Science seems to follow Science Fiction more and more often these days. One of the most recent examples of this is an experiment by at UC Davis in which researchers used beams of light to “switch off” the part of the hippocampus in the brains of genetically modified mice that relays memory from the cerebral cortex and allows the animal to picture the memory, or “relive” it–similar to the Neuralyzer used by the Men in Black to wipe memories from ordinary folk who had seen alien activity. Scientists have speculated that the hippocampus is very involved in memory retrieval, but this is the first direct evidence to support that hypothesis.
If the Japanese are to be believed, robotic technology is the way of the future. However, that’s never going to happen as long as robots are controlled with clunky, outdated joysticks. One company is changing that; you know them as the Roomba people, iRobot. Thanks to a snazzy new Android app, military robots are controlled more easily and in greater numbers. The tablet shows the view from the robot’s front-facing camera, and tapping on a spot tells to robot to proceed to that point.
iRobot
What I’m really hoping for is a robot that will wash, dry, and fold my laundry without any commands whatsoever.
In a somewhat meta announcement, Phys.Org asks: how many scholarly papers are on the web? Apparently the answer is, “a LOT.” Penn State professor Lee Miles is building databases and specialized search engines that will make these papers more visible to those who are looking for sources for new scholarly journals and books (or just citations for a term paper that is due tomorrow).
Fortunately, readers of Therefore I Geek will have to rely on these innovations less, because they have Winning Science twice a month to direct them to the most interesting news from the scientific community.
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