The Rise of the Machines: A Maestro bot !

The latest human activity carried out by robots is quite impressive - Sony's QRIO bot successfully conducted an entire orchestra during a concert held at the Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Tokyo on 15 March. The 58-centimetre-tall humanoid robot(see pic) led the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in a unique rendition of Beethoven's 5th symphony. The experts not surprisingly are full of praise of the algorithms that automatically keep the biped robots balanced while they carry out complex manoeuvres. With this achievement we now know that robots can dance(~ 6.68 mb) , fight, play music, smile & sneer, and even mow a lawn. As expected they now also do mundane stuff like monitoring global warming(via a robot submarine) and will soon take over the lead role in co-ordinating a team of cooperative robots to a mission to Saturn's moon Titan. So who's scared of a Judgement Day like scenario? Not me... at least not till they learn to drive a car first :-D

[Note: I do try to keep track of recent advances in robotics & artificial intelligence under this category of posts. Previous posts were about mind reading and motorized artificial legs & robotic racers.]

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'Signs' from the Fairies

An in-depth study by South African researchers has only deepened the mystery behind the origins of the eerie "fairy circles" of Namibia(see pic). Over the years these discs, completely bare sandy soil ranging from 2 to 10 metres in diameter, have become major tourist spots in the western coastal fringes of the Namib desert in southern Africa. They stand out in the sparse vegetation of the desert due to their unusually lush perimeters of tall grasses. Now extensive tests have ruled out the 3 major theories evolved since the 70's when they first came into prominence - termites, radioactive soil and toxic debris left in the soil by Euphorbia damarana, the poisonous milkbush plant.

To make things even more mystifying grass was found to wither on samples of soil taken from the fairy circles themselves, but did better than expected when grown on earth from the lush perimeter, proving that there really does seem to be something different about the two areas of soil. Gretel van Rooyen, a botanist at the University of Pretoria, who headed the team conducting the study, is now following up the possibility that toxic elements are somehow deposited in the circles. After identification of the toxic waste will be the challenge of figuring out how it got there. For now, she's forced to concede, that "we're but left with the fairies."[Via New Scientist.com]

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Time to hog those beans

As per a study conducted at Colorado State University, Brigham Young University, and Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, a little-known molecule(Equol) created in the intestine when soy is digested, is a natural and powerful blocker of a potent male hormone involved in prostate cancer & male pattern baldness. Equol, completely stops in its tracks the male hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which normally stimulates prostate growth & causes male pattern baldness.

Currently developed drugs inhibit a certain enzyme that converts testosterone to DHT but they have side effects. Equol, on the other hand, doesn't prevent DHT from being made but simply prevents it from functioning. Scientists speculate that this could explain why men in Japan, who eat more soy than American men but suffer equally from BPH(benign prostatic hyperplasia i.e enlarged prostate) as they age, rarely go on to have prostate cancer. Also given the importance of DHT in the skin, they say that equol may offer a means of controlling hair loss and promoting healthy skin. Already the team has filed patent applications on equol and hopes to commercialize the technology. And while all this may take some time I for one am committed to having extra helpings of soyabeans from now on :)

[Via Science Daily.com]

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Rise of the Machines: Mind reading

Scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, have made some very significant initial breakthroughs in analysing nerve signals in our mouths and throats [Via New Scientist.com]. Apparantly sensors attached to the chin and on either side of the Adam's apple can pick up nerve signals from the tongue, throat, and vocal cords, which can indeed be used to read minds.

So far researchers have been successful in conducting simple web searches with the software having a accuracy of 92%. The people at Nasa speculate that in the future this technology could be used by space-walking astronauts, the handicapped or even people wishing to communicate on the sly in noisy public places. Some experts are still sceptical.

