Using Precisely-Targeted Lasers, Researchers Manipulate Neurons in Worms' Brains and Take Control of Their Behavior

In the quest to understand how the brain turns sensory input into behavior, Harvard scientists have crossed a major threshold. Using precisely-targeted lasers, researchers have been able to take over an animal's brain, instruct it to turn in any direction they choose, and even to implant false sensory information, fooling the animal into thinking food was nearby.

 A team made up of Sharad Ramanathan, an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, and of Applied Physics, Askin Kocabas, a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Ching-Han Shen, a Research Assistant in Molecular and Cellular Biology, and Zengcai V. Guo, from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute were able to take control of Caenorhabditis elegans -- tiny, transparent worms -- by manipulating neurons in the worms' "brain."

The work, Ramanathan said, is important because, by taking control of complex behaviors in a relatively simple animal -- C. elegans have just 302 neurons -we can understand how its nervous system functions..

"If we can understand simple nervous systems to the point of completely controlling them, then it may be a possibility that we can gain a comprehensive understanding of more complex systems," Ramanathan said. "This gives us a framework to think about neural circuits, how to manipulate them, which circuit to manipulate and what activity patterns to produce in them ."

"Extremely important work in the literature has focused on ablating neurons, or studying mutants that affect neuronal function and mapping out the connectivity of the entire nervous system. " he added. "Most of these approaches have discovered neurons necessary for specific behavior by destroying them. The question we were trying to answer was: Instead of breaking the system to understand it, can we essentially hijack the key neurons that are sufficient to control behavior and use these neurons to force the animal to do what we want?"

Before Ramanathan and his team could begin to answer that question, however, they needed to overcome a number of technical challenges.

Using genetic tools, researchers engineered worms whose neurons gave off fluorescent light, allowing them to be tracked during experiments. Researchers also altered genes in the worms which made neurons sensitive to light, meaning they could be activated with pulses of laser light.

The largest challenges, though, came in developing the hardware necessary to track the worms and target the correct neuron in a fraction of a second.

"The goal is to activate only one neuron," he explained. "That's challenging because the animal is moving, and the neurons are densely packed near its head, so the challenge is to acquire an image of the animal, process that image, identify the neuron, track the animal, position your laser and shoot the particularly neuron -- and do it all in 20 milliseconds, or about 50 times a second. The engineering challenges involved seemed insurmountable when we started. But Askin Kocabas found ways to overcome these challenges"

Technical drawbacks due to Diesel hike 

 Diesel price hike would have an additional implication of Rs four to Rs 17 per kg in the cost of production of yarn, causing unrest in handloom and powerloom segments of textile industry, Southern India Spinning Mills (SIMA) said today.There would also be an substantial increase in indirect costs like transportation.

Tamil Nadu accounted for one-third of textile business in the country giving direct employment to 50 lakh people, fetching Rs 50,000 crore forex earning and accounting for 47 per cent of yarn production.

The state has to procure over 95 per cent of its raw materials, particularly cotton, from states like Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Over 6 million handloom and power loom weavers across the country were suffering due to the abnormal cost of inputs in the last three years and the price hike would lead to unrest in the sectors, he cautioned.

SIMA also demanded immediate roll back of the hike to protect the industry and the people who depended on it.

Though the response to the bandh was mixed, a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) release said that Thursday's bandh has been disruptive for business and trade in many parts of the country. The release further said that though an exact loss for the entire economy is not known, it can be estimated that almost Rs. 12,500 crores has been the loss to the country in terms of disruptions in production and trade.

"After a cut in our spending on buying vegetables and other essentials, we many now have cut down even the cooking," said Rama Devi, a housewife at a protest in the neighbouring state Andhra Pradesh, where effigies were also burned.

Can't the government brings a change...??????

TECHNICAL ADVANCEMENTS OF OUR TAMIL:

The International Tamil Language Foundation with the motto ENRICH THROUGH TAMIL strives to develop and maintain the traditions of Tamil language and culture in the United States and other nations. The Foundation is a tax exempt, not for profit, service organization with members and supporters throughout the world.

• Thirukkural translation & handbook on Tamil Heritage (completed)
• Revival of Classical Tamil music - Thirukkural Isai Malar (completed)
• Translation of Western Science Video tapes and books in Tamil (completed)
• Build Valluvar Learning Center in Temples consisting of a Reading room and Library
• Culturescape of Tamils - A Bibliography and Publication of rare Tamil Manuscripts 
• Tamil Vattam/Tamil Circle( similar to British Council & Alliance Francaise)

• Compile a directory of Organizations spreading Kural Path
• Distribution of Tamil carnatic music self study course with 3 instructional booklets (grade 1 through 3) along with taped lessons created by Thiru.N.C.Naidoo of Durban, South Africa (medium of instruction in Tamil and English)

On the social front International Tamil Language Foundation involves in a yearly program "An evening with Tamils" exhibiting Tamil literature, art and culture, to bring in Americans and the budding generation of Tamils to understand the culture and values of the Tamils. In addition, the Foundation feeds the homeless and less fortunate in the during Tamil festivals (Pongal and Tamil New Year's day).

