#Neurotechnology for Hearing

[helthcareproducts]

Cortexi Revolutionizing Hearing and Brain Health

[brettvatcher]

NEUROTECHNOLOGY: CALL IT MIND CONTROL

BRETT MICHAEL VATCHER

The United States is currently testing advanced military-grade weapons and quantum computer systems on the unexpected global population. Targeted Individuals are tortured and tormented every day of their lives through DARPA’s Next-Generation Nonsurgical Neurotechnology (N3) Program utilizing CIA agents – acting as Artificial Intelligence [AI]. In the future, the system will be marketed as deviceless “Spatial Technology.” 

IT’S SPATIAL: IT’S ALL IN MY HEAD.

Neurotechnology is a brain-computer interface [BCI] connecting to the central nervous system. Call it Mind Control. 

If one can control the mind, they can control the body.

MIND CONTROL:  Mind reading, mind and body control, 24/7 tracking, brainwashing, dream manipulation, spatial holograms as well as physical assaults and verbal harassment produced by CIA agents. This is accomplished by combining data sets from 5G towers and directed energy weapon satellites [DEW]. The system connects to the central nervous system – including the brain – and operates without a device. Invisible physical assaults are constant. Even if well documented are challenging to prove. The system can cause sensations anywhere on the body.

DOMAIN: Every human has a domain attached to their mind. This is where the agents broadcast their transmissions and control the victim. ​All living things have a domain. Plants, insects, animals and humans. Domains have infinite capabilities. The entire global population is replicated within human domains – in vertical cubicle formation. These replicants, as the agents call them, are tortured constantly. The replicants watch everything you do from your perception. This is the New World Order plan. The subdomain advent calendar is located behind the perception. Everything a person sees, hears and thinks is recorded utilizing a BCI. All memories from 2019-present can be viewed like a film. Domains are recorded, as well.

“EVERYTHING YOU DO, SAY AND THINK CAN – AND WILL – BE USED AGAINST YOU FOR ETERNITY. THIS IS THE NEW WORLD ORDER. PLEASE HOLD WHILE WE COLLECT YOUR THOUGHTS.” –New World Order

BRAINWASHING: Brainwashing the victim leads to behavioral modifications and mood control. The agents create “programs” that can be turned on or off at any time. Subliminal messages come in the form of faint visions flashing in the front of one’s mind. Victim’s vision becomes increasingly grainier over time – and depending on active sequencers.

The agents create intricate dream sequences to affect the victim’s subconscious. Dream sequences combine people, places and things that are familiar with the victim. They can be extremely lucid.

VOICE-TO-SKULL: DARPA started a program called LifeLog in 2003. They refer to it as the V2K era. It’s when they began recording transcripts of all of our thoughts. Mind-reading. This technology is also known as Microwave Hearing, Synthetic Telepathy, Voice-of-God weapon and is utilized for traceless mental torture. Agents constantly disrupt, censor and redirect the victim’s freedom of thought. Victim’s get wrongly labeled as mentally-ill [schizophrenia] when reporting on this. V2K is also used for deception and impersonation of voices.

News reports in the media describedLifeLog as the “diary to end all diaries — a multimedia, digital record of everywhere you go and everything you see, hear, read, say and touch”. –USA TODAY

NO PRIVACY: The system completely disregards fundamental human rights such as: privacy, mental and physical health, safety, data security, family security, financial security, etc. Freedom of thought – or cognitive liberty – is a God-given right. The technology was deployed without implementation of new laws and there is little to no oversight, as the CIA has full control of the system.

Welcome to Infinity. You’re Welcome.

WRITTEN BY: BRETT VATCHER

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[nexolump]

Neurotechnology: Enhancing Human Cognitive Abilities

Whether we imagine, dream, think or act, all such mental and cognitive states derive directly from the activities of neural circuits in the central nervous system. Neurotechnologies that offer access to such circuits – either by recording brain activity (“reading”) or by modulating it ("writing") - pose significant ethical challenges, given their potential to decipher and alter fundamental aspects of human mental life.

From a medical perspective, neuroscience technologies that allow us to eavesdrop on neural conversations and expand our understanding of the workings of the brain and its disorders are valuable tools for scientists and doctors. But, like other micro- and digital technologies before them, they can be abused or used in ways that exceed their intended purposes. As the development of these neurotechnologies veers toward consumer applications – a field referred to as “neurogaming” – such as devices that will enable a person’s thought to control their phone or other technology, we will need to ensure that they are designed with ethical considerations in mind.

For example, it is critical that researchers and clinicians communicate transparently with subjects to create realistic expectations about the outcomes of studies and procedures. Additionally, it is important that participants understand how their thought patterns or behavior could be radically altered by the use of enhancement uses of these technologies – and, perhaps more importantly, that such changes may not be permanent. These concerns must be tech ogle balanced against the benefits that enhanced functioning or quality of life might bring.

As a therapeutic tool, brain-machine interfaces are being used to treat a wide range of neurological diseases and conditions. They are based on the principle that electrical signals emitted by neurons can be recorded through sensors attached to the head or body. This information can then be used to identify a particular brain function or a neurological disorder. It can also be used to control the operation of medical equipment, such as a pacemaker.

One of the most successful examples of this type of neurotechnology is a cochlear implant, which has restored hearing to over 320,000 people worldwide. Other medical applications include a variety of neurostimulation therapies that are designed to alleviate symptoms of various disorders. For example, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and focused ultrasound can stimulate specific areas of the brain to help reduce pain, anxiety or depression. Neurostimulation can also be technology website provided through surgically-implanted electrodes, such as deep brain stimulation (DBS).

The future of neurotechnologies promises to be even more exciting. Billionaire Elon Musk has created a company called Neuralink, which is developing a non-invasive device that can decode brain signals and translate them into commands for computers or other technology. Other major technology giants, including Google and Facebook, are pursuing their own projects in this area.

[world-love-government]

Samuel Koslov, a leading personality of American Navy's project Pandora and researcher at the John Hopkins University, in his closing speech at the conference on Nonlinear Electrodynamics in Biological Systems in 1983, said that the conference had proven that the external electric fields can,

"become a key to cellular control... The implications, social, economic, and even military are enormous...   It may be more significant to the nation than the prospects that faced the physics community in 1939 when the long-time predicted fissionability of the nucleus was actually demonstrated".

People do not really know what he was talking about until today, since much of it is classified and used in weapons research. The human body is full of electrical and electromagnetic events and therefore can be controlled by electromagnetic radiation, which can have benign as well as harmful effects on its states.

