Big History

Check out a video I made to submit to the Bill Gates Big History Competition.

Here is a drawing that I created. It is obvious that there are certain features on this drawing that cause it to seem like it is female, but there are also features that cause it to be viewed as a male. 

Facial Recognition by Drawing Faces

Facial recognition is a powerful unconscious capability. Distinguishing between faces for those with vision, or distinguishing between voices for those who are blind allow humans to effectively communicate. How do we distinguish faces? Is distinguishing a face like decoding a written set of symbols that our brains learn to do at a young age?

I took a novel approach to understanding facial recognition. Two years ago I took a drawing class, and I used to think drawing an object was an innate talent that only certain people have. Just like anything else, it took a large amount of practice and time to figure out a viable method that produced an accurate picture.

But, in order to accurately draw an object, especially a face, takes understanding the intricacies about the face. These intricacies are easily calculate by our brains because our ability to distinguish intrafacial features as well as interfacial features. I only noticed certain facial features when attempting to re-create them in a two dimensional medium.

I noticed that proportion play a significant role in the accuracy of a face. Placing the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, eyebrows, and hair in the correct places relative to the jawbone, forehead, and chin caused the face to not appear distorted. The size of these facial features must also be in accordance to one another when attempting to recreate a face.

After relative proportion of size and placement of facial pieces, I noticed a pattern in shading. There was always light shading on the forehead, cheeks, lips, and chin. Accurately shading dark spots around the eyes, mouth, and nose also played a significant role in accurately depicting the face.

A drawing can never look exactly like a real face because there are thousands of various shade spots, proportion nuances, features that are derived from various expressions on that the human face conveys. But, with consistent shading in a given set of areas (forehead, mouth, nose, chin, and jaw), a sufficient depiction of the face can be drawn. Our brains have the capability of understanding the shade spots, and proportions of facial structures, and can then make conclusions based on them. What makes facial recognition powerful is our capability of distinguishing the nuances of different people's faces.

I noticed that every face is consistent with the way it looks in any sort of angle. Our brains understand that consistency, and remember the consistency of shading and proportion.   This is proof that our brain remembers the detailed proportion, and three dimensional intricacies among the thousands of faces we encounter on a daily basis. But, through practice of experiencing a face, we remember the formula behind each face.


It is an amazing task that our brains accomplish on a daily basis.

Collaboration on Art

As a Pre-Medicine student extra free time is a commodity. Being in California for a week allowed me to explore ideas that I have thought about, but not executed. Most of my ideas fall under the category of  self-quantified analytics, which is an individual's ability to view his or her's own progress on any platform. 

I was sitting in my Music History class a few weeks ago and it was the end of a long academic day. It was one of those days that required no thought. I went to school to hear my teachers regurgitate facts instead of inspiring the mind to create. We were having an interesting discussion on why Beethoven became depressed, and I thought to myself if five people communicate about one subject through language can they communicate in any other way? Can people communicate with each other without using figures, body language, sound, or smell?

After dosing off in class and thinking about this topic I began to brainstorm on my notepad. What if two users contributed to one blank canvas? Two minds collaborating to create a piece is a form of communication just like two people contributing to a conversation. They both are adding to a totality of one subject, or one canvas. 

A tablet, or smartphone application that allows two people to collaborate on one canvas with turns is one way this idea can be executed. One user will randomly be selected to go first and have their influence on the blank canvas. Each person will have a twenty second time limit to place something on the canvas. Twenty seconds to draw will limit the amount of material each person can place on the canvas, and also causes each user to anticipate what the other person is placing on the canvas. After going through a series of timed exchanges the piece will be finished when both users decide when it is finished.

This basic platform that allows two minds to collaborate makes culture and language obsolete as a person from Japan can exchange creatively communicate to another person across the world in Brazil. Observing how people begin drawings, and how people react to certain shapes will also give me insight on the human thought process. This can only be accomplished by storing and analyzing large quantities of data. 

