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Ultra-thin, flexible silicone nanosensor could have huge impact on brain injury treatment

A car accident, football game, or even a bad fall can lead to a serious or fatal head injury. Annually, traumatic brain injuries (TBI) cause half a million permanent disabilities and 50,000 deaths. Monitoring pressure inside the skull is key to treating TBI and preventing long-lasting complications.

Most of these monitoring devices are large and invasive, requiring surgical emplacement. But Georgia Tech researchers have recently created a sensor smaller than a dime. The miniature size offers huge benefits.

“Surgery means extensive recovery time and can significantly impact . Our system doesn’t require surgery because we use a conventional stent, the catheter, as a delivery vehicle,” said W. Hong Yeo, the Harris Saunders Jr. Endowed Professor and an associate professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

Researchers unveil nearly invisible brain-computer interface

Georgia Tech researchers have developed an almost imperceptible microstructure brain sensor to be inserted into the minuscule spaces between hair follicles and slightly under the skin. The sensor offers high-fidelity signals and makes the continuous use of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) in everyday life possible.

BCIs create a direct communication pathway between the brain’s electrical activity and external devices such as electroencephalography devices, computers, robotic limbs, and other brain monitoring devices. Brain signals are commonly captured non-invasively with electrodes mounted on the surface of the human scalp using conductive electrode gel for optimum impedance and data quality. More invasive signal capture methods such as brain implants are possible, but this research seeks to create sensors that are both easily placed and reliably manufactured.

Hong Yeo, the Harris Saunders Jr. Professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, combined the latest microneedle technology with his deep expertise in wearable sensor technology that may allow stable brain signal detection over long periods and easy insertion of a new painless, wearable microneedle BCI wireless sensor that fits between hair follicles. The skin placement and extremely small size of this new wireless brain interface could offer a variety of benefits over traditional gel or dry electrodes.

Episode 13: Dr. Suzanne Gildert — the frontier of AI consciousness

Developing humanoid robots, unravelling the complexities of AI, and the mysteries of consciousness.

Welcome to the ⁠⁠⁠North of Patient⁠⁠⁠ podcast — conversations on health[beyond]care — where we paint an inspired landscape of healthcare’s future through dialogues with creative and unconventional thinkers from around the world.

For a summary of the episode, visit the ⁠blog post⁠ on North of Patient:
https://open.substack.com/pub/northofpatient/p/episode-13-dr…Share=true.

This week’s guest is the remarkable Dr. Suzanne Gildert. She’s a physicist, artist, and AI tech executive based in Vancouver on a mission to uncover the mysteries of consciousness and innovate unconscious AI.

In this episode, we dive into the groundbreaking advancements and pressing challenges in quantum computing, examining the transformative potential of these technologies to reshape our world. Beyond the science, we also explore the philosophical dimensions of AI consciousness, questioning whether AI can ever truly replicate human experience and identity.

Learn more about Nirvanic AI:

What If Everything Changed? | Robin Hanson | TEDxNorrköping

Whar may happen when the first truly smart robots appear, based on brain emulations or ems. Scan a human brain, then run a model with the same connections on a fast computer, and you have a robot brain, but recognizably human.

Train them to do some job and copy it a million times: an army of workers is at your disposal. When they can be made cheaply.
within perhaps a century, they will displace humans in most jobs.
In this new economic era, the world economy may double in size every few weeks.
Applying decades of expertise in physics, computer science, and economics.
and use ofstandard theories indicate a detailed picture of a world dominated by ems.

Associate Professor of Economics, and received his Ph.D in 1997 in social sciences from Caltech. Joined George Mason’s economics faculty in 1999 after completing a two year post-doc at U.C Berkely. His major fields of interest include health policy, regulation, and formal political theory. Recent book: The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life When Robots Rule The Earth. Oxford University Press, 2016.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

Chinese robots ran against humans in the world’s first humanoid half-marathon. They lost by a mile

If the idea of robots taking on humans in a road race conjures dystopian images of android athletic supremacy, then fear not, for now at least.

More than 20 two-legged robots competed in the world’s first humanoid half-marathon in China on Saturday, and – though technologically impressive – they were far from outrunning their human masters over the long distance.

Teams from several companies and universities took part in the race, a showcase of China’s advances on humanoid technology as it plays catch-up with the US, which still boasts the more sophisticated models.

Is the Universe Thinking?

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Is the universe actually thinking—literally, not just as a metaphor? We dive into the latest theories from physicists, exploring ideas like the universe as a vast neural network, capable of processing and even learning information, much like our own brains do.

Tune in as we explore the boundaries between science, consciousness, and the universe itself.

Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join.

📚 Get a copy of my books:
Think Like a Nobel Prize Winner, with life changing interviews with 9 Nobel Prizewinners: https://a.co/d/03ezQFu.

My tell-all cosmic memoir Losing the Nobel Prize: http://amzn.to/2sa5UpA

Neuroscientists develop AI tool to unlock cerebellum’s secrets

Understanding and treating brain disorders such as tremor, imbalance, and speech impairments requires deep knowledge of the cerebellum, a part of the brain that’s crucial for making accurate movements.

Scientists have long been able to eavesdrop on and record the electrical signals transmitted by neurons () in the cerebellum, allowing them to observe the signals entering and exiting this region. But the computations that the brain performs between the input and output have been largely a mystery.

However, that is now changing. A team of researchers, including those from Baylor College of Medicine, have created an artificial intelligence tool that can identify the type of neuron producing electrical signals recorded from the cerebellum during behavior, allowing a new understanding of how the cerebellum works.

Novel technique overcomes spurious correlations problem in AI

AI models often rely on “spurious correlations,” making decisions based on unimportant and potentially misleading information. Researchers have now discovered these learned spurious correlations can be traced to a very small subset of the training data and have demonstrated a technique that overcomes the problem. The work has been published on the arXiv preprint server.