
When the Apollo 13 spacecraft embarked on its lunar landing mission on April 11, 1970, the concept of a digital twin was yet to be conceived. Three days into the journey, the mission took an unexpected turn when a routine stirring of the oxygen tanks on board led to a catastrophic explosion. After running some diagnostic tests, the NASA team discovered that an oxygen tank explosion had critically damaged an engine. Worse, the damaged spacecraft was venting precious oxygen into space, spelling likely doom for the astronauts onboard — Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert. The spacecraft was over 200,000 miles from Earth, well beyond the reach of any terrestrial or physical intervention. The diagnosis and repair of the damage would have to be accomplished solely with what the crew had on board. NASA had fifteen simulators used for training and mission planning. While rudimentary compared to NASA's latest simulators built by Boeing , they could be connected by up to 10 digital computers and the setup was the cutting edge of technology in 1970. It also had command module pilot Ken Mattingly , who had been replaced on the mission due to exposure to rubella. Mattingly, the backup crew, and hundreds of NASA engineers took to the simulators to replicate the conditions aboard. Running several hypothetical missions, many of which resulted in fatalities for the simulated crew, the team managed to bring Apollo 13 back to Earth safely. It wouldn't be until 2005 that what NASA accomplished with the simulators received a name — the digital twin (DT) concept. In the early 2000s, Dr. Michael Grieves, a research scientist and expert in product development, coined a term for what NASA did with its simulators, but with added technology. Using a virtual twin of a product would mirror the actual product in all respects. A digital twin of physical reality could be invaluable in predicting, troubleshooting, or solving problems without the cost or risk of altering a process or product. The exponential growth of computing power, artificial intelligence, and the Internet of Things (IoT) in the 21st century has exploded the digital twin concept. The IoT enables the transfer of data between the physical counterpart and the digital twin in real-time, has significantly enhanced the functionality of digital twins. Creating an exactingly accurate virtual simulation has become commonplace. A home computer simulates the performance characteristics of advanced aircraft or automobiles. Pilots train in simulators that mimic real-world situations without risk to life or limb. NASA can control physical systems aboard distant craft. A global shipping operation can determine the impact of a change to its logistical chain without risking doing so in the real world. A virtual twin goes beyond simulation by incorporating the IoT to transfer data between the physical counterpart of the digital twin in real-time. A true digital twin must meet three criteria – perfectly represent a physical system, share data instantaneously as well as constantly, and behave realistically. This concept is on the verge of revolutionizing healthcare, with potential applications ranging from patient monitoring and personalized treatment to drug development and surgical simulations. To say the digital world has changed since Dr. Grieves helped popularize the digital twin terminology in 2005 would be an understatement. Technology that was unimaginable during the Apollo 13 crisis has helped industries, universities, and think tanks evolve the digital twin concept. The first iteration of the concept during the Apollo 13 crisis would be considered a static twin model, which is an exact digital copy of a physical system. The systems employed by NASA replicated the conditions on board Apollo without the ability to physically alter or share information with the craft. A shadow digital twin can exchange data in real time and apply the information to update the model. This requires a connection between the virtual and physical twin — not possible in 1970 but commonplace now, thanks to the advent of communication technology. The ultimate goal is an intelligent virtual twin. An intelligent virtual twin can not only synthesize and share data like a shadow twin but also use artificial intelligence to learn, reason, predict, and communicate with the physical twin, including receiving updated information from the physical twin. Virtual twins can be understood through the lens of simulation, but the reality is that an intelligent virtual twin is magnitudes more sophisticated. It creates a link between a physical reality and a virtual world that can predict problems and apply solutions. The term conjures thoughts of an identical twin living somewhere in the virtual world as a canary-in-the-coal-mine avatar. Introduce a change in the virtual twin, such as virtual illness and a course (or several courses) of treatment, observe the outcome, and use that information to take the best possible route in treating the physical form. Of course, creating a digital twin of something as complex as a biological structure is no simple task. Vast quantities of data must be gathered and utilized to make an