Artificial Intelligence and Wernicke's and Broca's Area

Speech production in Artificial Intelligence is an issue that scientists and engineers have come across for a great period of time. Like any form of technology, we must observe nature to imitate it for the future of Artificial Intelligence. Our brain contains two areas that contribute to our fluent speech in a respective language. These areas are called Wernicke's area and Broca's areawhich are both located on the left hemisphere. Wernicke's area stores information required for speech content, arranging the words of a learned vocabulary into meaningful speech according to rules of grammar, and Broca's area is instructed by Wernicke's area to move the tongue, lips, and other speech muscles in harmony.

Manipulating a machine posed as a person to speak a language and behave in a social way must contain a system that emulates Broca's area and Wernicke's area. This system would be the one which would output the articulate sets of words for a fluent speech. Our frontal left hemisphere(holder of Wernicke's and Broca's area) contains about five billion cells which explains our capacity for a diverse set of words for speech. A compartmentalization of sets of words in forms of digital storage in an intelligent machine could act as Wernicke's area. Different categories of words such as adjectives, nouns, and verbs are to be organized in storage and located through an algorithm which would facilitate response. our brain works exactly like this but it is hard to grasp its multitude of responses that are the result of billions of intricately organized neurons. It would take years to produce a storage system and sets of responses to millions of different sensory inputs just as it takes years for a child to develop speech recognition and response.

Broca's area would be emulated b a high quality speaker system and a sensitive coordination of lips. After sensory input has been processed by the machine to produce a response, an output of words through a speaker to emulate the harmony of a tongue, throat and lips would occur. Lips along with a set of fake teeth would be installed on the machine.

A system like the human body contains many different underlying systems which work in coherence to produce what we are. Imitating Wernicke's and Broca's area plays no role on solving the problem of how an intelligent machine could learn through experience because survival is not on its mind. Humans learn to keep reproduction, survival, and pleasure afloat which is something a robot cannot do.

Cultural Relativism and the Brain

Cultural Relativism plays an important role in understanding our brain. Within a span of ten cultures, there are a number of common denominators that make these cultures similar to one another. For example, burping after a meal is polite in one culture while saying "your meal was very tasty" is polite in another. The common denominator of these two cultures is politeness which is an extension of a survival technique in the human brain. Cultural Relativism tells us as humans what our common forms of behavior are which can be physiologically explained due to various portions of the brain along with hormones.

Amongst a variety of cultures, there are various methods to signify respective messages amongst one another. Output through gestures, language, and limb movement are how all these messages are carried out exemplifying a commonality in terms of a physiological explanation. One might consider a form of saying "Hello" in Chinese much differently than saying "Hello" in Arabic but both must share common neural structure in the brain. A cultural and social aspect of a simple thing like saying "Hello" is a form of survival in the modern world. Social behavior such as greeting, thanking, or loving are all examples of human survival and each is carried out differently in differing cultures. These behaviors are tied to the limbic system which is responsible for emotion. Because messages are carried out to one another in society for a purpose, what gives each message a purpose is an emotional response that is tied to survival. It is in the limbic system where we learn to cry, laugh, love, and fight for different reasons amongst different cultures.

Cultures contain different mental and physical skills for survival. It is because of our memory that we are able to learn and repeat these skills on a day to day basis. Short term memory recites immediate sensory input while long term memory recalls sensory input from weeks or even years of previously learned knowledge. The brain distinguishes between facts and skill memorization such as the difference between shooting a basketball and memorizing a phone number. For factual memorization, sensory information is transmitted from the sensory regions of the cerebral cortex to the hippocampus and amygdala, two components of the limbic system which also function in emotions. Learning skills according one hypothesis states that it is due to changes in the structure of dendrites. Neural input causes a postsynaptic cell in the brain to take up calcium, which in turn activates enzymes that alter the cytoskeleton and change the shape of the dendrite in such a way that future transmission across that synapse is enhanced. This might occur when a young tribesman in Africa learns to weave a basket or kill prey, a skill as daunting to the mind as figuring out an algebra problem for a child in the U.S.

Learning

Learning new knowledge comes from rigorous repetition and time. Human beings learn new concepts based on knowledge that they previously know. A reorganization of previously learned knowledge intuitively is how we grasp a new concept. A step by step foundation of knowledge is built from childhood to adolescence and finally to adulthood.

