via http://ift.tt/2tdxD7K:
amydentata:

nfdystopian:

impossibletospell:

gxesio:

deaexlibris:

acquaintedwithrask:

thatssoscience:

Slime mold was grown on an agar gel plate shaped like America and food sources were placed where America’s large cities are. 

The result? A possible look at how to best build public transportation. 

I just really like the idea of slime mold on a map of the US. It’s beautiful.

I’m—

holy shit

I have a raging science ladyboner right now.

I’d love if we could do it on a state-by-state basis.

That same slime mold once affirmed that the Tokyo subway is pretty well-designed.  

Using slime molds as a calculator.

Using slime molds as a calculator.

Using slime molds as a calculator.

Natural computation: it’s a thing, and it’s awesome. What is the universe but a really, really complicated computer?

via http://ift.tt/2r3XZWa:
spaceexp:

13 years on Venus is almost the equivalent of 8 years on Earth. It makes for a very interesting pattern.

via reddit

via http://ift.tt/2oy99B8:
luninosity:

prplprincez:

nuggsmum:

angryschnauzer:

smarmyanarchist:

the-future-now:

We just got an unprecedented look at a black hole ripping apart a star

For the first time ever, astronomers got a close-up peek at a black hole ripping apart a star, a rare event that results in some of the star’s material getting ejected out into space. To research this phenomenon, astronomers used data from a tidal disruption that happened 3.9 billion years ago. Studying tidal disruptions like this one is revealing new information about how black holes behave.

Follow @the-future-now​

!!!!!WHAT!!!! THE FUCK!!!! WHAT THE FUCK!!! THIS IS SO COOL!!!!

Holy shit. Where are my space nerds? My Star Trek nerds? @outside-the-government @bkwrm523 @feelmyroarrrr

Whoa.

@luninosity

Oooh. Totally neat. (And Chris and Seb would love it too!)

via http://ift.tt/2ow73RV:
ibmblr:

Explore 360° of making leaps in quantum.

Your computer can now bend the laws of physics. Most computers think in strings of 1s and 0s. Quantum computers like the one being tested in the IBM Research Quantum Lab, can process 1s and 0s at the same time, like being in two places at once. It’s called “superposition” and it’s the next big leap in technology.

Want to see what quantum computing is like? Experiment with the IBM Quantum Experience over the cloud, through any device or desktop, and you too can test the processor you see in this lab!

Explore the IBM Quantum Experience →

via http://ift.tt/2m2oCLa:
neurosciencestuff:

Restoring the sense of touch in amputees using natural signals of the nervous system

Scientists at the University of Chicago and Case Western Reserve
University have found a way to produce realistic sensations of touch in
two human amputees by directly stimulating the nervous system.

The study, published Oct. 26 in Science Translational Medicine (STM),
confirms earlier research on how the nervous system encodes the
intensity, or magnitude, of sensations. It is the second of two
groundbreaking publications by University of Chicago
neuroscientist Sliman Bensmaia,
PhD, using neuroprosthetic devices to recreate the sense of touch for
amputee or quadriplegic patients with a “biomimetic” approach that
approximates the natural, intact nervous system.

On Oct. 13, in a separate publication from STM,
Bensmaia and a team led by Robert Gaunt, PhD, from the University of
Pittsburgh, announced that for the first time, a paralyzed human patient
was able to experience the sense of touch through a robotic arm that he
controls with his brain. In that study, researchers interfaced directly
with the patient’s brain, through an electrode array implanted in the
areas of the brain responsible for hand movements and for touch, which
allowed the man to both move the robotic arm and feel objects through
it.

The new study takes a similar approach in amputees, working with two
male subjects who each lost an arm after traumatic injuries. In this
case, both subjects were implanted with neural interfaces, devices
embedded with electrodes that were attached to the median, ulnar and
radial nerves of the arm. Those are the same nerves that would carry
signals from the hand were it still intact.

“If you want to create a dexterous hand for use in an amputee or a
quadriplegic patient, you need to not only be able to move it, but have
sensory feedback from it,” said Bensmaia, who is an associate professor
of organismal biology and anatomy at the University of Chicago. “To do
this, we first need to look at how the intact hand and the intact
nervous system encodes this information, and then, to the extent that we
can, try to mimic that in a neuroprosthesis.”

Recreating different sensations of intensity

The latest research is a joint effort by Bensmaia and Dustin Tyler, PhD, the Kent H. Smith Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University, who works with a large team trying to make bionic hands clinically viable. Tyler’s team, led by doctoral student Emily Graczyk, systematically tested the subjects’ ability to distinguish the magnitude of the sensations evoked when their nerves were stimulated through the interface. They varied aspects of the signals, such as frequency and intensity of each electrical pulse. The goal was to understand if there was a systematic way to manipulate the sensory magnitude.

