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Mind-reading computers “Seeing” inside stars TRENDS
THIS UNIVERSE
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Mind-reading computers A raised eyebrow, quizzical look or a nod of the head are just a few of the facial expressions computers could soon be using to read people’s minds. “The system we have developed allows a wide range of mental states to be identified just by pointing a video camera at someone,” said Prof Peter Robinson of the University of Cambridge in England. He and his collaborators believe the mind-reading computer’s applications could range from improving people’s driving skills to helping companies tailor advertising to people’s moods. “Imagine a computer that could pick the right emotional moment to try to sell you something, a future where mobile phones, cars and Websites could read our mind and react to our moods,” he added. The technology is already programmed to recognise different facial expressions generated by actors. Robinson hopes to get more data to determine whether someone is bored, interested, confused, or agrees or disagrees when it is unveiled at a science exhibition in London on Monday. People visiting the four-day exhibition organised by the Royal Society, Britain’s academy of leading scientists, will be invited to take part in a study to hone the programme’s abilities. The scientists, who are developing the technology in collaboration with researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, also hope to get it to accept other inputs such as posture and gesture. “Our research could enable websites to tailor advertising or products to suit your mood,” Robinson told Reuters. “For example, a webcam linked with our software could process your image, encode the correct emotional state and transmit information to a website.” It could also be useful in online teaching to show whether someone understands what is being explained and in improving road safety by determining if a driver is confused, bored or tired. “We are working with a big car company and they envision this being employed in cars within five years,” Robinson said, adding that a camera could be built into the dashboard. Anyone who does not want to give away too much information about what they are feeling, he said, can just cover up the camera.
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“Seeing” inside stars Scientists believe they will soon be able to detect “gravity waves”, confirming what Einstein predicted nearly a century ago, and opening up vast areas of space never seen before. Such waves may be responsible for the most violent events imaginable — from the explosions of stars to the collisions of black holes. Yet they are one of the most elusive phenomena in the universe, so elusive that there is every chance that they have passed straight through your body without your realising it. Albert Einstein was the first to predict the existence of gravitational waves when he formulated his general theory of relativity in 1916 but no one has ever actually detected one. They are supposed to be generated by the high — speed movements of exceedingly massive objects, yet proof of their existence has been largely theoretical. That could be about to change with the official switch-on of one of the weirdest experiments in Europe. It is called the Gravitational Wave Detector and is a joint effort by British and German scientists to finally capture the essence of what Einstein’s theory predicted nearly a century ago. The instrument in Hanover will, from this week, run continuously for 18 months in the hope of finally capturing the essence of a gravitational wave. Gravitational waves are generated by extremely massive objects as they move through space at incredible speeds. The gravity of such objects distorts space — time and sends ripples through the universe that stretch and compress all other objects in their path. If the experiment succeeds it will do more than prove Einstein right.
— By arrangement with The Independent, London
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TRENDS A gene named after the mythical Celtic land of the ever young could help explain how to reprogramme adult cells into embryonic stem cells to treat diseases. The gene called Nanog helped to transform adult mouse cells into embryonic stem cells after cell fusion — when two cells are combined to form a hybrid researchers said yesterday. “The effect of Nanog is remarkable. All the hybrid cells became fully converted to embryonic stem cells,” said Dr Jose Silva of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, who reported the findings in the journal Nature. Yellow, amber glasses best When picking out a pair of sunglasses this summer, it’s best to avoid blue-tinted lenses and instead to choose yellow — or amber-tinted lenses, advises an eye researcher in New York. “Yellow — and amber-tinted sunglasses filter out blue light, reducing the amount of blue light getting to your eye,” Dr Janet Sparrow, professor of ophthalmic science at Columbia University Medical Center in New York explained in an interview with Reuters Health. Sparrow is researching blue light exposure from sunlight as one of the causes of age-related macular degeneration, a degenerative eye disorder that is the leading cause of blindness in the elderly. — Reuters Hybrid butterfly species Scientists said they have created a distinctive red and yellow butterfly in the laboratory by interbreeding two different species in a way similar to what they believe has occurred in nature. The laboratory hybrid is nearly identical to a wild species of butterfly in Colombia known as Heliconius heurippa. “We recreated the evolutionary steps that may have given rise to Heliconius heurippa, a hybrid butterfly species, in the lab,’’ said Jesus Mavarez yesterday, of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama City, Panama. — Reuters Spying on
fish Thousands of marine animals could be tracked under a 150 million dollars project to understand threats to life in the oceans with technology perfected for supermarket checkouts, scientists said. Under the scheme, scientists would implant electronic tags into creatures such as salmon, tuna, sharks, sturgeon, penguins or polar bears to register their movements via acoustic receivers on the floors of the oceans or via satellite. — Reuters
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THIS UNIVERSE
Fire is the result of a chemical reaction in which energy is released. In our world, there are many combustible substances such as wood, coal, oil etc. A combustible substance is considered so because, in reaction with oxygen, it produces other compounds along with a lot of energy. Fortunately, for most of these substances the reaction is extremely slow or does not start unless the temperature is raised above a specific threshold. Once the reaction is initiated, the temperature stays above the threshold and a raging fire can result. Even a child knows that a threshold temperature is required, because we always have to “light” a fire, be it a candle, the kitchen stove, a bundle of straw or a Diwali cracker. But your question remains - “Why only oxygen”? There are many chemical reactions in which energy is released. All of them do not produce fire. They may produce heat and even light but fire, as we know it, is not a universal manifestation of such reactions. This is also true for nuclear reactions. A nuclear reactor produces a lot of energy. Tremendous heat is generated, temperature is very high but there are no flames. Flames of common fires are produced when gases react exothermally, there is convection due to heating and supply of gases is maintained from below. Their brightness is produced by the incompletely burnt, but incandescent, particles of materials such as carbon, wafted up by the rising hot gases. Carbon and oil containing materials are abundant on earth. Oxygen is also available everywhere. A rise in temperature beyond a threshold, therefore, leads to a fire. Incidentally, we should realise that fire flames would not be seen in the way they are if there were no convection (for example in the micro-gravity environment of a satellite in orbit). Nitrogen is the other abundant gas in the atmosphere. But the chemical structure of nitrogen is such that no exothermic reactions with these fuel elements are possible.
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An “emotionally aware” computer being developed by British and American scientists will be able to read an individual’s thoughts by analysing a combination of facial movements that represent underlying feelings.