It always surprises me to count up the years that the VIM has been around; 2008 will mark 9 years of public releases. I’m always glad to see Impress still hosts this page, one of the first reviews of VIM30c. And to see all the names of people on the forums that were also there right from the start. Anyway this Christmas I thought I'd finally get VIMind out there. It's up on the downloads page now, and there is a registered version, but all you have to do is enter your code from any other Quantum Flux program that you've registered and it should work.

Kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen has a god-like power to create new species. Utilizing plastic tubing in place of protein, and genetic algorithms in place of natural selection, a bizarre new generation of enormous, multi-legged creatures leisurely stroll the beaches of Jansen’s native Holland.

Apparently the Russian Human Genome Project has unearthed evidence that DNA can be influenced and reprogrammed by words and frequencies, and this is exactly what aliens are doing to us earthlings.

I assure you, whatever springs first to mind is almost certainly not the aim of researchers at the Toronto Rehab Institute.

Last week issue of Science magazine published an article entitle “a surprising connection between memory and imagination”.
Until now, we believed that the hippocampus, a small brain structure in the middle of your brain, main role was construct working memory and long lasting memory was store somewhere else.
This article comments on the results of investigation of many groups around the world. Base on these, they suggest that the hippocampus may be playing a very important role not only in memory, but also linking imagination with memory in order to construct past, present and future, or imaginary events.
Article

Wishing everyone the best for 2007 from all of us here at QFlux.org...it’s been quite a year and here is what is on the horizon...

Recently 'Thomson center watch' has launched a new trial to reverse brain dysfunction cause by the chemo on cancer patients. This is a computer base program that relies on the principles of human brain plasticity. The program focuses specially on speech perception, learning and memory, which are primary affected on patients. In addition the areas of the brain that is suggested that these are encoded are particularly plastic.

This ‘brain fitness’ program could potentially help on the recovery brain normal function and to improve the quality of life of these patients.

Read more about this interesting trail visit here

A female elephant that lives in the Bronx zoo has been being studied because its social traits and it self consciousness of her self image in front of a mirror. Results of these studies strongly suggest that the elephant is 'happy' and self-ware.
Check this interesting discovery at

A group of scientists have recently published in the journal of Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences a study showing that the gene that encodes oligodendrocites transcription factor 2 (OLR2) is suggested to be the etiological cause of schizophrenia. Oligrodendrocites are cells that produce myelin for a proper fuction of our brains. It is known that schizophrenic people have non sufficient levels of oligodendrocites. This group of investigators suggested that 'variation in OLIG2 was strongly associated with schizophrenia'. By identifying molecules involved on the development of the disease, we can propose new targets for treatments. Moreover we can try to use other medications involve in processes of de-myelinization such as multiple sclerosis

For further details go here.

This year’s annual IgNobel Prize ceremony - the Holy Grail of not-quite-science – was held on October 5th at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre. By no means to be confused with their dignified distant cousins several times removed, these awards honor scientific achievements which “cannot, or should not, be replicated”. The scientific community can chuckle, secure in the smug knowledge that somewhere, someone has funded these ground-breaking endeavors.

This year’s winners include a detailed study of ultrasonic velocities in cheddar cheese, adaptations preventing head injuries in woodpeckers, and a decidedly odd (albeit apparently effective) cure for intractable hiccoughs…

It has happened to everyone: you are thinking about a friend or loved one, and suddenly that person calls you on the phone. Does this situation represent a random event, or is there something more involved? Do you share some sort of telepathic connection with those close to you? These questions seem far from the realms of science, but creative people are using scientific methods and simple, eloquent experiments to test these ideas.

The staunch inability of computers to comprehend natural human languages poses a tremendous barrier to artificial intelligence technologies and to human-computer interactions in general. To make matters worse, the vernacular evolves much faster than standard resources can keep up with. (How many of the following can you define? - feminazi, cocowine, noob, Chindia, cromulent, earjacking...)

Now a new program, presented recently at the European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, uses Wikipedia to puzzle out the meanings of non-dictionary words.

An interesting study published recently in Science magazine examines the levels of public acceptance of evolutionary theories in 32 European countries, the United States, and Japan. Of the countries evaluated, Turkey ranks last in the standings. Far more surprising is the second-to-last position - the USA.

Neuroscience is a field that could make bountiful contributions to the science of hurting people. You can really get ‘creative’ (in the most abhorrent sense of the word) with your artillery when your target controls the rest of your body. The first of these technologies to become a reality was the Pentagon’s Active Denial Technology (ADT) – a device that activates pain in an enemy without causing permanent tissue damage.

