Hey!

We’re back this year in room 28 every Monday! Also, we’re now teamed up with Falconium, the student run science journal. Check out their website at http://www.falconium.org/scienceblogs and make some blogs!

We’re back for a new school year! Join us in room 28 every Monday for fun-filled innovation talk. We’re gearing up for ExploraVision too!

Drivers are always told to keep their eyes on the road while driving. This phrase now has a literal meaning to it because a driver can steer a car with only his eyes. A team from the Artificial Intelligence Group tested the eyeDriver software that uses eye movements to steer a car. The software converts the driver’s eye movements into controls for the steering wheel. Although the speed of the car is controlled separately, this is a huge step for not having to drive a car with your hands on the steering wheel.

To use the software properly, the driver must put on a bicycle helmet with two cameras and an infrared LED light attached to it and a laptop with all the appropriate programs that enables the software to work properly. One of the cameras view what the driver sees and the other camera points towards the eye of the driver with the help of the infrared light and a transparent mirror so that the camera does not get in the way of the driver. Once the two cameras are calibrated they are capture both the position of the pupil in the eye camera and calculate the place where the driver is looking at. The coordinates of the place where the driver’s eyes are looking at are transmitted into the computer so the vehicle can act accordingly. If the program is on free ride mode, the car drives according to where the eyes are looking, and if the program is on routing mode, the car drives automatically until it comes to an intersection at which the driver looks one way or another for three seconds informing the vehicle to turn a certain way. Before the driver starts to drive, he has to set a constant speed because the program does not control the speed of the car with the driver’s eyes; it only steers the car.

This project is called AutoNOMOS and is headed by Tinosch Ganjineh to further develop automatic or partially automatic cars. So far only the vehicle named the Spirit of Berlin is designed to operate with eye movements as it drives. This will benefit the public greatly if it is released because it can prevent accidents, improve driving efficiency, and create an environmentally friendly source of transportation.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100423215028.htm

-Claire Chen

Cochlear implants, or replacing a non-functioning cochlea with a man-made imitation, experienced a boom of popularity in the early nineties. As more than 30,000 deaf people underwent the invasive surgery with hopes of being able to hear for the first time, many people throughout America were opposed to the implants, calling them “unnatural” and fearing that scientists were creating “bionic” humans.

Now, nearly 20 years later, the public might have yet another reason to voice this concern. Thanks to Yael Hanein of Tel Aviv University, extensive research has unearthed the possibility of using bionics to restore vision in blind eyes.

Hanein has been experimenting with affixing retinal nerve cells, the neurons surrounding the eye, with electrodes to stimulate cell growth. She has been successful so far in her experiments on animals, and hopes to one day see (no pun intended) retinal implants become a reality.

Says Hanein, “Our retinal implant attempts to replace activity in places of the damaged cells, and in the case of retinal diseases, the damaged photoreceptors.” For people suffering from retinal degeneration disease, her invention seems very promising. Her team’s biggest accomplishment was being able to create these living gadgets on special nano-materials fit for the human eye.

So while the public may scorn bionics as fit only for sci-fi movies, they may prove to be a very real cure for blindness in the not-so-distant-future. That, in and of itself, is a great step forward for the scientific community.

For more information on this exciting research visit:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100322143221.htm

-Michelle Oberman

We’ve all been told that the easiest way to prevent the spread of viruses to wash our hands, but the best way to do so just might be with a good squirt of hand sanitizer.

Researchers from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Charlottesville and Dial Corporation have conducted a study comparing the effectiveness of using ethanol based hand sanitizers and washing with regular soap and water at removing rhinovirus from hands. Rhinovirus is known to cause 30 to 35% of the cases of the common cold in adults, and one of its greatest routes of transmission between humans is through hand to hand contact.

The study found that the ethanol hand sanitizer removed approximately 80% of rhinovirus from hands while soap and water removed about 31% of the rhinovirus from hands. In addition, the researchers then added organic acids to the hand sanitizer to test its effectiveness. Results showed that using this sanitizer inactivated the virus on hands. The sanitizer also prevented further infections of rhinovirus for 2 to 4 hours after it was applied.

So the next time before you eat, take a moment to take out your travel-sized bottle of hand sanitizer and wash away!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100323223948.htm

– Emily Cai

Labs rats running around with pulsing tubes attached to their heads is no normal sight. Obviously then, humans running around pulsing tubes would also not seem normal. This sight, however, could become quite common with the developments of optogenetics.
A team of Stanford scientists wired a fiber-optic cable into a rat’s brain, in order to accurately test the brain functions. By illuminating the brain with light, the team managed to make a rat run in a counterclockwise circle, but after turning off the light, the rat had no idea why it had just run in a circle.
Although this seems like it could be behind some mind-control government conspiracy, it is actually extremely useful. In order to modify the brain, previously, scientists had to use either drugs (which could possibly be harmful), or implanted electrodes (which weren’t very accurate as to which neuron they would activate). Optogenetics allows a way to precisely activate different parts of the brain, not only allowing for better knowledge of the brain itself, but also offer potential information about brain-related disease.
For more, read http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/mf_optigenetics/.

-Sharad Vikram

Innovation isn’t always rooted in technology. Sometimes, the simple ideas work best.

The New York Times recently reported that a simple change in elementary school schedule, putting lunch after recess, can result in less wasted food, more order, and greater kid and adult satisfaction. Traditionally, lunch is put after recess, causing eager kids to wolf down lunches or throw parts away in order to maximize playing time. To avoid this, some schools have reversed the order, putting lunch after recess, eliminating the motivation to eat quickly. Less stomachaches means more productivity, and eaten vegetables means better health.  And an added bonus is that by the time students return to class, they have calmed down from exercise, giving teachers an extra 15 minutes of classroom productivity.

Though there are some logistical problems (and student habits aren’t easily broken), the changes have been favored by many school districts and are becoming more common.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/play-then-eat-shift-may-bring-gains-at-school/?hpw

-Albert

For years, the rumor that listening to Mozart and classical music makes children smarter has been an entertaining excuse to play classical music for young children. But in recent years, the research has more and more extensively shown that the effects of music have a much greater impact on the growth of a child than was previously believed.

When a baby is born, it’s mind is not fully developed, yet it is also not a blank canvas that can be drawn in any way. Everyday actions such as reaching for objects, touching objects, or listening to music, cause small electrical shocks to travel through the baby’s mind thus, slowly but surely, weaving a circuit of neurons. Unlike the common misconception that listening to classical music makes a baby smarter, it is better explained as preparing the mind to better learn in situations it is thrown into. In fact studies have shown that even adults who listen to classical music have short periods of time in which their spatial reasoning improves, and that they are better able to tackle puzzles and certain problems.

However, listening to Mozart before taking the SAT is probably not the best idea for trying to achieve a high score, considering that the effects of listening to music wear off about thirty minutes after listening. But for those looking for a way to better expand their problem solving skills, studies have shown that learning how to play an instrument can increase one’s ability to solve puzzles and complete other tasks up to thirty percent.

So the next time your mom says to turn off your stereo because you’re “killing your brain cells”, you can intelligently reply that you are in fact improving your problem solving skills.

http://www.educationoasis.com/resources/Articles/building_babys_brain.ht…

http://www.musicaprenatal.com.mx/english/foundations.html

-Paul Ho