Being 'optimistic' I forsee a day when we may well have to think twice before casting evil thoughts on a latest mysterious Windows crash. The military will deliver us improved A.I to give P.C's individuality and B.G of course will ensure that Windows continues to have the same reliability :)
[Note: Original NASA press release and details of the various experiments are here]

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Eruptive Prominence

         
[Note: 1. Eruptive prominence is the term used to describe a mass of relatively cool plasma(only 80 000 degrees Celsius !), or ionised gas released into the heliosphere by the Sun.
2. The image was captured by SOHO, the ESA/NASA solar watchdog observatory which has been beaming many such thrilling images since it was first launched in December 1995. Research scientists learn about the Sun's nature and behaviour and use SOHO images and data to predict 'space weather' events affecting our plane.(report)]

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The Rise of the Machines

The day might not be far away when the sort of scenario envisaged in sci-fi movies like the Terminator series takes place. Well maybe not quite the apocalyptic events but at least the direction of robotic research seem eerily to seek similar forms of intelligent, more human like devices. There were recent reports about two such projects by the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency(DRAPA). The first project is The Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton, or Bleex(see pic) designed to be used mainly by infantry soldiers. This bionic leg consists of a pair of mechanical metal leg braces including a power unit and a backpack-like frame. More than 40 sensors and hydraulic mechanisms calculate how to distribute weight just like the nervous system. These help minimise the load for the wearer enabling soldiers to carry heavy loads for upto 2 hours. Using this 45kg (100lbs) exoskeleton plus a 31.5kg (70lbs) backpack is reported to be like carrying a 2kg(51lbs) load.

The second project being a venture to build a series of autonomous vehicles that can re-supply US troops on the battlefield[BBC report]. To promote research in this area a prize of $ 1 million was announced last weekend for a race of automated racers held over more than 200 km in the Mojave desert. The race had its hiccups as only one robot(Sandstorm) completed the 1.5 km initial qualifying run prompting organizers to change the rules. The vehicles included among others a converted Humvee, a modified Honda Acura and a robot motorbike. They used a combination of sensors to work out what is ahead of them and combine it with GPS information to plot their route over the larger course. Before the race a CD laying out the full course was given to each racer. Since no robot vehicle managed to complete the course this year(leave alone in the stipulated time limit), the race looks likely to be re-run in 2006. Darpa's goal is to have a third of all combat vehicles autonomous by 2015. Research in autonomous flying robots are already at a much advanced stage. In April 2001 the Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle flew 13,840km (8,600 miles) in 22 hours across the Pacific from California to Australia. So with the military continuing to drive further advances in A.I(much like in the movies!) androids could well be a reality in our lifetime.

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Delhi: A dump for E-Waste

Delhi, in many ways India's computer hardware heartland, is fast becoming a major dumping site for e-waste - discarded parts of computers, mobile phones and other consumer electronics equipment. Estimates claim that currently some 70% of the heavy metals in landfills come from electrical equipment waste (via BBC News).

Computer recycling is a profitable business in India, China & Bangladesh where cheap labour is available. Typically after extracting the parts that can be reused the rest of the hardware is either burnt or dumped. The acids used in extraction are absorbed in the groundwater while burnt PVC parts release harmful toxic chemicals like dioxins. The labourers regularly suffer from complaints of respiratory diseases and skin rashes. Despite all these health hazards there is no regulation on the way computers are recycled, or a stipulation that workers be required to wear masks. Manufacturers too share the responsibility of ensuring suppliers be more environmentally friendly and that their products eliminate substances that release toxic waste. In Europe, a major package of laws on the management of electrical and electronic waste and hazardous substances in manufactured equipment entered into force on February 14, 2003 stipulating among other things that manufacturers have to eliminate such harmful substances inside the machines by 2006. In response to these claims Mahinder Agrawal, All Delhi Computer Traders Association, was quick to certify that most of the 2000 odd recyclers in Delhi are following safe practices. But going by Delhi business community's past track record in following safety norms that statement is quite tough to believe. With the continued boom in recycling old pc's & electronic equipment here, it's high time that similar laws were enacted and more strict norms be laid for the recyclers.
[note: This issue had earlier in the year appeared in The Hindu too. The comprehensive report released by Toxic Links which initially brought these facts to light can be downloaded here(842 kb).]

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Arctic Squirrels & the final frontier

Scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks are currently studying the way Arctic ground squirrels go into hibernation to survive the sub-zero degree temperatures in winter (via Wired News). Small implants (logger) consisting of a computer chip with memory capacity of 18 months, a battery and a thermometer were surgically placed in 100 squirrels so far. These loggers are used to record the squirrel's internal temperature every 12 minutes for their life span of 4 years. The squirrels are also fitted with a small neck collar that has a transmitter, so the scientists can keep track of them. The preliminary research so far indicates that squirrels slowly reduce internal temperatures of vital organs to as low as minus 6 degrees Celsius during their 8 months of hibernation. The gradual process called supercooling enables their blood to stay fluid at such low temperatures.

