die, Ghost-Spider, Invisible Kingdom, Monstress and Once & Future. Also the Netflix adaptation of the comic book The Old Guard by Greg Rucka, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood won Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. The awards were announced at DisCon III in front of an audience at Omni Shoreham in Washington DC and globally online. The event was hosted by Andrea Hairston and Sheree Renée Thomas. Here is the list of winners followed by nominees.

Parable Of The Sower

Category: Best Novel
Winner:  Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tor.com)

• Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse (Gallery / Saga Press / Solaris)
• The City We Became, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
• Harrow the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir (Tordotcom)
• Network Effect, Martha Wells (Tordotcom)
• Piranesi, Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
• The Relentless Moon, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor Books / Solaris)

Category: Best Novella
Winner: The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo (Tor.com)

• Come Tumbling Down, Seanan McGuire (Tordotcom)
• The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)
• Finna, Nino Cipri (Tordotcom)
• Ring Shout, P. Djèlí Clark (Tordotcom)
• Riot Baby, Tochi Onyebuchi (Tordotcom)
• Upright Women Wanted, Sarah Gailey (Tordotcom)

Category: Best Novelette
Winner:  Two Truths and a Lie, Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com)

• "Burn, or the Episodic Life of Sam Wells as a Super", A.T. Greenblatt (Uncanny Magazine, May/June 2020)
• "Helicopter Story", Isabel Fall (Clarkesworld, January 2020)
• "The Inaccessibility of Heaven", Aliette de Bodard (Uncanny Magazine, July/August 2020)
• "Monster", Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2020)
• "The Pill", Meg Elison (from Big Girl, (PM Press))
• "Two Truths and a Lie", Sarah Pinsker (Tor.com)

Category: Best Short Story
Winner:  "Metal Like Blood in the Dark", T. Kingfisher (Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2020)

• "Badass Moms in the Zombie Apocalypse", Rae Carson (Uncanny Magazine, January/February 2020)
• "A Guide for Working Breeds", Vina Jie-Min Prasad (Made to Order: Robots and Revolution, ed. Jonathan Strahan (Solaris))
• "Little Free Library", Naomi Kritzer (Tor.com)
• "The Mermaid Astronaut", Yoon Ha Lee (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, February 2020)
• "Metal Like Blood in the Dark", T. Kingfisher (Uncanny Magazine, September/October 2020)
• "Open House on Haunted Hill", John Wiswell (Diabolical Plots – 2020, ed. David Steffen)

Category: Best Series
Winner:  The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells (Tor.com)

• The Daevabad Trilogy, S.A. Chakraborty (Harper Voyager)
• The Interdependency, John Scalzi (Tor Books)
• The Lady Astronaut Universe, Mary Robinette Kowal (Tor Books/Audible/Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction/Solaris)
• The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells (Tor.com)
• October Daye, Seanan McGuire (DAW)
• The Poppy War, R.F. Kuang (Harper Voyager)

Category: Best Related Work
Winner:  Beowulf: A New Translation, Maria Dahvana Headley (FSG)

• Beowulf: A New Translation, Maria Dahvana Headley (FSG)
• CoNZealand Fringe, Claire Rousseau, C, Cassie Hart, Adri Joy, Marguerite Kenner, Cheryl Morgan, Alasdair Stuart.
• FIYAHCON, L.D. Lewis–Director, Brent Lambert–Senior Programming Coordinator, Iori Kusano–FIYAHCON Fringe Co-Director, Vida Cruz–FIYAHCON Fringe Co-Director, and the Incredible FIYAHCON team
• "George R.R. Martin Can Fuck Off Into the Sun, Or: The 2020 Hugo Awards Ceremony (Rageblog Edition)", Natalie Luhrs (Pretty Terrible, August 2020)
• A Handful of Earth, A Handful of Sky: The World of Octavia E. Butler, Lynell George (Angel City Press)
• The Last Bronycon: a fandom autopsy, Jenny Nicholson (YouTube)

Category: Best Graphic Story or Comic
Winner:  Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, written by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy, illustrated by John Jennings (Harry N. Abrams)

