Universes

Science

science

Did you notice the appearance of that self similar structure in the middle?...They are often referred to as fractals (this structure is not a true fractal becuase the recurrence is terminated at the center). In mathematics, we have a cool theory for them. A fractal is called a 'fractal' because its dimension is a fraction! Imagine a object between 2D and 3D...sounds nonsensical right? but fractals have this non- integer dimension.

Fractals!

a experiment

Graduated teacher in chemistry 🥰❤️

I have to take an environmental conservation class and its honestly just a bummer every time. Its all going downhill and there's no chance that people are going to stop polluting the Earth or instill fixes because they cost money. Genuinely, why did we create the concept of money? I just wanna go to a store and get whatever I want with no worries about price/affording things. You know what I mean?

Learning About Climate Change

I'm a sucker for collecting rocks and since I'm studying environmental science this was an EPIC find. 

A piece of very heavy basalt. From where I found it, the only location it could've come from would've been a 3 million year old magma sill in South Wales. It has tiny pyrite crystals in it if you look close. 

So proud of this spontaneous find. 

(I checked with my cousin on this one as he's a professional geologist and he's verified it. So exciting!)

Basalt - 3Ma years old

🪐What's your topmost favorite planet in our Solar System and Why? ( Yes, that includes Pluto even though it's classification has changed)

💭🪐Planet Curiosity

Without overwhelming you all with the details, basically there is a method to train a transformer model such that it identifies a specific task for a given input. This helps with interpretability and allows for the interesting ability to modify the latent space during inference time or post-training.

You have to use FiLM to do this during inference time, but what this allows you to do is map inputs to a vector representation of a task or strategy. In layman's terms, if you ask it to sort a list of numbers, it will identify the task required to do that and adjust the entire model to do it well. These task vectors allow you to explicitly steer the model to specialize in specific tasks, and the linear combination of these tasks vectors allow you to learn new tasks without further training. For example, if one task vector steers the model towards a configuration that excels in sorting a number and another task vector steers it towards a different configuration that specializes in copying the number (making a duplicate of it, so "12" becomes "1212"), the combination of these task vectors allows the model to copy AND sort without explicitly training it to (so "12" becomes "1122"). 

You can apply the same technique to another model called HRM, which is a model that essentially thinks deeply, unlike the Transformer model that thinks in one shot. In this domain, tasks have an associated difficulty, so it separates task by strategy and difficulty, meaning it can differentiate between strategies sufficient for small and easy Sodoku problems, versus harder and larger ones. The combining skills applies to this domain as well. 

Lastly, after doing ablation tests, I found that this method reduces forgetfulness. The task vectors compartmentalizes the skills for its corresponding tasks, so when it learns a new skill, previous ones are preserved. Interestingly, perplexity stays roughly the same even after reducing the dimensions of the feed forward network BY HALF. This is due to the unique ability of the task vectors + FiLM that allows the model to steer through a larger latent space. Thus, smaller models can modify their latent space to learn more effectively.

Some Cool Findings

💪☢️

We have cultivated the same species of plants for a while now. However, farming is changing the goal now is to be highly productive with less space. Over a year ago I started reading about different edible plants and how there are plants out there that are edible and more productive than our current crops. However, there are key things that prevent them from being commercialized. That is changing with hydroponics. So, I decided to learn how to clone and genetically modify plants

 Step 1: Learn how to tissue Culture plants.  Easier said than done.

Tissue Culture

Foxes tend to pounce in a north easterly direction, supposedly using the earth's magnetic field as a guide via a protein called cryptochrome.

Fox pounce

uh i didnt mean to have that much fun 😳

coding

This is an L-39 on the left and a Subsonex on the right. The L-39 is about 39 feet long and the Subsonex is around 16 feet long. The L-39 was built in the Czech Republic whereas the Subsonex was built in a garage. Trying to land in the Subsonex is like trying to land in a go cart because of how short it is.

Factory Made VS Homebuilt

Dumb question but I've been pondering this

Do we evolve or adapt?

Science says It feels like magic.
But it’s your brain working overtime  behind the scenes.

What we call “gut instinct” isn’t supernatural. It’s actually your brain drawing on millions of past experiences to make rapid-fire predictions before your conscious mind even catches up.

Neuroscientists have discovered that the brain processes sensory input, emotional memory, and threat detection so fast, we often experience it as a sudden knowing — a feeling we can’t explain, but trust.

It’s not time travel.
It’s neural speed.
And it may have helped our ancestors survive everything from predators to high-stakes decisions.

So next time you get that strange feeling  pause.
Because while it’s not from the future, it just might be the smartest part of you whispering from experience.

Feelings are fast prediction not future memories

Mad Science Monday

In my lab

Life finds a way to be... Interesting

Way too much stuff in my head not to share, can probably answer most things.

Anyone want to ask questions about Prehistoric animals?

Radiolab's latest AI episode

⬇️⬆️

I was thinking about the "Last Thursday" theory (aka the theory where they say that the universe could've been created literally last thursday, we just were created with the memory of there being something before it), and I was thinking -- could there be/have been a species that was created at the dawn of time with this exact way? 

Let's say a species has spawned into existance at the same time as the universe was born, with a civilization on, let's say, our technological level, with the fake memories that they had a life before, and for them there always was something before their last thursday (assuming they have the 7 day rotation like we do).  

But that would have them being born with the *preconcieved understanding and utilization of physics in our reality*, meaning that they were born ready to understand it, which sounds impossible. A universe that produces rational agents capable of understanding its laws CANNOT be arbitrarily structured, because the existence of physics-knowing observers implies a logically pre-structured universe -- even if they were created last thursday with fake memories. 

HOWEVER if we assume a species that has memories of a universe that was DIFFERENT, that would question how could anything imagine another reality? I don't mean arbitrary things like "magic", as magic is possibly part of our reality as there is no magic that cannot happen (like for example: Wingardium Leviosa the subject levitating. That can happen either by something pulling the subject, the subject's atoms gets neutral charges, etc. That we cannot do it with a wand is a different matter, but even that CAN happen, though, not "magically"). But if they remember a different reality, that means either reality itself assumes the possibility of a different reality by allowing an observer species that has an understanding that is different, or they really have experienced it. 

Thoughts?

Okay I had a literal shower thought about the "Last Thrusday" theory

Today I am in the " three body problems" building in Oxford 🤩

Three body problems

Malam

👨‍🔬

If your screenshot doesn't look like this don't call yourself anime fans

Something else that redefines our definition of life

If aliens were found under the ice of Jupiter’s moon Europa, what form of life do you think we’d find?

A sensory deprivation chamber is actually a sensory maximization chamber. It's a stimuli deprivation chamber. A real sensory deprivation chamber would be watching Lizzo twerk on a piano. You'd retreat inward from witnessing too much.

Also reminds me of what happens when you give a wrong response to a girlfriend/wife 🤔😏

Meanwhile, in China...

So with the advancements in medical research, we can extend human life by 2030 and eventually regenerate cells to keep people at their prime. If we also have the tech to modify our names with gene editing to make ourselves taller, would we just become the elves from lotr?

High thoughts

So the universe made us with those elements and one bad comment matters?

AI will revolutionize or will give hike in Unemployment.
Add your comments also.

People who love science!

Building a board that goes into an eye probe for surgery. I love my job 🧑‍💻

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