It may control even such events as is cell division or activity of neurons, as well as synchronized activity of masses of neurons in the brain and in this way produce "artificial" activity of the human nervous system. In 2021 the International Bioethics Committee (IBC) of UNESCO wrote:

"External tools that may interfere with our decisions can call into question, or even challenge, an individual's free will, and consequently an individual's responsibilities.   In this way, neurotechnology could affect freedom of thought, decision-making and action.   Taken together, these could have a profound impact on justice systems and social organizations". Report of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO (IBC) on the ethical issues of neurotechnology (pg. 36)

At the end of the article IBC encourages its member states,

"to guarantee neurorights of their citizens". Report of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO (IBC) on the ethical issues of neurotechnology (pg.38)

The activity of human brains and bodies can be manipulated by electromagnetic waves, since electric currents are key factors of neural and muscle activity.

As early as 1962 sounds were produced in human brains by microwaves pulsed in the frequencies of the nervous activity of the human auditory systems.

In 2007, the Washington Post wrote about a declassified experiment:

"In October 1994 at the Air Force laboratory... scientists were able to transmit sentences into the heads of human subjects, albeit with marginal intelligibility".

In 2020, the American Academy of Sciences wrote in the report on attacks of American diplomats in Cuba and China, well known as the Havana syndrome, that the most likely cause of their problems was directed pulsed radio frequency waves.

It is well known that these attacks are accompanied by artificially produced acoustic hallucinations. Those events suggest that pulsed microwaves are already being used as a weapon today.

As a matter of fact, if human speech is converted into ultrasound and then into pulsed microwaves or extra-long electromagnetic waves, a human being will perceive them as his own thoughts, since it will not hear it.

On October 7, 2022, twenty three countries signed a document requiring,

"the Advisory Committee of the Human Rights Council (of the United Nations Organization) to prepare a study... on the impact, opportunities and challenges of neurotechnology with regard to the promotion and protection of all human rights".

They made that request:

"Bearing in mind that neurotechnology allows the connecting of the human brain directly to digital networks through devices and procedures that may be used, among other things, to access, monitor and manipulate the neural system of the person".

In September 2021, the Chilean Parliament documented this danger by approving a law guaranteeing Chilean citizens the rights to personal identity, free will and mental privacy.

Major world media did not report on this event, thus proving that technologies enabling remote control of human brains are still classified. Evidently it is now an urgent task for the world governments to follow the Chilean example and prove that they are not planning to transform their states into totalitarian states where the elite turn citizens into bio-robots, controlled by supercomputers.

There are thousands of people worldwide, who complain about being exposed to experiments, which test capability of neurotechnological devices to deprive people of their freedom of thought at distance and cause them pains by electromagnetic waves. The current legislations protecting human rights must be updated to cover the new threats provided by advances in neurotechnology.

They should secure the creation of teams capable of detecting electromagnetic or other types of attacks which produce electrical currents in the human brain or body, depriving people of their freedom of thought and privacy or injuring their bodies.

Teams which governments should create, should also be able to find sources of harmful radiation and perpetrators of the neurotechnological attacks and should include representatives of human rights organizations, to ensure independence of those teams from powerful state agencies.

Otherwise the future of mankind will have no respect for human rights and will be controlled by manipulators of human minds, emotions and bodily functions. This manipulation could be executed by the secret services of foreign or home governments, using pulsed microwaves of cell phone transmissions. The radiation of the fifth generation of cell phone systems (5G), is planned to be omnipresent and distantly control the things (for example autonomous cars). The sixth generation of cell phone telephony plans to connect human brains to the internet and the first sales of this technology are already planned in 9 years (do people want to be compared to autonomous cars?!).

This can be implemented with the use of pulsed microwaves, connecting already today computers and cell phones to cell phone antennas. For manipulation of human brains, activities could be used as well electrical grids, if they are made to produce extra long electromagnetic waves in the frequencies of activity of neurons in human brains (1 to 100 Hz).

Such waves, due to their length (from 300 thousand to 3 thousand kilometers), are capable of covering large areas of "brain space".   Such waves can even be produced by manipulating the ionosphere to produce extra-long electromagnetic waves in the brain frequencies.

In 1999 the European parliament was investigating those abilities of the U.S. radar system HAARP (item 30 - operation of this facility was transferred from the United States Air Force to the University of Alaska in Fairbanks on Aug. 11, 2015).

The Russian radar system SURA has similar abilities.   China is actually building its own, more advanced, system after experimenting with the Russian system Sura (see this).

In 1994 the Strategic Studies Institute at the U.S. Army War College wrote:

"Potential or possible supporters of the insurgency around the world were identified using the comprehensive Interagency Integrated Database.   These were categorized as 'potential' or 'active', with sophisticated personality simulations used to develop, tailor and focus psychological campaigns for each". (pg. 24-25)

If you want to help to convince the governments to protect yourself and your children against deprivation of privacy and freedom, come demonstrate on June 10 to Brussels to the Place du Luxembourg (in front of the European Parliament) at 12:00 noon.

This international demonstration against threats to human health and democracy posed by electromagnetic radiation will take place there. For more information on this subject see this: "Psychoelectronic threat to democracy", (quoted by the European Parliament in the study Crowd Control Technologies, reference 354) .

[jayanthitbrc]

Global Neurotechnology Market Report 2023: Comprehensive Analysis of Market Size, Prominent Segments, and Noteworthy Trends

The Neurotechnology Global Market Report 2023, provides comprehensive information on the neurotechnology market across 60+ geographies in the seven regions - Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, Africa for the 27 major global industries. The report covers a ten year historic period – 2010-2021, and a ten year forecast period – 2023-2032.

Learn More On The Neurotechnology Market’s Growth:

According to the esteemed Neurotechnology Global Market Report for the year 2023, compiled by The Business Research Company, the market is poised for significant expansion. This forward trajectory is indeed promising, with the market size anticipated to surge from $11.90 billion in 2022 to a noteworthy $13.44 billion in 2023, exemplifying a commendable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.89%. The Russia-Ukraine war disrupted the chances of global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, at least in the short term. The war between these two countries has led to economic sanctions on multiple countries, a surge in commodity prices, and supply chain disruptions, causing inflation across goods and services and affecting many markets across the globe. Moreover, the global neurotechnology market is projected to maintain this upward momentum, with the market's dimensions estimated to achieve an impressive $21.97 billion by the year 2027, marked by a robust CAGR of 13.07%. These figures underscore the burgeoning relevance and potential of neurotechnology in the global market landscape, heralding a future marked by substantial growth and innovation in this field.

Get A Free Sample Of The Report (Includes Graphs And Tables):

The neurotechnology market is segmented: 1) By Conditions: Cognitive Disorders, Pain Treatment, Urinary And Faecal Incontinence, Epilepsy, Parkinson's Disease, Hearing Conditions, Sleep Disorder, Depression, Other Conditions

2) By Type: Imaging Modalities, Neurostimulation, Cranial Surface Measurement, Neurological Implants, Other Types

3) By End Use: Ambulatory Surgical Centers, Hospitals, Homecare Facilities, Other End Uses

North America was the largest region in the neurotechnology market in 2022.

