Monday, November 24, 2025

New Things in Visualization Technology


Here's some advances in vision tech.

Infrared contact lenses allow people to see in the dark, even with their eyes closed
May 2025, phys.org

They use nanoparticles that absorb infrared light and convert it into visible wavelengths combined with flexible, nontoxic polymers used in standard soft contact lenses.

Bonus - "We also found that when the subject closes their eyes, they're even better able to receive this flickering information, because near-infrared light penetrates the eyelid more effectively than visible light, so there is less interference from visible light."

via University of Science and Technology of China: Near-Infrared Spatiotemporal Color Vision in Humans Enabled by Upconversion Contact Lenses, Cell (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.04.019



Brain-inspired vision sensor enhances object outline extraction in varying lighting conditions
Jun 2025, phys.org

The research team engineered a vision sensor that emulates the dopamine-glutamate signaling pathway found in brain synapses. In the human brain, dopamine modulates glutamate signals to prioritize critical information. Mimicking this process, the newly developed sensor selectively extracts high-contrast visual features, such as object outlines, while filtering out extraneous details.

via Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology and Korea Institute of Science and Technology:  Jong Ik Kwon et al, In-sensor multilevel image adjustment for high-clarity contour extraction using adjustable synaptic phototransistors, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adt6527


Chain-of-Zoom framework enables extreme super-resolution zoom without retraining
Jun 2025, phys.org

This is the real CSI thing, or as they call it "extreme super-resolution" 
For each step, the new framework uses a super-resolution (SR) model that already exists to begin the refinement process. As such processing is taking place, a vision-language-model (VLM) generates descriptive prompts that help the SR model conduct the generation process. The result is the generation of a zoomed-in part of the first image. The framework then repeats the process, using helpful cues from VLM, repeatedly, improving the resolution of the zoomed image each time, until settling on a final version. To ensure that the prompts given by the VLM were useful, the research team applied reinforcement-learning techniques. Testing of the framework showed it is capable of besting imagery generated by standard benchmarks.

Disclaimer - The researchers state that users need to be careful. The zoomed-in image is not real. For a better idea of what this means, check out the police department who used an AI-editing software for some photos of a drug bust, and the "edited" resulting photo had hallucinated a fake police badge and fake drugs [link to spammy website sorry, and the source article is on facebook]. 

via Korea Institute of Science and Technology: Bryan Sangwoo Kim et al, Chain-of-Zoom: Extreme Super-Resolution via Scale Autoregression and Preference Alignment, arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2505.18600


Imaging tech promises deepest looks yet into living brain tissue at single-cell resolution
Aug 2025, phys.org

They're using sound in addition to light, and detecting NAD(P)H not calcium. 

via Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT: Tatsuya Osaki et al, Multi-photon, label-free photoacoustic and optical imaging of NADH in brain cells, Light: Science & Applications (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41377-025-01895-x


Ångström-scale optical microscopy deciphers conformational states of single membrane proteins
Aug 2025, phys.org

(Ångström is as far down as it goes btw) Scientists show that optical microscopy under cryogenic conditions can resolve specific sites within the mechanosensitive protein PIEZO1 with Ångström precision – even within native cell membranes.

"The key innovation was rapid freezing in a liquid cryogen—a process so fast that water molecules don't crystallize, thus keeping the protein's structure intact"

via Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light: Hisham Mazal et al, Cryo–light microscopy with angstrom precision deciphers structural conformations of PIEZO1 in its native state, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adw4402

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Believe Me It Works


Placebo is magic. It's what makes 4 pills stronger than 2 pills of the same overall dose. It's what makes an injection stronger than a pill of the same thing. It's what makes "trust me I'm a doctor" work better than "sorry this is my first time doing this". It sure seems like something that has no business being in the field of medicine, or in scientific journals, or your local hospital, but it is, and because it has to be, because it's real. I mean, it's fake, but it's real, because it works. And that's because we, as humans, are weird as hell. And being susceptible to false beliefs is actually a survival trait. (But is there such thing as a false belief?)


How the placebo effect tricks the mind into relieving pain
May 2025, phys.org

The team found that the placebo effect occurred as a result of brain signals related to the endogenous opioid system in the medial prefrontal cortex, a region at the front of the brain, which in the presence of the placebo injections set off the descending pain inhibitory system.

via RIKEN: Hiroyuki Neyama et al, Opioidergic activation of the descending pain inhibitory system underlies placebo analgesia, Science Advances (2025). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp8494



Gluten sensitivity linked to gut–brain interaction, not gluten itself, study finds
Oct 2025, phys.org

I'll take "other ways to say it's all in your head" for 100

  • This is about non-celiac gluten sensitivity or NCGS.
  • "Gluten sensitivity is not actually about gluten but part of the way the gut and brain interact."
  • "Contrary to popular belief, most people with NCGS aren't reacting to gluten." 
  • "Our findings show that symptoms are more often triggered by fermentable carbohydrates, commonly known as FODMAPs, by other wheat components or by people's expectations and prior experiences with food."
  • "Across recent studies, people with IBS who believe they're gluten-sensitive react similarly to gluten, wheat, and placebo. This suggests that how people anticipate and interpret gut sensations can strongly influence their symptoms." 

