Lifeboat Foundation

Neuroscientists at the University of Bristol are a step closer to understanding how the connections in our brain which control our episodic memory work in sync to make some memories stronger than others. The findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, reveal a previously unsuspected division of memory function in the pathways between two areas of the brain, and suggest that certain subnetworks within the brain work separately, to enhance the distinctiveness of memories.

The team studied the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex—two regions of the brain critical to memory function—as damage in these areas can induce severe memory loss.

Both areas are connected by a complex network of direct and indirect pathways, and the challenge has been until now, how to identify the precise routes through which these brain regions interact in memory formation.

A “smart” needle with an embedded camera is helping doctors perform safer brain surgery.

The device was developed by researchers at the University of Adelaide in South Australia and uses a tiny camera to identify at-risk blood vessels.

Continue reading “Internet of Things smart needle probes the brain during surgery” »

The fast food franchise is leveraging a special device to help customers choose their meal by age, mood, and gender.

The high tech sector is often the backbone of a healthy economy, and this sector of the economy is growing rapidly in many parts of the world. While growth of the technology sector is likely to continue in the developed world, high tech growth is often especially rapid in the developing world. Here are some countries where high tech sector growth is taking place at a particularly rapid pace:

China: China is experiencing rapid economic growth in general, and this includes the country’s high tech sector. While the high tech sector of China has been growing for some time, it may grow at an even faster rate in the future. China’s economy is thought to be making a transition from an industrial to a post industrial nation. This transition often leads to growth in the high tech sector.

Since people in China are spending more on merchandise in general, more people in China are purchasing high tech gadgets. You can see this trend from the increase in internet usage that has been happening throughout China. It is estimated that there is a new internet user in China every 1.6 seconds. Currently, nearly 600 million people in China already use the internet. This is nearly double the population of the United States, and this figure is expected to continue rising rapidly!

Continue reading “Four Countries With A Rapidly Growing High Tech Sector” »

Computer boffins Juan Echeverria and Shi Zhou at University College London have chanced across a dormant Twitter botnet made up of more than 350,000 accounts with a fondness for quoting Star Wars novels.

Twitter bots have been accused of warping the tone of the 2016 election. They also can be used for entertainment, marketing, spamming, manipulating Twitter’s trending topics list and public opinion, trolling, fake followers, malware distribution, and data set pollution, among other things.

In a recently published research paper, the two computer scientists recount how a random sampling of 1 per cent of English-speaking Twitter accounts – about 6 million accounts – led to their discovery.

Continue reading “350,000 Twitter bot sleeper cell betrayed by love of Star Wars and Windows Phone” »

Over the past half year, bots have been a widely discussed topic. Experts and the media heavily discussed all the possible benefits, the future, and the value bots could create for businesses and consumers. Arguably, the tipping point was Facebook’s F8 conference in April. Since then, many developers and consumers have massively experimented with bots and tested their limits to find the most suitable use cases for bots.

During this trend, the U.S. market has proven to be highly interested in bots. Several published surveys are showing strong U.S. bot companies, as you can see in VentureBeat’s Bots Landscape. But Europe is not far behind.

The things that can be done with 3D printing never cease to amaze. To the casual observer with only a passing knowledge of the technology, it appears on the surface to be an interesting method of producing plastic odds and ends, and sometimes metal parts – but 3D printing is so much more, as anyone who follows the progression of the technology on a regular basis knows. The things it is capable of producing are often hard to wrap one’s mind around – especially when you look at 3D printing on the nanoscale.

A group of scientists from Lithuania, France and Australia are busy studying 3D printing on a very small scale. As a newly published paper entitled “Optically Clear and Resilient Free-Form μ-Optics 3D-Printed via Ultrafast Laser Lithography” explains, 3D printing is capable of creating functional objects that are impossible to produce via conventional manufacturing techniques, and structures at the miniature, micro- and nanoscales are no exception.

Nice. I want one.

A revamped and rebranded NanoFabrication Kingston has launched with the goal of increasing activity outside of Queen’s University.

“We want to be open to the eastern Ontario community, industry and government as well as academia outside of Queen’s to make, characterize and test devices and samples that are small,” said Rob Knobel, Queen’s University professor and a lead researcher at NanoFabrication Kingston.

Continue reading “Big plans for nanotechnology” »

That’s a relief.

Of all the potentially apocalyptic technologies scientists have come up with in recent years, the gene drive is easily one of the most terrifying. A gene drive is a tool that allows scientists to use genetic engineering to override natural selection during reproduction. In theory, scientists could use it to alter the genetic makeup of an entire species—or even wipe that species out. It’s not hard to imagine how a slip-up in the lab could lead to things going very, very wrong.

But like most great risks, the gene drive also offers incredible reward. Scientists are, for example, exploring how gene drive might be used to wipe out malaria and kill off Hawaii’s invasive species to save endangered native birds. Its perils may be horrifying, but its promise is limitless. And environmental groups have been campaigning hard to prevent that promise from ever being realized.

Continue reading “The UN Okays Synthetic Biology” »