If this project is successful then one of the constraints of long-distance space travel - resources consumed (food, oxygen and water) might cease to be a major factor. By putting the astronauts in a temporary hibernation-like state, their heart and blood-flow rates would be lowered, slowing their metabolism substantially and reducing the amount of supplies necessary. This procedure has been often imagined in sci-fi movies like the Alien series where Ripley & her crew place themselves in small chambers that put their bodies in hibernation. Another immediate application could be in preserving human organs donated for transplant. Currently human tissues are viable for 4 days at most while the squirrel can maintain its organs at below-freezing temperatures for weeks. So by replicating the squirrels internal state in the storage facilities, transplant organs could have a much longer shelf life.

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Were Ravens Alexander's bane?

The sudden death of Alexander The Great, after a 2 week illness, in 323 BC in the Mesopotamian city of Babylon(current day Baghdad) has puzzled historians for years.(via Nature.com). Based on historical records poisoning, flu and typhoid fever have all been suggested. And now epidemiologist John Marr of the Virginia Department of Health and infectious-disease expert Charles Calisher of Colorado State University have a new suggestion: West Nile virus. Common in Africa, West Asia and the Middle East, the virus is carried by birds & other animals and is transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. A passage by Greek biographer Plutarch seems to support their theory.

Ravens are from a family of birds that are particularly susceptible to the pathogen - members of the same family were responsible for the virus' spread across the United States in 1999. So the researchers suggest that the ravens might have been dying of West Nile virus infection. Moreover they tested their idea using an online diagnostic program called GIDEON (Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Network).

Not everyone agrees with their theories though. Another epidemiologist Thomas Mather clarifies that the West Nile virus tends to kill the elderly or those with weakened immune systems. So as he points out "If he was so great, he might not have been bumped off by this disease,". The researchers do admit the diagnosis cannot be certain but say the study does illustrate how important it is for doctors today to take into account the full history of a case - including exposure to animals.

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Glaciers melting !

The environmental group WWF warned that billions of people will face severe water shortages as glaciers around the world melt unless governments take urgent action to tackle global warming(via Yahoo news). Glaciers now comprise of 70% of the world's freshwater reserves and a new study says that an overall rise of temperature of four degrees Celsius before the end of the century would eliminate almost all of them. As per the WWF average temperatures have already risen between 0.6 and 0.7 degrees Celsius since 1860, so it was important to curb emissions of carbon dioxide to ensure the increase stays well below a threshold of two degrees. Melting of glaciers could also flood the rivers coming out of the Himalayas endangering China and the Indian subcontinent as well as make sea levels rise & thus destroy coastal communities worldwide. WWF also asked governments to ensure Russia ratifies the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which establishes a set of goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Since it is already ratified by 119 countries, the text just needs support from Moscow to become international law. The study was released in Milan where more than 180 countries are due to gather from December 1-12 for the UN Climate Change Convention to assess progress in addressing problems concerning global warming.
[ note: As per this report Russia might well reject the Kyoto Protocol citing the same reasons as the largest polluter in the world U.S, that it will harm their economy.]

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Goodbye Melissophobia?

Doctors have discovered a drug that just might mean an end to all irrational fear or phobias.(via The Guardian). A drug (D-cycloserine) which is on the market for tuberculosis was found in early trials to help phobics to overcome their worst fears within a week.

Michael Davis at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia who undertook the trials says 'It should help you get over whatever it is you are afraid of, as long as you face up to your fear.' So apart from phobias, it potentially could also help people overcome their natural nervousness when learning new skills. Now studies are underway to study its effect on people with a fear of public speaking and those with a panic disorder/ a very debilitating form of anxiety.
[note: I had in an earlier post written about my fear of Bees(i.e Melissophobia). If curious you can look for fancy phobia names in this comprehensive list.]

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Cold War blues

Just came across this poignant story of Vladislav Ivanov, a military scientist in the Russian Army who was the first to think of the idea of using magnetic resonance to study the inside of the human body. Ivanov's brief in the army as a young lieutenant was to use nuclear magnetic resonance in water to help with aircraft navigation but he thought of applying it elsewhere.