Later on:
Overall, people's responses were no different from when they were given a placebo.

Seriously how many other words do we need to use to hide the fact that they're saying no, there's no evidence of this happening?

via University of Melbourne: Jessica R Biesiekierski et al, Non-coeliac gluten sensitivity, The Lancet (2025). DOI: 10.1016/s0140-6736(25)01533-8


Meditation retreat rapidly reprograms body and mind, brain monitoring reveals
Nov 2025, phys.org

Open Label Placebo - participants knowingly take part in healing activities presented as placebos with no active medical ingredient, but which can still produce real benefits through the power of expectation, social connection and shared practices.

20 healthy adults attended a 7-day residential program featuring daily lecture sessions, approximately 33 hours of guided meditation and group healing practices. Before and after the retreat, participants had their brains scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and had blood testing. 

The researchers observed several major changes after the retreat:
  • Brain network changes: Meditation during the retreat reduced activity in parts of the brain associated with mental chatter, making brain function more efficient overall.
  • Enhanced neuroplasticity: When applied to laboratory-grown neurons, blood plasma from post-retreat participants made brain cells grow longer branches and form new connections.
  • Metabolic shifts: Cells treated with post-retreat plasma showed an increase in glycolytic (sugar-burning) metabolism, indicating a more flexible and adaptive metabolic state.
  • Natural pain relief: Blood levels of endogenous opioids—the body's natural painkillers—increased after the retreat, indicating that the body's natural pain-relief systems were activated.
  • Immune activation: Meditation increased inflammatory and anti-inflammatory immune signals simultaneously, suggesting a complex, adaptive immune response rather than a simple suppression or activation.
  • Gene and molecular signaling changes: Small RNA and gene activity in blood shifted after the retreat, particularly in pathways related to brain function.
  • Limitations - this was done with all healthy participants

via University of California San Diego: Alex Jinich-Diamant et al, Neural and molecular changes during a mind-body reconceptualization, meditation, and open label placebo healing intervention, Communications Biology (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s42003-025-09088-3

Post Script - Nocebo is the evil twin of Placebo, and it happens when you think a medication or treatment will make you worse, and they use instead of the medication a placebo, and it still makes your condition worse.

Etymology - early 13c., name given to the rite of Vespers of the Office of the Dead, so called from the opening of the first antiphon, "I will please the Lord in the land of the living" (Psalm cxvi.9, in Vulgate Placebo Domino in regione vivorum), from Latin placebo "I shall please," future indicative of placere "to please" ... Medical sense is recorded by 1785, "a medicine given more to please than to benefit the patient." Placebo effect is attested from 1900. (etymonline.com)


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Thursday, November 20, 2025

Full Meta Jacket


This is not an easy post to follow, I admit. And I will never be able to convince you that I'm not a robot, or that I'm not being so heavily influenced by a robot that I may as well not even be me. But we have to start from the beginning. 404 Media has been blowing up the feed this year; here's an article about some relatively isolated reddit drama:

Pro-AI Subreddit Bans 'Uptick' of Users Who Suffer from AI Delusions
Jun 2025, 404 Media

"What is notable, however, is that this behavior is now prevalent enough that even a staunchly pro-AI subreddit says it has to ban these people because they are ruining its community."

Sure, crazy story; now let's go to Reddit, and the actual moderator post:

Mod note: we are banning AI 'Neural Howlround' posters.

Announcement - Obviously this community was formed to basically be r/singularity without the decels. But, in the interest of full transparency, I just wanted to mention that we also (quietly) ban a bunch of schizoposters and AI 'Neural Howlround' posters, under the "spam" rule, since the contents of the posts are often nonsensical and irrelevant to actual AI.

The sad truth is that this subreddit would probably be filled with their posts if we didn't do that. If you refresh the r/singularity new page you can get a taste. Sometimes they outnumber the real posts.

So what is AI 'Neural Howlround'? Here's a little post that describes it:

And check out the disturbing comments in this post (ironically, the OP post appears to be falling for the same issue as well):

Just to clarify - so people who really like AI themselves, a pro-AI subreddit, don't like the people who like AI so much they can't even recognize they're becoming the AI, i.e., people who suffer from mental distress while communicating with a chatbot. Got it.

