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15th Jan 2012

Mind Meets Machine


Chris Smith
(c) Helen Scales
Helen Scales
Hybrid Assistive Limb

Where do you stand on becoming part person, part machine? This week we hook up with three pioneers in the field of cybernetics including walking cyborg Kevin Warwick, who volunteered his own nervous system to test out a new way to connect up with the machine world, Markus Groppe, who is trialling an implantable chip to restore vision to the blind, and Andrew Schwartz who's developing neural interfaces to couple the brain's motor circuits to a robot. Plus, news of an H5N1 'flu furore as scientists create the most dangerous virus imaginable, and a voyage to the deepest subsea vents ever discovered...

Transcript
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News

(c)  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The Deepest Deep Sea Vents

Scientists have discovered the deepest and possibly the hottest undersea volcanic vents ever found, and they are encrusted in extraordinary deep sea life.


Questions

Could you add a hard drive to your brain to increase memory?


Could we target pain with cybernetics?


Is cybernetics just the next step in our evolution?


How do people feel when they have chips inside them?


Could we develop the ability to sense other fields like magnetic fields?


Could you provide a macrofocusing lens to help us read the small print?



Interviews

(c) Hellerhoff@wikipedia

What is cybernetics?

What is cybernetics? Does it include things like pacemakers and cochlear implants? How is it being used to treat Parkinson's, Depression and Tourette's Syndrome? Kevin Warwick discusses what we can learn about ourselves by mixing man with machine...

(c) jefras a.k.a Jo&#259;o Est&#281;v&#259;o A. de Freitas

Implants to improve impaired vision

How implanting a new chip which contains light sensors and an amplifier could be a treatment for impaired vision for patients with retinitis pigmentosa...

(c) Magnus Manske

Potentially Pandemic H5N1

Should we publish details of how to make viruses with pandemic potential? We explore the controversy and meet one of the scientists whose work is under question...

(c) Tomasz Sienicki

Quitting Smoking, Exoplanets and Carnivorous Plants!

Why nicotine replacement may not be the key to kicking the habit, how most stars in our solar system have planets accompanying them, How Fungi could hold the key to tackling lead pollution and a new plants which makes a meal out of worms!

(c) Eeron80@en.wikipedia

Mapping Solar Storm Risk - Planet Earth Online

Solar storms can disrupt satellites, communications and power supplies and so scientists have now produced the first ever map that shows which regions of the UK power grid are most at risk...

(c) Gray

Wiring the Brain to Robotic Limbs

Scientists are moving closer to developing ways to interface with the brain and to decode what nerve cells are saying to each other, and can use this neural chatter to connect the brain to artificial limbs...


QotW

(c) Rainer Zenz@Wikipedia

Why does caramel cooking temperature rise in steps?

Why would the temperature go up in stages when cooking caramel? Should it just go from room temperature smoothly up to it's final cooking temp?



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