Nutella Hot Pockets

Nutella Hot Pockets: "

Nutella, Banana and Coconut Hot Pockets"

The Onion: Facebook “Is Truly A Dream Come True For The CIA” (Video)

The Onion: Facebook “Is Truly A Dream Come True For The CIA” (Video): "

You did know that Facebook is a ‘massive online surveillance program run by the CIA,” right? And that Mark Zuckerberg is a CIA agent codenamed the Overlord? Just watch the Onion video above. It explains the whole thing.

I especially like the Congressional “testimony” from the deputy CIA director:

After years of secretly monitoring the public, we were astounded so many people would willingly publicize where they live, their religious and political views, an alphabetized list of all their friends, personal emails addresses, phone numbers, hundreds of photos of themselves, and even status updates about what they were doing moment to moment. It is truly a dream come true for the CIA.

Not only that, think how much money it saves the CIA. Unfortunately, other CIA programs like Twitter aren’t doing so welll: “400 billion Tweets, and not one useful bit of data was ever transmitted.”

Also note the chart showing the success of Operation Farmville, which “the CIA credits with pacifying as many as 85 million people after unemployment rates rose dramatically.” It plots time spent playing Farmville versus hours working.

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NASA's Prototype Mars Space Suit Gets a Frosty Antarctic Performance Test

NASA's Prototype Mars Space Suit Gets a Frosty Antarctic Performance Test: "

Mars is one seriously cold rock, so where better in the world to test a new spacesuit design then the permafrost of Antarctica? NASA researchers recently took the NDX-1 spacesuit prototype, designed at the University of North Dakota by Argentine aerospace engineer Pablo de Leon, for an Antarctic test drive where the suit was exposed to 47 mile per hour winds and frigid polar temperatures.

The NDX-1 has been under development for several years now at UND's Space Suit Laboratory, but this was its first test-drive in harsh, Mars-simulating conditions. The idea wasn't just to take the suit somewhere cold, but also somewhere isolated 'so that if something went wrong we couldn't just go to the store,' De Leon said to Reuters.

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Not that you could patch the NDX-1 together at the local hardware store. The $100,000 suit (funded by NASA) contains more than 350 materials, including weight-reducing carbon fiber and Kevlar.

A team of NASA scientists, including De Leon himself, took the suit through the paces of simulated spacewalks during which they collected samples and operated tools like drills--the very kinds of activities the first humans on Mars very well might undertake. If, that is, we ever get there. With NASA's purse strings tightening, developing an interplanetary space vehicle may not be in cards for quite a while, leaving America's astronauts all dressed up in their NDX-1s with no place to go.

[Reuters]

"

NOAA Video Shows Earthquake Tremors Propagating Across the World

NOAA Video Shows Earthquake Tremors Propagating Across the World: "

Ocean-Wide Waves This model from the Center for Tsunami Research at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory shows the expected wave heights of the tsunami as it travels across the Pacific basin. NOAA

Seismologists are putting together some impressive computer models of the devastating earthquake that struck Japan Friday. As the tragedy continues to unfold, it's pretty breathtaking to see the Earth's destructive power in action.

The map above is a model of wave heights, generated at the Center for Tsunami Research at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory. Wave energy dissipates over longer distances, so Hawaii and the west coast didn't see the devastating waves that inundated Japan already, but the scope is still incredible - the entire Pacific Ocean is impacted. Waves were lower in areas where the ocean floor is deeper.

The animation below shows the tsunami as it propagated from the earthquake's epicenter, about 80 miles off the Japanese coast at a depth of around 15 miles. The ripples' calm, slow spread belies their destructive force.

The death toll keeps rising, now said to be more than 1,000, according to news reports. USA Today has compiled this list of ways you can help.

Aftershocks are adding to the problems, with almost 100 reported as of 1 p.m. EST Friday.

"

Video: Simon the Robot Can Tell When It's Being Ignored, And Try To Get Your Attention

Video: Simon the Robot Can Tell When It's Being Ignored, And Try To Get Your Attention: "

Simon Says Excuse me. Um, hello? Look at me, please. Stop ignoring me! via YouTube

Excuse me? Hello?

A new robot can tell when it's being ignored, and it politely and subtly gets a person's attention. Researchers say the new computer vision system could help robots and humans interact more effectively, by allowing robots to use the same social cues as people.

