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Washington: A team led by an Indian-origin scientist has developed a rapid, <keyword id="10402460" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="ultrasensitive-covid-19-test">ultrasensitive Covid-19 test</keyword> using a paper-based <keyword id="10402462" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="electrochemical-sensor">electrochemical sensor</keyword> that can detect the presence of the novel coronavirus in less than five minutes. The researchers from the University of Illinois in the US created a graphene-based <keyword id="10402461" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="electrochemical-biosensor">electrochemical biosensor</keyword> with an electrical read-out setup to selectively detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 genetic material. <br /><br />According to the research published in the journal ACS Nano, there are two components to this biosensor: a platform to measure an electrical read-out and probes to detect the presence of viral RNA. <br /><br />To create the platform, the researchers led by professor Dipanjan Pan first coated filter paper with a layer of graphene nanoplatelets to create a conductive film. <br /><br />They then placed a <keyword id="10403665" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="gold-electrode">gold electrode</keyword> with a predefined design on top of the graphene as a contact pad for electrical readout. <br /><br />Both gold and graphene have high sensitivity and conductivity which makes this platform ultrasensitive to detect changes in electrical signals, the researchers noted. <br /><br />"Graphene exhibits unique mechanical and electrochemical properties that make it ideal for the development of sensitive electrochemical sensors," said Maha Alafeef, a graduate student at the University of Illinois Grainger College of Engineering. <br /><br />Current RNA-based Covid-19 tests screen for the presence of the N-gene (nucleocapsid phosphoprotein) on the SARS-CoV-2 virus, they said. <br /><br />In the new research, the team designed antisense oligonucleotide (ASOs) probes to target two regions of the N-gene. <br /><br />Targeting two regions ensures the reliability of the sensor in case one region undergoes gene mutation, according to the researchers. <br /><br />The gold nanoparticles (AuNP) are capped with these single-stranded nucleic acids (ssDNA), which represents an ultra-sensitive sensing probe for the SARS-CoV-2 RNA. <br /><br />The team tested the performance of this sensor by using Covid-19 positive and negative samples. <br /><br />The sensor showed a significant increase in the voltage of positive samples compared to the negative ones and confirmed the presence of viral genetic material in less than five minutes. <br /><br />The sensor was able to differentiate viral RNA loads in these samples. Viral load is an important quantitative indicator of the progress of infection and a challenge to measure using existing diagnostic methods. <br /><br />The researchers noted that this platform has far-reaching applications due to its portability and low cost. <br /><br />The sensor, when integrated with microcontrollers and LED screens or with a smartphone via Bluetooth or wifi, could be used at the point-of-care in a doctor's office or even at home, they said. <br /><br />Beyond Covid-19, the research team also foresees the system to be adaptable for the detection of many different diseases.<br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/what-is-pm-wani-public-wifi-platform-launched-by-union-cabinet/articleshow/79642267.cms">Government’s plan for public Wi-Fi lets anyone from the kirana store owner to tea shop stalls sign up to provide the internet</a><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/the-33-billion-itc-one-of-indias-most-trolled-stock-in-recent-weeks-seems-to-have-turned-a-corner/articleshow/79641456.cms"><strong>The $33 billion ITC, one of India’s most-trolled stock in recent weeks, seems to have turned a corner</strong></a><br />

Indian-origin scientist's paper-based test can detect COVID-19 in less than five minutes

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have designed a novel, tiny device capable of storing an enormous amount of electric charge. The ultra-micro supercapacitor is also much smaller and more compact than existing supercapacitors and can potentially be used in many devices ranging from streetlights to consumer electronics, electric cars and medical devices, according to Bengaluru-based IISc. <br /><br />Most of these devices are currently powered by batteries. However, over time, these batteries lose their ability to store charge and therefore have a limited shelf life, it said. <br /><br />Capacitors, on the other hand, can store electric charge for much longer, by virtue of their design. For example, a capacitor operating at five volts will continue to operate at the same voltage even after a decade. But unlike batteries, they cannot discharge energy constantly - to power a mobile phone, for example. <br /><br />Supercapacitors, on the other hand, combine the best of both batteries and capacitors - they can store as well as release large amounts of energy, and are therefore highly sought-after for next-generation electronic devices. <br /><br />In the current study, published in 'ACS Energy Letters', the researchers from IISc's Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics (<keyword id="63950" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="iap" source="Orion">IAP</keyword>), fabricated their supercapacitor using 'Field Effect Transistors' or FETs as the charge collectors, instead of the metallic electrodes that are used in existing capacitors. <br /><br />"Using <keyword id="2298292" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="fet" source="Orion">FET</keyword> as an electrode for supercapacitors is something new for tuning charge in a capacitor," <keyword id="17005548" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="abha-misra" source="Orion">Abha Misra</keyword>, Professor at IAP and corresponding author of the study, was quoted as saying in an IISc statement issued on Friday. <br /><br />Current capacitors typically use metal oxide-based electrodes, but they are limited by poor electron mobility. <br /><br />Therefore, <keyword id="121202" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="misra" source="Orion">Misra</keyword> and her team decided to build hybrid FETs consisting of alternating few-atoms-thick layers of molybdenum disulphide (MoS2) and graphene - to increase electron mobility - which are then connected to gold contacts. <br /><br />A solid gel electrolyte is used between the two FET electrodes to build a solid-state supercapacitor. The entire structure is built on a silicon dioxide/silicon base. <br /><br />Misra says, "The design is the critical part, because you are integrating two systems." The two systems are the two FET electrodes and the gel electrolyte, an ionic medium, which have different charge capacities, she added. <br /><br />Vinod Panwar, PhD student at IAP and one of the lead authors, adds that it was challenging to fabricate the device to get all the ideal characteristics of the transistor right. Since these supercapacitors are very small, they cannot be seen without a microscope, and the fabrication process requires high precision and hand-eye coordination. <br /><br />Once the supercapacitor was fabricated, the researchers measured the electrochemical capacitance or charge-holding capacity of the device by applying various voltages. They found that under certain conditions, the capacitance increased by 3,000 per cent. By contrast, a capacitor containing just MoS2 without graphene showed only an 18 per cent enhancement in capacitance under the same conditions. <br /><br />In the future, the researchers are planning to explore if replacing MoS2 with other materials can increase the capacitance of their supercapacitor even more. They add that their supercapacitor is fully functional and can be deployed in energy-storage devices like electric car batteries or any miniaturised system by on-chip integration. They are also planning to apply for a patent on the supercapacitor.<br /><br /><b>SEE ALSO:</b><br /><br /> <b><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/no-festive-cheer-for-auto-cos-in-march-pv-sales-flattish-2ws-to-see-a-slight-uptick/articleshow/99145011.cms">No festive cheer for auto cos in March: PV sales ‘flattish’, 2Ws to see a slight uptick</a></b><br /><br /> <b><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/stock-market/news/the-alpha-creators-bank-and-it-stocks-outperform-nifty50-in-the-last-11-years/articleshow/99114789.cms">The Alpha Creators: Bank and IT stocks outperform Nifty50 in the last 11 years</a></b><br /><br /> <b><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/npci-introduces-interchange-fees-on-upi-transactions-done-via-prepaid-payment-instruments/articleshow/99080455.cms">Will UPI payments now attract charges? Decoding NPCI’s interchange fee on UPI transactions via prepaid payment instruments</a></b><br />