 All of these activities are funded and run by voluntary help, largely by the Tamils settled in different parts of the and around the world.

TECHNOLOGY THIRUVIZHA!

Tamil cinema has never been far behind in keeping up with the latest advancements in technology. Here is the list of the latest in movie making technology we used in our films, before the rest of India did.

Ambuli is the first ever stereoscopic 3D film in Tamil cinema. Ambuli also has the distinction of having been made in the stereoscopic format. 

There has been a growing interest in the Red One camera among our filmmakers starting from the film Achamundu Achamundu. Unnaipol Oruvan that starred Kamal Haasan and Mohanlal were also shot with the same camera. Nootrenbadhu/180 and Muppozhudum Un Karpanaigal also utilized the same technology. Now we hear that Kamal’s Viswaroopam is also made using the Red One.

The Billa II is expected to be a visual treat thanks to the EPIC camera and as it is shot at 5K resolution, it might turn out to be visual splendor. Also comes the performance capturing technology, with films like Rajini's Kochadaiyaan and Suriya's Maatraan employing the same.

Vijay's Thuppaaki directed by AR Murugadoss is being shot using the latest technology, ARRI that was introduced only later last year. It has to be noted that even the Hollywood technicians have just started using this technology for their films. 

Forget passwords??? Your palm could be key to security....

Passwords could become a thing of the past if new technology from Intel makes its way to laptops and mobile devices

The traditional security method, even when linked to different verification methods, remains an exploit that cybercriminals can pursue. Connectivity online often means that users will keep to the same password, or similar variants -- and once one account is breached, that information can be used to tap into financial information, online payment systems, or sensitive work documents.

But if Intel's prototype "Client-Based Authentication Technology" is successful, biometrics may be the latest defense against cyberattacks.

Intel researcher Sridhar Iyendar demonstrated the technology at Intel's Developer Forum this week. Waving a hand in front of a "palm vein" detector on a computer, one of Iyendar's assistants was logged into Windows 7, was able to view his bank account, and then once he moved away the computer locked Windows and went into sleeping mode.

The biometric sensors used on the laptop detect the unique vein patterns on a palm, which is of course far more difficult to forge than a password made up of "12345" or "qwerty", Lyendar said:

"The problem with passwords -- we use too many of them, their rules are complex, and they differ for different websites. There is a way out of it, and biometrics is an option."

The researcher said that once the device has recognized a user, that identity tag can be forwarded to any number of accounts securely; from banks to social networks, e-mail or business networks. This would mean individual websites would no longer need to support password networks if the tech becomes widespread.

TECHNOLOGY BEHIND 3-D MOVIES:
 3-D movies is the short name for a Stereoscopic 3-D film, a illusionary motion picture technology which has its roots based in stereoscopic photography. Based on the principle of depth perception (three-axis rule, also known as the third dimension), stereoscopic photography creates the 3 dimensional illusion by shooting the image at two slightly different angles. The glasses through which such images appear as 3-D are created on the cross-eyed view technique, the same principle as that of binoculars.

Projection System

Such a film is generally shot using two perspectives which are not too different from each other. This can either be done using two cameras or a camera with dual lenses set a uniform distance and angle from each other. The two angles can also be computer generated graphics.

Since there are two sets of films, special projection hardware is used to display the film. The film appears as a single image with the help of special glasses. Such hardware is not only available for the 70mm movie screen, but can be used for television broadcasting too. There are several new technologies which use alternative techniques cut down on costs. One such technique is ‘RealD 3D cinema‘ technology.

This is the Pace Fusion 3D digital camera, which was used for the movie Avatar. 

Single Camera Projectors

‘RealD 3D cinema’ method uses a light based technique known as the circular polarization for creating the stereoscopic image-type projection of the film. It means that using this projection system, the film need not be shot using two lenses. This reduces the cost considerably as the film can be relayed as both a 3-D projection as well as a 2-D projection, because the film is shot as 2-D but projected as 3-D. Since it’s not a color imbalance but a light based simulation, the glasses for the two are different too.

