Here First - Science and Technology Blog

Channel 5 reports "Fifty-four-year-old Kim Peek is arguably the world's most famous savant and the inspiration behind the Oscar-winning film, Rain Man. Described as "a living Google", Kim is a confounding mix of disability and brilliance that has baffled neurosurgeons. Most savants have only one dominating interest, but Kim seems to soak up everything: from sport to politics and even the minutiae of the British monarchy. "

Recently, NASA foretold the winners of 12 honours for analysing the biologic consequences of radiation. In the top of the list is a $1.75 million project to irradiate eighteen squirrel monkeys in an attempt to determine how space radiation affects the central nervous system. If its accepted, the experimentation it's going to be the first NASA-funded primate project to start after more than 30 years. The experimentation is destined to enquire the effects of solar flares and astronomic cosmic irradiations: both will bombard cosmonauts with burdened particles in heavier numbers once they leave the protective cover of Earth's magnetosphere. Since 2004, the United States has started the big plan of returning the astronauts to the moon, with the ultimate goal of attending Mars. You can find evidence that space irradiation impacts the brain, but it's not very clear the real level of danger it poses to deep-space adventurers. NASA states the new experiment will show what it...

MIT scientists aims to a much more effective method of gleaning electric power from what would otherwise be wasted heat energy. In everything from computing device C.P.U. chips to auto locomotives to electrical powerplants, the necessitate to eliminate extra heat produces a great source of inefficiency. But fresh inquiry points the way to a engineering that could make it conceivable to harvest a good deal of that wasted heat and turn it into operational electricity. Hagelstein, an associate professor of EE at MIT, alleges that with present systems it is achievable to efficiently convert heat into electrical energy, just with very little power. It is as well conceivable to acquire good deal of electrical power — what is called high-throughput power — from a lower effective, and so larger and less affordable system. “It’s a tradeoff. You either get high efficiency or high throughput,” says Hagelstein. Merely the team ascertained that employing their new system, it would be achievabl...

In spite of the long belief that the individual brain does not develop new neurons as we get old, recent analyses in the last years have determined that it does (our brains are shriking over the generations, however.) Just men of science were not certain what the new neurons do. A fresh study indicates they clear off the leftovers of old memories to create some space for new ones. The brain's hippocampus works like an inbox for memories, which then must be shuttled elsewhere for lasting storage. One function of new neurons is to clean out the inbox once memories are filed. A lot explore in this field is needed to verify the results. Read full story at ScienceNOW

The TENORI-ON is a singular 16 x 16 LED button matrix operation instrument with a dazing visual display. For DJs & producers it's a unequaled performance instrument enabling them to perform practicing musical instrument digital interface and load the TENORI-ON with samples to 'jam / improvise' within their set BPMs.

Keynote, Motivational, and Youth Speaker Hal Elrod (a.k.a. "Yo Pal Hal") shares his unbelievable true life-after-death story and powerful lessons of overcoming challenges and adversity @ Kevin Bracy's "Monstars of Motivation" event!

Albert Einstein’s theories rank among humanity’s greatest achievements. They sparked the scientific revolution of the 20th Century. In their attempts to understand how space, time and matter are connected, Einstein and his successors made three predictions…watch the video to find out what they said. via

Watch the soothing water droplets cascading over nano-particle infused sheets! via ThinkGeek