Photo reblogged from Better Book Titles with 1,078 notes
George Owell: Animal Farm
Reader Submission: Title by Tyler Snodgrass.
Source: betterbooktitles
A new study published on Tuesday by Nature described one of the more impressive feats we’ve heard about: A paralyzed man and woman each had chips implanted onto the motor cortex area of the brain that measured their neurons firing as they watched lab technicians move a robotic arm. A computer recorded the pattern of their thinking as they imagined moving the robotic arm and after they had trained the computer, they took control of the arm. For the first time in years, they were able to serve themselves using nothing more than brain power.
Source: theatlanticwire.com
(via Project: Blue Jay Decision-Making | RocketHub)
The first project looks at how the jays respond to multiple components of the same whole signal. Animal signals often have multiple parts, but it’s unclear whether these pieces provide any extra information. In this experiment, jays see a butterfly image with two components, a color and a pattern. The color and pattern of the butterfly provide information to the bird about whether the butterfly is “edible” or not. Jays can “attack” the butterfly by pecking the image, and receive food rewards for correct responses. We use attack rates on the different images to see what component of the signal the jays use to make their decisions.
The second project looks at honesty and dishonesty in communication between two jays. Like people, animals often assess how honest others are, and decide how “trusting” to be based on past experiences. The study of these types of interactions is called Game Theory. This experiment is a signaling game in which two jays interact to earn food pellets. In this experiment, a “signaler” bird can indicate to a “receiver” bird where to go for food by hopping to the correct side of the box. The signaler knows which perch the receiver should go to, and can signal honestly (by hopping to the correct side) or dishonestly (by hopping to the incorrect side). We’re exploring how things like signal cost and the predictability of the environment change how “truthfully” signalers act, and what factors are necessary for honesty to persist.
Awesome!
Source: rockethub.com
It is with great sadness that we confirm that musician, rapper, activist and director Adam “MCA” Yauch, founding member of Beastie Boys and also of the Milarepa Foundation that produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert benefits, and film production and distribution company Oscilloscope Laboratories, passed away in his native New York City this morning after a near-three-year battle with cancer. He was 47 years old. (via Beastie Boys)
RIP
Source: beastieboys.com
Tweedy’s really singing about a universal, timeless crisis of communication. That’s why so many people continue to take Yankee Hotel Foxtrot very personally. In high school, it sounded like Tweedy was speaking for me: This is how shy guys talk to people. In the time since, I’ve realized that no, this is how everyone talks to everyone. Saying what you mean is hard. What’s astonishing about Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is that it actually did it.
Source: The Atlantic
The star players of the bivalve battery, aside from the clams of course, are a natural enzyme and a form of carbon nanotubing that the authors call “buckypaper.” The enzyme replaces the precious metals that sit inside most batteries as catalysts, and the buckypaper serves as the electrode, converting the glucose the clam produces after eating into electricity. Feed the clam, and you make electricity. The eventual goal of electrifying animals is to design a body-friendly fuel cell that can be implanted in human beings. An in-body power plant would harvest energy from glucose in the bloodstream and power pacemakers and other in-body electronics. But keeping humans alive isn’t the only application. The micro-cyborgs could also be used as cheap, battery-less scouts to record environmental data in the wild, unobserved, without ever having to recharge.
Source: fastcoexist.com
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