"thought identification." ?

As correspondent Lesley Stahl reports, neuroscience research into how we think and what we're thinking is advancing at a stunning rate, making it possible for the first time in human history to peer directly into the brain to read out the physical make-up of our thoughts, some would say to read our minds.



SOURCE: CBS NEWS - Produced by Shari Finkelstein
© MMIX, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.



Thought Reading Demonstration

Visual long-term memory has a massive storage

Visual long-term memory has a massive storage
capacity for object details
Timothy F. Brady*, Talia Konkle, George A. Alvarez, and Aude Oliva*
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
Edited by Dale Purves, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, and approved August 1, 2008 (received for review April 8, 2008)

One of the major lessons of memory research has been that human
memory is fallible, imprecise, and subject to interference. Thus,
although observers can remember thousands of images, it is
widely assumed that these memories lack detail. Contrary to this
assumption, here we show that long-term memory is capable of
storing a massive number of objects with details from the image.


© 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA



Image Courtesy

Robots learn to move themselves

Researchers in Leipzig have demonstrated software designed for robots that allows them to "learn" to move through trial and error.





SOURCE: BBC NEWS

Status, free will, the human condition.

Wolfe, who calls himself "the social secretary of neuroscience," often turns to current research to inform his stories and cultural commentary. His 1996 essay, "Sorry, But Your Soul Just Died," raised questions about personal responsibility in the age of genetic predeterminism. Similar concerns led Gazzaniga to found the Law and Neuroscience Project. When Gazzaniga, who just published Human: The Science Behind What Makes Us Unique, was last in New York, Seed incited a discussion: on status, free will, and the human condition.


Source: SeedMagazine.com
Article by: EDIT STAFF

IMAGE COURTESY :'Free Will,' by Joseph M. Thompson (2004)

Scent on Mobile Phones

The Nokia Scentsory "allow you to see, hear, feel and smell your caller's environment".







The isi, institute of sensory analysis and marketing consultancy in Göttingen, and conVISUAL, Oberhausen-based specialist for interactive value added services, has filed the patent for applications allowing users to send scents onto properly equipped cell phones.




Japanese phone company testing scent downloads

E=mc²: Einstein explains his famous formula

Island of stability

-This is quite a breakthrough for science,- Said Chemistry, Materials and Life Sciences Associate Director Tomas Diaz de la Rubia. -We’ve discovered a new element that provides insight into the makeup of the universe. For our scientists to find another piece of the puzzle is a testament to the strength and value of the science and technology at this Laboratory.-


“Now that it has been shown that the ‘island of stability’ of superheavy elements exists, it would be interesting to predict the position of other islands,” said Yuri Oganessian, Ph.D., of Russia’s Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna. He is the scientific leader at the Institute’s Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions.


PHOTO COURTESY:
-LISE MEITNER PRIZE FOR NUCLEAR SCIENCE.-
-www.llnl.gov/str/Diaz.html-

IMAGE CREDITS: Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.-