Biology

Don’t Screw With Our Kids

This entry was posted in Biology Culture Ecology on June 6, 2007 by Steve

Simply mind blowing. Watch this all the way through:

An amazing display of social skills. Put them in black and white hats and suddenly you are watching an old western movie.

Via Unfogged.

May The Force Be With You

This entry was posted in Biology Economics Education Games on April 30, 2007 by Steve

If you can’t concentrate you may not win your next light sword battle or make your next put:

Behind the mask is a sensor that touches the user’s forehead and reads the brain’s electrical signals, then sends them to a wireless receiver inside the saber, which lights up when the user is concentrating. The player maintains focus by channeling thoughts on any fixed mental image, or thinking specifically about keeping the light sword on. When the mind wanders, the wand goes dark.
…
Technology from NeuroSky and other startups could make video games more mentally stimulating and realistic. It could even enable players to control video game characters or avatars in virtual worlds with nothing but their thoughts.
Adding biofeedback to “Tiger Woods PGA Tour,” for instance, could mean that only those players who muster Zen-like concentration could nail a put. In the popular action game “Grand Theft Auto,” players who become nervous or frightened would have worse aim than those who remain relaxed and focused.
NeuroSky’s prototype measures a person’s baseline brain-wave activity, including signals that relate to concentration, relaxation and anxiety. The technology ranks performance in each category on a scale of 1 to 100, and the numbers change as a person thinks about relaxing images, focuses intently, or gets kicked, interrupted or otherwise distracted.

Read the rest of the article for the beginnings of what could be an interesting debate over both intended and unintended benefits of bringing biofeedback to the popular market.

Will learning to keep a light sword bright improve our ability to focus on other tasks?

Update: Here is a picture of Neurosky’s prototype and here is NeuroSky’s homepage.<.p>

Fructan You

This entry was posted in Biology Economics Health Care Physiology on April 4, 2007 by Steve

Or, how to get medications into your colon when needed.
Oral delivery of drugs to treat colon ailments is made problematic by the normal actions of the stomach and small intestine. There is a promising new approach to solving this problem:

Researchers at the University of Guadalajara, in Mexico, have discovered that fruit compounds taken from the blue-agave plant used to make tequila can be employed as an effective method of delivering drugs to the colon. …
It has been known for many years that the blue-agave plant contains a polysaccharide known as fructan, a polymer of fructose. The compound is not hydrolyzed in acidic environments, such as the upper digestive tract, and it’s therefore able to reach the intestine fully intact.

They do not say whether the new medication delivery systems will work better with or without salt and lime.
Hmmm, and will increased demand for the blue-agave for medical purposes drive up the price of tequila?
You bet!

A Birthday Poem for PZ’s 50th?

This entry was posted in Biology Misc on March 9, 2007 by Steve

Nah, I’m not waxing poetic after today’s meetings.
Rather as an appropriate birthday piece I’m going to reprise part of a 2004 post that also spoke to PZ:

But, just to show that withdrawal was not complete, when I saw this guy:

I couldn’t help but think of PZ Myers.

I suspect most of you have a bit more bandwidth than you had in 2004 so click on that fellow (176 KB) and get up close and personal just like you know PZ wants you to do!