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You're listening to Computer America. Hello, and welcome everyone into the Computer America
Show. We are the nation's longest running nash Is indicated radio talk show on
computers and technology term podcasts. Everyone, welcome to the program. I hope
that you're doing well, and yeah, you're ready for today's program, because
today on the show we have of course Ralph Bond. He is our science
and Tech Trends correspondent and he'll be joining us here in just a moment to
talk all things well science and technology. Les Gentleman is always a fun segment
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is apparently, so we'll find out. But ladies and gentlemen, with that
being said, computer america dot com, it's all you need to remember.
Of course, we'll have a link to Ralph's website, and of course we
have a segment at the top of the page that is dedicated holy to Ralph,
So if you want to find Morpheus segments, we have a playlist,
we have passed show notes, and it's super simple. So with that being
said, I hope that you're doing happy, you're healthy, you're nice and
cool. And with that being said, let's go ahead and bring Ralph on.
So, of course he's been a longtime contributor to Computer America. You
may remember him a long long ago as Intel's Digitalminute Voice, but of course
he has come to really highlight that you know, technology is changing, not
just the cell phone in your pocket or the computer that you are probably listening
to us on but actually it changes everything around us. And he has a
great segment dedicated to these to these changes and dar I would say, these
trends. So Ralph, welcome back onto the program. How are you doing.
I'm doing great. And again, folks, what we do every Friday
is share with you where things are headed in robotics, medical technology, sustainable
energy technology, transportation, advances, space research, physics, you name it.
Everything is eligible for betting me to take a look at in terms of
trends. So that's why I'm the science and technology trends correspondent for the show.
And again has Ben mentioned come out to Computer America dot com. Be
sure to get the show notes if you want to dig deeper, because what
we're going to do is highlight four stories and give you the essential points and
then if you want to go deeper, come out and get those show notes.
And we've got some great stuff for today. Absolutely four and then some
I saw you that you have a couple of honorable mentions there at the end
segment. So yeah, but before we get to those, of course,
we can tappen to I'm sorry, I ride ahead a little bit. We
should go ahead and do story number one, and algae is not the first
time that it's come up on the show. But it's amazing. We're such
a simple thing can do in so many fields. Yes, I love this
story because selfishly speaking, it's very Northwest United States based, folks. I'm
based outside of Portland, Oregon. And here's the headline. Researchers at the
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory are exploring how to use algae to trap or to parton
me to tap into the vast reserve of mineralogical wealth in the oceans. What
okay? This comes from their own website in a story by Steve Ashby.
It's great, is this is fun? Okay? So here's the deal.
Critical minerals and rare earth elements are used in technologies such as smartphones, led
lighting, wind turbines, X ray machines, and cattle that it converts.
I think we all know that there's the reliance on critical minerals now today many
of these essential natural resources are mined predominantly in China, and that, you
know, in the world we're evolving into, could be a problem. Perhaps.
Researchers at the Department of Energy specific Northwest National laboratory up in Washington State,
by the way, are exploring alternative sources of these minerals that are less
vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. So that's the key in this quest. The
laboratory researchers are looking at the oceans as an undertapped resource for minerals typically dug
from the ground. And I love this factoid from this story is just made
me stop and gasp. A spoonful of seawater contains not just salt, but
every element in the periodic table. Wow. Even though they are found in
low concentrations only parts per troy million. I mean, that's small. Oceans
are perhaps the largest single source of rare Earth elements on the planet. Wow.