The table of contents in TBRC’s neurotechnology market report includes:

1. Executive Summary

2. Neurotechnology Market Characteristics

3. Neurotechnology Market Trends And Strategies

4. Impact Of COVID-19

5. Neurotechnology Size And Growth

6. Segmentation

7. Regional And Country Analysis

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27. Competitive Landscape And Company Profiles

28. Key Mergers And Acquisitions

29. Future Outlook and Potential Analysis

Learn About Us:  The Business Research Company is a market intelligence firm that pioneers in market, company, and consumer research. TBRC’s specialist consultants are located globally and are experts in a wide range of industries that include healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, chemicals, and technology. The firm has offices located in the UK, the US, and India, along with a network of proficient researchers in 28 countries. Through the report businesses can gain a thorough understanding of the market’s size, growth rate, major drivers and leading players.

Contact Us:  The Business Research Company  Europe: +44 207 1930 708

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[tastydregs]

UN Warns That AI-Powered Brain Implants Could Spy on Our Innermost Thoughts

Thought Police

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has sounded the alarm bell on neurotechnology, warning that its "warp speed" advancement, catalyzed by artificial intelligence, poses a threat to human rights and mental privacy, Agence France-Presse reports.

In response, UNESCO will develop an "ethical framework" to address the potential human rights concerns raised by neurotech, it said at an international conference in Paris on Thursday.

"We are on a path to a world in which algorithms will enable us to decode people's mental processes and directly manipulate the brain mechanisms underlying their intentions, emotions and decisions," Gabriela Ramos, UNESCO assistant director-general social and human sciences, said at the event.

Brain-o-Scope

Roughly speaking, neurotech describes electronic devices that connect with your brain or nervous system, such as brain computer interfaces, also known as brain implants, and brain scans.

Typically, the tech has been reserved for more medical purposes, like helping paralyzed people move again, or regain their eyesight or hearing.

But recent advancements have given experts pause over its potential invasiveness. One study with decidedly dystopian implications was able to successfully pair the use of a large language model AI with a functional MRI brain scan to literally read people's thoughts and spell them out in words.

It's still early days for the field, but these advances wouldn't be possible without AI, which can be used to help process brain data at astonishing rates — and that has experts worried that we could be on the precipice of grim new privacy concerns.

"It's like putting neurotech on steroids," Mariagrazia Squicciarini, a UNESCO economist specializing in AI, told AFP.

Massive Investment

The enormous amounts of capital being pumped into the neurotech industry should also be cause for concern, not too dissimilar to how breathless AI hype has seen the tech run amok. Money talks, and it usually doesn't have the average person's best interests in mind.

Between 2010 and 2020, investment in neurotechnology companies soared to over $33 billion, according to a new UNESCO report coauthored by Squicciarini — a 22-fold increase. Meanwhile, the number of neurotech patents has doubled in half that time period.

Among many companies spearheading that charge is Elon Musk's Neuralink, which recently received approval from the Food and Drug Administration to test its brain implants in humans, and is now backed up by Musk's recently launched AI firm, xAI.

UNESCO representatives say neurotech isn't all bad, however — though there's a clear dearth of future-proofed regulation.

More on neurotech: Companies Already Investing in Tech to Scan Employees’ Brains

The post UN Warns That AI-Powered Brain Implants Could Spy on Our Innermost Thoughts appeared first on Futurism.

[kforourke]

Ideas of Others

Color me both frustrated and unsurprised: a few days ago, The New Yorker published a long interview with one of my very favorite people on earth, Werner Herzog. This being the New Yorker, and this being Herzog, the article was of course required reading, and I may or may not have yelped with pleasure when I first saw the link. But then I started to read it, and this humdinger of a sentence was...the second sentence in the piece:

During quarantine, he finished two films: a documentary called “The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katia and Maurice Krafft,” about a pair of French volcanologists; and another, “Theater of Thought,” about neurotechnology and artificial intelligence. Both are forthcoming.

Why, you might ask, would this frustrate me? Well, and I’ve written about this before, my getting-there-but-still-not-done book about surviving suicide includes a chapter about none other than...Katia and Maurice Krafft. So it’s frustrating to hear that Werner Herzog of all people—the guy who made Fitzcarraldo and Grizzly Man and Happy People, among so many others!—and a dude whose work I **quote in said as-yet-unpublished-but-finished chapter** is making a film about the Kraffts. Sigh! I knew I should have finished this thing earlier.*

Then again, running into others with similar ideas should hardly be new for any artist—the sometimes (frequently?) false lure of originality is as much a part of artistic production as is rejection.**

So why should finding out that one’s ideas might not be as original as one thought sting, sorta? Aside, of course, from our innate desire to be special?

The eighteenth century British poet and writer Edward Young, in his (admittedly wordy, but it was written in the 1750s, so c’mon) “Conjectures on Original Composition,” might have an answer why:

Originals are, and ought to be, great favorites, for they are great benefactors; they extend the republic of letters, and add a new province to its dominion: imitators only give us a sort duplicate of what we had, possibly much better, before; increasing the mere drug of books, while all that makes them valuable, knowledge and genius, are at a stand. The pen of an original writer, like Armida’s wand, out of a barren waste calls a blooming spring: out of that blooming spring an imitator is a transplanter of laurels, which sometimes die on removal, always languish in foreign soil.

To which I can only respond with a nod, a shrug, and an image of perhaps the most famous tortured-artist print, Durer’s Melencolia I.

...

*Not that my not publishing my work before Herzog’s film comes out really matters, because my work is hardly in competition with Herzog’s (ha!). But the point re: frustration re: “I did it first, ugh, man!” stands.

**And really, how much art is produced alone? Sure, in the silence of one’s mind, it happens alone there, but it takes a village to publish any book, or exhibit and publicize and sell any work of art, et cetera. “No man is an island entire of itself; every man / is a piece of a continent, a part of the main.”

...

Thanks to Wikimedia for the amazing picture of Herzog et al. (come for Herzog, stay for Donald Sutherland and Brad Dourif‘s hair) posing during the press tour for the poorly received 1991 film Scream of Stone, which is “about a climbing expedition on Cerro Torre.”

Here’s the trailer. It’s dramatic!

Melencolia I image via the Met.

[evilneo]

How we can transition to autism ? Using neurotechnologies, mind-reprogrammation therapies etc <3

do you hear yourself. do you read the words you type. holy fuck man .... get help!

[scifigeneration]

How you and your friends can play a video game together using only your minds

Telepathic communication might be one step closer to reality thanks to new research from the University of Washington. A team created a method that allows three people to work together to solve a problem using only their minds.

