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Brain Preservation Foundation featured in the latest Cryonics Magazine
The new issue of Cryonics Magazine features an article by Ken Hayworth, president of the Brain Preservation Foundation, in which he explains the thinking behind his organization's Technology Prize.
The prize, says Hayworth, draws inspiration from both the Ansari X-Prize, which incentivized the development of low-cost manned spacecrafts for use in the commercial space industry, and the as-yet-unclaimed James Randi Educational Foundation's Paranormal Challenge Prize, which challenges individuals claiming paranormal abilities to demonstrate them and win $1,000,000. In the spirit of those prizes, Hayworth believes the Technology Prize will both accelerate the development of low-cost, high-quality whole brain preservation technologies and legitimize these technologies for neuroscientists, who have so far been skeptical of cryopreservation and related techniques.
The issue also contains a response to Hayworth's article written by Alcor representative Mike Perry.
Download the complete issue of Cryonics Magazine here. For more information on the Brain Preservation Foundation and the Technology Prize, visit http://www.brainpreservation.org.
Adam Curtis’s All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace
Adam Curtis' new documentary mini-series is now airing on the BBC: All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. The series will investigate the role of technology in politics, economics, and self identity.
In the first episode, Love and Power, Curtis tracks the effects of Ayn Rand's ideas on American financial markets, particularly via the influence on Alan Greenspan.
Be sure to check out Curtis's other docs, especially The Trap, The Power of Nightmares, and The Century of the Self.
Museums: cemeteries!
TJ Norris and Scott Wayne Indiana, M_US__EUM, 2007
via D.T. of Pictures That Like Me
Museums: cemeteries!… Identical, surely, in the sinister promiscuity of so many bodies unknown to one another. Museums: public dormitories where one lies forever beside hated or unknown beings. Museums: absurd abattoirs of painters and sculptors ferociously slaughtering each other with color-blows and line-blows, the length of the fought-over walls!
Musei: cimiteri!… Identici, veramente, per la sinistra promiscuità di tanti corpi che non si conoscono. Musei: dormitori pubblici in cui si riposa per sempre accanto ad esseri odiati o ignoti! Musei: assurdi macelli di pittori e scultori che varino trucidandosi ferocemente a colpi di colori e di linee, lungo le pareti contese!
Musées, cimetières!… Identiques vraiment dans leur sinistre coudoiement de corps qui ne se connaissent pas. Dortoirs publics où l’on dort à jamais côte à côte avec des êtres hais ou inconnus. Férocité réciproque des peintres et des sculpteurs s’entre-tuant à coups de lignes et de couleurs dans le même musée.
- Fondazione e Manifesto del Futurismo, 1909
Beneq Launches Roll-to-Roll ALD System for Wide Flexible Substrates
Following the pioneering work in spatial atomic layer deposition and the launch of the revolutionizing research and development tool TFS 200R for continuous ALD in 2009, Beneq has closed the deal for a roll-to-roll ALD system, the Web Coating System WCS 500.
Team reports scalable fabrication of self-aligned graphene transistors, circuits
UCLA researchers report that they have developed a scalable approach to fabricating these high-speed graphene transistors.
Previously unknown and unexpected mechanism gives rise to superconductivity in specific types of materials
The debate over the mechanism that causes superconductivity in a class of materials called the pnictides has been settled by a research team from Japan and China.
Alcoa, RUSNANO and Holding IDGC Sign Memorandum of Intent to Produce Nanocoatings for Power Transmission Grids
Alcoa, OJSC RUSNANO and JSC Holding Interregional Distribution Grid Companies (JSC Holding IDGC) signed today a Memorandum of Intent to establish a joint venture for the development and production of nanocoatings.
EU-funded project develops rechargeable batteries for cars of the future
A team of EU-funded researchers is leading the development of a unique type of sustainable zinc-based rechargeable battery for electric vehicles (EV) and hybrid EVs (HEVs).
Packing the ions – discovery boosts supercapacitor energy storage
Drexel University's Yury Gogotsi and colleagues recently needed an atom's-eye view of a promising supercapacitor material to sort out experimental results that were exciting but appeared illogical. The team discovered you can increase the energy stored in a carbon supercapacitor dramatically by shrinking pores in the material to a seemingly impossible size - seemingly impossible because the pores were smaller than the solvent-covered electric charge-carriers that were supposed to fit within them.
Graphene may gain an ‘on-off switch’, adding semiconductor to its capabilities
A team of researchers has proposed a way to turn the material graphene into a semiconductor, enabling it to control the flow of electrons with a laser "on-off switch".
