Positioning atoms with lasers

An atomic conveyor belt/catapult that uses lasers to position individual atoms has been developed, researchers report in the June 15 issue of Science.

The German researchers use laser beams to retard fast-moving caesium atoms, which they hold in a trap of light and magnetic fields. The team then pulls these "cold" atoms out of the trap one at a time using two laser beams. They can stop an atom at any point and hold it in a stationary trough of a standing wave of light to position it to within one micron and over a one centimeter range.

The development may allow atoms to be arranged in straight chains or wires to make the smallest of electronic circuits -- eventually, quantum supercomputers.

Cellular aging clue discovered

Cellular aging may be caused by the telomere position effect (TPE): genes near telomeres (repeating DNA sequences) are turned off as nearby telomeres are shortened, Dr. Jerry Shay and Dr. Woodring Wright, UT Southwestern professors of cell biology, report in the June 15 issue of Science.

Telomeres function as the molecular memory of how many times cells divide. Most normal cells lack the enzyme telomerase, which maintains telomeres, but telomerase is activated in 90 percent of all cancers.

Shay and Wright's earlier research has shown that telomerase causes human cells grown in the laboratory to retain their "youth" and continue to divide long past the time when they normally would have stopped dividing. This discovery is making the use of normal cells for tissue engineering and other therapeutic uses much easier.

Tracing the synapses of spirituality

Religious experiences can be explained in terms of brain activity, scientists are discovering.

They can be caused by epileptic seizures, hallucinogenic drugs, magnetic fields, and decreased activity in the parietal lobe from deep meditation, inducing disorientation in three-dimensional space and loss of the boundary between the self and the rest of the world.

Immortal cells

Two mitochondria proteins, Bax and Bak, play of critical role in initiating apoptosis, or programmed cell death.

Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine demonstrate that virtually all forms of cell death are eliminated in cells that lack Bak and Bax, allowing the cells to become immortal.

This has important implications for the development of new cancer treatments and provides new hope that cell death can be prevented during a stroke or heart attack.

Animal Brains Seen As Future of the Computer

Cyborgs, using an ultra-fast computer with parts of mammalian brains, might achieve reasoning, senses, and even emotion in mechanical form.

Early research in this area includes the "leech-ulator" (living leech neurons linked to a personal computer, capable of addition); Roboeel, a phototropic robot on wheels, rigged to neural tissue of a lamprey fish; and a neurochip-based speech-recognition system.

Kurzweil Reviews A.I. Movie

The androids and other intelligent machines in "A.I." represent well- grounded science futurism, says Ray Kurzweil in his review of the Spielberg-Kubrick movie, due out June 29.

"The AI’s are neither evil nor particularly destructive. Indeed our sympathies are usually with them, at least mine were. It’s the humans who express the base emotions..."

(Read the review)

Man Versus Machine Plays Out in Cyberspace

Stephen Spielberg's upcoming film "Artificial Intelligence" is set to renew a long-running debate about mechanical brains and whether they ever may become superior to the human mind, stoked by the emergence of powerful tools such as artificial intelligence, bioengineering, and nanotechnology.

Ray Kurzweil, an artificial intelligence pioneer, argues that computers are rapidly outstripping human intelligence. "We will reverse-engineer the human brain not simply because it is our destiny but because there is valuable information to be found there that will provide insights in building more intelligent machines," he predicts in a forthcoming book.

Kurzweil sees progress within 50 years toward a computer that costs $1,000 with the power of 10 billion human brains.

Natasha Vita-More, a multimedia artist based in Marina del Rey, California, has spent 20 years working at the intersection of science and art to popularize ideas about artificial intelligence as a means of human liberation. Her latest work, Primo 3M+, showcases dozens of possible human body enhancements.

Note: the Reuters article includes a misquote: "2030" should be "2050" in the last sentence. - Ed.

Computers Here, There, Everywhere

Academic researchers are undertaking fundamental Internet design projects based on transparent software and pervasive computing.

