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Archive for the ‘neuroscience’ category: Page 901

Jul 12, 2016

Ray Kurzweil’s Nootropic Dietary Supplement Stack

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, neuroscience, Ray Kurzweil, singularity

Ray Kurzweil is a celebrity technologist, well known both for his work as an inventor and for his relatively accurate predictions of technological change. Among his predictions is that of an imminent biotech revolution, which may enable people to restore and maintain healthy life for much longer periods of time than those humans have enjoyed historically. In the meantime, Ray says he takes 250 dietary supplements each day, in addition to receiving half a dozen intravenous therapies each week.

“Although my program may seem extreme, it is actually conservative – and optimal (based on my current knowledge). [My doctor] and I have extensively researched each of the several hundred therapies that I use for safety and efficacy. I stay away from ideas that are unproven or appear to be risky (the use of human-growth hormone, for example).” – Ray Kurzweil in The Singularity Is Near (pages 211–212)

Some of Ray’s dietary supplements are nootropics, intended to maintain and improve brain health. He lists them in his book, Transcend (pages 15 and 22). I’ve compared the nootropics he recommends to reviews on Examine.com, an independent and unbiased encyclopedia on supplementation and nutrition that is not affiliated in any way with any supplement company. Below is a table that summarizes what I found, followed by some observations.

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Jul 11, 2016

FDA study using genetically engineered cells to treat cancer kills three people

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, genetics, neuroscience

(NaturalNews) Earlier this month, Juno Therapeutics, a pioneer in the field of treating cancer using genetically engineered cells, had to halt the development of its lead treatment after the death of three leukemia patients enrolled in the study.

The Seattle-based biotech company reported that the deaths of all three patients, who were in their 20s, were linked to swelling in the brain. The swelling occurred after the company added a second chemotherapy drug to the treatment procedure.

The news of the patient deaths is a big blow for the biotech startup that is developing a new experimental therapy known as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (or CART) immunotherapy. The setback will likely delay the company’s aim of introducing it to the market by 2017, Juno executives said in a conference.

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Jul 11, 2016

System controls robots with the brain

Posted by in categories: computing, drones, neuroscience, robotics/AI

More update on controlling drones with BMI.


Using wireless interface, operators control multiple drones by thinking of various tasks.

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Jul 11, 2016

Uploading my brain waves to the cloud, Azure IoT Hub and Emotiv brain interface

Posted by in categories: drones, neuroscience

Nice read by Microsoft on their BMI efforts.


I have been reading a lot about brain interfaces and that the Tesla S can be summoned with the brain and that people have started having competitions with drones controlled by brain waves. I have recently acquired an Emotiv Insight® as shown in Figure 1 and have been doing some testing with it.

image

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Jul 9, 2016

IPS Cells & Organoids — Sci-Fi vs Reality

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Nice read that places things into perspective.


David Panchision, Ph.D., NIMH program director for stem cell research, discusses the promise of induced pluripotent stem cells and organoids for understanding and treating mental illness.

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Jul 9, 2016

Microsoft uses BBC Micro Bit and virtual reality to prepare autistic kids for jobs

Posted by in categories: computing, education, employment, neuroscience, virtual reality

Good work by Microsoft.


Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning not all people that meet the classification have identical behaviors. Some of these folks are very functional, while others may struggle more to socialize, or not be able to hold jobs.

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Jul 9, 2016

How Nikola Tesla Used ‘Spirituality’ & Philosophy To Learn About Reality, ‘Limitless’ Energy & Science

Posted by in categories: employment, energy, neuroscience, science

I will say that many great innovators and inventors had some sort of spiritualism that they drew from to provide another angle on how to see/ perfect an idea or innovation. Jobs, Tesla, Edison, Bell, da Vinci, Carver, etc.


The Properties of Space.

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Jul 8, 2016

Extra-Coding RNAs Regulate DNA Methylation in the Adult Brain

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

A special form of RNA called extra-coding RNA controls the careful targeting to add or remove methyl groups to chromosomal DNA of the adult neuron. The ecRNAs are fundamental regulators of DNA methylation patterns in the adult brain through interaction with DNA methyltransferase enzymes and are involved in creation of memories.

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Jul 8, 2016

In-Ear EEG Makes Unobtrusive Brain-Hacking Gadgets a Real Possibility

Posted by in category: neuroscience

DARPA has been doing some interesting things in BMI already. Nice to see others onboard as well.


Earbud-like doodads can pick up brainwaves with surprising fidelity.

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Jul 8, 2016

The mind isn’t locked in the brain but extends far beyond it

Posted by in categories: neuroscience, robotics/AI

There is a lot of truth to this article especially as you look at how the mind responds/ reacts to situations, ideas, etc. has also other factors involved such as how a person overall immune system is responding, chemical balance of a person’s system, etc. So, this reconfirms that thinking and being human goes far beyond a replica of a brain in a system.


Where is your mind? Where does your thinking occur? Where are your beliefs? René Descartes thought that the mind was an immaterial soul, housed in the pineal gland near the centre of the brain. Nowadays, by contrast, we tend to identify the mind with the brain. We know that mental processes depend on brain processes, and that different brain regions are responsible for different functions. However, we still agree with Descartes on one thing: we still think of the mind as (in a phrase coined by the philosopher of mind Andy Clark) brainbound, locked away in the head, communicating with the body and wider world but separate from them. And this might be quite wrong. I’m not suggesting that the mind is non-physical or doubting that the brain is central to it; but it could be that (as Clark and others argue) the mind extends beyond the brain.

To begin with, there is a strong case for thinking that many mental processes are essentially embodied. The brainbound view pictures the brain as a powerful executive, planning every aspect of behaviour and sending detailed instructions to the muscles. But, as work in robotics has illustrated, there are more efficient ways of doing things, which nature almost certainly employs. The more biologically realistic robots perform basic patterns of movement naturally, in virtue of their passive dynamics, without the use of motors and controllers. Intelligent, powered control is then achieved by continuously monitoring and tweaking these bodily processes, sharing the control task between brain and body.

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