Fred Rogers - Archive Interview Part 4 of 9
Tiny implant can transmit realtime blood data to your doctor.
Researchers at Switzerlands EPFL have demonstrated a 14mm long implant, able to analyse up to five proteins and organic acids in the blood simultaneously, and transmit the data to a doctor.
The data transmission works in several stages, with the implant using radio waves to transmit to a patch on the skin (which also provides power back to the implant through the patients skin). The patch then uses bluetooth to transmit data to a smartphone, which can then feed it into a web-based database accessible by a doctor.
The implant could be particularly useful in chemotherapy applications. Currently, oncologists use occasional blood tests to evaluate their patients’ tolerance to a particular treatment dosage. In these conditions, it is very difficult to administer the optimal dose. De Micheli is convinced his system will be an important step towards better, more personalized medicine. “It will allow direct and continuous monitoring based on a patient’s individual tolerance, and not on age and weight charts or weekly blood tests.”
In patients withchronic illness, the implants could send alerts even before symptoms emerge, and anticipate the need for medication. “In a general sense, our system has enormous potential in cases where the evolution of a pathology needs to be monitored or the tolerance to a treatment tested.”
(via futurescope)
Source: phys.org
Beatboxing Bach’s Goldberg Variations – best thing since the solar system set to music in a near-perpetual homage to Bach.
The main lesson of thirty-five years of AI research is that the hard problems are easy and the easy problems are hard. The mental abilities of a four-year-old that we take for granted – recognizing a face, lifting a pencil, walking across a room, answering a question – in fact solve some of the hardest engineering problems ever conceived… As the new generation of intelligent devices appears, it will be the stock analysts and petrochemical engineers and parole board members who are in danger of being replaced by machines. The gardeners, receptionists, and cooks are secure in their jobs for decades to come.
8 months behind on sharing this, but here’s the birth announcement I designed for my son, Finley.
Photography by Lauren Tarpley.
Wikipedia Wednesday: Judit Polgár
Judit Polgár (born July 23, 1976) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. She is by far the strongest female chess player in history. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, the youngest person ever to do so at that time.
An impressive feat made more interesting by the fact that she and her sister were “were part of an educational experiment carried out by their father László Polgár, in an attempt to prove that children could make exceptional achievements if trained in a specialist subject from a very early age.”
“Geniuses are made, not born”, was László’s thesis. He and his wife Klára educated their three daughters at home, with chess as the specialist subject. László also taught his three daughters the international language Esperanto. They received resistance from Hungarian authorities as home-schooling was not a “socialist” approach. They also received criticism at the time from some western commentators for depriving the sisters of a normal childhood. However, by most reports the girls appeared happy and well-adjusted.
This type of stuff is fascinating, as it’s nearly impossible to separate nature and nurture. It seems that László was correct about the “making” of genius. However, given that he and his wife were the type to conduct an educational experiment in the first place, it’s likely that intelligence was a hereditary trait to some extent.
Trained in her early years by her sister Susan, who ultimately became Women’s World Champion, Judit Polgár was a prodigy from an early age. At age five she defeated a family friend without looking at the board. After the game the friend joked, “You are good at chess, but I’m a good cook.” Judit replied, “Do you cook without looking at the stove?” However, according to Susan, Judit was not the sister with the most talent, explaining “Judit was a slow starter, but very hard-working.” Polgár described herself at that age as “obsessive” about chess. She first defeated an International Master, Dolfi Drimer, at age 10, and a Grandmaster, Vladimir Kovacevic, at age 11.
Soon, You May Download New Skills to Your Brain
Here comes the Matrix.
It may someday be possible to use brain technology to learn to play the piano, reduce mental stress, or even master kung fu with little or no conscious effort. Lead author and BU neuroscientist Takeo Watanabe says in a statement: “Adult early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning.”
from The Atlantic.
Source: The Atlantic
What Earth would look like with rings like Saturn.
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