DNA Antenna Dust

This project is a combination of three separate advances made in recent years and involve the application of bio-nano-technology with electro-magnetism. The three advances are: DNA origami, DNA coating and nano-dusts. 

The first, DNA origami, is a new exciting field which enables to construct 3D objects with DNA. Nowadays, people can write the DNA code in the computer and get the DNA in a tube as a commercialized product. Furthermore, there were huge advancements in the understanding of DNA folding: DNA, while being a 1D strand, sometimes folds and creates angles due to unique sequences of its underlying G-C-T-A. Taken together, if one knows how a specific DNA folds, and one can write any DNA desired, one can create any shape out of DNA. There are CAD programs that transform any 3D object to its underlying DNA sequence.

The second field is DNA coating. It is older than DNA origami and grants the ability to coat DNA strands with different materials. Notably, it has been done with metals and more specifically with gold. This ability to coat DNA, and the unique ability of the DNA double strands to be constructed into networks of chains, has enabled the development of DNA-based electronic circuits.

The third field is nano-dusts, which grants the ability to create millions of tiny engineered particles that can be spread over a large area and serve a greater purpose. Some applications include using particles that hold sensors, thus creating a large distributed sensor array. A new exciting application is neural dust, which is "spread" over the brain and can transmit the local EM field via acoustic waves.

I suggest to combine these three fields to create the following apparatus. By designing a unique DNA origami that is coated by metals, one can have the complete freedom of engineering nano-antennas that reflect electro-magnetic waves. If millions of these are created and spread over a very large area, one can actually have a huge antenna array made out of nano-antennas. The operation can obviously be optimized by a computer to find the best 3D configuration of the DNA-origami-gold-coated antennas and the best distribution over such large spaces. The benefits of this suggested antenna array lie on its extremely cheap construction, due to advances in DNA synthesis; robustness, since even if you lose a large percent of the nano-antennas, the large array can still function; and configurability, since one can attempt many shapes and distributions until one gets the appropriate antenna array.

Farting roses

Farting, or the more scientific name of flatulence, is a personal, social and aromatic disaster. It has caused numerous embarrassing and awkward moments in the history of mankind. Why can't our farts smell like roses? The answer lies in the chemistry of aromatic compounds. The smell of roses is caused by the compound called Geranyl acetate and is a carbo-hydrate, meaning it is composed of a carbon backbone with hydrogen and oxygen on its side. On the other hand, flatulence is made of carbohydrate compounds that have nitrogen and sulfur in them.

Why can't we simply take a pill with the rosy molecules and thus make our flatulence have good fragrance? The problem with the good aromatic compounds is that they are decomposed in our digestive system since they are similar to food-stuff that holds energy. Thus, they are digested by acids and the entire digestive tract, from the stomach to the colon. The flatulence smell is generated by the bacteria in our digestive systems, as a byproduct of their decomposition of foodstuff that makes it to the large intestine. In other words, rose molecules turn to smelly farts.

However, recent developments in drug delivery systems may cause our lives to smell less awkwardly. The secret is in slow-delivery systems and new encapsulation techniques. Nowadays, there are unique methods that can encapsulate a specific compound, usually a drug, such that the compound is released from its host slowly into the blood stream. Moreover, for a long time encapsulation techniques are known that can protect materials from the acidic environment in the stomach, such that they reach the colon. One anti-flatulence drug is made out of encapsulated grounded-coal, such that the material reaches the colon, by surviving the rough voyage through the stomach, and there it captures the gasses released by the bacteria in the colon.

However, I believe it is not good enough to stop the bad fragrances, but also to enable us to choose how we wish to smell, not only from our tops, via shampoos and conditioners, but from our bottoms as well. I suggest to develop slowly-releasing encapsulation digestive nano-structures that release good aromatic compounds as they reach their final destination. Wouldn't it be nice to hear a fart and say, "mmm… Chanel?"  

Fractal Casimir Surfaces

This post is a little more physics-oriented than previous ones, but I'll try to explain all the major concepts from scratch. The idea, if it works, can revolutionize how we think about what is mass and can have rather crazy applications, such as a cheap transporter of things to outer space. Basically, it suggests how to drastically reduce the inertial mass of objects!

Let's start with basic quantum physics and vacuum fluctuations. As you may well know, quantum physics asserts that all things come in discrete units ("quanta"), even energy. Hence, electromagnetic radiation comes in photons. This "second quantization" (the first one being quantization of matter, so to speak) means that energy is measured in discrete units, such that one can "count the number of photons" and know the energy. More specifically, each frequency of energy, also known as a mode, can "contain" a discrete number of photons, also known as "excitations". So EM-radiation of frequency f with n photons, or n photons each with frequency f have … hf(n+1/2) energy, where h is Planck's constant that converts frequency to energy units. The whole idea in this post is the 1/2 that appears out of nowhere.

