npr:
And there’s another thing I wish to discuss
GPOY
I couldn’t resist this. I really just couldn’t resist it. —Wright
How to fly a helicopter with your brain waves
A brain-computer interface (BCI) that allows humans to use thoughts to control the flight of a virtual helicopter in 3-D and real time has been developed by researchers at the University of Minnesota Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Full Story: Kurzweil
Watch the video for Neon Indian’s “Polish Girl”, our latest Best New Track. The clip is kind of like Weird Science, except a lot more depressing.
Mars journey simulator breaks isolation record
The six participants in a project simulating the long journey to Mars have set a record for the longest time away from the natural world.
Aiming to stay in isolation for 520 days - the time scientists think it would take to get to Mars and back - the participants are finding out exactly how hard it may be even to make the psychological leap required.
Full Story: ABC
Way back in the early days of 2011, the world’s smallest electric motor was so…big. At 200 nanometers wide, it was a whopping 1/300th the size of a human hair.
Now, chemists at Tufts University’s School of Arts and Sciences have smashed that record, which was set in 2005, with this weekend’s unveiling of their single-molecule electric motor, which at 1 nanometer wide could be the first in an entirely new class of devices with potential use in medicine and engineering.
THE extraordinary success of Homo sapiens is a result of four things: intelligence, language, an ability to manipulate objects dexterously in order to make tools, and co-operation. Over the decades the anthropological spotlight has shifted from one to another of these as the prime mover of the package, and thus the fundament of the human condition. At the moment co-operation is the most fashionable subject of investigation. In particular, why are humans so willing to collaborate with unrelated strangers, even to the point of risking being cheated by people whose characters they cannot possibly know? Evidence from economic games played in the laboratory for real money suggests humans are both trusting of those they have no reason to expect they will ever see again, and surprisingly unwilling to cheat them—and that these phenomena are deeply ingrained in the species’s psychology. Existing theories of the evolution of trust depend either on the participants being relatives (and thus sharing genes) or on their relationship being long-term, with each keeping count to make sure the overall benefits of collaboration exceed the costs. Neither applies in the case of passing strangers, and that has led to speculation that something extraordinary, such as a need for extreme collaboration prompted by the emergence of warfare that uses weapons, has happened in recent human evolution to promote the emergence of an instinct for unconditional generosity.
GPS Receivers Now Small Enough to Attach to Literally Anything - Technology Review
With a tiny-enough GPS sensor, it’s possible to track the location of anything from your lost keys to a runaway pet. That’s because the world’s smallest GPS receiver is now smaller than a penny and weighs only 0.3 grams. But that’s just the chip — what about all the electronics required to make it truly useful, like a system for remotely downloading the data it has logged?
This GPS logger weighs 10 grams, most of which is battery. Custom-made by Telemetry Solutions of Concord, California, it’s small enough to attach to a fruit bat for research purposes. Data can be downloaded directly from the chip upon recapture, or it can be downloaded wirelessly from up to 500 meters away.
Today would have been Amy Winehouse’s 28th birthday.
Hear her formidable voice on her final studio recording, a duet with Tony Bennett on “Body And Soul.”
