Boredom is a Killer
Please, readers! If you experience disinterest, apathy, ennui, malaise, dysthymia, lassitude, or neurasthenia as you peruse this essay… click away to safety!
Tagged: Convergence
Miranda Wrongs: Reading Too Much into the Genome
When the sequence of the human genome was declared essentially complete in 2003, all biologists (except perhaps Craig Venter) heaved a sigh of gladness that the data were all on one website, publicly available, well-annotated and carefully cross-linked.
EXPO21XX: Where the Bots Are
You no longer need to contend with crowds, parking, lousy food, or noise to visit the halls of a conference center. EXPO21XX has created an online exhibition hall to showcase projects in more than 100 university robotics labs from around the world.
The Rise of the Citizen Scientist at Humanity Plus Conference at Harvard
The Summer 2010 Humanity+ Conference is emphasizing DIY with the brilliant theme "The Rise of the Citizen Scientist." (Our last magazine edition was organized around the DIY theme, focusing particularly on DIY Bio.)
Nutraceutical Brain Boosting (& Free Schwag)
Let’s start by petting (or shooting) the elephant in the room. All the snarksters will assume that I’m interviewing Dr. Richard Clark Kaufman on nutraceuticals because his NEURVANA company is an h+ advertiser. Not true. My corruption is entirely based on the free schwag!
When Grandma Beats You at Scrabble
Have you ever been beaten at the classic word game Scrabble by an 85-year-old grandmother? (I have, and I’m usually pretty good at wordsmithing.) Some elderly people with super-sharp memory don’t seem to suffer the memory loss that assails most people as they age. Why?
Are We Zeroing In on the Hard Problem of Explaining Consciousness?
Consciousness is the “hard problem” in mind science: explaining how the astonishing private world of consciousness emerges from neuronal activity.
Laugh Loud, Laugh Hard, Live Long
Mirth as medicine was first prescribed in the 14th century when Henri de Mondeville — the “Father of French surgery” — asked hospital visitors to give joie de vivre to his patients via jokes.
Synapse on a Chip
The memristor — the so-called “missing link of electronics” memory technology that can change its resistance in varying levels — has been around on paper for nearly 40 years.
A Samsung Robot In Every Home By 2020?
In 1960, South Korea was poorer than two-thirds of the nations in sub-Saharan Africa. Today it’s the world’s most digital nation, with a per capita income of nearly $28,000, higher than New Zealand ($27K) or Portugal ($22K).