Leslie Viljoen

11 Followers
26 Following
38 Posts
I'm a Ruby programmer in New Zealand, interested in tech, music, art, permaculture, religion, fungi and other weird and wonderful things.
Just making sure you’ve all seen the cutest, spikiest, tiniest king crab discovered in the Gulf of Mexico! 😍
In The Context Of Long Context

What happens when you can instantly transform an entire book into a playable simulation? That—and much more—is now possible thanks to the long context revolution.

Adjacent Possible
@paul I’m always amazed at how the same folks who taught us to be kind to everyone when we were children are all upset about being kind to everyone.
We interrupt your doomscrolling to bring you some good news
AI simulation gives people a glimpse of their potential future self https://news.mit.edu/2024/ai-simulation-gives-people-glimpse-potential-future-self-1001 #AI #MentalHealth
AI simulation gives people a glimpse of their potential future self

“Future You” is a generative AI tool that enables users to have a simulated conversation with a potential version of their future selves. The chatbot is meant to reduce users’ anxiety, improve positive emotions, and guide them toward making better everyday choices.

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

An entire adult fly brain has now been mapped and the complexity is staggering. 50 million synapses between 140,000 neurons. Parallel processing at an incredible scale - and all the size of a poppyseed. Imagine a human brain: 100 trillion synapses.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07558-y

Neuronal wiring diagram of an adult brain - Nature

FlyWire presents a neuronal wiring diagram of the whole fly brain with annotations for cell types, classes, nerves, hemilineages and predicted neurotransmitters, with data products and an open ecosystem to facilitate exploration and browsing.

Nature

Scotland has detected no cases of cervical cancer in women born between 1988-1996 who were fully vaccinated against HPV between the ages of 12 and 13.

HPV causes multiple types of cancer in men as well. Australia saw similar results on their vaccination campaign. You can get the HPV vaccine up to 45 now, and it helps even if you already have HPV.
https://www.statnews.com/2024/01/25/hpv-vaccine-prevent-cervical-cancer-cervarix-gardasil-study/

HPV vaccine study finds zero cases of cervical cancer among women vaccinated before age 14

In a large Scottish study, no cases of cervical cancer were found among women who received HPV vaccines before they turned 14.

STAT
One of the best things about getting older is seeing your friends succeed.