And in the show notes, I have a side note about the periodic
cable if you want to get a spin up on that. We're not going
to spend time going through that, but I even have a reproduction of the
table itself. It's probably saw it in your high school science class or college
or what have yet, but it's there if you want to learn about that
and get more spun up on that right back. And and of course everyone
out there that can of course see and you know, those who can picture
in their mind that section of the bottom that's you know, kind of taken
out and drop below the rest of the table. Those are the rare earth
metals, so that those are the aunts that we're talking about. So yeah,
yeah, the kind of the green background, Yeah, one at the
bottom, you know. And and yeah, I since I've been in the
ocean growing up, I always just assumed it was Florida and the way that
their water taste. But no, it turns out it's every element known to
man in the water. Who knew. I thought it was just Florida elements,
Yes, sort of anyway, back of the story. Moreover, because
the oceans are not controlled by any one nation, well that's a little bit
arguable these days. Anyway, they avoid many of the geoeconomic political issues we
read about in the news now. In one promising project, Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory, researchers are investigating how algae can be used to harvest certain critical minerals
from seawater. Rather than chemically or physically separating these minerals, researchers are exploiting
biological processes that concentrate them so they can be cost effectively produced. Isn't that
fund? So they're saying, can nature do this for us instead of us
trying to create amazing machines? Answer potentially yes. To better understand these processes,
the laboratory team are utilizing the unique capabilities of their marine and Coastal Research
laboratory location on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula with direct access to flowing seawater. They
are growing different species of algae in the laboratory and some of the algae are
green, others are read summer leafy, others are stringy. And looking closely
at each researchers are gaining insights into their properties and tendency for extracting different minerals
from the seawater. And they're finding some algae can concentrate certain minerals a million
times more than found naturally in the seawater, so they can jack up the
extraction by a million times and that's something Wow. Results also show the process
improves ocean health. So this is like a wind wind scenario, extract minerals
we need and improve the ocean health. Wow. Got all love that water
flowing out of the algae tanks is less acidic because the carbon stays in the
algae as do the nitrogen and phosphorus, helping to prevent possible harmful algae blooms.
Wow, I just love this story. It's like I'm guessing physically or
chemically trying to extract these things. I mean parts per trillion. I'm not
I'm not the best at it. Like you know, ralph things are usually
measured in like parts per million in the air and parts per billion in drinking
water and stuff like that. Parts per a trillion sounds super super super minute.
Um. So I guess that when the algae grows, then kind of
chemically make it so that it pulls these elements out and it grows into or
at least you know what, the algae sucks it into their system. I'm
guessing they just like release it or they have like these big floating I guess
algae tanks that they can you know, kind of put in the ocean and
just constantly like let the tides refresh the water and just let them grow.
Any that kind of thing. I mean, very very interesting concept. I'm
I'm curious how they're going to, uh, you know, kind of do
it at scale, because even parts per trillion and then even you know,
millions more times within the allergy. Very curious how big this can scale.
But like you said, though, when when it has a lot of benefits
a lot of upside Well, yeah, and Ben, you make a good
point. I too also thought to myself, well is this research for the
sake of research or is it research on a path to real world application?
And my experience with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory stories that we've done occasionally and
I follow them closely, they're kind of they're kind of like the MT of
the Northwest. Okay, they have very experimental, very experimental, but all
over the map, but like m I T usually with very rare exceptions,
a path to possible practical real world application and benefits. So we'll see.
I'm with you. You would have to have I would presume you'd have to
have this implemented at such a gargagean scale to harvest the kind of minerals that
would be meaningful as an alternative, which were. But it's also very passive,
so yeah, you know, yeah that's true. Yeah maybe so so
we'll definitely see, uh, story number one, story number two. And
speaking passive, it seems to be everyone's favorite thing, you know, when
when when you have something and it does something by itself and you just get
to reap the benefits. Well, story number two is a great example of
that. Although, like you said in the title, um, very science
fiction esque. But please, yes, yes, All you have to do
is think about the Terminator movies right where the where the robot gets shot in
the face and all of a sudden it just kind of wiggles a little bit
to the right back. Okay, Well, the headline here is self healing
metal question mark. It's not just the stuff of science fiction. Got this
from the Reuters News service. This was also covered by many many other news
services. Story by Will Dunham and we've got the link in the show notes
for you and an image as well. So here's the deal. On July
nineteen, very recently, right July nineteen, scientists at the US government's Sandea
National Laboratories in New Mexico described how pieces of pure platinum and copper spontaneously healed
cracks caused by metal fatigue during nanoscale experiments that had been designed to study how
such cracks form and spread in metal placed under stress. Huh. They expressed
optimism that this ability can be engineered into metals to create get ready to create
self healing machines and structures in the relatively near future. Is that what all
the Senate Hearing Committee was on alien technology? It was just copper and copper
and metal plate, you know, healing. There you go, yeah,
there you go. That's let's do a conspiracy. We'll make up our own
really coming from aliens. It's not the laboratory. They're just you know,
they're trying to piece meal the alien technolog you out, and Sandia just won
the watery Yeah, yeah, that's it. Well, speaking of that sort
of stuff, will segue just for a moment. I saw in the news
services. This got a lot of popular pickup, but I don't know how
valid it is. But there's images from Mars that appear to show appear to
show some things in the dirt, if you will, that that don't look
natural. There's like these kind of bow like shapes with spiky like little projections
that look too too regulated to whatever to be naturally formed. Now, nobody
knows for sure, and I don't know how valid all this sort of stuff
is, but if you google the weird formations, it's much more mechanical looking
than that. I wish I had a link for you. Well that,
but that's probably the rover that you're saying. No, no, no,
no, right right, yeah, No, it's a maybe if you Google
recently discovered what appear to be man made like items on the surface of Mars,
maybe it'll come up with the images I'm referring to. It looks like
a see, these might all be credible, and it might have been incredible
resources or references that we're writing this stuff because I'm not seeing what I saw.