IISc researchers design tiny supercapacitor capable of storing large amount of electric charge

New York, Researchers, including an Indian-origin, have identified an advanced nanomaterial-based biosensing platform that detects, within seconds, <keyword id="102007" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Antibodies">antibodies</keyword> specific to SARS-CoV-2, the <keyword id="9552202" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="virus-responsible">virus responsible</keyword> for the Covid-19 pandemic.<br /><br />In addition to testing, the platform will help to quantify patient <keyword id="1441458" type="DOMAIN" weightage="20" keywordseo="immunological">immunological</keyword> response to the new vaccines with precision, according to a paper published in the journal <keyword id="712433" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Advanced-Materials">Advanced Materials</keyword>.<br /><br />"We utilized the latest advances in materials and manufacturing such as nanoparticle 3D printing to create a device that rapidly detects Covid-19 antibodies," said researcher Rahul Panat, Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in the US.<br /><br />The testing platform identifies the presence of two of the virus' antibodies, spike S1 protein and receptor-binding domain (RBD), in a very small drop of blood (about 5 microliters).<br /><br />Antibody concentrations can be extremely low and still detected below one picomolar (0.15 nanograms per millilitre). This detection happens through an <keyword id="10568667" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="electrochemical-reaction">electrochemical reaction</keyword> within a handheld microfluidic device which sends <keyword id="6402403" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="results">results</keyword> almost immediately to a simple interface on a smartphone.<br /><br />According to the researchers, an additive manufacturing technology called aerosol jet 3D printing is responsible for the efficiency and accuracy of the testing platform. Tiny, inexpensive gold micropillar electrodes are printed at the nanoscale using aerosol droplets that are thermally sintered together.<br /><br />This causes a rough, irregular surface that provides an increased surface area of the micropillars and an enhanced electrochemical reaction, where antibodies can latch on to antigens coated on the electrode. The specific geometry allows the micropillars to load more proteins for detection, resulting in very accurate, quick results.<br /><br />The test has a very low error rate because the binding reaction between the antibody and antigen used in the device is highly selective. The researchers were able to exploit this natural design to their advantage.<br /><br />The results come at an urgent time during the Covid-19 pandemic. "Because our technique can quantify the immune response to vaccination, it is very relevant in the current environment," Panat said.<br /><br /><br /><strong>SEE ALSO:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/corporates/news/tcs-delivers-yet-another-strong-quarter-with-16-growth-in-profit-as-covid-drives-tech-spending/articleshow/80173561.cms">TCS delivers yet another strong quarter with 16% growth in profit as COVID drives tech spending</a><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/retail/news/dmart-the-nearly-two-trillion-dollar-indian-retailer-may-post-strong-earnings-watch-out-for-the-progress-on-e-commerce/articleshow/80172629.cms">DMart, the nearly two trillion dollar Indian retailer, may post strong earnings ⁠— watch out for the progress on e-commerce</a><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/oyo-bags-a-7-4-million-cheque-as-pandemic-forces-ritesh-agarwal-to-reimagine-the-business/articleshow/80170847.cms"><strong>OYO bags a $7.4 million cheque as pandemic forces Ritesh Agarwal to reimagine the business</strong></a><br />

Researchers identified advanced biosensing platform that detects COVID-19 antibodies within seconds

