Isegoria

Dr. Miguel Nicolelis’s cyber-monkeys will appear in the new Public Library of Science Biology, a free, on-line scientific journal, described in New Scientific Journal Challenges Establishment:

A new scientific journal that challenges the expensive heavyweights that have dominated the world of research hits the Internet on Monday.

The journal, called the Public Library of Science Biology, is backed by leading scientists such as Dr. Harold Varmus, former director of the National Institutes of Health and now chief executive officer of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

They want to speed up the pace at which research is published, and also make it accessible to even the poorest of graduate students.

It will be available on the Internet at http://www.plosbiology.org. The non-profit group that backs PLoS is based in San Francisco and will launch a second journal, PLoS Medicine, next year.

The scientific journals that now control the world of scholarly publishing can cost tens of thousands of dollars a year. They usually require a lengthy ‘peer review’ process in which experts raise questions about studies and suggest changes to written reports.

I have to wonder about getting rid of that pesky peer-review process…

I found this amusing:

Authors of articles in PLoS pay $1,500 to cover the costs of carrying out peer review, editing, and managing production.

“Science thrives on the free flow of information,” said Dr. Patrick O. Brown of Stanford University in California, a co-founder of the new journal.

Vanity-press science? You too can support the free flow of information — for just $1,500!

We have entered a new era of Cyborg Monkeys. Monkey Think, Monkey Do Study May Help Paralyzed:

Three years ago, Nicolelis and colleagues at Duke University in North Carolina reported that they had allowed a monkey to move a robotic arm using only her thoughts and implanted electrodes. But the monkey continued to move her arm.

In the latest experiment, they said two monkeys figured out what was happening and played a computer game using thoughts alone.
[...]
Nicolelis and colleagues first implanted microelectrodes — each smaller than the diameter of a human hair — into the brains of two female rhesus macaque monkeys named Aurora and Ivy.

One got 96 electrodes in her frontal and parietal lobes — known to be the source of commands for muscular movement. The second monkey got 320 implants.

The electrodes transmit faint signals to a computer system the researchers have developed to recognize patterns of signals that represent particular movements by an animal’s arm. These signals are translated and in turn control a robotic arm.

At first the animals were taught to use a joystick to control the cursor of a video game — which Nicolelis said they enjoyed playing. The researchers recorded and analyzed the electrical activity of the neurons near the implanted electrodes.

As the game became more complex, the monkeys learned how to control the cursor.

The scientists, of course, must maintain the facade that this is all about helping paralyzed humans — until their Robo-Monkeys conquer the world.

A laser-powered airplane? NASA Model Plane Flies on Laser Power:

NASA has built and flown a remote-controlled plane powered from the ground by the beam of an invisible laser.

In indoor flights conducted last month at a NASA center in Alabama, the plane flew lap after lap, gliding to a landing once the laser beam was turned off, the agency said Thursday.

While in flight, the laser tracked the 11-ounce, five-foot wingspan plane, striking the photovoltaic cells that powered the tiny motor that turned its lone propeller.
[...]
The remote-controlled planes don’t have to carry their own fuel or batteries, providing more room for scientific instruments or communications equipment.

Scientists envision flying the planes on long-duration flights to monitor the environment, including erupting volcanos. The planes also could be used for surveillance or to provide communications links.

I’m thinking a laser-powered dirigible makes more sense…

Getting snubbed really does feel like a kick to the gut. From Images Show a Snub Really is Like Kick in the Gut:

Brain imaging studies show that a social snub affects the brain precisely the way visceral pain does.
[...]
Lieberman, graduate student Naomi Eisenberger and colleagues set up a brain imaging test of 13 volunteers to find out how social distress affects the brain.

They used functional magnetic imaging — a type of scan that allows the brain’s activity to be viewed “live.” The 13 volunteers were given a task that they did not know related to an experiment in social snubbing.

Writing in the journal Science, Lieberman and Eisenberger said the brains of the volunteers lit up when they were rejected in virtually the same way as a person experiencing physical pain.

“It would be odd if social pain looked like the exact same thing as someone-breaking-your-arm pain,” Lieberman said in a telephone interview. “What it does look like is visceral pain.”

In other words — like being punched in the stomach.

The area affected is the anterior cingulate cortex, a part of the brain known to be involved in the emotional response to pain.

None of that is too terribly surprising, but I love the actual experiment:

In the experiment, the volunteers were asked to play a computer game. They believed they were playing two other people, but in fact played a set computer program.

“It looked like a ball being thrown around between the three people,” Lieberman said.

Eventually, the game excludes the player. “For the next 45 throws they don’t get thrown the ball,” Lieberman said.

“It is just heartbreaking to watch. They keep indicating that they are ready to be thrown to. This really affects the person afterwards. They report feeling social distress.”

The functional magnetic imaging verifies the physical basis of this feeling.

Groundbreaking old papers from The Lancet are now available on-line. How The Lancet made medical history:

In the unbroken 180 years since it was first published by doctor, coroner and MP Thomas Wakley, it has become one of the most important — and most reliable sources of medical and social history around.

Now that history has been compiled in electronic form for the first time. Every edition, and every article in The Lancet has been digitised and made available to researchers.

A few key papers get links within the BBC article; other “top articles” are available at ScienceDirect.com.