Tag Archives: Science

The Ethical Crossroads of AI Consciousness: Are We Ready for Sentient Machines?

This article explores the ethical, scientific, and philosophical implications of AI consciousness, analyzing whether artificial intelligence could ever develop self-awareness and what that would mean for society. It examines key theories of consciousness, governance challenges, and the potential redefinition of human identity in a world where intelligence is no longer exclusively biological. With AI advancing rapidly, policymakers must consider legal rights, autonomy, and ethical safeguards before AI forces an answer upon us. As this frontier approaches, the article argues that humanity must confront the complexities of coexistence with sentient machines.

A neuroscientist explains why it’s impossible for AI to ‘understand’ language

Veena D. Dwivedi is Director – Centre for Neuroscience; Professor – Psychology | Neuroscience, Brock University

“The goal of my research program is to understand how the human mind/brain effortlessly understands language. I propose a “heuristic first, algorithmic second” model of language processing. This model integrates the latest findings from neuroscience, psychology and linguistic theory.”
For more information about my research program, visit the Dwivedi Brain and Language Lab website:
https://brocku.ca/dwivedi-brain-and-language-lab/

On ‘The Creative Brain’

Anna Abraham is the E. Paul Torrance Professor and Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development at the University of Georgia. She is the author of ‘The Neuroscience of Creativity’ and the editor of the multidisciplinary volume ‘The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination’. In this interview she discusses her latest book, ‘The Creative Brain: Myths and Truths’, which draws on theoretical and empirical work in cognitive psychology and neuroscience, and offers an examination of human creativity that reveals the true complexity underlying our conventional beliefs about the brain.

AI could be the breakthrough that allows humanoid robots to jump from science fiction to reality

Dr. Daniel Zhou Hao is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in AI and Robotics, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Leicester. He is the founder of the Dynamics and Neural Intelligence (DANi) Lab and the Team Lead of the DriverLeics research-inspired education group in AI-powered robotics and autonomous systems.
Dr. Hao is the Leicester’s PI in the UK Space Agency (UKSA) funded PLATOR project. He is also the Robotics Lead for the ESA/NASA Mars Sample Return DWI Project (ESA Prog. ref: E/019A-02R – MSR SRP E3P2), affiliated with Space Park Leicester. Dr. Hao is the Co-I of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Digital Transformation of Metals Industry (2024), working with School of Engineering.
Dr. Hao’s expertise encompasses Spacecraft AOCS/GNC, Robotics, and AI. His current research interests include autonomous GNC supporting in-orbit servicing and manufacturing, Large language and vision models driven robotics, Reinforcement Learning for Legged Space Robots, AI-driven Robotic Manipulation, and AI for Space Sciences.

Art illuminates the beauty of science – and could inspire the next generation of scientists young and old

Chris Curran is Professor and Director Neuroscience Program, Northern Kentucky University
“I received my PhD in Environmental Genetics & Molecular Toxicology with a focus on genetic susceptibility to developmental neurotoxicants. I trained under Dr. Daniel Nebert and continue to benefit from the knockout mice he generously donated while starting an independent research career at Northern Kentucky University. I am also grateful to NIEHS which has funded our research here at NKU and supported nearly 100 undergraduates directly or indirectly over the last 12 years. I am past president of the Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention and represent BDRP on the FASEB Board of Directors. I also service as a Councilor for the Society of Toxicology and the Developmental Neurotoxicology Society.”

Mandelbrot’s fractals are not only gorgeous – they taught mathematicians how to model the real world

Polina Vytnova is a Lecturer in Mathematics, University of Surrey

Polina received her MSc from the Independent University of Moscow and PhD from the University of Warwick. After temporary research positions at Queen Mary University of London, Brown University, and University of Warwick she joined the Department of Mathematics University of Surrey as a lecturer in pure mathematics.
Her research covers a broad range of topics in general area of Dynamical Systems. She enjoys bringing together different branches of mathematics such as Number Theory, Fractal Geometry and Analysis, applying methods from one of them to problems in another.

Mathematics of scale: Big, small and everything in between

Mitchell Newberry is a Research Assistant Professor of Biology, University of New Mexico. He is a computational biologist and complex systems scientist whose research spans population dynamics, the evolution of language and culture, the maintenance of diversity in ecosystems, and vascular morphology, while contributing to the nuts and bolts of software and statistics. His work appears in Nature, Physical Review Letters, Royal Society Interface and Theoretical Population Biology as well as Popular Science, Buzzfeed and the Atlantic.

Extraterrestrial life may look nothing like life on Earth − so astrobiologists are coming up with a framework to study how complex systems evolve

Chris Impey is a University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona. He has over 180 refereed publications on observational cosmology, galaxies, and quasars, and his research has been supported by $20 million in NASA and NSF grants. He has won eleven teaching awards, and has taught three massive open online classes with over 180,000 enrolled. Impey is a past Vice President of the American Astronomical Society and he has been an NSF Distinguished Teaching Scholar, Carnegie Council’s Arizona Professor of the Year, and most recently, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. He’s written over 70 popular articles on cosmology and astrobiology, two introductory textbooks, a novel called ‘Shadow World’, and eight popular science books: ‘The Living Cosmos’, ‘How It Ends’, ‘Talking About Life’, ‘How It Began’, ‘Dreams of Other Worlds’, ‘Humble Before the Void’, ‘Beyond: The Future of Space Travel’, and ‘Einstein’s Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes’.