!!Robot scientist
Nature 427, 181 (15 January 2004); doi:10.1038/427181b
a British team unveils an automated system that "originates hypotheses to explain observations, devises experiments to test these hypotheses, physically runs the experiments using a laboratory robot, interprets the results to falsify hypotheses inconsistent with the data, and then repeats the cycle".
What's more, when set loose on experiments to investigate the genetic control of important metabolic pathways in yeast, it performs more cost effectively than scientifically educated human volunteers.
!!'Laser vision'
US firm Microvision has developed a system that projects lasers onto the retina, allowing users to view images on top of their normal field of vision.
It could allow surgeons to get a bird's eye view of the innards of a patient, offer military units in the field a view of the entire battlefield and provide mechanics with a simulation of the inside of a car's engine.
The system uses tiny lasers, which scan their light onto the retina to produce the entire range of human vision, reported the journal of the Institute of the Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE Spectrum.
!!Real-time control of a robot arm using simultaneously recorded neurons in the motor cortex of a rat
To determine whether mathematically transformed activity of simultaneously recorded neuronal populations in the motor cortex and thalamus can be used for direct real-time control of an external motion device, rats were trained to obtain water by using their forelimbs to move a manipulandum to position a robot arm under a water dropper. While linear transformations of the discharge of populations of 21-46 neurons accurately predicted movement direction, nonlinear functions in the spatiotemporal domain were more effective for predicting movement timing and magnitude. Next, this neuronal population activity was electronically transformed into a real-time signal for controlling the position of the robot arm.
Chapin, J.K, Moxon, K.A., Markowitz, R.S. and Nicolelis, M.A.L. (1999) Real-time control of a robot arm using simultaneously recorded neurons in the motor cortex. Nature Neurosci., 2:664-670.
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