Brain-control

Patients can use this technology and technique to learn how to control specific areas of their brains…

“A new brain imaging technique teaches patients to control their brain activity, bringing relief from chronic pain.

Most people pop a pill when they’ve got a headache. But what if you could think that pain away? Researchers at Stanford University have developed a brain imaging technique that allows patients to take charge of their pain. The technology isn’t yet ready for the clinic, but researchers say it could one day be applicable to many brain disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and dyslexia.

This is the first study to show that patients can learn to take control of a specific region of their brain and better control their pain, says Sean Mackey, associate director of the Pain Management Division at Stanford University in Stanford, CA, and head scientist on the project research.”

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Drive-thu shopping super-center

Clarence Saunders had a vision when he revolutionized grocery stores and launched Piggly Wiggly in Memphis, TN. Memphis is where the modern gorcery store was “invented”/ launched. Self-service and grocry carts were first introduced in this revolutionary store.

He had even more advanced ideas, that were too advanced for their time. One store that did not succeed was called “Foodelectric”, which used technology and was more automated. Too ahead of his time…

Saunders had a reputation for eccentricity and brilliance.

Unfortunately, his death came just as his ideas for merchandising was becoming apparent; his creative genius was decades ahead of his time. He left behind his leagcy of innovative store ideas and his mansion (now the “Pink Palace” museum) in Memphis.

What’s next?
AutoCart is an interesting concept. They will launch soon and allow you to drive up and get just about anything… and you don’t have to leave your car. By using interactive drop-down screens, customers could complete such errands as:

* pick up their prescriptions
* do their banking
* develop film
* drop off dry cleaning
* pick up event tickets
* rent movies and games
* and, oh, yeah… buy groceries

There will be more than 17 product and service categories. And, there will be around 60 drive-through bays for people to pull their car into and interact with the computer stations. High speed conveyor belts and a highly computerized/ automated system will bring your orders to your car.

Business 2.0 describes how the operation works:
“
1. Placing Orders
Customers make their selections online, by phone, or onsite using a touchscreen tablet PC. Each driver is assigned to a pickup station.

2. Retrieving Items
Orders show up on screens inside the warehouse, where a computer directs employees, via headset, to the products. The merchandise then travels over high-speed conveyor belts to the consolidating zone, where purchases are placed into the fewest bags possible.

3. Awaiting Delivery
At the pickup station, each shopper can watch TV on a flat screen and receive audio on the car radio. A shopping cart icon on the screen indicates the progress of that driver’s order.

4. Getting the Goods
Approximately 15 minutes after the order is placed — much less if the shopper orders online — the merchandise is delivered to the car via conveyor belt. The customer loads up the bags and pays using credit card, cash, or check.

“

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The universe could be a billboard

Two physicists contend that reading the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation could reveal a message from the creator.

Theoretically, the creator of a universe would trigger a “big bang” event, which would expand the universe out of nothing almost insantly. The current backgound radiation in the universe currently supports the idea that the universe very quickly popped out of a pure void (quite literally a void, since empty space did not even exist). The rapid expansion of the universe in a blast of light and energy left behind a radiation that engulfs the universe.

By tweaking something called the inflaton field, the creator could encode a binary message in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation. Stephen Hsu of the University of Oregon, Eugene, and Anthony Zee of the University of California, Santa Barbara, express this proposition in a paper at arXiv.org. The message might sit, like “cosmic braille”, in the bumps and ripples of the CMB, they say. Their current calculations suggest that it could hold up to 100,000 bits of information.

This would be enough data to encode, for example, clues to the long-sought grand unified theory that joins all the physical forces.

Some people “think we are nuts,” says Hsu. “I think it’s a legitimate scientific question.”

The hitch, though, according to cosmologist Douglas Scott of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada: Observers in other times or parts of the universe would see different patterns, so the creator would have to specify a time and place for deciphering the bumps.

Telescopes now in the works could detect such a message within 20 years.

From the paper:
“We argue that the cosmic microwave background (CMB) provides a stupendous opportunity for the Creator of universe our (assuming one exists) to have sent a message to its occupants, using known physics. Our work does not support the Intelligent Design movement in any way whatsoever, but asks, and attempts to answer, the entirely scientific question of what the medium and message might be IF there was actually a message. The medium for the message is unique. We elaborate on this observation, noting that it requires only careful adjustment of the fundamental Lagrangian, but no direct intervention in the subsequent evolution of the universe. “

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Stretchable silicon could be next wave in electronics

"Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a fully stretchable form of single-crystal silicon with micron-sized, wave-like geometries that can be used to build high-performance electronic devices on rubber substrates.