In BrainNet, three people play a Tetris-like game using a brain-to-brain interface. This is the first demonstration of two things: a brain-to-brain network of more than two people, and a person being able to both receive and send information to others using only their brain. The team published its results April 16 in the Nature journal Scientific Reports, though this research previously attracted media attention after the researchers posted it September to the preprint site arXiv.

“Humans are social beings who communicate with each other to cooperate and solve problems that none of us can solve on our own,” said corresponding author Rajesh Rao, the CJ and Elizabeth Hwang professor in the UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering and a co-director of the Center for Neurotechnology. “We wanted to know if a group of people could collaborate using only their brains. That’s how we came up with the idea of BrainNet: where two people help a third person solve a task.”

As in Tetris, the game shows a block at the top of the screen and a line that needs to be completed at the bottom. Two people, the Senders, can see both the block and the line but can’t control the game. The third person, the Receiver, can see only the block but can tell the game whether to rotate the block to successfully complete the line. Each Sender decides whether the block needs to be rotated and then passes that information from their brain, through the internet and to the brain of the Receiver. Then the Receiver processes that information and sends a command — to rotate or not rotate the block — to the game directly from their brain, hopefully completing and clearing the line.

The team asked five groups of participants to play 16 rounds of the game. For each group, all three participants were in different rooms and couldn’t see, hear or speak to one another.

The Senders each could see the game displayed on a computer screen. The screen also showed the word “Yes” on one side and the word “No” on the other side. Beneath the “Yes” option, an LED flashed 17 times per second. Beneath the “No” option, an LED flashed 15 times a second.

“Once the Sender makes a decision about whether to rotate the block, they send ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to the Receiver’s brain by concentrating on the corresponding light,” said first author Linxing Preston Jiang, a student in the Allen School’s combined bachelor’s/master’s degree program.

The Senders wore electroencephalography caps that picked up electrical activity in their brains. The lights’ different flashing patterns trigger unique types of activity in the brain, which the caps can pick up. So, as the Senders stared at the light for their corresponding selection, the cap picked up those signals, and the computer provided real-time feedback by displaying a cursor on the screen that moved toward their desired choice. The selections were then translated into a “Yes” or “No” answer that could be sent over the internet to the Receiver.

“To deliver the message to the Receiver, we used a cable that ends with a wand that looks like a tiny racket behind the Receiver’s head. This coil stimulates the part of the brain that translates signals from the eyes,” said co-author Andrea Stocco, a UW assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, or I-LABS. “We essentially ‘trick’ the neurons in the back of the brain to spread around the message that they have received signals from the eyes. Then participants have the sensation that bright arcs or objects suddenly appear in front of their eyes.”

If the answer was, “Yes, rotate the block,” then the Receiver would see the bright flash. If the answer was “No,” then the Receiver wouldn’t see anything. The Receiver received input from both Senders before making a decision about whether to rotate the block. Because the Receiver also wore an electroencephalography cap, they used the same method as the Senders to select yes or no.

The Senders got a chance to review the Receiver’s decision and send corrections if they disagreed. Then, once the Receiver sent a second decision, everyone in the group found out if they cleared the line. On average, each group successfully cleared the line 81% of the time, or for 13 out of 16 trials.

The researchers wanted to know if the Receiver would learn over time to trust one Sender over the other based on their reliability. The team purposely picked one of the Senders to be a “bad Sender” and flipped their responses in 10 out of the 16 trials — so that a “Yes, rotate the block” suggestion would be given to the Receiver as “No, don’t rotate the block,” and vice versa. Over time, the Receiver switched from being relatively neutral about both Senders to strongly preferring the information from the “good Sender.”

The team hopes that these results pave the way for future brain-to-brain interfaces that allow people to collaborate to solve tough problems that one brain alone couldn’t solve. The researchers also believe this is an appropriate time to start to have a larger conversation about the ethics of this kind of brain augmentation research and developing protocols to ensure that people’s privacy is respected as the technology improves. The group is working with the Neuroethics team at the Center for Neurotechnology to address these types of issues.

“But for now, this is just a baby step. Our equipment is still expensive and very bulky and the task is a game,” Rao said. “We’re in the ‘Kitty Hawk’ days of brain interface technologies: We’re just getting off the ground.”

Co-authors include Darby Losey, a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University who completed this research as a UW undergraduate in computer science and neurobiology; Justin Abernethy, a research assistant at I-LABS; and Chantel Prat, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and I-LABS. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation, a W.M. Keck Foundation Award and a Levinson Emerging Scholars Award.

[thedigitalhuman]

Last year, hospitalized and bedridden for several months following a suicide attempt, Salina Marie Gomez turned on individual notifications for Elon Musk’s tweets. Her interest had been piqued in late 2016, after hearing about Musk at work. She looked him up and watched an interview — the one where he’s talking about SpaceX and the challenges it faces as a company. The one where he tears up a little. A few months later, while she was stuck in bed recovering, her admiration grew into something more. 

“That was the only thing that was giving me hope, you know, to keep going,” she told me over the phone earlier this month. “I realized, like, ‘This is why I haven’t made a whole lot of progress with my own career, my own endeavors, because I haven’t been seeing the whole picture. I’ve just been seeing what humanity has been doing wrong, and not what we’ve been doing right.’”

Today, Gomez, a 39-year-old artist living in Westmont, Illinois, is working on Tweeting Me Softly, an illuminated book of Musk’s tweets. She considers herself more of a follower than a fan, explaining that fandom is for artists. “Not that I don’t consider him an artist,” she says. “I consider him one of the best artists. But I wouldn’t consider myself a fan because [the word] implies a kind of a blind obsession with a celebrity.” She is, however, a fan of what he’s doing. “Specifically getting us away from fossil fuels, getting us away from the addiction to oil,” she says. “[He has] a bigger, complete vision of where we’re going as a species, and is helping people remember that progress is good, and it doesn’t have to be this terrible thing.”

Gomez describes Musk fans as “woke” and unafraid of what’s wrong with the world. She believes Musk is making our planet a better place, and that his detractors are just consumers who “don’t want to be inconvenienced.” Journalists, she says, “cherry-pick” stories to piss him off. “They use them as weapons,” she says. “And it’s inappropriate, because what he’s doing is dire and essential for human survival … Sometimes media is there to really stop what he’s doing.” Gomez continues: “As a supporter of what he’s doing, [I’ve] become enraged because this is my future, too. And this is my planet, too.”