(Image caption:
Electrical stimulation was delivered by an external stimulator (top
left) through percutaneous leads to FINEs implanted on the median,
ulnar, and radial nerves of an upper-limb amputee (bottom left). Each
electrode contact evokes sensory percepts on small regions of the
missing hand of the subject. Credit: Graczyk et al, Sci. Transl. Med.)

Earlier research from Bensmaia’s lab predicted how the nervous system
discerns intensity of touch, for example, how hard an object is
pressing against the skin. That work suggested that the number of times
certain nerve fibers fire in response to a given stimulus, known as the
population spike rate, determines the perceived intensity of a given
stimulus.

Results from the new study verify this hypothesis: A single feature
of electrical stimulation—dubbed the activation charge rate—was found to
determine the strength of the sensation. By changing the activation
charge rate, the team could change sensory magnitude in a highly
predictable way. The team then showed that the activation charge rate
was also closely related to the evoked population spike rate.

Building neuroprosthetics that approximate the natural nervous system

While the new study furthers the development of neural interfaces for
neuroprosthetics, artificial touch will only be as good as the devices
providing input. In a separate paper published in IEEE Transactions on Haptics, Bensmaia and his team tested the sensory abilities of a robotic fingertip equipped with touch sensors.

Using the same behavioral techniques that are used to test human
sensory abilities, Bensmaia’s team, led by Benoit Delhaye and Erik
Schluter, tested the finger’s ability to distinguish different touch
locations, different pressure levels, the direction and speed of
surfaces moving across it and the identity of textures scanned across
it. The robotic finger (with the help of machine learning algorithms)
proved to be almost as good as a human at most of these sensory tasks.
By combining such high-quality input with the algorithms and data
Bensmaia and Tyler produced in the other study, researchers can begin
building neuroprosthetics that approximate natural sensations of touch.

Without realistic, natural-feeling sensations, neuroprosthetics will
never come close to achieving the dexterity of our native hands. To
illustrate the importance of touch, Bensmaia referred to a piano.
Playing the piano requires a delicate touch, and an accomplished pianist
knows how softly or forcefully to strike the keys based on sensory
signals from the fingertips. Without these signals, the sounds the piano
would make would not be very musical.

“The idea is that if we can reproduce those signals exactly, the
amputee won’t have to think about it, he can just interact with objects
naturally and automatically. Results from this study constitute a first
step towards conveying finely graded information about contact
pressure,” Bensmaia said.

via http://ift.tt/2lHkG2n:Primitive plants survive almost two years in outer space:

askmissbernadette:

cryptidsinspace:

mindblowingscience:

Primitive plants are the latest forms of Earth life to show they can survive in the harshness of space, and for many months. Cold-loving algae from the Arctic Circle have joined the space-travelling club, alongside bacteria, lichens and even simple animals called tardigrades.

Preliminary studies of the algae after their return to Earth from the International Space Station lend some weight to the “panspermia” theory, that comets and meteorites could potentially deliver life to otherwise sterile planets. The results also provide insights into the potential for human colonies on distant planets to grow crops brought from Earth.

The algae were of the Sphaerocystis species, codenamed CCCryo 101-99, and were returned to Earth in June last year after spending 530 days on a panel outside the ISS. While space-borne, they withstood the vacuum, temperatures ranging from -20 °C at night to 47.2 °C during the day, plus perpetual ultraviolet radiation of a strength that would destroy most life on Earth if not filtered out by the atmosphere.

“I’m sure that plants of many kinds have been on the ISS before, but on the inside, not the outside,” says Thomas Leya of the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology in Potsdam, Germany, who organised the algae experiment. “As far as I know, this is the first report of plants exposed on the surface of the space station.”

Continue Reading.

“While space-borne, they withstood the vacuum, temperatures ranging from -20 °C at night to 47.2 °C during the day, plus perpetual ultraviolet radiation of a strength that would destroy most life on Earth if not filtered out by the atmosphere.”

Algae is scary, man

via http://ift.tt/2lBsL5k:End of fillings in sight as scientists find Alzheimer's drug makes teeth grow back:

venerabledreadnought:

thinksquad:

Researchers at King’s College London found that the drug Tideglusib stimulates the stem cells contained in the pulp of teeth so that they generate new dentine – the mineralised material under the enamel.

Teeth already have the capability of regenerating dentine if the pulp inside the tooth becomes exposed through a trauma or infection, but can only naturally make a very thin layer, and not enough to fill the deep cavities caused by tooth decay.

But Tideglusib switches off an enzyme called GSK-3 which prevents dentine from carrying on forming.

Scientists showed it is possible to soak a small biodegradable sponge with the drug and insert it into a cavity, where it triggers the growth of dentine and repairs the damage within six weeks.

The tiny sponges are made out of collagen so they melt away over time, leaving only the repaired tooth.

That is by far the coolest thing I’ve heard this year.