identical virtual twin. Fortunately (or perhaps not, depending on your viewpoint), that data has become more and more accessible in recent years. The IoT has the means to gather and share enormous amounts of data, much of which can be used to create a digital twin. However, it's not just collecting biometric, demographic, and lifestyle data. An effective digital twin incorporates disease registries in addition to genomics (genome mapping), biomics (the study and extraction of large sets of biological data), proteomics (study of interactions and structure of proteins), and metabolomics (study of metabolites) to gain a greater understanding of the health issue at hand. The growing power of computing and the rising efficacy of artificial intelligence have opened the gates for virtual twinning wider than could have been imagined just a few years ago. By collecting, synthesizing, and monitoring an individual's vital, genetic, lifestyle, and physiological information them using a virtual twin to apply machine learning, predictive mathematical models, and artificial intelligence, a doctor could, in a sense, predict the future. One of the most enticing facets of applying digital twins to healthcare is the detection of health risks before they emerge. Imagine a world where a doctor could identify and develop a successful treatment for breast cancer well before any signs or symptoms present. The technology could save or extend millions of lives. Diagnostic technology and methods already do this to some degree. When developing a treatment, most doctors and surgeons generate an exhaustive patient history, including past habits, vital statistics, and family history. A digital twin would maximize this process. A patient forewarned by an intelligent digital twin model could take unprecedented ownership of his or her health. Best practices for remaining healthy, such as the vagaries of clean eating and plentiful exercise, could be laser-focused to maximize positive outcomes. A virtual twin may discover a patient's genetic predisposition to form kidney stones, allowing the physical patient to avoid the cause before the first agonizing occurrence. While digital twinning has been used across industries for years, it is still relatively young in healthcare. What, after all, is more complex than the human body and its myriad systems? Aided by the rise of AI and increasingly available health information, doctors and scientists have scored some successes in the healthcare field. In 2019, a team at Johns Hopkins University published a proof-of-concept study authored by Natalia Trayanova, a professor of biomedical engineering. The report detailed how her team created virtual twins of the upper chambers of the hearts of 10 patients suffering atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat). Using information derived from the virtual twin, the team predicted where surgeons would need to destroy diseased heart tissue without exposing the patient to expensive or dangerous procedures. Another success comes from the Cleveland Clinic, which used the virtual twin model to study the impact of the environment on health. Using health records, environmental characteristics, and publicly available data to model neighborhoods and inform insurance and medical companies on how to alleviate health issues in those communities best. The purview of digital twinning in healthcare is extensive. It could shift everything from drug delivery to personalized care to insurance premiums and everything in between. However, it is not all smooth sailing for digital twins, as experts say that institutional support is required to push the science forward. The concept of digital twin models for use in healthcare has enormous potential but also faces great challenges. As Karen Willcox told the National Academies , "Digital twins have great promise in bringing value across areas of science and technology, including engineering, the natural world, and medicine. Our report makes clear that there is a real opportunity here to bring together domains and disciplines in new, valuable ways, but to achieve that value requires investment in interdisciplinary foundations." Creating digital twins relies on the sharing of data and enormous computational power, both of which are sometimes unavailable to researchers. Proponents have implored federal agencies, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Departments of Defense and Energy, to create interagency channels to promote the research required to maximize the effectiveness of digital twin technology. Along with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the NIH and NSF have awarded $6 million to develop digital twins for healthcare and biomedical research. It's a paltry sum compared to the $285 million offered by the Biden administration to further digital twin technology in the manufacture of semiconductors. The adopters and adapters of virtual twin technology in healthcare face several challenges, including technical limitations, the quality of available data, and ethical concerns. Incorporating a new and revolutionary concept like virtual twinning across the entire healthcare field will require a monumental, concerted