• DIE, Volume 2: Split the Party, written by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans, letters by Clayton Cowles (Image Comics)
• Ghost-Spider vol. 1: Dog Days Are Over, Author: Seanan McGuire,  Artist: Takeshi Miyazawa and Rosi Kämpe (Marvel)
• Invisible Kingdom, vol 2: Edge of Everything, Author: G. Willow Wilson, Artist: Christian Ward (Dark Horse Comics)
• Monstress, vol. 5: Warchild, Author: Marjorie Liu, Artist: Sana Takeda (Image Comics)
• Once & Future vol. 1: The King Is Undead, written by Kieron Gillen, iIllustrated by Dan Mora, colored by Tamra Bonvillain, lettered by Ed Dukeshire (BOOM! Studios)
• Parable of the Sower: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, written by Octavia Butler, adapted by Damian Duffy, illustrated by John Jennings (Harry N. Abrams)

Category: Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
Winner:  The Old Guard, written by Greg Rucka, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Netflix / Skydance Media)

• Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), written by Christina Hodson, directed by Cathy Yan (Warner Bros.)
• Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, written by Will Ferrell, Andrew Steele, directed by David Dobkin (European Broadcasting Union/Netflix)
• The Old Guard, written by Greg Rucka, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Netflix / Skydance Media)
• Palm Springs, written by Andy Siara, directed by Max Barbakow (Limelight / Sun Entertainment Culture / The Lonely Island / Culmination Productions / Neon / Hulu / Amazon Prime)
• Soul, screenplay by Pete Docter, Mike Jones and Kemp Powers, directed by Pete Docter, co-directed by Kemp Powers, produced by Dana Murray (Pixar Animation Studios/ Walt Disney Pictures)
• Tenet, written and directed by Christopher Nolan (Warner Bros./Syncopy)

Category: Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form
Winner:  The Good Place: Whenever You're Ready, written and directed by Michael Schur (Fremulon / 3 Arts Entertainment / Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group)

• Doctor Who: Fugitive of the Judoon, written by Vinay Patel and Chris Chibnall, directed by Nida Manzoor (BBC)
• The Expanse: Gaugamela, written by Dan Nowak, directed by Nick Gomez (Alcon Entertainment / Alcon Television Group / Amazon Studios / Hivemind / Just So)
• She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: Heart (parts 1 and 2), written by Josie Campbell and Noelle Stevenson, directed by Jen Bennett and Kiki Manrique (DreamWorks Animation Television / Netflix)
• The Mandalorian: Chapter 13: The Jedi, written and directed by Dave Filoni (Golem Creations / Lucasfilm / Disney+)
• The Mandalorian: Chapter 16: The Rescue, written by Jon Favreau, directed by Peyton Reed (Golem Creations / Lucasfilm / Disney+)
• The Good Place: Whenever You're Ready, written and directed by Michael Schur (Fremulon / 3 Arts Entertainment / Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group)

Category: Best Editor, Short Form
Winner: Ellen Datlow

• Neil Clarke
• Ellen Datlow
• C.C. Finlay
• Mur Lafferty and S.B. Divya
• Jonathan Strahan
• Sheila Williams

Category: Best Editor, Long Form
Winner: Diana M. Pho

• Nivia Evans
• Sheila E. Gilbert
• Sarah Guan
• Brit Hvide
• Diana M. Pho
• Navah Wolfe

Category: Best Professional Artist
Winner: Rovina Cai

• Tommy Arnold
• Rovina Cai
• Galen Dara
• Maurizio Manzieri
• John Picacio
• Alyssa Winans

Category: Best Semiprozine
Winner:  FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, publisher Troy L. Wiggins, executive editor DaVaun Sanders, managing editor Eboni Dunbar, poetry editor Brandon O'Brien, reviews and social media Brent Lambert, art director L. D. Lewis, and the FIYAH Team.

