First Movie Of An Entire Brain’s Neuronal Activity

One of the goals of neuroscience is to understand how neurons interact with each other to detect external stimuli and respond to it. In other words, how do brains process information and generate appropriate behaviour?

Neuroscientists have investigated this question at the level of individual neurons for some time. One technique that has made this possible is optogenetics—the ability to insert genes into neurons that fluoresce when the neuron is active.

To do this, researchers simply illuminate the modified neurons with laser light and wait to see which ones fluoresce. In theory this should allow neuroscientists to see how neurons interact and co-ordinate in response to various stimuli.

The problem is the sheer density of neurons in the brain—there are too many, too closely packed into too great a volume. This has prevented neuroscientists from resolving the individual activity of all of them in real time. At least until now.

Today, Tina Schrödel, Robert Prevedel and pals at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna, Austria, say they’ve solved this problem. And to prove it, they have filmed the simultaneous activity of the neurons in the entire brain of a nematode worm for the first time.

https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/ab315e8ab013

 

Mountaintop blasted to build huge telescope

The top of a 3,000m-high (10,000ft) mountain in Chile has been blown up to make way for the world’s largest optical and infrared telescope.

A million tonnes of rock were blasted in order to create a level surface on which to build the European-Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT).

At its heart will lie a mirror that is half the size of a football pitch.

This will allow astronomers to look further into space and in more detail than ever before.

The explosion in Cerro Armazones in northern Chile took place just after 1840 BST and was streamed live by the European Southern Observatory.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27902611

 

Driverless Trucks Will Be Commonplace on Dutch Roads By the End of the Decade

The driverless car revolution will play out not in city centers, but on highways. The first commercial use of the technology won’t be in cars at all, but in huge semi trucks. Oh, and it’s happening now, not in some distant future: The Netherlands just announced its plan to put autonomous trucks on the road within five years.

The plan starts now, essentially: Dutch infrastructure minister Schultz van Haegen said that she will present a bill early next year that will remove existing legal roadblocks that stand in the way of driverless cars—namely, the ones that suggest you need a human to drive a car. Initially, computer simulations will be used to test the technology, then trucks will be tested on closed tracks, with a goal of having commercial, self-driving trucks servicing Rotterdam, one of Europe’s largest ports, in five years.

The government says that initial testing plans have already been submitted by the Rotterdam port and other government groups within the country.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/driverless-trucks-will-be-commonplace-on-dutch-roads-by-the-end-of-the-decade

This entry was posted in Weekly Newsletter. Bookmark the permalink.