There is a deep mathematical background for the origin of the 1/2, but I like the uncertainty principle's view on it. The uncertainty principle asserts that one cannot determine any quantity to complete certainty, without affecting another "conjugate" quantity. In the case of energy, the "conjugate" quantity is time, hence it will take forever to measure zero energy for certain. Thus, because energy is always positive, and we can't measure zero energy, it means there is some energy out there. That "some energy" is the 1/2 and it has a profound meaning. Even complete vacuum has energy in it. It is sometimes called "zero-point energy", or "vacuum fluctuations". Fluctuations, because "virtual" photons are created and annihilated all the time, such that the average energy is hf/2, but it constantly fluctuates.

How much energy does the vacuum contain? This depends, weirdly, by the "thing" that bound the vacuum, such as a box or surface. How so? The energy or modes of the EM-fields are wavelike entities and have a wavelength ~ 1/f, i.e. the higher the frequency the shorter the wavelength. The un-bounded vacuum contains all frequencies, from the very low to the highest one. On the other hand, consider vacuum bound by two metallic surfaces | -- |. What happens if the distance between the surfaces is shorter than the wavelength? It means that that mode of the EM-field, or more specifically, photons with frequency lower than that distance cannot be inside; there's no place for them. Hence, since they cannot be inside, there are also no vacuum fluctuations of that frequency between the surfaces.

Summarizing this weird (and scientifically proven point!) between two metallic surfaces, there is actually less vacuum than outside since some vacuum fluctuations cannot exist between the surfaces, but can exist outside them. Even weirder, is that these fluctuating virtual photons exert pressure on the surfaces. Since there is less vacuum inside, the pressure is smaller than outside and the two surfaces are attracted. The vacuum exerts attracting Casimir forces on the two surfaces.

This Casimir force, due to exclusion of vacuum modes has been measured and actually plays an important role in designing and fabrication of nano particles, where the forces are not negligible.

How is all of this related to reducing the mass of objects? The weirdness continues…

Apparently, inertial mass, the m from F=ma, is derived from friction with the vacuum. Meaning, that when you exert a force on an object with mass m, it acquires less acceleration if it has more friction with the vacuum, i.e. its inertial mass is higher. Conversely, if we could reduce the friction with the vacuum, the same object could acquire larger acceleration with the same amount of force.

But, wait a minute. We just learned how to reduce vacuum itself and hence, obviously, friction with it. So the point is that if we exert a force on an object which moves between two metallic surfaces, because there is less vacuum there, there is less friction and given the same force, it will accelerate more. WHAT? Yep, by changing the vacuum in which an object moves, one can reduce its inertial mass.

By how much? There's the crux. If you recall, the modes that are "expelled" from the vacuum between the two surfaces are those with longer wavelengths, i.e. lower frequencies. And since the energy of these modes are proportional to the frequency, the modes expelled are those with lower energy. These modes exerts the least amount of friction and thus expelling them will have almost no effect on the inertial mass.

What can be done? This is my idea. The two surfaces I described are parallel flat surfaces. Physical solutions to the Casimir force have usually been calculated for such surfaces, or round ones to account for nano-spheres. However, I propose using fractal Casimir surfaces.

Fractals? Can it be even more complicated? Cool things lie in the combination of weirdness and even more weirdness!

Fractals, if you haven't read my previous The Fractal Gene post, are patterns that repeat themselves in every scale, such as branches in a tree, or shore lines. If you zoom in, you get the same pattern, no matter how much you zoom.

I propose that if you create a fractal Casimir surface, you can exclude higher frequency modes, since at every scale there is a shape to the surface that excludes some mode. Thus, if an object moves between these fractal Casimir surfaces, it will have drastically less inertial mass.

What is it good for, accept being so weird that it has to be true? Consider that we can reduce the inertial mass of objects we wish to send to the Space Station. If we build a tunnel with fractal Casimir surfaces, we need to exert much less force in order to send them to space. The possibilities are endless, as they usually are in discovering new forms of physics.

Mini-terraforming against tornados

There are regions in the world, also in the US, that are prone to devastating weather phenomena, such as tornadoes. There are probably numerous physical models attempting to describe this in the attempt to predict their formation. I propose using these models in an attempt to subverting them, not only predicting.

Some regions, even near those that are prone, have smaller probabilities of being harmed. I believe that one of the possible reasons is the landscape, such as hills, mountains and valley. These weather phenomena are highly dependent on air pressure, and change with height of the landscape. Furthermore, who has not heard of the "butterfly effect"? While its origin is in the chaos theory and it is usually misinterpreted, I want to deliberately make a "bad" use of it for this project.

I propose that a "sleight" change in landscape may cause a drastic change in the development, progression and severity of weather phenomenon, such as tornadoes. While I have no proof of this, I believe current models can, or should if they don't, analyze effects of changing altitude on such events. For example, given a known prone area, what would a small hill or a valley do to the formation and progression of a tornado?

