The Brain – Tool, Weapon, and Battlefield

The brain can be hostile occupied territory

The evolution of the human species from our primate ancestors has been one in which our brain capacity has grown larger allowing us to focus on tasks previously impossible and allowing us to invent and learn, thus propelling ourselves into civilization and beyond.

The brain as ground zero in evolution isn’t restricted to humans, much less mammals. British scientists have developed a robot with a biological brain. The intent of this project is to see “how memories manifest themselves in the brain, and how a brain stores specific pieces of data”. Robots with biological brains bring up images of cyborgs and tinkering with nature. Suspicions will abound.

But don’t count out the importance of the human brain just yet! Neuroscientists are telling us that the brain is the battlefield of the future:

Rapid advances in neuroscience could have a dramatic impact on national security and the way in which future wars are fought, US intelligence officials have been told.

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On the battlefield, bullets may be replaced with “pharmacological land mines” that release drugs to incapacitate soldiers on contact, while scanners and other electronic devices could be developed to identify suspects from their brain activity and even disrupt their ability to tell lies when questioned, the report says.

“The concept of torture could also be altered by products in this market. It is possible that some day there could be a technique developed to extract information from a prisoner that does not have any lasting side effects,” the report states.

Invisibility is almost here!

Admit it, you’ve always thought how cool it’d be to have one…..

Which superpower would you choose first? The ability to fly? The ability to climb walls? How’s about invisibility? US Scientists are now a step closer in developing material that could make people invisible.

Researchers at the University of California in Berkeley have developed a material that can bend light around 3D objects making them “disappear”.

The materials do not occur naturally but have been created on a nano scale, measured in billionths of a metre.

The team says the principles could one day be scaled up to make invisibility cloaks large enough to hide people.

The findings, by scientists led by Xiang Zhang, were published in the journals Nature and Science.

For an excellent explanation on the technology of rendering objects invisible, check out this article by the folks at howstuffworks.com.