Read a whole article on this fascinating find on the Scientific American site and watch a video of the technology in action below:

Further reading also available at BBC News

“While it may not help you learn how to Kung Fu fight or fly a B212 Helicopter, a neurofeedback method of learning is reminiscent of something we might have seen in the movie, The Matrix.

The technique would provide more immediate and long-lasting knowledge in tasks that demand a significant level of visual performance, like hitting a curve ball or learning to play the piano.

Researchers from Boston University (BU) and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan recently demonstrated that they could induce brain activity patterns to match a targeted state by decoding a person’s functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan of their visual cortex.

In the future, researchers envision a person watching a computer screen and having their brain patterns manipulated to match those of a desired level of task performance, perhaps of an athlete or someone healing from an accident or disease.

Their findings were published in the most recent issue of Science.

“Adult early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning,” lead author and BU neuroscientist Takeo Watanabe said in a National Science Foundation press release.

However, there is one wrinkle in this Matrix-style approach to learning: the method worked on subjects even when they weren’t aware of what they were learning.

“We found that subjects were not aware of what was to be learned while behavioral data obtained before and after the neurofeedback training showed that subjects’ visual performance improved specifically for the target orientation,” Watanabe said.

Fascinating — sure — but this does open up the door to hypnosis and mind control, which Watanabe is keenly aware of.

“We have to be careful,” he said, “so that this method is not used in an unethical way.” Sounds like a good plot line for the next Matrix movie.”

Via Discovery News (Thanks Annette)

“Fans of the Terminator franchise may be thrilled but others may be confused over just what a bionic contact lens adds to humanity. According to the developers at Washington University, users could view floating emails and text messages as well as augment their sight with computer-generated images. They say it has been successfully tested on animals (presumably those with email accounts) and when problems such as finding a decent power source are ironed out it could be ready for market.

Is this what the world has been waiting for – or is technology bringing us a load of pointless new kit? What, given a top team of boffins and a whopping budget, would be the innovation of the future you’d like to see?”

Via Guardian (Thanks Annette)

“This, we assure you, is a real photograph. Researchers at the University of California Irvine have developed a material that is as strong as metal but 100 times lighter than Styrofoam. The material is constructed from a micro-lattice of nickel phosphorous tubes that is 99.9% air. The tubes are hollow and have walls 1,000 times thinner than a human hair yet have the strength of metal with the added benefit of being ultra resistant to strain. Researchers believe this new metal could be used to make light weight batteries that could eventually bring down the weight, and increase the efficiency, of green vehicles and use less material in the process.”

Read more at Inhabitat (Thanks Sally)

“This is a technical demo for face substitution technique. The application works in real time and it’s developed using the opensource framework for creative coding openFrameworks: openFrameworks.cc

The face tracking library returns a mesh that matches the contour of the eyes, nose, mouth and other facial features. That way the mesh obtained from a photo is matched to the face in the video.

Via Vimeo link 1 and Vimeo link 2 (Thanks Wendy)

“One of the world’s largest motor manufacturers is working with scientists based in Switzerland to design a car that can read its driver’s mind and predict his or her next move.

The collaboration, between Nissan and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), is intended to balance the necessities of road safety with demands for personal transport.

Scientists at the EPFL have already developed brain-machine interface (BMI) systems that allow wheelchair users to manoeuvre their chairs by thought transference. Their next step will be finding a way to incorporate that technology into the way motorists interact with their cars.

If the endeavour proves successful, the vehicles of the future may be able to prepare themselves for a left or right turn – choosing the correct speed and positioning – by gauging that their drivers are thinking about making such a turn.

However, although BMI technology is well established, the levels of human concentration needed to make it work are extremely high, so the research team is working on systems that will use statistical analysis to predict a driver’s next move and to “evaluate a driver’s cognitive state relevant to the driving environment”.

By measuring brain activity, monitoring patterns of eye movement and scanning the environment around the car, the team thinks the car will be able to predict what a driver is planning to do and help him or her complete the manoeuvre safely.”

Read more at The Guardian (Thanks Laurence)

The technique relies on high-powered microwaves that can degrade the tough cellulose molecules of plant matter so that they release volatile gases that can be collected and distilled into a liquid product.

These valuable biodegradable chemicals can then be used in water purifiers, cleaning agents and plastics. Researchers behind the process say it is 90 per cent efficient and works not just on orange peel but almost any plant-based waste such as straw or coffee grounds.