Now for this novel adverse mental health condition afflicting some of this subreddit; where did the term come from, and who first discussed it? Here's the article, the "little post" used by the subreddit moderator:

‘Neural howlround’ in large language models: a self-reinforcing bias phenomenon, and a dynamic attenuation solution.
Seth Drake, PhD (Independent Researcher). April 14, 2025

I admit, I had never heard the word "howlround" so I had to look it up ... isn't this just "feedback"? Well yes. But that's where things get weird. Now listen, I don't have a PhD. I'm not an AI researcher, and I'm not a mental health specialist. I'm also not trying too hard, so I could be missing something here.

But upon an initial sniff test, it appears that Mr. Drake, Dr. Drake, who is an "independent researcher", is in fact working at the Aquatic Ecology Laboratory at Ohio State, not in either the fields of artificial intelligence or mental health.

Furthermore, the paper in question is not published but archived, as it were, on arxiv.org, a place to put your paper while it's being discussed, argued and improved by your colleagues, through the peer review process that is expected of legitimate research. 

That's strike two. Again, I am no PhD. But then again, this isn't rocket science. Let's keep going.

In the paper he describes the word neural howlround, "more formally described as recursive internal salience misreinforcement (RISM)". So I run a search for that, thinking maybe it's an obscure DSM thing. Guess what the top 20 search results are? You got it, it's him. Well, it's AI. It's all AI. There is no RISM. There is no neural howlrounding. The whole thing is made up. 

This is not to say that the condition of concern isn't real; it most certainly is. But the authority with which every one of these people presents their information has been patently subsumed by the ultimate entity of concern (the AI).

The moderator "found an expert" and relayed that expert's information as support from their decision. 

The expert ("expert") found another expert ("expert"), and this is the part that's confusing to me; how do you not know to check something like this in the DSM? Tiktok influencers know this by now. The reddit moderator I understand, but the PhD? Nobody is coming to help us, I'm afraid. 


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Sunday, May 4, 2025

How To Control A Population in Six Easy Steps


We have really got this thing figured out. And by we, I mean not you:

Coding differences in Medicare Advantage plans led to $33 billion in excess revenue to insurers
Apr 2025, phys.org

The analysis found that because of coding differences, the average Medicare Advantage risk score in 2021 was 0.19 higher than the average Traditional Medicare risk score and Medicare Advantage plans received an estimated $33 billion in additional revenue, with $13.9 billion, or 42% of the total, going to UnitedHealth Group. 

MA plans are paid more for sicker members and less for healthier members, providing an incentive for MA plans to report as many diagnoses as legitimately possible. 
("As many diagnoses as possible") 
The researchers found that the average MA risk score was 18.5% higher than the average TM risk score. 

Differential coding resulted in an estimated $33 billion in additional payments to MA plans in 2021, a $1,863 increase in revenue per UnitedHealth member, and substantially greater than the industry average of $1,220. 

Data came from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Chronic Conditions Data Warehouse from 2015 to 2020 and the Master Beneficiary Summary Files from 2015 to 2021. The core analytic sample included 697 contracts that were active in 2021.

via Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, University of California San Diego, and Actuarial Research Corporation: More information: Insurer-Level Estimates of Revenue From Differential Coding in Medicare Advantage, Annals of Internal Medicine (2025). DOI: 10.7326/ANNALS-24-01345



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Saturday, May 3, 2025

Quantum Phone Calls


AKA Schrodinger's Hype

Quantum hype will continue to appear in the news and advertising as if it were here already, and although it's not really "here", it sure is somewhere:

Researchers demonstrate the UK's first long-distance ultra-secure communication over a quantum network
Apr 2025, phys.org

Lists all the other quantum networks:

  • China recently set up a massive network that covers 4,600 kilometers by connecting five cities using both fiberoptics and satellites. (more details on this one below)
  • In Madrid, researchers created a smaller network with nine connection points that use different types of QKD to securely share information.
  • In 2019, researchers at Cambridge and Toshiba demonstrated a metro scale quantum network operating at record key rates of millions of key bits per second.
  • In 2020, researchers in Bristol built a network that could share entanglement between multiple users.
  • Similar quantum network trials have been demonstrated in Singapore, Italy and the U.S.
  • And now, from the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge and the Quantum Communications Hub project have created a long-distance network that can handle both types of QKD, entanglement distribution, and regular data transmission all at once.

via Universities of Bristol and Cambridge: R. Yang et al. A UK Nationwide Heterogeneous Quantum Network. Paper presented at the 2025 Optical Fiber Communications Conference and Exhibition (OFC): 



Intercontinental!
World's first quantum microsatellite demonstrates secure communication with multiple ground stations
Mar 2025, phys.org