• Beneath Ceaseless Skies, edotor Scott H. Andrews
• Escape Pod, editors Mur Lafferty and S.B. Divya, assistant editor Benjamin C. Kinney, hosts Tina Connolly and Alasdair Stuart, audio producers Summer Brooks and Adam Pracht and the entire Escape Pod team.
• FIYAH Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction, publisher Troy L. Wiggins, executive editor DaVaun Sanders, managing editor Eboni Dunbar, poetry editor Brandon O'Brien, reviews and social media Brent Lambert,  art director L. D. Lewis, and the FIYAH Team.
• PodCastle, editors, C.L. Clark and Jen R. Albert, assistant editor and host, Setsu Uzumé, producer Peter Adrian Behravesh, and the entire PodCastle team.
• Uncanny Magazine, editors in chief: Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas, managing editor: Chimedum Ohaegbu, non-fiction editor:  Elsa Sjunneson, podcast producers: Erika Ensign and Steven Schapansky
• Strange Horizons, Vanessa Aguirre, Joseph Aitken, Rachel Ayers, M H Ayinde, Tierney Bailey, Scott Beggs, Drew Matthew Beyer, Gautam Bhatia, S. K. Campbell, Zhui Ning Chang, Tania Chen, Joyce Chng, Liz Christman, Linda H. Codega, Kristian Wilson Colyard, Yelena Crane, Bruhad Dave, Sarah Davidson, Tahlia Day, Arinn Dembo, Nathaniel Eakman, Belen Edwards, George Tom Elavathingal, Rebecca Evans, Ciro Faienza, Courtney Floyd, Lila Garrott, Colette Grecco, Guananí Gómez-Van Cortright, Julia Gunnison, Dan Hartland, Sydney Hilton, Angela Hinck, Stephen Ira, Amanda Jean, Ai Jiang, Sean Joyce-Farley, Erika Kanda, Anna Krepinsky, Kat Kourbeti, Clayton Kroh, Maureen Kincaid Speller, Catherine Krahe, Natasha Leullier, A.Z. Louise, Dante Luiz, Gui Machiavelli, Cameron Mack, Samantha Manaktola, Marisa Manuel, Jean McConnell, Heather McDougal, Maria Morabe, Amelia Moriarty, Emory Noakes, Sara Noakes, Aidan Oatway, AJ Odasso, Joel Oliver-Cormier, Kristina Palmer, Karintha Parker, Anjali Patel, Vanessa Rose Phin, Nicasio Reed, Belicia Rhea, Endria Richardson, Natalie Ritter, Abbey Schlanz, Clark Seanor, Elijah Rain Smith, Hebe Stanton, Melody Steiner, Romie Stott, Yejin Suh, Kwan-Ann Tan, Luke Tolvaj, Ben Tyrrell, Renee Van Siclen, Kathryn Weaver, Liza Wemakor, Aigner Loren Wilson, E.M. Wright, Vicki Xu, Fred G. Yost, staff members who prefer not to be named, and guest editor Libia Brenda with guest first reader Raquel González-Franco Alva for the Mexicanx special issue

Category: Best Fanzine – no art
Winner:  nerds of a feather, flock together, ed. Adri Joy, Joe Sherry, The G, and Vance Kotrla

• The Full Lid, written by Alasdair Stuart, edited by Marguerite Kenner
• Journey Planet, edited by Michael Carroll, John Coxon, Sara Felix, Ann Gry, Sarah Gulde, Alissa McKersie, Errick Nunnally, Pádraig Ó Méalóid, Chuck Serface, Steven H Silver, Paul Trimble, Erin Underwood, James Bacon, and Chris Garcia.
• Lady Business, editors. Ira, Jodie, KJ, Renay, and Susan.
• nerds of a feather, flock together, ed. Adri Joy, Joe Sherry, The G, and Vance Kotrla
• Quick Sip Reviews, editor, Charles Payseur
• Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog, ed. Amanda Wakaruk and Olav Rokne

Category: Best Fancast
Winner:  The Coode Street Podcast, presented by Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe, Jonathan Strahan, producer

• Be The Serpent, presented by Alexandra Rowland, Freya Marske and Jennifer Mace
• Claire Rousseau's YouTube channel, produced by Claire Rousseau
• The Coode Street Podcast, presented by Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe, Jonathan Strahan, producer
• Kalanadi, produced and presented by Rachel
• The Skiffy and Fanty show, produced by Shaun Duke and Jen Zink,  presented by Shaun Duke, Jen Zink, Alex Acks, Paul Weimer, and David Annandale.
• Worldbuilding for Masochists, presented by Rowenna Miller, Marshall Ryan Maresca and Cass Morris

