living neural Researchers in Korea have taken a leaf out of the microengineer's book, and used lithographic techniques to build live neural circuits in a petri dish. They hope the technique could be exploited one day to build neural tissue scaffolds, to help regenerate neurons in damaged areas of the body, including the spinal cord. The development is not strictly materials science, but fascinating nonetheless — especially in a world where there is an increasing interplay between biology and technology, with proteins being used as the building blocks for circuits, and graphene proving itself adept at protein detection. The researchers printed a variety of single-cell-sized shapes — including triangles, circles, hexagons, squares and stars — onto a culture substrate using microcontact printing, a form of soft lithography, with a mixture of poly-L-lysine and laminin A chain synthetic peptide.
minded computer Scientists believe they have found a way to read people's minds in what could be the first step towards helping brain-damaged patients who cannot speak. US researchers used a computer programme to decode brain activity and put it into words using a form of electronic telepathy. Experts described the breakthrough, unveiled in the journal Public Library of Science Biology, as "remarkable" and believe it could ultimately be possible to decipher people's thoughts. Researchers at the University of California in Berkeley used the programme to predict what spoken words volunteers had listened to by analysing their brain activity. Previous research has shown imagined words activate similar brain areas as words that are said aloud, raising hopes they can also be uncovered by "reading" brain waves. Professor Robert Knight, who worked on the study, said: "This is huge for patients who have damage to their speech mechanisms because of a stroke or Lou Gehrig's disease and can't speak.
insects drones A conceptual insect robot If you are talking about big boys’ toys, then surely being part of the military’s hush-hush research and development team would place you squarely in the front line of being able to play with such new technology. While UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) have done their bit in wars across the world to be able to scout enemy territory without putting human lives at risk, they are large – and unwieldy at times. The extremely tiny remote controlled vehicles that are based on insects will most likely have been deployed in sensitive areas to date, where these are called the micro air vehicles (MAVs), and will share similar physics as that employed by flying insects. .
neurocell language Imagine if we could understand the language two neurons use to communicate. We might learn something about how thoughts and consciousness are formed. At the very least, our improved understanding of neuron communication would help biologists study the brain with more precision than ever before. Heather Clark, an associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Northeastern University, has received a $300,000 Young Faculty Award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to explore neural cell communication using her expertise in nanosensors. "We were interested in looking into neural cells because of the need to measure chemicals in the brain," she explained. In separate work, Clark had already been developing nanosensors to measure the biochemical environment inside a single neuron. The other DARPA project, she noted, enabled the team to incorporate enzymes into their sensor format.
saisie sphère Robotics is the branch of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and computer science that deals with the design, construction, operation, and application of robots,[1] as well as computer systems for their control, sensory feedback, and information processing. These technologies deal with automated machines that can take the place of humans in dangerous environments or manufacturing processes, or resemble humans in appearance, behavior, and/or cognition. Many of today's robots are inspired by nature contributing to the field of bio-inspired robotics. The concept of creating machines that can operate autonomously dates back to classical times, but research into the functionality and potential uses of robots did not grow substantially until the 20th century.[2] Throughout history, robotics has been often seen to mimic human behavior, and often manage tasks in a similar fashion. Etymology[edit] History of robotics[edit] Robotic aspects[edit] Components[edit] Power source[edit]
hacked brain By Peter V. Milo August 25, 2012 1:56 AM News Get Breaking News First Receive News, Politics, and Entertainment Headlines Each Morning. Sign Up BERKELEY, Calif. Researchers from the University of California and University of Oxford in Geneva figured out a way to pluck sensitive information from a person’s head, such as PIN numbers and bank information. The scientists took an off-the-shelf Emotiv brain-computer interface, a device that costs around $299, which allows users to interact with their computers by thought. The scientists then sat their subjects in front of a computer screen and showed them images of banks, people, and PIN numbers. The P300 signal is typically given off when a person recognizes something meaningful, such as someone or something they interact with on a regular basis. Scientists that conducted the experiment found they could reduce the randomness of the images by 15 to 40 percent, giving them a better chance of guessing the correct answer.
sized brain longevity By Ian Sample, The GuardianThursday, May 2, 2013 3:26 EDT US team identifies mechanism deep in brains of mice which can be tweaked to shorten or lengthen lives Scientists have found a biological command centre for the ageing process in a lump of brain the size of a nut. The US team identified the mechanism in the hypothalamus, which sits deep inside the brain, and showed they could tweak it to shorten or lengthen the lives of animals. In a series of experiments, the researchers found they could extend the lives of mice by a fifth, without the animals suffering from muscle weakness, bone loss, or memory problems common in old age. The work raises the tantalising prospect of drugs that slow down natural ageing to prolong life in humans, but more crucially to prevent age-related diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s. “We’re very excited about this. © Guardian News and Media 2013 [women power via Shutterstock.com.]