Sam Hughes quotes his top ten ways to destroy the earth. While there are many to kill the humans residing on this planet, Hughes takes on the considerably more ambitious, elegant, and difficult task of blowing up the ENTIRE rock up into itty bitty pieces. I’m a fan of number 4 - periodically shovelling bits of the earth and sending it into space with a railgun (without looking suspicious). As a bonus, in the later stages of this process, we would save money on airfare.

Irish company Steorn is making a claim that flies in the face of the Laws of Thermodynamics, and defies the most basic concept in physics – the apparent discovery of a source of continuous ‘free’ energy. On Friday, Steorn issued a challenge to the world scientific community to test this mystical technology.

Some of the best known and most widely publicized triumphs of machine intelligence have been made in the realm of strategy games. Computers have become world champions of draughts, Othello, backgammon, Scrabble, and – following Gary Kasparov’s 1997 defeat by IBM’s Deep Blue – chess. Fortunately, in the melodramatic words of David Levy, humanity has a “final bastion” against its “inevitable intellectual defeat at the hands of the machine” – the ancient Oriental strategy game of Go.

A Microsoft team of computer scientists is now adopting a novel approach to besieging the Go fortress. Will machine learning prove the key (to torture the metaphor) to the impregnable game?

Lockheed Martin has been awarded with $650,000 to create a brain human interface that will allow detection of the state of cognitive function in military personnel engaged in combat.

Way back in the 50’s, the American government commissioned several studies on psychotomimetic drugs. Among these experiments were those done on LSD-25, yum. Somehow, researchers managed to convince an artist to draw for them (between bouts of hysterical laughter, running around the room and attempts to climb into his pencil case) at intervals before, during and after the drug was administered.

William Gibson’s Neuromancer, though notorious in its day for having won three major awards (the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award, Hugo Award, and the Nebula), is losing touch with the next generation of cyberpunks, most born after 1984 when the book was first published. The book has everything: AIs, drugs, crime, thieves, hackers….and a ninja. Read on for reviews.

Molecular biologists have doubtless fantasized shrinking down to a molecular level, to stroll about and visualize the marvelous mechanics of the smallest unit of life. This dream is to become a peculiar sort of reality, thanks to the architects designing Chengdu's new Institute for Nanobiomedical Technology and Membrane Biology - the world's first ever cell-shaped building.

Researchers at the new institute will doubtless draw inspiration from the organelles in their courtyard...

As you may recall, there was a Texas Hold-Em AI Poker Challenge last month at the 21st National Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Boston. Well, the results are in...

For decades many researchers have devoted their efforts in trying to find how to stop pain in patients that have suffered some kind of injury. As you may know they are cases where even after years the person can still feel pain, referred to as chronic pain.

Recently, scientists have discovered an enzyme that may be able to turn on and off both normal and chronic pain signals after an injury.

Check this news here.

Researchers form MIT and the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro discovered that new neurotransmitter receptors are delivered to the synapse in response to perceptual learning. The discovery of the mechanism could provide a new therapeutic alternative for rehabilitation after brain damage.

Human beings have an uncanny ability to read minds. Don’t scoff at this assertion – as exceptionally social animals, evolution has fine-tuned the internal wiring of the human brain to make us incredibly receptive to facial expression and body language. Now, claim researchers at the University of Cambridge, computers may become capable of the same.

Science rushes to the rescue against the dark evils of wine bottle mislabeling. Where would the world be without Japanese robotic technologies?

Chess grandmasters can glance at a board and find the best move they can make in just a few seconds. Somehow they miraculously perform all the calculations and access all the knowledge necessary in their brain to perceive or sense what should be done (without consciously analyzing the situation). This talent is superior even to what computers can currently do. Turns out, these amazing abilities have a lot to do with practice and how memory is organized...

Morgellons disease is a newly discovered infectious disease that is characterized by fiber like skin lesions. The common symptoms are crawling sensations, skin lesions, and cognitive difficulties (including loss in short term memory and difficulties with normal thought process). Behavioral defects associated with the disease include autism-like behavior, hyperactivity disorders, bipolar disorders, and delusional parasitism. Gastrointestinal sensitivity and other symptoms are more rare or specific to certain patients.

Is there a story you really dig, or one you want to slash, or just have something to shout about? Registered users will now see a "Submit News" option on their menu after logging in; of course all submissions will be brutally reviewed by Johanna and Audrey first, but we thought we'd try opening things up to let more people express their interests. The style and format is easy to figure out by looking at the other stories.

We look forward to hearing from you...

For years, researchers have tried to find the way to visualize the processes that shape our brains in more detail. They have wondered how neurons and/or synapses shape themselves in response to activity.