Unfortunately for him the idea was quashed by the state committee in St Petersburg, whose records show that Ivanov submitted a detailed application, "Method of examination of the internal structure of material bodies", in 1960. Years later, when the work of Paul Lauterbur and Peter Mansfield became famous, the committee revisited Ivanov's application and gave its assent. But by then, Ivanov says, Soviet science had fallen too far behind. This year the importance of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was acknowledged in October when Paul Lauterbur of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Peter Mansfield of the University of Nottingham, UK, shared the 2003 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for MRI related work. Ivanov is philosophical about the whole issue "On one hand, the Cold War is guilty. But it was never so cold that it was impossible to do at least something." And today, all he has to show for his ideas is an MRI machine, based on his own ideas, on which he trains students in his lab.

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Vote for your favourite Hubble image!

To mark the 10th anniversary of the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, NASA invites the public to cast a vote for the camera's most impressive image. Astronomers at JPL have narrowed the field to their top ten favorite pictures, but the selection of the most spectacular image will be decided by online voting here. The voting will continue throughout November and the most popular image will be unveiled December 5(the anniversary) on the JPL website. The images shortlisted are truly stunning and the accompanying description quite interesting so do take a look.

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Flying into milky light !

[note: That's how a helicopter pilot described the changes taking place in the atmospheric light(bright sunlight to dusky, evening light) as the 1st total solar eclipse recorded over the Antarctic in a century occured on Sunday.]

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Volcanoes unleash El Nino

A new study published in the British scientific journal Nature claims that Volcanoes are a prime cause for El Niño, the climate phenomenon that can catastrophically disrupt weather patterns across the Pacific and beyond(details). The research is the first to supply statistical support to the theory that volcanic fallout may affect the world's climate system. As per this theory after a volcanic erruption, billions of tons of fine ash lingers in the upper atmosphere reflecting back solar heat. This cools overall the atmosphere by a few 10ths of a degree but it also creates different regional temperature changes due to the complex interaction between atmospheric temperature and the vast circulating masses of water. So aided by convection of warm water currents, a slight warming of the tropical zone of the Pacific takes place. This triggers the El Nino which is highly susceptible to small changes in sea surface temperatures. The study concludes that a major eruption(picture shows Mexico's Popocatepetl Volcano errupting) doubles the chance that an El Niño will be unleashed in the following winter. Other factors like global warming too are said to contribute to the recurrance of this phenomenon.

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Imperturbable serenity...

[note: Apparantly that's what Thomas Hardy called a lunar eclipse. The pictures are of the one that took place on Saturday night.]

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Lazy GAD2 is keeping my GABA sane...

A team of British& French scientists have identified the gene(GAD2) which sped up the production of a neurotransmitter(GABA) in the brain(report). When GABA, interacts with another molecule in the hypothalamus in the brain, people feel a craving for food. The research was carried out on about 1200 French people (50% normal, 50% obese). Apparantly a more active form of GAD2 builds up an overaccumulation of GABA thus driving the stimulus to eat further than normal for obese people. The results of this study will help enable possible prior identification of people prone to obesity in the future.

The report also cites WHO guidelines on correct bodyweight which is assessed by using body mass index (BMI), defined as the weight in kgs divided by the square of the height in meters. A person is overweight with a BMI of over 25 kg/sq. m, while more than 30 kg/sq m is obese. My current B.M.I lies at a healthy 22.26, so I have room left for more indulgance :)

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Activism vs Scientific research: personal notes...

I was a little hesitant to write on C.S.E and its recent report on the presence of pesticides in softdrinks here. Mostly because I would dwell more on my own impressions about C.S.E and the philosophy it represents than the issue at hand as such. I like my online anonymity and since I do know people in C.S.E and other similar research institutions my musings might just strike a note somewhere. Not that this is a tell-all personal blog at this point but as someone said who can tell what the high tide brings in to the shore...

Anyway, for me (and I suspect many within my social group) this whole debate on C.S.E's credibility/role has a sense of deja vu around it. On so many occasions I have been witness to an intense ongoing debate between two of my close friends, who are both working on scientific research. They both address the same current issues while adhering to what would seem at first sight opposing philosophies. A focussed on issues by following proper scientific methodology and working within the system as such(getting lost in red-tape as per B). While B is more concerned about reaching out to the masses and raising consciousness (creating a ruckus as per A). While I've had to sit on the fence most times on those debates (both are old friends) I've tried at times telling them that they both have a role to play, specially in a country like ours. The scientific institutions be it government owned/funded or privately run in India are not neutral. The private firms need funds to sustain themselves and thus are prone to playing favourites. While Government run/funded ones are victims of lobbying by industrial/political pressure groups.