Gomez isn’t alone. She’s one member of a vast, global community of people who revere the 46-year-old entrepreneur with a passion better suited to a megachurch pastor than a tech mogul. With followers like her, Elon Musk — the South African-born multibillionaire known for high-profile, risky investments such as Tesla (electric cars), SpaceX (private space travel), the Boring Company (underground travel), and Neuralink (neurotechnology) — has reaped the benefits of a culture in which fandom dominates nearly everything. While his detractors see him as another out-of-touch, inexpert rich guy who either can’t or won’t acknowledge the damage he and his companies are doing, to his fans, Musk is a visionary out to save humanity from itself. They gravitate toward his charisma and his intoxicating brew of extreme wealth, a grand vision for society — articulated through his companies, which he has an odd habit of launching with tweets — and an internet-friendly playfulness that sets him apart from the stodgier members of his economic class. Among his more than 22 million followers, all of this inspires a level of righteous devotion rarely glimpsed outside of the replies to a Taylor Swift tweet.

Digital Human, Series 18, Episode 5: Messiah 

[c-alarcon-research]

First Conference Reflection

My name is Christian Bernard Alarcon. I am an undergraduate biomedical engineering student at the University of Houston. I am currently working with the Laboratory for Non-Invasive Brain-Machine Interfaces under the direction of Dr. Jose L. Contreras-Vidal to create an open-source dataset of longitudinal electroencephalography (EEG) data. Following my fellowship under the university’s summer undergraduate research program (UH-SURF), I submitted my work to the Biomedical Engineering Society’s (BMES) national conference and was fortunately accepted to present my work.

Applying for the conference to make the most out of my fellowship

As I entered the plane, I thought to myself, “How did I end up here?” After being accepted into a university fellowship to continue working in the research lab I volunteered in, I received an acceptance email that I would be able to continue working with my mentor as a full-time, paid, research fellow. Under the University of Houston, I worked with the Laboratory for Non-Invasive Brain-Machine Interfaces to segment and categorize longitudinal EEG brain data, focusing on making the data accessible and available for public use. As I was finishing up the paper report, I received an email from my advisor in the Biomedical Engineering department, encouraging students to submit their research abstracts to the annual Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) national conference in Philadelphia and potentially be accepted to present. Great timing -- but would they even consider my paper? My graduate student advisor encouraged me, “Part of academic research is not only the success in discovery but the joy of sharing what you have found.” I asked my PI, Dr. Contreras-Vidal to assist in funding the abstract submission fee and submitted my paper in. It was very exciting to see my name in a paper, all officiated and formalized in the final submission. 

I took this photo during my SURF fellowship. My graduate student mentor, Jesus Cruz-Garza and I, played a game during our lunch break while code processed on the computers.

I was definitely trying to get my feet wet in academia and this opportunity would allow me to just soak everything in. After weeks of waiting, I received the email that I was chosen to present my work and attend the meeting. It was definitely exciting. Not even my first year in academia and I was already preparing to share my work with experienced students, industry leaders, and professionals.

Self-development and preparing to talk to distinguished professionals

To make the most of the trip, I had to practice being comfortable presenting in a professional setting. I signed up to participate under the university’s Cougar Initiative to Engage (CITE) first elevator speech competition. This event marks the first time I officially explained my work.

Presenting my elevator speech in front of the judges.

After a competitive selection process, I successfully became one of the ten finalists to perform my speech in front of three college deans to judge my performance. I didn’t place top three, but I definitely learned the importance of radiating excitement and enthusiasm to effectively share ideas. I would later use these skills during my trip to Philadelphia.

To prepare for the conference, I was mentored by the graduate student advisor for my department, Dr. Charlotte Waits. She helped me maintain a level of professionalism in my emails and speech. I also had to work on choosing what to wear. Jeans would not fly by! She also helped me in being professional with asking for travel funding. I am very grateful my the majority of my trip being funded by the Biomedical Engineering Department, The Honors College, and Dr. Contreras-Vidal’s lab. I also met with the university’s career services department to practice etiquette and formalities when talking with professionals.

Representing the university

I packed my bags and arrived on Wednesday night and roomed with my classmate, James. James was also accepted to present at the conference. We were the only two undergraduates selected to represent our university. We’re both working under the university’s neurotechnology industry/research partnership, Building Reliable Advances in Neurotechnology (BRAIN).

The only picture of James and I. Taken on the day of our presentations.

On Thursday, I got to attend my first day of the conference. After registering and picking up my ID tag, I was greeted by recruitment and admission staff from universities across the nation. It was exciting to be around people from prestigious universities. In fact, many were happy to hear that I came from the University of Houston’s biomedical engineering department. The department was established in 2010 and being part of one of the first delegates from the undergraduate level was very nice to hear. In fact, with James, we also play a role in representing the university’s BRAIN center and the Honors College.

A photo of me next to my department’s banner. Here, the department’s graduate advisor, Dr. Charlotte Waits would encourage prospective students to apply for the university’s biomedical engineering graduate program. Showcasing the faculty’s wide-range of research that is offered.

Learning as a brain-computer interfaces background among distinguished tissue engineering speakers

The same day, I also got to listen to the BMES’s yearly Pritzker Distinguished Lecture. From Dr. Christopher Chen from Boston University, I learned about the rise of three-dimensional organotypic culturing as a lens to emulate the vascularity and cell-cell interactions in diseases such as breast cancer and pancreatic cancer.

I learned how much of biomedical engineering is interested in disease observation techniques, prizing on the recent advances in on-a-chip devices. Here, Dr. Chen discusses the advantages of utilizing organotypic culturing as another lens to view breast cancer cells.

While cell culturing and on-a-chip modeling can help in studying how cells respond to disease, Dr. Chen suggests that utilizing this model offers researchers the ability to view cell interactions in a three-dimensional scale -- which can be useful for cancer-cell invasion imaging.

Learning about different techniques to record the brain

Furthermore, I got the opportunity to attend some lectures about neural engineering. Many of the topics involved deep brain stimulation and forms of direct-brain technologies. Deep-brain stimulation is the use of electrical stimulation on parts of the brain to treat diseases such as epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and tremors. I was interested in one lecture about improving the electrode materials to increase or maintain signal quality while reducing potential brain trauma. While my background was more on the field of processing data, it was nice to hear the initial steps surrounding the techniques of recording the data.

My role as an undergraduate student

As an undergraduate, I set a goal for myself to first learn about the topics within my field and attend all personal development meetings. I attended an interesting session where I had to informally explain my research in a small group, then a member of the group would try to reexplain my work. It was very fun to hear other students inquire about my field. I also enjoyed trying to explain other student’s research -- knowing that I would have to learn some topics that are out of the field of neurotechnologies.

