A paralyzed woman flies a fighter jet with her mind Back in February of 2012, a paralyzed 55 year old mother Mrs. Jan Schuermaan participated in an experiment led by a team of researchers at the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine. The team of researchers implanted electrode grids with tiny contact points originally meant to control her arm and hand movements. With a simple computer algorithm, signals gathered from individual neurons were grouped into patterns. “Within a week of the surgery, Ms. After 2 years since the surgical implants of the electrode grids, Mrs. The project of DARPA was to control a Multirole fighter called F-35 (picture below) in a simulator purely by her mind. Surprisingly, Mrs.
smart-drugs Artificial blood vessels created on a 3D printer 16 September 2011Last updated at 11:49 By Katia Moskvitch Technology reporter, BBC News Artificial blood vessels could help those in urgent need of an organ transplant Artificial blood vessels made on a 3D printer may soon be used for transplants of lab-created organs. Until now, the stumbling block in tissue engineering has been supplying artificial tissue with nutrients that have to arrive via capillary vessels. A team at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany has solved that problem using 3D printing and a technique called multiphoton polymerisation. The findings will be shown at the Biotechnica Fair in Germany in October. Out of thousands of patients in desperate need of an organ transplant there are inevitably some who do not get it in time. In Germany, for instance, more than 11,000 people have been put on an organ transplant waiting list in 2011 alone. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote End QuoteDr Gunter TovarFraunhofer Institute, Germany Elastic biomaterials
Minute machines dive inside a living creature for first time — RT News Published time: January 23, 2015 16:10 Reuters / Phil Noble Researchers at the University of California have managed to implant acid-powered, self-destructing micromotors inside a living animal for the first time. It's hoped the tiny devices could help tackle maladies such as peptic ulcers in the future. The tiny machines just 20 micrometers long and roughly a human hair's width, managed to deliver nano-particles to the stomach of a mouse without any side effects. The self-propelled devices, made of polymer tubes and coated in zinc, self-destruct without leaving any traces of harmful chemicals. “The body of the motors gradually dissolves in the gastric acid, autonomously releasing their payloads, leaving nothing toxic behind,” Professors Liangfang Zhang and Joseph Wang, who lead the research, wrote in the journal ACS Nano. While the machines dissolve, they deliver their vital contents into the stomach tissue.
Functional 3D Brain Tissue Successfully Grown From Stem Cells The ultimate goal of stem cell research is to create functional replica tissues and organs for use as replacements in times of injury or disease, or for use in the development of drugs and other therapeutic techniques. Getting tissues to grow in the lab in three dimensions has been challenging across the board, but this is especially problematic for structures in the nervous system. Beyond getting the neurons to grow at all, they must be connected in a very particular manner in order to function. A major step forward has been taken on this front by a team from RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Japan, who state in Cell Reports that they have successfully grown 3D functional brain tissue that has even grown with proper patterning. The brain tissues were grown from human embryonic stem cells, and growth factors were added in series throughout development. Read this next: Richard Dawkins Reads Hate Mail From “Fans”
5 Mind Blowing Ways Your Memory Plays Tricks On You Everybody will tell you that memory can't be trusted. When they say that, of course, what they mean is other people's memories can't be trusted. We don't like to think that everything we know about the world is based on a deeply flawed and illogical storage system. We're not talking about being bad at matching faces with names here. Other People Can Manipulate Your Memory With Repetition There was quite a stir recently when it turned out that a growing number of people believe the President of the USA is a Muslim. But according to the Pew Research Center, for almost 20% of the people they polled, those memories have been trumped by the mere act of hearing commentators assert that Obama is a Muslim, over and over and over. Obama, posing with a statue of the famed Imam Ali bin Superman. You can laugh at them all you want, but that technique works on all of us, to various degrees. They call it the "Illusion of Truth" effect. "We will never regret any of these decisions." Speaking of which...
