The secrets of intelligence lie within a single cell

Modelling the neuron as little more than a simple on/off switch is a big mistake (Image: Dan Webber)

… Unravelling brain structure and function has come to mean understanding the interrelationship between neurons, rather than understanding the neurons themselves. My hunch is that the brain’s power will turn out to derive from data processing within the neuron rather than activity between neurons. And networks of neurons enhance the effect of those neurons “thinking” between themselves. I think the neuron’s action potentials are rather like a language neurons use to transmit processed data from one to the next.

Back in 2004, we set out to record these potentials, from neurons cultured in the lab. They emit electrical signals of around 40 hertz, which sound like a buzzing, irritating noise played back as audio files. I used some specialist software to distinguish the signal within the noise – and to produce sound from within each peak that is closer to the frequency of a human voice and therefore more revealing to the ear.

Listening to the results reprocessed at around 300 Hz, the audio files have the hypnotic quality of sea birds calling. There is a sense that each spike is modulated subtly within itself, and it sounds as if there are discrete signals in which one neuron in some sense “addresses” another. Could we be eavesdropping on the language of the brain?

For me, the brain is not a supercomputer in which the neurons are transistors; rather it is as if each individual neuron is itself a computer, and the brain a vast community of microscopic computers. But even this model is probably too simplistic since the neuron processes data flexibly and on disparate levels, and is therefore far superior to any digital system. If I am right, the human brain may be a trillion times more capable than we imagine, and “artificial intelligence” a grandiose misnomer.

I think it is time to acknowledge fully that living cells make us what we are, and to abandon reductionist thinking in favour of the study of whole cells. Reductionism has us peering ever closer at the fibres in the paper of a musical score, and analysing the printer’s ink. I want us to experience the symphony. …

via The secrets of intelligence lie within a single cell – life – 26 April 2010 – New Scientist.

Brain shuts off in response to healer’s prayer

WHEN we fall under the spell of a charismatic figure, areas of the brain responsible for scepticism and vigilance become less active. That’s the finding of a study which looked at people’s response to prayers spoken by someone purportedly possessing divine healing powers.

To identify the brain processes underlying the influence of charismatic individuals, Uffe Schjødt of Aarhus University in Denmark and colleagues turned to Pentecostal Christians, who believe that some people have divinely inspired powers of healing, wisdom and prophecy.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Schjødt and his colleagues scanned the brains of 20 Pentecostalists and 20 non-believers while playing them recorded prayers. The volunteers were told that six of the prayers were read by a non-Christian, six by an ordinary Christian and six by a healer. In fact, all were read by ordinary Christians.

Only in the devout volunteers did the brain activity monitored by the researchers change in response to the prayers. Parts of the prefrontal and anterior cingulate cortices, which play key roles in vigilance and scepticism when judging the truth and importance of what people say, were deactivated when the subjects listened to a supposed healer. Activity diminished to a lesser extent when the speaker was supposedly a normal Christian (Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, DOI: 10.1093/scan/nsq023).

Schjødt says that this explains why certain individuals can gain influence over others, and concludes that their ability to do so depends heavily on preconceived notions of their authority and trustworthiness.

It’s not clear whether the results extend beyond religious leaders, but Schjødt speculates that brain regions may be deactivated in a similar way in response to doctors, parents and politicians. …

via Brain shuts off in response to healer’s prayer – life – 27 April 2010 – New Scientist.

Martian tubes could be home for ‘cavenauts’

OUR ancestors made their first homes in caves. Now it looks like the first humans on Mars will do the same.

An analysis of Martian geography suggests where to look for the right kind of caves. “At least two regions, the Tharsis rise and the Elysium rise, contain volcanic features which may be suitable locations for caves,” says lead author Kaj Williams of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California.

What’s more, the analysis suggests that caves in these regions will contain a ready supply of water, in the form of ice.

Lava tubes are the most likely form of cave that we could occupy on Mars. These tunnel-like caves were created when ancient lava flows solidified at the surface, while lava inside drained away.

