Wilhelm Reich was a psychologist turned researcher in the 40's and 50's. In the late 50's he was arrested and imprisoned by the US government for ignoring an FDA ruling that outlawed one of his inventions. After Reich's arrest all of his books and research papers were burned by the US government. Yes, burned.

A recent study by David Denhardt and team, from Rutgers University, suggests that weightlessness may be bad for the immune system. The study showed that simulated weightlessness caused the spleen and thymus organs to decrease as much as 70% in size. These organs are responsible for triggering the creation of white blood cells in the body. White blood cells in turn destroy diseased cells and invaders that are in the blood stream. The decrease in size of the spleen and thymus organs was connected to an increase in the hormone called osteopontin (OPN).

The weightlessness was simulated by lifting up the mice's hind legs. I'm not sure how this was decided to be an accurate depiction of the effects of weightlessness - it seems a little fishy to me. But perhaps there is tons of science behind the method. For instance, Osteopontin has been connected with the bone loss that occurs in space.

A team in China has been experimenting with a protein called Neuropsin and it's link to human brain development. The protein comes in two flavors Neuropsin I (the short version) and Neuropsin II (the longer version). The theory behind the Chinese experiment is that a genetic mutation allows the body to produce the longer version. Neuropsin is thought to be a key protein in the learning and memory functions of the human brain. The experiments spliced a section of human DNA in chimps, with this new DNA the chimps did indeed start to produce the protein.

NASA is testing a portable surgery robot in an underwater testing environment. The test will involve a remote surgeon sewing a tear in a rubber tube and conducting a skill test used for student doctors. The delay time between the movement of the robot and the feedback to the surgeon will be about 1 second. The connection will travel via 'a commercial Internet connection' from Seattle to Key Largo, FL. Then by wireless connection to a bouy. The Raven portable medical robot is tethered to the bouy. There is no further description of the internet connection used in the article...ISDN? IP2 with standard of service protocol?

International automakers are looking to develop computer models of humans for improving the design of their cars. The Global Human Body Models Consortium LLC was quoted in the article as saying that the models provide better data. It is also likely that a computer model will save automakers a lot of money becuase they will not need to actually build a car before they crash test it. The automakers consortium contacted 40 research and universities world wide to help with the creation of full body models and specific body part models.

The European Space Agency (ESA) will be conducting a 500 day isolation experiment to test the psychological effects of a manned mission to Mars. 6 people will sit and live in a space about 2,150 sq ft. for 500 days without outside interaction. The experiment is expected to take place in the spring of 2008. They will be looking for some information on the following, the influence of confinement on sleep, mood and mental health, and the effect of differences in personality, cultural background and motivation. But also on the medical side — physiological adaptation to an isolated envi

This BoingBoing blurb talks about a project from the Department of Defense looking at a system for 'Augmented Cognition'. The Boing Boing folks want more information about how it would work - and mostly they are just talking about the poor content of the video, which is available here. Surprise! It's a DARPA project.

I am suddenly reminded of one of the first DARPA projects that I ever heard about. It was to develop a helmet for the military that would keep the wearer awake and alert without the need for drugs. Also the helmet would stimulate the aggression centers of the wearer's brain. Looking at the article now, it appears as though I read a few things into the article (there must have been another article somewhere). MUSC says that the idea is to 'improve soldier performance'. Remember, this project is the first time that I had ever heard of DARPA. I think that the helmet project automatically gave them creepy status in my mind. The project was given to the Military College of South Carolina, MUSC. The press release I read is available here at MUSC's site and is dated from May, 2002.

Emotiv Systems has developed a neural processing helmet called Project Epoc. The helmet consists of several sensors placed on the head. The helmet is being marketed to gamers who can control the motion of in game items using their thoughts. The helmet also allows video games to respond to the level of excitement of the player, and reflect facial impressions.

Emotiv Website

At the Robot Engineering Technology Research Center at Shandong University of Science and Technology a chip has been implanted into the brain of a pigeon that allows the flight of the bird to be remotely controlled. The bird's course can be adjusted up, down, left or right.

This all reminds me of the American use of bats as incendiary devices. I bet the bats would have seen action if they could have been remotely directed.

MSNBC published this neat video of a cybernetics lab. The video has some information about how RFID chip implants, various sensors, and robotics are being combined into some interesting cybernetic achievements.

By using a protein found in the human ear, scientists have found that they can generate electricity. The protein is called prestin. In the human body the protein is responsible for moving hairs in response to an electrical stimulus from the brain. This process also works in reverse, allowing sources of motion (wind, body movement, etc) to generate electricity.

This research has given rise to the concept of a 'power skin'. The idea being that a building can be covered in this protein and thereby generate electricity from the prevailing winds, which may prove useful on structures built in space.

For about $30,000 the blind can get a bionic eye implant capable of sending a 60 pixel image of the world around them directly to their brain. The implant is currently being tested on people, with better than expected results. Researchers attribute this success to the ability of the brain to fill in the gaps of the visual information they are receiving. The technology was developed at the Doheny Eye Institute at the University of California. Unfortunately information on how the device works is not easily available from their website, so here's the Guardian article about the implant. The basic idea, however, seems as basic as one might think, although implementation is still amazing -- images are captured using a camera, those images are sent to an implanted chip, the chip sends those images to nerves in the eye responsible for vision, and the brain does the rest. The amazing part of the implementation, in my opinion is hooking the outputs from the chip to the nerves responsible for vision. Such a feat is not limited to this ocular implant, it has also been done for projects such as the bionic-arm.

These cheeky articles about sex in space always get too much attention. This article makes it seem as though space in sex will fuel the entire space tourism industry. I don't entirely disagree on the subject - but I mostly disagree. Primarily I am including this article because Karen Moores points out a fact that had escaped my imagination; namely that the human heart does not work as hard in a zero-g environment as it will on earth. This results in lower blood pressure, leading effectively to erectile difficulties. She also points out the obvious problem with the laws of physics and trying to conjoin two bodies.