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The control issue. First: Do No Harm. Second: Keep Others From Doing It. In the wake of discoveries that some medical devices are vulnerable to remote tampering via the Internet, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)issued new guidelines this week that are meant to direct medical device manufacturers in beefing up security. The hope is that we’ll never have to read about—or worse, personally experience—death or injury because some malware-infected gadget didn’t work the way it should. Read full report here.

The control issue.

First: Do No Harm. Second: Keep Others From Doing It.

In the wake of discoveries that some medical devices are vulnerable to remote tampering via the Internet, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)issued new guidelines this week that are meant to direct medical device manufacturers in beefing up security. The hope is that we’ll never have to read about—or worse, personally experience—death or injury because some malware-infected gadget didn’t work the way it should.

Read full report here.

Tags science cybersecurity tech Biotechnology

 Source spectrum.ieee.org

How the brain controls a ‘mind machine’

Activity observed in the brain when using a “mind machine” is similar to how the brain learns new motor skills, scientists have found.

Participants’ neural activity was recorded by using sensors implanted in their brain, which were linked to a computer that translated electrical impulses into actions.

The researchers believe people will be able to perform increasingly complex tasks just by thinking them.

The study is published in PNAS journal.

Image credit: V.J. Wedeen and L.L. Wald, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at MGH

Tags science mind brain Neuroscience

 Source BBC

If you had 5% chance of being revived in the future -would you cryopreserve your brain?

A group of Oxford dons are spending roughly the same amount per month as a gym membership to be cryo-preserved after they die - or frozen in liquid nitrogen at -196C.

The hope is that in a few hundred years, technology will be developed enough to revive them.

Anders Sandberg told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme’s Evan Davis that that he is one of the academics planning to have his head frozen.

Listen to the interview here.

Tags science life and death cyrogenetics brain neuroscience

 Source BBC

Cool new technology guiding the visually impaired The OrCam device is a small camera worn in the style of Google Glass, connected by a thin cable to a portable computer designed to fit in the wearer’s pocket. The system clips on to the wearer’s glasses with a small magnet and uses a bone-conduction speaker to offer clear speech as it reads aloud the words or object pointed to by the user. The system is designed to both recognize and speak “text in the wild,” a term used to describe newspaper articles as well as bus numbers, and objects as diverse as landmarks, traffic lights and the faces of friends.

Cool new technology guiding the visually impaired

The OrCam device is a small camera worn in the style of Google Glass, connected by a thin cable to a portable computer designed to fit in the wearer’s pocket. The system clips on to the wearer’s glasses with a small magnet and uses a bone-conduction speaker to offer clear speech as it reads aloud the words or object pointed to by the user.

The system is designed to both recognize and speak “text in the wild,” a term used to describe newspaper articles as well as bus numbers, and objects as diverse as landmarks, traffic lights and the faces of friends.

Tags science prosthetic tech technology Google Glass OrCam

 Source The New York Times

Look No Hands! Pilotless airplane trialled in UK airspace First reported by the BBC, the plane pictured above flew a 500-mile journey, controlled by a pilot on the ground, instructed by the National Air Traffic Services. There were no passengers, but the 16-seater aircraft flew in airspace shared with passenger carriers. Known as “the Flying Testbed”, it contains on-board sensors and robotics to identify and avoid hazards. Pilotless passenger planes are a reality of our future.

Look No Hands! Pilotless airplane trialled in UK airspace

First reported by the BBC, the plane pictured above flew a 500-mile journey, controlled by a pilot on the ground, instructed by the National Air Traffic Services.

There were no passengers, but the 16-seater aircraft flew in airspace shared with passenger carriers.

Known as “the Flying Testbed”, it contains on-board sensors and robotics to identify and avoid hazards.

Pilotless passenger planes are a reality of our future.

Tags future tech science pilotless plane UAV drone

The above image shows a glass sculpture of a HIV particle. It was made by UK artist Luke Jerram, who received this letter in response from an anonymous fan in 2009: Dear Luke,I just saw a photo of your glass sculpture of HIV.I can’t stop looking at it. Knowing that millions of those guys are in me, and will be a part of me for the rest of my life. Your sculpture, even as a photo, has made HIV much more real for me than any photo or illustration I’ve ever seen. It’s a very odd feeling seeing my enemy, and the eventual likely cause of my death, and finding it so beautiful.Thankyou.

The above image shows a glass sculpture of a HIV particle. It was made by UK artist Luke Jerram, who received this letter in response from an anonymous fan in 2009:

Dear Luke,
I just saw a photo of your glass sculpture of HIV.
I can’t stop looking at it. Knowing that millions of those guys are in me, and will be a part of me for the rest of my life. Your sculpture, even as a photo, has made HIV much more real for me than any photo or illustration I’ve ever seen. It’s a very odd feeling seeing my enemy, and the eventual likely cause of my death, and finding it so beautiful.
Thankyou.

Tags science art HIV sculpture death

 Source popsci.com

Researchers found a frozen female woolly mammoth on an island in the Arctic Ocean. It seems that in this finding the 10,000-year-old carcass is so-well preserved that it still has some blood and muscle tissue, which could be used to bring the woolly mammoth back to life by cloning it scientists say. The question here is: real or just a hoax?

Researchers found a frozen female woolly mammoth on an island in the Arctic Ocean. It seems that in this finding the 10,000-year-old carcass is so-well preserved that it still has some blood and muscle tissue, which could be used to bring the woolly mammoth back to life by cloning it scientists say. The question here is: real or just a hoax?

Tags science arctic mammoth

 Source phys.org