Thanks to a recent development in optigenetics research, mice are teaching us about our own brains… by letting us control theirs. Christian Wentz from MIT has designed a mind-controlling hat for mice; the contraption is built of a pair of circuit boards, an antenna, and some advancements in remote battery tech, which allows a set […]
IBM has published a paper on drift-tolerant multilevel phase-change memory. That may not sound exciting, but it could mean memory chips that have all the benefits of flash memory, but work far quicker and last far longer. If that proves the case, the chips could become useful for business machines. The basic concept of phase […]
We Americans love us some polls. Go ahead, as me a multiple choice question about anything. Will there be a cure for cancer by 2050? World War III? A superior race of cyborg overlords? My answers are a) depends on which cancer you’re asking about, b) I do not know, c) Pfft. SHHYes! GOOD.is and […]
Say goodbye to the days when we all knew dinosaurs were cold-blooded wonderlizards who lazed about trying to warm up in the midday sun. U.S. and German scientists have developed a technique for accurately measuring the body temperature of dinosaurs. The study of 11 fossilized sauropod teeth reveal that the Brachiosaurus ran a toasty 38.2ºC (about 100.8ºF) […]
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is a rover that will assess whether Mars ever was, or is still today, an environment able to support microbial life. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet’s “habitability.” Scheduled to launch in November or December of this year, the Curiosity rover should land on Mars in […]
Using robotics, laser rangefinders, GPS and smart feedback tools, Dennis Hong is building a car for drivers who are blind. It’s not a “self-driving” car, he’s careful to note, but a car in which a non-sighted driver can determine speed, proximity and route — and drive independently. [TED]
Yes geeks, our pal Bill Hammock, the Engineer Guy, is back, and this time, he tells us more about the science behind fiber optic cables. Enjoy! [Via Neatorama]
A study suggests childhood autism in the Netherlands is more common in a area with a high proportion of IT workers. The figures suggest there’s more to it than coincidence, though how correlation translates to causation is still open to question. The key figures come from research by Simon Baron-Cohen (cousins, before you ask) of […]