These include MIT's Oxygen, based on ubiquitous computing, and University of California at Berkeley's Endeavor, based on the idea of creating ensembles of hardware and software networks, with a network that will include "Smart Dust" — tiny sensors that might form webs of sensors and actuators to help manage energy consumption or freeway traffic.

Larry Smarr, the former director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, is managing a similar project that will focus on creating smart buildings and intelligent transportation networks.

Researchers pass electron spin between semiconductors

Researchers have passed clouds of electronic spin between two types of semiconductors, p-type and n-type.

The research could give rise to a whole new class of electronic devices, including super-speedy compact computers and quantum computers.

Suspended animation in model vertebrate induced

A state of "suspended animation" has been induced in the zebrafish by researchers at Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

After 24 hours of oxygen deprivation --resulting in cessation of all observable metabolic activity, including heartbeat –- zebrafish embryos can resume a normal course of development with no harmful effects on their health or growth.

The achievement ultimately could help people survive life-threatening injuries while in transit to a hospital emergency room. Bodies or organs held in a state of suspended animation could be repaired and suffer no long-term consequences from extreme stress such as oxygen deprivation. It could also lead to new ways to treat cancer and prevent ischemic injury from insufficient blood supply to organs and tissues.

While not stated in the Center's press release, this research could also lead to new cryopreservation techniques.

Army scouts university to create nanosoldier

The U.S. Army wants to spend $10 million to create a university-affiliated research center to develop nanoscale materials that could be incorporated into a soldier's gear.

That could be a uniform that monitors a soldier's vital signs or sends out an alert in the presence of toxins and decontaminates the soldier before any damage occurs. Or it could be a material that changes color to camouflage the soldier or protect him or her against ballistics.

The U.S. Navy is also creating an Institute for Nanoscience, to open in March 2002.

Virtually human

An interactive, functioning 3-D model of the human body is being developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

A long-range project, the model will allow researchers to map the whole body's reaction to different drugs, chemicals or physical stimuli, watch how a disease affects different areas of the body to uncover new medical information, and explore inside the body in a total-immersion VR environment.

Eventually it may be possible to create a virtual version of every one of us, tailored to our individual genome, medical history and other specifics.

The ambitious project will mean dealing with billions of megabytes, much more data than has come out of the Human Genome Project, and standardizing the way biological information is collected, stored and shared.

Microbots navigate veins to fight disease

Micromachines using tiny spinning screws to swim along veins, ferrying drugs to infected tissues, or to kill off tumors have been developed by Kazushi Ishiyama at Tohoku University in Japan.

The "Fantastic Voyage" style micromachines, which are precursors to nanobots, use cylindrical magnets inside a tiny cylinder measuring 8 millimetres long and less than a millimetre in diameter, and are propelled by a rotating magnetic field.

HP shifts chip design work to computers

Software that automates the creation of custom, embedded computer chips is being developed by Hewlett-Packard's new HP Labs.

The PICO (program in, chip out) method creates a multitude of possible designs, throws out the duds, and ranks the winners according to how much they would cost to build and how well they'd perform. This method lets a company strike the right balance between chip expense and horsepower.

Extro-5 counters critics of change

Extro-5: Shaping Things to Come, scheduled for June 15-17 in San Jose, CA, is bringing together 20 experts from a wide range of disciplines, from AI to art, biology, business strategy, information science, and philosophy, to "mount a cultural counter-offensive ... against the critics of change," says Dr. Max More, Conference Chair and President, Extropy Institute.

"We're talking about breaking the rules -- on the limits to our intelligence, how much information we can handle, the economy, and those set by our genes."

Sessions will focus on ensuring "friendly" superintelligence (SI), integrating with SI, filtering the info-flood, thriving in the information economy, overcoming resistance to superlongevity and augmentation from bioconservatives and technophobes, and the Singularity, with a special presentation by Ray Kurzweil based on his forthcoming book, The Singularity is Near.

