Question: I just found out I’m pregnant, and want to make sure I eat well. How much do I need to eat, and what kinds of foods are best? How much weight should I gain?
New Brain Implant Fuel Cell Runs On Sugar
June 19, 2012 | by
MIT researchers have developed a new fuel cell that could be used to power brain implants in coming years [1]. Just like human cells, the fuel cells run on glucose, which is the most common sugar in nature and in the human body. Human cells derive energy from glucose through a process called oxidation — a part of metabolism — that takes electrons from the glucose and passes those electrons from enzyme to enzyme in the cell, generating the energy molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
Qualcomm is Building a Digital Human Brain
February 14, 2012 | by
During the President’s Lecture Series at San Diego State University two weeks ago, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said that the company is building a digital human brain. Stating that the brain isn’t programmed but rather taught, Jacobs emphasized that the company’s work was meant to help humanity through the “digital sixth sense” — the merging of the cyber and real worlds.
He described the process of discovery this way:
The team actually started out by building a retina and they came to me and said: ‘Look, it responds to these optical illusions the same way a human does.’ They put another layer of cells behind that [and] it started to find features. They put another layer, it started to find corners or oriented lines or something. Another layer, it started to find patterns.
Jacobs is talking about Brain Corporation, a small research company that is developing novel algorithms based on the functionality of the nervous system, with applications in visual perception, motor control, and autonomous navigation. The intention is to equip consumer devices, such as mobile phones or household robots, with artificial nervous systems. Qualcomm funds Brain Corporation research and hosts the company on its campus in San Diego, California.
Scientists at Brain Corporation are re-creating in the computer the shapes of every one of the billions of nerve cells that make up our brains, the component parts of intricate neural circuits that allow us to move, see and hear, to feel and to think. With this new tool, researchers are beginning to decipher the secrets of the brain’s architecture, which may one day enable us to build smart technologies that surpass the capabilities of anything we have today.
Episode 1: Blueprint for the Brain from Science Bytes on Vimeo.
This video is based on a paper published by neuroscientist Hermann Cuntz, and colleagues in the online journal PLoS Computational Biology.
Study: One Rule to Grow Them All: A General Theory of Neuronal Branching and Its Practical Application
Source: KPBS.org
The Link Between Positive Psychology and Cancer Survival
August 31, 2010 | by
Have you ever heard a person in poor health being told “Well, you’ve got to stay positive, that will help”? This seemingly common idea is currently under significant scientific investigation. Indeed, the debate about the degree to which psychological processes can directly influence physical health has received special attention recently. A special supplement of the Annals of Behavioural Medicine directly addressed this topic in February this year and a recent article in the Lancet explored this issue, cautioning us that the relationship between a positive psychological orientation and cancer survival remains unclear [1].
