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Monday December 3, 2012 Daily edition   News and Blog Headlines A step toward creating a bio-robot hybrid Creating 3D brain tissues in a lab dish Imaging brain structures that deteriorate in Parkinson’s DNA imaged with electron microscope for the first time NASA spacecraft finds new Mercury water ice evidence Latest News A step toward creating a bio-robot hybrid December 3, 2012   Would it be possible to integrate biological components with advanced robotics, using biological cells to do machine-like functions and interface with an electronic nervous system — in effect, creating an autonomous, multi-cellular biohybrid robot? Researchers Orr Yarkoni, Lynn Donlon, and Daniel Frankel, from the Department of Chemical Engineering at Newcastle University think so, and they’ve … more… Creating 3D brain tissues in a lab dish December 3, 2012   Borrowing from microfabrication techniques used in the semiconductor industry, MIT and Harvard Medical School (HMS) engineers have developed a simple, inexpensive way to create three-dimensional brain tissues in a lab dish, using brain cells taken from the primary cortex of rats. The new technique yields tissue constructs that closely mimic the cellular composition of those … more… Imaging brain structures that deteriorate in Parkinson’s December 2, 2012   A new imaging technique developed at MIT offers the first glimpse of the degeneration of two brain structures affected by Parkinson’s disease. The technique, which combines several types of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), could allow doctors to better monitor patients’ progression and track the effectiveness of potential new treatments, says Suzanne Corkin, MIT professor emerita of … more… DNA imaged with electron microscope for the first time December 2, 2012   An electron microscope has imaged threads of DNA directly or the first time, New Scientist reports. The technique will let researchers see how proteins, RNA and other biomolecules interact with DNA. The structure of DNA was originally discovered using X-ray crystallography, requiring complex mathematics to reconstruct the crystal structure from the observed patterns. The new images are a … more… NASA spacecraft finds new Mercury water ice evidence December 1, 2012   Instruments aboard NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft studying the planet Mercury have provided compelling support for the long-held hypothesis the planet harbors abundant water ice and other frozen volatile materials within its permanently shadowed polar craters. “About the last thing you would expect on a planet so close to the … more… New VIDEOS   Jason Silva | Video maps out Kurzweil’s Six Epochs of Evolution   Staples 3D printing service Latest Kurzweil Collection posts Book review: How to Create a Mind by Ray Kurzweil   Source: The Courier-Journal — November 23, 2012 | Scott Coffman In the compelling introduction, we are told the story of evolution in a most entertaining fashion: that the world is based on information. Physics evolved and became chemistry, chemistry evolved into biology, biology to neurology. “Brains were now the cutting edge of storing and manipulating information. Thus we went from atoms to molecules to DNA to brains. … more… Read full article here How to Create a Mind by Ray Kurzweil #56 on Best-Selling Books list   Source: USA Today — November 22, 2012 How to Create a Mind by Ray Kurzweil: #56 on USA Today’s Best-Selling Books list for the week of November 22, 2012.     Read full article here A summary of How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed by Ray Kurzweil   Source: New Books in Brief — November 27, 2012 When IBM’s Deep Blue defeated humanity’s greatest chess player Gary Kasparov in 1997 it marked a major turning point in the progress of artificial intelligence (AI). A still more impressive turning point in AI was achieved in 2011 when another creation of IBM named Watson defeated Jeopardy! phenoms Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter at their own game. … more… Read full article here Visit KurzweilAI.net You are currently subscribed to the KurzweilAI.net newsletter as *|EMAIL|* To unsubscribe, please click here. To change your email preferences, please click here. *|LIST:ADDRESS|*.