The narrowing gap between sci-fi and sci-fact

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Scientists moot gravity-busting hyperdrive
The US military is considering testing the principle behind a type of space drive which holds the promise of reaching Mars in just three hours. The problem is, as New Scientist explains, it's entirely theoretical and many physicists admit they don't understand the science behind it
www.newscientistspace.com/article/mg189 ... space.html
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Scientists make 'bionic' muscles
Scientists have developed artificial, super-strength muscles which are powered by alcohol and hydrogen.

And they could eventually be used to make more advanced prosthetic limbs, say researchers at University of Texas.

Writing in Science, they say these artificial muscles are 100 times more powerful than the body's own.
"It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past. Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.”
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Anti-gravity Effect? Gravitational Equivalent Of A Magnetic Field Measured In Lab
Scientists funded by the European Space Agency have measured the gravitational equivalent of a magnetic field for the first time in a laboratory. Under certain special conditions the effect is much larger than expected from general relativity and could help physicists to make a significant step towards the long-sought-after quantum theory of gravity.
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Will consumers have a beef with test-tube meat?
Scientists can grow frog and mouse meat in the lab, and are now working on pork, beef and chicken. Their goal is to develop an industrial version of the process in five years.

If they succeed, cultured or in vitro meat could be coming to a supermarket near you. Consumers could buy hamburger patties and chicken nuggets made from meat cultivated from muscle cells in a giant incubator rather than cut from a farm animal.

Home chefs could make meat in a countertop device the size of a coffee maker. Before bed, throw starter cells and a package of growth medium into the meat maker and wake up to harvest fresh sausage for breakfast.
"It is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past. Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.”
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Syl wrote:Will consumers have a beef with test-tube meat?
Scientists can grow frog and mouse meat in the lab, and are now working on pork, beef and chicken. Their goal is to develop an industrial version of the process in five years.

If they succeed, cultured or in vitro meat could be coming to a supermarket near you. Consumers could buy hamburger patties and chicken nuggets made from meat cultivated from muscle cells in a giant incubator rather than cut from a farm animal.

Home chefs could make meat in a countertop device the size of a coffee maker. Before bed, throw starter cells and a package of growth medium into the meat maker and wake up to harvest fresh sausage for breakfast.
That's great!
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It sure is. I dunno, I'd have to taste it. If it's muscle tissue, should be fine. Probably even healthier in fact. I'd go for it. As long as it tasted good.

Haven't they already grown a chicken liver? Like continuosly?

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Warriors of the future will "taste" battlefield
Military researchers believe the tongue could be key in their quest to create the super warrior of the future, giving soldiers sensory powers similar to owls, snakes and fish.

Army Rangers with 360-degree unobstructed night vision, Navy SEALs sensing sonar in their heads while maintaining normal vision underwater - scientists at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition are turning sci-fi into reality.
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Saw this somewhere. Great. Genegineered soldiers. Fantastic advantage on the battlefield, sure. Bred for war? Nice. Thought everybody wanted peace? :lol:

Wishful thinking. ;)

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Only through war will we have peace. ;)
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Sounds pretty Orwellian to me... ;)

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Semiconductor Brain: Nerve Tissue Interfaced With A Computer Chip
For the first time, scientists at the Max-Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich coupled living brain tissue to a chip equivalent to the chips that run computers. The researchers under Peter Fromherz have reported this news in the online edition of the Journal of Neurophysiology (May 10, 2006).

...The scientists in Martinsried developed a revolutionary non-invasive technique that enables them to record neural communication between thousands of nerve cells in the tissue of a brain slice with high spatial resolution. This technique involves culturing razor-thin slices of the hippocampus region on semiconductor chips. These chips were developed in collaboration with Infineon Technologies AG and excel in their density of sensory transistors: 16384 transistors on an area of one square millimeter record the neural activity in the brain.

...With the resulting novel hybrid system of neural tissue and semiconductor, the scientists take a great step forward towards neurochip prosthetics and neurocomputation.
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I'm not sure if this is positive or terrifying. Thanks Syl. ;)

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Scientists Discover Memory Molecule
Scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center have discovered a molecular mechanism that maintains memories in the brain. In an article in Science magazine, they demonstrate that by inhibiting the molecule they can erase long-term memories, much as you might erase a computer disc.
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Eternal Sunshine huh? That's something I'm not going to try.

I wonder...to be able to do it therapeutically, (which is another moral question altogether), you'd need to be able to differentiate too. i.e. know which molecule held which memory.

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Syl wrote:Scientists Discover Memory Molecule
Scientists at SUNY Downstate Medical Center have discovered a molecular mechanism that maintains memories in the brain. In an article in Science magazine, they demonstrate that by inhibiting the molecule they can erase long-term memories, much as you might erase a computer disc.
WOWOWOWOW :o
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You think that's a good thing? :D

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Avatar wrote:You think that's a good thing? :D

--A
No, I think it's an amazingly interesting thing!
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That it is. I wonder what the implications are though?

Should we remove negative memories as though they never happened? Doesn't that negate the point of learning from experience?

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Post by Xar »

Don't worry Av, you can't use the molecule that way. It's not that each molecule holds a specific memory, but rather that the molecules enable long-term memory; so, by inhibiting them, you erase all memories, not selected ones.

Come to think of it, this might have disquieting implications in how to treat, say, dissidents and rebels... just wipe out their minds and then (if you want) feed them a fake story about their being overpatriotic...
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Great. :D Another way to mess with our minds...

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