Category Science & Technology

The future of computing?

A computer that is powered by human brain cells, thereby extending the capabilities of modern computing exponentially and creating novel fields of study. No, this isn’t a one-line plot of a science-fiction. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University expect such ‘biocomputers’ to be developed within our lifetimes.

Organoid intelligence

While computing and artificial intelligence have been driving the tech revolution, it is nearing its peak. Biocomputing aims at compacting computational power and increasing efficiency in order to push past current tech limitations. A team of researchers outlined their plan for “organoid intelligence” in the journal Frontiers in Science in February 2023.

Scientists have used tiny organoids, lab grown tissue resembling fully grown organs, to experiment on organs without resorting to human or animal testing for nearly 20 years. Recently, researchers have started working on brain organoids.

Our brain remains unmatched by modem computers. While recent supercomputers have exceeded the computational capacity of a single human brain for the first time, it has been achieved by using a million times more energy.

Light on energy demands

A futuristic computer with biological hardware or brain organoids might be able to provide superior computing with limited energy consumption. Even though it may take decades to have an operational organoid intelligence that can power a system as smart as a mouse, researchers believe that setting along that path now is important. This, they believe, will create funding programmes that will help scale up production of brain organoids and have them trained using artificial intelligence Apart from the computational capabilities, organoid intelligence might also be a game-changer in drug testing, especially research pertaining to neurodevelopmental disorders and neurodegeneration.

The team working on organoid intelligence comprises scientists, bioethicists, and members of the public. This diverse consortium is an attempt to have varying opinions while assessing the ethical implications of working with organoid intelligence.

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What are some examples of things written about in science fiction that became real?

Battle tanks, debit/credit cards headphones, bionic parts……… many of the machines and gadgets we use today were predicted by sci-fi authors long ago. Let’s look at a few of them that have become a reality

Debit/Credit Cards

Edward Bellamy’s 1888 novel ‘Looking Backward’ was a huge success in its day, but it is best remembered for introducing the concept of ‘universal credit’. Citizens of his future utopia carry a card that allows them to spend ‘credit’ from a central bank on goods and services without paper money changing hands.

Battle tanks

One of the best-known science fiction writers of the 20th century was H.G. Wells. In his 1903 story ‘The Land Ironclads’, published in the ‘Strand’ magazine, Wells described war machines that were uncannily similar to the modern tank They were approximately 100 feet long and rolled on eight pairs of wheels, each of which had its own independent turning axle. A conning tower in the top let the captain survey the scene. The first battle tanks were deployed on the battlefield a mere 13 years later, during the Battle of the Somme in World War I, and have been an integral part of every country’s armed forces ever since.

In ‘When the Sleeper Wakes’ (1899), Wells describes automatic motion-sensing doors which saw reality 60 years later.

Earbud headphones

When Ray Bradbury published his classic ‘Fahrenheit’ 451 in 1953, portable audio players were a reality. However, headphones were massive and ugly-looking. That’s why his description of ‘seashells’ and thimble radios that brought an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk is so amazing. He exactly describes the earbud headphone and Bluetooth, which didn’t come into popular use till 2000!

Video chat

The first demonstration of video conferencing came at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, where AT&T wowed crowds with its ‘picturephone’. The technology has come a long way since then, but the first description of video phones came in Hugo Gernsback’s serial tale Ralph 124c 41+ in Modern Electrics magazine in 1911. In it, he described a device called the ‘telephot’ that let people see each other while speaking long distance.

Internet glasses

The protagonist in Charles Stross’ 2005 book Accelerando, carries his data and his memories in a pair of glasses connected to the Internet. In 2013, Google came out with a wearable computer called Google Glass fitted to spectacles frames. Wearers could access the Internet using voice commands.

All in one novel

Stand on Zanzibar, a 1968 dystopian* novel by John Brunner which won a number of sci-fi book awards, makes several technological and political predictions. These include laser printers, satellite TV, electric cars and on-demand video broadcasts.

