Ice oceans of the Arctic and Antarctic secret revealed

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Feb 172009

Ice oceans of the Arctic and Antarctic have revealed a trove of secrets to Census of Marine Life explorers, who were especially surprised to find at least 235 species live in both polar seas despite a distance of more than 13,000-kilometer distance in between.

The scientists had found marine life that in Both Arctic And Antarctic poles apparently share in common things include marathoners such as grey whales and birds, but also worms, crustaceans, and angelic snail-like pteropods, the latter discoveries opening a host of future research questions about where they originated and how they wound up at both ends of the Earth. These discoveries result in series of landmark.

Among many other findings, the scientists also documented evidence of cold water-loving species shifting towards both poles to escape rising ocean temperatures. Chionodraco hamatus, an Antarctic ice fish, can withstand temperatures that freeze the blood of all other fish types.

Optical Brain Imaging Decodes

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Feb 122009

Canada’s largest children’s rehabilitation hospital have developed a new technique that uses infrared light brain imaging to decode preference with the goal of ultimately opening the world of choice to children who can’t speak or move.

Bloorview scientists demonstrate the ability to decode a person’s preference for one of two drinks with 80 per cent accuracy by measuring the intensity of near infrared light absorbed in brain tissue.
“This is the first system that decodes preference naturally from spontaneous thoughts,”
After teaching the computer to recognize the unique pattern of brain activity associated with preference for each subject, the researchers accurately predicted which drink the participants liked best 80 per cent of the time.

Most brain-computer interfaces designed to read thoughts require training.
Wearing a headband fitted with fibre-optics that emit light into the pre-frontal cortex of the brain, they were shown two drinks on a computer monitor, one after the other, and asked to make a mental decision about which they liked more. “When your brain is active, the oxygen in your blood increases and depending on the concentration, it absorbs more or less light.”

Luu says. “In some people, their brains are more active when they don’t like something, and in some people they’re more active when they do like something.”

Luu says. The brain is too complex to ever allow decoding of a person’s random thoughts. “However, if we limit the context limit the question and available answers, as we have with predicting preference – then mind-reading becomes possible.“

Antifreeze Fish Hold Secret Of Survival Of Antarctic

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Oct 192008

A genetic study of a fish that lives in the icy waters off Antarctica sheds light on the adaptations that enable it to survive in one of the harshest environments on the planet. The study is the first to search the genome of an Antarctic notothenioid fish for clues to its astounding hardiness.

These fish can withstand temperatures that would turn most fish to ice. Their ability to live in the cold – and oxygen-rich

“If you have a drastic rise in the water temperature we don’t know how well the Antarctic fish will adapt, whether they will die out or not,”. And if they do, then the whole Antarctic food web will be drastically affected.”

Cheng’s lab currently is conducting studies on how the fish respond to warming.