Natasha Vita-More will introduce "Pro-Act," a new organization intended to act as a "creative conduit of information and exchange for those working to counter biases against advanced technologies."

'Wavelength disk drive' speeds distributed computing

The "wavelength disk drive" could make interactions between computers up to 20 times faster, expanding the scope of distributed computing.

Exchanged data is stored in wavelengths of light circling in a fiber-optic network. Computers on the network can perform calculations and "write" the data to an assigned wavelength. They then "read" other processors' results from the light stream, repeating the process until the calculation is done.

Will technology give robots a soul?

Robots: Appliances or friends? Servants or equals? Spiritually charged beings or simple drones tasked with carrying out humankind's dirty work?

The business paths to nanotech

We are entering an era of exponential growth in our capabilities in biotech, molecular engineering, and computing. The cross-fertilization of these formerly discrete domains accelerates our learning and our engineering capabilities across the spectrum.

Lab science, from biotech to nanotech, is becoming information science -- designed on a computer, not at a lab bench. With replicating molecular machines, physical production itself migrates to the rapid innovation cycle of information technology. Matter becomes code.

Magnetic RAM To Preserve Data After Computer Shutdown

A half-metallic ferromagnetic material may eventually allow us to create magnetic random access memory (MRAM), allowing for non-volatile computer memory systems.

The secret lies in harnessing spin polarization in a magnetic tunnel junction, using chromium dioxide (CrO2). The technique enables the material to retain magnetic orientation and thus preserve data.

TechTV explains the making of Ramona, the virtual recording and performing artist

TechTV is featuring Ray Kurzweil's appearance at the May New York Internet Music Expo in its Audiofile segment this week.



The segment includes video clips showing the making of Kurzweil's female alter ego, Ramona (the performance version), along with amusing confrontational banter between the web-based Ramona and the show's own animated avatar.

Showtimes (all EST) this week:

Starlab declares bankruptcy, terminating major AI project

Brussels-based Starlab, which has supported the "artificial brain-building" work of Chief Scientist and AI researcher Hugo de Garis, declared bankruptcy on June 11.


Hugo de Garis

"A vital investor pulled out of a bridge loan agreement at the last minute," said de Garis, "so some 70 researchers at Starlab in such fields as time travel, faster than light travel, conscious robotics, nanotechnology, fibre circuitry, quantum computing, brain building, etc, plus a lot of people doing more commercial activities are now out of work and looking for new jobs, including myself."

de Garis seeks a position as a senior researcher or a professorship in a university.

Starlab had commissioned de Garis to build an artificial brain by 2001. It was to have a billion artificial neurons, consisting of roughly a million modules of cellular automata-based neural circuits that would evolve at electronic speeds inside special hardware called a "CAM-Brain Machine" (CBM).

Head movements provide individual-recognition cues

We can recognize and identify the sex of individuals from how they move their heads and faces, according to University College London researchers.

Rigid head movements - nodding, shaking or tilting - are better than changes in expression at identifying individuals.


Click on image to see movie
© Harold Hill and Nikolaus F. Troje

The finding could improve face-recognition security and help to humanize animated synthespians.

Genetic mapping technique speeds search for genetic illness

A new genetic mapping technique could shorten from months to weeks the time needed to identify chromosomal "hot spots" associated with particular diseases, reports the June 8 Science magazine.

The algorithm swiftly finds quantitative trait loci (QTL) chromosomal regions that probably contain genes that contribute to a particular trait.

Molecular computer memory developed

A RAM memory prototype using organic molecular switches has been developed by researchers at Yale University. An array of molecules between two gold electrodes is used to store a 1 or 0 by applying a voltage pulse to the electrodes, causing the molecules to be kicked into another state in which their electrons are arranged differently, resulting in higher or lower conductivity.

Currently, 1000 molecules are used (all of them are switched together by the voltage pulses applied to the electrodes). This already makes for a smaller memory device than a transistor. But the researchers say that, if molecules could be wired up individually rather than in groups, there is no reason why each could not be switched independently, so that each molecule encodes a bit.

