Greenflame
Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture, photography and faith from the Aotearoa New Zealand
Category: Science & Technology
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After managing to find this week’s NZ Listener (it gets delivered 7 days before the week it’s for, and often gets misplaced) I see the lead article is on the accelerating pace of technological change. A quick skim though highlights that it picks up on genetics, robotics and nanotechnology in the typical popular fashion. I’ll…
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Report on the American Association for Artificial Intelligence celebrating 50 years of AI research. See Wired News: The Wisdom of Robots.
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Article here on the BrainGate, a device the integrates the human brain with computer systems. Using an array of hair-thin electrodes implanted in his brain, a 25-year-old quadriplegic man was able to operate a computer, open and close a prosthetic hand, and manipulate a robotic arm just by thinking about it, according to a new…
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I hope something like this can work in the real world. Producing plastic from biomass, that in turn can be recycled does seem much better than just producing it from oil. See Wired News: Just One Word: Fructose.
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Links and comments on the use of performance enhancing drugs used by children and teenagers in education. See Better Humans : Simon : The kids are alright with smart drugs
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The article here at Technology Review: Emerging Technologies and their Impact: Cheap Drinking Water from the Ocean talks about developments using carbon nanotube-based membranes for desalination. If implemented the technology could significantly reduce the cost of desalination and help alleviate water shortages. The membranes might also be able to be used to filter out various…
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Just in case you were looking for a copy of this, there’s an online version of Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness, a report of The President’s Council on Bioethics (Washington, D.C., October 2003). PDF and HTML versions available. Bits of it have been useful for me as I’ve noted how different groups…
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Wow. Maybe the commercial spinoff will be a TV you can change channels on without having to move any muscles. See Wired News: Brain Waves Make Robot Move In a video demonstration in Tokyo, patterns of the changes in the brain taken by an MRI machine, like those used in hospitals, were relayed to a…
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Picked up a copy of Digital People: From Bionic Humans to Androids by Sidney Perkowitz this week from the university bookshop. It looks quite interesting and I admit that once I saw the blurb on the back about science fiction movies – just after I’d edited some similar ideas in my introduction – I was…
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For the interesting things that happened this week in science file. Genetic study reveals surprises in human evolution | Reuters.com Last chromosome in human genome sequenced | Reuters.com Chile telescope discovers three planets | Reuters.com