Weekendlinks 2021-33

I’m back for a wonderful cycling holiday in the Vercors and Drôme regions of France. And this is what it looked like:

But enough of that. Let’s have some weekend links.

 

One little RNA change: Boom! 50% more potato for you

Scientists found that by changing one methyl group in the structure of RNA of potato plants causes it to yield 50% bigger potatoes. And it’s not just a more watery potato. There were no changes to starch and protein. And it doesn’t stop at potatoes. In rice plants it causes more rice (not bigger). The reason of this seems to be because the roots of the plants grow deeper and the photosynthesis is quite more effective.

So the world rejoyces, right? Bigger potatoes and more rice for everyone. No more world hunger! Probably more tests need to be done. And likely the stigma of genetically modified organisms (GMO) will prevent much change happen here in Europe. But hopefully in other countries it will indeed cause less hunger some day?

https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2021/07/28/one-lost-methyl-group-huge-amounts-of-food-production

 

GPT-3 writes an attorney case

The GPT-3 is a language model that can generate very impressive texts. But it has its limits. You can use it to create the text of an exciting court case with plot twists and everything. But that doesn’t mean it understands how courts work.

(Found on the Links for July post on the Astral Codex Ten blog)

 

A different cooking program

I love Nat’s What I Reckon. It’s not your average cooking program and yet he serves totally good food.

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