Neuroscience: The Mind Reader

sunrec:

Adrian Owen still gets animated when he talks about patient 23. The patient was only 24 years old when his life was devastated by a car accident. Alive but unresponsive, he had been languishing in what neurologists refer to as a vegetative state for five years, when Owen, a neuro-scientist then at the University of Cambridge, UK, and his colleagues at the University of Liège in Belgium, put him into a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine and started asking him questions.

Incredibly, he provided answers.

A challenging look at the definition of consciousness in those confined to a vegetative state. fMRI studies, for all their shortcomings, have recently challenged long-held notions about brain activity in otherwise unresponsive patients, but what does that mean about their “consciousness”? At what threshold does brain activity become “life”? There’s lots of controversy about how valid Owen’s studies are, but the story of Patient 23 will certainly make you think twice. A wonderful read.

Source: jtotheizzoe

jtotheizzoe: Voyager I, Where Are You? An uptick in a certain kind of deep-space cosmic particle on Voyager I’s detectors this week means that it is thiiiiiiiiiiis close to leaving the Solar System. The probe has been in transit from Earth since 1977, and now sits 17.9 billion kilometers from Earth. Its radio signals take seventeen minutes to reach Earth at light speed! It sits now at the border of the heliosphere, which is not really a border at all but more of a large fuzzy transition zone. This is the point at which hydrogen and helium carried by the solar wind are overtaken in force by interstellar cosmic particles. It’s the “outer” in “outer space”. This humble hunk of electronics was built by us. We packed it with a golden message from Carl Sagan. We strapped it to a tube of fire and shot it to the edge of interstellar space (with the aid of a few complex math problems). What will happen when it enters the beyond? Like the marks we left on the Moon, will this be mankind’s footprint on the dusty surface of the unknown? We don’t know what to expect. But I can’t wait to find out. (More at The Atlantic)
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jtotheizzoe:

Voyager I, Where Are You?

An uptick in a certain kind of deep-space cosmic particle on Voyager I’s detectors this week means that it is thiiiiiiiiiiis close to leaving the Solar System. The probe has been in transit from Earth since 1977, and now sits 17.9 billion kilometers from Earth. Its radio signals take seventeen minutes to reach Earth at light speed!

It sits now at the border of the heliosphere, which is not really a border at all but more of a large fuzzy transition zone. This is the point at which hydrogen and helium carried by the solar wind are overtaken in force by interstellar cosmic particles. It’s the “outer” in “outer space”.

This humble hunk of electronics was built by us. We packed it with a golden message from Carl Sagan. We strapped it to a tube of fire and shot it to the edge of interstellar space (with the aid of a few complex math problems). What will happen when it enters the beyond? Like the marks we left on the Moon, will this be mankind’s footprint on the dusty surface of the unknown?

We don’t know what to expect. But I can’t wait to find out.

(More at The Atlantic)

I want to work at NASA!

the-star-stuff: Lunar Elevator  Credit: AMNH\D. Finnin  If humans do set up a base on the Moon, we would eventually need a way to get materials to and from the Moon’s surface. Spacecraft have to travel 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) per second—faster than a speeding bullet— to launch off the surface of the Moon. A lunar elevator that would carry humans from the moon towards a space station where they would catch a ride back to Earth could sharply reduce that effort and expense. Love the idea of this.
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the-star-stuff:

Lunar Elevator 

Credit: AMNH\D. Finnin 

If humans do set up a base on the Moon, we would eventually need a way to get materials to and from the Moon’s surface. Spacecraft have to travel 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) per second—faster than a speeding bullet— to launch off the surface of the Moon. A lunar elevator that would carry humans from the moon towards a space station where they would catch a ride back to Earth could sharply reduce that effort and expense.

Love the idea of this.

(via scinerds)

Source: space.com

Cyanea Capillata: The Coolest, Literally

The Lion’s Mane Jellyfish notably ‘Arctic sea jellies’ has made a sensational appearance in literature, most notably in Sherlock Holmes’s ‘The Adventure of the Lion’s Mane.’ However, lion’s mane jellyfish is nowhere close to as dangerous as it is made out to be in popular culture. A sting from the lion’s mane jellyfish is not only incapable of causing human deaths; all it does is cause an itchy rash and mild burning sensation. Although the rash can be painful for sensitive individuals and the toxins in the venom may cause an allergic reaction, the stings from a lion’s mane jellyfish can be treated by application of vinegar.

However, lion’s mane jellyfish are very interesting marine creatures. To begin with, they live in the harshest weather conditions. They are found in the freezing cold waters of the Arctic Ocean and Northern Pacific Ocean during the coldest months of the year. They rarely descend below 42 degrees latitude and are not found in the southern hemisphere at all.

The lion’s mane jellyfish can attain enormous size. In fact, the largest Lion’s Mane jellyfish is not merely the largest species of jellyfish in the world; it is the largest animal in the world. The one specimen of Lion’s Mane which was found in Massachusetts Bay in 1870 was over 7 feet in diameter and its tentacles were longer than 120 feet in length.

However, the bell of the Artic Lion’s Mane is known to be able to grow up to 8 feet in diameter, and their tentacles can acquire the length of 150 feet. That is much longer than blue whale, which is generally thought to be the largest animal in the world.

Via

(via stars-stricken)

Source: ikenbot

“Speaking at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in California, MIT professor Daniel Nocera claims to have created an artificial leaf, made from stable and inexpensive materials, which mimics nature’s photosynthesis process.The device is an advanced solar cell, no bigger than a typical playing card, which is left floating in a pool of water. Then, much like a natural leaf, it uses sunlight to split the water into its two core components, oxygen and hydrogen, which are stored in a fuel cell to be used when producing electricity. Nocera’s leaf is stable — operating continuously for at least 45 hours without a drop in activity in preliminary tests — and made of widely available, inexpensive materials — like  silicon, electronics and chemical catalysts. It’s also powerful, as much as ten times more efficient at carrying out photosynthesis than a natural leaf.With a single gallon of water, Nocera says, the chip could produce enough electricity to power a house in a developing country for an entire day. Provide every house on the planet with an artificial leaf and we could satisfy our 14 terrawatt need with just one gallon of water a day.” Read more…
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“Speaking at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in California, MIT professor Daniel Nocera claims to have created an artificial leaf, made from stable and inexpensive materials, which mimics nature’s photosynthesis process.

The device is an advanced solar cell, no bigger than a typical playing card, which is left floating in a pool of water. Then, much like a natural leaf, it uses sunlight to split the water into its two core components, oxygen and hydrogen, which are stored in a fuel cell to be used when producing electricity.

Nocera’s leaf is stable — operating continuously for at least 45 hours without a drop in activity in preliminary tests — and made of widely available, inexpensive materials — like  silicon, electronics and chemical catalysts. It’s also powerful, as much as ten times more efficient at carrying out photosynthesis than a natural leaf.

With a single gallon of water, Nocera says, the chip could produce enough electricity to power a house in a developing country for an entire day. Provide every house on the planet with an artificial leaf and we could satisfy our 14 terrawatt need with just one gallon of water a day.”


Read more…

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