I'll send you the link later. Yeah. Sure, Mars is always
full of images that are like, oh is that a stone face of Mars
and stuff like that. Definite full of that stuff. But no, we're
back on Earth and we're talking about metals that are actually doing things. Yeah,
self healing metals. Back to the story. Okay, so a little
more background here. Metal fatigue occurs when metal, including parts and machines,
vehicles, and structures, sustains microscopic cracks after being exposed to repeated stress or
motion damage that tends to worsen over time. And by the way, metal
fatigue can be a long term process. We know this from our steel bridges
and so forth. Herope in the Northwest. For example, they're going to
replace a bridge that links Oregon to Washington State across the Columbia River, because
in part of long term metal fatigue, so it can happen over a long
period of time. Metal fatigue can cause catastrophic failures in areas including aviation jet
engines for instance, and infrastructure bridges and other structures. So that's the problem.
But in the experiments at the Sandia National Laboratories, researchers used a technique
that pulled on the ends of tiny metal pieces about two hundred times per second.
Oh my gosh, that's fast. Two hundred times per second. A
crack initially formed and spread, but about forty minutes into the experiment, the
metal fused back together. We need we need Twilight Zone music track for second.
Anyway, isn't that something? The researchers called this healing. They observed
cold cold as in cold temperature cold welding. Huh, Well, I don't
think I have that, but I do have. Yeah, we'll go with
that. I do have the X files. Um, that's weird enough,
but no so so essentially two hundred that's not xus. So they pulled it
two hundred times per second, and you know too, I guess kind of
create those little micro cracks that would take amal years or years or years to
kind of create. UM to tie to another relevant story not too long ago,
although everyone's moved on, you know, which is good. Um,
the submarine that famously imploded. People were thinking that, you know, we
did the first thirteen fourteen UM dives relatively well, and then just the fifteenth
of those little micro cracks that they you know, that they didn't inspect or
they didn't see, cause the whole thing to implode. So you know,
micro cracks I guess affect a lot of different fields. Well yeah, yeah,
and that of course it was a terrible tragedy. But going back to
this cold welding phenomenon, according to the research pardon me. According to research
scientists Brad Boys, who helped lead the study and publish the results in a
journal called Nature, quote, the cold welding process is a metallurgical process that
is known to occur when two relatively smooth and clean surfaces of metal are brought
together to reform atomic bonds bonds, not bombs, but by wait, folks,
bo nds, I know I've got that open harmer movie on the mind
lately, Yes and Voice further noted, quote, unlike the self healing robots
in the Terminator movie, this process is not visible at the human scale or
to our eyes. Of course, it occurs at the nanoscale, and we
have yet to be able to control the process. So they've observed it,
but they have yet to figure out how can we consciously and manipulate this process.
And remember, of course, nanoscale means a size measurable and nanometers or
microns, and a nanometer is one billionth with a bee of a meter,
folks, we're talking tiny now. Metal pieces that they tested were about forty
nanometers thick and a few micrometers wide. While the healing was observed in the
experiments only in platinum and copper, Voice said, simulations indicated that self healing
can can occur in other metals, and that it's entirely plausible that alloys like
steel could exhibit this quality. So they're optimistic they can apply this. If
they can learn how to control it and deal with it, they may be
able to apply it to things that we use everyday in life, like steel.
Given this new knowledge, there may be alternative material design strategies or engineering
approaches that could be devised to help mitigate fatigue failure in metal. In addition,
this new understanding may shed light on fatigue failure in existing structures, improving
the ability to interpret and predict such failures. Now, in the article Bend,
they did stand back and offered some what I like to call reality checks.
