The Tech In The Times Square Ball

by Jesse Emspak, Discovery News

Millions watch the Times Square Ball drop every New Year's Eve. Not many realize just how much that ball has changed since the party started in 1907.

A century ago, the ball was a 5-foot diameter, 700-pound sphere covered in 100 light bulbs and made of wood and iron. At the time, the big ball represented relatively new technology in lighting. But in the 1920s it with one made of iron, and in 1955 it was changed to aluminum. The traditional lights weren’t radically altered until 1995, when a computer was added to control the strobe lights. The only years the ball wasn't lit were 1942 and 1943, when the lights in New York were “dimmed out” during World War II...

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Neuroscientists Identify a Master Controller of Memory

by Anne Trafton, MIT News

When you experience a new event, your brain encodes a memory of it by altering the connections between neurons. This requires turning on many genes in those neurons. Now, MIT neuroscientists have identified what may be a master gene that controls this complex process.

The findings, described in the Dec. 23 issue of Science, not only reveal some of the molecular underpinnings of memory formation — they may also help neuroscientists pinpoint the exact locations of memories in the brain.

The research team, led by Yingxi Lin, a member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT, focused on the Npas4 gene, which previous studies have shown is turned on immediately following new experiences. The gene is particularly active in the hippocampus, a brain structure known to be critical in forming long-term memories...

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Antarctic's Hidden World Revealed

by Jonathan Amos, BBC News

Ever wondered what Antarctica would look like without all that ice?.

Scientists have produced the most detailed map yet of the White Continent's underbelly - its rock bed.

Called simply BEDMAP, this startling view of the landscape beneath the ice incorporates decades of survey data acquired by planes, satellites, ships and even people on dog-drawn sleds.

It is remarkable to think that less than 1% of this rock base projects above the continent's frozen veil...

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'Intelligent' Slime Able to Navigate its Way Out of Maze

by Danielle Demetriou, The Telegraph

Toshiyuki Nakagaki, a professor at Future University Hakodate, northern Japan, cultivates the slime in petri dishes and has discovered how the brainless organism is capable of finding its way out of a maze.

The brainless organism is able to “organise” its cells to create the most direct route through a maze in order to reach a source of food, according to his studies.

The findings highlight how slime mould possesses information processing abilities shared by humans which are more sophisticated than the most advanced computers, according to Professor Nakagaki...

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Top Stories

The Tech In The Times Square Ball

Neuroscientists Identify a Master Controller of Memory

Antarctic's Hidden World Revealed

'Intelligent' Slime Able to Navigate its Way Out of Maze