Red/Cyan Glasses

Stereoscopic photography creates an image known as anaglyph. Although two lenses are used, a single image is created. These are generally superimposed through two color filters, one in red the other in cyan. Thus when a 3-D image is projected using a stereoscopic projector system, glasses with one red and another cyan lens create the cross-eyed effect, to make the image appear as one. Although this technique has become obsolete for movie viewing, it is still largely used for Blu-ray disk or DVD movies and for promotional purposes.

RealD Projector Glasses

The RealD projector alternates images 144 times per second between the right and left eye frames. This is the crux of the circular polarization method. Since the camera has a single scene shot at normal 24 frames per second, the RealD projector displays 48 frames per second to create the 3-D effect. The silver screen on which the film is finally projected absorbs the excessive light generated because of the high frame rate display. Thus the glasses used for such a viewing have a slightly dark set of lenses which absorb the unwanted light thrown by the projector lamp. If there are rapid transitions between scenes, viewers may experience motion sickness or nausea.

How Does Text Messaging Work?

Texting on cell phones has become the preferred way of communication amongst the younger generation. Now with more sophisticated phones and smart devices, texting has spilled over into the business world and become a hit with adults. As new cell phones come out, networks are offering better solutions and packages for this new technical obsession.
Some may wonder what the technology behind text messaging is or how it is possible. How does text travel over the airwaves and reach its desired destination intact? The technology behind text messaging is SMS (short message service). SMS is used to send and receive messages to and from cellular phones. SMS has its limitations since it only allows for up to 160 characters in the messages. The 160-character limit is only for Latin letters, numbers and symbols. Other languages have a 70-character limit.

How it Works

• Cell phones are always sending and receiving information through signals even when the phone isn't in use. The signals are sent and received from a cell phone tower or control channel. In order for the phone calls and messages to come through, the control channel needs to know which phone belongs to which phone number. Depending on the location of the cell phone, it will communicate with different towers as the user moves around the city, state, country and even the world. If the phone is unable to communicate with a tower, then it will not receive a signal and can't be used.
  The control channel maps the path for SMS, or text messages. When a message is sent, it first must go through the nearby tower and then the SMS center. The SMSC receives the message and sends it to the appropriate tower closest to the location of the cell phone and then to the destination. So what is the SMS job in the entire process? SMS formats the message in a way that it is able to travel to and from the town, and still be received by the cell phone. SMS also sends data associated with the message, such as the length of the message, destination, format and time stamp.

  Pros:

  • There are reasons why users prefer text messaging over other forms of communications. For one, they are more discreet than a phone call because the threat of being overheard is removed. Sending a text message is also quicker than placing a telephone call. SMS provides portability that email and instant messaging over a computer does not (although new Smart phones are on the market that handle these tasks). SMS messages can also be delivered even if the phone is turned off or out of range. Once regular service is once again supplied to the phone, any waiting messages will come through.

  Cons:

  • There are certain disadvantages to using text messaging. The SMS technology can easily be attacked. An overwhelming number of text messages sent at once can overpower the control channels and hinder people from receiving their phone calls. Critics have also criticized the cost of text messaging and the sometimes long hold time involved in receiving messages.

  
  

TECHNOLOGY BEHIND FACEBOOK

Facebook serves 570 billion page views per month (according to Google Ad Planner).There are more photos on Facebook than all other photo sites combined (including sites like Flickr).More than 3 billion photos are uploaded every month.Facebook’s systems serve 1.2 million photos per second. This doesn’t include the images served by Facebook’s CDN.More than 25 billion pieces of content (status updates, comments, etc) are shared every month.Facebook has more than 30,000 servers (and this number is from last year)

Software that helps Facebook

Facebook still uses PHP, but it has built a compiler for it so it can be turned into native code on its web servers, thus boosting performance.

Facebook uses Linux, but has optimized it for its own purposes (especially in terms of network throughput).

Facebook uses MySQL, but primarily as a key-value persistent storage, moving joins and logic onto the web servers since optimizations are easier to perform there (on the “other side” of the Memcached layer).

Memcached

Memcached is by now one of the most famous pieces of software on the internet. It’s a distributed memory caching system which Facebook (and a ton of other sites) use as a caching layer between the web servers and MySQL servers (since database access is relatively slow). Through the years, Facebook has made a ton of optimizations to Memcached and the surrounding software (like optimizing the network stack).

Facebook runs thousands of Memcached servers with tens of terabytes of cached data at any one point in time. It is likely the world’s largest Memcached installation.

HipHop for PHP

PHP, being a scripting language, is relatively slow when compared to code that runs natively on a server. HipHop converts PHP into C++ code which can then be compiled for better performance. This has allowed Facebook to get much more out of its web servers since Facebook relies heavily on PHP to serve content.

