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Researchers partially revive pig brains four hours after 'death'
Used to be that once someone cut off your head, your life was over. That may no longer be the case. A study published in the journal Nature this week illustrates Yale researchers' successful efforts to restore and preserve the cellular function of pig brains up to four hours after their decapitation at a local slaughterhouse. Miracle Max, eat your heart out.
Yale's next concert brings your phone into the performance
Normally, bringing out your smartphone at a classical concert is a surefire way to get kicked out, or at least receive some disapproving stares from everyone in the room. Not so at the Yale Concert Band's next performance, though. When it holds its season-opening concert on October 6th, it'll want you to keep your phone out for a key segment. The band is performing Cody Brookshire's "Honeycomb," which uses any web-capable mobile device as part of the performance -- what you see on stage is just one part of a much larger show.
New imaging method reveals how Alzheimer's reshapes the brain
Researchers at Yale University have led development in to a new type of brain scan designed to detect changes in synapses associated with common brain disorders. Until now, researchers have only be able to detect these changes during autopsies, but by combining a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan with a new type of injectable tracer, Yale radiology and biomedical imagining professor Richard Carson was able to measure the synaptic density in a living brain. According to the findings published in Science Translational Medicine Wednesday, the technique could help doctors better understand and treat a wide range of neurological conditions from epilepsy to Alzheimer's disease.
Scientists can watch HIV spread through a mouse in real time
Scientists have long been perplexed by HIV's ability to spread through the body - until now, that is. A team of medical researchers from Yale University have for the first time recorded the retrovirus' movement through a mouse host.
Yale Study: You're not as clever as your Googling suggests
Having all of human knowledge readily available on the internet has convinced people that they know a lot more than they actually do, according to a recent Yale study. For their recently published report in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, a pair of psychologists conducted multiple 1000-participant experiments. They found that participants who used the internet to research a subject were more likely to think that they also knew about a second, unrelated topic. Basically, if you look up subject A with the internet, you're more likely than offline researchers to think you also know about subject B -- even if you haven't actually looked anything up. In general, internet users believed themselves to be brighter and more clever than the other participants in the study.
IBM: We're on the cusp of the Quantum Computing revolution (video)
Technology's holy grail is the development of a "perfect" Quantum Computer. Traditional computers recognize information as bits: binary information representing "On" or "Off" states. A quantum computer uses qubits: operating in superposition, a qubit exists in all states simultaneously -- not just "On" or "Off," but every possible state in-between. It would theoretically be able to instantly access every piece of information at the same time, meaning that a 250 qubit computer would contain more data than there are particles in the universe. IBM thinks it's closer than ever to realizing this dream and if you want to know more, we have the full details after the break.
Yale Physicists develop quantum computing error correction, are a qubit pleased with themselves
We're big fans of quantum computing, and hopefully it's about to get a lot more reliable. Researchers at Yale have demonstrated quantum error correction in a solid state system for the first time. Quantum bits were created from "artificial" atoms using superconducting circuits, these qubits are then given either of the typical bit states of "1" or "0," or the quantum state of both simultaneously. The researchers developed a technique that identifies each qubit's initial state, so any erroneous changes can be reversed on the fly. Until now, errors have been a barrier in quantum computing, accumulating and ultimately causing computational failure. A reliable means of fixing these state changes is essential to developing a computer with an exponential speed-up, and fully realizing the quantum dream. The team at Yale hopes that this research might mean its platform of superconducting circuits becomes the one upon which quantum computing is ultimately built. We, on the other hand, just want our parallel universe.
Yale students build spokeless bicycle in one semester, now looking for jobs
Here's something that'll make you think twice before your next bike purchase -- the geniuses (genii?) at Yale University have built a pretty rad spokeless bicycle, which was somehow inspired by the lack of "pictures of a real spokeless bicycle online." Sure, strictly speaking it's just a half-done product due to time (one semester) and budget restraints, but that rear wheel -- driven by the pedals on its geared inner rim -- alone should be enough to make you gasp. Practical hipsters might even be able to fit an electric motor or some sort of container inside the wheel, although we're pretty content with the futuristic hollowness. Either way, the Yale grad who posted these photos is now available for hire, so pay him well and you can have it your way.
First functional quantum processor created, lasted slightly longer than your last Xbox 360
UK researchers said they were getting close earlier this year, but in one brilliant fraction of a second a gaggle of Yalies beat those limeys to the punch, with a team led by Robert Schoelkopf, a professor of Applied Physics at Yale, creating what's being hailed as the first quantum processor to actually perform calculations. It's composed of aluminum atoms grouped together to form two quantum bits, communicating over an unimaginatively named named quantum bus that enables one to change the (wait for it) quantum state of the other. This first qubit shifter was able to maintain state for 1,000 times longer than any previous qubit ever produced -- but since its predecessors could only manage a nanosecond's worth of cognition we're still only talking a microsecond here. In other words: there's still a long way to go before you'll be slotting one of these into your gaming rig.