research | TechieTonics

Human Brain Simulated on Circuit Board: Mimicking Neurons and Synapses

April 29, 2014May 31, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Inspired by human brain, bioengineers at Stanford University have fabricated microchips that are relatively faster and energy-efficient where power consumption of PC is about 40k times more. Researchers envision that this would lead a novel way of understanding human brain as well as might take robotics especially prosthetics to the next level. Matching the Brain For an efficient mimicking of neurons and synapses, the team designed 16 Neurocore chips. Jointly these 16 chips were able to simulate about 1m neurons and billions of synaptic connections.

Laughter Sets Off Waves Akin to Meditation: The Brain’s Workout

April 29, 2014May 31, 2014 Neha Shukla

“Laughter is the best medicine” is a very well known saying and is now scientifically proven by researchers. According to a study, researchers have found that laughter in humans can set off brain waves, which are very similar to those related to meditation. The study also reveals that other kinds of incitement can generate various diverse types of brain waves.

Microscopic Organism: Game Changer in Ocean Carbon Cycling

April 28, 2014 Neha Shukla

Oceans play a very crucial role in the global carbon cycle. To gain a better and detailed insight of the process, researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego are studying, the basis of the mechanism.

Propagating Light Revealed New Fundamental Physical Features: Evanescent Electromagnetism

April 28, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Dynamical properties of light have been consistent and very well accepted ‘fact’ amongst the academia of physics since more than a century. The same conviction has also helped in the understanding of electromagnetic radiation, which suggests that a quantum of light carries momentum in the direction of propagation and secondly a spinning or gyrating effect around the propagation axis. These two characteristics have become the basic tenets of daily occurrences and experimental interactions between light and matter. However, a new form of light called the evanescent waves has emerged having…

Heatmaps Reveal Correlation Between Emotions and Body Sensations

April 28, 2014April 28, 2014 Wa'd Abuzurayk

Science has proven times and times again that emotions cannot be separated from our physical well-being. Various emotional conditions play an important role in our biology. Brain activity and hormones and examples of things that are affected by one’s various emotional states. A recent study demonstrated that different emotions are judged to correlate with different body parts. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, was conducted by a team of bio-medical engineers, with 700 participants from three countries, those being Finland, Sweden and Taiwan. The…

Newly Discovered Neighbor of the Sun: Chilly as the Earth’s North Pole

April 27, 2014May 3, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Kevin Luhman, an astronomer at Penn State University has discovered a star, “brown dwarf” that is around 7.2 light-years away. Currently it appears to be as cold as Earth’s North Pole and positioned at fourth rank with respect to the Sun. The space scientist claims that insights from the new system might helpful in knowing the atmospheres associated with cold temperatures on similar other systems. Like stars, the brown dwarfs initiate the same life cycle but during the collapse, they lack the mass that is required to burn the nuclear…

Selfies Linked to Mental Disorders

April 26, 2014December 20, 2022 Wa'd Abuzurayk

We all have this annoying high school facebook friend who posts selfies more regularly than we tend to check our facebook accounts. Well, this old friend is no longer labeled as just annoying, as scientists are exploring tagging this behavior as a mental disorder. Scientists interested in this subject are describing this common obsession with selfies as a compulsive behavior that could be linked to narcissism, addiction and mental illness.Narcissists chase satisfaction from vanity, or others’ recognition of their looks or mental characteristics (Wikipedia)- this definition seems to somewhat fit…

Humanoid: EMIEW 2 Can Mimic Human Navigation Effortlessly

April 23, 2014April 23, 2014 Neha Shukla

Hitachi has introduced its new and improved EMIEW 2 humanoid robot. The predecessor of this robot, EMIEW (Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Workmate), was presented in the 2007 as a service robot aided with multiple communication functions which could safely perform services for humans in an office. The impressive looking EMIEW2 robot measures 80 centimeters in height and 14 kilograms in weight and moves at a high speed of 6km/hour. For the mobility purpose, the robot features a unique system of wheels and legs, which allows it to climb…