A small team of engineers (initially just three of them) at Facebook spent 18 months developing HipHop, and it is now live in production.

Cassandra

Cassandra is a distributed storage system with no single point of failure. It’s one of the poster children for the NoSQL movement and has been made open source (it’s even become an Apache project). Facebook uses it for its Inbox search.

Other than Facebook, a number of other services use it, for example Digg. We’re even considering some uses for it here at Pingdom.

Hadoop and Hive

Hadoop is an open source map-reduce implementation that makes it possible to perform calculations on massive amounts of data. Facebook uses this for data analysis (and as we all know, Facebook has massive amounts of data). Hive originated from within Facebook, and makes it possible to use SQL queries against Hadoop, making it easier for non-programmers to use.

Both Hadoop and Hive are open source (Apache projects) and are used by a number of big services, for example Yahoo and Twitter.

EXPLORING THE MARS:

A small group of robotic space exploration geeks decided to venture out of our comfort zone and began brainstorming different approaches to flying people into space. We were spurred into action when the Augustine com­mission, a blue-ribbon panel that President Barack Obama set up earlier that year to review the space shuttle and its intended successor, reported that “the U.S. human spaceflight program appears to be on an unsustainable trajectory.” Having worked in an exciting robotic exploration program that has extended humanity’s reach from Mercury to the edge of the solar system, we wondered whether we might find technical solutions for some of NASA’s political and budgetary challenges.

Ideas abounded: using ion engines to ferry up the components of a moon base; beaming power to robotic rovers on the Martian moon Phobos; attaching high-power Hall effect thrusters to the International Space Station (ISS) and putting it on a Mars cycler orbit; preplacing chemical rocket boosters along an interplanetary trajectory in advance so astronauts could pick them up along the way; using exploration pods like those in 2001: A Space Odyssey rather than space suits; instead of sending astronauts to an asteroid, bringing a (very small) asteroid to astronauts at the space station. When we crunched the numbers, we found that electric propulsion—via an ion drive or related technologies—could dramatically reduce the launch mass required for human missions to asteroids and Mars.

DON'T GET INFECTED BY AN e-MAIL VIRUS:

Viruses are some of the oldest parasites known to humans. They probably evolved while the first cells started to populate the planet. With the invention of computers, witty programmers copied the properties of biological viruses and translated them into tiny computer programs.

The sole purpose of any virus is to replicate and spread itself. Damage to the host system is a potential consequence. The most common way for a virus to enter a computer is via email. So how do people get infected by an email virus?

Shouldn’t everyone know how viruses enter a computer and be prepared?

1. A Virus As An Email Hoax

As mentioned in the introduction, viruses typically are programs. But that’s not always the case. Some viruses speculate on nothing but your naivety. Did you ever forward a chain letter, a virus warning, or the email of a desperate parent whose child needed an organ donation? You probably fell for a hoax and helped to spread it.

In this case the virus is the email itself, although it’s not really an infection. The damage, however, is the same as with other viruses: clogging up of inboxes and mailservers. Email viruses generally cause a waste of time, resources, and energy.

Next time you receive a potential hoax email, don’t forward it unless you’re sure it’s genuine. 

2. A Virus In An Email Attachment

While forwarding an email doesn’t cause you any major damage, an infection with a “real” computer virus, i.e. a self-replicating program, is a lot more critical. There are “harmless” variants that just forward themselves to your contacts. However, a virus may also be programmed for example, to destroy specific files on your system.

Most viruses are delivered through an email attachment. Attachments that contain viruses are either executable programs (file types: .com, .exe, .vbs, .zip, .scr, .dll, .pif, .js) or macro viruses (file types: .doc, .dot, .xls, .xlt). The safest way to avoid them is to not open email attachments.

Note that you can safely open Word documents in alternative programs that don’t support macros, such as Wordpad or Open Office. Some viruses try to hide their true file extension by adding two of them. That’s what the ILOVEYOU virus did; its name was “LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs”.

The good news is that downloading and reading the email will not do you any harm. As long as the attachment is not opened, the virus won’t hatch. If you don’t know the sender and if the email text is suspicious, just delete the email along with the attachment

3. A Virus In The Email Body

Last but not least, malicious content can be found in the body of an email. Today, HTML is a common element of emails as it is used to embed pictures and links. However, HTML can also be used to embed scripts that execute automatically and subsequently infect your computer with a virus. That’s why many mail programs, by default, block HTML and make you click a button to display content of trustworthy sources. It’s a precaution you should not turn off.

Also, URLs can be a virus in disguise. You may see a harmless link that either leads you to a website that executes a malicious script or links to a completely different URL where you automatically download a self-executing virus.