So first, first of all, the self healing of this metal was
observed in a very specific environment using a device called an electron microscope. That's
one thing. The research is noted that tangible applications of their findings, they
predict will take about another ten years to develop. So this is a twinkling
of the eye, talk about early trend observation kind of story. So we'll
see. Yeah, no, it really is one of those processes that,
even even if they can't turn it into something that is you know really as
we would consider it useful. Knowing that it happens and knowing how it works
is you know, always an important part to building and manufacturing these things.
You can't just have this big question mark area. It's like, oh,
you know cold welding process, how does that work? It's like a it
doesn't matter, just build it anyways. You know, knowing how it works
has implications as well, even if you can't control it. So very very
cool. And of course you know the type pictures. I'm guessing that this
the picture you have in the show notes, which you can get at Computer
America dot com. I'm guessing this green part right there is kind of the
part that welded itself back together. Yeah, so very very cool something it's
very it's very odd, very spooky, weird kind of stuff. I don't
know. I certainly don't fully understand it, right but but but even those
extreme conditions, it's still a very cool process. So story number two,
story number three, And I think everyone's very familiar with Wi Fi at this
point. If you don't have it, you know it. But now we're
going to talk about something a little bit different, and uh, li Fi.
I think I've heard of it before. But Ralph, I'll be honest,
after going to see us for so many years and doing, you know,
covering news and new technology for so many years, acronyms and abbreviations,
are they all just kind of melt together? So tell us what is li
fi? Yes? Well, this is really fun and I learned a lot
from researching this story. So here's the headline, trend to watch. That's
my insertion. Here's the headline. What is lie Fi? That's l I
dash Fi li Fi. Well, a faster, more secure, wireless internet
is just around the corner. That was the headline. I got this from
Digital Trends, a story by John Martindale. There's in the show notes,
folks, if you're just listening to us on the podcast, please come out
to computer America dot com if the show notes. There's a great illustration I
picked up from the article. Also the official logo for li fi. You
can see that as well. But here's the deal. Li Fi has the
potential to revolutionize not only the way we get online, but it could even
replace some of the mountains of cables that make up the backbone of the modern
Internet. So wow, okay, that's pretty profound. But I'm going to
insert a little note here because I did dug into this, did a little
bit of additional research li Fi. What we're talking about here, folks,
is not saying, drumroll please, all of a sudden, LiFi has never
existed, and now this week it does. No. LiFi was introduced as
a technology way back in March of twenty eleven. So the story here is
more about it being becoming deployable versus this being a brand new technology. And
we'll talk more about this in a moment. Relative to a recent Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers, good Old Eye triple E their recent amendment to the
Wi fi specification, this will all makes sense in just a moment, so
bear with us. So here we go. LiFi is short for light fidelity
and is a communication system that utilizes light rather than radio waves to transmit data.
A li FI network uses infrared led lamps to transmit and receive data,
using modulations in the light intensity to create the digital signal, which carries the
information to and from various network devices. So there's your two second kind of
tutorial, and what is this li fi? So so, so instead of
using the unseen m you know, wireless signals that were used to it's using
you know, essentially light. But even like even like a lower bandwidth of
light that you probably it's not like your entire house is going to be strobing
with data. You know, it's going to be shining light and the data
will go through rights, right, that's right. And li fi works by
util pardon me, try that again. Li fi works by utilizing light light
pulses, which are invisible to the human eye. To your point, they're
been These pulses are modulated in intensity. Get ready, These pulses are modulated
in intensity billions of times per second what And it's those modulations that receivers can
track and translate into data entirely wirelessly. The part that just absolutely ford me
was billions of times per second. I can't even wrap my head around that.
That's just wild. So this isn't totally dissimilar to the way Wi fi
works. What we know today that which of course works with radio waves,
except radio waves can more readily pass through and around obstacles. LiFi can do
that to some extent, but it's more reliant on the line of sight,
which places a limitation on its range and abilities outside of open plan homes and
offices, so that your ability check. Yeah, you could really imagine where
if you need, you know, that constant light source to you know,
modulate billions of times a second. Like you said, the sun is totally
going to interfere with that signal, so you can't exactly do it in like
a stadium or football field, yeah, you're right. Then there's a lot
of reality checks we're going to get into. Start to get into the better
can it doesn't it's not able to penetrate like in my house. Of course,
you have your your wife, I route and all the stuff, and
I can pick up the signal downstairs. It can go from the upstairs and
downstairs through the floors. All that's great. This Life I stuff would not
be the answer there, but we'll get to where I think it does make
sense. So LIFEI has the potential to be faster than traditional WiFi. That's
great up to but technically speaking, up to one hundred gigabits per second.
