Lifeboat Foundation

Are we there already?

Less than a year has passed since we saw Pager play Ping-Pong using Neuralink. The company’s owner, Elon Musk has now said that he is confident of testing the chip in humans next year.

Founded in July 2016, the company is busy building an implantable chip that will allow the human brain to interact with computers directly. The company made headlines when its experimental macaque played Ping-Pong telepathically, without the help of a joystick. The company seems to have made rapid progress in its technology since its founder is quite optimistic about human testing.

Continue reading “Elon Musk Says It Is Possible to Test Neuralink on Humans Next Year” »

What if the next global health crisis is a mental health pandemic? It is here now.

According to Gallup, anger, stress, worry and sadness have been on the rise globally for the past decade — long before the COVID-19 pandemic — and all reached record highs in 2020.

People die from COVID-19 — they also die from depression and anxiety disorders. The U.S. has seen spikes in deaths from suicide and “deaths of despair.”

Continue reading “The Next Global Pandemic: Mental Health” »

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐛𝐨 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝐋𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐨𝐧

𝘼𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙢 𝙧𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙚𝙫𝙤𝙡𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙥 𝙪𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙪𝙣𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚.

𝐏𝐬𝐲𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐲 𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲:

Continue reading “The Placebo Effect and God May Live in the Same Brain Region” »

Rapid advances in large-scale connectomics are beginning to spotlight the importance of individual variations in the neural circuitry. They also highlight the limitations of “wiring diagrams” alone.

Theoretical physicist Sean Carroll joins us to discuss whether it make sense to think of consciousness as an emergent phenomenon, and whether contemporary physics points in this direction.

We discussed Sean’s essay responding to Philip’s book ‘Galileo’s Error,’ and Philip’s counter-response essay. Both are available here: https://conscienceandconsciousness.com/2021/08/01/19-essays-on-galileos-error/

Continue reading “Sean Carroll: Is Consciousness Emergent?” »

Science isn’t all lab coats and test tubes. Beautiful visuals can engage people—especially students—and inspire them to learn about science more broadly.

Scientists have often invited the public to see what they see, using everything from engraved woodblocks to electron microscopes to explore the complexity of the scientific enterprise and the beauty of life. Sharing these visions through illustrations, photography, and videos has allowed laypeople to explore a range of discoveries, from new bird species to the inner workings of the human cell.

Continue reading “These gorgeous images could transform science education” »

Scientists have found a way to interpret jellyfish’s thoughts regardless of not having any neurons, study finds.

They were able to observe how well the cells in a tiny type of see-through jellyfish operate collectively, to produce complicated independent motions, such as capturing and consuming food source. This is all thanks to ingenious molecular manipulation.

Two Allen Discovery Centers enter their next phase of discovery, poised to address large questions about biology.

http://spie.org/bios.

Boyden’s award-winning research has led to tools that can activate or silence neurons with light, enabling the causal assessment of how specific neurons contribute to normal and pathological brain functions.

Continue reading “Ed Boyden on Optogenetics —- selective brain stimulation with light” »