As we age, it just may be the ability to filter and eliminate old information – rather than take in the new stuff – that makes it harder to learn, scientists report.
“When you are young, your brain is able to strengthen certain connections and weaken certain connections to make new memories,”…
(Source: news.georgiahealth.edu)
(Image: bzztbomb)
Researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) have found a small population of neurons that is involved in measuring time, which is a process that has traditionally been difficult to study in the…
(Source: medicalxpress.com)
Scientists to simulate human brain inside a supercomputer
Scientists at its forerunner, the Switzerland-based Blue Brain Project, have been working since 2005 to feed a computer with vast quantities of data and algorithms produced from studying tiny slivers of rodent gray matter.
Last month they announced a significant advancement when they were able to use their simulator to accurately predict the location of synapses in the neocortex, effectively mapping out the complex electrical brain circuitry through which thoughts travel.
Henry Markram, the South African-born neuroscientist who heads the project, said the breakthrough would have taken “decades, if not centuries” to chart using a real neocortex. He said it was proof their concept, dubbed “brain in a box” by Nature magazine, would work.
Now the team are joining forces with other scientists to create the Human Brain Project. As its name suggests, they aim to scale up their model to recreate an entire human brain.
It is a step that will need both a huge increase in funding and access to computers so advanced that they have yet to be built.
If their current bid for €1 billion ($1.3 billion) of European Commission funding over the next 10 years is successful, Markram predicts that his computer neuroscientists are a decade away from producing a synthetic mind that could, in theory, talk and interact in the same way humans do.
(via neuroticthought)
US researchers say they will redouble their efforts to create human sperm from stem cells following the success of a Japanese study involving mice. A Kyoto University team used mice stem cells to create eggs, which were fertilised to produce baby mice. Dr Renee Pera, of Stanford University in California, aims to create human sperm to use for reproduction within two years, and eggs within five years. Infertility affects up to 15% of reproductive-aged couples worldwide. “I know people think it’s Frankenstein medicine, but I think it’s not an imagined or lessened health problem - infertility affects your whole life,” Dr Pera says. “To have sex and have a baby would be a super simple decision, but not everybody can do it.” But using embryonic stem cells for research - as Dr Pera’s lab at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine does - is controversial because the embryos are destroyed in order to use them. Dr Pera’s lab uses embryos left over from IVF treatments. (via BBC News - US scientists aim to make human sperm from stem cells)
‘Liquid Robotics’ wants to fill the ocean with robots.
Liquid Robotics have developed the ‘Wave Glider’ - a wave powered, autonomous marine robot able to stay afloat indefinitely, collecting and transmitting data. It uses a floating platform similar to a surfboard on the ocean surface, which is covered with solar panels, sensors, and radio equipment as required for each mission. Below the surface, a tethered sub takes advantage of wave motion to translate that energy into forwards movement for the platform - check out the cool explanation here.
The company is about to send four Wave Gliders on an unmanned crossing of the Pacific Ocean. The gliders will initially all set off from California to Hawaii, before breaking into pairs and travelling on to Japan and Australia, collectively covering 34,000 nautical miles in an expected time of over 300 days.
The data gathered by the Gliders will be provided free of charge and in real-time, to the world’s scientists, educators, students, and the general public. When they reach their final destinations, the Wave Gliders will have earned a Guinness World Record for the longest voyage completed by an unmanned ocean vessel.
Wave Gliders have already collectively covered over 100,000 miles in testing, and survived events like Hurricane Isaac. The company is now on the look out for a market beyond scientists and oceanographers. The continuous, real time data could give shipping companies more information on their routes, or could gather intelligence data for the military - they are silent and should be undetectable by radar.
Currently a Wave Glider costs US$200,000 to buy, or can be leased for $1,000 to $3,000 a day.
*Update - it seems the Gliders are underway! Register here to see the data from the voyage in real time.
(via 8bitfuture)
First complete model of a cell created.
The first complete computational model of a living cell has been completed by engineers at Stanford University.
The Mycoplasma genitalium was recreated digitally by combing data from over 900 scientific papers. The model accounts for every single molecular interaction that takes place in the cell. Mycoplasma genitalium contains the smallest genome of any living organism at just 525 genes. Escherichia coli, which is much more commonly studied, contains 4,288 genes.
Not only does it allow scientists to probe how the cell works in ways never before possible, it also opens up future avenues of research which could use computer-aided design in bioengineering and medicine.
Comprehensive computer models of entire cells have the potential to advance our understanding of cellular function and, ultimately, to inform new approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of disease.”
(Source: Gizmodo, via 8bitfuture)
Video: Researchers to create hurricanes in giant tank.
A new facility being built at the University of Miami will be able to recreate category 5 hurricanes inside a lab, in a $45 million facility called SUSTAIN (SUrge-STructure-Atmosphere Interaction).
A 1400 horsepower fan normally used for ventilating mine shafts will create the 150mph winds, with the campus’s emergency generator used to power it. Ironically, the generator is normally used after power outages caused by storms. A wave generator will push salt water using 12 different paddles, which can be set to recreate any type of sea condition within the tank measuring 20 x 6 metres, and two metres high.
The clear acrylic walls of the tank will allow easy monitoring, and as well as helping researchers learn how to better predict the intensity and tracking of a storm, the facility will also be used by architects and engineers to test scale models of buildings and structures against storms.
(Source: popsci.com, via 8bitfuture)
Last week I wrote a lengthy article over at Smashing Magazine covering different techniques to prepare websites and web apps for Retina devices. The feedback has been overwhelmingly good, but it also highlighted an apparent divide in the web design and development community over the why and the…
51% Of People Think Stormy Weather Affects ‘Cloud Computing’
A survey of 1,000 people by Citrix showed the slightly disturbing result, along with that fact that 95% don’t think they’ve ever used cloud computing - even though they are actually frequently using it:
65 percent bank online, 63 percent shop online, 58 percent use social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter, 45 percent have played online games, 29 percent store photos online, 22 percent store music or videos online, and 19 percent use online file-sharing. All of these services are cloud based.
(via 8bitfuture)
IT WORKED for the ancient Greeks, so why shouldn’t it work for us? Some cancers are resistant to chemotherapy, but we can attack them successfully by hiding drugs inside folded-up DNA.
DNA origami involves folding a single strand of DNA into a complex pattern, creating a 3D structure. Baoquan Ding at the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology in Beijing, China, and colleagues loaded a tubular piece of folded DNA with doxorubicin, a chemotherapy drug. The DNA Trojan horse delivered a dose of the drug that proved lethal to human breast-cancer cells, even though they had developed resistance to doxorubicin (Journal of the American Chemical Society, DOI: 10.1021/ja304263n).
“This is the first study to demonstrate that DNA origami can be used to circumvent drug resistance,” says Hao Yan at Arizona State University in Tempe, who jointly led the work. The cancer cells may not recognise the DNA origami as a threat in the way that free doxorubicin is, he suggests. The folded DNA might also alter the pH inside the cells, increasing the drug’s activity.