RUSNANO to Invest in High Tensile Strength Sawing Wire for Solar Energy and Microelectronics
RUSNANO and company Terwingo have signed an investment agreement for construction of Russia's first factory to manufacture a distinctive steel wire for cutting silicon and sapphire. The wire is a key consumable in the production of solar battery elements and microelectronic units.
Fraktion Die Linke fordert Gesetzentwurf zur Regulierung von Nanomaterialien
Die Fraktion Die Linke fordert in einem Antrag von der Bundesregierung, einen Gesetzentwurf zur Erfassung und Regulierung von Nanostoffen zum Schutz der Verbraucher vorzulegen.
Television for the nose
Progress toward smell television: targeted release of various scents from individually addressable chambers.
Check Out SPOT Macro Imaging Solution
Got a look at this product last week - very nice controls and outstanding images in a nutshell. One of the best gross photo stands I have seen in a longtime.
PathStand 24™ Macro Imaging Station for Enhanced Pathology Grossing is Worth a Look:The PathStand 24 digital imaging station produces high-quality images to support your diagnoses and provide visual evidence for your pathology reports.
The PathStand 24 is a complete stand-alone imaging station for the pathology grossing laboratory, with foot-pedal controlled integrated digital camera and calibrated zoom lens. Section lines, block labels, measurements and other annotations can be added directly to the image using the touch-screen monitor, and then transferred directly to your LIMS system.
- Long-lasting high intensity LED lighting provides optimal color temperature for excellent color reproduction
- Compatible with LIMS systems including Cerner CoPath and ApolloLIMS
- Built-in polarizers eliminate glare from wet tissue samples to provide impressive detail and clarity
- Integrated scientific digital camera produces research quality images with low noise
- Made with stainless steel construction and fasteners to be corrosion and solvent-resistant in the laboratory environment
- Available barcode scanning of case and sample information reduces the potential for errors and speeds up the data entry process
- Turn-key imaging station design allows your laboratory to get up and running quickly
http://www.spotimaging.com/pathsuite/pathstand24.html
Pathology Resource — IBM Super Computer
Watson is capable of assessing health data, including medical laboratory test results
When IBM’s Watson “supercomputer” squared off against human contestants on theJeopardy game show last February, there certainly were some pathologists andclinical laboratory managers watching this “man versus machine” battle of knowledge. But those pathologists and medical lab managers did not realize that IBM intends for Watson to play a major role in helping physicians diagnose and treat disease.
See full story from Dark Daily.
IBM’s Watson supercomputer defeated Ken Jennings (left) and Brad Rutter (right) to win $1 million for charity. Someday it may be used by physicians, including pathologists, to better treat patients. (Image sourced from The New York Times.) -- Taken from Dark Daily.
CAP Highlights to CMS Pathologists’ Potential Roles in ACOs
While Medicare’s proposed accountable care organization (ACO) rule doesn’t impede pathologists from actively contributing to the model’s success, one concern is that it may not enable pathologists to maximize their value within the health care system. The College outlined these and other observations in official comments to CMS on the proposed rule, submitted earlier this week.
Read full story at CAP STATLINE.
More CAP STATLINE news:
Noted Pathologist James Madara, MD, Named AMA CEO
The AMA has announced that distinguished academic pathologist, James L. Madara, MD, will take over as Executive Vice President and CEO as of July 1. The current EVP and CEO, Michael Maves, MD, will end his tenure on June 30.
Dr. Madara comes to the AMA from Leavitt Partners, where he was senior advisor at the health care consulting firm started by former Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt. Before joining Leavitt Partners, Dr. Madara was at the University of Chicago from 2002-2009, where he served as the Thompson Distinguished Service Professor and Dean at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, as well as the CEO of the University of Chicago Medical Center. Prior to this post, he was the Timmie Professor and Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
Read full story.
Tomororrow Night at Observatory: Exhibition Opening Party for "The Corrigan Family Oddments," Curated by G. F. Newland
Tomorrow night! Hope to see you there!