Simon the robot, developed at Georgia Tech's Socially Intelligent Machines lab, uses a camera to figure out when a person is interested in interacting with it. It watches their behavior and uses some form of gesture, like waving its hand, to get noticed.

Then it has to figure out whether it actually captured the person's attention. Using only the camera as a guide, Simon achieved about 80 percent accuracy in determining when he had gotten someone's attention, according to Aaron Bobick, professor and chair of the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech's College of Computing.

Check out the video below in which a volunteer constructs something out of colorful blocks, under Simon's watchful eyes. Simon's timid wave interrupts his concentration, and he waves back.

The goal is to help robots understand when to sit and be quiet and when it's appropriate for them to get a human's attention. People can figure this out pretty easily with simple body language, but it's not as obvious for a robot. Remember Furby and its insistent, insipid desire to play, even when you didn't feel like it? Simon is apparently a little more polite.

'In order for these robots to work with us effectively, they have to obey these same social conventions, which means they have to be able to perceive the same things humans perceive in determining how to abide by those conventions,' Bobick explains.

Other roboticists at Georgia Tech are helping robots learn whether they want to deceive other robots or humans, and then carry out a deceptive strategy to that effect. No word on whether these technologies would ever be combined, so robots could figure out when we humans aren't paying attention and then carry out their devious world-dominating plans.

[International Business Times]

"

New Model Lets Researchers Crawl Through Virtual Brain Networks

New Model Lets Researchers Crawl Through Virtual Brain Networks: "

Neural Circuit Map Researchers painstakingly reconstructed the connections among just 10 neurons in a small slice of a mouse brain, helping untangle the complex networks that explain how the brain sees. Harvard University

Using a combination of microscopy methods, Harvard researchers have untangled part of the circuitry of the cerebral cortex, illuminating brain connections in 3-D. A new neural circuit model will allow researchers to crawl through the individual connections in a neural network.

Scientists have come a long way in imaging the connections among neurons in flies and mice, and can watch the brain process various types of information by watching neuron activity. But monitoring this activity shows scientists what the neural circuits are doing, not how they're doing it. Understanding the ways in which neurons connect and communicate would shed more light on how the brain works, especially the cerebral cortex, the seat of consciousness and memory.

But this is hard to do, as a Harvard Medical School release explains: One cortical circuit contains tens of thousands of neurons, each of which makes tens of thousands of connections, totaling more than 1 billion individual connections. Untangling a tiny sliver of this web required a pair of microscopy techniques and a supercomputer.

Researchers started with a pinpoint-sized section of a mouse brain that is involved in processing vision, as Harvard explains. Led by Clay Reid, professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School, the team used a laser-scanning microscope to record fluorescence as specific neurons fired, and an electron microscope to study the same neurons at nanometer resolution. They took more than 3 million high-resolution images, and sent them to the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center at Carnegie Mellon University so they could be stitched into 3-D pictures. Finally, the researchers painstakingly examined just 10 neurons, following their paths through the brain's dense circuitry to compose a 3-D diagram of the brain's wiring.

It is a very promising development, the researchers say - the questions scientists can now address are too numerous even list, Reid said. He believes within a decade, researchers will be mapping the activity of thousands of neurons in a living brain.

'In a visual circuit, we'll interpret the data to reconstruct what an animal actually sees. By that time, with the anatomical imaging, we'll also know how it's all wired together,' he said.

Watch Reid explain his work in the video below. It's reported in today's edition of Nature.

"

Weaponized Salmonella Could Be Used to Fight Cancer in the Gut

Weaponized Salmonella Could Be Used to Fight Cancer in the Gut: "

A potential new cancer treatment could be as simple as taking a swig of some genetically modified salmonella. The bug, famous for forcing food recalls and making people sick, could be weaponized to fight tumor cells.

Human trials are already under way at the University of Minnesota, where researchers have successfully tested salmonella-led tumor control in mice.

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It could be useful in the fight against cancers in the gut area, like the liver, spleen and colon. That's where salmonella infects people anyway, so arming it with some cancer-killing weapons could make it easier to attack cancer cells in those spots.