When we are infants, we are like empty canvas's solely seeking items necessary for survival. It is food, water, and the nurturing presence of our Mother's that occupy our simple minds. A foundation of knowledge which helps us gain more knowledge is what we build as children. The first words we learn are usually "Mom" and "Dad" because they are the ones who give nourishment for survival. These words which are one syllable each are easy for a child to manipulate muscles in their lips and vocal chords to produce the sound. After a making the sound "Mom" or "Dad", a reaction occurs from a respective parent producing a neural arrangement that solidifies the manipulation of muscles in the vocal chord and lips. Physiologically, a cluster of neurons work together to transmit acetylcholine(ACH) to the muscles in the vocal chords and the mouth to pronounce a synchronized sound. An astounding way this could have been learned is through the mirror effect. A rigorous observation of the bay analyzing an external human saying "Mom" or "Dad" could attribute to its learning of the word.

Symbols

Everything in the universe which contains a certain mass contains a symbol of representation. History has changed these representations or symbols of these pieces of mass, but the objects themselves have remained constant. With our ability to tie vision, sound, smell, and taste for survival, these objects have been given symbols to therefore adhere to languages.

A room filled with people at a party contains a number of conversations which represent numerous subjects and emotions. Thousands of symbols are perceived as sound waves varying in amplitude represent different symbols. An abundance of unique sounds stemming from our vocal chords represent an overall subject in a sentence by eclectically placing together individual sounds of letters, words, and sentences. A sentence such as, "Wow, your family is amazing, I love the way each person carries themselves and smiles" contains fifteen words to carry out a message of gratification. Our brains are phenomenal at decoding sounds like this previously stated sentence and it acts as a computer processing sounds at an astounding speed. It pieces together each sound of a letter that makes up a word which represents a symbol to place the symbol in the context of a sentence. For example, "Wow" is a symbol for excitement, "your family" is a symbol that makes your brain feel excitement about your family, "is amazing" augments your previous thought by adding positivity about your family, etc.

Body language has an astounding correlation with symbols. One could pose as being sad, happy, depressed, mad, etc. If we observe someone, we make a conclusion based on their body language on whether they are happy, sad, or angry. These symbols(happy, sad, angry) in our brain contain a number of responses based on our conclusive observation. It is like a program which contains "if" statements. This has much to do with language decoding because observing one's body language and decoding various sounds both contain learned response.

Physiologically, a unique set of neurons represent a sentence in where we could understand every word. This is why when we do not know what a word means, we figure out what it means in context of words we understand therefore realigning a new set of neurons that represent this newly learned word. To test this theory of a unique set of neurons representing a sentence, I used my EPOC neuroheadset. I played the first ten seconds of a song called "Say Hello to Heaven" to see how the sensors responded. I did ten trials of listening to the first ten seconds of the song to see if the headset responded and it did.

This gives into the argument that our brains act as extremely complex programs which run through our memory just as a computer runs through it's hard drive. Symbols associated with language are learned in the early years of a human being's life. The abundance of symbols and associations in language make it hard for neuroscientists to come up with a correlation between clinical observation and physiological explanation.

]The human brain weights 1.35kg(3 lbs). It consists of the forebrain (prosencephalon), the midbrain (mesoncephalon), and the hindbrain ( rhombencephalon). All vertebrate brains contain these three structures.

Natural selection not only sifted out physical characteristics, but also selected mental characteristics for future survival. The brain's evolution was carried out in three steps. The first mental aspect to evolve was its increase in volume. The relative size of a brain of a mammal and a reptile are proportionately different. For example, a 100g mouse contains a much larger brain than a 100g frog. The second aspect of the brain that evolved was compartmentalization of the brain. With time, distinct areas in an organism's brain carried out distinct functions. For example, the cerebellum is involved with the coordination of body parts. The third and most astounding evolutionary trait of the vertebrate brain is the development of the forebrain. When amphibians began venturing on land from water senses such as vision and hearing became more important in their survival. Hence, natural selection chose organisms with a larger midbrain and hindbrain. More complex behaviors parallel the growth of the forebrain, or the cerebrum.

The hindbrain and the midbrain make up the brainstem and they form a cap on the spinal chord that extends to about the middle of the brain. Development stems from these two areas which is located anterior end of the spinal chord. It consists of three parts that serve to maintain homeostasis, balance movement coordination, and signal conduction. The pons and the medulla oblongata both serve to carry out autonamic and homeostatic functions. These include breathing, heard and blood vessel activity, swallowing, vomiting, and digestion.