The existence of ice in these caves has been suggested before, but Williams and colleagues have taken the idea one step further by using a computer model to find out exactly how ice might build up inside them. They also looked at how long it might last. The team represented their cave as a box 10 metres square by 8 metres high, with a single small opening to the atmosphere in the roof.

They found that during the Martian day, warm, buoyant air would not enter the cool cave, saving the ice from melting. At night, as the outside air cooled, it would sink into the cave and bring in water vapour that condensed as frost onto the already icy walls. The model showed that the ice would be stable, lasting for up to 100,000 years (Icarus, DOI: 10.1016/j.icarus.2010.03.039).

via Martian tubes could be home for ‘cavenauts’ – space – 26 April 2010 – New Scientist.

Real Bloody Flying Nazi Soldiers With Jet Packs – Himmelstürmer

There’s probably only one thing more terrifying than Nazi soldiers: Nazi soldiers with jet packs—and Nazi UFOs … the Nazi jet pack did [exist]: Behold, the Himmelstürmer.

The Himmelstürmer—or Skystormer—used a pulse jet engine, like the one that powered the Fieseler Fi 103 flying bomb. The Fi 103 was the official name of the the infamous V-1 Buzz Bomb, which terrorized England for a while, until the RAF pilots learnt to shoot it down over the Channel… and the Nazis introduced the V-2 ballistic missile, invented by Saturn V rocket scientist Wernher von Braun.

The Himmelstürmer was designed for one purpose: To make Nazi soldiers in their engineering corps to jump over enemy defenses, like minefields, barbed wire, or trenches, as well as rivers, or any other large natural obstacle. It had two components. The main pulse engine—on the back—pushed up and forward. A second pulse engine on the front pushed only up.

The engineer throttled the back engine to make him jump over greater or shorter distances. It consumed very little fuel, never ran hot, and didn’t require special clothing because it wasn’t designed to run for long period of times. All while achieving 180 feet jumps at an altitude of 50 feet. Impressive. Fortunately, like all their secret super-weapons, it arrived late in the war.

While no photos of the Himmelstürmer remain—the image above is a recreation—Bell Aerosystems got the devices at the end of the war, but changed its design thinking they could turn every soldier into Superman, instead of just super-jumpers. Their version, however, wasn’t reliable enough for real action, and was canned after a few years. [DRB and Wikipedia]

via Real Bloody Flying Nazi Soldiers With Jet Packs – Himmelstürmer – Gizmodo.

We are told now that the Nazis had real working jet packs, but we are supposed to believe that they could not put a circular shell around one and make a flying disk ( see Rundflugzeug, Diskus, Haunebu, Hauneburg-Geräte, VRIL, Kugelblitz, Andromeda-Geräte, Flugkreisel, Kugelwaffen, ) or ball (see foo fighters or Feuerball.).

If Nazi UFOs are all fake, what of this?  Man-made UFOs 1944-1994: 50 years of suppression

Rare 95-million-year-old flying reptile Aetodactylus halli is new pterosaur genus, species

A 95 million-year-old fossilized jaw discovered in Texas has been identified as a new genus and species of flying reptile, Aetodactylus halli.

Aetodactylus halli is a pterosaur, a group of flying reptiles commonly referred to as pterodactyls.

The rare pterosaur — literally a winged lizard — is also one of the youngest members in the world of the pterosaur family Ornithocheiridae, according to paleontologist Timothy S. Myers, who identified and named Aetodactylus halli. The newly identified reptile is only the second ornithocheirid ever documented in North America, says Myers, a postdoctoral fellow in the Huffington Department of Earth Sciences at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Aetodactylus halli would have soared over what is now the Dallas-Fort Worth area during the Cretaceous Period when much of the Lone Star state was under water, covered by a vast ancient sea.

While rare in North America, toothed pterosaurs belonging to the Ornithocheiridae are a major component of Cretaceous pterosaur faunas elsewhere in the world, Myers says. The Texas specimen — a nearly complete mandible with most of its 54 teeth missing — is definitively younger than most other ornithocheirid specimens from Brazil, England and China, he says. It is five million years younger than the only other known North American ornithocheirid.

