Doctor Who’s Sonic Pioneers Will Turn the Internet Into a Giant Musical Instrument

“The Radiophonic Workshop has always broken new sonic ground, from the Doctor Who theme to the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Now they’re at it again — this time using the internet as a musical instrument,” reports the Guardian. “The band includes composers from the original BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which created soundtracks for most BBC shows from the 60s to the…

Print These Electronic Circuits Directly Onto Skin

An anonymous reader quotes a report from IEEE Spectrum: New circuits can get printed directly on human skin to help monitor vital signs, a new study finds. In the new study, researchers developed a way to sinter nanoparticles of silver at room temperature. The key behind this advance is a so-called a sintering aid layer, consisting of a biodegradable polymer paste…

Quantum exciton found in magnetic van der Waals material

Things can always be done faster, but can anything beat light? Computing with light instead of electricity is seen as a breakthrough to boost computer speeds. Transistors, the building blocks of data circuits, are required to switch electrical signals into light in order to transmit the information via a fiber-optic cable. Optical computing could potentially save the time and energy used…

Consciousness isn’t just the brain: The body shapes your sense of self

Electrical signals coming from your heart and other organs influence how you perceive the world, the decisions you take, your sense of who you are and consciousness itself. Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632881-300-consciousness-isnt-just-the-brain-the-body-shapes-your-sense-of-self/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…

Spies Can Eavesdrop By Watching a Light Bulb’s Vibrations

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Researchers from Israeli’s Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Weizmann Institute of Science today revealed a new technique for long-distance eavesdropping they call “lamphone.” They say it allows anyone with a laptop and less than a thousand dollars of equipment — just a telescope and a $400 electro-optical sensor — to listen…

Screen Time Might Be Physically Changing Kids’ Brains

An anonymous reader quotes a report from MIT Technology Review: A study published today in JAMA Pediatrics warns that kids’ literacy and language skills suffer with screen use, and MRI scans of their brains appear to back up the findings. Forty-seven 3- to 5-year-olds took a test to measure their cognitive abilities, and their parents were asked to answer a detailed…

Deep Sleep May Help the Brain Clear Alzheimer’s Toxins

An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: The brain waves generated during deep sleep appear to trigger a cleaning system in the brain that protects it against Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. Electrical signals known as slow waves appear just before a pulse of fluid washes through the brain, presumably removing toxins associated with Alzheimer’s, researchers reported Thursday in the…