Scientists have long known that meditation has the ability to permanently alter neural patterns, but researchers have recently discovered that the practice also causes parts of the brain to physically thicken. LiveScience.com has a summary of the study that was led by Sara Lazar, an assistant in psychology at Massachusetts General Hospital. The 20 participants …
November 2005 archive
Nov 10 2005
Robot Lawyers are Coming Soon
Engadget’s got a summary of an article by Business Day about Buys Inc., a South African law firm that plans to add 3 “robot” lawyers, Stacy, Dave, and Nathan, to their human legal staff in early 2007. Initially their duties will include answering basic questions and presenting training material online. They will operate under very …
Nov 09 2005
A Robot that Moves Like an Amoeba
Discovery.com is reporting today that researchers from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University have developed a robot that does not use wheels or legs to move, but rather uses its skin as its means of propulsion in much the same way that amoeba do. While this method of locomotion will not be practical in …
Nov 08 2005
Women Get a Bigger Kick Out of Cartoons
It has long been perceived by scientists and non-scientists alike that women and men process and react to humor in different ways. Now researchers from the Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research at Stanford University School of Medicine have neurological evidence to back that theory up. NewScientist.com has a summary of their study that is …
Nov 05 2005
Scientists Decipher Visual Neural Output
MIT has published a news release about how neuroscientists in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research have recently made significant advances in their attempts to learn how the inferotemporal (IT) cortex identifies and categorizes visual data. The ability to visually recognize objects, while usually taken for granted because it happens quickly, automatically, and subconsciously, is …
Nov 02 2005
IMPASS is a Robot on “Whegs”
Engadget is reporting today on an article at Discovery.com about a new concept robot that will use an innovative means of locomotion: rimless wheels instead of traditional wheels or legs. The robot, dubbed IMPASS (Intelligent Mobility Platform with Active Spoke System), will have four rimless wheels. Three spokes that pass through each axle will lengthen or …
Nov 01 2005
Rice University Blindsight Study
LiveScience.com has a summary of a study published this week in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that provides additional evidence of the phenomenon known as blindsight, residual visual sensitivity experienced in the brain even when one is blind or otherwise unable to see. While the results of the study …
Nov 01 2005
How to Survive a Robot Uprising
Title: How To Survive a Robot Uprising Author: Daniel H. Wilson Genre: Humor Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Release Date: November 1, 2005 Pages: 176 There’s a discussion on Slashdot today regarding this article by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about a new book by first-time author and full time roboticist, Daniel H. Wilson, entitled “How to Survive …
- 1
- 2