http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/duke-scn072099.html
> DURHAM, N.C. -- Using a high-resolution video technique
> on laboratory rats, neurobiologists
> at Duke University Medical Center have captured the
> first detailed images of the living brain
> in the act of recognizing specific odor molecules.
> The scientists say their achievement will
> open the way to deciphering the brain's internal
> "language" of smell.
Looks like a significant step towards monitoring individual neurons, which makes it important to computer telepathy.
=
http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/uncch-sev072199.html
> On average, ice ages occur about every 100,000 years, and the
> next one should begin with plenty of notice in about 60,000
> years, says Dr. Jose Rial, professor of geophysics at the
> University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. So not to worry.
I *was* worried, actually, especially given the speculation that global warming could trigger a new ice age (you just can't win...); but if this is correct, I don't know of any events that would lead to catastrophic, instead of gradual, problems. Okay, I think I can dismiss all considerations of environmental catastrophe from my navigation.
=
http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/cmu-cms072199.html
> Carnegie Mellon scientists demonstrate spontaneous
> speech translation in six languages
Not all that important, but still cool.
=
http://www.hhmi.org/news/katz.htm
> Building upon these studies, investigators have developed
> computer models that show how spontaneous neural
> activity may help to wire the visual system, and in the
> process they have gathered data that indirectly support
> the idea. Still, no one had been able to record the
> spontaneous brain activity patterns in living animals,
> mainly because the task was so difficult.
>
> In the July 23, 1999, issue of the journal Science, Katz
> and Michael Weliky, a former postdoctoral fellow in
> Katz's laboratory who is now an assistant professor at
> the University of Rochester, report results from just
> such experiments. "I cannot emphasize enough how
> difficult these experiments were to do," says Katz. "It's a
> real tribute to Michael, who designed and built the
> equipment to make it happen."
More computer telepathy. It's not the discovery that counts, it's the methods.
=
http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/stan-2sm072199.html
> Two scientists make case against ice on the moon
Oh, well.
--
sentience@pobox.com Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
http://pobox.com/~sentience/tmol-faq/meaningoflife.html
Running on BeOS Typing in Dvorak Programming with Patterns
Voting for Libertarians Heading for Singularity There Is A Better Way