Lifeboat Foundation

When you never need to say a word because your AI reads your mind. Who knows; maybe we’ll end up with a new population of introverts and anti-socialists for researchers to study.

Scientists at the University of Rochester have developed a computer model that can predict sentences by looking for brain activity patterns that are associated with different words.

Interesting research paper on motor cortex-based brain-computer interface (BCI) research conducted by researchers from UW. Sharing with fellow partners and researchers trying to advance BMI as well as those researching and/ or re-creating brain/ neuro patterns in systems.

The neurons in the human brain are densely interlaced, sharing upwards of 100 trillion physical connections. It is widely theorized that this tremendous connectivity is one of the facets of our nervous system that enables human intelligence. In this study, over the course of a week, human subjects learned to use electrical activity recorded directly from the surface of their brain to control a computer cursor. This provided us an opportunity to investigate patterns of interactivity that occur in the brain during the development of a new skill. We demonstrated two fundamentally different forms of interactions, one spanning only neighboring populations of neurons and the other covering much longer distances across the brain. The short-distance interaction type was notably stronger during early phases of learning, lessening with time, whereas the other was not. These findings point to evidence of multiple different forms of task-relevant communication taking place between regions in the human brain, and serve as a building block in our efforts to better understand human intelligence.

Citation: Wander JD, Sarma D, Johnson LA, Fetz EE, Rao RPN, Ojemann JG, et al. (2016) Cortico-Cortical Interactions during Acquisition and Use of a Neuroprosthetic Skill. PLoS Comput Biol 12: e1004931. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004931

Continue reading “Cortico-Cortical Interactions during Acquisition and Use of a Neuroprosthetic Skill” »

Luv this.

Smart devices implanted in the body have thus far not been able to communicate via Wi-Fi due to the power requirements of such communications. Surgery is required when the battery in a brain stimulator or a pacemaker needs to be replaced. Not only is this expensive, but any surgery has inherent risks and could lead to complications. It is therefore critically important that the battery life in implanted medical devices be preserved for as long as possible.

Continue reading “For the First Time Ever a New Way of Communication Enables ‘Talking’ Between Body Implants and Smartphones” »

Another great example where scientists are bridging bio and technology together.

Fluorescent proteins from jellyfish that were grown in bacteria have been used to create a laser for the first time, according to a new study.

The breakthrough represents a major advance in so-called polariton lasers, the researchers said. These lasers have the potential to be far more efficient and compact than conventional ones and could open up research avenues in quantum physics and optical computing, the researchers said.

Continue reading “New Laser Created from Jellyfish’s Fluorescent Proteins” »

Quantum computing 101 — lesson 1: quantum models

Before reviewing in more detail the most promising experimental realisations of quantum information processors, I think it is useful to recap the basic concepts and most used models of quantum computing. In particular, the models, as the physical realisations mentioned in a previous post use different but equivalent computational models, which need to be understood to comprehend their implementations.

Since QUESS has been online, China has been able to deliver the 1st set of programmable code, transmit communications back-and-forth from the satellite, and now they have been able to expand the memory capacity up to 100 Qubits. These are pretty big steps since the satellite has been in orbit on Tuesday.

BTW — the 1st 2 events are directly a result of QUESS; the 3rd advancement isn’t the result of QUESS and resulted after QUESS’ launch.

Although Chinese scientists said there is still a long way to go before any ultrapowerful machine can be developed, progress has been made in terms of quantum memory technology, which is a key component to quantum computing and quantum communication.

Continue reading “Progress made in development of quantum memory” »

Imagine this scenario: Annual physical examinations are supplemented by an affordable home diagnostic chip, allowing you to regularly monitor your baseline health with just a simple urine sample. Though outwardly you appear to be in good health, the device reveals a fluctuation in your biomarker profile, indicating the possible emergence of early stage cancer development or presence of a virus.

Diagnostic devices like a home pregnancy test have been around since the 1970s. It revolutionized a woman’s ability to find out if she was pregnant without having to wait for a doctor’s appointment to confirm her suspicions. The test relies on detecting a hormone, human chorionic gonadotropin, present in urine. But could detecting cancer, or a deadly virus, from a similar kind of sample and device be as simple and non-invasive?

Experiments confirm the existence of 1-micrometer-sized molecules made of two cesium atoms by showing that their binding energies agree with predictions.

Strongly bound diatomic molecules such as H2H2or O2O2 are less than a nanometer across. Surprisingly, scientists have been able to create two-atom molecules more than a thousand times larger by using exotic atoms that attract one another only very weakly. Now, a pair of physicists have calculated what makes these “macrodimers” stable, and they have verified their predictions by creating micrometer-sized molecules containing two cesium atoms. The macrodimers could have applications in quantum computing.

Geobacter is so common that junior-high students use it in science fairs, but it could also wire the military’s future nanoelectronics.