Myers describes the new species in the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Go to www.smuresearch.com to see illustrations of Aetodactylus halli and the Cretaceous marine environment, an image of the fossilized jaw and links to more information.

via Rare 95-million-year-old flying reptile Aetodactylus halli is new pterosaur genus, species.

Nanodots Breakthrough May Lead To ‘A Library On One Chip’

A researcher at North Carolina State University has developed a computer chip that can store an unprecedented amount of data – enough to hold an entire library’s worth of information on a single chip. The new chip stems from a breakthrough in the use of nanodots, or nanoscale magnets, and represents a significant advance in computer-memory technology.

“We have created magnetic nanodots that store one bit of information on each nanodot, allowing us to store over one billion pages of information in a chip that is one square inch,” says Dr. Jay Narayan, the John C. Fan Distinguished Chair Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at NC State and author of the research.

The breakthrough is that these nanodots are made of single, defect-free crystals, creating magnetic sensors that are integrated directly into a silicon electronic chip. These nanodots, which can be made uniformly as small as six nanometers in diameter, are all precisely oriented in the same way – allowing programmers to reliably read and write data to the chips.

The chips themselves can be manufactured cost-effectively, but the next step is to develop magnetic packaging that will enable users to take advantage of the chips – using something, such as laser technology, that can effectively interact with the nanodots.

The research, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, was presented as an invited talk April 7 at the 2011 Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Francisco.

NC State’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering is part of the university’s College of Engineering.

via NCSU News :: NC State News and Information » Nanodots Breakthrough May Lead To ‘A Library On One Chip’.

Water ice found on Asteroid gives clues to oceans’ origins

The first-ever discovery of ice and organic molecules on an asteroid may hold clues to the origins of Earth’s oceans and life 4 billion years ago.

University of Central Florida researchers detected a thin layer of water ice and organic molecules on the surface of 24 Themis, the largest in a family of asteroids orbiting between Mars and Jupiter.

Their unexpected findings will be published Thursday, April 29 in Nature, which will featuretwo complementary articles by the UCF-led team and by another team of planetary scientists.

“What we’ve found suggests that an asteroid like this one may have hit Earth and brought our planet its water,” said UCF Physics Professor HumbertoCampins, the study’s lead author.

Some theories suggest asteroids brought water to Earth after the planet formed dry. Scientists say the salts and water that have been found in some meteorites support this view.

Using NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii, Campins and his team of researchers measured the intensity of the reflected sunlight as 24 Themis rotated. Differences in intensity at different wavelengths helped researchers determine the makeup of the asteroid’s surface.

Researchers were surprised to find ice and carbon-based compounds evenly distributed on 24 Themis. More specifically, the discovery of ice is unexpected because surface ice should be short lived on asteroids, which are expected to be too warm for ice to survive for long.

The distance between this asteroid and the sun is about three times greater than between Earth and the sun.

Researchers will continue testing various hypotheses to explain the presence of ice. Perhaps most promising is the possibility that 24 Themis might have preserved the ice in its subsoil, just below the surface, as a kind of “living fossil” or remnant of an early solar system that was generally considered to have disappeared long ago.

via Asteroid ice may be ‘living fossil’ with clues to oceans’ origins.

New microscopy technique reveals mechanics of blood cell membranes

Thanks to an interdisciplinary team of researchers, scientists now have a more complete understanding of one of the human body’s most vital structures: the red blood cell.

Led by University of Illinois electrical and computer engineering professor Gabriel Popescu, the team developed a model that could lead to breakthroughs in screening and treatment of blood-cell-morphology diseases, such as malaria and sickle-cell disease. The group published its findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Red blood cells (RBCs) are unique in structure – a doughnut-shaped disc full of the oxygen-carrying molecule hemoglobin but none of the intracellular structures of other cells, not even DNA. In circulation, RBCs must contort to squeeze through capillaries half their diameter. Their flexibility and resilience come from their membrane structure, which couples a typical lipid bilayer with an underlying matrix of protein. However, knowledge of the membrane’s mechanics is very limited.

“The deformability of red blood cells is their most important property,” said Popescu, also affiliated with the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at U. of I. “What we wanted to find is, how does deformability relate to morphology?”

The research team used a novel measurement technique called diffraction phase microscopy, which uses two beams of light while other microscopes only use one.