The midbrain, or the upper portion of the brainstem contains centers for processing sensory input. All fibers involved with hearing either terminate or pass in the inferior colliculi, and the superiors colliculi is involved with visual input. The major nuclei in the midbrain are involved with a sector called the reticular formation which regulates arousal.

The most intricate section in the brain is the forebrain where most thought such as emotion, learning, and memory occur. Integrating motor and sensory pathways allow image perception. The two major portion of the forebrain are the diencephalon, and the telencephalon. The diencephalon contains the thalamus and the hypothalamus. The upper portion of the telencephalon contains the cerebrum

Playing Around With the Emotiv Headset

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a Emotiv Epoc headset thanks to my older brother Pankaj. At first after experimenting with its given interface I came to the conclusion that this entire product was a bit of a scam due to its inaccuracy in reading my thoughts. The interface contains three modes which are the following expressive suite, attentive suite, and the cognitive suite. The attentive suite outputs graphs that monitors you mood, the cognitive suite responds to a given thought, and the expressive suite mimics your facial expressions. These three features are very basic and there is only a limited amount of things you can do with them.

My second day of experimenting with this product and its interface was much more successful than my first. The cognitive suite contains a floating box that represents your brain's thought. It first asks you to record a neutral thought for eight seconds to keep the floating box in one place. It then asks you to record a non-neutral thought to either lift, rotate, or push the box in any direction (your choice). The first time I used this suite I chose to push the box away from me by thinking of constantly pushing a box. I attempted this and the box's response to my "neutral" thought and "pushing" thought was completely out of sync. I did not rule out the possibility of my thoughts being inconsistent and volatile causing the Epoc headset to irregularly respond so I attempted to trick the headset for more consistency. For a neutral thought I decided to add a two to every integer starting from zero. Hence, 0+2=2, 2+2=4, 4+2=6, and so on. It is a simple mathematical calculation which allows your brain to focus on one task and not meander off into a thought cluster. Then to push the box I decided to rapidly wave my hands. Believe it or not waving your hands back and forth is a cognitive task. With these more concrete brain tasks the box accurately stayed in one place when I computed the mathematical calculation in my brain, and it moved away from me when I swayed my hands back and forth. I came to the final conclusion that this product is extremely accurate in recognizing cognition.

Unfortunately, the software development kit costs the consumer 750 dollars. A hacker has put up a series of code called the Emokit to intercept the information the headset sends the USB receiver. The information from your brain is represented by a series of graphs each depicting a sensor on the headset. This means that a certain cognitive function such as adding contains a unique eclectic depiction of these graphs. In the given software, these unique graphs are recognized by your computer every time you add and it outputs the box being neutral. This exemplifies the powerful nature of this piece of technology's potential to recognize a unique cognitive function.

With that being said, a number of feats can potentially be accomplished with this headset.

1) Concentration. With its ability to respond to a certain function, one could easily practice concentration on a task such as reading by using the headgear and reading. When the user digresses away from processing words(recognized cognitive function by unique sets of graphs) a ringer can go off to remind the reader to stay on track.

2) Perfection. With its ability to recognize physical cognitive function an athlete can perfect his golf swing by recording a perfect shot(represented by a unique set of graphs) then continue to mimic this swing by wearing a headset and ringing a bell whenever he perfects his swing.

Neuron Arrangement

Our brain is involved with every form of thought we experience. Our brain also contains ten to one hundred billion neurons that represent our thoughts. This abundance of neurons must have direct correlation to our different thoughts. Neurons communicate with one another through synapses and different thoughts are represented by unique arrangements of neurons.

A person who is presented with the word ball and whose thoughts are tracked for ten minutes after this initial exposure to the word is an example of arrangements of neurons representing different thoughts. If a person who watches and plays many sports is presented the word ball then he experiences a chain reaction of thoughts. For example, after his brain decodes the sound and comprehends the word and realizes that it represents a ball then his brain could go through a chain of thoughts just like this one: ball-football-San Francisco 49ers- funny incident at 49er game- same funny incident at dinner- favorite meal at dinner(potatoes)- the versatility of potatoes- french fries- Irish potato famine- the movie departed- Jack Nicholson. As you can see this list can go on forever but there is one aspect of this list that caters to the idea of a unique set of neurons and it the bridges between the ideas ball, potatoes, and Jack Nicholson. The bridges are respectively funny incident and Irish.

