Lifeboat Foundation

Inspired by the large-scale sky surveys with which astronomers explore the cosmos, neuroscientists in Seattle, Washington, have spent four years systematically surveying the neural activity of the mouse visual cortex. The Allen Brain Observatory’s first data release, on 13 July, provides a publicly accessible data set of unprecedented size and scope, designed to help scientists to model and understand the human brain.

The project is part of an ambitious ten-year brain-research plan announced in 2012 by the Allen Institute for Brain Science. Designed to catalogue neurons and their electrical characteristics in minute detail, the initiative aims to enable new insights into how perception and cognition arise.

To compile the brain observatory’s first data set, researchers used a specialized microscope to record calcium waves that occur when neurons fire, sampling activity in 25 mice over 360 experimental sessions, while the animals viewed a battery of visual stimuli such as moving patterns of lines, images of natural scenes and short movies. The data set so far includes 18,000 cells in 4 areas of the visual cortex, making it one of the largest and most comprehensive of its kind. The set also includes information about each neuron’s location and its expression of certain genetic markers. At 30 terabytes, the raw data are too large to share easily, but users can download a more manageable processed data set, or explore it online.

Continue reading “Brain-data gold mine could reveal how neurons compute” »

This will definitely make designer wear fashion very collectable and easier for investigators and consumer to detect fakes due to biometric readers. Unfortunately, Coco Chanel and Gianni Versace are not around to participate.

Designer Tina Gorjanc is using Alexander McQueen’s DNA to grow “skin” complete with freckles and tattoos that will be tanned to create jackets and bags.

Can serve many uses such as geneology, etc. However, the bigger advancement will be with criminal/ legal investigations.

Rice University researchers have developed gas biosensors to “see” into soil and allow them to follow the behavior of the microbial communities within.

In a study in the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science and Technology, the Rice team described using genetically engineered bacteria that release methyl halide gases to monitor microbial gene expression in soil samples in the lab.

Continue reading “Gas sensors ‘see’ through soil to analyze microbial interactions” »

About 5 years ago a friend of mine at Microsoft (Mitch S.) had a vision of making a new security model around drone swarms and a form of BMI technology. Glad to see the vision come true.

Scientists have discovered how to control multiple robotic drones using the human brain, an advance that can help develop swarms of search and rescue drones that are controlled just by thought.

Continue reading “Researcher builds technology to control drone swarms with his mind” »

Lumee™ tissue-O₂ monitoring system slated to be available this year in Europe

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., May 16, 2016 — Profusa, Inc. announced today that it was selected by Pioneers, the global business relationship builder, to showcase the company’s “wear-and-forget” Lumee™ biosensor technology at the Pioneers Festival held at the prestigious Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna, Austria, May 24th-25th.

Making health and disease monitoring as easy as turning on your smart phone, the company’s tissue-integrated sensors for long-term, continuous tracking of body chemistry will be highlighted by Ben Hwang, Profusa’s chairman and chief executive officer, in a talk entitled, “Beyond Fitness Trackers: Let Your Body Speak.”

Continue reading “Profusa to Showcase Tissue-integrated Sensors for Long-term Continuous Monitoring of Body Chemistry at the Pioneers Festival in Vienna” »

3D print materials and products with superconducting properties is truly a breakthrough towards the mass production of various complex materials. I see this as a large step forward for 3D and placing things on an evolution track to even mass produce synthetic diamonds.

3D printing is revolutionizing many areas of manufacturing and science. In particular, 3D printing of metals has found novel applications in fields as diverse as customized medical implants, jet engine bearings and rapid prototyping for the automotive industry.

While many techniques can be used for 3D printing with metals, most rely on computer-controlled melting or sintering of a metal alloy powder by a laser or electron beam. The mechanical properties of parts produced by this method have been well studied, but not enough attention has focused on their electrical properties.

Continue reading “Exploring superconducting properties of 3D printed parts” »

This truly makes QC more practical on many fronts. First, no need for QC to reside in an “icebox” room/ environment. Second, with the recent findings on making quantum computing scalable; we now have a method in place to not make QC devices over heat as well. So, again another major step forward by Sydney and their partners in Switzerland and Germany.

http://www.itwire.com/development/73884-research-breakthroug…uture.html

A group of international researchers, including a leading research from the University of Sydney, has made a breakthrough discovery, making a conducting carbon material that they demonstrated could be used to perform quantum computing at room temperature, rather than near absolute zero (−273°C).

Continue reading “Research breakthrough towards ‘practical’ quantum computing future” »

Purifying H₂O more cheaply.

WASHINGTON—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Organic compounds in wastewater, such as dyes and pigments in industry effluents, are toxic or have lethal effect on aquatic living and humans. Increasing evidence has shown that the organic contaminants discharged from electroplating, textile production, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals are the main reasons for the higher morbidity rates of kidney, liver, and bladder cancers, etc. Organic contaminants, especially methyl blue and methyl orange, are stable to light, heat or oxidizing agents and very difficult to remove by conventional chemical or biological wastewater treatment techniques. Recently scientists have developed some new strategies with good dye-removal performance; however, a subsequent adsorbent purification procedure is unavoidable after water treatment, which are often complicated and not suitable for practical water treatment.

Now, using laser-induced fabrication technique, a team of Chinese researchers from Shandong University, China, have developed a novel dye adsorbent. Hybrid nano-particles of silver and silver sulfide (Ag₂S@Ag hybrid nano-particles) have demonstrated the nanomaterial’s superior adsorption performance for removing methyl blue and methyl orange from wastewater. More importantly, the new adsorbents can be removed directly from solutions by filters without adsorbent purification procedures, as the silver-based hybrid nano-particles will be agglomerated and deposited on the bottom after adsorbing dyes, providing a green, simple, rapid and low-cost solution for water purification. This week in the journal Optical Materials Express, from The Optical Society (OSA), the researchers describe the work.