Category: Best Fan Writer
Winner: Elsa Sjunneson

• Cora Buhlert
• Charles Payseur
• Jason Sanford
• Elsa Sjunneson
• Alasdair Stuart
• Paul Weimer

Category: Best Fan Artist
Winner: Sara Felix

• Iain J. Clark
• Cyan Daly
• Sara Felix
• Grace P. Fong
• Maya Hahto
• Laya Rose

Category: Best Video Game
Winner:  Hades (Publisher and Developer: Supergiant Games)

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Publisher and Developer: Nintendo)
• Blaseball (Publisher and Developer: The Game Band)
• Final Fantasy VII Remake (Publisher Square Enix)
• Hades (Publisher and Developer: Supergiant Games)
• The Last of Us: Part II (Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment / Developer: Naughty Dog)
• Spiritfarer (Publisher and Developer: Thunder Lotus)

Category: Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book (not a Hugo)
Winner:  A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher (Argyll Productions)

• Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas (Swoon Reads)
• A Deadly Education, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)
• Elatsoe, Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido)
• Legendborn, Tracy Deonn (Margaret K. McElderry/ Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)
• Raybearer, Jordan Ifueko (Amulet / Hot Key)
• A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, T. Kingfisher (Argyll Productions)

Category: Astounding Award for the Best New Writer, sponsored by Dell Magazines (not a Hugo)
Winner: Emily Tesh

• Lindsay Ellis (1st year of eligibility)
• Simon Jimenez (1st year of eligibility)
• Micaiah Johnson (1st year of eligibility)
• A.K. Larkwood (1st year of eligibility)
• Jenn Lyons (2nd year of eligibility)
• Emily Tesh (2nd year of eligibility)

FINALLY IT'S THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST HUGO GIVEN TO A ROCK AND ROLL CONCEPT ALBUM; 

JEFERSON STARSHIP; BLOWS AGAINST THE EMPIRE 

US Feds: Offshore wind study activity won’t harm environment
By WAYNE PARRYDecember 16, 2021

FILE: This Oct. 1, 2020 file photo shows windmills at a utility plant in Atlantic City N.J. On Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021, the federal government determined that the process of investigating ocean sites in New York and New Jersey for their suitability for offshore wind developments will not significantly harm the environment. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry, FILE)

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — The federal government has determined that the process of evaluating ocean sites in New York and New Jersey for offshore wind energy projects will not significantly harm the environment.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said Thursday it has completed an environmental review of the kinds of activities needed to study offshore wind sites.

The review only covers the investigative stage of the wind projects, including biological, archeological, geological, and geophysical surveys and the taking of core samples from the ocean floor, as well as the placement of meteorological buoys.

It is not intended to be a final environmental approval for individual wind projects, which will have to be done separately for each development.

But it allows developers to move forward with planning ambitious offshore wind projects in the area, called the New York Bight.

“BOEM is focused on ensuring that any development in the New York Bight is done responsibly and in a way that avoids or minimizes impacts to the ocean and other ocean users in the region,” the agency’s director Amanda Lefton said in a statement.

The move comes as New Jersey is moving aggressively to stake its claim to being the offshore wind center of the East Coast. It has approved three offshore wind projects thus far and numerous others are in the planning stages.

Those three projects combined aim to provide enough electricity to power over 1.6 million homes. New Jersey has set a goal of generating 100% of its energy from clean sources by 2050, and plans to solicit additional wind energy projects every two years until at least 2028.

The federal government has set a goal of approving enough offshore wind projects nationwide by 2030 to produce 30 gigawatts of electricity — enough to power 10 million homes.

The environmental study looked at several areas including benthic animals, which are creatures that live on or in the ocean floor; commercial and recreational fishing; finfish, invertebrates and essential fish habitat; marine mammals; and sea turtles. In each instance, the agency determined that the process of investigating the sites’ suitability for offshore wind development would not cause significant harm.
___

Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at @WayneParryAC

One farmer's seaweed discovery

could change the world

CBS News

Sat, December 18, 2021

As the effects of climate change accelerate, the U.N. says the strongest lever we have to reduce global warming is to curb the emissions of the greenhouse gas: methane. But emissions continue to accelerate. 