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Image</span></p><p class="caption">SpaceX and Tesla chief Elon Musk speaks during a press conference after the launch of SpaceX Crew Dragon Demo mission at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 2, 2019</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>Elon Musk founded neural tech company Neuralink in 2016. This year the company showcased the technology it's developing - a chip connected to wires which fan out into the human brain, capable of both recording brain activity and stimulating it.</strong></li><li><strong>Musk has extolled the technology saying it could be used for people with neural conditions and disorders, but has also predicted it could enable human "symbiosis with artificial intelligence."</strong></li><li><strong>He also boasted that the technology had experienced limited success already as the company had got a monkey to "control a computer with its brain."</strong></li><li><strong>Business Insider spoke to two neuroscientists to find out exactly how innovative Neuralink is. Both said that while components of Neuralink's design are exciting, the fact a monkey had been able to control a computer isn't as impressive as it sounds.</strong></li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.</a></li></ul><p>Tesla CEO Elon Musk has an unusual passion project: a neural tech company called Neuralink.</p><p>Musk cofounded Neuralink in 2016, and the company remained relatively under the radar until 2017 when <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-launches-neuralink-to-connect-brains-with-computers-1490642652">the Wall Street Journal</a> broke the news that he had established the company to "merge computers with human brains."</p><p>Developing brain chips is a curious side hustle for a man who is simultaneously running Tesla, his space exploration company SpaceX, and The Boring Company, which Musk hopes will dig underground transit systems for cities.</p><p>But Neuralink zeroes in on one of Musk's main fears - artificial intelligence. The entrepreneur has frequently been vocal about his worries that AI could one day come to overshadow the human race. He's founded a general-purpose research organization called OpenAI but Neuralink has a much more tangible, futuristic goal of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-neuralink-implants-link-brains-to-internet-next-year-2019-7?r=US&amp;IR=T">making AI-enabled devices capable of interacting with people's brains</a>.</p><p>In July, Neuralink executives and Musk gave a presentation on the technology the firm has developed so far.</p><p>The big reveal was a tiny microchip that could, theoretically, be implanted behind a person's ear with tiny threads containing electrodes fanning out into the brain.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Neuralink/YouTube</span></p><p class="caption">The chip sits behind the ear, while electrodes are threaded into the brain.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The concept isn't new.</p><p>Scientists have already created devices capable of both interpreting brain activity and stimulating the neurons in the brain. A memorable demonstration of the technology was in 2012 when paralyzed patients were able to control a robotic arm.</p><p>However, Elon Musk doesn't want to stick with what is already possible. He said, in classic Muskian style, that apart from treating neural conditions such as Parkinson's, he hopes that Neuralink could one day facilitate a "symbiosis" between humans and AI. He also excitedly announced that the company had successfully got a monkey to "control a computer with its brain," and that Neuralink hopes to start human testing "before the end of next year."</p><p>Business Insider spoke to two neuroscientists to sort the <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="science">science</keyword> from the spin.</p><p>"There's definitely some bombastic points and some much more realistic aspects of the announcement," said Andrew Hires, an assistant professor of neurobiology at the University of California. He came away from Neuralink's presentation with the sense that Neuralink had improved on existing technologies in three significant ways.</p><h2>1. Floppy wires could move with the brain without causing damage</h2><p>The wires on Neuralink's proposed device uses Hires thinks could advance the field because of just how floppy they are. "The fact that they're using these flexible wires is a significant innovation, particularly if they're trying to get it into consumers," said Hires. Each wire is slightly slimmer than a human hair and carries electrodes which are both able to detect brain activity and - theoretically - stimulate it.</p><p>"Stiff wires in the brain cause a lot of damage because the brain can move around," Hires pointed out, adding that a living brain is very soft, much softer than the specimens you might have seen in jars which have been stiffened with formaldehyde. "It's a lot softer than jello," he said. Floppy wires like the ones Neuralink described could potentially be a better solution for any device that's going to spend a long period embedded in someone's brain because they're less likely to inflame or damage the tissue.</p><p>This is not a new technology, but it is recent enough that we don't know if these wires could last more than a couple of years. "The technology's only been out for like a year or two. It could be that these flexible wires are less reliable, less robust, maybe they're gonna break," said Hires.</p><p>Dr. Rylie Green of Imperial College London noted that the material used to make the threads is quite a commonly used polymer in the field. She also noticed that the electrodes themselves are made of gold, which she calls a "research-level technology," rather than being ready to put into people's brains.</p><h2>2. A sewing machine instead of a surgeon</h2><p>One big problem with floppy wires is they can be difficult to thread into the brain, and for this Neuralink has invented something entirely new. The probes would be inserted into the brain by a device not dissimilar to a sewing machine, which would use a stiff needle to poke the threads into place about 1 millimeter into the outer surface of the brain, or the cortex.</p><p>Hires said the idea of this sewing machine is "brand new" and a significant innovation. He has had to perform insertions of similar devices into the brains of mice by hand. "Doing this stuff by hand, these are very fine things… it's very hard to have a steady enough hand to do these things manually," he said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Neuralink</span></p><p class="caption">Neuralink's sewing machine-like robot would punch the wires into the subject's brain.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Specifically Hires was impressed by a feature on the machine which counteracts the fact that the human brain likes to jiggle around. "There's breathing, the heartbeat, and those two factors can move the brain around a little bit," said Hires.</p><p>The feature is called online motion correction, and works by taking video of the brain's blood vessels under a microscope and then using a robot to adjust the needle to move with those blood vessels.</p><h2>3. A super-powered chip which translates brain activity</h2><p>The final weapon in Neuralink's arsenal is the chip which will interpret the brain activity being picked up by the electrodes.</p><p>"There's a problem with getting electrical signals out of the brain, and that is that they're very small. And the farther they have to travel down a thin wire the more they're going to get distorted by noise, because there's always some electrical noise going on in the world around us. You want to be able to amplify and digitize the signal as close to the source as possible," Hires said.</p><p>"From what they disclosed in their whitepaper, that chip looks beyond the state of the art... That's going to enable you to record from more places with higher precision," he said. "It's sort of like upgrading your TV to go from standard definition to high definition," he added.</p><p>To Dr. Rylie Green, the most exciting thing about Neuralink isn't that any of these three technologies are groundbreaking in and of themselves, but rather that they've been brought together. "All those different aspects have been under development for quite some time, and it's nice to see them all come together in one device," she said.</p><h2>Don't get too excited about the monkeys</h2><p>Although Musk was eager to tell the audience at the Neuralink presentation that the technology had allowed a monkey to "control a computer with its brain," neither Hires nor Green were massively surprised or impressed by this.</p><p>"The monkey is not surfing the internet. The monkey is probably moving a cursor to move a little ball to try to match a target," said Hires. Musk himself didn't give any detail about Neuralink's primate testing during the July presentation. "This is something you can already do with traditional brain-machine interfaces... I'm not surprised they've been able to achieve that," added Hires.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>China Daily via REUTERS</span></p><p class="caption">Scientists are already able to turn monkey's thoughts into computer commands.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"Doing it with this device is something that could be considered to be impressive or different based on the sheer size of them being quite small or them using different sorts of materials, but it's to elucidate that unless they've actually written it down [and] shown the data," said Green.</p><h2>Neuralink's most likely use: Giving robotic limbs the feeling of touch</h2><p>While Elon Musk is keen to extol the future merging of AI and human consciousness, Hires and Green are more excited by the near-term benefits the technology could bring.</p><p>"The first application you can imagine is better mental control for a robotic arm for someone who's paralyzed," said Hires. Green concurred with this, adding it could be used by patients with locked-in syndrome to give them "fine control" over robotic limbs.</p><p>Although neural control of robotic limbs has been around since 2012, Neuralink's technology could enable the next big step - touch feedback, sometimes called haptic feedback. Theoretically, this could be possible if Neuralink's chips recorded which areas of the brain are stimulated when we touch and interact with the world, and then the electrodes could use this information to stimulate the brains of people using robotic prostheses to simulate this sensation.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>TASS via Getty Image</span></p><p class="caption">The hope is Neuralink could give robotic prosthetics haptic feedback.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Neuralink's electrons won't necessarily have to perfectly stimulate the right neurons to generate this feeling due to the brain's ability to adapt.</p><p>"The hope, and I think it's a reasonable hope... over time the cortex is able to re-learn and re-associate the electrical stimulation patterns. As long as there's a consistent relationship with what you're doing out in the world and what's going on in the brain," said Hires. </p><h2>Elon Musk's goal of an AI-human hybrid probably won't happen</h2><p>Both Hires and Green were more skeptical of Elon Musk's stated aim - that Neuralink will one day facilitate the augmentation of human consciousness with artificial intelligence. However Hires did not rule it out entirely.</p><p>"To get to the level of integrating with AI, this is where [Musk] sort of is going off into aspirational fantasy land," said Hires. "But it is hard to predict how technology is going to change twenty years," he added.</p><p>According to Hires we would need electrodes precise enough to stimulate individual neurons and, perhaps more importantly, a better understanding of the brain itself. "We don't understand the rules by which the brain re-organizes to learn things," he said.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Brendan McDermid/Reuters</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Green pointed towards the ethical problems which could arise in a world where Neuralink could connect AI to people's brains. "The biggest concern is how you manage to actually protect information in that sort of interface," she said.</p><p>She also believes Neuralink's biggest hurdle comes long before it tries to put AI in anyone's brains. "To get any of these devices into your brain... is very, very high-risk surgery," Green said. She said that the idea of a healthy person opting for brain surgery was troubling.</p><p>"People do it because they have severe limitations and there is a potential there to improve their life. Doing it for fun is not a great idea," she added.</p><p>This doesn't rule out the possibility that Neuralink will become a real, applicable technology. "It could potentially happen in Elon Musk's lifetime," said Hires. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-ios-13-software-update-how-to-use-voice-control-2019-9">How to use the iPhone's new voice control feature</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Inside the science behind Elon Musk's crazy plan to put chips in people's brains and create human-AI hybrids