Researchers at U of M's Masonic Cancer Center modified some salmonella to make it less potent, and they added a hormone that is used to fight cancer, called Interleukin 2. The hormone identifies tumor cells as a threat and triggers an immune response, and it's used to treat skin melanomas and kidney cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

Yale Univeristy scientists reported last month that salmonella is able to arrange proteins in a specific pattern, which allows it to inject itself into cells and take them over. Salmonella doped with IL-2 would exploit this ability, enabling the delivery of the cancer-fighting hormone into the affected areas.

The bacteria also likes to grow inside tumor cells, as scientists have known for some time. Bacterial tumor reduction is actually a pretty old idea, according to a U of M news release - in a published report from 1860s Austria, a patient with a large tumor was placed in the same room as someone with a bad infection, and the infection eventually spread to the tumor, shrinking it. The infection also killed the cancer patient, however.

Although the bacteria is 'weaponized' in this study, the salmonella itself is weakened, so a person wouldn't get sick.

Patients would just have to drink a few ounces of salmonella-filled water and the bacteria would make its way through the body.

It might not replace traditional treatments like chemotherapy and radiation, but it wouldn't have their nasty side effects. At the very least, it could be one more weapon in the arsenal against cancers in the gut.

[University of Minnesota]

"

Polymer Cloak Gives Blood Cells Anonymity, Possibly Allowing Universal Transfusions

Polymer Cloak Gives Blood Cells Anonymity, Possibly Allowing Universal Transfusions: "

Blood Transfusion makelessnoise via Flickr

Anyone who has ever donated blood has learned his or her blood type, such as AB, O negative, etc., which will be matched to a recipient with the same blood type. If blood types do not match, a recipient's immune system could reject the transfusion, a potentially fatal proposition. But a new method masks the type of donated red blood cells, possibly eliminating the need to test types and making it easier to give and receive blood.

There are eight common blood types, based on four major groups, which classify red blood cells based on antigens that are found on the cells' surface. Foreign antigens can trigger a serious immune response. Type A has only the A antigen, Type B has the B antigen, and so on.

People with type O blood are considered universal donors, because they have neither A nor B antigens on their red cells, so a recipient's body would be less likely to reject the blood.

The new method masks the antigens so there would be no immune response. It involves cloaking individual blood cells inside polymer shells, which hide the cells' identity from the immune system. But oxygen can still penetrate the shell, allowing the cell to do its job.

Scientists have long tried to create an all-purpose red blood cell, one that doesn't rely on typing tests or the kindness of donors with just the right type. Other efforts have involved polymers that can behave like blood, and DARPA has been funding research into blood pharming, which involves genetically engineering an organism to produce large quantities of synthetic blood.

Turning blood banks into universal stockpiles could be another solution. The study appears in the journal Biomacromolecules.

"

Largest Undersea Cable Ever Could Export Iceland's Abundant Geothermal Power to the Rest of Europe

Largest Undersea Cable Ever Could Export Iceland's Abundant Geothermal Power to the Rest of Europe: "

Geothermal Borehole House in Iceland Teratornis via Flickr

Hoping to take advantage of its violent volcanic heritage, Iceland is contemplating building the world's biggest undersea electric cable, so it can sell geothermal power to other European nations. If it works, it could export enough electricity to power 1.25 million homes.

Landsvirkjun, Iceland's state-owned energy company, is studying the feasibility of building a cable to countries like Great Britain, Norway, the Netherlands and Germany, according to AFP. Depending on the recipient country, the cable would be between 745 and 1,180 miles long. Such a plan would help Iceland's economy recover both from the worldwide financial collapse and from the impacts of last year's massive eruption of Eyjafjallajökull.

As PopSci explained in 2009, it's easy to produce geothermal energy in Iceland. The island is essentially a big volcano, its land mass bubbling up from the seafloor over the millennia. Tapping the heated water below the crust is as simple as digging a well and putting a power plant over it. Steam spins a turbine that drives a generator, just like any other power plant - except no coal or natural gas is burned to generate the steam, because it all comes from the ground.

This is different from other geothermal projects in the U.S. and Switzerland, which inject water through cracks in bedrock, where the water can be superheated. That method has been shown to cause earthquakes. The Icelandic version uses water that's already in the ground, which absorbs rainfall.