IBM Alters Silicon to Increase Chip Speeds Up To 35 Percent

IBM has announced "Strained Silicon," a method to boost chip speeds by up to 35 percent and decrease power consumption.


A transistor built with strained silicon

When silicon is deposited on top of a substrate with atoms spaced farther apart, the atoms in silicon stretch to line up with the atoms beneath, stretching -- or "straining" -- the silicon. In the strained silicon, electrons experience less resistance and flow up to 70 percent faster, which can lead to chips that are up to 35 percent faster -- without having to shrink the size of transistors.

Intel Makes an Ultra-Tiny Chip

Intel has made developed silicon transistors less than 80 atoms wide and 3 atoms thick, capable of switching on and off 1.5 trillion times a second, making them the world's fastest.

The research will make make possible computer processor chips with one billion transistors and 20 gigahertz speeds and memory chips that can each store four billion bits of data.

Intel scientists are saying that they can see their way at least three more generations into the future, to transistors with a 0.045-micron technology.

Race to build world's fastest bio-supercomputer

Biology is overtaking nuclear weapons as the field demanding the most sophisticated computers.



NuTec Sciences is using a 7.5-teraflops IBM machine -- the fastest supercomputer for commercial use -- for analyzing cancer patients' individual genetic profiles to find the most effective treatments.

Other tasks, such as determining the role of proteins in promoting disease, require more powerful machines. IBM's 1,000-teraflops Blue Gene will be used to predict protein folding. Compaq's 100-teraflop Red Storm will be used by Celera Genomics and Los Alamos National Labs for a broader array of life-science experiments.

It's 2001. Where Is HAL?

It is clear that AI hasn't delivered on the promises made over thirty years ago, says MIT professor Marvin Minsky. What happened?



In a preview of his upcoming book, The Emotion Machine, Marvin Minsky examines the failures of AI research and lays out directions for future development in the field.

"A decade ago, our simulations were not yet capable of rendering believable animations," he stated at Game Developers Conference 2001. "Today, our animations are convincing, but we still lack the ability to create compelling characters. What is lacking is the quality of what we call common sense knowledge and reasoning. To program such things, we need better ways to represent knowledge. We also need to develop ways to quickly switch between different knowledge and reasoning schemes.

"If we can do this well enough, our virtual worlds will become more exciting, and the characters that inhabit them will be much more attractive, lively, and engaging. Our goal should be to provide worlds that are so exciting -- such as those that we read about in the novel 'True Names' -- that our players will want to remain in the game, instead of returning to their everyday jobs."

Microphone array aids deaf in discerning speech

Dramatic improvements in speech discernment using signal processing have been developed by Stanford University professor of electrical engineering Bernard Widrow and his students.


Widrow with D-HEAR device

Dr. Widrow reported the breakhrough in a keynote speech at the recent annual meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.

The Directional Hearing ARray (D-HEAR) uses six tiny microphones and signal-processing electronics (worn as a necklace) to enable people with profound hearing loss to distinguish speech in a noisy room for the first time.

Microphones in the necklace pick up the sound and transmit it to signal-processing chips that use an adaptive signal processing algorithm to reduce noise by giving different weights to input sounds from the various microphones.

The user orients his or her body toward the speaker and surrounding sound is minimized. The microphone array is able to home in on the desired signal and reduce echoes and other undesirable auditory effects while increasing clarity of the dominant signal. The optimized signal is then amplified and sent through a conducting neckloop, which wirelessly transmits a magnetic signal to the telecoil in the user's hearing aid.

Widrow co-developed the least mean squared (LMS) algorithm for finding the optimal weight vector for
suppressing unknown noise, widely used in high-speed modems.

Genome Rivals' Genteel Soiree

Genome researchers find software tools for analyzing genomic data are inadequate and there's no format available to effectively exchange data.