Bionic man

Martin Caidin’s 1972 book ‘Cyborg’ is the story of astronaut-turned-test pilot Steve Austin who is severely injured in a plane crash. The government engages a doctor who is researching bionics or the replacement of human body parts with mechanical prosthetics that work almost as well as the original. Cochlear implants for the deaf and artificial hearts are successful modern applications of bionics.

*dystopian-pessimistic description of a society that breaks down. Its opposite is ‘utopian’.

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How do hearing aids work?

A hearing aid, which consists of a microphone, amplifier, and speaker, makes sound louder for the user.

A hearing aid is a small electronic or digital medical device designed to help people who are hard of hearing. It makes sound louder for the user.

A hearing aid basically consists of three parts- a microphone, amplifier, and speaker. The microphone collects the sounds from the user’s environment and converts the sound waves into electrical (or digital) signals. The amplifier magnifies the power of the signals and then sends them to the inner ear through a speaker.

Those with a hearing disability have damaged hair cells in the inner ear. The surviving hair cells detect the sound vibrations magnified by the hearing aid and transmit them to the brain. However, if the hair cells are too damaged, then a hearing aid may be ineffective.

Hearing aids are available in various styles. The most common ones known as behind-the-ear (BTE) aids, consist of plastic cases worn behind the ear, which contain the electronic parts. The cases are connected with a narrow tube to the earmold which is inserted inside the ear. Smaller hearing aids in the form of earmolds that fit in snugly inside the ear are almost invisible to others like in-the-ear (ITE), in-the-canal (ITC) and completely-in-canal (CIC) aids.

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A robot chef that learns from videos

You might not often think about it that way, but cooking is a difficult skill with a number of factors in play. Just ask a robot! While human beings can learn to cook through observation, the same cannot be done easily by a robot. Programming a robot that can make a variety of dishes is not only costly, but also time-consuming.

A group of researchers from the University of Cambridge have programmed their robotic chef with a cookbook – eight simple salad recipes. The robot was not only able to identify which recipe was being prepared after watching a video of a human demonstrating it, but was also then able to make it. The results were reported in the journal ‘IEEE Access.’

Simple salads

For this study, the researchers started off by devising eight simple salad recipes and then made videos of themselves making these. A publicly available neural network programmed to identify a range of different objects was then used to train the robot chef.

The robot watched 16 videos and was able to recognise the correct recipe 93% of the time (15 times out of 16), even though it detected only 83% of the actions of the human chef in the video. The robot was able to recognise that slight variations (portions or human error) were just that, and not a new recipe. It even recognised the demonstration of a new, ninth salad, added it to its cookbook and made it.

Hold it up for them

The researchers were amazed at the amount of nuance that the robot could grasp. For the robot to identify, the demonstrators had to hold up the fruit or vegetable so that the robot could see the whole fruit or vegetable, before it was chopped.

These videos, however, were nowhere like the food videos with fast cuts and visual effects that trend on social media. While these are too hard for a robot to follow at the moment, researchers believe that robot chefs will get better and faster at identifying ingredients in videos like those with time, thereby becoming capable of learning a range of recipes quickly.

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Sci-fi novels that shaped reality

Science fiction (sci-fi) and scientific innovation have been intertwined since the creation of this genre. Here are five marvellous inventions that were inspired by sci-fi.

The Taser

The Taser stun gun is a hand-held electrical non-lethal weapon used by police and law enforcement officers around the world. Invented by Jack Cover, an American aerospace scientist in the 1960s-70s, this device takes inspiration from English writer Victor Appleton’s young adult sci-fi novel ‘Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle (1911)’. The purpose of creating this device was to provide an alternative to the firearms that the air marshals were supposed to carry and use in case of a hijack. This invention was a solution to the concern that firing a gun on a plane could damage important and sophisticated machinery or pierce the fuselage.

Cover’s invention pays homage to Appleton’s book, and its name TASER is an acronym for Thomas A. Swift’s Electric Rifle. The scientist is said to have added the ‘A’ to make the word easier to pronounce.

