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Sep 13, 2015

Changing behavior through synaptic engineering

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering, neuroscience

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School are the first to show that it’s possible to reverse the behavior of an animal by flipping a switch in neuronal communication. The research, published in PLOS Biology, provides a new approach for studying the neural circuits that govern behavior and has important implications for how scientists think about neural connectomes.

New technologies have fueled the quest to map all the neural connections in the brain to understand how these networks processes information and control behavior. The human brain consists of 1011 neurons that make 1015 connections. The total length of neuronal processes in the human brain is approximately 4 million miles long, similar in length to the total number of roads in the U.S. Along these networks neurons communicate with each other through excitatory and inhibitory synapses that turn neurons on or off.

The neuronal roadmap, or connectome, however, doesn’t include information about the activity of neurons or the signals they transmit. How stable are these neural circuits in the brain? Does their wiring constrain the flow of information or the behaviors they control? The complexity of the human brain makes it almost impossible to address these questions.

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Sep 13, 2015

Why The Future Of Technology Is All Too Human

Posted by in categories: computing, information science, robotics/AI

The concept of artificial intelligence got it’s start at a conference at Dartmouth in 1956. Optimism ran high and it was believed that machines would be able to do the work of humans within 20 years. Alas, it was not to be. By the 1970’s, funding dried up and technology entered the period now known as the AI winter.

Slowly, however, progress was made. Computers became increasingly able to do human tasks, such as character recognition, making recommendations on Amazon and organizing itineraries on travel sites. We didn’t see the algorithms at work, but they were there, computing on our behalf.

So the answer to our technological dilemma is, in fact, all too human. While the past favored those who could retain and process information efficiently, the future belongs to those who can imagine a better world and work with others to make it happen.

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Sep 13, 2015

Ancient virus discovered in melting Arctic ice

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, sustainability

This particular giant virus won’t kill you, but climate change means that something deadly could one day emerge.

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Sep 13, 2015

A Dying Young Woman’s Hope in Cryonics and a Future

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Cancer claimed Kim Suozzi at age 23, but she chose to have her brain preserved with the dream that neuroscience might one day revive her mind.

By AMY HARMON SEPT. 12, 2015.

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Sep 13, 2015

The House just passed a bill about space mining. The future is here.

Posted by in category: space

And it gives a huge boost for the FAA. Here’s why.

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Sep 13, 2015

Physicist discovers that the reason we all live in cities is… 1.15

Posted by in category: futurism

There is a mathematical pattern that connects all cities across the world, transcending political and geographical boundaries, according to British scientist Geoffrey West.

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Sep 12, 2015

Automakers Will Make Automatic Braking Systems Standard in New Cars

Posted by in categories: electronics, transportation

DETROIT — Federal regulators said on Friday that 10 automakers had agreed to install automatic braking systems, which use sensors to detect potential collisions, as standard equipment in new vehicles.

But the automakers have not set a timetable for the introduction of the systems, and regulators may still seek government rules that would require the equipment as a standard feature in all cars and trucks — just as airbags were mandated a generation ago.

Anthony Foxx, the transportation secretary, said in a prepared statement that emergency braking technology could reduce traffic deaths and injuries.

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Sep 12, 2015

Listen To The Solar System Sing With This Fantastic Simulation

Posted by in categories: media & arts, space

This is a seriously cool visualization of the solar system. What if you turned the planets into a sort of music box? That’s the point of Solarbeat, which turns the movement of the planets into music.

Solarbeat actually launched five years ago in 2010, but the designer Luke Twyman decided to revamp the website recently in light of the New Horizons and Dawn missions.

Continue reading “Listen To The Solar System Sing With This Fantastic Simulation” »

Sep 12, 2015

This hand-held molecular scanner will tell you what any object is made of

Posted by in categories: electronics, mobile phones

And send the results to your smartphone.

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Sep 12, 2015

This mind-controlled prosthetic robot arm lets you actually feel what it touches

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, electronics, neuroscience, robotics/AI

https://youtube.com/watch?v=bwz9SPMDO2k

The US government said today (Sept. 11) that it’s successfully made a Luke Skywalker-like prosthetic arm that allows the wearer to actually feel things.

At a conference in July, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) presented the achievements it’d had to date in building a robot arm that can be controlled by a human brain. A little over two months later, the agency has announced at another conference that it’s managed to update the technology to give the wearer the feeling of actually being able to sense things with the arm.

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