However, Yeah, however, the recently approved amendment to the Wi Fi specification
that adds li Fi support that's a key phrase, adds li Fi support.
I Tripoli at two dot eleven b B Baker Baker lowercase eight to two eleven
BB. You're going to learn more about this as time goes on. Rates
li Fi technology with a minimum throughput of ten megabits per second and a maximum
throughput of nine point six gigabits per second, So that's far below the theoretical
possibility of one hundred gigabits per second. Okay, that's okay, there you
know, baby steps. That puts it at about the same range as Wi
Fi six, the most recent iteration of Wi Fi network protocol. For now,
this is all you know, baby step okay, guys, but time
out. The big news is that the us I Tripoli certification provides a globally
recognized framework for deployment of LiFi technology, according to li Fi tech companies Pure
li Fi and Frondhofer HHI and I have links in the show notes for both
of these companies. Really interesting stuff. So that's the key here, Ben.
It was developed in twenty eleven. It has this huge technical possibility.
It has certain limitations, but what happened is the I Tripoli recent certification of
deployment too two dot eleven BB is the door opener to get this out into
the real world. Right, That's the point, and so reality check.
Although a li Fi signal can bounce off walls and other objects, it is
severely impacted by impediments and obstructions and has a rated maximum range of about ten
meters that's approximately thirty three feet. Yeah, ten tens a pretty good comparison.
I think that you can make between this is a Bluetooth. If you
use Bluetooth to any extends, there you go. Bluetooth is also rated for
thirty three feet, so you can, you know, kind of compare that.
Yeah, that's a that's an excellent comparison. So it's hoped that li
fi will be used in the home as a secondary condection connection layer, a
secondary connection layer. That's the key. I think the reality is not throw
your WiFi out and everything goes LiFi. Heavens no, but it could be
a really clever companion technology working in harmony with Wi Fi, So Wi Fi
li Fi it'll be, you know, a really interesting mix. So this
mixing it together as a secondary connection layer, thereby allowing for faster transfer speeds
and the ability for more devices to connect to a compatible router at once without
connection speeds falling. LiFi could also be used in environments where interference is common
and data purity is of the utmost importance, like hospitals, schools, and
financial institutions. Data centers too could see some benefit. LiFi could be used
to transmit data over short distances where running cables would be prohibitively complicated or costly,
and WiFi could be and WiFi would be too insecure or prone to interference.
So where Wi Fi might be insecure or prone to interference, maybe LiFi
could be useful if you have line of sight right now, although it's likely
we'll see Li Fi routers in the future. One idea is to use li
Fi equipped lighting fixtures in the ceiling of buildings. Ooh. This will allow
a data connection through a home's existing power line infrastructure than utilizing the li Fi
light fittings to disseminate the data wirelessly. Two wireless devices. So there's one
little light bulb that's a li Fi lightbulb transmitter transceiver rather, isn't that?
Yeah, So that's how it might get deployed. Again the news folks technology
from twenty eleven I Triple ee gives us the first implementation specification for global distribution.
Standby, let's see what happens again. It doesn't replace Wi Fi.
It could hold hands with Wi Fi and be a great solution for many situations
in business and in your home, etc. Well, yeah, and definitely
see it the same way that even your Wi Fi. Right now, you
have Wi Fi the five G you know you may see the five G network
versus just the regular Wi Fi network. The five G you know, even
though it's faster, you know, it is better in so many ways.
It doesn't replace two point four. They both happen simultaneously because two point four
has some benefits that five G doesn't. And now, Ralph, I think
we're up to like six G or something like that. There's like the six
point four or something like that. Gigger hurts band wave as well that the
new routers are coming out with, you know, and look at the light.
I'm kind of curious, like in modern design, like you know,
when you're designing like a modern home, those LED strips are everywhere. You
know, you put them as accents, you put them behind things. Sure,
you know, it makes everything look all future or stick and cool.
I'm curious if you know, maybe in the future, instead of having to
you know, connect your TV via Wi Fi and it's stutters and it's laggie
and stuff like that, those little accent, those accents that fill a home,
Ralph, if they become like if you put them, let's say behind
a TV, you know, back landing a TV is pretty common nowadays.
That would be your data connection. Doesn't matter what TV you put up.