ÔøΩStretchable silicon offers different capabilities than can be achieved with standard silicon chips,ÔøΩ said John Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering and co-author of a paper to appear in the journal Science, as part of the Science Express Web site, on Dec 15.

Functional, stretchable and bendable electronics could be used in applications such as sensors and drive electronics for integration into artificial muscles or biological tissues, structural monitors wrapped around aircraft wings, and conformable skins for integrated robotic sensors, said Rogers, who is also a Founder Professor of Engineering, a researcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology and a member of the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory."

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The science of Mona Lisa's smile

The Mona Lisa was subjected to the latest emotion-recognition software…

“The mysterious half-smile that has intrigued viewers of the Mona Lisa for centuries isn’t really that difficult to interpret, Dutch researchers said Thursday.

She was smiling because she was happy: 83 percent happy, to be exact, according to scientists from the University of Amsterdam.

In what they viewed as a fun demonstration of technology rather than a serious experiment, the researchers scanned a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece and subjected it to cutting-edge “emotion recognition” software, developed in collaboration with the University of Illinois.

The result showed the painting’s famous subject was 83 percent happy, 9 percent disgusted, 6 percent fearful and 2 percent angry. She was less than 1 percent neutral, and not at all surprised.”

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Plasma rocket tested

The Euopean Space Agency has tested a plasma-drive. A more poweful rocket may be possible by using solar-wind-like plasma.

“ESA has confirmed the principle of a new space thruster that may ultimately give much more thrust than today’s electric propulsion techniques. The concept is an ingenious one, inspired by the northern and southern aurorae, the glows in the sky that signal increased solar activity.

“Essentially the concept exploits a natural phenomenon we see taking place in space”, says Dr Roger Walker of ESA’s Advanced Concepts Team. “When the solar wind, a “plasma” of electrified gas released by the Sun, hits the magnetic field of the Earth, it creates a boundary consisting of two plasma layers. Each layer has differing electrical properties and this can accelerate some particles of the solar wind across the boundary, causing them to collide with the Earth’s atmosphere and create the aurora.””

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New mystery object found at edge of our Solar System

A new mystery object has been located in our Solar System. The object travels a very unusual path – tilted 47 degrees to most other bodies in the system.

"A large object has been found beyond Pluto travelling in an orbit tilted by 47 degrees to most other bodies in the solar system. Astronomers are at a loss to explain why the object’s orbit is so off-kilter while being almost circular.
Researchers led by Lynne Allen at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, first spotted the object in observations made with the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in December 2004. Since October 2005, they have made follow-up observations that have revealed the object’s perplexing path. "

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Explosion-proof bubble wrap

“It looks like Bubble Wrap, but BlastWrap isn’t for cushioning eBay shipments. A BlastWrap-lined garbage can will dissipate a backpack-size-bomb blast in less than one thousandth of a second. The wrap’s 2.75-inch compartments are stuffed with heat-treated perlite (the foamy pellets found in potting soil), a volcanic glass. The beads have a strong internal structure of sealed, air-filled cells. When a blast occurs, the cells are crushed one by one, minimizing damage to the surrounding area, while fire extinguishants snuff the fireball. Trash cans in Washington, D.C.’s Metro stations are now equipped with BlastWrap.”

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Shots without a needle

Not only does this new Star-Trek-like “Shot without a needle” work without causing pain, but they use a lower doage (a thousandth), so we save on drug costs, too.

“Needles hurt. Worse, they can spread disease. PowderMed’s new vaccine gun, the PMED, requires no sharps. The flashlight-shaped device relies on pressurized helium to shoot microscopic DNA vaccine particles just below the skin’s surface at 1,500 miles an hour. The shot is painless because it hits just above nerve endings, where immunity-producing cells gather in large numbers. As a result, the PMED requires one thousandth the dose of a needle injection;a major cost savings. And the powders don’t need a fridge, so they’re easier to store and transport. Vaccine powders for influenza and hepatitis are in the works. “

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Freezing Light

Scientists have begun controlling light in new ways. Not only can we now bend light, but it can be slowed and stopped as well. This could lead to new, faster computers that use light instead of electrons as the lifeblood of computers.

The ability to use a quantum bit insead of these old-fashioned electron-bits, could leave current comptuers in the dust.

"Scientists have slowed down and even stopped the fastest substance in the universe: light. As this ScienCentral News video reports, the research may lead to faster, more powerful computers.
Quantum Computers

Light sets the universe’s speed limit. Nothing else moves faster. In just one second, an ordinary ray of light travels a distance equal to seven trips around the earth."

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