Elon Musk’s brain tech company, Neuralink, is subject to rampant speculation and misunderstanding. Just start a Google search with the phrase “can Neuralink…” and you’ll see the questions that are commonly asked, which include “can Neuralink cure depression?” and “can Neuralink control you?” Musk hasn’t helped ground the company’s reputation in reality with his public […]
Feeling tired? Applying electricity to a nerve in the neck with a handheld device can reduce fatigue and improve multitasking in sleep-deprived people, according to a new study conducted on U.S. Air Force volunteers. Previous research found that electrically stimulating the brain with a technique known as transcranial direct current stimulation can improve mental performance […]
During the course of the pandemic, public-health authorities have tried the best they could to provide guidelines about what is or isn’t safe. That’s a tough job, for many reasons, not the least of which is that scientific understanding of the COVID-19 virus and its transmission is constantly evolving, as are conditions on the ground. What’s more, […]
The ancient art of handwriting has just pushed the field of brain-computer interface (BCI) to the next level. Researchers have devised a system that allows a person to communicate directly with a computer from his brain by imagining creating handwritten messages. The approach enables communication at a rate more than twice as fast as previous typing-by-brain experiments. […]
It took a global pandemic to accomplish one of the most significant advances in the history of vaccinology: widespread, commercial deployment of vaccines derived from nucleic acids. As of this writing, hundreds of millions of people have been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. And most of those shots have been the Pfizer–BioNTech […]
Humans have two nostrils, which you’d think would allow us to determine the direction of smells, in the same way that two ears let us determine the direction of sounds. But that’s not how it works, sadly—humans, in general, are not stereo smellers. We can track down a smell by moving our head and body while […]
Is totally unobtrusive control of my devices really too much to ask? Apparently, it is, because every device that I own insists that I either poke it, yammer at it, or wave it around to get it to do even the simplest of things. This is mildly annoying when I’m doing just about anything that […]
How much does it itch? That’s a question doctors often ask people with eczema and other itch-inducing ailments, but the answer is subjective and hard to quantify; like being asked to rate one’s pain using one of those emoji-face pain scales. Today researchers report in Science Advances a wearable sensor that can accurately quantify how much a person […]
One year ago, when the coronavirus pandemic was first tearing through the United States, experts bemoaned the lack of fast, accurate, and portable tests to diagnose COVID-19. Now, finally, rapid at-home tests have started appearing on drug store shelves—these are tests that are sold over the counter, without need for a prescription. But the tests […]
One year ago, when the coronavirus pandemic was first tearing through the United States, experts bemoaned the lack of fast, accurate, and portable tests to diagnose COVID-19. Now, finally, rapid at-home tests have started appearing on drug store shelves—these are tests that are sold over the counter, without need for a prescription. But the tests […]