The Grill: Dawn M. Taylor on brain-computer interfaces

The Grill: Dawn M. Taylor on brain-computer interfaces: "What are you doing at the FES Center? The goal at the center is to restore movement and function to people with paralysis from spinal cord injury, stroke or other neurological disorders. Movement is restored by applying low levels of electrical current to the peripheral nerves to activate paralyzed muscles. My particular role is to decode one's intended arm and hand movements from the brain. Basically, we are reconnecting the brain to the muscles so people can control their paralyzed limb just by thinking about doing so. Intended movements can also be used to control other technologies, such as prosthetic limbs, assistive robots or a computer mouse."

Agents which haggle and resolve conflict

Agents which haggle and resolve conflict: "A new series of algorithms which enables computerised agents to haggle and to resolve conflict have been devised by a team led by Professor Nick Jennings."

Evolving autopilots could boost space slingshots

11 May 2009 - New Scientist Evolving autopilots could boost space slingshots: "COULD space probes use genetic algorithms as autopilots to help them navigate the complexities of the solar system?

Deep-space missions such as NASA's veteran z Voyager probes often rely on gravity assists. They use a planet's gravitational field as a slingshot, which allows them to visit other celestial bodies without using up too much fuel. But programming a probe with its trajectory years ahead of time can be a problem, says Ian Carnelli of the European Space Agency in Noordwijk, the Netherlands."

"Missed launch windows, unexpected winds and misbehaving rockets mean that probes hardly ever leave Earth in the planned position or velocity, and radiation pressure from solar flares can perturb the craft's course in deep space. If the probe is out of position when it starts a gravity-assisted manoeuvre, the slingshot will be inefficient.

"In the Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics (DOI: 10.2514/1.32633), Carnelli and colleagues Bernd Dachwald and Massimiliano Vasile suggest that a probe could navigate for itself using a genetic algorithm (GA).

Next Age of Discovery

WSJ.com Next Age of Discovery: "In a 21st-century version of the age of discovery, teams of computer scientists, conservationists and scholars are fanning out across the globe in a race to digitize crumbling literary treasures."

"In the process, they're uncovering unexpected troves of new finds, including never-before-seen versions of the Christian Gospels, fragments of Greek poetry and commentaries on Aristotle. Improved technology is allowing researchers to scan ancient texts that were once unreadable -- blackened in fires or by chemical erosion, painted over or simply too fragile to unroll. Now, scholars are studying these works with X-ray fluorescence, multispectral imaging used by NASA to photograph Mars and CAT scans used by medical technicians."

"By taking high-resolution digital images in 14 different light wavelengths, ranging from infrared to ultraviolet, Oxford scholars are reading bits of papyrus that were discovered in 1898 in an ancient garbage dump in central Egypt. So far, researchers have digitized about 80% of the collection of 500,000 fragments, dating from the 2nd century B.C. to the 8th century A.D. The texts include fragments of unknown works by famous authors of antiquity, lost gospels and early Islamic manuscripts."