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Wireless chargingIn September 1882, Thomas Edison turned on his first power station, supplying 110 volts of direct current to 59 customers in Manhattan. Jump forward 130 years and we now see humanity approaching the advent of a new way of powering our technology.Read more...
Whoever said DNA was an exclusive?
If you thought that DNA or its sister molecule, RNA, were the only means of storing genetic information-think again! A team of researchers at Cambridge University have successfully created synthetic alternatives called xeno-nucleic acids (XNAs) which can not only store genetic information- but are almost as capable of evolving. Picture it: a spiralling ladder-with each step a sugar bound to a molecule in the middle called a base (one to each sugar) and you have envisaged the very basic structure of DNA.Read more...
Holograms!
There is no doubt that the hologram of the late Tupac was very emotive and has clearly captured the imaginations of attending fans. It is tempting to "get my geek on" and explain how the performance works, but in all honesty, it's not that complicated and other writers have already done an excellent job of this.Read more...
You are here: Science & Tech » Science » How do brains do it? Introducing Brain infomatics
How do brains do it? Introducing Brain infomatics
Published 5th Dec 2011
Brain Informatics (BI) is an exciting emerging field of research which focuses on studying the Human Information Processing System (HIPS). Various techniques borrowed from Computer Science can help Neuroscience to better understand essential functions of the brain such as multi-perception, attention, memory, language, computation, heuristic search, reasoning, planning, decision-making, problem–solving, learning, discovery, and creativity.
You might ask yourself “What use do we have for BI other than for satisfying our curiosity of how the brain works?” Think about the Information Grid. The data we generate every day is overwhelming: data generated from social media, data generated from mobile devices, data generated from sensors, the list goes on. We have already reached a point where simply searching for data no longer satisfies our needs. What we need is rich information processing that can analyse existing knowledge and provide us with insights for decision making as well as answer our questions where possible. The distributed problem solving and reasoning required to perform such tasks is beyond the capabilities of traditional Artificial Intelligence research. Efforts in the past have been focused on understanding the behaviour of humans rather than what goes on inside the brain. Understanding the multifaceted nature of intelligence by exploring essential brain functions can be the key trigger for breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence and the Wisdom Web.
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