I also was selected to attend a “Think-Tank” session and assist the BMES board of directors on how to expand the organization’s influence in the future. I am a large supporter of mentorship and suggested for the organization to help set up collaborations and form academic-industry partnerships for students to network with potential employers, early in their academic career. My suggestion was to keep the partnership regional. For example, students from my university would be able to connect with potential employers and be open to more opportunities in addition to career fairs. Companies representatives would have to play an active role with faculty in working with students -- maybe monthly -- to create a project and develop future opportunities for internships, rather than teacher-led projects.

This conference also presented many opportunities to network with admissions staff from other universities. In the main conference hall, university exhibitors would invite me to take a look at their graduate program. Not only were Master’s Degree programs available, but many Ph.D. positions and faculty positions were being offered. I was more focused on schools that had combined M.D./Ph.D. programs and was very pleased to find out about specific schools that encourage engineering backgrounds to apply to their medical school.

Presenting my research to industry leaders, professors, admissions staff, and students

I was talking with a recruiter from a public-ivy university, having a lighthearted discussion of why biomedical engineering does not consider neurotechnology as one of the main disciplines. As I was supporting for categorizing it under the rehabilitation engineering field of biomedical engineering, she asked me to explain what is the scientific impact of my research findings. It was the first time I was caught off-guard and on-the-fly on my work. To answer the question, I had to first explain that the central issues behind brain imaging are the rigidness of imaging, often done in settings that do not fully replicate the real-world. With my research done on an artist as she creates an art project for over 15 months. I present data that captures the complexities of the brain in the real-world, utilizing wireless imaging technology.

It was definitely difficult to tailor my word choice to people from non-neurotechnology backgrounds. However, I found that if I invite the listener for any questions, I’ll be able to explain my project with clarity. From the elevator speech competition, I also discovered that my enthusiasm for my project would radiate to the listener, and would help keep the listener engaged.

In front of my poster, minutes before people were scheduled to come by and talk to me about my work.

I was definitely nervous when explaining my project to an industry leader with a background in brain-computer interfaces. I was worried that if I said the wrong information, I would automatically lose his interest. He enjoyed my project and we debated over the advantages and disadvantages of non-invasive imaging (poor signal quality, yet accessible) against invasive techniques (strong quality, yet limited in human participants). In the future, I hope to be proficient and confident in explaining my research and defending it in front of people who are knowledgable in the field. I am looking to participate in more lab meetings and present my current findings to my graduate student mentor and PI.

Touring around Philadelphia

In my downtime, I got to have a Philly Cheesesteak lunch at the Reading Terminal Market, near the Pennsylvania Convention Center, where the convention took place. I also got to visit the Rocky Steps in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and saw the Liberty Bell, right next to Independence Hall, where the founding fathers declared independence from Great Britain, creating the United States.

After I did the infamous jog up the stairs, I took a picture on the top of the Rocky Steps.

In fact, Benjamin Franklin -- one of the most influential people from the city Pennsylvania -- was heavily recognized as a pioneer in biomedical engineering. I knew that he invented the bifocals, but I found out that he also invented the flexible urinary catheter. It was great to explore places outside of Houston, and even better to be among intellectuals in the birthplace of the United States. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that I got to experience both the forefront of US history and my engineering field!

Suggestions

I hope for future students to be presented with more opportunities like this. If my advisor did not send the email, I would have not had known about how I can advance from the work I did through SURF. I understand that it is a student’s job to actively seek opportunities like this, however, I suggest for all students working in academia to know that there are year-round opportunities available to present work -- not just Undergraduate Research Day.

I am thankful for the university’s large support for the SURF and PURS programs. Having a research experience at an undergraduate level gave purpose to my coursework, encouraged me to do well in my classes, get involved with knowing my professors, and placed me at a high advantage in professional development. I hope for students to pursue a research opportunity with a professor and strive to develop their credentials in academia.

To be informal, if I could talk to my past self: The successful student does not finish each course assignment to hit the threshold for an A. You’re in the university -- not just to satisfy degree requirements -- but to learn skills that will be used in the future. Furthermore, these skills should not go to waste. Academic research values approval and disproval of new and old information. In a time where efficient technology and global communication is becoming relevant, you can utilize the methods you learned from a small class project to discover something new. Opportunities like representing the university in an academic research conference are only offered to students who dare to seek out. It is time to seize all opportunities and share what you have learned.

Feel free to access my publication sent to the conference here, through a ResearchGate link:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336702422_Developing_a_Mobile_Brain-body_Imaging_MoBI_Dataset_as_a_Tool_to_Visualize_Creativity_Feasibility_Testing_Using_Task_Classification_in_the_Alpha-band_Domain

[webheadcd]

(ANDY SAMBERG, TRANS MAN, HE/HIM) — ✧ that looks like PETER PARKER, known as SPIDER-MAN! they had children with FELICIA HARDY (UNKNOWN) and they are SINGLE. i hear they’re RESOURCEFUL & HARD-WORKING, but tend to be SARCASTIC & SELF-SACRIFICING. they work as a TEACHER OF NEUROTECHNOLOGY & BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING at paragon.

i didn't save my intro from the last time i did this and good for me because im keeping none of it!

anyway!

Peter Benjamin Parker was born before the 80's. at some point. definitely after 1975. 

(is a libra for anyone who is wondering; his birthday is october 14th)

his parents (CIA agents) died in an accident when he was an infant (he barely remembers them)

was taken in by his aunt may and his uncle ben after that and raised in queens, ny

got bitten by a radioactive spider at age 15 and developed powers as a result

then subsequently used said powers to participate in a cage match for money because the hustle never stops

soon after, a thief he failed to stop ended up murdering his uncle ben in their home and that’s when peter learns that! “with great power there must also come --- great responsibility!”

from then on, he started going out and being spider-man around the big apple (easier said than done)

flinging webs, catching bad guys, climbing waterspouts. normal spider stuff

met tony stark at age 16 and has considered him a father figure for Years now

(accepted a suit from him when he was starting out but has never asked him for anything else?? peter considers themself Very self-sufficient, no matter how much debt they’re in.)

went to empire state university at 18 and also started a part-time job as a photographer at the daily bugle selling his spider-man photos (read: selfies) for money

he was demonized in the press a lot (read: by j.j. jameson, his boss at the bugle)

stayed on at the bugle all through college but started phasing it away from his ph.d. onward. focused more on his short lived stint as a pizza delivery person and his longer lived bouncing from research project to research project life

fun fact! did their thesis on neurotechnology but! she's Such a science nerd And has worked on so many failed science research projects, he can talk pretty much any science with Anyone

scored a job as a high school science teacher for a little while there (@ midtown high! his old HS!)

he's only at paragon now because he’s left the city under miles’s watch. peter trusts miles a lot but that doesn't stop him from making rounds in manhattan every weekend and free day he gets

tl;dr:

main point to take away here is: peter's poor and has always been poor. he's been "in between apartments" (read: homeless) a few times there in adulthood so that's always fun

more often than not, he sacrifices his life as peter in order to help people as spider-man but that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone

not everyone knows that peter is spider-man or vice-versa and if u ever have a doubt on if ur character would know just ask me pls!!