<ul class="summary-list"><li>As long as people have been alive, they've wanted to <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/scientists-question-human-lifespan-limit-2017-7">stay alive</a>. </li><li>But unlike finding the fountain of youth or becoming a vampire, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-neuralink-implants-link-brains-to-internet-next-year-2019-7">uploading your brain</a> to a computer might actually be possible. </li><li>Theoretically, we already know how to do it. Technically, we have a long way to go. </li><li>We explain the main technological advancements that we'll need to make <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/singularity-mind-uploading-by-2045-2013-6">whole brain emulation</a> a reality. </li></ul><p><em>The following is a transcript of the <keyword id="21654" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="video">video</keyword>.</em></p><p><strong>Narrator:</strong> In the "<keyword id="2621395" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="black-mirror">Black Mirror</keyword>" episode "San Junipero," Yorkie and Kelly meet and fall in love in a virtual afterlife. And in this world, the possibilities are endless: They can wear what they want, be in whatever decade they want, and die when they want, including never. This technology might actually be more realistic than finding the fountain of youth. So, will uploading your <keyword id="6361813" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="brain">brain</keyword> to a computer ever be possible?</p><p><strong>Randal Koene: </strong>I'd be surprised and a bit dismayed if we didn't have it within the century.</p><p><strong>Narrator:</strong> The concept of uploading an entire human brain - thoughts, feelings, memories, the whole shebang - and running it on a computer is called whole brain <keyword id="1591595" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Emulation">emulation</keyword>. And there are three main areas of technology that need to advance for it to be possible: scanning, processing power and memory, and environment. Let's start with scanning, since researchers will have to start there too. The first bottleneck we're gonna hit is the connectome. The connectome is a complete map of the brain, basically the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow for neuroscientists. Brains are wildly complex. Scientists have only been able to map the complete connectome of one creature, a nematode, and a nematode's brain has about 302 neurons. A human brain has 86 billion, not to mention the 10,000 or so connections each neuron makes with other neurons. Our current brain-scanning tech, like MRIs and MEGs, just aren't good enough to map them all out. There are other methods that could show us a clearer picture, but they tend to be destructive.</p><p><strong>Koene:</strong> So, the idea there, once you've preserved a brain, then you can slice it very thin and observe everything that's in there. You can reconstruct a lot of what's in the brain from its structure.</p><p><strong>Narrator:</strong> For living brains, the most promising scanning technology we're looking at is electrodes with thousands of recording sites on them.</p><p><strong>Koene: </strong>Now, it's extremely invasive, in the sense that there's a lot of surgery involved.</p><p><strong>Narrator: </strong>These electrodes, when placed on precise areas on the brain, have the potential to show us thousands of neurons at a time.</p><p><strong>Koene:</strong> Because every single site can record from multiple neurons and identify which neuron it is based on the specific shape of action response.</p><p><strong> Narrator: </strong>Whichever way, the tech has to be capable of scanning and recording massive amounts of data. By massive, we mean zettas of pieces of information. And we don't even know everything we're looking for yet. Many neurotransmitters have yet to be discovered - very necessary pieces of the connectome puzzle. So even we have all the info, if we don't know what we're looking at, then...</p><p><strong>Koene:</strong> It's like a story that's written in a book, but if nobody is reading it and nobody's understanding the words, then it's just black stuff on white stuff.</p><p><strong>Narrator: </strong>Right now, each scanned neuron has to be interpreted by humans in real time, zettas of information slowly sorted by hand. If we even want to begin to read the connectome, advanced machine learning and data mining are gonna be pivotal.</p><p><strong>Koene:</strong> Because otherwise you end up with systems where the learning, the training of that model, just tuning parameters, takes forever. Literally forever. More time than there is in the universe, just because of how exponentially that grows.</p><p><strong>Narrator:</strong> Computer processing power has also shown smooth exponential growth over the past century or so. Similar can be said about computer memory. If the pattern continues, we'll likely reach the necessary processing requirements fairly soon. But some experts worry we could be reaching the end of Moore's law.</p><p><strong>Koene:</strong> I also read that, and it also concerns me.</p><p><strong>Narrator:</strong> Moore's law at one point predicted that computer power doubles every 18 months. And in recent decades, these advances have slowed. If they come to a halt, our computers may never be fast enough to sort through the data.</p><p><strong>Koene: </strong>It concerns me largely because of that big computational bottleneck that I mentioned earlier, the one where you're trying to fit models, and fitting models is really, really hard.</p><p><strong>Narrator: </strong>Once we get past that, then we just might be able to get an emulated brain running. One of these WBEs is called a SIM, or substrate-independent mind. The SIM would be an exact digital replica of the mind it was emulated from. And we're actually pretty close to memory requirements, so we should have no problem storing SIMs once we're able to create them. But where they'll be stored is a little bit different than where they'll live, and we do mean live. Would a SIM be conscious?</p><p><strong>Koene: </strong>Yes.</p><p><strong>Narrator: </strong>Yes. Simple answer.</p><p><strong>Koene: </strong>That is the simple answer.</p><p><strong>Narrator:</strong> And if a SIM is conscious, it'll need to exist in a place and interact with things. In "Black Mirror," the characters spend the rest of eternity in a luxurious beach town. Right now, our virtual reality capabilities aren't good enough to create a paradise like that. To experience virtual reality in the way that humans experience actual reality, SIMs would need high-fidelity sensors and systems to sense the world around them. Graphics, at least, are constantly improving, thanks to the speed and size of the video-game industry. It's the rest of the senses that will need major work, everything from tasting a rum and Coke to feeling the pain of a car accident. The bandwidth and signal complexity needed for this shouldn't be underestimated. And while virtual reality isn't the only option for a SIM, actual reality would still require a few upgrades. First, they'd need a robot avatar, and robots are generally really good at only one thing. One of the world's most advanced humanoid robots' claim to fame is its ability to climb stairs. Relatively impressive, but not even close to replicating the experience of having an actual human body. Virtual reality offers a human experience and more. In a digital world, SIMs could fly or teleport or even turn into a lion for a distinctly nonhuman experience. So, once we figure out the technical side of whole brain emulation, there's still the philosophical part of the equation. Would that emulation still be you?</p><p><strong>Koene: </strong>You have to be very careful about these scenarios when you paint them.</p><p><strong>Narrator:</strong> The simple answer is: We're not quite sure. Philosophers and scientists have debated, defined, and redefined the concept of "you" for centuries, and they're still doing it.</p><p><strong> Marya Schechtman: </strong>If you think there's a difference between getting incinerated and having a replica made with a bunch of fake memories and really continuing to exist, tell me what that difference is.</p><p><strong>Narrator: </strong>Either way, you or another you, a SIM is conscious, which adds a heaping helping of ethics to this dilemma. In the Amazon Prime show "Upload," SIMs can be owned by human beings, giving them the right to delete their SIMs on a whim. Is this murder? Apparently not in the "Upload" universe, but it is a question we'll need to answer in ours.</p>

