background preloader

Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice

Barry Schwartz: The paradox of choice

Why Extroverts Could Cause Problems on a Mission to Mars As NASA focuses considerable effort on a mission to send humans to Mars in the coming decades, psychology researchers are looking at what types of personalities would work the best together on such a long trip. Now, a new study finds that on long-term space missions — such as missions to Mars, which could take as long as three years to complete a round trip — having an extrovert on board could have several disadvantages. For example, extroverts tend to be talkative, but their gregarious nature may make them seem intrusive or demanding of attention in confined and isolated environments over the long term, the researchers say. Mars Through Curiosity's Powerful MAHLI Camera: Photos "You're talking about a very tiny vehicle, where people are in very isolated, very confined spaces," said study researcher Suzanne Bell, an associate professor of psychology at DePaul University in Chicago. The researchers concluded that extroverts could potentially be a "liability" on these missions.

Erasing (And Restoring) the Brain's Memories In recent years, researchers studying the brain have implanted false memories, caused patients to hallucinate while sleeping, and even tricked the brain into hearing sounds that don't exist. Now, a team of neuroscientists has manipulated brain cells to both erase and then restore a memory, a finding that could help with treatment of brain diseases like Alzheimer's or PTSD. "Technologically, it's a huge achievement," said Steve Ramirez, a graduate student in the department of brain and cognitive sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was not part of the study, but has published work on creating memories. "It renders that possibility (of manipulating memory) is no longer science fiction, but something you can tackle experimentally in the lab." Two Rats Communicate Brain To Brain The first step was to create a memory. Then the team weakened the connection between the brain cells, which had the effect of erasing that memory. Simulating The Human Brain

Pilot Lands a Plane with His Thoughts Why pilot a plane with your hands and feet when you can do it with your brain? Thought-controlled flight could be arriving soon, according to the EU-funded “BrainFlight” project. A team of scientists from the Institute for Flight System Dynamics and the Berlin Institute of Technology says it has translated brain impulses into control commands, enabling pilots in a plane simulator to achieve a range of remarkably precise maneuvers without touching the controls or pedals. Wearing a cap with lots of cables attached, pilots in the simulator were able to land a plane simply by looking at the screen and moving the control stick with their thoughts, correcting the plane’s position repeatedly until it landed. To achieve the breakthrough, the researchers connected electroencephalography (EEG) electrodes to a cap to measure the pilot’s brain waves. Once it’s perfected, brain-controlled flight could reduce pilot workload and increase safety.

Velociraptor Inspires Fast Running Robot Researchers have long been interested in fast-running robots with powerful, agile legs. In particular, several groups have focused on bio-inspired designsbased on cheetahs. But when a team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) set out to create a new sprinting robot, they didn't look at big cats; instead, they found inspiration in a completely different kind of creature: a velociraptor. Innovations Inspired By Animals The robot, called Raptor, has two nimble legs and a mechanism that mimics a tail. In a recent experiment, it achieved an impressive speed of 46 kilometers per hour on a treadmill. That's faster than the fastest human, the Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, whose top speed has been estimated at 43.92 km/h. And it's almost as fast as the world's fastest legged robot, Cheetah, built by Boston Dynamics, which reached 47 km/h in a trial two years ago, also on a treadmill. And despite their similar speeds, the two robots are very different.

New Solar Plane Flies, On Track for Global Trip A sun-powered plane made a successful test flight on Monday, clearing a vital hurdle towards its goal of a round-the-world trip next year, its pilot and mission chiefs said. Solar Impulse 2 carried out a flight lasting two hours and 15 minutes, half an hour longer than scheduled, German test pilot Markus Scherdel said. 8 Cray Cray Ways To Harness Solar Energy "Everything worked as expected," Scherdel told a press conference at an air base in Payerne, central Switzerland. "Of course, we have to do more testing, but it's a good start and I'm looking forward to flying the airplane the next time." Built from carbon fibre, the 2.3-ton plane has four 17.5-horsepower electrical motors powered by 17,248 solar cells studding its fuselage and 72-meter (234-feet) wingspan -- as long as that of an Airbus A380. The forerunner was put through its paces in Europe, crossed the Mediterranean to reach Morocco and traversed the United States last year without using a drop of fossil fuel. 120-Hour Flight

Wearable Robot Arms Are Here to Help Supernumerary Robotic Limbs (SRLs) are robotic limbs that, when worn, give you more limbs than you'd normally have. In other words, they're not robotic limbs designed to replace biological limbs that you might be missing, but rather robotic limbs designed to augment the number of limbs that you have already. MIT researchers have been developing SRLs that can help you do stuff that would be annoying, uncomfortable, or impossible to do on your own. Today at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Hong Kong, they presented their latest SRL prototypes, with one model featuring a pair of limbs that spring from your shoulders and another with limbs that extend from your waist. Explorer Trains In Deep Sea Exosuit MIT's shoulder-mounted SRL is designed to assist in tasks that take place over your head, or in situations where your other two arms are busy and you need a hand (literally) with something. Military's 'Iron Man' Suit Debuts This Month

Your Brain in 2050: Neural Implants and Robotic Limbs Cathy Hutchinson suffered a brain-stem stroke that left her paralyzed and unable to speak. But 12 years later, a brain implant gave her the ability to move a robotic arm to pick up a bottle and drink from it, using her thoughts alone. A video of Hutchinson using the robotic arm was shown at a talk here at the World Science Festival Thursday (May 29) entitled "Cells to Silicon: Your Brain in 2050," which explored the brain technology of the future. (You can watch webcasts of the festival talks on Live Science.) Mind Meld! Top Brain-Controlled Techs While scientists are a long way from being able to read people's innermost thoughts, brain-interface technology has advanced rapidly. As the technology evolves, there may come a day when humans could have prosthetic bodies, or create a computer copy of their minds. Downloading from the Brain Simulating The Human Brain The state-of-the-art prosthetics require a wire that plugs into the implant through a connector on the skull.

Digital 'Head Dome' Immerses You in Art One person’s art is another person’s steampunk fantasy. This large copper dome, which is lowered over a person’s head as part of the Eye Resonator art installation, evokes the pseudo-Victorian mechanical style. But in fact, it’s quite high-tech. Suicide Machines Destroy Themselves Eye-tracking technology inside the dome fixates on the person’s eye motion as well as pupil dilation to produce an audio-visual feedback loop represented in images of swarming birds, insects, fish and plankton. Every day, humans are surrounded by white noise and chaos. Gorgeous Computer-Generated Flowers Bloom: Photos “We’re inviting people to step back and reflect in a way that we rarely do, much the same way as meditation does,” one of the developers, Brigitta Zics, said in a press release. If you’re interested in stimulating your sense of observation, you can try the resonator at Newcastle University’s Culture Lab between 3-5 June 2014. See a video here. Credit: Newcastle University

Related: