Will Actual Mind Melding Make the World Smarter—or Scarier?
When it comes to power, memory, and processing speed, everyone wants more. If your computer can’t store or run the apps you need, one solution is to connect to a powerful network. What if we could do the same with our brains? If an Albert Einstein and a Marie Curie tapped into each other’s brain power, would we already have anti-gravity machines? Could four cancer researchers linked brain to-brain find a cure faster? What about 10 researchers, or 100? It’s an interesting question and one that scientists around the world are already studying: can we make a human brain chain? And if we do, will it help us unlock amazing possibilities or just lead to more headaches?
Two Heads Are Better (If They’re Linked)
When neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis thought about linking brains, he decided to start small and furry. His Duke University team trained rats to become “encoders” and “decoders” by solving a simple problem: which lever should they push to get a sip of water? Scientists taught encoder rats to know which lever would give them a reward. For example, if the light bulb over a lever lit up, pushing on that lever released a drink. Get it wrong? No drink. The rats had to train until they could choose correctly 95 percent of the time before they were ready to be part of a two-rat team.
Nicolelis’ team trained a second group of rats as “decoders.” These rats had the same levers and rewards, but they had to respond to tiny pulses of electricity that the researchers sent to their neurons. A single pulse meant lever 1 would give them a drink. Several pulses in a row meant they should pick lever 2. Decoder rats qualified for a team by getting it right about 70 percent of the time.
Denne historien er fra April 2017-utgaven av Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
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Denne historien er fra April 2017-utgaven av Muse Science Magazine for Kids.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Who's Your Cousin?
The great apes are among the most popular animals in most zoos. Their actions, facial expressions, and family life remind us so much of ourselves. Have you ever wondered, though, how we might look to them?
Is it possible to die of boredom?
To figure out if we can die of boredom, we first have to understand what boredom is. For help, we called James Danckert, a psychologist who studies boredom at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
THE PROBLEM WITH PALM OIL
Palm oil is all around you. It’s in sugary snacks like cookies and candy bars. It’s in lipstick and shampoo and pet food.
SERGE WICH
Serge Wich’s favorite days at work are spent out in the forest, studying orangutans in Sumatra and Borneo or chimpanzees in Tanzania.
ELODIE FREYMANN
When you’re feeling sick, it probably doesn’t occur to you to try eating tree bark.
Guardians of the Forest
EARLY, MAKESHIFT WILDLIFE DRONES HELPED TO DETECT AND PROTECT ORANGUTANS.
APE ANTICS
The Whirling World of primate play
Dr. Ape Will See You Now
HUMANS AREN’T THE ONLY PRIMATES THAT USE MEDICATION.
THE LEFT OVERS
A lot has happened for modern humans to get to this point. We lost most of our hair, learned how to make tools, established civilizations, sent a person to the Moon, and invented artificial intelligence. Whew! With all of these changes, our bodies have changed, too. It’s only taken us about six million years.
SO, WHAT IS A PRIMATE?
What do you have in common with the aye-aye, sifaka, siamang, and potto? If you said your collarbone, you re probably a primatologist—a person who studies primates. If you’re not, read on.