In such a scenario we do need someone to create a ruckus, create enough pressure on the government to make use of its scientific institutions i.e to cut through the red-tape and cleanse our system of its loopholes. C.S.E because of its philosophy of investigative journalism and its ability to reach out to the masses thru its publication Down to Earth, to an extent provides that. And regular readers of 'Down to earth' will know that C.S.E isn't just after MNC's or for that matter any other corporate (a lot of companies will obviously disagree). They are just at home writing about the need for water harvesting in Metro's or about the rapidly declining population of sea turtles along our eastern coastlines. Yup, as someone noted, Anil Agarwal was a baniya. And like all good businessmen he created a self-sustaining business which continues successfully its single point agenda of 'creating a good ruckus' after his death.

[notes: In the media TOI(Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar) calls it a white man's burden & says focus on M.N.C's reflect a typical Indian inferiority complex. Hmm... I've noted similar outrage in Belgium too. As expected the issue has been explored much more thoroughly among Indian bloggers.
1. Anvita&Jivha(who has posted pertinent excerpts of the report) dwell on the exploitation of loopholes in current regulations by MNC's.
2. Yodhan defends co's right to question the scientific methodology used(e.g.. sample size, lab tech)
3. Quizman at Smorgasbord questions the motivations behind the report and examines the background of C.S.E & the ethics they employ ]

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SCIENCE: Van Gogh, biological clocks & rapid evolution...

Some interesting news from across the scientific world:

9.08pm, July 13, 1889 : that's the time, give or take a minute that Van Gogh painted his painting"Moonrise. It was only a letter (subsequently lost) which revealed in the 1930's that it was in fact a moonrise. Now A US physicist reckons he's solved the position of Vincent van Gogh's orange-red moon.(see report) Donald Olsen travelled to France with his wife to get his co-ordinates right, describing it as a "useful lesson in astronomy". They then returned to Texas and plugged the coordinates into a computer, which arrived at the time by searching for the exact date and time in 1889 when a full or nearly full moon peaked behind the cliff between May and September.

Controlling your Biological Clock: A theory proposed by Erik Herzog, Ph.D. assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis proposes that the biological clock may respond directly to temperature changes rather than light.(see report). If this were to hold true then jet lags may be a thing of the past. Interestingly a previous theory in 1998 proposed that shining light on the backs of the knees would be enough to adjust body rhythm to a new time zone. Brain activity triggered by sensors in the knees now this is something we have always known in hindi 'muhabares'....

Rapid evolution of lizards : A St. Louis researcher has found extensive genetic differentiation among populations of numerous Anolis lizard species inhabiting single Caribbean islands. (see report). Scientists haven't quite figured this strange phenomenon but theorize that it might be Geographic events – the formation of a mountain range, the rising and falling of sea levels, the creation of river valleys or Ecological heterogeneity. Guess I was wrong in commenting in a post by Ullyses that evolution is not differentiable in our lifetimes amongst larger species...

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SCIENCE: Improvisation...latino style

Came across this unique story of improvisation by a peruvian Doctor. Cesar Venero, a doctor at a state hospital in the Andean highlands used a drill and pliers to perform brain surgery on a man who had been injured in a fight.
Andahuaylas is one of the poorest regions of Peru, a country in which more than half its 27 million people live below the poverty line. Venero, who earns $430 a month, said he had used tools from a hardware store on five previous occasions but for less serious operations :)

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Still feeling a bit weary this last week. Haven't slept much... Discovered the wonderful world of RSS feeds . Amazing what info can be at your fingertips with such ease. Trying out Feedreader a really cool and easy to use RSS reader. Selecting the feeds is taking up much of my online time .

Also Been trying out yet another RSS client Amphetadesk. This product seems to be more widely used. And it has a great number of rss channels listed along with it so you can hit the ground running . So a lot of the sites I tend to visit on a daily basis can be checked for updates quicker using the rss feeds. More power to XML !!

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