Tag: closer

Newly Enacted State Laws Don’t All Hold Up Under Closer Review Of Claims Of Voter Suppression
POLITICS

Newly Enacted State Laws Don’t All Hold Up Under Closer Review Of Claims Of Voter Suppression

Derek T. Muller, University of Iowa As states across the U.S. enact new laws relating to elections, there have been efforts to capture, in aggregate, the effects of those laws. Reports, found in both journalism and advocacy group statements, that new election laws will “restrict” voting or have an “anti-voter” effect misrepresent what many of the laws will do. On July 14, 2021, a story in The Washington Post described what it called “voting restrictions,” citing figures from a website called the “Voting Rights Lab,” and noted that “17 states had enacted 32 laws with provisions that tighten rules for voting and election administration.” The Voting Rights Lab describes itself as working to “build winning state legislative campaigns that secure, protect, and defend the voting rights of all ...
Neuronlike Circuits Bring Brainlike Computers A Step Closer
LIFESTYLE

Neuronlike Circuits Bring Brainlike Computers A Step Closer

For the first time, my colleagues and I have built a single electronic device that is capable of copying the functions of neuron cells in a brain. We then connected 20 of them together to perform a complicated calculation. This work shows that it is scientifically possible to make an advanced computer that does not rely on transistors to calculate and that uses much less electrical power than today’s data centers. Our research, which I began in 2004, was motivated by two questions. Can we build a single electronic element – the equivalent of a transistor or switch – that performs most of the known functions of neurons in a brain? If so, can we use it as a building block to build useful computers? Neurons are very finely tuned, and so are electronic elements that emulate them. I co-authored...