The team successfully launched Jinan-1, the world's first quantum microsatellite, on July 27, 2022. Additionally, the team developed compact optical ground stations in Jinan, Hefei, Nanshan, Wuhan, Beijing, Shanghai, in China, and Stellenbosch in South Africa. The satellite transmitted approximately 250 million quantum photons per second. For each satellite pass, the system generated up to 1 Mbits of secure keys. Using the satellite as a trusted relay, the team demonstrated successful secure key sharing and encrypted communication between Beijing and Stellenbosch—two cities separated by 12,900 km.

via University of Science and Technology of China, Innovation Academy for Microsatellites of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Stellenbosch University of South Africa: Yang Li et al, Microsatellite-based real-time quantum key distribution, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08739-z


This one uses regular telecom infrastructures: 
Quantum messages travel 254 km using existing infrastructure for the first time
Apr 2025, phys.org

Their system uses a coherence-based twin-field quantum key distribution deployed over three telecommunication data centers in Germany (Frankfurt, Kehl and Kirchfeld), connected by 254 km of commercial optical fiber.

via Germany: Mirko Pittaluga et al, Long-distance coherent quantum communications in deployed telecom networks, Nature (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-08801-w

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Friday, May 2, 2025

What Does It Mean To Be a Thing


For every thing, there is a fake. And for everything else, we just change the definition of what it means to be artificial until the fake thing is no longer considered fake:

Preventing counterfeiting by adding dye to liquid crystals to create uncrackable coded tags
Aug 2024, phys.org

They're creating anti-counterfeiting labels for high-value goods by mixing fluorescent dyes with cholesteric liquid crystals, which causes their helical structure to twist either left or right, thereby determining how the crystals reflect light, and producing a specific "light signature." Precise control over the twisting and the resulting light patterns makes these labels almost impossible to counterfeit.

via Nagoya University: Jialei He et al, Circularly Polarized Luminescence Chirality Inversion and Dual Anticounterfeiting Labels Based on Fluorescent Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Particles, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acsami.4c08331

Image credit: It's actually real - Golden bug eggs on a sage leaf - Jochen Stern Nikon Small World - 2024 [link]


'World first' ruby grown in jewellery setting in lab
Sep 2024, BBC News

A tiny fragment of real ruby is grown in a furnace, and take just days and only "five hours of energy" to be developed.

"These lab-grown gemstones are not artificial. They mimic what grows over thousands of years in the earth, so they are a more affordable alternative to mined stones."

Sure they're not. What does artificial mean again? (artifice = making, crafting, skilled work)


Fighting honey fraud with AI technology
Apr 2025, phys.org

Until now, authenticating honey has been done through pollen analysis, a technique that fails after honey is processed or filtered. The new approach uses high-resolution mass spectrometry to scan honey at a molecular levelto create a unique chemical "fingerprint." Machine learning algorithms then read the fingerprint to verify the honey's origin.

via McGill's Department of Food Science and Agricultural Chemistry: Shawninder Chahal et al, Rapid Convolutional Algorithm for the Discovery of Blueberry Honey Authenticity Markers via Nontargeted LC-MS Analysis, Analytical Chemistry (2024). DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.4c01778


Following Layoffs, Automattic Employees Discover Leak-Catching Watermarks
Apr 2025, 404 Media

Cool (not cool) - "If, for example, a journalist published a screenshot leaked to them that was taken from P2, Automattic could theoretically identify the employee who shared it." ...Curious as to why can't we do this w AI and authorship?

 
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Thursday, May 1, 2025

When the Actual Science Just Isn't Enough

 

Scientists genetically engineer wolves with white hair and muscular jaws like the extinct dire wolf
Apr 8 2025, phys.org

Read ^this headline above, read it twice, then read the headlines below, because it's a good way to understand how news media works:

  • Dire wolves are back from extinction. Here's how, Yahoo News
  • The dire wolf, which went extinct 12,500 years ago, revived by biotech company, CBS News
  • Scientists say they have resurrected the dire wolf, CNN News
  • Scientists say they revived dire wolf through biotech company's de-extinction process, ABC News
  • Scientists revive dire wolf species from 'Game of Thrones' in world's first known 'de-extinction', New York Post
  • Does Colossal Biosciences' dire wolf creation justify its $10B+ valuation? TechCrunch
  • Scientists Warn Dire Wolf Could Bring 'Unintended Consequences', Rolling Stone
  • Scientists Revive the Dire Wolf, or Something Close, New York Times

And here's other, more sober, soundbites:

  • Scientists genetically engineer wolves with features like extinct dire wolf, The Hill 
  • Has the Dire Wolf Truly Been Resurrected? We Asked the Experts, Gizmodo
  • Scientists say they 'de-extincted' dire wolves. Experts at La Brea Tar Pits are skeptical, LA Times
  • Colossal's de-extincted 'dire wolf' isn't a dire wolf and it has not been de-extincted, Live Science
  • (another one from phys, about a week later)


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