Aug 12
We now know slightly more about what happens after death, thanks to new research that measures the electrical activity in the brains of rats before and after cardiac arrest. Spoiler: it does not flat-line. Not immediately, anyway.
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Aug 09
You know all that sawdust you’re left with when hacking through a piece of lumber? It’s a minor inconvenience for carpenters, but a huge problem for electronics manufacturers cutting expensive materials like silicon wafers on the microscopic scale. So researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute have found a way to make incredibly precise ultra-thin saws from carbon nanotubes covered with an outer layer of lab-grown diamonds.
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Aug 09
It’s not the most pleasant experience, but patients placed under general anesthesia who might not be able to easily breathe on their own are usually intubated, a procedure where a breathing tube is inserted down into their tracheas through their mouths. Usually a skilled doctor or nurse guides the tube in visually, but students at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a robotic alternative that guides itself in, minimizing mistakes.
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Aug 09
There’s usually a talented director calling the shots at televised live events like sports or a concert, but researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute want to put some of the control in the hands of the viewer at home. They’ve developed the OmniCam360, an ultra-compact 360 degree camera weighing in at just over 30 pounds that can be easily set up by a single operator.
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Aug 09
Apparently, slime mold has feelings too. Researchers at the University of the West of England have a bit of a history with Physarum polycephalum — a light-shy yellow mold known for its ability to seek out the shortest route to food. Now, they’re on a quest to find out why the organism’s so darn smart, and the first in their series of experiments equates the yellow goo’s movements to human emotions. The team measured electrical signals the mold produced when moving across micro-electrodes, converting the collected data into sounds. This audio data was weighted against a psychological model and translated into a corresponding emotion. Data collected when the mold was moving across food, for instance, correspond to joy, while anger was derived from the colony’s reaction to light.
Unfortunately, mold isn’t the most expressive form of life, so when the team demonstrated the studies results at the Living Machines conference in London, they enlisted the help of a robotic head. Taking cues from a soundtrack based on the mold’s movements, the dismembered automaton reenacts the recorded emotions with stiff smiles and frowns. Yes, it’s as creepy as you might imagine, but those brave enough can watch it go through a cycle of emotions in the video after the break.
[Image credit: Jerry Kirkhart / Flickr]
Via: The Verge
Source: New Scientist
Aug 09
Bet you wouldn’t have guessed that the answer to more efficient storage might exist in a Chubby Checker song. Yep, by doing the twist, scientists are thinking it’ll be possible to store up to 20 times more data in the same space, which could lead to much smaller (or vastly more spacious) hard drives for consumers. The work revolves around twisted magnetic fields known as skyrmions, which can retain their structure even when packed very densely. In the latest development, Kristen von Bergmann and her team at the University of Hamburg have figured out how to deliberately write and erase skyrmions, which is a first for the scientific community. The method relies on a scanning tunneling microscope, which applies spin polarization to a current of electrons that are stored on a magnetic surface. The technology is nowhere near ready for consumer use — it’s currently around 60 percent reliable, and requires an ambient temperature that’s on par with liquid helium — but it’s worth keeping an eye on as development progresses. After all, few scientific breakthroughs pair so nicely with classics of the dance floor.
Filed under: Storage, Science, Alt
Via: Gizmodo
Source: Nature
Aug 07
Android has extended its market share lead over iOS while Windows Phone continues to pull ahead of BlackBerry, new smartphone OS numbers from IDC suggest, though the incoming iPhone 5S is tipped to rejuvenate Apple’s appeal. Shipments of Android, iOS, and Windows Phone devices were all up in Q2 2013 compared to the same period […]
Aug 07
It seems as though every day we read (and write) about another amazing new breakthrough, be it medical, technological, epicurean, or other. And then we wait… and wait… and wait… and… hey, just a minute. Where’d that quantum computer go?
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Aug 06
You probably stopped taking baths somewhere around high school when you realized you were just soaking in your own filth. But thanks to researchers at the University of Electro-Communications’ Koike Laboratory who used a Kinect to turn a pool of water into an interactive display, it might be worth skipping the shower for a long relaxing soak again.
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Aug 05
Humans want to have friends. This need for companionship in a soul-crushingly indifferent world can lead us to confuse mechanical motion with human emotion, as shown in this video by researchers at the University of Calgary.
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