effort. Combining computation, artificial intelligence, mathematical models, and medicine into a neat package accessible and applicable across medical disciplines will require enormous investment and a highly sophisticated technical infrastructure. Furthermore, while the harvesting of data via smartphones, wearable sensor technology such as the Peloton heart rate band or the Facebit face mask , and other means has become commonplace, the quality of that data, primarily gathered through private concerns, could be faulty. It also raises ethical concerns. In addition, the cost of creating a virtual twin could create a disparity between those who can access the technology because of socio-economic status and those who cannot — a conversation that has been swirling around the American healthcare community for some time. Another hot-button issue highlights concerns over a person's personal data privacy. If private companies gather information about every aspect of a person's physical being, right down to home life and genome information, could that data be applied unethically? Could insurance companies deny coverage based on a digital twin's predicted ailments? The car industry is already collecting driving data for insurance companies . A logistics operation or automobile's digital twin is far more impersonal than a living, breathing human being distilled into data. The advent of digital twin technology has improved systems for decades, but its application to healthcare has enormous potential and some sticky ethical and moral questions. As scientists and researchers forge onward, one thing seems clear — digital twins are here to stay. Forbes reports, "By 2025, 25% of Healthcare Delivery Organizations will include formalized digital twin initiatives within their digital transformation strategy." This number seems unlikely to shrink anytime soon. With digital twinning in healthcare in its infancy, only time will tell the benefits it might reap in the healthcare industry. Preventive diagnoses are only the tip of the iceberg. Decades past, a trio of astronauts floated helplessly in orbit, running out of oxygen and facing slim odds of a trip home. By replicating and simulating conditions aboard the craft, a team at NASA used one of the earliest examples of the digital twin concept to save their lives. It appears that this was only the beginning.Falslev had nine rebounds, nine assists, and three steals for the Aggies (10-0). Ian Martinez scored 15 points while shooting 4 for 12 (1 for 6 from 3-point range) and 6 of 6 from the free-throw line and added five assists. Karson Templin finished 5 of 8 from the field to finish with 12 points. Quincy Adekokoya led the Bulls (5-5) in scoring, finishing with 12 points. Kasen Jennings added 11 points and five assists for South Florida. Brandon Stroud finished with 10 points and two steals. NEXT UP Up next for Utah State is a Tuesday matchup with UCSD at home, and South Florida hosts Bethune-Cookman on Wednesday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .
Amazon is doubling its investment in Anthropic to $8 billion in a deepened collaboration on artificial intelligence, the companies said Friday. The e-commerce and technology behemoth will remain a minority investor in Anthropic, having pumped an initial $4 billion into the artificial intelligence developer late last year and becoming its primary cloud computing provider. "The response from AWS customers who are developing generative AI applications powered by Anthropic in Amazon Bedrock has been remarkable," said Matt Garman, chief of AWS cloud computing division. "We'll keep pushing the boundaries of what customers can achieve with generative AI technologies." Amazon is investing the additional $4 billion in Anthropic as part of an expanded alliance that includes working together on "Trainium" hardware to optimize machine learning, according to the companies. "We're looking forward to working with Amazon to train and power our most advanced AI models using AWS Trainium, and helping to unlock the full potential of their technology," said Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei. The announcement came just days after Britain's competition regulator cleared Google-parent Alphabet's investment in Anthropic, following a probe. The Competition and Markets Authority concluded that the big tech giant had not acquired "material influence" over Anthropic as a result of the deal, which was reported to have cost $2 billion. The British regulator is one of several global regulators concerned with reining in big tech companies and their partnerships with AI firms. In September, the CMA cleared Amazon's initial investment in Anthropic, saying it did not believe that "a relevant merger situation has been created." gc/mlmShocking Legal Battles in the AI World: What You Need to Know
Anyone who watched Naperville North quarterback Jacob Bell’s sensational senior season knew he would be a hot commodity on the recruiting trail. Bell committed to Ball State over the summer, before he threw for 3,075 yards and 38 touchdowns . Even opposing coaches said he could play in a bigger college program. But nothing was certain. “We were hoping that way, but we wouldn’t have been shocked if we didn’t have something come about,” Naperville North coach Sean Drendel said. “With this new recruiting world, nothing is surprising. “When they’re letting 24-, 25-, 26-year-olds still play college football, it becomes really tough for a high school kid. You better be a really good player to be one of those kids that gets a scholarship offer nowadays.” Bell is one of those kids. Three days after taking an official visit to Indiana, Bell committed to the College Football Playoff participant on Tuesday and announced it Wednesday. “It was a relatively unique process for me,” Bell said. “I’ve known Indiana’s staff for a good amount of time, talked to them on and off. “A couple weeks back, they called me up, asked for some of my information, said that an opportunity may be available.” Drendel said that opened up when another quarterback recruit chose to go elsewhere. “They thought they had one of the top five kids in the country, who flipped in December, and then they realized they need to go get a good guy,” Drendel said. “Jacob had visited them before. “When they really started to dig in on Jacob, they really started liking what they saw, and it became apparent in their mind they felt like he was one of the top kids out there, so go get him.” Bell said he liked what he saw during his official visit to Bloomington last weekend. No. 10 Indiana had just lost 27-17 to No. 7 Notre Dame in the first round of the College Football Playoff on Dec. 20. “It was the day after the game against Notre Dame in the college football playoffs, so that was pretty cool to be around that event,” he said. “It was a quick process, but I definitely saw everything I needed to see, met the right people and things like that.” Bell will be joining a program on the rise. Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, who is The Associated Press national coach of the year, led the Hoosiers (11-2) to a school-record number of wins and into the playoffs for the first time. “It’s absolutely awesome,” Bell said. “With how successful that coaching staff is right now and they’re going to be around for a very long time, just signed an extension, it’s just a pretty stable situation in the midst of all the chaos of college football. “It’s definitely something that I’m excited to get into and a program that I’m excited to be a part of.” The chaos in college sports has been caused by the transfer portal and the evolving dynamic of compensation for student-athletes’ name, image and likeness. It has made the recruiting process more difficult for high school players. But Bell, whose older brother Jon is a backup quarterback at South Dakota State, didn’t fret. “Having a brother that’s a college athlete right now, I kind of have a bigger insight into how that stuff works with the portal and some of the demands that schools have,” Bell said. “I didn’t get frustrated with it. I tried to understand it and just be patient with the process, and it ended up paying off.” Indiana has a robust NIL program. Bell said the school’s donors are involved, and he is aware of the opportunities. “Obviously, with the new landscape of college football, it’s a part of it,” he said. “The smart thing to do is always to try to build off of it and build your brand. “That didn’t weigh anything into my commitment. I just knew that they play a brand of football that I like and (offer) a great education, so it was kind of a hard opportunity to pass up.” Bell, who intends to major in business, will do his due diligence to maximize his earning potential. “For sure,” he said. “Once I get into college and get closer to possibly earning a starting spot, that will be definitely be something I put more focus into.” Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
Donald Trump has yet to move back into the White House and already fissures are opening in his coalition, amid squabbling between Elon Musk and his Silicon Valley "tech bros" and his hardcore Republican backers. At the heart of the internecine sniping is Trump's central election issue -- immigration -- and the H1-B visas that allow companies to bring foreigners with specific qualifications to the United States. The permits are widely used in Silicon Valley, and Musk -- who himself came to the United States from South Africa on an H1-B -- is a fervent advocate. The world's richest man, who bankrolled Trump's election campaign and has become a close advisor, posted on X Thursday that welcoming elite engineering talent from abroad was "essential for America to keep winning." Vivek Ramaswamy, appointed by Trump as Musk's co-chair on a new advisory board on government efficiency, suggested that companies prefer foreign workers because they lack an "American culture," which he said venerates mediocrity. "A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers," he posted, warning that, without a change in attitude, "we'll have our asses handed to us by China." Skepticism over the benefits of immigration is a hallmark of Trump's "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) movement and the billionaires' remarks angered immigration hawks who accused them of ignoring US achievements in technological