Why we still can't upload our brains to the cloud

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://labs.seas.wustl.edu/bme/raman/barani.html">Barani Raman/Washington University</a></span></p><p class="caption">Professor Raman and his research team are biomechanically engineering locusts to detect explosives.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis hope that in the future, cyborg locusts could play an important role in <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Defense">defense</keyword> in national security.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="http://labs.seas.wustl.edu/bme/raman/barani.html">Baranidharan Raman</a>, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and his team are actually biologically engineering locusts to be able to detect the scent of explosives and let us know. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The project is being done under a 3-year grant funded by the Office of Naval Research.</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Because locusts detect smells through their antennae, the</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span> researchers will <a href="http://www.techtimes.com/articles/168440/20160706/engineers-working-on-cyborg-locusts-that-can-sniff-out-explosives.htm">implant electrodes into the locusts' brains</a> to read the electrical activity passing through their antennae. To transmit this electrical activity data, e</span></span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span>ach insect will be equipped with a tiny backpack that acts as a transmitter. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span>The scientists are also experimenting with adding silk to the locusts' wings to convert light into heat. This would allow the operators to control the flight of the insects, effectively turning them into little remote-controlled drones. </span></span></p><h2><strong>Why locusts?</strong></h2><p>Nature still has the upper hand over technology when it comes to detecting smells. </p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">"Biological olfactory systems are still the gold standard for chemical sensing - think sniffer dogs," Raman told Business Insider. "The idea here is to use a simpler biological system, hence, the choice of insects for this study."</span></p><p><span>Raman's team previously had been working to understand the insect's sense of smell when they discovered that locusts can be trained to detect specific scents, even when there are other distracting smells around them. </span></p><p>The size of locusts also part of the reason they were chosen. <span style="font-weight: 400;">"These insects are an engineering marvel, as they have so much functionality packaged into portable, miniaturized sizes," Raman said. </span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And unlike some other insects, locusts can survive this type of procedure.  </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">"They are sturdy and robust," he explained. "[They are] one of the few insect species that can survive the surgery to implant electrodes in their brain."</span></p><p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Raman said his team hopes to reach the initial prototype testing phase with their cyborg locusts in 1-2 years. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">So it will still be a while before we find out if these creatures can be integrated into the future of this country's defense. </span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-greek-eratosthenes-calculated-earth-circumference-2016-6">This incredibly accurate science experiment was centuries ahead of its time</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="92djVoNDE6Efjmomp7oN1cKWaf4QldXh" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

In the future, locusts could possibly sniff out explosives

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>University of California Irvine</span></p><p class="caption">Mya Le Thai with her gel-based solution.</p></div><p></p></div></div>There's serious demand for longer-lasting batteries.</p><p>Better battery storage can advance all sorts of technology from phones to electric cars - but increasing battery life is no easy feat.</p><p>Luckily, researchers hailing from the University of California Irvine may have accidentally discovered a solution that could change energy storage forever.</p><p>Fifth-year pHd student Mya Le Thai stumbled upon the solution when she decided to create an electrolyte made of gel to replace the liquid electrolyte found in some batteries "so it'd be more affordable," she told Tech Insider. It just so happened that the gel she created can also greatly increase battery life.</p><p>Here's how the solution works: for a long time researchers have sought to use nanowire-based batteries over lithium batteries. That's because nanowires are more powerful and boast greater energy storage than their lithium counterparts.</p><p>Lithium batteries slip in performance over time after being continuously charged (think of your phone: that battery life is great at first and slowly gets worse until it's a shell of its former self.) </p><p>But what has prevented researchers from using nanowires is they are extremely fragile, meaning they can't be charged repeatedly without breaking. For that reason, electronics makers have stuck with traditional lithium batteries.</p><p>But Thai's gel solution could change that. </p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>University of California Irvine</span></p><p class="caption">Gold nanowires.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>The researchers coated a gold nanowire with Thai's gel solution and found that the nanowire-based battery cell had far better storage capacity than typical lithium ion batteries.</p><p>The gel electrode went through 200,000 charge cycles over three months without losing any capacity or power. For reference, batteries typically die after 5,000 to 7,000 cycles.</p><p>The gel solution was published in the American Chemical Society's <a href="http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acsenergylett.6b00029" target="_blank">Energy Letters</a>.</p><p>"For this research right now the plan is to understand the mechanisms of how this gel electrolyte could prolong the cyclibility so well," Thai said. "<span style="font-weight: 400;">The future bigger plan would be to optimize these gel electrolytes to see if it can improve even more."</span></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-battery-life-mistakes-2016-3">5 ways you are screwing up your iPhone battery</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="tyazVmeTqj6XcEStpfl3ZkfjoCKe-7j8" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Researchers have stumbled upon a battery breakthrough that could change energy storage forever

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:480px"><div class="image"><p class="source"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/michigan-engineering/sets/72157634596615624/with/9263455810/">Michigan Engineering</a></p></div></div>Flexible <keyword id="6380512" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="electronics">electronics</keyword> are the gateway to a new generation of phones, brain implants, artificial limbs, solar cells, and limitless other devices that benefit from the ability to bend, fold, and rollup.</p>
<p>The problem is figuring out how to make them.</p>
<p>Stretchability and conductivity are difficult properties to combine. Materials that are good conductors do not stretch well and materials that do stretch well are not good conductors.</p>
<p>This happens because the stretching of solid material lengthens chemical bonds, changing the distance between atoms, and in turn, decreasing conductivity. Alternatively, the crystalline structures of metals, which makes them good conductors of heat and <keyword id="44578" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="electricity">electricity</keyword>, are hard to mold since their internal bonds are not very forgiving.</p>
<p>"This is the story throughout the entire family of stretchable conductors," said study researcher Nicholas Kotov, a professor of engineering at the University of Michigan, who may have developed the best stretchy conductor yet.</p>
<p>The new material is made from gold nanoparticles that are embedded in a flexible synthetic material called polyurethane. The bendy film, described in a paper published in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12401" target="_blank">Nature</a> on Wednesday, July 17, can conduct electricity even when stretched to more than twice its original length.</p>
<p>Scientists used electron microscope images to see what happened when the material was stretched. It turns out that the gold nanoparticles aligned into chains when pulled — instead of becoming disorganized — creating a good conducting pathway. Importantly, the nanoparticles rearranged themselves when the strain was released, meaning the process is reversible.</p>
<p><div class="image-container float_left" style="width:480px"><div class="image"><p class="source"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/michigan-engineering/sets/72157634596615624/with/9263455810/">Michigan Engineering</a></p><p class="caption">The gold nanoparticles are produced in the lab, represented by this deep purple substance.</p></div></div></p>
<p>The secret lies in the gold nanoparticles, which were made in the lab so that they they would have a very thin shells on their surface. The thin shells are much better than thicker traditional shells.</p>
<p>"This is important because the shell stabilizes the particles and typically prevents the transfer of electrons from one nanoparticle to the other," Kotov told Business Insider. </p>
<p>Without a thick shell, the electrons can hop from one nanoparticle to another more easily and are able to conduct electricity very well. </p>
<p class="p1">The practical applications of elastic metal are far-reaching, but Kotov is particularly interested in how his material can be used to improve medical devices.</p>
<p>There are a number of implantable devices for the brain, heart, and muscles. The problem with these rigid electrodes is that the human tissue easily recognizes them as foreign materials and generates scar tissue as a response, explains Kotov. The scar tissue reduces the performance of implantable devices. A pliable material that is more akin to our soft tissue is key to longer-term implants.</p>
<p>The search for a material that has the unusual combination of stretchability and electrical conductivity is ongoing, but this is a critical step forward.</p>