The fact that our brain contains a range of ten to one hundred billion neurons gives to the fact that there are arrangements of neurons which represent our diverse sets of thoughts. A regular person must experience tens of thousands of thoughts per day pertaining to his or her's surroundings. Many thoughts that differ in subject matter are linked by one common denominator which is emotion. In the chain reaction of the thought process of a ball to Jack Nicholson the bridges which are a funny incident and Ireland are bridges because of strong emotional feelings. A funny incident and Ireland represent happiness from an incident that caused laughter and food that caused satisfaction. Thoughts that bring out emotion bridge our knowledge which connect two very distinct ideas.

Neuroplasticity is a major player in the way we think. Neuroplasticity is defined as "the changing of neurons, the organization of their networks, and their function via new experiences". New experiences which bring about new emotion cause a rearrangement of neurons or a new arrangement of a set of neurons representing this experience. It is Neuroplasticity that gives our minds its ability to be so malleable in and also so sensitive to an experience that follows large emotion. For example, if I see a baseball bat slam into a person in a crowd after a batter accidentally lets go of a bat then then an emotion of fear bridges the set of neurons representing a person at bat and being a baseball game. Seeing and containing new feelings towards this experience rearrange my neurons to judge the game of baseball in a whole different manner my previous view of baseball being great and fun.

Central Nervous System

Our central nervous system consists of our brain and our spinal chord. The two main cells that populate the central nervous system are neurons and supporting cells. Neurons are cells specialized for transmitting signals from one location in the body to another. The two types of neurons are sensory neurons and motor neurons. They complement one another to allow the smooth process of perceiving and responding. Sensory input and motor output of the nervous system are integrated by interneurons which are located inside of the central nervous system. Creating a backdoor into any of these cells to allow communication with computer chips will enable human beings to take technology to the next level.

Sensory neurons communicate information about the external and internal environments from sensory receptors to the central nervous system. Signals transmitted along the length of neurons from the dendrite to the axon depends on electrical currents . Communication occurs between the dendrite of one neuron and the axon of a separate neuron. This area between an axon and dendrite of two neurons is called a synapse. It is here where neurotransmitters are transmitted between cells to carry out a specific message to carry out a specific function. A disease like Schizophrenia is prevalent because of excess dopamine, a neurotransmitter. If a backdoor is established to allow a sensory neuron to connect to a resistor to stop excess dopamine then excess dopamine could be eradicated.

Motor neurons send impulses from the central nervous system to output gestures such as hand movement and speech. Parkinson's disease is an example of the degradation of the motor neurons of the central nervous system. It impairs motor skills, cognitive processes, and other functions. Symptoms result from insufficient dopamine caused by the midbrain. If synthetic dopamine were to be made then it would have to be implemented into the brain by a foreign object. Again, a backdoor into neurons would have to be established in order to feed the neurotransmitter dopamine into the brain.

The Motherboard of the Brain

An important area in the brain associated with language development is called Wernicke's area. Wernicke's area is located on the left side of the brain in the temporal lobe and is responsible for speech comprehension. Because of its function of language comprehension it is located near the part of the brain that is associated with decoding sound input. Contrary to Wernicke's area, Broca's area is related to the production of speech and the production of facial expressions. These two areas simultaneously work together giving us our ability to communicate.

Speech comprehension is one that is very complex. You could notice its complexity by listening to a foreign language and paying attention to all the various sounds the speaker is making through is vocal chords. The first level of decoding a speaker's flow of words is understanding that the sound that you are hearing is a language from another person and not from a foreign object. The second level consists of sound discrimination. It is here where the listener associates the acoustic characteristics of each word and associates meaning to them from their memory. The third level of speech comprehension is correlating the message from the language to previous memories associated with the prose of the message. If another person is talking to you about a chair the following is what your brain will process:
-All of the instances of chairs in existence anywhere
-Instances of chairs and exist in your imagination
-All the characteristics of chairs
-All the things you may do with chairs
-All the other concepts you may link with chairs


The fourth level of understanding a given piece of language is relating the message's meaning with an emotional association. For example, if a person were to talk to you about a dog and you were a dog owner feelings of compassion and love would eventually consume your mind because of your personal relationship with your dog.

