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Automated ‘coach’ could help with social interactions

June 18, 2013

mit_mach_coach

New software developed at MIT can be used to help people practice their interpersonal skills until they feel more comfortable with situations such as a job interview or a first date.

The software, called MACH (My Automated Conversation coacH), uses a computer-generated onscreen face, along with facial, speech, and behavior analysis and synthesis software, to simulate face-to-face conversations. It then provides users with feedback on… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

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Scientists put backpacks on dragonflies to track their brains in flight

June 18, 2013

dragonfly_backpack

Neuroscientist Anthony Leonardo created the tiny dragonfly backpack above to study how circuits of neurons do rapid computations to catch a mosquito in air, Wired reports.

Electrodes inserted into the dragonfly’s body and brain record the electrical activity of neurons, and a custom-made chip amplifies the signals and transmits them wirelessly to a nearby computer.

The researchers came up with a clever solution to… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Electronics

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UltraRope could make kilometer-high elevators possible

June 18, 2013

ultrarope

With a new lightweight material known as UltraRope, however, elevators should now be able to travel up to one kilometer (3,281 ft) continuously, Gizmag reports.

Using traditional steel lifting cables, they can’t go farther than 500 meters (1,640 ft) in one vertical run.

UltraRope from Finnish elevator manufacturer Kone, unveiled this Monday in London, is ribbon- or tape-like in form and composed… read more

Topics: Nanotech/Materials Science

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Looking at the deep history of the Universe

June 18, 2013

Jacinta Delhaize with CSIRO's Parkes Radio Telescope during one of her data collecting trips (credit: Anita Redfern Photography)

A new technique that will provide a clearer picture of the Universe’s history and future has been developed by researchers from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR).

Described in research published today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, ICRAR PhD Candidate Jacinta Delhaize is studying distant galaxies to determine how much hydrogen they contain — by “stacking” their signals.

Delhaize… read more

Topics: Physics/Cosmology | Space

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Google’s plan to take over the world

June 18, 2013

Google logo

Google isn’t just the backbone of the Internet anymore, writes Steve Kovach at Business Insider.

“It’s rapidly becoming the backbone of your entire life, all thanks to data you’re voluntarily giving up to a private company based on your Web searches, photos, Gmail messages, and more. …

“It’s the most apparent in Google Now, a voice-powered personal assistant that launched on Android phones last year.” [...]

Topics: Internet/Telecom | Social Networking/Web

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First message sent to Gliese 526, 17.6 light-years away

June 18, 2013

Jamesburg_Earth_Station

At 9 PM EDT Monday, June 17 at a press event in New York, the Lone Signal team announced the transmission of the first interstellar beam (message).

It was transmitted from the giant ex-NASA Jamesburg dish in Carmel, California to the Gliese 526 solar system, 17.6 light-years away.

Simultaneously, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, as he started his welcome talk to… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics | Physics/Cosmology | Singularity/Futures | Space

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Drug laws are ‘worst case of scientific censorship in modern times’

June 17, 2013

brain_psilocybin

Outlawing psychoactive drugs amounts to the worst case of scientific censorship in modern times, leading scientists have argued.

UN conventions on drugs in the 1960s and 1970s have not only compounded the harms of drugs but also produced the worst censorship of research for over 300 years. This has set back research in key areas such as consciousness by decades and effectively stopped the investigation of promising… read more

Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience | Social/Ethical/Legal

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DNA-carbon nanotube vapor sensor identifies scent of melanoma

June 17, 2013

Melanoma

According to new research from the Monell Center and collaborating institutions, odors from human skin cells can be used to identify melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

The researchers also demonstrated that a nanotechnology-based sensor could reliably differentiate melanoma cells from normal skin cells.

The findings suggest that non-invasive odor analysis may be a valuable technique in the detection and early diagnosis of… read more

Topics: Biotech | Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

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Nature can’t be patented: Supreme Court

June 17, 2013

800px-SCOTUSbuilding_1st_Street_SE

In a unanimous ruling on Thursday, Supreme Court justices held that human DNA isolated from a chromosome cannot be patented because it is a product of nature, The New York Times reports.

Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the court, said “there would be considerable danger” in granting patents on natural phenomena because that approach would “inhibit future innovation” and “would be at odds with the very point… read more

Topics: Biotech | Social/Ethical/Legal

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Good vibes

Communicate information via the skin could help both drivers and the blind
June 17, 2013

vibrotactile_displays

Imagine a device using tactile vibrations for GPS-provided turn directions.

Such a device could free drivers from having to look at maps, and could also serve as a tactile guide for the visually and hearing impaired.

Lynette Jones, a senior research scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, designs wearable tactile displays. Through her work, she’s observed that the skin is a… read more

Topics: Human Enhancement

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Spot-welding a graphene nanoribbon to connect into a circuit

June 17, 2013

GNR_on_Au(111)_6

Scientists at Aalto University and Utrecht University have created single-atom contacts between gold and graphene nanoribbons.

The challenge for graphene devices has been how design a contact (to connect the graphene to a circuit wire) without affecting the performance of the graphene nanostructures.

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice. It is anticipated to be a revolutionizing material… read more

Topics: Electronics | Nanotech/Materials Science

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A robot that runs like a cat

Hopefully, this won't lead to a future cheetah-cub videos craze
June 17, 2013

cheetah-cub

Thanks to its cat-modeled legs, EPFL’s four-legged “cheetah-cub robot” is small, light and the fastest in its category (small quadruped robots under 30Kg): it can run 5 kilometers per hour (3.1 mph) — nearly seven times its body length in one second. .

Developed by EPFL’s Biorobotics Laboratory (Biorob),  biomechanics, the robot will serve as a platform for research in locomotion and biomechanics.… read more

Topics: AI/Robotics

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Major hurdle to diabetes transplants cleared

June 17, 2013

insulin_producing_cells

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a way to trigger reproduction in the laboratory of clusters of human cells that make insulin, potentially removing a significant obstacle to transplanting the cells as a treatment for patients with type 1 diabetes.

Efforts to make this treatment possible have been limited by a dearth of insulin-producing beta cells that can be… read more

Topics: Biotech

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ALS patient hopes to be cryopreserved

By Christine Gaspar
June 17, 2013

Aaron Winborn

I would like to introduce you to Aaron Winborn. It was his birthday this week. He just turned 46.

He has a wife named Gwen, a daughter Ashlin, age 9, and another daughter Sabina, age 3. He is an open-source software developer, author of the book Drupal Multimedia, and community activist.

At the age of 43, he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of… read more

Topics: Biomed/Longevity | Human Enhancement

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Tracking people in complex indoor settings

Has implications for security and counterterrorism
June 14, 2013

tracking

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a method for tracking the locations of multiple individuals in complex, indoor settings using a network of video cameras, creating something similar to the fictional Marauder’s Map used by Harry Potter to track comings and goings at the Hogwarts School.

The method was able to automatically follow the movements of 13 people within a nursing home, even though… read more

Topics: Survival/Defense | VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics

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