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Sep 25, 2015
AI Helps Humans Best When Humans Help the AI
Posted by Albert Sanchez in category: robotics/AI
Artificial intelligence has come a long way. But as virtual digital assistants proliferate, they often need a non-digital assist.
Sep 25, 2015
First brain-to-brain ‘telepathy’ communication via the Internet
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: internet, neuroscience
University of Washington graduate student Jose Ceballos wears an electroencephalography (EEG) cap that records brain activity and sends a response to a second participant over the Internet (credit: University of Washington)
The first brain-to-brain telepathy-like communication between two participants via the Internet has been performed by University of Washington researchers.
Sep 25, 2015
A new class of anti-obesity compounds with potential anti-diabetic properties
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: biotech/medical
Prevalence of Self-Reported Obesity Among U.S. Adults by State and Territory, BRFSS, 2014 (credit: Behavorial Risk Factor Surveillance System/CDC)
A molecule known as MnTBAP has rapidly reversed obesity in mice and could be effective for humans in the future, according to researchers from Skidmore College and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Sep 25, 2015
NASA to Make Mystery Announcement about Mars on Monday
Posted by Sean Brazell in category: space
Sep 25, 2015
Watch: Paralysed man walks again via brain waves rerouted to his legs
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in categories: biotech/medical, computing, neuroscience
A paraplegic man who was paralysed for five years has walked again on his own two feet, thanks to a new kind of brain-computer interface that can reroute his thoughts to his legs, bypassing his spinal cord entirely.
The anonymous man, who experiences complete paralysis in both legs due to a severe spinal cord injury (SCI), is the first such patient to demonstrate that brain-controlled overground walking after paraplegia due to SCI is feasible.
Continue reading “Watch: Paralysed man walks again via brain waves rerouted to his legs” »
Sep 25, 2015
Humans In Different Buildings Linked Brain-To-Brain
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: neuroscience
Sep 25, 2015
Lab-grown kidneys shown to be fully functional in animal recipients
Posted by Shailesh Prasad in category: biotech/medical
The past few years have been marked by the proliferation of lab-grown organs, including limbs, livers, skin, heart tissue, and yep, even penises. But piecing together an organ, cell-by-cell, in a way that resembles the real thing is only half the challenge — you’ve actually got to make it work as part of several incredibly complex systems in a living, breathing organism. And that’s where most attempts fall flat.
But researchers in Japan have managed to grow fully functioning kidneys in the lab, and when transplanted into pigs and rats, they filtered out urine just like a natural kidney. Built using stem cells that had been extracted and then incubated in the animal recipients, the kidneys point to the possibility of lab-grown kidneys for humans in the future.
Led by Takashi Yokoo from the Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo, the team figured out how to overcome a challenge they’d faced previously with these lab-grown kidneys: they were good at processing urine, but instead of passing it into the natural ureter, they ballooned dangerously under the pressure.
Sep 24, 2015
Stephen Hawking speaks with virtually no muscular movement
Posted by Philip Raymond in categories: astronomy, biotech/medical, cosmology, gravity, physics, singularity, space, thought controlled
Next January Stephen Hawking will be 74 years old. He has lived much longer than most individuals with his debilitating condition. In addition to being an unquestionably gifted cosmologist, he has invited controversy by supporting the pro-Palestinian, Israel-BDS boycott and warning about the dangers of alien invaders who tap into our interstellar greetings
Antisemitism, notwithstanding, this man is a mental giant. He is Leonardo. He is Einstein. Like them, his discoveries and theories will echo for generations beyond his life on earth. He is that genius.
Forty years ago, when Stephen Hawking still had mobility, he delivered a paper on a mystery regarding information-loss for entities that cross the event boundary of a black hole.
In the mid 1970s, Astronomers were just discovering black holes and tossing about various theories about the event horizon and its effect on the surrounding space-time. Many individuals still considered black holes to be theoretical. Hawking’s analysis of the information paradox seemed extremely esoteric. Yet, last month (Aug 2015) , at Sweeden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Hawking presented a possible solution to the paradox that he sparked.
Continue reading “Stephen Hawking speaks with virtually no muscular movement” »
Sep 24, 2015
‘4-D’ printing technology allows self-folding of complex ‘transformer’ objects, using smart shape-memory materials
Posted by Sean Brazell in categories: 4D printing, materials
This image shows the self-folding process of smart shape-memory materials with slightly different responses to heat. Using materials that fold at slightly different rates ensures that the components do not interfere with one another during the process. (credit: Qi Laboratory)
Using components made from smart shape-memory materials (which can return to their original shape) with slightly different responses to heat, researchers have demonstrated a “four-dimensional” printing technology that allows for creating complex, self-folding structures.