In 2009, Geologists and engineers were drilling into Krafla, an active volcanic crater, in the hopes of reaching superheated water and turning it into electric power. But when they hit 6,100 feet, they were stymied by magma flowing into the borehole. The drilling stopped, but not to be undone, the scientists used a National Science Foundation grant to study using magma as an energy source. In a study published in this month's issue of Geology, scientists report the dry steam from magma wells like the one at Krafla could generate 25 megawatts of electricity - enough to power 25,000 to 30,000 homes.

Iceland already derives about a third of its electricity from geothermal plants, and almost all the rest comes from hydropower - the country uses hardly any fossil fuels, according to Landsvirkjun (with Google Translate). Nearly all Icelandic homes are heated with geothermal energy. So extra energy from wells like Krafla could conceivably be exported to other countries that are more dependent on fossil fuels.

The Landsvirkjun study aims to export five terawatt-hours per year, according to AFP. At current energy prices, that could be worth $350 to $448 million every year - a nice infusion of cash for a country that saw all its banks fail back in 2008, and which was hammered by Eyjafjallajökull's ash clouds last spring.

[AFP]

"

New Algorithms Match Police Sketches to Real Mug Shots, Helping Nab Suspects

New Algorithms Match Police Sketches to Real Mug Shots, Helping Nab Suspects: "

Sketch and Photo A new facial recognition system matches a police artist's sketch with a photograph. MSU

The new computer system found a match 45 percent of the time

A new set of algorithms could make it easier to hunt down criminal suspects by matching police sketches to a database of mug shots.

When police are trying to find a suspect in a serious crime, a police sketch artist may be called in to interview witnesses and come up with a rough sketch of the person's features. Witnesses are asked about a suite of features, like crooked mouth, pointy nose and so on. But in some cases, beyond classifiers like age and race, it can be hard to come up with an accurate depiction. There are a few software programs that generate a composite image, but they can be less accurate than a trained forensic artist, according to Michigan State University.

Enter the algorithm, which combines artist sketches with crime databases and sniffs out suspects based on their features. It works by identifying structural similarities between the sketch and a photo, like the shape of the eyes, nose and chin, according to Anil Jain, director of the Pattern Recognition and Image Processing lab at the MSU engineering department.

The researchers tested it using a database of 10,000 mug shot photos and some sketches provided by the Michigan State Police, and it performed better than a commercial face-recognition system, MSU said. It got the right person 45 percent of the time. That's not exactly perfect, but it's not bad, either, considering some people might not be in a mug shot database at all.

Witnesses' memories can be unreliable, especially in the violent situations that would normally warrant a police sketch. But combining a police sketch with real mug shots could speed up the process of finding suspects and arresting the right person.

All the sketches were from real crimes where the suspect was later identified, so the team could check the computer's results.

The researchers plan to field test it with real suspects next year, MSU says.

[MSU News]

"

Using Stem Cells, Scientists Re-Create Memory Neurons That Succumb to Alzheimer's

Using Stem Cells, Scientists Re-Create Memory Neurons That Succumb to Alzheimer's: "

Neurons Under a Microscope Mark Miller via Flickr

In a major breakthrough for Alzheimer's research, scientists have turned human embryonic stem cells and skin cells into brain cells associated with memory and learning, whose death is key to the progression of the disease. The finding could help scientists test new ways to keep the cells from dying, and could someday lead to lab-grown stockpiles that could be implanted into the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

Jack Kessler, chairman of neurology at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, cautions that the research is neither a treatment nor a cure, but it puts scientists on a path toward understanding how to treat memory loss, one of the most debilitating symptoms of Alzheimer's.

Led by researcher Christopher Bissonnette, who was drawn to Alzheimer's research after losing his grandfather to the disease, the Northwestern team coaxed embryonic stem cells into becoming basal forebrain cholinergic neurons, or BFC cells. The neurons facilitate the retrieval of memories, Health Day explains.

Embryonic stem cells, which are derived from embryos created for in-vitro fertilization, can be induced to turn into any kind of cell. The team also tried it with skin cells, turning them into induced pluripotent stem cells, but most of the work focused on the embryonic cells. Bissonnette's team spent six years testing millions of cells before they figured out the gene sequence required to turn them into BFC neurons, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

They implanted the replacement cells in mice, and the cells appeared to work in the same way as the mice's natural BFC cells, Health Day says.

BFC neurons are thought to be the earliest cells lost to Alzheimer's disease, which usually first appears as forgetfulness and confusion. Brain activity is altered as cells cease functioning and die; eventually, patients lose the ability to communicate or respond to their environment.