Following the fourth level of language understanding is the final and fifth level of language comprehension. This new message which has been decoded by your brain either contains previous relative memories associated with this message or does not have any any associations. If your memory has relative information to this new message then then previous information will now be tainted by this new message. For example, if someone told me about an issue with their dog and my thought process had made it to the fourth level then this person's pet problem would forever be ingrained in my memory. All previous connections in the brain are modified because of this story.

The five stages of understanding language and response to understood language can only be carried out because of the simultaneous bond of Wernicke's area and Broca's area. The corpus callosum creates a bridge between these two areas and allows them to work together to create a flow of synapses amongst neurons giving us the ability to smoothly communicate. The corpus callosum acts as a motherboard for the brain connecting many different components to carry out different functions.

Corpus Callosum

Our brain's cerebellum contains two distinct hemispheres. There is the right and the left hemisphere each carrying out a distinct function. The left portion of the brain is responsible for language, mathematical calculations, and critical thought while the right brain is responsible for our sensual experience. Fortunately, our dynamic brain can process more than one piece of information at a time not limiting it to one side. Our Corpus Callosum connects our left and right hemispheres together allowing information to be processed through each sphere. Our capability of applying a specific function of our left hemisphere to an observation in our right hemisphere is an extremely powerful one that gives us unique cognitive abilities.

Combining our left and right hemispheres allows us to make hypotheses on situations and draw pragmatic conclusions on them. Our hypothesis is generated from the right side of our brain while the conclusion is made from our left side due to its ability to calculate. Hypothesizing and concluding can be attributed to a number of situations in our brain from memories to present experience.

Our ability to imagine by creating scenarios in our head, and then drawing conclusions in these scenarios is one that must be because of our corpus callosum. This bridge between the two realms of knowledge in our right and left brain gives our mind its ability to imagine certain situations. Our imagination is an extension of our learned memory. Memory does not have a designated area in our brain. Instead it is pervasively spread throughout by the connections made between neurons. Our neurons that cater to our memory are connected through the corpus callosum giving us the ability to imagine scenarios.

Along with reference our practical perception of objects that are around us is attributed to the function of our corpus callosum. The fact that our memory contains knowledge of previously learned objects and our left hemisphere makes conclusions based on our memory gives us an understanding of our visual perception and the role the corpus callosum plays on it. This is another example of how the bridge between our left and right hemispheres cater to our known reality. I believe that this portion of our brain is the answer to many of the unsolved mysteries of our brain.

Pons

Our brain controls more than just our thoughts. Like a central computer,a minute aspect of our brain called the pons is computing simultaneous calculations that control our sleep, respiration, swallowing, bladder control, equilibrium, taste, eye movement, facial expressions, posture, and facial sensation. The pons is located at the top of the brainstem acting as a mediator between the brain and the body. Its location is key to its purpose in the brain.

Just as birds are imitated by planes, the pons is imitated by computers. A brain contains various areas that carry out different functions. The pons is analagous to one computer controlling several aspects human body's system. For example, a car's carburetor which controls the gasoline and air mixture to produce a optimal solution to fill the volume of a piston is something the driver never notices. Computers in planes, cars, and many other systems simultaneously control certain factors in each respective system to maintain equilibrium performing like the pons.

Mental diseases which occur in the pons contain the potential to disrupt a human's basic vital functions and daily life. A pons that does not fully carry out it's job can be replaced by a computer that can monitor its responsibility like respitory rate and bladder control. If a central processing unit can control several processes on a computer, then it sure can be manipulated to control basic bodily functions. There are two barriers to this solution. First, a connection between the neurons and electric signals from a computer chip needs to be established in order for this work. Secondly, a source of energy for this chip would be necessary . A battery that constantly needs to be changed would not be a viable source of energy due to its need to be changed with time.

