Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

In the realm of scientific weirdness, researchers are always on the lookout for ways to make your life better in unexpected ways.

For example, a device that can let you see a 360° field of vision in total darkness... with your tongue!

I actually posted about this some time ago, but they've moved on since then.

According to this article, they're going to start testing it out on Navy SEALS for night diving.

Raj has carried out research using Navy divers. A narrow strip of red plastic from the Brain Port is connected to the diver's tongue, where some 144 microelectrodes transmit information through nerve fibers to the brain. It was established during the tests that the divers could process information through their tongues instead of looking at compasses and other bulky devices.

Raj explained the whole objective is to keep the Navy divers' hands and eyes free. As the eyes will be freed, they will be able to do what they really want to -- may be look for mines and see shapes that are coming out of the muck.

I think it's only a matter of time before they bridge the technological gap to provide the ultimate super-soldier!

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Top Scientist tries to calm bird flu fears

“It is entirely conceivable that this virus is inherently programmed that it will never be able to go efficiently from human to human,” Fauci said. “Hopefully the epidemic (in birds) will burn itself out, which epidemics do, before the virus evolves the capability of being more efficient in going from human to human.”

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“It won’t be what you see in countries in which there is no regulation, in which there is no incentive to compensate farmers, in which the people, who are so poor, when they see their chickens are getting infected they immediately sell them or they don’t tell anybody because they don’t want them culled. That is a critical issue that is fundamentally different than what we see in Western Europe and that we will see in the United States,” Fauci said.

Thank you, thank you for finally injecting some sense into this whole issue which has been so ridiculously out of proportion.

Yes, it's a potential risk, and it could kill a lot of people, but we're hardly talking the end of civilization here, and it may not happen at all!

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