There may, however, be a game-changing method to slow methane emissions. On Prince Edward Island in Canada, farmer Joe Dorgan's unlikely discovery has the potential to change the world. 

Dorgan, who founded North Atlantics Organics, which produces and distributes organic seaweed, stumbled upon what is nothing short of a climate miracle — the seeds of which were planted through five generations of family farming along the shores of Prince Edward Island. Back then, farmers harvested seaweed for feed and fertilizer. 

So while beachgoers may consider seaweed nuisance, Dorgan knew from experience it was teeming with potential, CBS News meteorologist and climate specialist Jeff Berardelli reported for "CBS Saturday Morning." He sent samples of it to Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia to test for organic certification. Through that, it was discovered that the high uptake of natural vitamins and minerals in seaweed drove up reproduction and milk production in cows. 

Dorgan knew instinctively that seaweed would be healthy for cows, but research revealed an unintended consequence: seaweed made cows less gassy.

Globally, methane is responsible for 30% of global warming. Of that, livestock, such as cattle, account for about one-third of all methane emissions. 

"They [researchers] found out that feeding seaweed to cattle would reduce greenhouse gases by as high as 40%," Dorgan said.

Digesting roughage requires extra digestion from cows and causes cows to burp more. Those burps emit methane, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas that's 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. 

In a year, a cow emits as much greenhouse gas as a small car. Because animal numbers have skyrocketed to help feed a growing human population, livestock now accounts for 15% of global emissions. 

The increase motivated chief scientist at Futurefeed, Rob Kinley, who worked with Dorgan on his organic certification 15 years ago, to find a seaweed species with even more methane-reducing power. 

"We started testing seaweeds from coastal Australia, and it wasn't long before the Asparagopsis species showed up, and it showed up in a big way. So big that we didn't even believe what we were seeing," Kinley said. "It took multiple runs of testing this before we believed what we were seeing, which was we couldn't find methane anymore."

Kinley's research showed Asparagopsis, a common type of red seaweed, has the potential to virtually eliminate methane emissions from livestock. But there are some obstacles to overcome — it's not easy to harvest from the ocean, so scientists are experimenting with farming it.   

Kinely's team, along with others like Josh Goldman, project leader at Greener Grazing, are getting much closer to perfecting the techniques. 

"The way that it shifts the ruminant function in the cow also makes the animal more energy efficient," Goldman said. 

Goldman is encouraged by the seaweed's versatility. He said cultivation only takes about 90 days, allowing for multiple cycles per year, and it can be grown by aquaculture operations almost anywhere if the climate is suitable.  

Feeding the 1.5 billion cows in the world, however, is a big lift.

"There are a lot of mouths to feed. But the good news is we only need to feed those cows 0.2% of their daily ration," said Goldman. 

Still, there's the challenge of encouraging cow owners to use the seaweed supplement.   

For that, Goldman says there's an incentive: adding seaweed to a cow's diet means they consume less food. And, he says, dairy farmers and cattle ranchers will likely be able to cash in, selling carbon credits for the emissions they reduce.     

Eliminating almost all methane from almost all cow's on Earth "would have a tremendous impact, roughly equivalent to eliminating all the emissions from the U.S., or the equivalent of taking every car off the road globally," Goldman said. 

That's a long way off, but then again, Kinley's work has come a long way since his initial discovery 15 years ago.  

"This will be a much bigger story even 12 months, 18 months from now. ... I am optimistic," Kinely said. 

While there's lots of optimism for this seaweed product, critics say it hasn't yet been proven at scale. It's clear that methane reduction from seaweed is effective in the short-term, but there's some fear that its effects may diminish over time as the cow's digestive systems adapt. 

A NEW WORLD OF GODS AND MONSTERS

Human brain cells grown in lab learn to play video game faster than AI

The scientists were able to teach the brain cells to play the game in just five minutes, which is significantly faster than artificial intelligence that picks up the game after 90 minutes

By Antony Leena Ashkenaz
17 DEC 2021

The system, called ‘DishBrain,’ is comprised of brain cells grown on top of microelectrode arrays that can both stimulate the cells (Image: New Scientist)

Scientists were able to develop human brain cells in a petri dish and taught them how to play video games faster than an AI.