gestion learning After 24 hours of staring at their screens, the teams that participated in our Disrupt NY 2013 Hackathon have now finished their projects and are currently presenting them onstage. With more than 160 hacks, there are far too many cool ones to write about, but one that stood out to me was NewsRel, an iPad-based news app that uses machine-learning techniques to understand how news stories relate to one other. The app uses Google Maps as its main interface and automatically decides which location is most appropriate for any given story. The app currently uses Reuters‘ RSS feed and analyzes the stories, looking for clusters of related stories and then puts them on the map. Say you are looking at a story about the Boston Marathon bombings. In addition to this, the team built an algorithm that picks the most important sentences from each story to summarize it for you. The team members have a background in machine learning and iOS engineering.
social brain By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on October 8, 2012 New research from the Brain and Creativity Institute at USC suggests liking or disliking a person can affect how your brain processes actions. Researchers say that most of the time, watching someone else move causes a “mirroring” effect – that is, the parts of our brains responsible for motor skills are activated by watching someone else in action. However, in the new study, researchers discovered that whether or not you like the person you’re watching can actually have an effect on brain activity related to motor actions. This brain action can lead to “differential processing” – for example, thinking the person you dislike is moving more slowly than they actually are. The study is published in the journal PLOS ONE. “We address the basic question of whether social factors influence our perception of simple actions,” said Lisa Aziz-Zadeh, Ph.D. Source: USC Abstract of a blue brain photo by shutterstock.
sphère toucher Science Published on June 20th, 2012 | by James Ayre With the right sensors, actuators and software, robots can now be given a tactile sense that imitates that of the sense of touch in humans. A specially designed robot is able to outperform humans in the identification of a wide range of materials based on their textures, according to new research from the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering. Equipped with a new type of tactile sensor, the robot is built to mimic the function of a human fingertip. The robotic sensor is also capable of other human sensations, such as telling where and from what direction forces are applied to the fingertip sensor, and the relative temperature of the object being touched. Similar to a human finger, the BioTac® sensor is covered in a soft and flexible skin, over a liquid filling. While the sensor slides over a textured surface, the ‘skin’ of the sensor vibrates in characteristic ways. About the Author Related Posts
wearable robot ROCKFORD, MI -- An athlete who was paralyzed in an accident was able to walk again Monday morning during a demonstration of Ekso, a wearable exoskeleton robot, at DMC Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan's Center for Spinal Cord Injury Recovery. The Ekso technology, named for its exoskeleton-like properties, was developed by California-based Ekso Bionics and aims to help those with lower extremity paralysis or weakness to stand and walk. The wearable bionic robot technology is a battery-powered, bionic device and uses motors to help users walk, said Beverly Millson with Missing Sock Public Relations. The robotic suit weighs about 45 pounds and can be strapped on within three minutes. The patient does not bear the weight of the device as the load is transferred to the ground. The Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan's facility in Detroit purchased one of the robots and funds are being raised for the Rockford location to do the same, said program director Sandy Burns.
electronic tattoos We might one day be able to monitor our bodies' internal functions — and prevent things like epileptic seizures before they happen — using a flexible circuit attached to the surface of skin. The National Science Foundation announced Monday that researchers are working on a prototype tattoo-like device that can detect heart, muscle and brain activity. Tiny curly wires in a flexible membrane make up these devices and work better than conventional hard, brittle circuits, because body tissue itself is soft and pliable. "We're trying to bridge that gap, from silicon, wafer-based electronics to biological, 'tissue-like' electronics, to really blur the distinction between electronics and the body," said materials scientist John Rogers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. "As the skin moves and deforms, the circuit can follow those deformations in a completely noninvasive way." SEE ALSO: Artificial Super-Skin Could Transform Phones, Robots and Artificial Limbs [via CNET]
cyber ami Le moteur de recherche achète DeepMind, pour plus de 400 millions de dollars. Cette start-up est spécialiste de l'intelligence artificielle. Google prépare-t-il un robot intelligent? Le groupe Internet a confirmé dimanche avoir acheté l'entreprise DeepMind, une société londonienne qui travaille sur l'intelligence artificielle. L'acquisition a été menée par Larry Page, le cofondateur de Google, et aurait coûté 400 millions de dollars selon Re/code ou plus de 500 millions de dollars selon The Information. Google n'a pas souhaité préciser le prix. DeepMind est une entreprise très discrète. DeepMind a été fondée en 2011 par Demis Hassabis, joueur prodige d'échec et neuroscientifique, Shane Legg et Mustafa Suleyman. Google s'est déjà intéressé à la question de l'intelligence artificielle dans le passé. Google, avec ses 56 milliards de dollars, peut investir partout.
cognition artifice In the 1950s and '60s, artificial-intelligence researchers saw themselves as trying to uncover the rules of thought. But those rules turned out to be way more complicated than anyone had imagined. Since then, artificial-intelligence (AI) research has come to rely, instead, on probabilities -- statistical patterns that computers can learn from large sets of training data. The probabilistic approach has been responsible for most of the recent progress in artificial intelligence, such as voice recognition systems, or the system that recommends movies to Netflix subscribers. But Noah Goodman, an MIT research scientist whose department is Brain and Cognitive Sciences but whose lab is Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence, thinks that AI gave up too much when it gave up rules. Early AI researchers saw thinking as logical inference: if you know that birds can fly and are told that the waxwing is a bird, you can infer that waxwings can fly. Embracing uncertainty Modeling minds