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Category: computing – Page 111

The idea of the brain as a computer is everywhere. So much so we have forgotten it is a model and not the reality. It’s a metaphor that has lead some to believe that in the future they’ll be uploaded to the digital ether and thereby achieve immortality. It’s also a metaphor that garners billions of dollars in research funding every year. Yet researchers argue that when we dig down into our grey matter our biology is anything but algorithmic. And increasingly, critics contend that the model of the brain as computer is sending scientists (and their resources) nowhere fast. Is our attraction to the idea of the brain as computer an accident of current human technology? Can we find a better metaphor that might lead to a new paradigm?

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Modern computer chips can have features built on a nanometer scale. Until now it has been possible to form such small structures only on top of a silicon wafer, but a new technique can now create nanoscale features in a layer below the surface. The approach has promising applications in both photonics and electronics, say its inventors, and could one day enable the fabrication of 3D structures throughout the bulk of the wafer.

The technique relies on the fact that silicon is transparent to certain wavelengths of light. This means the right kind of laser can travel through the surface of the wafer and interact with the silicon below. But designing a laser that can pass through the surface without causing damage and still carry out precise nanoscale fabrication below is not simple.

Researchers from Bilkent University in Ankara, Türkiye, achieved this by using spatial light modulation to create a needlelike laser beam that gave them greater control over where the beam’s energy was deposited. By exploiting physical interactions between the laser light and the silicon, they were able to fabricate lines and planes with different optical properties that could be combined to create nanophotonic elements below the surface.

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Nano-MIND Technology for Wireless Control of Brain Circuits with Potential to Modulate Emotions, Social Behaviors, and Appetite.

Researchers at the Center for Nanomedicine within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) and Yonsei University in South Korea have unveiled a groundbreaking technology that can manipulate specific regions of the brain using magnetic fields, potentially unlocking the secrets of high-level brain functions such as cognition, emotion, and motivation. The team has developed the world’s first Nano-MIND (Magnetogenetic Interface for NeuroDynamics) technology, which allows for wireless, remote, and precise modulation of specific deep brain neural circuits using magnetism.

The human brain contains over 100 billion neurons interconnected in a complex network. Controlling the neural circuits is crucial for understanding higher brain functions like cognition, emotion, and social behavior, as well as identifying the causes of various brain disorders. Novel technology to control brain functions also has implications for advancing brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), such as those being developed by Neuralink, which aim to enable control of external devices through thought alone.

While magnetic fields have long been used in medical imaging due to their safety and ability to penetrate biological tissue, precisely controlling brain circuits with magnetic fields has been a significant challenge for scientists.

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Topological insulators, capable of transmitting electricity without loss, may function in fractional dimensions such as 1.58. This breakthrough, combined with room-temperature operability, paves the way for advancements in quantum computing and energy efficiency through fractal structures.

What if we could find a way to make electric currents flow, without energy loss? A promising approach for this involves using materials known as topological insulators. They are known to exist in one (wire), two (sheet) and three (cube) dimensions; all with different possible applications in electronic devices. Theoretical physicists at Utrecht University, together with experimentalists at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, have discovered that topological insulators may also exist at 1.58 dimensions, and that these could be used for energy-efficient information processing. Their study was published recently in Nature Physics.

Classical bits, the units of computer operation, are based on electric currents: electrons running means 1, no electrons running means 0. With a combination of 0s and 1s, one can build all the devices that you use in your daily life, from cellphones to computers. However, while running, these electrons meet defects and impurities in the material, and lose energy. This is what happens when your device gets warm: the energy is converted into heat, and so your battery is drained faster.

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Teleology the return of Aristotle?

The scientific story of who we are is a reductionist, gene-centric model that forfeits natural phenomena like purpose due to its association with intelligent design and a transcendent, intelligent designer. Noble is neutral on religious matters. Yet he sees compelling evidence that purpose may be fundamental to life. He’s determined to debunk the current scientific paradigm and replace the elevated importance of genes with something much more controversial. His efforts have enraged many of his peers but gained support from the next generation of origins-of-life researchers working to topple the reign of gene-centrism. If successful, the shift could not only transform how we classify, study and treat disease, but what it means to be alive.

One of the earliest biomedical computer programmers, Noble created the first model for a working human heart in 1960 on a vacuum tube computer. The project led to his discovery that heartbeats are emergent properties—new phenomena—arising from feedback loops, transforming our understanding of heart function and underpin treatments for heart conditions that we use today. His research on the heart’s pacemaker demonstrates a prioritization of the organism as a whole over its genes alone. “Several genes could individually be knocked out but the process continues,” says Noble. These genes are responsible for heart rhythm, yet other mechanisms can take over to get the job done.

In the 1960s, Noble served as the dissertation examiner for the then-unknown Richard Dawkins—a prominent figure in the New Atheism movement—would go on to author the 1976 classic The Selfish Gene that popularized the gene-centric theory of evolution. Gene-centrism says evolution acts on genes, not individual organisms. We are merely vessels for our genes that are driving evolution by Darwinian natural selection. Noble’s analysis suggests that evolution acts on the organism as a whole, with the organism harnessing randomness and variation to create and heal itself—on purpose. In this re-evaluation, Noble believes that purpose, creativity, and innovation are fundamental to evolution. He argues that we experience these processes as drives, but they are not purely subjective. They also progress non-consciously in other parts of our body. These natural processes harness randomness and unpredictability—stochasticity—to survive, make decisions, and thrive. “Stochasticity is the center of creativity in organisms,” says Noble.

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They also developed non-noble metal catalysts, including molybdenum-doped nickel-cobalt phosphide and plasma-induced iron composite cobalt oxide bifunctional electrodes, which showed high durability and activity. These electrodes enabled hydrogen and oxygen production at different times and locations by switching the current direction, resulting in low cell voltages, high decoupling efficiency, and high energy conversion efficiency.

To improve layered double hydroxide (LDH) electrodes, which suffer from limited capacity and poor conductivity/stability, the researchers used non-thermal plasma technology to fabricate nitrogen-doped nickel-cobalt LDH and nitrogen-doped reduced /nickel-cobalt LDH electrodes, which significantly improved capacity and conductivity.

Two-step water electrolysis shows promise for large-scale hydrogen storage and applications such as 5G base stations and data centers. “Our performance indicators for two-step water electrolysis for hydrogen production are synchronized with advanced indicators globally, marking an important step towards industrial operation,” said Prof. Chen Changlun.

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