IBM Chip ‘Senses’ Events to React Like Brain International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) has developed a computer chip inspired by the human brain that may predict tsunamis and highlight risks in financial markets. The technology, called cognitive computing, is programmed to recognize patterns, make predictions and learn from mistakes, human-like capabilities not possible using today’s best computers. It’s a sharp departure from traditional chip design concepts, IBM said in a statement today. Systems built with the new chip can synthesize events currently occurring and make decisions in real time, the Armonk, New York-based company said. “We’re inventing a new system, changing the game,” Dharmendra Modha, the project’s leader, said in an interview. While current computers handle commands individually on a linear if/then basis, Modha said machines equipped with the new chips will “rewire themselves on the fly.” Reacting to Surroundings Potential Uses “The impact of this is inevitable, but the timing is unpredictable,” Modha said.
Scientists learn to selectively erase and restore memories in brain Published time: June 04, 2014 23:41 Edited time: June 06, 2014 23:19 Reuters / STR Wiping out memories at a press of a button – just like with a ‘neuralizer’ from the Men in Black movie – may soon become a reality. Researchers have managed to erase and then restore lost memory in genetically modified rats with a flash of light. The study by researchers from University of California in San Diego, published in Nature journal , is the first cause-and-effect evidence that strengthening or weakening connections between neurons in the brain can influence particular memories. “We can form a memory, erase that memory and we can reactivate it, at will, by applying a stimulus that selectively strengthens or weakens synaptic connections,” study senior researcher Dr. The neuroscientists’ findings may hold big potential for the treatment of such diseases as Alzheimer's and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). AFP Photo / Marco Longari
Artificial Neurons Can Communicate in the Same Way as Human Neurons Synopsis This artificial neuron contain no ‘living’ parts, but is capable of mimicking the function of a human nerve cell and communicate in the same way as our own neurons do. Summary To date, the primary technique for neuronal stimulation in human cells is based on electrical stimulation. Shepard-Risset Glissando What you’ll be hearing is a fluid audio loop that sounds as thought it is getting lower and lower—like a balloon slowly deflating but never becoming flat. How It Works If you’re anything like HighLab, you too were totally amazed by the Shepard Tone. The Shepard-Risset Glissando is a constantly descending note-by-note configuration of the Shepard Tones woven into a continuous, fluid signal.
Lab-Grown Lungs - The 50 Best Inventions of 2010 Growing new body parts has always been more science fiction than science reality, but that balance may quickly be shifting, at least in the lab. Relying on more sophisticated biosimulators that can better mimic body conditions, researchers have re-created the delicate architecture of a rat lung accurately enough for it to assume 95% of a normal lung's inhaling and exhaling functions. The key to their respiratory success was starting with a skeletal rat-lung template, including a matrix of blood vessels and collagen and other connective tissue, then seeding it with stem cells and nutrients to generate lifelike tissue that exchanged oxygen and carbon dioxide just like normal lung tissue. The ultimate goal is to replicate the feat on a larger scale: to replace enough human lung tissue to aid patients with emphysema or lung cancer. Next 3-D Bioprinter
Worm ‘Brain’ Uploaded Into Lego Robot Worm ‘Brain’ Uploaded Into Lego Robot Can a digitally simulated brain on a computer perform tasks just like the real thing? For simple commands, the answer, it would seem, is yes it can. While there are already similarly capable robots using traditional software, the research shows a digitally simulated brain can behave like its biological analog, and the demonstration has implications for big brain projects. The BRAIN Initiative in the US and the Human Brain Project in Europe aim to map the human brain’s connections and, one day, to simulate the brain digitally. But when it comes to simulating brains in silica—it’s sensible to start simple. C. elegans. C. elegans is an eminently humble creature, and for that reason, an extensively researched one. The worm’s brain contains 302 neurons and 7,000 synapses. The robot, as you can see in the video, moves a little like a Roomba, with one critical distinction—the Roomba’s collision avoidance mechanism was written in by programmers.
Tiny Scallop-Like Robots Designed To Deliver Drugs Through The Bloodstream To Treat Diseases - Futurism Synopsis Researchers in Germany have developed a "scallop-inspired" tiny robot small enough to travel through the bloodstream, and it doesn't require an engine or batteries Summary The idea for the new robot was inspired by the scallop, which moves around by opening and closing a pair of shells. The robot moves through a non-Newtonian fluid by performing what looks like horizontal jumping jacksThe tiny bots can be printed on a 3D printer, and many of them could be directed at once with a single magnetThe team doesn’t have any particular applications in mind for their robots, but it’s clear that they could be used to send medication to single spot, such as to kill tumors