innovation. Incoming White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted a 2020 speech in which Trump marveled at the American "culture" that had "harnessed electricity, split the atom, and gave the world the telephone and the Internet." The post appeared calculated to remind critics that Trump won November's election on a platform of getting tough on immigration and boosting American manufacturing. But it was Michael Faraday, an English scientist, who discovered that an electric current could be produced by passing a magnet through a copper wire and Ernest Rutherford, a New Zealander, who first split the atom. And Alexander Graham Bell may have died a US citizen but he was a British subject in Canada when he invented the telephone. Trump voiced opposition to H1-B visas during his successful first run for the White House in 2016, calling them "unfair for our workers" while acknowledging that he used foreign labor in his own businesses. The Republican placed restrictions on the system when he took office, but the curbs were lifted by President Joe Biden. Trump is known for enjoying the gladiatorial spectacle when conflict breaks out in his inner circle. He has been conspicuously silent during the hostilities that Politico characterized as "Musk vs MAGA." Many MAGA figures have been agitating for a complete closure of America's borders while the problem of illegal entries is tackled, and hoping for a steer from Trump that would reassure them that he remains firm in his "America First" stance. For some long-time loyalists, Silicon Valley has already inserted itself too deeply into MAGA politics. "We welcomed the tech bros when they came running our way to avoid the 3rd grade teacher picking their kid's gender -- and the obvious Biden/Harris economic decline," said Matt Gaetz, the scandal-hit congressman forced to withdraw after being nominated by Trump to run the Justice Department. "We did not ask them to engineer an immigration policy." When Musk almost single-handedly blew up a deal painstakingly hammered out between Democrats and Republicans to set the 2025 federal budget, Democrats used "President Musk" to mock Trump, who is famously sensitive about being upstaged. It remains to be seen whether these cracks can be smoothed out or if they are a portent of further strife, but critics point to the chaos in Trump's first term as a potential indicator. "Looking forward to the inevitable divorce between President Trump and Big Tech," said far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, a MAGA figure with so much influence that she had a seat on Trump's plane during the campaign. "We have to protect President Trump from the technocrats." Loomer has subsequently complained of censorship after she was stripped of her paying subscribers on X, which is owned by Musk. "Full censorship of my account simply because I called out H1B visas," she posted. "This is anti-American behavior by tech oligarchs. What happened to free speech?" rle/ft/sms
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — Garry Clark scored 15 points as Texas A&M-Corpus Christi beat Prairie View A&M 109-74 on Saturday night. Clark also contributed five rebounds for the Islanders (5-3). Dian Wright-Forde shot 5 of 6 from the field and 3 of 4 from the free-throw line to add 14 points. Jordan Roberts shot 4 of 6 from the field, including 2 for 4 from 3-point range, and went 4 for 5 from the line to finish with 14 points. The Panthers (1-6) were led in scoring by Tanahj Pettway, who finished with 21 points and six rebounds. Nick Anderson added 15 points and two steals for Prairie View A&M. Marcel Bryant had 14 points and 10 rebounds. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar . For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Data Skrive.All polling stations managed to open despite fierce weather in the sub-Arctic nation that left roads in many areas blocked by snow. Ballot counting began after polls closed at 10pm local time, with results expected early Sunday. This is Iceland’s sixth general election since the 2008 financial crisis devastated the economy of the nation and ushered in a new era of political instability. Opinion polls suggested the country could be in for another upheaval, with support for the three governing parties plunging. Mr Benediktsson, who was named prime minister in April following the resignation of his predecessor, struggled to hold together the unlikely coalition of his conservative Independence Party with the centrist Progressive Party and the Left-Green Movement. “My expectation is like, something new (is) going to happen, hopefully,” said Horour Guojonsson, voting in the capital, Reykjavik. “We always have had these old parties taking care of things. I hope we see the light now to come in with a younger people, new ideas.” Iceland, a nation of about 400,000 people, is proud of its democratic traditions, describing itself as arguably the world’s oldest parliamentary democracy. The island’s parliament, the Althingi, was founded in 930 by the Norsemen who settled the country.Bristol's 21 lead Hampton past Loyola (MD) 76-68
Reed scores 15 off the bench, Tulsa downs Mississippi Valley State 93-48