Reverse engineering of the brain is providing some answers in the hot field of Artificial General Intelligence. Previously we highlighted efforts with IBM’s Bluebrain project, but also of note is the work that Palm computing founder and TED darling Jeff Hawkins is doing with his work on Hierarchical Temporal Memory.
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Mind Over Matter or Matter Over Mind?
by Jason Patocka April 5, 2010
Biomimicry Your Time Has Come
by Jason Patocka March 30, 2010
The American Chemical Society assembled its grand hive mind of chemists for the 239th time in San Francisco last week. Among the 12,000 presentations delivered across a wide spectrum of scientific disciplines, a presentation by doctors Tongxiang Fan, Di Zhang, and Han Zhou of the State Key Lab of Matrix Composites at Shanghai Jiaotong University highlighted a rapidly growing trend in chemical engineering. The group presented efforts towards designing renewable energy systems with a synthetic leaf, where the prototype would capture photons and use them to change water into hydrogen fuel.
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LHC Shatters Record, Enslaves Grad Students
by Jason Patocka
Geneva’s high energy physics juggernaut CERN shattered records and pushed scientists closer towards their quest to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang this morning. Reports indicate that the particle collider recorded nearly half a million events after three hours of operating at a mind boggling energy of 7 TeV. And that is just half of its proposed design energy.
That’s a lot of awesome.
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Video Hoodies & Desktop BioFabrication
by Jason Patocka March 26, 2010
What do you get when you mix biotechnology with your Inkjet printer?
A lot of awesome that’s what.
H+ Magazine recently featured a great article on bioprinting, but its just one aspect of fabrication that is likely going to be an emerging trend in the early 21st century. Gone are the days where you are stuck printing documents. Now you will have the ability to print 3D objects, and even living tissues if you desire. One day it might just fit on your desktop.
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OMG Who Did Your Eyes?
by Jason Patocka March 23, 2010
Early 21st century convergence in cellular systems biology, bio-materials engineering, and regenerative medicine demonstrate exciting first steps in building functional organs. Ultimately, these advancements would potentially allow disabled people to replace their prosthetic or faulty organs with actual limbs and tissue. Visionary aspirations for this technology foresee an age of full blown bionics, where technology inspired by Neuromancer or Blade Runner becomes part of daily life, and helps cure currently untreatable diseases.
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Biodegradable Plastics
by Jason Patocka March 12, 2010
Much to the demise of those who might enjoy the sadistic appeal that comes from a Mad Max future scenario where neo-savage gangs fight to the death over claims to mine garbage dumps for their petrochemicals, IBM and Stanford chemists are working towards developing biodegradable plastic that gives the rest of us reason to look forward to the future.
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US Nanotech at Inflection Point
by Jason Patocka
Pathways for economic stimulus certainly aren’t in short supply these days. Neither is global demand for insatiable technological wow factor. That is why the field of nanotechnology holds much hype, mystery and promise. This buzz saturated field of research is drawing significant attention among investors, legislators, and even its fair share of mentions in pop culture. Now the field has even matured to the point where US nanotechnology policy is adapting to meet the forces of change.
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Batteries 100 times Better than Lithium Ion?
by Jason Patocka March 8, 2010
A great deal of our civilization’s happiness depends on a steady stream of electrons. Global demand for these quantum mechanical physics darlings is insatiable, and 20th century electron production and storage methods are getting expensive and dangerously unsustainable.
Fortunately, nanoscientists are working hard to address this persistent need.
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Skinput asks, “Dancing Coconut Girls, Anyone?”
by Jason Patocka March 4, 2010
Body modders rejoice! Touch interfaces may soon be coming to your tattoo if Carnegie Mellon and Microsoft Research engineers advance their concept of Skinput. So far, the team has developed an external sensor that detects acoustic vibrations on the human body, and have paired this input with a projected user interface. This is an interesting field of conceptual R&D, as there could be more far reaching and tantalizing applications with convergent developments in bio-materials engineering and thin film displays.