Rebecca Carter

Ilon Musk, founder of Neuralink, has reported the first successful application of brain-machine technology on a living person. According to him, the brain implant surgery was successful, and now the patient is undergoing rehabilitation. This is still an experimental technology, which at this stage has no practical use, but is extremely necessary to work out the elements of the new interface.

A special robot R1 has inserted an N1 chip into the human brain. The chip has the dimensions of a coin and is placed in the place of a removed fragment of the skull bone. It has 64 electrodes immersed in the brain matter through which signals are exchanged. Communication is two-way, 1024-channel, and the chip itself contains tools to connect to third-party devices and exchange data with them.

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A team of scientists from Switzerland’s EPFL, led by Professor Sylvester Micera, has conducted research into the possibility of humans using a third arm. This was done as part of the Third Arm project, which aims to study the possibilities of human use of artificial body parts. In this case, the possibilities of concentrating attention on controlling three functional limbs at once were studied.

In the first phase of the study, participants were given virtual reality headsets, gloves and a special belt with sensors for abdominal muscle movements. Three hands were displayed in VR, the third was symmetrical, with two thumbs on each side, and was controlled by abdominal movements. Experiments with 61 volunteers for 150 hours showed that people very quickly learn this system and begin to control the third hand quite well.

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The design consists of two parts on one base, which can flexibly sway in the wind and has a wide outer surface to catch raindrops. The lower part contains a wind generator consisting of several layers of Teflon, copper electrodes and nylon fibres. Under the action of the wind, they expand and contract, rubbing against each other, allowing static electricity to build up.

The upper part is represented by an energy generator made of water droplets. The Teflon substrate here is covered with an electrically conductive fabric, and as the water droplets roll down the substrate, an electrical imbalance builds up and electrons are generated. Both of these generators can operate in parallel – for example, during a thunderstorm.

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SynComs are created in the laboratory from modified versions of bacteria that live on crops. Scientists make combinations of them to solve specific tasks – as a result, it is possible to form a microbiome with specified properties, which should replace dangerous herbicides.

In practice, Chinese scientists have found that herbicides and SynComs can perfectly complement each other. Experimentally, it was found that the best result was a dosage of 50 per cent and 75 per cent herbicides. It helps reduce yield losses by 22% and creates a sustainable insect defence.

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An unusual material called Sugarcrete has won the Climate Positive Awards for its contribution to reducing emissions and reusing materials. The technology was created by scientists from the University of East London and British firm Tate & Lyle Sugars. The only thing this material has in common with classic concrete is the way it is used as a building material.

Sugarcrete is made using sugarcane cake, a waste product of sugarcane processing, which gave the material its name. Previously, the cake was considered to be rubbish, because in the process of cane processing, everything useful is extracted from it, leaving only tough fibres. However, if they are mixed with binders, compressed and allowed to dry, a kind of analogue of a clay brick or concrete block is obtained.

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