Technology and Engineering

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Congratulations Nic

Dan Gillis Communication, Education and Outreach, Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
Congratulations to Nic Durish, MSc Computer Science student, who was recently announced as the recipient of the 2018/2019 School of Computer Science Teaching Assistant Award. Nic was nominated for his continued contributions to teaching, learning, and leadership in the School. I have had the pleasure of working with Nic for many years now – bothContinue reading "Congratulations Nic"

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Bad battery, good synapse from Stanford University

Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
A May 4, 2019 news item on ScienceDaily announces the latest advance made by Stanford University and Sandia National Laboratories in the field of neuromorphic (brainlike) computing, The brain’s capacity for simultaneously learning and memorizing large amounts of information while requiring little energy has inspired an entire field to pursue brain-like — or neuromorphic — computers. Researchers at Stanford University and Sandia National Laboratories previously developed one portion of such a computer: a device that…

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Automated science writing?

Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
It seems that automated science writing is not ready—yet. Still, an April 18, 2019 news item on ScienceDaily suggests that progress is being made, The work of a science writer, including this one, includes reading journal papers filled with specialized technical terminology, and figuring out how to explain their contents in language that readers without a scientific background can understand.Now, a team of scientists at MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] and elsewhere has developed a…

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Elements of biological computation & stochastic thermodynamics of life

Theory, Evolution, and Games Group bloggers Biology and Life Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Technology and Engineering
This week, I was visiting the Santa Fe Institute for a workshop organized by Albert Kao, Jessica Flack, and David Wolpert on “What is biological computation?” (11 – 13 September 2019). It was an ambitious question and I don’t think that we were able to answer it in just three days of discussion, but I think that we all certainly learnt a lot. At least, I know that I learned a lot of new things.…

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Dessert or computer screen?

Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
Scientists at Japan’s University of Osaka have a technique for creating higher resolution computer and smart phone screens from the main ingredient for a dessert, nata de coco. From the nata de coco Wikipedia entry (Note: Links have been removed), Nata de coco (also marketed as “coconut gel”) is a chewy, translucent, jelly-like food produced by the fermentation of coconut water,[1] which gels through the production of microbial cellulose by ‘Komagataeibacter xylinus’. Originating in the…

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Brainlike computing with spintronic devices

Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
Adding to the body of ‘memristor’ research I have here, there’s an April 17, 2019 news item on Nanowerk announcing the development of ‘memristor’ hardware by Japanese researchers (Note: A link has been removed), A research group from Tohoku University has developed spintronics devices which are promising for future energy-efficient and adoptive computing systems, as they behave like neurons and synapses in the human brain (Advanced Materials, “Artificial Neuron and Synapse Realized in an Antiferromagnet/Ferromagnet…

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Needle-free tattoos, smart and otherwise

Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
Before getting to the research news from the University of Twente (Netherlands), there’s this related event which took place on April 18, 2019 (from the Future Under Our Skin webpage (on the University of Twente website) Note: I have made some formatting changes, Why this event? Our skin can give information about our health, mood and surroundings. Medical and recreational tattoos have decorated humans for centuries. But we can inject other materials besides ink, such…

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Art/science and a paintable diagnostic test for cancer

Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
One of Joseph Cohen’s painting incorporating carbon nanotubes photographed in normal light. Photo courtesy of Joseph Cohen. [downloaded from https://news.artnet.com/art-world/carbon-nanotube-cancer-paint-1638340?utm_content=from_&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Global%20September%202%20PM&utm_term=artnet%20News%20Daily%20Newsletter%20USE%20%2830%20Day%20Engaged%20Only%29] The artist credited with the work seen in the above, Joseph Cohen, has done something remarkable with carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Something even more remarkable than the painting as Sarah Cascone recounts in her August 30, 2019 article for artnet.com (Note: A link has been removed), Not every artist can say that his or her work…

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Rationality, the Bayesian mind and its limits

Theory, Evolution, and Games Group bloggers Biology and Life Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, Technology and Engineering
Bayesianism is one of the more popular frameworks in cognitive science. Alongside other similar probalistic models of cognition, it is highly encouraged in the cognitive sciences (Chater, Tenenbaum, & Yuille, 2006). To summarize Bayesianism far too succinctly: it views the human mind as full of beliefs that we view as true with some subjective probability. We then act on these beliefs to maximize expected return (or maybe just satisfice) and update the beliefs according to…

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First 3D heart printed using patient’s biological materials

Maryse de la Giroday Science in Society, Technology and Engineering
This is very exciting news and it’s likely be at least 10 years before this technology could be made available to the public. Caption: A 3D-printed, small-scaled human heart engineered from the patient’s own materials and cells. Credit: Advanced Science. © 2019 The Authors. An April 15, 2019 news item on ScienceDaily makes a remarkable announcement, In a major medical breakthrough, Tel Aviv University researchers have “printed” the world’s first 3D vascularised engineered heart using…

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