This Stretchy Metal Will Change The Future Of Electronics

University Of Michigan Professor Develops The Best Stretchy Electrical Conductor Yet 

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Walmart is kicking off Cyber Monday on Black Friday.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Walmart is kicking off its Cyber Monday deals three days early on Black Friday.</p><p>After launching Black Friday discounts online on Thanksgiving, the retailer will release a fresh batch of online deals at 12:01 a.m. ET on Friday, November 25.</p><p>Instead of referring to the second event as Cyber Monday, Walmart is calling it "cyber week," since the deals will be available for a week starting Friday. (Walmart will also launch yet another round of deals on Cyber Monday).</p><p>The retailer is launching cyber week deals earlier to showcase its newly expanded online offering.</p><p>The company has nearly tripled its online assortment to 23 million products from 8 million last year in an effort to catch up to Amazon, which sells more than 353 million products (12 million directly and the rest from marketplace sellers, <a href="http://360pi.com/press_release/many-products-amazon-actually-carry-categories/">according to 360pi</a>). </p><p>As a result, Walmart.com now carries many items that shoppers wouldn't be able to find in a Walmart store, including products from brands like Michael Kors, Ray-Ban, and UGG.</p><p><span>To prevent customers from getting overwhelmed by all the new products, Walmart <span>made improvements to its </span><span>"recommendation engine," which so far has led</span> to a 20% increase in customer engagement</span> <span>with</span><span> items the website recommends. </span></p><p><span>It has also built a new <span>software called Electrode that</span> <span>helps</span><span> its web pages load 33% faster, according to Walmart.</span></span></p><p><span><span>Here are some of the cyber week deals that shoppers will be able to take advantage of starting Friday:</span></span></p><ul><li><span> </span>Samsung 60" 1080p HD Smart LED TV for $579 with $80 Walmart Gift Card ($1,120 savings)</li><li><span> </span><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Google-Home/54742302" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.walmart.com/ip/Google-Home/54742302&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479820574718000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFAuoBBgsjt9F8Fx-T_YDyFhJb_Nw">Google Home</a> for $99 ($30 savings)</li><li><span> </span><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Promark-P70-VR-Drone/54458195" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.walmart.com/ip/Promark-P70-VR-Drone/54458195&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479820574718000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFTj7d0Vv8g2GkUjkR-t6GUApmerQ">Promark P70 VR Drone</a> for $99 ($50 savings)</li><li><span> </span><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Quadrone-Hybrid/54303947" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.walmart.com/ip/Quadrone-Hybrid/54303947&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479820574718000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHf7rxIS1XBXPK3dfIeDwEt7pAuAQ">Quadrone Hybrid Drone</a> for $99 ($30 savings)</li><li><span> </span><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Fujifilm-Instax-Mini-7S-Instant-Camera-includes-Fujifilm-Mini-Film-10pk/20512790" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.walmart.com/ip/Fujifilm-Instax-Mini-7S-Instant-Camera-includes-Fujifilm-Mini-Film-10pk/20512790&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479820574718000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG6sG78yBt89idkxONwhiTE5IOZfQ">Fujifilm Instax Mini 7S Instant Camera</a> (includes Mini Film 10pk) for $49 - Walmart exclusive bundle</li><li><span> </span><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Black-Decker-Robotic-Vacuum-BDH5000WM-4/54134701" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.walmart.com/ip/Black-Decker-Robotic-Vacuum-BDH5000WM-4/54134701&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479820574718000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEpQ9kchYOC5BryuAFqApbI8opOiw">Black + Decker Robotic Vacuum</a> for $196 ($103 savings) - Walmart exclusive</li><li><span> </span><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/bOb-Sweep-BObi-Pet-Robotic-Vacuum-Cleaner/52294737" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.walmart.com/ip/bOb-Sweep-BObi-Pet-Robotic-Vacuum-Cleaner/52294737&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479820574718000&amp;usg=AFQjCNECoP4H0nQXSYoPvi9_ssdANaebzw">bObsweep bObi Pet Robotic Vacuum Cleaner</a> for $249 ($83 savings)</li><li><span> </span><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Polaroid-Cube/39370071" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.walmart.com/ip/Polaroid-Cube/39370071&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479820574718000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFBz9fvx85eXr6tv2nEQXcB9TD0yA">Polaroid Cube+ Action Camera with WiFi</a> for $109.99</li><li><span> </span>6V Spider-Man Speed Coupe for $79 ($70 savings)</li><li><span> </span>6V Trolls Speed Coupe for $79 ($70 savings)</li><li><span> </span><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-28-Piece-Premium-Camping-Combo-Set/51718439" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-28-Piece-Premium-Camping-Combo-Set/51718439&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479820574718000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH34db0mMgMrkbu5Z6lOgp2xoXgwg">Ozark Trail 28-Piece Premium Camping Combo Set</a> for $149 ($50 savings)</li><li><span> </span><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bounce-Pro-55-My-First-Trampoline/55073244" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bounce-Pro-55-My-First-Trampoline/55073244&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479820574719000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHyZXDTxCqCUTr_N-GwKarJldvcag">55" My First Trampoline with Lightpad and Enclosure</a> for $59 ($10 savings)</li><li><span> </span><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lifetime-44-Portable-Basketball-System/5018509" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lifetime-44-Portable-Basketball-System/5018509&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479820574719000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEMAD09H1vU56jILjlSRSK9NiDgsQ">Lifetime 44" Portable Adjustable Basketball System</a> for $89 ($30 savings)</li><li><span> </span><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gold-s-Gym-Ab-Firm-Pro/53848103" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gold-s-Gym-Ab-Firm-Pro/53848103&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479820574719000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH-nFL4eq4HYQqdRGEQE3vgaj2fFQ">Gold's Gym AbFirm Pro</a> for $49 (savings of $30)</li><li><span> </span>Ozark Trail 30-Ounce Double-Wall, Vacuum-Sealed Tumbler for $9.74</li><li><span> </span>Boots for the family starting at $14.88</li><li><span> </span>Activewear for the family starting at $5</li><li><span> </span>Denim for the family starting at $10<strong> </strong></li></ul><p><strong>Cyber <span data-term="goog_1362300751"><span>Monday</span></span> Deals starting <span data-term="goog_1362300752"><span>Monday, Nov. 28 at 12:01 a.m. EST</span></span></strong></p><ul><li><span> </span>Samsung HDTVs over 50 percent off MSRP</li><li><span> </span><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Samsung-UN65KU6300-65-inch-Smart-4K-UHD-TV/51500794)" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.walmart.com/ip/Samsung-UN65KU6300-65-inch-Smart-4K-UHD-TV/51500794)&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479820574719000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFu0iZuMSkgNEmf7iYYy_K-h7Z3TQ">Samsung 65" 4K Ultra HD LED Smart TV</a> for $999 ($1,200 savings)</li><li><span> </span><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/VIZIO-SmartCast-50-Class-E-Series-4K-Ultra-HD-Smart-LED-TV-2160p-60Hz-E50x-E1/54802434" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.walmart.com/ip/VIZIO-SmartCast-50-Class-E-Series-4K-Ultra-HD-Smart-LED-TV-2160p-60Hz-E50x-E1/54802434&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479820574719000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFseXFdK8w8Dl_ZTCuG8JN5UDD9vg">VIZIO 50" 4K Ultra HD SmartCast Smart LED TV</a> for $379.99 ($148 savings)</li><li><span> </span>Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming Edition Laptop PC for $999.99 ($300 savings)</li><li><span> </span><a href="https://www.walmart.com/ip/Call-of-Duty-Dragon-Fly-WiFi/54303948" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&amp;q=https://www.walmart.com/ip/Call-of-Duty-Dragon-Fly-WiFi/54303948&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1479820574719000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFcpMU1KqfSwbpDOup3vfZ1MMbxhw">Call of Duty Dragonfly Drone with Camera</a> for $89 ($10.99 savings)</li><li><span> </span>Drones from DJI, Parrot, Autel, Yuneed and more starting at $199</li><li><span> </span>Nerf N-Strike MEGA Mastodon Blaster with Free Blaster for $51 ($28 savings)</li><li><span> </span>Sunglasses from Prada starting at $99.99, with other savings on brands like Ray-Ban, Gucci, Miu Miu, Cartier and more on Marketplace</li><li><span> </span>Watches from Michael Kors starting at $99.99, with other savings on brands like Omega, Movado and more on Marketplace</li><li><span> </span>Handbags from Rebecca Minkoff starting at $71, with other savings on brands like Michael Kors, Kate Spade, Fossil and more on Marketplace</li><li><span> </span>Boots from brands like Frye and UGG starting at $135 on Marketplace</li><li><span> </span>Outerwear for the family starting at $9</li><li><span> </span>Diamond jewelry savings up to $3,000</li></ul><p class="tagline">Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/watch-office-weekend-rolex-omega-leather-2016-11">How to pick the perfect watch for the office and the weekend</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="lidzdqNzE6VGOFIoF8dz6AJ54-bmpNcU" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Walmart's Cyber Monday plans should have Amazon terrified