It doesn't matter what you do. You put the TV on the wall,
you just plug it into a power source and the light itself would be the
data connection, so you don't have to connect it to Wi Fi or anything
like that. Oh yeah, you know, it's a great idea. Yeah,
little applications like that that are going to start coming into the home and
you know, hopefully providing some benefit. So we'll see. Oh yeah,
absolutely. And as the article itself pointed out, the idea that you could
have implementations of this where heavy bulky cables running from here to there would be
messy. You'd have to embed them in the wall or what you know.
No, just have these light transmissions to take the place of bulky cables where
it makes sense and where you have the distance issues overcome and so on and
so forth. Then can you have these things in tandem? Yeah, ten
meters thirty three feet? But couldn't you do a tag team incremental you know,
baton passing kind of thing to overcome that distance. So there's all kinds
of possibilities. It's kind of fun because you know the technology, it's it's
not a new technology, and you know, not even I'm not even talking
about in twenty eleven. Like, this is the same technology that went through
copper cables. This is the same technology that goes through fiber optics though you
know, sending a little burst of electrons, a you know, a little
burst of lights, super super fast ralph. This is essentially fiber cabling without
the cable. It's just you know, it's just a long signal. So
you know, parison, it's a technology that we know and we know how
to use. It's just this one has a bit more interference than kate,
you know, than fiber optic cables do. So when it's comes when it
comes out, people will see this in their homes, when it's finally consumer
ready, but you know, not quite there, but we're getting there.
We're getting there. Oh yeah, yeah, it's so there. Definitely definitely
a trend to watch for sure, for sure. So story number three,
Story number four, and I don't think light's going to work for this one,
but hey, this one is very cool. And you know, as
this tradition, Story number four is medical technology, that's right. Yeah,
we love to end the segments usually almost always with something in medical technology because
that's just one of my great personal passions and kind of hobbies if you will,
based on my home body experience over all these years. Okay, so
here we go. Headline spiral brain computer interface slips into earcanal with no loss
of hearing. How could you resist that? Headline? I got to know
more? What's that anyway? Comes from Medical express dot com a story by
Bob Yerka. This is really interesting stuff. If you've got the show notes,
you're watching us online, you can see the image of the little spiral
brain computer interface and more of a graphic images showing it in the human ear
and so on and so forth. And there's even a video you can watch
as well. So if you're listening to us on a podcast, come out
to Computer America dot com get the show notes. You can see all this
we're referring to. However, here we go. A multi institutional team of
engineers in China has developed a new type of brain computer interface that can be
easily slipped in and out of the ear canal. In their project, reported
in the journal Nature Communications, the group set out to design and build a
new kind of brain computer interface that is less invasive than existing devices. Is
it ever? And I just want to soap box and segue just for a
moment. My heart breaks every day that we have a world where we see
people as enemies. How sad It wouldn't it be great if we could all
stop this foolishness of tribal hatred back and forth and suspicion and wanting to take
over Taiwan and god knows what, and just stop this and just all work
together, because look what these guys in China are doing. It's it's just
there's there's definitely amazing research happening in every country. You know, sometimes we
talk about Sweden, sometimes talk about America, sometimes China sometimes, you know,
to your point, in Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, it doesn't matter.
All of these scientists, they really can't you know, they really build
off of each other. And you're absolutely right. Just if there was a
bill, if there was a way more than just publish a paper and hope
that it gets read, but to actually have you know that community and be
more closely net the you know, the research community, absolutely we would see
way more progress. Well, and this is a good example here we have
researchers in China and they're publishing this information in Nature Communications and in this journal,
so they are opening it up to the world, which is commendable and
that's what we need more of. Let's hold hands together with science and technology
and stoppableness foolishness anyway, I digress back to the story. So, a
brain computer interface this is a generic kind of definition, is a device that
allows communication between the brain and a computer, though to date most such devices,
brain computer interfaces are one directional. They are used to listen to brain
ways for such applications as converting them to text or to electronic signals that can
be used to engage another device, such as a wheelchair. Right real quick.
When you say it's one directional, part of me is like good,
you know, like I don't want a brandom plant that tells me, you
know, what I want for lunch, or what I think about Ralph's statement
about you know, don't fight each other. You know what I mean?
Like, I'm kind of glad, but no, maybe there's a good benefit
to having a two way communication. I think the intent is good, the
amplification. You can always take technology and perverted for badness. Speaking anyway,
So, one of the main drawbacks of most brain computer interfaces is their invasiveness.