The Northwestern group is not the first to turn stem cells or skin cells into brain cells, but they're the first to turn them into specific neurons associated with learning.

Even if the stem cells could be implanted in Alzheimer's patients, it doesn't attack the disease directly. Scientists are still unsure what causes Alzheimer's to develop. But it could be combined with other treatments, and it might help patients in the earliest stages of the disease, the Northwestern team said.

The research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is reported the March 4 issue of Stem Cells.

"

NASA Scientist Claims to See Alien Life In Meteorites, Controversy Ensues

NASA Scientist Claims to See Alien Life In Meteorites, Controversy Ensues: "

Alien Microbe Fossils? This tube, found in a meteorite that fell to Earth in 1864, is similar in size and shape to the giant bacterium Titanospirillum velox. A NASA astrobiologist claims it is the remains of an alien microbe. His claim is controversial, to say the least. R. Hoover/Journal of Cosmology

The jury is still out, but skepticism permeates the scientific community

Did a NASA scientist find fossilized alien microbes embedded in a 146-year-old meteorite? As this claim emerged over the weekend, the answer from the scientific community so far appears to be something between 'Um, what?' and 'No.'

Saturday afternoon, the Journal of Cosmology, which has made a name for itself by publishing provocative papers about controversial topics, sent out a mass press release announcing a new paper by the award-winning astrobiologist Richard Hoover, who studies extremophiles at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. He described filaments and other structures inside a rare type of meteorite that look like some unknown form of cyanobacteria.

As several others have pointed out, this is not the first time Hoover has made this claim, and similar arguments have been made before, including this paper by NASA astrobiologist David McKay (which Nature's Great Beyond blog notes is not cited by Hoover).

As scientists began reacting to the announcement, some have been more charitable than others. Bad Astronomer Phil Plait said he was extremely skeptical, and 'we are a long, long way from knowing whether the claim is valid or not'; at NPR, astrophysicist Adam Frank said it's not proof, but 'not disprovable either.'

On the other hand, biologist and blogger PZ Myers called it 'garbage,' wondering why it was getting any attention at all:

'I'm looking forward to the publication next year of the discovery of an extraterrestrial rabbit in a meteor. While they're at it, they might as well throw in a bigfoot print on the surface and chupacabra coprolite from space. All will be about as convincing as this story.'

Rosie Redfield, who was one of the first to critique NASA's controversial arsenic-eating-bacteria paper, declared 'Executive Summary: Move along folks, there's nothing to see here.' And over at MSNBC, Alan Boyle talks to David Morrison, senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute at Ames Research Center, who said 'Perhaps the publication came out too soon; more appropriate would have been on April 1.'

For its part, the Journal of Cosmology has invited commentary from 100 scientists, and is publishing them on its website. MSNBC's Boyle hits the highlights so far, while noting that they're not in chronological order - is the journal publishing only some of the commentaries?

The J of C is edited by Rudolf Schild, a professor of cosmology at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who has written almost 300 scientific papers. It has been drawing skepticism since at least last fall, showing up on discussion boards and in the science blogosphere. Critics say its website looks like a student's science project; Myers said it looks like it was 'sucked through a wormhole from the 1990s.' But the editorial board includes some impressive names.

Many other scientist bloggers have asked why such a potentially groundbreaking paper would be published in an open-access online journal, instead of a prestigious publication like Science or Nature. And that's when it starts to get weird.

Schild sent another press release addressing that question, saying it was 'tantamount to school-yard taunts by jealous children.' The journal claims to be the victim of a conspiracy by NASA, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Nature and other organizations. At Wired, David Dobbs tries to make sense of it all.

Weirdness or not, Hoover's claim is certainly an extraordinary one. But as Carl Sagan once said, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. It seems unlikely that this evidence will fit the bill, at least as far as the mainstream science community is concerned.

"

Japan Is Building Artificially Intelligent Rockets, Hoping to Streamline Operations and Cut Costs

Japan Is Building Artificially Intelligent Rockets, Hoping to Streamline Operations and Cut Costs: "

Epsilon Rocket JAXA

Artificially intelligent rockets could perform self-diagnostics and self-repairs, lowering the cost of future space launches. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency is working on an intelligent rocket to supplement its current lift vehicle, and it would be cheaper and simpler to use, engineers say.