Rubberized Asphalt Road Material: Recycled Roadways

April 22, 2014April 22, 2014 Neha Shukla

Old or damaged tires are the major source of waste and concern for environmentalists. As per Environmental Protection Agency, America alone discards approximately 300 millions of waste tires annually. Such a huge volume of waste, which is extremely durable, is difficult to manage. The discarded tires are also not very suitable for landfills and often illegally dumped tires turn into breeding grounds for germ carrying mosquitoes and rodents. Piles of tires if caught fire can cause air and ground pollution. Therefore, it is required to recycle the discarded tires in…

Fabrication of Bi-Layer Molecular Electronic Devices: Nanoscale Circuitry

April 22, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

Until now, it was difficult to charge particles at molecular scale and hence developing circuits at microscopic level has always presented a huge challenge. However, Alexander Shestopalov from University of Rochester has crossed the huddle making a step closer to the fabrication of microscopically small circuit. He powered an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) with a nanoscale circuitry in where he coupled the positive and negative electrodes with one-molecule thin sheet of organic material. Experimental trials and errors have proved that it’s impossible to control current passing through such a single…

Genes Responsible for High Tolerance for Pain: Ache’s Genetic Basis

April 22, 2014 Neha Shukla

Every person is unique and is different from others. Even identical twins have different taste and behave differently. Likewise, every person has a different threshold level of bearing pain. Researchers working on the topic have found four important genes that determine the pain tolerance threshold in an individual. And therefore, it varies from person to person depending upon the key gene expression.

Chimpanzees Select Tree for Making Their One-Time Use Bed: The Sophisticated Primates

April 21, 2014April 21, 2014 Neha Shukla

A new study suggests that like humans, chimpanzees are also very particular about their bed. Chimpanzees unlike humans are known to create their bed every day starting from scratch just before their bedtime. The exclusive chimpanzees beds are called nests and it require bending, breaking stems of tree, and piling leaves in an interwoven pattern, on this structure. But researchers noticed that chimpanzees do not make their nest on any random tree, rather choose branches of Ugandan ironwood trees for the purpose. These trees provided them with sturdy and stable…

Frogs Resort Competition via Cannibalism: The Voracious Predators

April 20, 2014April 20, 2014 Neha Shukla

Cannibalism in the animal kingdom is very well known fact among the inhabitants. Animals whether big or small in their race for survival, resort to kill their competition by eating them. Animals like jungle king, lions are known to kill the offspring of the revival king to pave way for better future of its own offspring. But researchers say, the behavior of cannibalism can be also seen tiny wood frog tadpoles. These innocent looking tadpoles when hungry can eat other tadpoles present in the pool. Such behavior has also been…

Magneto-Optical Storage: The Next Generation of Plastic Computers

April 20, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

In an effort to replace silicon chips with flexible plastic within gadgets like computers, cellular devices and related systems, researchers from University of Iowa and New York University have come up with an alternative to the high capacity storage technology. During the fiber optic transmission, it is easier and convenient to encode data in light while magnetism helps in storing information with an unlimited expiry date. With the proposed technology, converting information from one form to another is a critical issue. Since, the energy cost for this process is insignificant…

X-Ray Triggered Nanoparticle Photosensitizer: Photodynamic Therapy

April 19, 2014April 18, 2014 Pooja Kashyap

While working upon new security-related radiation detection, researchers at the University of Texas, Arlington discovered an advance in photodynamic cancer therapy. Wei Chen, professor of physics at the UT Arlington, noticed an odd luminescence emitted by copper-cysteamine (Cu-Cy) nanoparticles when while working on an experiment where he was exposing the nanoparticles to X-rays. Upon further investigation, he found out that the luminescence was the byproduct of lost energy that the particles were diffusing. The same byproduct is also utilized in photodynamic cancer therapy to destroy cancer cells.