Referring to what we've had to date, current approaches involve the use of
electrodes attached to the scalp We've all seen that, or micro needles. Micro
Needles are probes that pierce the skull yikes. In this new effort, the
team in China has built a brain computer interface that is not only less invasive,
but can be engaged and disengaged easily. The new corkscrew shaped brain computer
interface is called the Spiral E. That's the letter E as an echo.
It is engaged by gently screwing it into the ear canal and disengage by doing
the reverse. Couldn't be more simple. It is made mainly of soft material
to ensure comfort for the wearer. The design allows the passage of sound waves,
ensuring that it does not impair hearing, and the soft material comprising the
body of this device also prevents echoing inside the spiral Wow. The research team
suggests that the Spiral E could open the door to new brain computer interface applications
due to its ease of use. They envision the development of applications that convert
full thoughts into text, controlling objects in both the real and virtual worlds,
and even perhaps augmented memory. Right augmented memory that just if Wow, talk
about leaving you with a good with a bring what's the possibilities with that.
I'd like to have augmented memory, believe me. Yeah, and no,
just remembering what you have for breakfast would be, you know, so amazing.
I can't even mention a future like that. But but no, and
of course, you know, just wanted to check out the video where sped
up nine times. So it's not like you have like a literal like worm
going into your ear or you know, anything like that. It would be
very subtle and I'm sure that you would feel it. But hey, you
know, if you're in a situation where you would need something like this,
you've probably got things that need track and are monitoring or things like that.
Very very cool. And of course the spiral design, you know, I
guess with like hearing aids and stuff, it completely you know, blocks and
transmits and things like that. So this is very different and you know,
very very cool to see it kind of flex and move on its own.
Again, you know, sometimes we cover stories like that, Ralph. It's
like, you know, this robot, this micromachine, and they don't look
like robots like we think of. You know, again, we don't think
a terminator, but they are technically robots, so very very cool. Yeah,
yeah, very cool story. And then, as you mentioned at the
outset, a couple of honorable mentions. We're not going to take time with
the show to go into this, but get to the show notes and you
can see what I'm talking about. So first and foremost this week, I
was absolutely thrilled to watch a wonderful documentary about the development and deployment and successful
launch and say, etc. The James Webb telescope right, and you can
see this if you have a subscription to Netflix. The film is called Cosmic
Time Machine. And in the show notes into this but all you, Joe,
it's it's absolutely wonderful. I honest to god, teared up a couple
of times. It was so moving and so fascinating, a great tribute to
human tenacity. Something like thirty years in the development. I had no idea
thirty years went uphill battles. Sometimes Congress was about to pull the plug on
the funding for this thing, and they overcame all these optacles on and on
and on and on. Oh and in the documentary you'll learn about three hundred
forty four points of failure, which means there were three hundred and forty four
things that could go wrong if any one of those three hundred forty four things
went wrong. Mission failure. Yeah, these men and women, these men
and women pulled off an astonishing accomplishment where every one of those points, or
the overwhelming majority, there's still I guess some outstanding points that could in the
future go wrong. But anyway, I digress, Go and see the movie
You'll You'll be blown away. Yeah. Do. The other honorable mention is
scientists invent new double sided solar panel that generates twenty percent more electricity. Really
interesting from a wonderful outfit called the Renewable Energy Institute. Again, we're not
going to read this story, go and check it out. We've got the
links of the images and so forth. So if nothing else, Ben and
I I hope have left you feeling encouraged about the future of humans. If
we can stop being stupid and have wars and hate each other, if we
can get over that hold hands as scientists and technologists turn the world over to
them, we may make it. I'm definitely gonna ruffle a few votes here
and say that yes, we should have peace, but I will say,
Ralph, humans are multifaceted in that we can do both. And I'm not
saying we should do both. I'm saying that even though all the bad stuff,
all the news, the headlines, what have you, ladies and gentlemen,
don't worry. There are people out there who have dedicated everything to you
know, new solar panel research. You know that you can find in the
show notes too. You know, new space telescopes, new new whatever,
you know, seven Norton. I'm sorry, we're up to eight billion,
excuse me, eight billion of us. Ralph. There's a lot of cool
stuff happening every single week, and I think you do a great job of
highlighting that for everyone. So, ladies and gentlemen, again, if you
want to find out more, computer America dot com, all the show notes,
and of course Ralph's segment there. He'll be back every Friday, tell
us news stories. And until next time, Ralph, everyone, have a
great day, have a great week, do something fun. See you next
time. Bye. Everyone,