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[For me, these kinds of stories are inspirational and show what human beings are capable of!] Paralysed patients have been given new hope of recovery after rats with severe spinal injuries walked again through a ‘groundbreaking’ new cyborg-style implant. In technology which could have come straight out of a science fiction novel or Hollwood movie, French scientists have created a thin prosthetic ribbon, embedded with electrodes, which lies along the spinal cord and delivers electrical impulses and drugs. The prosthetic, described by British experts as ‘quite remarkable’, is soft enough to bend with tissue surrounding the backbone to avoid discomfort....

Gentlemen, we can rebuild him, after all. We have the technology. The term “bionic man” was the stuff of science fiction in the 1970s, when a popular TV show called “The Six Million Dollar Man” chronicled the adventures of Steve Austin, a former astronaut whose body was rebuilt using artificial parts after he nearly died. Now, a team of engineers has assembled a robot using artificial organs, limbs and other body parts that comes tantalizingly close to a true “bionic man.” For real, this time. The artificial “man” is the subject of a Smithsonian Channel documentary that airs Sunday, Oct....

The CIA's secret experiments to turn cats into spies Want to know what's going to happen to animals in the next century? Then you must read science journalist Emily Anthes' new book Frankenstein's Cat, about how the animals of tomorrow will be transformed by high tech implants and genetic engineering. We've got an amazing excerpt from the book -- about how the CIA tried to create cyborg cat spies. "Robo Revolution," an excerpt from Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts, by Emily Anthes In the 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency recruited an unusual field agent: a cat....

Owner says "it's because it's kind of a private place that people go." Will other businesses follow?Google Glass won't be available to consumers for months, but there's at least one Seattle bar where the eyewear will not be welcome. The 5 Point, a self-described dive bar in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood, posted a notice to its Facebook page this week telling Glass Explorers looking to grab a pint that they will need to remove their $1,500 spectacles. The story was noted today on GeekWire. "For the record, The 5 Point is the first Seattle business to ban in advance Google Glasses,"...

Looks like Camden, New Jersey is ready for a Robocop police force I have seen the future of law enforcement, and recent news suggests that it could be coming to New Jersey. First of all, we are closer to having Robocops than ever. Over at C|Net, Tim Hornyak reports on a new project to deploy remote-controlled robotic police: Researchers at Florida International University's Discovery Lab are working with a member of the U.S. Navy Reserves to build telepresence robots that could patrol while being controlled by disabled police officers and military vets. In a sense, they would be hybrid man-machine...

No shirt. No shoes. No augmented reality glasses. No service. Earlier this month, human cyborg and University of Toronto Professor Steve Mann, claims he was brutalized and kicked out of a Paris McDonald’s after employees objected to his headset and its ability to record photos and videos of his experiences. Update: McDonald’s issued a statement confirming that Mann had been ejected, but denying that there was physical contact. In response, Mann released a photo which appears to show an employee grabbing his glasses. “I’m not sure why the perpetrators attacked, but ‘Perp. 1′ [Mann's name for one of his...

“Fingers!” Gerwin Schalk sputtered, waving his hands around in the air. “Fingers are made to pick up a hammer.” He prodded the table, mimicking the way we poke at computer keyboards. “It’s totally ridiculous,” he said. I was visiting Schalk, a 40-year-old computer engineer, at his bunkerlike office in the Wads­worth Center, a public-health lab outside Albany that handles many of New York State’s rabies tests. It so happens that his lab is also pioneering a new way to control our computers — with thoughts instead of fingers. Schalk studies people at the Albany Medical Center who have become, not...

Actually…he’ll be turning 50 in three weeks. His birthday is August 4, two days after the debt ceiling deadline. Senior moment?

Human Blood Simplifies Cyborg Circuitry Could electronic components made from human blood be the key to creating cyborg interfaces?... Circuitry that links human tissues and nerve cells directly to an electronic device, such as a robotic limb or artificial eye might one day be possible thanks to the development of biological components. Writing in the International Journal of Medical Engineering and Informatics, a team in India describes how a "memristor" can be made using human blood. Memristors were a theoretical electronic component first suggested in 1971 by Berkeley electrical engineer Leon Chua and finally developed in the laboratory by scientists...

Scientists have already created mini-cyborgs out of living cells and semiconductor materials, but now biological cells can also contain tiny silicon chips, which could become sensors that monitor microscopic activities, deliver drugs to target cells or even repair cell structures. According to Nanowerk, experiments found that living human cells can ingest or receive injections of silicon chips and continue functioning as usual for the most part. More than 90 percent of chip-containing HeLa cells — the first immortal human cell line derived from a poor, cancer-stricken woman – still survived a week after receiving their silicon loads. Other studies have...

