Lifeboat News: The Blog

Researchers have long known that AI models generate hidden “confidence signals” when they process information. But a fundamental question remained: Does the AI actually use this internal sense of confidence to decide whether to answer a question or simply say, “I don’t know”? 3. The Proof: To prove this wasn’t just a coincidence, researchers directly […]

Researchers have found that polyamines help keep iron in a safe, unreactive form in cells—a discovery that could point to combination strategies against cancer and offer clues to early-onset Parkinson’s disease.

“When we met, was I walking to the faculty club or away from it? I’m wondering, because in the latter case I’ve already had my lunch”

Called It! A single injection of a nanoparticle treatment engineered to encourage the generation of new brain cells was enough to reverse cognitive decline in an animal model of Alzheimer’s disease. Developed by researchers in the US, the remarkable new treatment could one day be used to treat patients in advanced stages of dementia by […]

Reasoning Models Cost 10x More — Here’s Why They Shouldn’t Be Your Default. Models like OpenAI o1/o3 deliver much higher accuracy on complex multi-step problems (74%+ vs ~12% on hard math benchmarks). But they cost 10–15x more and introduce high latency. The smart approach in 2026: Don’t run everything through reasoning models. Route only the […]

Before you prompt AI to answer another question or perform another task, a Wake Forest computer scientist wants you to know it could expose your sensitive data.

Today, OpenAI’s Chief Scientist acknowledged that we’ve reached that threshold—calling modern AI an “alien mind” that operates more like complex neuroscience than traditional software. OpenAI’s Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki: “Based on internal results, I have a strong expectation that this speed of progress could be sustained into recursive self-improvement.” (via Chubby) Jakub Pachocki reflects…

One of the first commandments of my scientific education was ‘thou shalt not use teleological language.’ This was closely related to a second commandment ‘thou shalt not commit anthropomorphism’. It was permissible to compare a frog to a machine but not to a human being (unless one also compared the human being to a machine). […]

By Chuck Brooks President, Brooks Consulting International and Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University The race for cyber weapons has entered a new phase. Keyboards that were operated by skilled human operators can now be operated by autonomous, machine-paced systems.

A new map of the adult male fruit fly brain and nerve cord includes over 166,000 neurons and the millions of connections between them.

Artificial intelligence companions can improve a user’s mental health by simulating empathy. But new research reveals a hidden trade-off: as users grow closer to emotionally intelligent chatbots, they often withdraw from real-world human relationships.

Molecules called reactive oxygen species, which include so-called “free radicals,” have long been viewed as damaging byproducts of our body’s metabolism—a reason antioxidant supplements have been considered a potential way to reduce cancer risk. Now, scientists have discovered that certain immune cells depend on these molecules to activate and destroy cancer cells and that tumors […]

In a breakthrough study, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center discovered that psilocybin given before chemotherapy prevented the onset of nerve injury in preclinical models, even after repeated treatment cycles. The findings could help prevent pain, numbness and other common chemotherapy side effects. The study, published in Science and co-led by […]

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NASA scientists found that microbes brought by astronauts could survive in cold, shadowed niches around the Moon’s South Pole, potentially complicating future searches for pristine lunar chemistry. Some refuges may be no larger than a footprint, while one hardy fungus could even withstand limited exposure to sunlight.

Researchers have found a way to create a complete 3D image of a molecule’s wavefunction, one of quantum mechanics’ most fundamental yet elusive features.

Identifying distinctive types of conditions like diabetes is helpful in two ways. It means treatments can be personalized more precisely to individuals, and gives researchers a better idea of how to make those treatments more effective going forward. When it comes to type 1 diabetes, there are two genetic patterns called HLA-DR3 and HLA-DR4 that […]