The end of “Nintendo Thumb”!?!

At Emotiv, we believe that future communication between man and machine will not only be limited to the conscious commun- ication that exists today, but non-conscious communication will play a significant part. Our mission is to create the ultimate interface for the next-generation of man-machine interaction, by evolving the interaction between human beings and electronic devices beyond the limits of conscious interface. Emotiv is creating technologies that allow machines to take both conscious and non-conscious inputs directly from your mind. Applications for the Emotiv technology can span numerous industries, however, our immediate target market is entertainment, with a focus on the electronic games industry. more>>>

Here is a Wall Street Journal article on the device: more>>>

Texas A&M University researcher Brendan Roark announced last week at American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) that age and growth studies of deep-sea gold corals (Geradia sp.) and black corals (Leiopathes glaberrima, pictured left) indicate these animals live between two and four millennia, repectively. Science Magazine covers the story here, the press release is here, and Discover Magazine reports here.

The new findings break all records previously claimed for marine invertebrates like the cold seep tubeworms (estimated 200 years old), quahog clams (estimated 400 years old), as well as the deep-sea wannabees Primnoa spp. and bamboo corals (45 – 300 years old). Given the new results, deep-sea animals can finally measure up to the longevity of the “Methuselah tree”, the Bristlecone Pine, estimated to be near 5000 years old.

Deep-sea biologists get excited about this because marine invertebrates record archives of environmental conditions in their growth rings, the same way trees do. Long lived invertebrates provide long records of climate change in the deep sea. We’re likely to channel Jacques Cousteau or Carl Sagan saying (cue accent)… more>>>

They are like [little] tiny tape-recorders, … sitting on the sea-bed… integrating signals about water temperature and food over time – C. Richardson, Bangor University

Plants trees and algae do it. Even some bacteria and moss do it, but scientists have had a difficult time developing methods to turn sunlight into useful fuel. Now, Penn State researchers have a proof-of-concept device that can split water and produce recoverable hydrogen.

“This is a proof-of-concept system that is very inefficient. But ultimately, catalytic systems with 10 to 15 percent solar conversion efficiency might be achievable,” says Thomas E. Mallouk, the DuPont Professor of Materials Chemistry and Physics. “If this could be realized, water photolysis would provide a clean source of hydrogen fuel from water and sunlight.” more>>>

I would really like to see Linux develop into a real competitor. It’s 75% there…they just need to make it a little more compatible and a little more user-friendly so the mainstream will be able to adopt it.

From APC Mag:
Google recently confirmed in a blog posting that it had paid Codeweavers to help develop WINE to make Photoshop usable on the well-regarded but still somewhat unpredictable software package, which aims to replicate Windows libraries to enable popular Windows applications run in a Linux environment. more>>>

Early studies on the safety of zinc oxide nanoparticles used in sunscreens are reassuring, say scientists.

But the studies still can’t tell us the actual risk of using products containing these tiny particles.

Two of the first Australian studies on the safety of zinc oxide nanoparticles will be presented later this month at the International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Melbourne.

One study looked at what happens when sunscreen containing these nanoparticles is applied to human skin.

“You put these materials on your skin and they disappear,” says researcher Professor Brian Gulson from Macquarie University’s Graduate School of the Environment in Sydney.

“Surely they must go somewhere. Are they being absorbed through the skin?” more>>>

An international team of scientists led by a University of Leicester researcher has carried out a scientific study into the realm of consciousness. The scientists have made a significant step into the understanding of conscious perception, by showing how single neurons in the human brain reacted to perceived and nonperceived images. more>>>

Scientists believe they have made a potential breakthrough in the treatment of serious disease by creating a human embryo with three separate parents.

The Newcastle University team believe the technique could help to eradicate a whole class of hereditary diseases, including some forms of epilepsy.

The embryos have been created using DNA from a man and two women in lab tests.

It could ensure women with genetic defects do not pass the diseases on to their children.

The technique is intended to help women with diseases of the mitochondria – mini organelles that are found within individual cells.

They are sometimes described as “cellular power plants” because they generate most of the cell’s energy.

Faults in the mitochondrial DNA can cause around 50 known diseases, some of which lead to disability and death.

About one in every 6,500 people is affected by such conditions, which include fatal liver failure, stroke-like episodes, blindness, muscular dystrophy, diabetes and deafness.

At present, no treatment for mitochondrial diseases exists. more>>>

ScienceDaily (Feb. 6, 2008) — The continuous fabrication of complex, three-dimensional nanoscale structures and the ability to grow individual nanowires of unlimited length are now possible with a process developed by researchers at the University of Illinois.

Based on the rapid evaporation of solvent from simple “inks,” the process has been used to fabricate freestanding nanofibers, stacked arrays of nanofibers and continuously wound spools of nanowires. Potential applications include electronic interconnects, biocompatible scaffolds and nanofluidic networks.

“The process is like drawing with a fountain pen — the ink comes out and quickly dries or ‘solidifies,’ ” said Min-Feng Yu, a professor of mechanical science and engineering, and an affiliate of the Beckman Institute. “But, unlike drawing with a fountain pen, we can draw objects in three dimensions.” more>>>

Mouse neuron showing multiple neurites with fan-shaped growth cones. (Credit: UCSD School of Medicine)

ScienceDaily (Feb. 4, 2008) — In the first large-scale proteomics study of its kind, researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have mapped thousands of neuronal proteins to discover how they connect into complex signaling networks that guide neuron function. Their research — using quantitative mass spectrometry, computational software and bioinformatics to match the proteins to their cellular functions — may lead to a better understanding of brain development, neurodegenerative diseases, and spinal cord regeneration.