Neurons transmit information between each other through electrical impulses called synapses. With the discussion of electricity, there must also be discussion of a potential difference to allow a flow of electrons amongst two different neurons. If the location of this potential difference can be pinpointed then its establishment will enable access to a foreign object with charge. This will finally allow the transmission of electrons and therefore communication can be established. This missing piece of the puzzle of neuroscience is an extremely important part of the picture that will solve many of the diseases associated with the brain.

The only option for the energy source of a CPU ingrained as the pons would be from surrounding cells. Cells utilize ATP to maintain homeostasis. A bridge would have to be constructed between the cell and the CPU to transfer the ATP from the cell to the CPU. This bridge would either utilize osmosis or diffusion to transport the ATP. After moving from the cell to the CPU, the adenosine triphosphate(ATP) would have to somehow be converted into the energy used by a CPU. ATP is not the only source of energy from a cell that could be diffused across the bridge. There could also be the utilization of glucose for energy. Again, glucose would need to be transported through a bridge that would convert it from its base molecular state to a state that would fulfill a potential difference for energy for a CPU.

Cell Division

In our bodies there are cells which are constantly dying and and multiplying. Cells do not merely appear from thin air, instead dividing themselves through a complex process called mitosis. Mitosis consists of various step by step stages that occur from within the cell. The six stages are called the interphase, prophase, metaphase, anaphase, telophase, and cytokinesis.

The interphase is a preliminary stage for mitosis where chromosomes inside the nucleus duplicate. The duplication of chromosomes inside the nucleus is accompanied by two pairs of centrioles outside of the nucleus which are surrounded by an aster.

In the prophase there are multiple forms of development occurring in the cell. First inside of the nucleus the chromatin becomes bundled into chromosomes. These chromosomes are bundled in two's for the preparation of the final split to form two cells. The second change that occurs in this phase is the separation of the centrioles which are connected by a mitotic spindle made of protein and microtubules. After these two processes occur, a final stage completes the prophase by ridding the nucleus and attaching the sister chromosomes to the mitotic spindle. They are attached to the spindle by a structure called the kinetochore fibers.

The metaphase solely organizes the chromosomes from being scattered throughout the cell to being a perfectly perpendicular to the opposite spindle poles. The chromosomes appear as a dashed horizontal line after the completion of the this stage.

Next, the anaphase separates the sister chromosomes through the motion of the spindle apparatus. Each separated sister chromosome contains an identical chromosome on the opposite side of this cell. The poles of the cells move farther apart displaying two distinct and ready cells still unified but ready for separation.

Technology in the Brain

Technology adapts just by fixing the faults of its predecessor to create a near perfect successor. As we all know nothing is perfect and it is impossible to not find faults in a piece of technology therefore making it an entity. Like evolution, technology follows the guidelines of the rule of "survival of the fittest". A specific organism with a mutation survives due to its advantage over other organisms. The best and most efficient form of technology to facilitate a given situation is the one that society chooses and therefore buys. The advantage in a mutated organism runs analogous to technology's constant improvements.

Our brain is constantly adapting to its surroundings by creating new connections. Connections are made by the brain cell's neurons making new connections through its dendrites. The site of a connection to another neuron is called a synapse and there are billions of synapses in a human brain. When we learn a new concept or relate two things to one another there are a plethora of neurons connecting to one another. Unique concepts that are understood in a brain are represented by unique connections between neurons. When we mentally adapt to a routine or situation I believe that through repetition and time new connections between neurons are made.

The engineer for the BMW M3 took the previously made model, found its flaws, and fixed them. What does this look like in the brain? My theory is the following. As previously stated, certain concepts in the brain contain a unique collection of neurons connected through synapses. The must be at least a million in the amount of neurons connected through synapses. These millions of neurons that represent the knowledge of a model like the 1990s M3 are given and then through processes like work and time(drawing boards, testing, finding the best fit pieces for improvement on the new M3) are then rearranged to form a new design such as the 2000s M3 model. After this, the new M3 model like the one created in the twenty first century has its own set of unique synapses.

Strokes

Strokes are a major and very prevalent problem in medicine today and many mental disorders occur from the effects of strokes. A stroke refers to a problem with the oxygen flow to the brain. Oxygen is brought to the brain by blood flow through arteries that become smaller as they get farther from the heart. There are two types of strokes, ischemic and hemorragic.