“One beam goes through the specimen and one beam is used as a reference,” Popescu said. “It is very, very sensitive to minute displacements in the membrane, down to the nanoscale.”

RBC membrane movement can be observed through typical light microscopes, a phenomenon known as “flickering,” but Popescu’s team was able not only to see nanoscale membrane fluctuations in live cells, but also to measure them quantitatively – a first.

In addition to normal cells, the team also measured two other morphologies: bumpy RBCs called echinocytes and round ones called spherocytes. They discovered that these deformed cells display less flexibility in their membranes, a finding that could provide insight into mechanics and treatment of diseases that affect RBC shape, such as malaria, sickle-cell disease and spherocytosis.

With collaborators from UCLA, the group used its data to construct a new model of the RBC membrane that accounts for fluctuations and curvature, a more complete and accurate rendering than previous models that treated the membrane as a flat sheet. …

via New microscopy technique reveals mechanics of blood cell membranes | News Bureau | University of Illinois.

Developing world will produce double the e-waste of developed countries by 2016

Developing countries will be producing at least twice as much electronic waste (e-waste) as developed countries within the next 6-8 years, according to a new study published in ACS’ semi-monthly journal Environmental Science & Technology. It foresees in 2030 developing countries discarding 400 million – 700 million obsolete personal computers per year compared to 200 million – 300 million in developed countries.

Eric Williams and colleagues cite a dramatic increase in ownership of PCs and other electronic devices in both developed and developing countries. At the same time, technological advances are shrinking the lifetime of consumer electronics products, so that people discard electronics products sooner than ever before. That trend has led to global concern about environmentally safe ways of disposing of e-waste, which contains potentially toxic substances.

The scientists used a computer model to forecast global distribution of discarded PCs. It concluded that consumers in developing countries will trash more computers than developed countries by 2016, with the trend continuing and escalating thereafter. “Our central assertion is that the new structure of global e-waste generation discovered here, combined with economic and social considerations, call for a serious reconsideration of e-waste policy,” the report notes.

via Developing world will produce double the e-waste of developed countries by 2016.

UniversitätsKlinikum Heidelberg: How Nerve Cells Distinguish Odors

Whether different odors can be quickly distinguished depends on certain synapses in the brain that inhibit nerve stimulation. The researchers in Professor Dr. Thomas Kuner’s team at the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Heidelberg University Medical School and Dr. Andreas Schäfer at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research have shown that mice in which a certain receptor in the olfactory center is missing can distinguish similar smells more quickly than mice without genetic manipulation. This behavior was directly attributed to inhibitor loops between adjacent nerve cells.

The discovery of the activation principle of “lateral inhibition” in the eye 43 years ago by Haldan K. Hartline, George Wald, and Ragnar Granit was honored with a Nobel Prize. The Heidelberg researchers have for the first time succeeded in confirming the same mechanism for the olfactory system, from the molecular level to behavior. The results of the studies were published in the prestigious journal “Neuron”.

Odors attach to receptors of olfactory cells in nasal mucosa, where they trigger nerve signals. These signals are processed in what is known as the olfactory bulb, a part of the brain. In the neuronal network, the incoming signal is converted to a specific electrical pattern that is transmitted to the cerebral cortex and other areas of the brain and is recognized there.

Local inhibitor loops make recognizing smells more precise

Professor Kuner and his team have now shown for the first time how neuronal processing of olfactory stimuli directly affects the behavior of test animals. “We manipulated information processing very specifically in the olfactory bulb and then measured the effect of this genetic manipulation based on reaction time. We were thus able to prove that the test animals, due to localized inhibitor loops, could distinguish very similar odor combinations much faster, yet very reliably,” explained Professor Kuner.

Inhibition via interneurons acts as a kind of filter by amplifying strong stimuli and further weakening weak stimuli. This makes the essential information easier to recognize. In the test animals, reaction time was reduced by about 50 ms. The time needed by test animals to learn various odors and their memory capability remained unaffected. Recognition of simple odors was also unchanged. …

via UniversitätsKlinikum Heidelberg: How Nerve Cells Distinguish Odors.