Try to avoid getting hit by one of these!

A supersonic bullet is fired with a record-breaking 10 megajoules of muzzle energy.
By Brendan Borrell

Last week at the Naval Surface Warfare Center, in Dahlgren, VA, a seven-pound bullet emerged from a truck-sized contraption at seven times the speed of sound and sent a visible shockwave through the air before crashing into a metal bunker filled with sand. With 10.6 megajoules of kinetic energy, this aluminum slug was propelled not by explosives but by an electric field, making this the most powerful electromagnetic railgun ever fired. The device is part of the navy’s railgun development program. more>>>

By Aasa Christine Stoltz

OSLO (Reuters) – Household robots may help human carers look after the growing number of elderly Norwegians in years to come, enabling them to live longer and more comfortably in their own homes, a project leader told Reuters on Thursday.

Norway faces a growing shortage of health care staff over the next 5-10 years, and 2020 will be a crunch point when large numbers of post-World War 2 “baby boomers” leave the workforce.

Two employee groups have teamed up to see how robots and other hi-tech gadgets can be developed to help care for them.

“Technology will contribute to resolve part of the challenge with employees in the health care sector,” Olav Ulleren, head of a group representing Norwegian municipalities, told Reuters. “It could also help people live longer in their own homes.” more>>>

Integrated circuits, such as the silicon chips inside all modern electronics, are only as good as their wiring, but copper conduits are approaching physical performance limitations as they get thinner.

Chipmakers have hoped that carbon “nanotubes” would allow them to continue using thinner wiring as they pack more devices into chips, but no one had demonstrated nanotube wires working on a conventional silicon chip. In a paper published online today by the journal Nano Letters, electrical engineers at Stanford University and Toshiba report using nanotubes to wire a silicon chip operating at speeds comparable to those of commercially available processors and memory.

“This is the first time anyone has been able to show digital signals going through nanotubes at 1 gigahertz [a billion times a second],” said H.-S. Philip Wong, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford and a co-author of the report. “There had been a lot of expectations that nanotubes could do this, but no experimental proof so far.” more>>>

The first time travellers from the future could materialise on Earth within a few weeks.

Physicists around the world are excitedly awaiting the start up of the £4.65 billion Large Hadron Collider, LHC – the most powerful atom-smasher ever built – which is supposed to shed new light on the particles and forces at work in the cosmos and reproduce conditions that date to near the Big Bang of creation.

Prof Irina Aref’eva and Dr Igor Volovich, mathematical physicists at the Steklov Mathematical Institute in Moscow believe that the vast experiment at CERN, the European particle physics centre near Geneva in Switzerland, may turn out to be the world’s first time machine, reports New Scientist.

The debut in early summer could provide a landmark because travelling into the past is only possible – if it is possible at all – as far back as the point of creation of the first time machine.

That means 2008 could become “Year Zero” for temporal travel, they argue. more>>>

ScienceDaily (Feb. 5, 2008) — A new process for catching gas from the environment and holding it indefinitely in molecular-sized containers has been developed by a team of University of Calgary researchers, who say it represents a novel method of gas storage that could yield benefits for capturing, storing and transporting gases more safely and efficiently. more>>>

The next big thing – ‘s-commerce’

“They’re calling it shops or ‘s-commerce’ and it’s being rolled out in cities and towns nationwide.

“It’s a real revelation,” according to Malcolm Fosbury, an engineer from Hillingdon. “You just walk into one of these shops and they have all sorts of things for sale.”

Fosbury was particularly impressed by a clothes shop he discovered while browsing in central London. “Shops seem to be the ideal medium for transactions of this type. I can actually try out a jacket and see if it fits me. Then I can visualize the way I would look if I was wearing the clothing.” This is possible using a high definition 2D viewing system, or “mirror” as it has become known.

Shops, which are frequently aggregated into shopping portals or “high streets”, are becoming increasingly popular with the cash-rich time-poor generation of new consumers. Often located in densely populated areas people can find them extremely convenient.

And Malcolm is not alone in being impressed by shops. “Some days I just don’t have the time to download huge Flash animations of rotating trainers and then wait five days for them to be delivered in the hope that they will actually fit,” says Sandra Bailey, a systems analyst from Chelsea.

“This way I can actually complete the transaction in real time and walk away with the goods.”

Being able see whether or not shoes and clothing fit has been a real bonus for Bailey, “I used to spend my evenings boxing up gear to return. Sometimes the clothes didn’t fit, sometimes they just sent the wrong stuff.” Shops have a compelling commercial story to tell too, according to Gartner Group retail analyst Carl Baker. “There are massive efficiencies in the supply chain. By concentrating distribution to a series of high volume outlets in urban centres-typically close to where people live and work-businesses can make dramatic savings in fulfilment costs. Just compare this with the wasteful practise of delivering items piecemeal to people’s homes.” Furthermore, allowing consumers to receive goods when they actually want them could mean an end to the frustration of returning home to find a despatch notice telling you that your goods are waiting in a delivery depot the other side of town.

But it’s not just the convenience and timesaving that appeals to Fosbury,

“Visiting a shop is real relief for me. I mean as it is I spend all day in front of a fucking computer.”