Hundreds of thousands of human brain cells grown in a lab can now play retro classic "Pong" by firing off neurons that would move the paddle back and forth according to the location of the ball in the video game.

Australian scientists at Cortical Labs created the system called "DishBrain", which is comprised of brain cells that are grown on top of microelectrode arrays that can both stimulate the cells.

The scientists were able to teach the brain cells to play the game in just five minutes, which is significantly faster than artificial intelligence (AI) which picks up the game after 90 minutes.

In August, German scientists unveiled their lab grown brains (Image: Elke Gabriel/ Eureka Alert)

In order to teach the cells how to play the game, the team used a single-player version of Pong and sent electrical signals to either the right or left of the array to indicate where the ball is.

Brett Kagan, chief scientific officer of Cortical Labs, who leads the research, told New Scientist: "We think it’s fair to call them cyborg brains.

"We often refer to them as living in the Matrix. When they are in the game, they believe they are the paddle."

The human brain cells grown in a lab learned to play 'Pong' faster than AI 

(Image: Youtube/ New Scientist)

While playing Pong, the patterns of activity across the neurons are determined by the brain cells as the paddle moves left or right.
Sponsored

Because of these neurons, the virtual world inside the video game would respond accordingly and the electrode's feed helps the mini-brains learn how to operate the paddle.

Kagan notes that although the mini-brains can learn the game faster than AI, they are not as skilled when it comes to actually playing the video game – the cels would lose against a computer like DeepMind.

In the end, the AI turned out to be a better player (Image: biorxiv.org)

While it took the AI 5000 rallies to learn the game, where one rally is a gaming session that lasts for 15 minutes, it only took DishBrains 10 to 15 rallies.

"Using this DishBrain system, we have demonstrated that a single layer of in vitro cortical neurons can self-organize and display intelligent and sentient behaviour when embodied in a simulated game-world," reads the study published in bioRxiv.

"We have shown that even without a substantial filtering of cellular activity, statistically robust differences over time and against controls could be observed in the behaviour of neuronal cultures in adapting to goal-directed tasks."

Hyundai debuts Mobile Eccentric Droid platform and it's cooler than it sounds, 

I swear

The robot has highly articulating wheels and suspension to offer a stable and maneuverable platform no matter the situation.


Kyle Hyatt
Dec. 17, 2021 




Pretty much everyone knows by now that Hyundai makes cars, but what they might not know is that Hyundai makes a bunch of other stuff too. Even weird stuff, like, for example, the Mobile Eccentric Droid, aka MobED, which debuted online on Wednesday and will be featured at CES next month.

What exactly is a MobED, and, maybe more importantly, what is it for? Well, in the simplest terms, it's an agile self-propelled robot that provides a stable platform regardless of the terrain. Maybe that's not so simple? In any case, the MobED has four wheels that can move in a ton of different ways, such as counter-steering or even changing wheelbase. Those wheels are paired with an actively adjustable suspension that can change ride heights independently on all four wheels.

Why is this cool? Well, say you have a stack of filled champagne flutes, and you, for whatever reason (I don't know your life), need to get them up a ramp, across a big threshold and over a bunch of power cords strewn across a dance floor. The MobED can help you out here because it can continuously adjust itself so that the platform that your tower of champagne is stacked on remains level, and it can actively smooth bumps so you don't spill a drop of your precious bubbly.

In slightly more practical terms, this little platform could be used for package deliveries over rough terrain; it could -- as Hyundai shows in its video -- be used as a needlessly high-tech baby carriage or, more likely, as a platform for service robots to make them more functional. The possibilities are endless, but I mostly want to see cats cruising around on one like it's some kind of Roomba Rubicon.

2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 looks like the future, today

Jaw-Dropping Footage from the First Spacecraft to Touch the Sun

 DEC 18, 2021

 

NASA announced this week that its Parker Solar Probe was the first spacecraft to ever “touch the Sun” by flying through its corona, or upper atmosphere. The probe captured the first photos ever from within the corona, and those images were then turned into this incredible 13-second timelapse video.

