BIOTECHNOLOGY SPECIAL

Technology feature of the month
A Chip In The Brain 
US researchers are poised to carry out the first tests of a silicon chip designed to replace a damaged part of the brain. The implant aims to stand in for the hippocampus, part of the forebrain that is vital for storing long-term memories. It will shortly be tested on tissue from rat’s brains, then on live rats and laboratory monkeys, and if all goes well could one day be used for people who face memory loss due to Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy or stroke. The prosthesis mimics the way the hippocampus encodes experiences before sending them to be stored elsewhere in the brain as long-term memories. To make the chip, the team first sliced up sections of rat hippocampus and stimulated these slices with electrical signals. By putting together the information from the various slices, they built up a mathematical model of the entire hippocampus, perceiving it as an array of neural circuits that work in parallel to process data. The model was then transferred onto a chip, which communicates with the brain through two arrays of electrodes placed on either side of the damaged area.
One set of electrodes detects the electrical activity coming in from the rest of the brain, while the other sends appropriate electrical instructions back out to the brain.
The chip is the result of a 10-year effort by a team led by Theodore Berger of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. If the invention works and ultimately is proved safe for humans, it would sit on the top of the skull, rather than inside the brain, in order to reduce damage to cerebral tissue.

Source : (www.smart-india.com)

IT-Quote

"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning."

Rich Cook

IT Snippets
Sticky’ DNA Crystals To Process Information:

A team led by Richard Kiel, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Minnesota, has used the selective “stickiness” of DNA to construct a scaffolding for closely spaced nanoparticles that could exchange information on a scale of only 10 angstroms. The technique allows the assembly of components on a much smaller scale and with much greater precision than is possible with current manufacturing methods.
According to Kiel “With these DNA crystals, we can lay out devices closely so that the interconnects are very short. If nanoparticles are spaced even 20 angstroms apart on such a DNA crystal scaffolding, a chip could
hold 10 trillion bits per square centimeter—that’s 100 times as much information as in the 64 Gigabit D-RAM memory projected for 2010.A chip made from DNA crystals and nanoparticles could be valuable in such applications as real-time image processing. Nanocomponents could be clustered in pixel-like “cells” that would process information internally and also by “ talking” to other cells. The result could be improved noise filtering and detection of edges or motion. Someday, the technology may even help computers identify images with something approaching the speed of human eye and brain.

Source : (www.globaltechnoscan.com)

Finest Optical Fibres From Spider Silk

Yushan Yan and a team of engineers from the University of California at Riverside give the silk thread a glassy coating and then extract the silk by baking. They soon expect to be able to make hollow fibres with cores just two nanometers wide-or 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. In addition to photonics, the spider silk based fibres could also be used to boost the resolution of optical microscopes. The hollow fibres are produced in a way similar to how candles are made by dipping a wick in wax. The team took one-centimetre-long lengths of spider silk from Nephila madagascariensis, the giant orbweaving spider of Madagascar. They glued the ends to a piece of card and repeatedly dipped the silk into a solution of tetraethyl orthosilicata. They then left the coated fibres to dry and baked them at 4200C to burn away the silk. The coating shrinks five fold in the oven, leaving hollow silica tubes with a diameter of just one micrometer.

Source : (www.smartinc-india.com)

IT Quiz

1. Ever heard of ‘Cyborg’?

2. What is Window Eyes?

3. What is iSmell Synthesizer ?

Artificial Retina

Eye specialists and electronic engineers are developing an artificial retina – an electronic microchip implant for eyes which, they believe could help millions of people to see again. The artificial retina could be available within 3 years. It works by stimulating cells around the retina. This in turn stimulates nerve cells in the brain, helping blind people to see once more. Tests on animals have shown that the tiny microchip can restore sight. The microchip, which acts as an artificial retina, would be surgically implanted into the eye. The electronic device stimulates surrounding cells in the eye, which have not been damaged .This enables the sight to be restored. The 4 X 4 mm microchip is attached to a type of silicone called polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). This substance is flexible and can conform to the curved shape of the retina without damaging surrounding tissue. The prototype implants contained 16 electrodes, allowing patients to detect the presence or absence of light. 

Source : (www.cnn.com)

IT Humour
Daddy’s Password

I know Daddy’s password!

While my brother-in-law was tapping away on his home computer, his ten-year-old daughter sneaked up behind him. Then she turned and ran into the kitchen , squealing to the rest of the family, “I know Daddy’s password ! I know Daddy’s password!

“What is it? Her sisters asked eagerly.

Proudly she replied , “Asterisk, asterisk, asterisk, asterisk, asterisk!”

Source : (www.jokes.com)

IT Quiz Solutions

1. ‘Cyborg’ is actually a science fiction shortening of ‘Cybernetic Organism’. If you have seen the movie Terminator starring Arnold Schwarzeneggar, you would recall that a ‘Cyborg’ looks like-patently human, just like you and me. But beneath the familiar exterior, it is a cold and logical machine that thinks in algorithms and displays a strength and precision way beyond human capabilities.
   

2. Window-Eyes is a software screen reader from GW Micro for people who are blind that gives them the power to carry out complicated tasks with the ease previously enjoyed only by the mouse user.
   

3. iSmell is a personal PC plug-in smell synthesizer costing less than Rs.10,000 from Digiscent Inc. USA that can be used to send scented emails or to enjoy smell along with various PC activities. It has replaceable vials of oils that can be selectively heated to produce desired smell.