Computers Researchers Remote Control Flying Beetles Via Electrodes by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Sep 27th 2009 at 3:01PM The military and researchers across the country have been working on putting tiny bots in the air for quite some time. They've talked robotic spy-bats, dreamed up cyborg crickets, dragonflies, and all matter of other bug-sized bots. In fact, they've successfully implanted electrodes into the brains of crickets, moths, and beetles to exercise some control over their movements -- they even got a beetle to briefly take flight. But until now, the amount of control over motions has been very limited....

A Terminator-like cyborg arm could offer new hope to amputees and victims of paralysis.   The mechanical limb, which is controlled by thought alone, has a fully mobile shoulder and elbow, and a sensitive 'gripper' that mimics a human hand.  A microchip implanted in the brain is linked to a sensor in the prosthetic, which 'reads' the signals and reacts instantaneously.Professor Kevin Warwick, a professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading and pioneer of the amazing new technology, said: 'It has the potential to radically change the lives of the disabled, and revolutionise the way we treat those...

Insects with modified body structures and embedded micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) have survived to adulthood in a US Defense Advanced Reseach Projects Agency (DARPA) programme. DARPA wants to develop inexpensive micro air vehicles to find weapons and explosives inside buildings or caves. Mechanical and fluidic microsystems would allow remote control, could extend insect life, and provide for gas, audio and even imaging sensors. In the latest work a Manduca moth had its thorax truncated to reduce its mass and had a MEMS component added where abdominal segments would have been, during the larval stage. Images taken by x-ray of insects with...

Monday I start doing care plans. The next week is clinicals and I have do a care plan for each one of my patients and I'm feeling a little 'intimidated'. Want to know what your first care plan experience was like,etc.etc.etc. and some pointers for doing mine.

A bionic eye implant that could help restore the sight of millions of blind people could be available to patients within two years. US researchers have been given the go-ahead to implant the prototype device in 50 to 75 patients. The Argus II system uses a spectacle-mounted camera to feed visual information to electrodes in the eye. Patients who tested less-advanced versions of the retinal implant were able to see light, shapes and movement. "What we are trying to do is take real-time images from a camera and convert them into tiny electrical pulses that would jump-start the otherwise...

In the beginning an all-powerful diety created the universe in six days and then rested. Or perhaps everything started with a Big Bang followed by billions of years of evolution. Whatever explains the existence of life on Earth get prepared for what UC Berkeley calls Life 2.0. That's how the university recently described synthetic biology -- a field that seeks to recombine the basic building blocks of life -- genes, proteins and cells -- in Lego-like fashion to create novel and useful entities. A press release from Berkeley's College of Letters and Sciences quotes Professor Jay Keasling, a leader in...

52 REASONS NOT TO MOW 37 WAYS TO HELP TREES Please download with 100% cotton, rice, recycled, or scrap paper Ron Howard, director of A Beautiful Mind and many other films,made his first film at age 8.. an anti mowing film which showed the nature of mowers' attacks on lawns. Art Buchwald: People shouldn't be judged by the length of their grass. In 2003 through now, the world has seen floods, famine, fire, mudslides, hurricanes, tornados and other disasters created by the unprecedented destruction of trees around the world. Trees are nature's weather stabilizers. We need trillions of trees.. new...

Four hospitals in Puerto Rico will begin implanting a Florida made microchip the size of a rice grain in patients who suffer from illnesses that cause memory loss, like Alzheimer's disease, a newspaper reported Sunday. The hospitals will start using the microchip, made by the Delray Beach, Fla.-based Verichip Corp., in August, according to El Nuevo Dia. It is inserted in the forearm, costs $200 and is voluntary. "It is a way to offer an additional service because the chip it going to be used on a population that has memory problems ... or great health problems," said Nelson Martinez,...

THESE ARE THE SENATORS WHO VOTED TO GIVE SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS TO ILLEGAL ALIENS REGARDLESS OF POLITICAL PARTY, THESE POLITICIANS NEED TO BE DEFEATED IN 2006, 2008 OR 2010, WHENEVER THEY NEXT COME UP FOR OFFICE. SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW; THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES NEEDS TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION -- THAT IS, UNLESS THEY DO NOT MIND SHARING THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY WITH FOREIGN WORKERS WHO NEVER PAID INTO IT AND AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE BEING LEFT OUT. Grouped by Home State Alabama: Alaska: Stevens (R-AK), Yea Arizona: McCain (R-AZ), Yea Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Yea Pryor (D-AR),...

I am curious why none of the media covers the most important aspect of the Malvo shootings. If you look at Newspapers on the dates when the shootings are underway you discover something I find quite interesting. The shootings begin to dominate the news the day before the debate on the Iraq war starts and they catch them the day after the declaration of war??? If you ask most people "do you remember the debate about starting the second Iraq war", they will all answer "yes of course". But if you followup with the question "name one point in the...