Exhibition Opening Party for "The Corrigan Family OddmentsCurated by G. F. NewlandDate: Tomorrow, Friday, June 17Time: 7-10pmGreetings Art fans! In celebration of Father’s Day, the Observatory Things-That-Move Dept. invites you all to take a peek at procreation! In nature, talents can be predisposed, and passed on from generation to generation. Families like the Gentileschis, the Peales, the Bachs, the Wyethes, and most recently, the Kominsky-Crumbs have all made a strong case for this heredity thing; the Bush presidencies, not so much, but hey, it’s a crap shoot! Anyway, our latest show is about a wee dynasty of painters named Corrigan, and through their family oddments, we will examine art, eccentricity, and the vagaries of genetic code.The Corrigan Family Oddments features the work of Dennis Corrigan and his two adult daughters, Sara and Becky. Dennis Corrigan–the family patriarch–rose to prominence in the art world of the late 1960s after returning from his tour of duty in the Philippines during the Vietnam war. He continues to pursue an active studio life involving the production of intricate and creepy yet humorous paintings, and film projects based on puppet characters derived from those paintings. His work resides in museums and galleries around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum or Art and the Brooklyn Museum. Sara, his oldest daughter, is a filmmaker and film-editor who has worked with such luminaries as Woody Allen; her fine art work consists of bizarre images of an imaginary and desperate Marilyn Monroe wannabe. These delightful yet deranged little paintings are created in oil on canvas. Becky, the youngest daughter, works as a singer-songwriter and physical therapist while creating very simple line drawings of ludicrous characters and more complex oil portraits of people on the edge.This promises to be a most enjoyable show revealing the concepts and skills, similarities and differences of a very talented and humorous family of artists.
You can find out more about this event on the Observatory website by clicking here. You can get directions to Observatory--which is next door to the Morbid Anatomy Library (more on that here)--by clicking here. You can find out more about Observatory here, join our mailing list by clicking here, and join us on Facebook by clicking here.Image: Satisfied Nicotine Freaks, Dennis Corrigan, Oil on Canvas
Jan Ladmiral (1698 – 1773)
I just discovered the amazing anatomical mezzotints of 18th Century artist Jan Ladmiral (see above) via, of all things, a humorous blog post flaming Congressman Anthony Weiner on a blog called Booktryst. The work is gorgeous, and remind me of another of my favorite anatomical artists, Jacques Fabian Gautier d'Agoty; see this recent post for more on that.A bit about Jan Ladmiral, from the original Booktryst post:
Jan Ladmiral (1698 - 1773) was a pupil and assistant to the great anatomical illustrator Jacob Christoph Le Blon (1670 - 1741). Afterward, Ladmiral, apparently, presumed ownership of Le Blon's secret invention for coloring mezzotint engravings, a process using three different impressions of primary colors (blue, yellow, and red) for one image and thus able to produce different color values without the use of black."Ladmiral offered his services in the making of colored anatomical representations to the famous anatomist, Albinus in Leyden. This anatomist put his (Ladmiral's] invention to the test and even permitted him to use two posthumous drawings by Ruysch…" (Choulant and Streeter, History and Bibliography of Anatomic Illustration, p. 267).Between 1736 and 1741 Ladmiral created six colored mezzotints of anatomical subjects that made his reputation and remain highly regarded as amongst the finest examples ever produced. Three of those mezzotints are seen here. The initial print in the series, Muscularis mucosae of the intestine, from 1736, is a milestone, the first use of color printing in a medical or scientific book...
You can read the entire piece in context by clicking here.Images top to bottom:
- Brain of an Unborn Child (1738)
- Muscularis mucosae of the intestine (1736)
- Human penis (1741)
Lomography Camera Launch Party and Grand Store Reopening (with Mermaid!), Thursday June 16th, Free
Lomography--a company championing low-tech, low-fi film photography--is launching a new nautical-themed analog camera, and have invited me to be an experimental first user! So, look forward to lots of charmingly imperfect images--such as the one you see above, produced on one of their cameras--in the days and weeks to come.Also of interest: this new camera will be officially unveiled at a launch party taking place at their Greenwich Village shop this Thursday, and will feature free snacks (!) and drinks (!!!) AND a live mermaid (what is it about mermaids these days?)Full details for the launch party follow. Hope to see you there!
Camera Launch Party and Grand Store ReopeningDate: Thursday, June 16Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pmLocation: Lomography Gallery Store41 W 8th Street, New York, New YorkThe Lomography Gallery Store NYC Greenwich will be returning like a siren as we celebrate an updated shop and a brand new camera while we unveil the first ever Lomography Fish Market!The tide is coming in and it’s bringing a new product ashore! Join us at our Greenwich Village location on Thursday, June 16th at 7pm for a huge party to celebrate our latest catch and tons of new shop features.We will need all hands on deck as we give our guests the chance to win this new mystery product & “go fishing” for film & other analog goodies. We will have a real-live mermaid in attendance as well as musical entertainment by SUPERCUTE! Not to mention drinks and snacks galore.So prepare the sails and bait your hooks! We’ll see you on Thursday, June 16th at 7pm.
More about the event can be found here. You can RSVP on Facebook by clicking here.Image was sourced here.