The footage shows what the Parker Solar Probe saw as it passed through the Sun’s corona back in August 2021, flying through structures known as coronal streamers.

“These structures can be seen as bright features moving upward and downward in this video compiled from the spacecraft’s WISPR (Wide-field Imager for Parker Solar Probe) instrument,” the JHU Applied Physics Laboratory writes. “Such a view is only possible because the spacecraft flew above and below the streamers inside the corona. Until now, streamers have only been seen from afar.”

These are the same streamers that can be captured from Earth in photos of total solar eclipses.

“Flying so close to the Sun, Parker Solar Probe now senses conditions in the magnetically dominated layer of the solar atmosphere – the corona – that we never could before,” says Parker project scientist Nour Raouafi. “We see evidence of being in the corona in magnetic field data, solar wind data, and visually in images. We can actually see the spacecraft flying through coronal structures that can be observed during a total solar eclipse.”

The Milky Way can be seen rotating across the frame in the timelapse, but what’s even more incredible is that multiple planets in the Solar System were also captured in the images. There are even views of Earth as seen from within the Sun’s atmosphere.

Here are the features and planets labeled in still frames by astrophysicist Grant Tremblay of the Center for Astrophysics, a collaboration between Harvard and the Smithsonian Institution:

The Parker Solar Probe will continue to make closer and closer approaches to the Sun’s surface over the coming years, and it is likely to enter the Sun’s corona again as early as next month.

“I’m excited to see what Parker Solar Probe finds as it repeatedly passes through the corona in the years to come,” says NASA Heliophysics Division Director Nicky Fox. “The opportunity for new discoveries is boundless.”

Gerry Anderson Primer: Doppelganger/Journey to the Far Side of the Sun

Fastest Spacecraft Ever Made Did (and Didn’t) Touch the Sun, Here’s Why It’s Complicated

 Last week, media went ablaze with news of a human-made spaceship touching the Sun. Some (not few) were quick to jump to the conclusion that somehow a piece of hardware landed on the surface of the Sun (guess what, there is no surface), somewhat confused by NASA's choice of a title when it made the announcement: "Parker Solar Probe Touches the Sun."

18 Dec 2021, 12:42 UTC · 

by Daniel Patrascu 

As some of you might already know, the Parker Solar Probe launched in August 2018 with the stated goal of approaching the Sun like no other human-made machine ever did, in the hopes we Earthlings will get a better understanding of the star that makes life here possible, but that also threatens us with the space weather events it is responsible for.

The machine, sturdily-made to survive the incredible heat emanating from the star, will eventually get within 3.8 million miles (6.1 million km) from the Sun, reaching speeds of 430,000 miles per hour (692,000 kph), and earning it the title of fastest spacecraft ever made on Earth.

Back in November, Parker was moving at 364,660 miles per hour (586,864 kph), while it was at a distance of 5.3 million miles (8.5 million km) from its target. As it moved closer since then, it prompted NASA into proclaiming it finally touched the Sun.

But what does that mean? Like probably all stars out there, the Sun has no solid surface one can land on, assuming one could survive that. Instead, the flaming ball of gases is comprised of seven layers.

Deep down we have the core, the hottest, densest, and most hellish place in the solar system. Then come the radiative and convection zones at 86,000 miles (138,000 km) from the core, then the photosphere (which is considered the solar surface), the chromosphere, and the transition region.

Last, but not least, comes the corona, the outermost layer of the Sun which starts at about 1,300 miles (2,100 km) above the photosphere. Temperatures there are of at least 900,000 degrees Fahrenheit (500,000 degrees Celsius), the place is invisible with the naked eye and, most importantly, it does not have an upper limit.

And it is this very hard-to-define region that the Parker Solar Probe actually traveled through, at a distance of great many miles from the so-called surface, the photosphere, so those arguing it didn't actually touch the Sun do have a point. For comparison, it’s like a spacecraft passing through the tail of a comet and saying it reached it, or skimming through the upper atmosphere of a planet and claiming the same.

So, in a sense, the Parker Solar Probe did not touch the Sun, it only grazed its fancy clothing.

