Category: Technology

Optogenetics

On By A.P.In Medicine, Neuropsychiatric Disease, Science, Technology, The Brain, The Future, The SingularityLeave a comment

Optogenetics is a relatively new technique for communicating with the brain.  It involves implantation of light-sensitive genes into animals and then hooking up fiber-optic cables to specific areaa of the brain. 

Researchers have used this technique to completely restore movement in mice with Parkinson’s disease, and to reduce anxiety in other mouse models.   

Researchers are now trying to develop a less invasive method that doesn’t go deeper than the outer surface of the brain.

Eventually, two-way traffic may be possible with this technique, in which a machine can both send and receive information from the brain.

Read about it in Wired and the NYT below.

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/mf_optigenetics

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/science/17optics.html?_r=2&src=dayp

Cell Phone Radiation

On By A.P.In Cell Phone, Communication, Human Behavior, RadiationLeave a comment

It will likely be decades until we know whether or not cell phone radiation is hurting users. 

Here is the latest on the possible effects of cell phone radiation on our body.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/technology/personaltech/31basics.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha26

Thanks to Parfit for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.

Pac-mecium

On By A.P.In games, Science, TechnologyLeave a comment

Scientists have made Pac-Man using  paramecium, in which movement of the microorganisms is controlled with a joystick while a digital microscope relays images to a computer screen.  The joystick is connected to a controller that controls the polarity of a mild electrical field applied across the fluid chamber, which influences the direction in which the paramecia move. 

Read more here:

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2011/01/play-pacman-pinball-and-pong-with-a-paramecium.html

More Efficient Solar Energy

On By A.P.In Solar Energy, Technology1 Comment

Shown here is an artifical leaf that has been engineered to execute photosynthesis 10 times more efficiently than a real leaf.  It’s a stable and inexpensive advanced solar cell, no bigger than a playing card, that uses sunlight to split water into oxygen and hydrogen.  Oxygen and hydrogen are then stored in a fuel cell to produce electricity.  This artifical leaf can operate continuously for 45 hours with no loss of activity, and when floating in a single gallon of water it produces enough electricity to power a small house for an entire day.

Thanks to Kedmobee for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.

Read about it at the links below:

http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/issues/2009/may/theartificialleaf.asp

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/03/artificial-leaf/

Space Shuttle Liftoff Recorded From a Passenger Flight

On By A.P.In Lifelogging, Space and Time, Technology, The FutureLeave a comment

Check out this website for a cool angle of the last launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery, caputured from a cell phone on a passenger airline flight.

http://singularityhub.com/2011/03/01/stunning-video-of-shuttle-launch-as-seen-from-iphone-on-airplane/#

Thanks to Kebmobee for bringing this to the attention of the Its-Interesting community.

This article also touches on the subject of lifelogging, a prediction that in the future most everything will be recorded.

Read here about this phenomenon of lifelogging:  http://singularityhub.com/2010/07/20/your-entire-life-recorded-lifelogging-goes-mainstream/#

Harry Wesley Coover Jr., Inventor of Super Glue, Dies at 94

On By A.P.In Inventions, Super Glue, TechnologyLeave a comment

The man who invented Super Glue died at the age of 94 on Saturday night from congestive heart failure at his home in Kingsport, Tenn.

Dr. Coover discovered super glue accidentally in 1951 when he was experimenting with acrylates for use in clear plastic gun-sights during World War II. He gave up because they stuck to everything they touched.  Later, after his team ruined expensive lab equipment with the substance, Dr. Coover saw an opportunity.  Seven years later, Eastman 910 (super glue) hit the market.

In 2010, Dr. Coover was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by Obama for his invention of “cyanoacrylates – novel adhesives known widely to consumers as ‘super glues’ – which today play significant roles in medicine and industry.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/28/business/28coover.html?src=busln

http://www.supergluecorp.com/blog/2010/11/18/dr-harry-coover-inventor-of-super-glue-recognized-by-president-obama/

http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/coover.html

Will Solar Power Solve Our Problems in 20 years?

On By A.P.In Engineering, Science, Solar Energy, Technology, The FutureLeave a comment

Ray Kurzweil, noted futurist and inventor, thinks it will.  We receive 10,000 times more sunlight than we need to meet 100 percent of our energy needs, and Kurzweil holds that the technology needed for collecting and storing solar energy is about to advance exponentially in accordance with his Law of Accelerating Returns.

Read here:  http://www.livescience.com/4824-solar-power-rule-20-years-futurists.html