James Clark, professor of green chemistry at the University of York, said he is building a small demonstrator facility to show the novel recycling scheme can be scaled up in order to suit industrial applications.

“It will be able to cope with tens of kilograms an hour. We believe it is the right scale to prove to people that this is a viable technology,” Professor Clark said.

“You dice the peel and put it into a microwave field. You then focus the microwaves as you would with a domestic microwave oven but at higher power,” he said.

“The microwaves activate the cellulose and that triggers the release of chemicals or further chemical reactions inside the orange peel,” he told the British Science Festival at Bradford University.

Volatile chemicals are released in the process, including d-limonene, which is responsible for the distinctive smell of citrus fruit and is used in cosmetics, the cleaning industry and as a biological insecticide.

“As you produce the volatiles you strip them off continuously. It’s a continuous process. You feed the peel into a microwave zone and have a pipe that takes off the volatile fractions as they are produced,” he said

“The unique feature of our microwave is that we work at deliberately low temperatures. We never go above 200C. You can take the limonene off or you can turn limonene into other chemicals,” he said. “It works really well with waste paper. It can take a big range of bio-waste material.”"

Read more at The Independent

Forty-one Colombian high school students experienced mass-panic and had to be taken to hospital following a hypnotism show at the culmination of their annual ‘Fun Day’.

Out of an amassed (paying) audience of 590 students, eight were put into a trance by Miller Zambrano Posada who then made them lift their arms, walk in circles, cry like babies, laugh hysterically, bark like dogs and act like chickens (were it not for the setting, one could be forgiven for thinking that they were behaving like a very normal group of teenagers during breaktime).

The performance was concluded to a round of unforced applause, but as the eight students made their way back to their seats the proceedings appeared to go a bit “Pete Tong”.

Some children in the audience began crying while others dived to the ground for no reason Others beat their chests with the palms of their hands and one female student screamed that she could see ‘the devil’

A total of forty one students experienced what has been described as a mass panic, only one of whom had been an on-stage participant in the hypnotism routine.

Whilst the children were escorted to the hospital, Miller Zambrano Posada was escorted off the premises in police custody facing charges of witchcraft from the parents and teachers.

Source: Hispanically Speaking News

According to Mid-Day, a popular news service in Mumbai, a gang of thieving eunuchs are hypnotising unwitting housewives and relieving them of their valuables:

Asha Dilip Pandit, 55, was chatting with her daughter Shivali, 26, a teacher, when two eunuchs entered their home. Shivali gave them Rs 5 but the eunuchs refused to leave, while one of them asked for a glass of water. While Shivali was getting them water the other eunuch asked for tea.

One of the eunuchs followed Shivali into the kitchen. The other sat at the entrance of the house and told Asha that according to Vaastu Shastra, her entrance was in the wrong direction. This, she was told, was the main cause of suffering in the family.

The eunuch then asked for an empty glass, water and salt. They asked Asha and Shivali to watch the glass, and hypnotised them. They stole Asha’s mangalsutra and gold chain, Shivali’s gold ring and her father’s ring
“The eunuch entered my house at 10.45 am. We regained consciousness at 12.30 pm. We don’t remember anything that happened in between,” said Asha. They later managed to piece together the story after one of their neighbour’s told them that a eunuch was seen standing outside the house.

On realising they were looted, the family registered an FIR at LT Marg police station. The incident apparently is a common one in the area.

“We have carried out several raids to trace the gang of eunuchs who are hypnotising people before looting them. We have carried out searches at Kamathipura, Tardeo, Mahim, Bandra, Colaba and Bhandup areas,” said a police officer.

We would like to remind our readers to guard their own valuables with renewed vigilance and to steer well clear of anybody making non-sequiterial requests for liquids and salts anywhere within their vicinity.

Source: Mid-Day

On Wednesday, Scientists from Seoul National University in South Korea announced that they have created a glowing dog while utilising a cloning technique designed to find cures for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Pictured is the team’s genetically modified female beagle, Tegon, which was born in 2009 and was found to glow in a fluorescent green colour while under ultraviolet light.After two years of testing, the research team has found that the glowing ability is triggered by a doxycycline antibiotic and can be turned on or off by adding or removing certain drugs to the dog’s food.

“The creation of Tegon opens new horizons since the gene injected to make the dog glow can be substituted with genes that trigger fatal human diseases,” explained lead researcher Lee Byeong-chun. He went on to state that humans and dogs have 268 common diseases, and that creating dogs with artificial symptoms could help in the treatment of these deadly diseases that affect humans.

Full story and pics at Toms Guide