<p class="p1"><em>This story is developing. Keep refreshing the page, and please, pardon our dust.</em></p>
<p class="p1">After years of rumors and speculation, Apple on Tuesday unveiled its first wearable device, officially called "Apple Watch."</p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p class="p1">There are two different sizes of Apple Watch for men and women, and three<span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"> distinct collections: Apple Watch, Apple Watch Sport, and Apple Watch Edition, which is made from 18-karat gold.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div><br /></span></p>
<p class="p1">"We're not quite finished yet," Apple CEO Tim Cook said, before introducing the Apple Watch. "We have one more thing."</p>
<p class="p1">With a crown on the side, which allows you to navigate the watch without blocking the screen, the Apple Watch features a shrunk-down version of iOS 8, highly specialized for Apple Watch. The digital crown, when held down, will also activate Siri.</p>
<p class="p1">You view all of your apps as tiny circles on the screen, and touch each one to open it. To zoom into objects, you use the Apple Watch's digital crown.</p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p class="p1">You can also swipe through information efficiently, and you can even share data with other watches nearby.</p>
<p class="p1">You can personalize the watchfaces, as well as their capabilities. You can also choose from up to six differently-designed straps, which offers different types of functionality: A sportband is sweat- and chemical-resistant, while the leather loop is soft and quilted for fastening and adjustment. The modern leather buckle closes with a solid metal clasp that goes symmetrically around the wrist. There's a classic buckle, too, and there's also a stainless steel link bracelet. </p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p class="p1">There's also a Milanese loop that's formed from stainless steel mesh that's "infinitely adjustable."</p>
<p class="p1">"We love to make technology more personal and allow our users to do things they never have imagined," Cook said. "We have been working incredibly hard for a long time on an entirely new product."</p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Besides the digital crown, it senses touch and the display also senses force. Tiny electrodes around the display recognize the difference between a tap and a press, which provides instant access to a wide set of contextually specific controls.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div><br /></span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">There's something called the S1, which encapsulates the electronics inside and basically miniaturizes the entire computer system into the size of a single chip. </span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">There's a gyroscope, accelerometer to give you an idea of your fitness milestones. There's also a unique charging solution: It's not wireless, but a magnetic plug can attach to the Apple Watch at any orientation.</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div><br /></span></p>
<p class="p1">"A precise, customizable timepiece. It's completely customizable so you can find one that reflects your personal style and taste."</p>
<p class="p1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"></div><p></p></div></div></p>
<p class="p1">"I am so excited and so proud to share it with you this morning. It is the next chapter in Apple's story. And here it is."</p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">The device was previously rumored to be called "iWatch" or "iBand."</span></p>
<p class="p1"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Previous reports said the iWatch would run on iOS 8, the company's latest software update for mobile devices, and be able to connect and communicate with the company's other gadgets, like iPhones, Mac computers, and Apple TV. It was rumored the device would connect to those devices using Bluetooth 4.0, which has been included in every iPhone since the iPhone 4S, but also be able to complete standalone functions like tracking and measuring one's biometrics like heart rate and oxygen levels, as well as control aspects of one's home environment via HomeKit.</span></p>
<p class="p1">Earlier reports said the iWatch would <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-iwatch-might-cost-400-include-a-range-of-prices-2014-8">start at $399</a>, which is the same price point of Timex's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/timex-ironman-gps-one-2014-8">Ironman One GPS+ watch</a><span>,</span> which will arrive in November. Competing fitness bands from Nike and Jawbone cost about $100, while the first Android Wear devices from Samsung and LG cost about $200.</p>

