Networks of brain cells in a petri dish can learn to generate simple timed intervals, UCLA scientists have found.
The research sheds light on how the brain tells time and will enhance scientists’ understanding of how the brain works.
Human stem cells genetically engineered into HIV-fighting cells can attack HIV-infected cells in a living animal model, a team of UCLA researchers has demonstrated
“We believe that this study lays the groundwork for the potential use of this type of an approach in combating HIV infection in infected individuals, in hopes of eradicating the virus from the body,” said lead investigator Scott G. Kitchen, an assistant professor… read more
UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) physicists have demonstrated a new paradigm in quantum information processing with a quantum integrated circuit that implements a “quantum von Neumann” architecture.
In this architecture, a long-lived quantum random access memory can be programmed using a quantum central processing unit, all constructed on a single chip, providing the key components for a quantum version of a classical computer.
“Computational steps… read more
UC Santa Barbara physicists have discovered that silicon carbide (carborundum), widely used as a semiconductor, contains crystal imperfections that can be controlled at room temperature at a quantum-mechanical level.
The UCSB team discovered that electrons that become trapped by certain imperfections in silicon carbide do so in a way that allows their quantum states to be initialized, precisely manipulated,… read more
UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) scientists have, for the first time, used genetic engineering and molecular evolution to direct the enzymatic synthesis of a semiconductor.
(This adds further details to our earlier news item on this.)
By controlling this directed evolution, it will be possible to evolve materials with specific capacities, like high performance in an evolved solar cell, for example, the researchers say.
“In… read more
UCSD has introduced Diego-san, a new humanoid robot who mimicks the expressions of a one-year-old child
Demonstrated at CES and in a video, the robot will be used in studies on sensory-motor and social development — how babies “learn” to control their bodies and to interact with other people.
Diego-san’s hardware was developed by two leading robot manufacturers: the head by Hanson… read more
Non-coding regions play an important role in maintaining an organism’s genetic integrity, according to Peter Andolfatto, an assistant professor of biology at UCSD, in the October 20 issue of Nature.
“Sequencing of the complete genome in humans, fruit flies, nematodes and plants has revealed that the number of protein-coding genes is much more similar among these species than expected,” he says. “Curiously, the largest differences between major species groups… read more
A team of UCSF researchers has engineered E. coli bacteria with the key molecular circuitry that will enable genetic engineers to program cells to communicate and perform computations.
The work creates NOR gate logic circuits by “rewiring” communications between the bacteria. The gate controls the release and sensing of a chemical signal, which allows the gates to be connected among bacteria much the way electrical gates would be on… read more
This just in from Udacity: beginning April 16, Udacity will be offering four new courses, in addition to re-offering CS101: Building a Search Engine and CS373: Programming a Robotic Car:
CS212: The Design of Computer Programs
Peter Norvig will help students develop good taste as programmers by learning how to identify elegant solutions to problems.
CS253: Web Application Engineering
Taught by Reddit.com and… read more
RAEL, founder of Clonaid, the first human cloning company, and self-described “Messenger of Infinity” and “brother of Jesus,” announced today he has given his support to Professor Robert White of Cleveland, Ohio, who hopes to perform brain and human head transplants.
White recently announced he has transplanted a whole monkey’s head onto another monkey’s body. The animal survived for some time after the operation.
Clonaid is owned by… read more
Ugolog allows individuals to quickly set up a powerful surveillance system (for home monitoring, for example), using live video streaming via the Ugolog website, but the service could raise privacy issues for some uses.
The University of Illinois at Chicago has unveiled the world’s most powerful magnetic resonance imaging machine.
The current industry standard for MRI systems is 1.5 tesla, which limits researchers to imaging water molecules. As a result, only anatomical changes can be detected and monitored.
By contrast, UIC’s 9.4-tesla magnet will enable researchers to detect signals from sodium, phosphorus, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen — the metabolic building blocks of… read more
The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, one of the top Computer Science programs in the world, has just officially opened their new $80 million Siebel Center.
The department head describes the building as a single computing entity, meant to be programmed and to interact with those in the building via RFID tags in their ID cards. This is probably one of the biggest and most expensive projects in… read more
The outbreak of bird flu killing turkeys at a UK farm has been confirmed to be the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus that has been moving across Eurasia and has so far killed 206 people, mainly in Asia.
The first mobile phone designed specifically for blind and partially sighted people will go on sale in Spain next week. A speech synthesizer reads everything that would normally appear on the screen and speaks the name or number of incoming callers.