Wireless ‘Pacemaker for the Brain’ could offer new Treatment for Neurological Disorders


In a proposed device, two of the new chips would be embedded in a chassis located outside the head. Each chip could monitor electrical activity from 64 electrodes located into the brain while simultaneously delivering electrical stimulation to prevent unwanted seizures or tremors. Credit
Credit: Rikky Muller, UC Berkeley

Device fine-tunes treatment by stimulating and and recording electric current in the brain at the same time. A new neurostimulator developed by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, can listen to and stimulate electric current in the brain at the same time, potentially delivering fine-tuned treatments to patients with diseases like epilepsy and Parkinson’s.

The device, named the WAND, works like a “pacemaker for the brain,” monitoring the brain’s ele...

Read More

New Horizons Successfully explores Ultima Thule

At left is a composite of two images taken by New Horizons’ high-resolution Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), which provides the best indication of Ultima Thule’s size and shape so far. Preliminary measurements of this Kuiper Belt object suggest it is approximately 20 miles long by 10 miles wide (32 kilometers by 16 kilometers). An artist’s impression at right illustrates one possible appearance of Ultima Thule, based on the actual image at left. The direction of Ultima’s spin axis is indicated by the arrows.
Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI; sketch courtesy of James Tuttle Keane

NASA spacecraft reaches most distant target in history...

Read More

Low Carb? Low Fat? What the Latest Dieting Studies tell us

Low carb? Low fat? What the latest dieting studies tell us
This June 9, 2014 file photo shows a dish of steak and cheese pasta in Concord, N.H. Two major studies in 2018 provided more fuel for the debate around carbs and fats, yet failed to offer a resolution to the polarizing matter of the best way to lose weight. (AP Photo/Matthew Mead)

If you’re planning to try to lose weight in 2019, you’re sure to find a fierce debate online and among friends and family about how best to do it. It seems like everyone has an opinion, and new fads emerge every year. Two major studies last year provided more fuel for a particularly polarizing topic—the role carbs play in making us fat. The studies gave scientists some clues, but, like other nutrition studies, they can’t say which diet—if any—is best for everyone...

Read More

Electronics of the future: A New Energy-Efficient Mechanism using the Rashba effect

Spintronics: Spin-based electronics of the future

First-principles prediction of one-dimensional giant Rashba splittings in Bi-adsorbed In atomic chainsPhysical Review B, 2018; 98 (24) DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.98.241409

Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology proposed new quasi-1D materials for potential spintronic applications, an upcoming technology that exploits the spin of electrons. They performed simulations to demonstrate the spin properties of these materials and explained the mechanisms behind their behavior.

Conventional electronics is based on the movement of electrons and mainly concerns their electric charge; unfortunately, we are close to reaching the physical limits for improving electronic devices...

Read More