Science, news Jason England Science, news Jason England

Rat Walks Again After Spinal Cord Injury. A Cure For Human Paralysis?

The rat you see in the above photo, besides being in an action shot you'd compare to the likes of a 90s training montage, was paralysed with a spinal cord injury just a few weeks ago.  Thanks to a special treatment developed by researchers at the EPFL, control over its own limbs has been regained, posing a possible cure to human paralysis.

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Researchers Hoping To ‘Eliminate Death’ By 2045, Working On Humanoid Robot Avatars
Science, Technology, news Jason England Science, Technology, news Jason England

Researchers Hoping To ‘Eliminate Death’ By 2045, Working On Humanoid Robot Avatars

It is estimated that a total of 55.3 million people die each year, equivalent to almost 2 every single second. Death is a fact of life, or so we thought. A project by the name of Russia 2045 is ambitiously attempting to conquer immortality in as little as 33 years by way of creating humanoid robots that have human personalities stored on artificial brains.

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Science, tech Jason England Science, tech Jason England

Sleep Mask ‘Remee’ Allows You To Control Your Dreams, Inception-Style

“Dreams feel real when we’re in them. It’s only when we wake up that we realise something was actually strange.”

What if you were able to identify dream from reality? What would you do if that world you’re seeing you knew to be made up of projections of your subconscious? Defined by Lucidnet as a state in which you become “aware that you are dreaming, and when you become aware of your dreams, you can start learning to influence and control [them],” 'lucid dreaming' has been scientifically researched for decades but is still relatively unknown to the average person. But that might well be set to change…

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Researchers Detail Quantum Computing ‘Breakthrough’

 

A team of scientists have today published the design details of an ion crystal, made up of just 300 atoms and a millimetre in diameter, capable of running a quantum computer so powerful that it would take a supercomputer the size of our known universe to match its performance.

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It's Official: Planetary Resources Lifts The Curtain On Its Plan To Mine Asteroids

Five days ago we detailed how a group of investors that included Google co-founders Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, director James Cameron, CEO of the X-Prize Foundation Peter Diamandis are funding a project known as 'Planetary Resources' that would help “chart the future”, “add trillions of dollars to the global GDP” and ultimately “[breed] a new definition of 'natural resources'.” Open to interpretation at the time of writing, the company has today revealed exactly what that all means; fuelling a new age of space exploration and eventually mining nearby asteroids for precious metals and rare minerals.

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Feature, Science Jason England Feature, Science Jason England

Brain-Activated Muscle Stimulation Restores Movement After Paralysis

All nerves and brain signals to operate your limbs go through the spinal cord, so most forms of paralysis occur due to damage of this area.  But what if this was bypassed entirely, and your brain directly controlled these otherwise motionless limbs instead?  This is a feat that researchers at Chicago's Northwestern University have been successful in carrying out.

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James Cameron, Google Co-Founders Backing Space Resource Project

Titanic, Avatar director and self-confessed diving junkie James Cameron is one name from a number of high-profile investors (a list that also includes Google co-founders Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, former Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi and chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, co-founder of Zero-G Corporation Peter Diamandis) who are hoping to kick-start a new age of space exploration and “ultimately create a better standard of living on Earth”.

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Scientists Publish Research Into Self-Healing Material, Posing A Future Of 'Bruisable' Gadgets

A team of scientists at the University of South Mississippi have presented research that indicates gadgets of the future could be made of a self-healing plastic material that is designed to ‘bruise’ when dropped or scratched in order to make damaged areas noticeable to the user. The device could theoretically then be placed in direct sunlight for a few minutes in order to the material to literally heal itself, repairing the damage and eventually causing the bruising to fade, bearing striking similarities to human skin.

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Science, tech Jason England Science, tech Jason England

The Flying Car Is Getting Closer To Reality, 'Transition' Completes Test Flight

Imagine, if you will, being stuck in a tail-back miles upon miles long, no hope of moving past your 2mph average speed any time soon and your frustration with the motorway infrastructure of our country becoming ever greater. Then imagine pulling out of the traffic, taking your wheels to the hard shoulder and putting your foot firm to the floor, using the slip road as if it were a runway at Heathrow. Thanks to the Massachussets-based Terrafugia Inc, taking your car to the skies is no longer a distant concept resigned only to the pages of science-fiction novels and the visuals of films, the congestion-avoiding ideal is closer than you might first think...

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Virgin Set For The Centre Of The Earth. Time Travel A Possibility?

Being well on the way to conquering commercial flights to space, but having lost the race to the bottom of the ocean – Titanic director James Cameron this week made history as by completing the first solo trip by submarine to the deepest point of the ocean – Richard Branson's Virgin is now looking to conquer something else entirely: the very core of the earth.

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Dutch Engineer Takes To The Skies On Custom-Built 'Human Birdwings'
Science, news Jason England Science, news Jason England

Dutch Engineer Takes To The Skies On Custom-Built 'Human Birdwings'

The tale of Daedalus and Icarus engineering two pairs of flying wings out of feathers and wax to escape exile imprisonment at the hands of King Minos is one likely familiar to you all. Icarus might have ultimately failed in his attempt to save himself by flying too close to the sun – upon melting the wax that affixed feathers to his arms - but we humans seem to be fascinated by the idea of real human flight, outside of twin-engines and rocket-powered boosters of course. It’s an almost romanticised idea, being able to stretch your arms and go wherever you so choose, ill-constrained by gravity rooting you to terra firma. If a viral video is to be believed however, it is possible and Belgian engineer Jarno Smeets has achieved it.

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Neil deGrasse Tyson Demands A #Penny4NASA To Dream For The Future
Feature, Science, tech Jason England Feature, Science, tech Jason England

Neil deGrasse Tyson Demands A #Penny4NASA To Dream For The Future

The final mission of the space program, launched in July 8th 2011, left a significant void in the hearts and minds of anybody who was fascinated by the discoveries of the world beyond our own.  But Ph.D astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has begged to differ, claiming that America's encouragement and interest in space exploration has been slowly dying off way before the previous manned spaceflight.

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