THIS IS THE APPLE WATCH

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://vimeo.com/4834650">Vimeo/JonO</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>We learned a lot about the brain in 2015, but we still have a long way to go.</p><p>From a viral photo that changed how we see the world to discoveries about how the brain changes as we age, here are some of the biggest discoveries we made about the brain this year:</p><h3>1. It's possible to create an animal "mind meld"</h3><p>Star Trek fans had cause to rejoice this summer, because scientists created what some have referred to as the first "mind meld" - though some scientists say the term is exaggerated - by connecting the brains of several rats and of monkeys.</p><p>Neuroscientists at Duke University built a "Brainet" by combining the electrical signals from four rat brains using electrical recording and stimulation. They did the same thing with two monkey brains.</p><p>Together, the animals learned to solve problems such as forecasting the weather or moving a robotic arm, often performing better than a single animal alone, according to the <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/srep11869">study</a>, published in July in the journal Scientific Reports.</p><p>We're still a ways off from the Vulcan mind meld, though, because the brain signals being sent here were still fairly rudimentary, and the experiments were in animals, not humans.</p><h3>2. We see color in vastly different ways</h3><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>YouTube/ASAP <keyword id="41551" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="science">Science</keyword></span></p></div><p></p></div></div>In February, the Internet erupted over a photograph of a bridal dress posted on Tumblr <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/science-of-the-blue-and-black-white-and-gold-dress-2015-2">whose color people couldn't agree on</a>. Some saw "the dress" as white-and-gold, while others swore it was blue-and-black.</p><p>Later, three groups of scientists <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(15)00535-7?_returnURL=http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960982215005357?showall=true">studied the phenomenon</a>, and found that the disagreement has to do with how our brains perceive color in different lighting. People who saw the dress as white-and-gold probably assumed that it was in bright daylight (which is bluish), whereas those who saw it as blue-and-black may have thought it was in low or artificial light (which is yellowish).</p><h3>3. There's no such thing as a "male" or "female" brain</h3><p>For a long time, people assumed that men's brains were fundamentally different than those of women, but <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/gender-brain-differences-2015-11">recent findings</a> call that into question.</p><p>In a <a href="http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1509654112">study</a> published in November in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers looked at brain scans of 1,400 people. They divided people into male or female categories based on personality traits, activities, and other factors more commonly seen among the men or women in the study.</p><p>Anywhere from a quarter to more than a half of people had both "male" and "female" traits, which means they didn't fall into one category. Not so fast, "male" or "female" brain believers.</p><h3>4. We can give sleeping mice fake memories</h3><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Olena Bukalo</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>We got a step closer to "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" this year, when a team of scientists created false memories in the brains of mice while they slept, according to <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25751533">study</a> published in March in the journal Nature Neuroscience.</p><p>The brain is thought to replay our daily activities while we sleep, but how this occurs remains something of a mystery.</p><p>Researchers in France implanted electrodes in the brains of 40 mice in a region involved in spatial navigation memory. Then, while the animals slept, they stimulated areas of the brain that were active when the mice were in certain locations, creating an artificial memory that the mice recalled when they were awake. Creepy.</p><h3>5. The brain cleans itself</h3><p>Neuroscientists have long assumed that the brain lacks a lymphatic system like the one that drains wastes out of the rest of the body.</p><p>But in July, a team of scientists <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v523/n7560/full/nature14432.html">published a study</a> in the journal Nature announcing they had found evidence of lymphatic vessels in channels of the outermost layer of the meninges, the membranes that surround and protect the brain. The vessels showed all the signs of a lymphatic system, carrying immune cells and other fluid to nearby lymph nodes, which filter out waste.</p><p>The findings question some basic assumptions about immune function in the brain and diseases related to it.</p><h3>5. Exercise is even more important for our brains than we thought</h3><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Shutterstock</span></p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Scientists are finding more and more evidence that exercise isn't only good for your body, but <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-exercise-helps-your-brain-2015-12">for your brain as well</a>.</p><p>In December, the <a href="http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/does-exercise-help-keep-our-brains-young/?smprod=nytcore-iphone&amp;smid=nytcore-iphone-share">New York Times reported</a> on a <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811915008848">study</a> in the journal Neuroimage, which measured the brain activity of 60 older adults in Japan while they completed a task that required lots of concentration.</p><p>When they compared the brain scans to those of younger adults, they found something surprising: Older adults who performed better on fitness tests had brains that looked more like those of young adults, compared with the brains of less-fit older adults. The findings add to the evidence that exercise keeps your brain younger and healthier.</p><h3>6. We can make artificial brain cells</h3><p>In June, a team of scientists announced they had created the first fully functional human-made neuron.</p><p>In the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956566315300610">study</a>, published in the September issue of the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics, researchers built the "neurons" by connecting protein biosensors to electronic ion pumps. The resulting neurons mimicked the functions of a human brain cell, including converting chemical signals into electrical ones and communicating with other types of cells, <a href="http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-build-an-artificial-neuron-that-fully-mimics-a-human-brain-cell">Science Alert reported</a>.</p><p>Ultimately, the hope is these neurons could be implanted in human brains to repair damage due spinal cord injury or diseases like Parkinson's.</p><h3>7. Successful people tend to have more "connected" brains</h3><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Human Connectome Project, Science, March 2012. </span></p><p class="caption">human brain connectome</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>We're only just starting to get a handle on how our brains are wired. But the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/human-brain-connectome-results-2015-9">first results</a> of a massive effort to map the connections between cells in the brains of more than 1,000 living people, known as the <a href="http://www.humanconnectomeproject.org/">Human Connectome Project</a>, sheds some light on how brain wiring and personality traits are related.</p><p>In the <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/nn.4125.epdf?referrer_access_token=zyRqWEvwLoyHw3mauEEtYtRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0M_voVoalChSl9FueP-EX-U_d38EBhh9xtRYkxeudxjRLbAbN5fXC07Hu3kFRKv8_2g9VWad2FO9r1E65FFHL2XRE7dWVXTHZMTLjimhm4QIfWUeNuLFhjK3sWfWmsgNpcsPC4VAwTVTJhrAHKhJnMGo0qnkS0o-2umF6jSKYvdNm_QJMA0YGFyXU-98T3yGZtwCHRuOgyf6dLGAZTui0Zo&amp;tracking_referrer=www.nature.com">study</a>, published in September in the journal Nature, researchers scanned the brains of 461 people to see which areas were active at the same time, or "functionally connected." They compared these scans with characteristics like income, education level, and drug use, as well as cognitive measures like IQ and memory.</p><p>What they found was that people with more functionally connected brains were likely to have more beneficial personality traits like high IQ, and fewer negative traits like alcoholic tendencies. Of course, while the findings are preliminary, they still tell us something interesting about our brain wiring.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/science-on-male-vs-female-brains-2015-12">Scientists discovered a surprising truth about male vs. female brains</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="xmOTFreTpUCHuyGHH953zYtjeyX6d07k" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

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