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Scientists at Tel Aviv University in Israel have demonstrated that externally cultured neurons can be embedded with multiple simple memory imprints that literally lingers on for days without interfering with or erasing one another:

The results, Ben-Jacob says, set the stage for the creation of a neuromemory chip that could be paired with computer hardware to create cyborglike machines capable of such tasks as detecting dangerous toxins in the air, allowing the blind to see or helping someone who is paralyzed regain some if not all muscle use.

Ben-Jacob points out that previous attempts to develop memories on brain cell cultures (neurons along with their supporting and insulating glial cells) have often involved stimulating the synapses (nerve cell connections). So-called excitatory neurons, which amplify brain activity, account for nearly 80 percent of the neurons in the brain; inhibitory neurons, which dampen activity, make up the remaining 20 percent. Stimulating excitatory cells with chemicals or electric pulses causes them to fire, or send electrical signals of their own to neighboring neurons.

Did you know that doctors have performed operations to remove half of a person’s brain for hundreds of times? The process is called hemispherectomy. The procedure is used as a last resort, and when alternative treatments are deemed to be unfeasible for the patient. From the SciAm article:

Neurosurgeons have performed the operation on children as young as three months old. Astonishingly, memory and personality develop normally. A recent study found that 86 percent of the 111 children who underwent hemispherectomy at Hopkins between 1975 and 2001 are either seizure-free or have nondisabling seizures that do not require medication. The patients who still suffer seizures usually have congenital defects or developmental abnormalities, where brain damage is often not confined to just one hemisphere, Freeman explains.

Another study found that children that underwent hemispherectomies often improved academically once their seizures stopped. “One was champion bowler of her class, one was chess champion of his state, and others are in college doing very nicely,” Freeman says.

Of course, the operation has its downside: “You can walk, run—some dance or skip—but you lose use of the hand opposite of the hemisphere that was removed. You have little function in that arm and vision on that side is lost,” Freeman says.

I’d love to hear what HTNet’s readers have to say about this; especially Dr. Kucau

Magnets have always been hyped as the next alternative medical thingamajig. From magnetic bracelets to mattresses embedded with magnetic bits, lots of marketing have gone behind the wonderful powers of magnets. All the while, I’ve always been a skeptic on the purported health benefits of magnets.

Now, boffins from City University in New York suggest that magnets can actually boost mental performance:

Scientists in New York promoted the growth of new neurons in the brains of mice using a magnetic stimulus in the region associated with memory.

Presenting the results at the American Academy for Neuroscience conference, the researchers said the results may lead to treatments for Alzheimer’s.

However, if proven the technique is more likely to be a way of slowing progression of the disease than a cure.

Experts said the work was encouraging but would need to be replicated in humans.

A study has shown that ants use an internal pedometer to find their way home without getting lost. And here are some experiments which show how the boffins came up to this conclusion:

They glued stilt-like extensions to the legs of some ants to lengthen stride. The researchers shortened other ants’ stride length by cutting off the critters’ feet and lower legs, reducing their legs to stumps.

By manipulating the ants’ stride lengths, the researchers could determine whether the insects were using an odometer-like mechanism to measure the distance, or counting off steps with an internal pedometer.

The ants on stilts took the right number of steps, but because of their increased stride length, marched past their goal. Stump-legged ants, meanwhile, fell short of the goal.

Hopefully, no animal rights activists will be pounding on the facilities’ doors demanding them not to mutilate ants in the name of science

I find it strange that even after we’ve discovered a potentially habitable planet, the way us humans travel in space remains near absolutely the same as it was three decades ago:

1. Build a rocket
2. Attached said rocket to huge fuel tanks that will be used to launch the rocket
3. Use massive amount of rocket fuel to provide the necessary force to blast off
4. Ensure that there’s adequate infrastructure, support mechanisms and human ingenuity to make sure the astronauts can return to Earth safely

Regardless if you’re NASA, Russia’s Federal Space Agency or China National Space Administration, all your rockets will be launched using the exact same technology mentioned previously.

Essentially, space travel technology has became stagnant… unless there’s some new space travel mechanisms being kept under wraps by the world’s secretive space agencies.

What we have now is only the commercialisation of old space technology to provide expensive space rides for the world’s richest people. If this trend goes on, then the bulk of astronauts in the world will then consist of mega-billionaires.

I guess the price could become more affordable in the future if the trend for commercial space travel becomes more like home computing… but even the optimist in me keeps on saying, “Dream on!”.

However, I do hope that better space travel technologies will be unveiled during my lifetime. Otherwise, it’ll be a lot less challenging trying to explain to my grandson how space travel was when I was his age