CBC’s Arts & Entertainment site takes a look at recent Canadian science fiction by Robert Charles Wilson, Robert J. Sawyer and Karl Schroeder, and aside from calling it “sci-fi” throughout, almost manages to avoid being condescending–almost, but not quite. This is the only paragraph I found rather annoying. After describing the situation of Wilson’s new …
In what may be a first step along the road to copying consciousness described in last week’s science column, IBM and a Swiss university team have set out to create the first computer simulation of the entire human brain, one complete down to the molecular level. Nary a hint or whisper in this news story …
Hebrew University of Jerusalem researcher Adel Jabbour has come up with a possible method: interfering with “quorum sensing,” a recently discovered bacterial communication network. We urgently need new ways to control bacteria. Here’s hoping this (and other approaches) pan out. (Via MedGadget.)
Here’s some new research into morphine that ties in with my recent column on the drug’s 200th anniversary. California researchers report that a drug cocktail containing morphine along with small doses of two versions of methadone can significantly reduce both tolerance (the need for greater and greater doses of morphine to achieve the same effect) …
So says Dr. Ni-Mheallaigh of the University of Liverpool. I keep telling people it has a long and honorable pedigree, this weird stuff I like to read and write, but they don’t listen. Maybe now, they will!
I’ve always wished I were a better dancer than I am. Now the Japanese offer robotic help: the Partner Ballroom Dance Robot.
Artist Dave Devries takes children’s drawings of monsters and superheroes and turns them into finished art–bizarre, slightly disturbing, but compelling nonetheless. (Via John Scalzi’s By The Way.)
A video display that allows you to walk around three-dimensional images suspended in mid-air is now available from a Masschusettes company, Actuality Systems. And another staple of science fiction reaches reality.
Canadian researchers have developed vaccines for Ebola and Marburg that have been shown to work in non-human primates–amazing news that could mean I’ll have to write an updated version of my children’s book Ebola Virus.
An Israeli inventor has developed a breathing apparatus that will allow divers to breathe underwater without having to wear oxygen tanks. Instead, they’ll be able to simply draw on the oxygen dissolved in the water–just like fish do. (Via Technovelgy.)
I hope that blimps really are making a comeback, not least because “blimp” is simply, without question, a funny word. Blimp. Blimp? Blimp! See what I mean? Although the kind of blimps I long for are more the long-gone zeppelins, fabulous cruise ships of the sky. Until they return, I’ll have to make do with …
It’s a whole new way to experience music: the Expression Synthesis Project allows users to put their own expressive stamp on a piece of music without being able to play a musical instrument–as long as they can drive a car: “ESP starts with a piece of music (in) the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) format…The …
