Quantum Magnetic Migration
Birds navigate by "seeing" Earth's magnetic field. Peter J. Hore writes for Scientific American about his research into the quantum effects occurring in a bird's eye that enable this extra perception. Of course, quantum effects don't usually survive in warm, open environments. But in 2016 Jennifer Ouellette wrote for Quanta about a theory that entanglement can protect quantum particles from decoherence even in classical environments like a bird's eye.
Divine Distinctions
Some researchers theorize that what sets humans apart as a species is our capacity for abstract ideas like geometry and religion, reports Siobhan Roberts for The New York Times. Emulating our talent for symbolic reasoning could be a necessary step toward building truly intelligent AI. In a 2021 interview for Quanta, John Pavlus spoke with Melanie Mitchell, a computer scientist who teaches AI to think with analogies. | |