An ischemic stroke is one that directly halts the flow of oxygen to the brain due to a clot in an artery that stops the flow of blood. Eighty three percent of strokes are ischemic. Neurons (brain cells) die when a stroke occurs because their oxygen source has become dissipated. Brain cells cannot regenerate after death causing stroke victims to lose certain brain functions after enduring a stroke. Causes of an ischemic stroke can be due to blood clotting in an artery, lack of sufficient blood supply, and an embolus somewhere in the blood supply. The following is what a ischemic stroke looks like.
The second type of stroke is a hemorrhagic stroke. This is caused by an aneurysm in the wall of the blood vessel which causes blood to come in contact with neurons. Blood is extremely toxic to neurons therefore causing them to die within seconds of contact. The following is a visual representation of a hemorrhagic stroke along with a ischemic stroke.

Absorbed Light in Photosynthesis

Photosynthesis consists of two simultaneous processes that produce food for an organism like a plant. There is a process involved with light reactions and there is a process called the Calvin Cycle. The light reaction converts solar energy to chemical energy that a plant uses to maintain homeostasis. Chloroplasts are the regions in the mesophyl cells that contain thylakoids transform light energy to the energy of ATP. The following is a Chloroplast's thylakoid:

The sun is powered by four hydrogen atoms that bond to form a helium atom. When these four atoms fuse together the mass of the helium atom is slightly less than the mass of merely four hydrogen atoms added together. Therefore, this lost mass has been converted to energy which follows the equation founded by Einstein E=mc^2. On the sun there are about 120 million tons of solar matter converted into energy every minute and only a fraction of this energy travels to the Earth.

Light behaves as a wave and as a particle. Its wavelike properties are described by the electromagnetic spectrum. The electromagnetic spectrum is described by all the colors in the rainbow and also invisible radiation such as gamma rays and x rays. The following is the electromagnetic spectrum. They vary in due to their wavelength. The atmosphere acts as a filter to eradicate certain forms of radiation by the sun allowing life to survive on Earth. Radiation in the visible light, mainly blue and red contribute in the photosynthesis of plants.

Light also behaves as if it consists of individual particles called photons. Wavelength is inversely related to the amount of energy in photons. When a molecule absorbs a photon, one of it's electron's is elevated to an orbital where it contains more potential energy(elevated state from a ground state). The electron temporarily is in this high state of potential energy and due to instability this potential energy is converted into heat. This is why cars become hot in the sun because their individual electrons are elevated from photons and then returned to a ground state finally releasing heat.

Emotiv EPOC Software Development Kit

Here is the first generation computer-mind interface created for the public. This allows anyone to sync their minds to a basic interface that gives the user the ability to think of something to get a reaction from the software. The software works by the detection of unique electric impulses of a unique thought from the brain.

The mere fact that there can be a connection established to a computer from electrical impulses from the brain is the basis for computer brain interfaces. This technology is in its infancy due to its lack of consistency and acuteness of the detection of impulses. You can view a preview of this invention at http://www.ted.com/talks/tan_le_a_headset_that_reads_your_brainwaves.html. I am a firm believer that this technology will be improved and it's purposes will have great influence on the future of technology.

A batter has .4 seconds to act to a 90 mile an hour fastball. Any normal person could easily comprehend the fact that the pitcher has the upper hand in this battle. This means that the batter's electrical impulse of a decision to swing the bat + energy transferred from the muscle to the swing of the bat has to be done in a time less than .4 seconds. Now that is an amazingly fast reaction time for the man at the plate. A batter could merely practice his decision making by a computer simulated pitcher to tell him when he should have swung the bat due to the location of a pitched ball during practice. This is a decent way to practice, but an exceptional way to practice would be to integrate this Emotiv Software kit into this situation. Instead of a computer only telling the batter that the pitch was appropriate for a hit, this headset could also program what a home swing decision would look like in the brain therefore reminding the batter when he should have used his home run swing pinpointing the sweet spot for a solid hit(Every batter is different and contains a different pattern of electrical impulses). A good batter is a good decision maker, and software like this would allow a batter to monitor when to make that "home run decision" swing.

This is only one form of application of this device and software. Once a thought and the computer interface are synced, there are unlimited possibilities for this device. Think about the possibilities that can be accomplished in terms of control and the perfection of skilled activities.