Category archives: Technology

Rhesus monkeys can be taught to recognize their images in mirrors Mirror recognition can be taught to rhesus monkeys, according to researchers who say the findings could help them better understand how self-awareness develops in the brain. “Our findings suggest that the monkey brain has the basic ‘hardware’ [for mirror self-recognition], but they need appropriate […]

Researchers develop memory system with 900+ neurons, 165K synapses Researchers at IBM’s Almaden Research Center and South Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology have developed a phase-change memory chip with more than 900 neurons and 165,000 synapses that can emulate how the human brain functions, promising to advance image-recognition technology and other areas of […]

Diabetes is becoming a huge problem in our society, affecting nowadays one in every 20 people in this planet. Although some people don’t know, diabetes is a very serious disease that can cause damage in the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves, producing different neuropathies, kidney failures, blindness and increasing in the risk of […]

Last week we knew the ten most read articles during 2014. Using the number of hits a post receives is an objective way of pinpointing some of the outstanding publications of the year. But it could be argued that some excellent, quality posts would not appear in this short list, and this is precisely true […]

At this time of the year it seems appropiate to look back and check whatever has been achieved. 2014 has been a good year for MI, with contributors located in 3 continents and 36 different academic institutions (ranging, alphabetically, from Cornell University in United States to Waseda University in Japan), publishing 153 articles. Thank you […]

What ‘hok’ and ‘krak’ mean to monkeys The structure of monkey calls is surprisingly sophisticated: The same species of monkeys—located in separate geographic regions—use their alarm calls differently to warn of approaching predators. Futurity.org Life would drastically change if all bacteria disappeared Living for a time without bacteria is possible, but probably not very pleasant […]

The human brain is arguably the most fascinating organ found in nature. Its complexity has been known since Santiago Ramón y Cajal pioneering work showed the central nervous system (CNS) was a contiguous neuronal network where neuron is the basic unit as opposed to the view of the brain being a single continuous network (reticulum) […]

Joint oscillation of Jupiter, sun might detect gravitational waves The joint oscillation of the sun and Jupiter might hold the key to detecting gravitational waves. Oscillations from Jupiter in 2011 were detected in frequencies that matched the sun’s. Researcher Ibrahim Semiz suggests that the oscillations might have been caused by gravitational waves, and other researchers […]

Some jellyfish species are beautifully fluorescent in the dark ocean, emitting light from different parts of their bodies in a process that is thought to help them to warn off predators. The molecular biology behind this process of glowing is possible thanks to one of the most famous proteins in molecular biology, the green fluorescent […]

Hummingbird flight similar to that of insects Scientists recorded a hummingbird as it hovered then created a 3D model to assess the airflow patterns created by the flapping of its wings. While other birds use the downstroke of their wings to fly, hummingbirds use upstrokes and downstrokes to create small vortices that merge into one […]