But, in another sense, it did touch it. You see, the corona has something called the Alfvén critical surface. It is the place that “marks the end of the solar atmosphere and beginning of the solar wind,” and even if it is as elusive as everything else about the Sun, it is generally agreed it comes at anywhere between 4.3 and 8.6 million miles (6.9 to 13.8 million km) from the star.

That, by all accounts, presently puts the Parker past the Alfvén, and right into the Sun’s atmosphere, something that was never done before. And NASA even has proof of that, in the form of the detected magnetic and particle conditions specific to the corona past that point.

Controversy aside, the fact this probe is where it is, and in working order, should benefit us all greatly. Already the machine “sampled particles and magnetic fields there,” and that should “help scientists uncover critical information about our closest star and its influence on the solar system.”

It also proved the Alfvén critical surface isn’t a smooth ball, but an area with spikes and valleys that may influence solar wind and how it eventually impacts us. And, the cherry on the cake, it even moved through something called a pseudostreamer, a loop-like structure we can see from Earth during solar eclipses.

More flybys in this region of space are planned for the future (the next one in January 2022), and they should unlock even more mysteries for us to dissect and marvel at. Untll that time, the first video below shows a stunning recording of the probe’s journey through the corona, as seen from on board Parker.

The second video explains all of the above in easy-to-understand images.

PARKER SOLAR PROBE NASA SPACECRAFT WEEKEND SUN

Understanding the Big Bang and the Cosmological Lithium Problem

By CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES DECEMBER 18, 2021

Figure 1. Artist’s representation of the evolution of the universe, with time flowing to the right in the direction of the red arrow. The ⁷Li(d,n)2⁴He reaction takes place in the process of primordial nucleosynthesis at the very beginning. Credit: Modified version of NASA’s image by HOU Suqing

Recently, an international research team successfully updated the ⁷Li(d,n)2⁴He reaction rate based on the latest experimental data, which removes the significant ambiguity in the cosmological lithium (Li) problem from the perspective of nuclear physics.

The Big Bang is currently regarded as the most successful model to describe the origination and evolution of the universe. However, its success has been limited by the so-called lithium problem, which refers to the fact that primordial lithium-7 abundance is overpredicted by a factor of three in comparison to the value from observation, while predictions match the observed primordial deuterium and helium abundances.

From the perspective of nuclear physics, the accurate reaction rates of lithium destruction reactions are very crucial for accurate prediction of the primordial lithium-7 abundance and further understanding of the lithium problem. Nevertheless, as an important lithium-7 destruction reaction, the ⁷Li(d,n)2⁴He reaction has not been well studied before 2018.

A new study published in The Astrophysical Journal updated the ⁷Li(d,n)2⁴He reaction rate based on the recent experimental measurements on the three near-threshold beryllium-9 excited states. This work was conducted by an international research team, which was led by HOU Suqing at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

Figure 2. Total reaction rate of ⁷Li(d,n)2⁴He as a function of temperature in units of giga Kelvin where the green shaded band is its associated uncertainties. For comparison, researchers also plot the previous results from CF88 and BM93. Credit: Image by HOU Suqing

Researchers found that the new ⁷Li(d,n)2⁴He rate is overall smaller than the previous estimation by about a factor of 60 at the typical temperature of the onset of primordial nucleosynthesis.

In addition, researchers presented uncertainties of the ⁷Li(d,n)2⁴He reaction rate that are directly constrained by experiments for the first time.

According to the study, the new results remove the significant ambiguity in the calculated lithium-7 abundance due to this reaction, which will be useful to understand the primordial lithium problem and probe exotic physics beyond the standard model.

Reference: “New Thermonuclear Rate of 7Li(d,n)24He Relevant to the Cosmological Lithium Problem” by S. Q. Hou, T. Kajino, T. C. L. Trueman, M. Pignatari, Y. D. Luo and C. A. Bertulani, 25 October 2021, The Astrophysical Journal.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac1a11

This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of CAS, the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of CAS and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Other institutions involved in the study include University of Tokyo (Japan), National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (Japan), Beihang University (China), the University of Hull (UK), Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Hungary), Michigan State University (US), and Texas A&M University- Commerce (US).