wanted! connections!

old science research partners: WHEW BUDDY pete's had his fingers in Many science pies through the years so if?? ur character is a scientist or has been involved in experiments in the past twenty years around new york, peter has Definitely met you

trouble student: peter’s pretty good at dealing w/ problem children but maybe! this student has a lotta potential in their field but doesn’t want to put in the effort so peter’s stoking that love for science in them?? or at least trying to, they could totally hate peter’s guts, too

old midtown high students: might be a long shot but basically anyone who would’ve been taught by peter when they were teaching at midtown high? this would’ve been around 10-15 years ago and in queens, ny

people they’ve met at homeless shelters: basically ripping this off from the ps4 game but it’s very real that peter would’ve had to resort to a homeless shelter at least once in his adult life so! he would’ve met people there, obvs.... and maybe made..... friends....

flings...?: listen, both you and i know that spider-dick and the action it gets is very central to many spider-man comics but like... give me at least one (1) fling for peter and not spider-man even tho the two are, at this point, inextricable. just someone who doesn’t know that peter is spideyboi and still wants to sleep with the nerd

also take this intro as my formal and very passionate request for a wade wilson and a miles morales please and thank you

[everythingsleeporg]

Everything Sleep Digest Thu, 03 Mar 2022 14:47:17

Everything Sleep Digest Thu, 03 Mar 2022 14:47:17

The latest sleep related post

What Is Deep Sleep And How Can You Get More Of It?

HIRREM, a closed-loop acoustic stimulation neurotechnology, reduced insomnia symptoms, and improved autonomic nervous system function.

https://everything-sleep.org/what-is-deep-sleep-and-how-can-you-get-more-of-it

5 Sleep Apps and Gadgets to Help With Insomnia

A few rare people can get by with less sleep than the rest of us; after only four to six hours they are well-rested.

https://everything-sleep.org/5-sleep-apps-and-gadgets-to-help-with-insomnia

Not Sleeping Well? Here’s Why Your Immune System Could Be to Blame for Sleep Issues

Scientists jut changed the rules of what you can do while you sleep. A new experiment shows it’s possible to talk to dreaming people—and actually hear back.

https://everything-sleep.org/not-sleeping-well-heres-why-your-immune-system-could-be-to-blame-for-sleep-issues Follow us on Facebook at Everything Sleep Facebook

[sciencespies]

NIH Director Francis Collins To Step Down In 2021 After 12 Years

https://sciencespies.com/news/nih-director-francis-collins-to-step-down-in-2021-after-12-years/

NIH Director Francis Collins To Step Down In 2021 After 12 Years

It’s the end of an era. After 12 years at the helm, Francis Collins, MD, PhD, announced today that he will be stepping down as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) by the end of the year. Here’s a tweet from the physician-scientist-leader-motorcycle-rider-rock-musician announcing his plans:

Whoa, this is a bit like hearing the end of the Beatles, ABBA, the Spice Girls, NSYNC, and One Direction runs, although Collins and the NIH are not breaking up. Far from it. He will be stepping down from his role as director but will continue to lead his research laboratory at the NIH. It’s just that with the longest ever term, Collins as director and the NIH have been like peanut butter-and-jelly or avocado and basically anything else. The two have long been associated together with each other.

In fact, no other Presidentially-appointed NIH Director has served for more than one Presidential administration, let alone three. His name is not Dr. Francis “The Rock” Collins. That nickname is kind of already taken. Nevertheless, Collins has been a rock before and through what has been a really rocky past several years for America.

Remember 2009? That was when America was still recovering from a major recession and far too many people wearing Crocs, not that the two were related. The world was also in the midst of another pandemic, the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic. Well, August 17, 2009 was when Collins first officially became the the 16th Director of the NIH, after President Barack Obama nominated him and the Senate soon confirmed him unanimously. Collins subsequently continued in the position through the rest of Obama’s two consecutive terms, President Donald Trump’s one term, and the first year of President Joe Biden’s presidency.

In a statement from the NIH, Collins related that “It has been an incredible privilege to lead this great agency for more than a decade. I love this agency and its people so deeply that the decision to step down was a difficult one, done in close counsel with my wife, Diane Baker, and my family. I am proud of all we’ve accomplished.”

He continued by saying, “I fundamentally believe, however, that no single person should serve in the position too long, and that it’s time to bring in a new scientist to lead the NIH into the future. I’m most grateful and proud of the NIH staff and the scientific community, whose extraordinary commitment to lifesaving research delivers hope to the American people and the world every day.” Note that Collins used the word “scientist” here. A scientist is who should be leading any scientific endeavor, initiative, or organization unless “messing up” is one of the goals. After all, you wouldn’t have a clam bake announcer who doesn’t have any football experience lead a football team, right?

Collins was already a rock star of a scientist prior to leading the NIH. He had been the bedrock of the then-super-ambitious goal of mapping the human genome. He had led the Human Genome Project and served as the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) from 1993 through 2008. That work rocked the world as knowing what parts of human DNA handled what body functions has led to many new discoveries along with potential ways of treating different diseases. He’s an elected members of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences. In 2007 then-President George W. Bush presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. As you can see, Collins’ appeal extended across both major political parties.

Over the past decade plus, Collins has launched a number of large biomedical initiatives. For example, there was the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, which supported researchers developing new technologies to better understand how the brain works and address problems such as Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and psychosis. Another example has been the All of Us Research Program, an ambitious project that has already gotten a million Americans to offer data on themselves to help researchers determine how different factors affect health and move more towards precision medicine. Precision medicine means better tailoring medical treatments and health care to different people. A third example has been the Accelerating Medicines Partnership, which has brought together public and private entities to accelerate the translation of initial scientific discoveries in labs into real products on the market.

Collins has steered NIH through some of the most tumultuous years that the scientific community has faced in recent memory. From 2017 through 2019, former President and current Mar-A-Lago resident Trump repeatedly proposed to Congress massive cuts in NIH funding and scientific research in general. Such cuts would have been a huge punch in the face to science in the U.S. and made America grate and far less than first in World. Fortunately, with Collins and others advocating for the NIH, Congress essentially said “oh, no you didn’t” and “WTH are you doing” to the Trump administration and ignored these proposed reductions. They chose instead to increase the NIH budget.