Most spacecraft have intelligent capabilities, like adjusting their trajectories, evaluating their status and deciding whether to conduct tasks, and putting themselves in safe mode when something unexpected happens, among others. Last year, NASA uploaded software onto the Opportunity Mars rover that allows it to decide for itself which rocks it should investigate.

But so far, rockets are nothing better than automated. They can notify engineers when something is wrong, but they can't do anything about it. Most designs still use decades-old technology, and as such are 'a showcase of deficiencies,' as Yasuhiro Morita, project manager for the new Epsilon rocket, said in a JAXA news release.

Epsilon would be able to check itself out, find out what caused a malfunction, and in some cases, fix itself, according to TechNewsDaily. One example could be electrical currents that control the rocket thruster's orientation, which controls its direction. Intelligent rocket systems could guard against electrical surges, or correct for them to make sure the rocket doesn't go off course.

Epsilon is a three-stage solid fuel rocket intended for light to medium-sized payloads, which would mostly consist of science spacecraft. Its first mission will be 25 percent cheaper than a comparable launch on Japan's M-V rocket.

Perhaps it will decide for itself which asteroid to go hunting next.

[Space.com]

"

Life Lesson.

Life Lesson.: "

 

Never blow into a box of Jell-O mix.

"

Custom made Portal portals are an interior decorating triumph

Custom made Portal portals are an interior decorating triumph: "

One husband and wife DIY team recently announced on Reddit that they'd unlocked the secret of portal technology* using everyday, off-the-shelf parts. By attaching LED rope light to the backs of two oval mirrors, they succeeded in creating one of the most effective (and easily replicated) displays of video game related wall art we've ever had the pleasure to lay eyes on: Portal portals that look strikingly authentic.



The Redditors in question, corttana and dahburbb, say that the 'spiraling' effect of the lights is actually the unexpected result of curving the light rope they used into an oval shape. When asked by other users, the duo said they plan to building a Companion Cube storage chest to round out their personal Enrichment Center. You can see more photos of it at the source link.



*Portal Technology is a registered trademark of Aperture Science

Custom made Portal portals are an interior decorating triumph originally appeared on Joystiq on Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mind-Controlled Musical Instrument Helps Paralysis Patients Rehabilitate

Mind-Controlled Musical Instrument Helps Paralysis Patients Rehabilitate: "

Music Through the Mind Eduardo Miranda

Paralysis patients could play music with their minds, using a new brain-control interface that senses brain impulses and translates them into musical notes.

Users must teach themselves how to associate brain signals with specific tasks, causing neuronal activity that the brain scanners can pick up. Then they can make music.

It's a pretty unique use of brain-computer interfaces, which are already being used to do things like drive cars, control robots and play video games. The device was developed by Eduardo Miranda, a composer and computer-music specialist at the University of Plymouth, UK. A composer by trade, Miranda said he was captivated by the idea of using a musical brain-controlled interface for therapeutic purposes. 'Now I can't separate this work from my activities as a composer,' he told Nature News.

Patients with neurodegenerative disorders like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's can use music to walk to a rhythm or even to trigger memories or emotions. But stroke patients or those with locked-in syndrome can't interact with music beyond just listening to it. With this system, patients with physical limitations might be able to use music for therapy, too - truly making music the medicine of the mind.

Like other brain-computer interfaces, a user calibrates the system - and his or her brain - by learning to associate certain brain signals with a stimulus. While wearing an EEG cap, patients focus their attention on four small buttons on a computer screen, each of which triggers a series of musical notes. The user must direct his or her gaze at the target corresponding to the action he or she would like to perform, Miranda and colleagues explain.

Miranda and computer scientists at the University of Essex tested the system on a patient with locked-in syndrome, who learned the system in about two hours and was soon playing notes along with a backup track.

By varying levels of concentration, she learned to vary the amplitude of the EEG, which allowed her to choose among the different notes, like striking piano keys.

A future version of the system would not require calibration, relying on advanced algorithms to sense a user's neuronal response to each button, the researchers say.

The work is reported in the journal Music and Medicine.

[Nature News]

"

How the Japan Earthquake Shortened Days on Earth

How the Japan Earthquake Shortened Days on Earth: "The 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan has shortened Earth's day by 1.8 microseconds."