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Robotic ‘Third Thumb’ use can alter brain representation of the hand

Using a robotic ‘Third Thumb’ can impact how the hand is represented in the brain, finds a new study led by UCL researchers.

The team trained people to use a robotic extra and found they could effectively carry out dextrous tasks, like building a tower of blocks, with one hand (now with two thumbs). The researchers report in the journal Science Robotics that participants trained to use the thumb also increasingly felt like it was a part of their body.

Designer Dani Clode began developing the device, called the Third Thumb, as part of an award-winning graduate project at the Royal College of Art, seeking to reframe the way we view prosthetics, from replacing a lost function, to an extension of the human body. She was later invited to join Professor Tamar Makin’s team of neuroscientists at UCL who were investigating how the can adapt to body augmentation.

Are mouse models relevant to Human regenerative medicine?

To begin with, why do we use mice in medical and biological research? The answer to this question is fairly straight forward. Mice are cheap, they grow quickly, and the public rarely object to experimentations involving mice. However, mice offer something that is far more important than simple pragmatism, as despite being significantly smaller and externally dissimilar to humans, our two species share an awful lot of similarities. Almost every gene found within mice share functions with genes found within humans, with many genes being essentially identical (with the obvious exception of genetic variation found within all species). This means that anatomically mice are remarkably similar to humans.

Now, this is where for the sake of clarity it would be best to break down biomedical research into two categories. Physiological research and pharmaceutical research, as the success of the mouse model should probably be judges separately depending upon the research that is being carried out. Separating the question of the usefulness of the mouse model down into these two categories also solves the function of more accurately focusing the ire of its critics.

The usefulness of the mouse model in the field of physiological research is largely unquestioned at this point. We have quite literally filled entire textbooks with the information we have gained from studying mice, especially in the field of genetics and pathology. The similarities between humans and mice are so prevalent that it is in fact possible to create functioning human/mouse hybrids, known as ‘genetically engineered mouse models’ or ‘GEMMs’. Essentially, GEMMs are mice that have had the mouse version of a particular gene replaced with its human equivalent. This is an exceptionally powerful tool for medical research, and has led to numerous medical breakthroughs, including most notably our current treatment of acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL), which was created using GEMMs.

Dr. Natasha Bajema — Dir., Converging Risks Lab, Council on Strategic Risks — WMD Threat Reduction

Nuclear Nonproliferation, Cooperative Threat Reduction and WMD Terrorism — Dr. Natasha Bajema, Director, Converging Risks Lab, The Council on Strategic Risks.


Dr. Natasha Bajema, is a subject matter expert in nuclear nonproliferation, cooperative threat reduction and WMD terrorism, and currently serves as Director of the Converging Risks Lab, at The Council on Strategic Risks, a nonprofit, non-partisan security policy institute devoted to anticipating, analyzing and addressing core systemic risks to security in the 21st century, with special examination of the ways in which these risks intersect and exacerbate one another.

The Converging Risks Lab (CRL) is a research and policy development-oriented program designed to study converging, cross-sectoral risks in a rapidly-changing world, which brings together experts from multiple sectors of the security community, to ask forward-thinking questions about these converging risks, and to develop anticipatory solutions.

Dr. Bajema is also Founder and CEO of Nuclear Spin Cycle, a publishing and production company specializing in national security, entertainment, and publishing.

Prior to this, Dr. Bajema was at the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction at the National Defense University, serving as Director of the Program for Emerging Leaders (PEL), as well as serving long-term detail assignments serving in various capacities in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Acquisitions, Technology and Logistics, Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs and in Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation at Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration.

Eliminating dangerous bacteria with nanoparticles

Multi-resistant pathogens are a serious and increasing problem in today’s medicine. Where antibiotics are ineffective, these bacteria can cause life-threatening infections. Researchers at Empa and ETH Zurich are currently developing nanoparticles that can be used to detect and kill multi-resistant pathogens that hide inside our body cells. The team published the study in the current issue of the journal Nanoscale (“Inorganic nanohybrids combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria hiding within human macrophages”).

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are being swallowed by a human white blood cell. Colorized, scanning electron microscopic (SEM) image. (Image: CDC/NIAID)

In the arms race “mankind against bacteria”, bacteria are currently ahead of us. Our former miracle weapons, antibiotics, are failing more and more frequently when germs use tricky maneuvers to protect themselves from the effects of these drugs. Some species even retreat into the inside of human cells, where they remain “invisible” to the immune system. These particularly dreaded pathogens include multi-resistant staphylococci (MRSA), which can cause life-threatening diseases such as sepsis or pneumonia.

BIONIC ARM = MAXIMUM STRENGTH (Crysis Nanosuit IRL)

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Building real Iron Man suit (Part#2: Exosuit, hydrogen muscles & EMG sensors)

Here is my inspiration source: https://curiositystream.com/AlexLab.
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Cosmos Elementary https://youtube.com/channel/UCBTUsDJaEqU-1rWBW1F0oog.

ABOUT VIDEO
We continue to build a Real Iron Man suit! In this part we make a leg exosuit part, hydrogen artificial muscles, and learn how to command them with EMG sensors.
Metal stuff, muscles, brains and night workshop aesthetic)
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Robotic Exoskeletons Could One Day Walk

**Engineers, using artificial intelligence and wearable cameras, now aim to help robotic exoskeletons walk by themselves.**

Increasingly, researchers around the world are developing lower-body exoskeletons to help people walk. These are essentially walking robots users can strap to their legs to help them move.

One problem with such exoskeletons: They often depend on manual controls to switch from one mode of locomotion to another, such as from sitting to standing, or standing to walking, or walking on the ground to walking up or down stairs. Relying on joysticks or smartphone apps every time you want to switch the way you want to move can prove awkward and mentally taxing, says Brokoslaw Laschowski, a robotics researcher at the University of Waterloo in Canada.


AI and wearable cameras could help exoskeletons act a bit like autonomous vehicles.

Welp, France Just Signed Off on Cyborg Soldiers

A French military bioethics panel has cleared the development of technological upgrades for members of the armed forces. The panel says the French Armed Forces may develop and deploy technological augments in order to preserve the French military’s “operational superiority.”

➡ You love badass military tech. So do we. Let’s nerd out over it together.

Robotic surfaces with reversible, spatiotemporal control for shape morphing and object manipulation

Continuous and controlled shape morphing is essential for soft machines to conform, grasp, and move while interacting safely with their surroundings. Shape morphing can be achieved with two-dimensional (2D) sheets that reconfigure into target 3D geometries, for example, using stimuli-responsive materials. However, most existing solutions lack the ability to reprogram their shape, face limitations on attainable geometries, or have insufficient mechanical stiffness to manipulate objects. Here, we develop a soft, robotic surface that allows for large, reprogrammable, and pliable shape morphing into smooth 3D geometries. The robotic surface consists of a layered design composed of two active networks serving as artificial muscles, one passive network serving as a skeleton, and cover scales serving as an artificial skin.