Then there has been that little thing called the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. Ever since the early days of the pandemic, when toilet paper suddenly became the new gold and people learned that “flattening the curve” had nothing to do with body shaping, Collins worked to help put together major initiatives to help develop new ways of preventing and treating Covid-19. These included the:

Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV): a public-private partnership to accelerate development of new vaccines and treatments

Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostic (RADx) program: to catalyze the development of new Covid-19 tests,

Community Engagement Alliance (CEAL) Against COVID-19 Disparities: to assist disadvantaged communities hit hardest hit by the pandemic

Researching COVID to Enhance Discoveries (RECOVER) Initiative: to address the growing problem of long Covid.

Throughout the pandemic, an anti-science sentiment has permeated many political and business leaders like a gigantic lingering fart. This has kept Collins and other physician scientists caught between a rock and a hard place, trying to tell everyone, “help us help you,” kind of like what the Tom Cruise character did in the movie Jerry Maguire. Through it all, Collins has remained focused on combating both the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the anti-science hogwash at the same time.

Most recently, Collins has been working with the White House to propose to Congress an innovative new agency, called Advanced Research Project Agency for Health (ARPA-H), that would be housed under NIH and aim to catalyze higher-risk, higher-reward biomedical and health research. As I described for Forbes previously, ARPA-H, if approved by Congress, could help get past some of the risk-averse, “fund more of the same stuff” tendencies that the current NIH peer-review process may continue to propagate.

Collins and his band The Affordable Rock N’ Roll Act (ARRA) played at the 2019 DCSWA (D.C. Science … [+] Writers Association) Holiday Party in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Bruce Y. Lee)

Bruce Y Lee

Collins has been willing to rock the boat as well when it comes to doing something about many long-standing issues that have hampered the progression of science. One issue has been the structural racism that exists throughout the scientific community and has been holding back the work and advancement of many scientists of color. Another barrier that Collins has tried to tackle is sexism and sexual harassment. For example, back in 2019, Collins announced that he will no longer appear on any “manels,” as I covered for Forbes. The term “manels” may sound like a piece of furniture or a new cologne designed to drive you wild but are actually all-male, non-diverse panels that have been driving a lot of scientists wild in a bad way. A third barrier has been scientists and organizations hoarding data as if they were toilet paper and not sharing such information with the rest of the scientific community and general public.

Collins also rocks literally. He is an accomplished musician and formed a band originally called “The Directors,” which eventually became the “Affordable Rock ‘n’ Roll Act (ARRA),” and consists of various past and present NIH members. The band has made a number of appearances in different venues, including our 2018 D.C. Science Writers Association (DCSWA) Holiday Parties in Washington, D.C. As a member of the DCSWA Board and planning committee for the party, I can say the AARA was certainly “affordable” and really rocked the joint.

Through it all, Collins has brought a distinctly human face to running the NIH. Despite his many accomplishments and responsibilities, he’s remained very accessible to other scientists and the public. He’s reminded everyone that scientists can be highly effective and multi-talented leaders who can enact change across a wide range of sectors. In essence, Collins has reminded everyone that physician scientists can really, really rock.

#News

[jojacobs]

BRAIN Trailer - company 2525 from Sebastiano Toma on Vimeo.

BRAIN is a reflection on new technologies’ uses. How sound do we want to open up to the world and reveal our inner selves? What happens when communicating our sensations implicates showing them through the aesthetic representation of our brains’ waves? Are binary categories such as "inside and outside" blurring through the targeted use of new technologies? When are other people’s thoughts implanted in us? Is this already happening in a perfidious and insidious way? Everything we see, hear, smell and taste will burn itself into us. A gigantic input that drives the synapses to a continuous growth. With each new experience, something changes physically in our brain and we carry it around every day, living with us until it becomes an output. How much Me do I have inside Myself? Which is the color of frustration and how many shapes can enthusiasm take? Four actors open their cortex and mutually implant experiences, images and wishes. They reveal themselves and exchange their deepest inner selves with the audience. Through theater and dance performances, in conjunction with a kinetic stage set, the audience experiences a dialogue of sensations. You will experience a physical, emotional exchange of ideas that will enhance connections and meditations between our in and outside deep selves. COMPANY 2525
 with:

 Gioia De Piccoli, Rose Marie Lindstrøm, Gina Laskowski, Sarah Ernst, Felicia Als Klein, Bláthin Eckhardt

Director / Set Design:
 Sebastiano Toma

 Choreography:
 Cristiana Casadio

 Lighting design:
 Citronella Antholz

 Assistant to director: Lara Kuom Creativ-Neurotechnology / Consulting:
 MinJoo Lisa Cho

 Production: 
sebastiano productions - sebastiano.de

[roxsannel]

Tapestry of Worlds, Part Two: Running and Gunning by Hadley Thorne.

In Louisiana a dark figure hunts in the night, he is shrouded in shadows as he disposes of the trash for the Black Queen, it is the start of something dark and disturbing and he is revelling in it, as long as it doesn’t hurt the one he loves. Meanwhile “Ransom” McIlwain is packing up and preparing for a new mission with his team, although he wishes he was going to a party with his girlfriend Erika instead, especially with how good she looks in the picture she just sent him, but duty calls, at least until he can swap to another area of the military in the future. H wants to spend more time with her, she is bold, beautiful, intelligent and everything he is looking for in a woman, but when she speaks about her Ph.D in Folklore, he admits to himself that he tunes out a little, not believing in what she is telling him, but for now, he has to concentrate on work and not his girlfriend.

As the briefing starts and the team find out where they will be going and what they will be doing it all seems to be something they don’t normally deal with and they would be right, they are going after a terrorist called the Black queen who is combining neurotechnolog and mysticism to launch a domestic terrorism plot on home soil and that they will be deploying to Lousiana to go to a top; secret facility in order to receive further intel and training to use during their mission. Before they head out, their Captain insists they call their families and warn them about the pandemic of Covid-19 which is going to become more problematic and widespread while they are on mission, Ransom does his best to warn Erika, but it seems like she is having too much fun to listen to him, he is hoping that he is wrong.

As they arrive at the underwater black ops base, get set up with their equipment and are introduced to the doctors who will be looking after them during the mission, as they go into their brief they cannot believe what they are hearing, apparently the Black Queen has found a way to cross the Veil between the worlds and that they will be using brand new technology to access it, however, on the other side, things will not appear as the team expect, they will be in a state of lucid dreaming and will explain more when they get to the other side. As the team settle into their assigned machines and cross the veil, they realise what the doctor meant by looking and seeing things differently, but as they begin to immerse themselves into this strange new world and start to gather the information they need to try to stop the Black Queen, Ransom realises that his girlfriend had unwittingly already partially prepared his for this mission.

Will they be able to navigate this world on the other side of the veil and accept and use the gifts they find themselves with to complete their mission, or will the dangerous beings within this world somehow use this to their advantage instead? This is a military mission based around current times with a paranormal twist of alternate dimensions, shifting landscapes and otherworldly gifts which will keep you hanging on the edge of your seat throughout.