Liquid-fuelled rockets

The idea of rockets, space travel, and exploration might not sound exceptionally futuristic today, but for 16-year-old Robert H. Goddard coming across this idea for the first time in English novelist H.G. Wells’s ‘The War of the Worlds’ (1898) was something right out of a dream. The famed father of rocketry invented and launched the world’s first liquid-fuelled rocket in 1926, making space travel a reality. A few years after this momentous event, the NASA physicist penned a letter to Wells elaborating on the “deep impression” his novel made on the American inventor and motivated him to take this journey “aiming at the stars” both literally and figuratively.

World Wide Web

Millions of people across the globe use the World Wide Web every day. They access it through computers, phones and other digital devices. From ordering food to sharing one’s location or some news and pictures with others, we use the Web all the time.

The first proposal for the World Wide Web was written by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. Talking about the motivation behind this invention, the English computer scientist said, “I believe If you connect people up and you take away the national boundaries and you just leave humanity connected, it will naturally become better.” He also credited Arthur C. Clarke’s short story ‘Dial F’ for Frankenstein as the inspiration behind the World Wide Web. Acknowledging the impact of his story on Berners-Lee, the English sci-fi writer declared, “I guess I am the godfather of the World Wide Web.”

Humanoid robots ASTRO BOY

Japan’s Tomotaka Takahashi is one of the world’s leading new-generation robot scientists. In 2013, his humanoid robot named Kirobo became the world’s first talking robot sent into space to keep astronauts company. Talking about his passion for robotics in an interview, Takahashi said “When I was about six, I started reading the manga comic ‘Astro Boy’ after finding it lying around at home. My dream, from that moment on, was to become a robot scientist. I made my first robot around the same time, from a soapbox and duct tape complete with a robot face.” Osamu Tezuka’s ‘Astro Boy’ is a manga series that ran from 1952 to 1968. It chronicles the adventures of the titular humanoid. The Japanese scientist also admitted that his 13-inch-tall robot Kirobo’s design and colour palette are heavily inspired by the friendly manga character.

Helicopter

Since the beginning of time, the idea of flying from one place to another in little time has been a fascinating topic. The helicopter is one of the many inventions that aimed to accomplish this. Russian-American aviator Igor Sikorsky is credited with inventing the modern helicopter. As a child, his parents exposed him to the technical drawings of da Vinci and encouraged him to pursue science. As a curious kid growing up in Russia, he was fascinated by Jules Verne’s 1886 novel ‘Robur the Conqueror (which is also known as The Chipper of the Clouds)’. This book’s description of a flying machine called the ‘Albatross’ inspired Sikorsky’s design of the helicopter. Starting test flights in 1939, Sikorsky’s aircraft was ready for larger production by 1942.

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Science and tech to nature’s rescue

Of course, human technology can never completely replace nature. But, along with science, technology can help our world in several ways.

It is easy to presume our planet will recover with gentle human care alone. But, in reality, it would require a lot of supprt from various other quarters as well. For instance, science and technology. These two areas play a huge role in keeping our natural world going-now more than ever as we grapple with climate change.

Of course, human technology can never completely replace nature. But, along with science, technology can help our world in several ways. We require the science of data gathering simply to understand where we stand today – be it assessing the number of wildlife lost to wildfires in a region or the amount of glacial ice a mountain is losing every year or the next eruption of a dormant volcano. As for technology, everything from as simple as a camera trap to advanced mechanisms such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) can help us track wildlife, crucial for conservation measures.

Data gathering and tracking wildlife are among the many ways in which science and technology help. If technically advanced systems can alert officials concerned about poaching or illegal tree-felling real-time, they can go a long way in grave loss. And, tools such as social media are powerful enough to cause positive changes through information sharing and collective demand for action.

As we start to run out of time to save our planet, it is imperative that we dip into every possible resource available to us, and keep working on improving such resources for the future too.

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