Going one step forward, if/when such models exist, one can also try to optimize the process, by finding "what is the smallest change in landscape that could have a beneficial effect on the phenomenon, such as guidance or diminishing of magnitude?" In other words, if I could create a hill somewhere, where should I put it to guide a tornado out of residential or other important areas?

While this question seems bizarre, it has both scientific and operational significance. The science is that one could better understand the phenomenon by analyzing effects of landscape, which is a crucial (in my opinion) parameter on the dynamics. The operational one is somewhat more challenging. I have seen a "garbage mountain" that was several hundred feet high and a mile long. Furthermore, tunnels, highways and railroads completely change the landscape in drastic manners unfathomable a century before. I believe we now have the technology and the means to actually change the landscape of the environment around us. This is what I call "mini-terraforming": while it doesn't change the entire Earth habitat, I believe it can change some of it large factors, such as weather phenomenon.

Taken together, the optimizing landscape change for the mitigation of tornadoes and the ability to actually create or drastically change the landscape, I propose that a test be performed in the following manner:

a.       Take a tornado-prone area.

b.      Analyze the effects of possible landscape changes on the development and dynamics of tornadoes.

c.       Optimize landscape changes, i.e. what is the minimal change required to mitigate the devastation such a tornado does.

d.      Try to create/change the minimal landscape in the optimal position.

e. Wait for next tornado season and hope for the best.

The Fractal Gene

When you look at trees, cauliflower and blood vessels you can see an intricate pattern with a unique property called fractalness. In simple terms, a fractal is a pattern that when you zoom into it, the pattern reappears across all scales. Thus, for examples, each tree species has its own branching angle to its branches, smaller branches, leaves and veins within the leaves. Similarly, cauliflower has "bumps", wherein each bump has smaller ones with the same proportions deeper and deeper. Our blood vessels are also patterned in a similar fashion.

These biological properties of living organisms develop as a result of the genetic code. In each of our cells, we have a whole copy of our genetic code, and during development, and also in adulthood, patterns emerge according to "blueprints" in our DNA. Thus, each cell knows if to become a liver cell, an endothelial cell in a blood vessel or a neuron in the brain. The development of blood vessels, as well as sprouting of branches and leaves, is (mostly) dictated by the genetic code.

One can also look at it from an information point-of-view. Fractals are very "compact" information-wise, i.e. with a simple code, or formula, one can code beautiful intricate designs. The complex structure of a tree, from its trunk up to its leaves' veins, can be "coded" in a single gene that regulates the branching ratio in all these levels. Blood vessels might also conform to this strategy, to encode complex intricate webs in our body by a single (or a small number of) genes.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to discover this "fractal gene"? Is it a single gene for each species, dictating the branching ratio? Is it a single complex of genes across species, whose ratio in each specie dictate the emerging pattern?

Perhaps discovering this wondrous "fractal gene" can help designing complex artificial patterns. Maybe coding this ratio in the design of nano-structures, such as carbon nanotubes, will enable self-assembly of complex fractal patterns of tubes. Perhaps, even, these structures will be stronger and have unique properties.

One caveat to this hypothesis, though. Fractals appear even in inanimate objects, such as clouds, mountains and riverbeds. These amazing patterns emerge through interaction of complex phenomena, without any "guidance" of biological control. There is the possibility that tree-shapes, as well as our blood vessels architecture, are the emergent property of the opposing interaction of growth, resources and gradients of chemicals in their surroundings. Probably, as in all these gene-environment discussions, the answer is somewhere in the middle. Yet this implies that there is such a "fractal gene", and it might play a role in the buildup of some of the most beautiful structures in nature. 

Universal programming language

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of programming languages which, as proclaimed by their respective disciples, are "the best one". In this list one can include Python, Java, Ruby, Scala, c# and probably many more I didn't even hear of. Once one is familiar and adept in one language, the transition to another is usually not that hard, where one has to only learn the new syntax and some idiosyncrasies of that language.

I would like to propose a "linguistics" approach to this topic and try to compose, similar to Esperanto, a "universal programming language". Via research on the development of programming languages, one can, in complete analogy to spoken and written languages, learn the evolution of society, technology and hopefully to predict and analyze future directions of developments.

I recently encountered an amazing site, http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Rosetta_Code, in which a (rather) complete list of programming languages is detailed. The most amazing thing in this blessed endeavor, is that you can ask a question regarding programming, e.g. how to find if a file exists, and get the answer for more than 50 programming languages. A short comparison indeed shows that they are extremely similar in most respects, but have small modifications, alterations and quirks.

I think two interesting projects can evolve from such a Rosetta-code (probably both are currently underway or finished, but I unfortunately am unaware of them). The first is a language-to-language translator. Many coders are required to transform code from one language to another due to a new language appearing or a demand from a customer. Wouldn't it be nice if it could be made with a single click?

The second, more ambitious project is to create a "universal programming language". Combine all known programming languages under one common roof and allow one of two things: either attempt to make the "optimal" language under specific constraints, e.g. performance, ease of use, shortness of written commands, etc; or allow a completely customizable instantiation of novel languages - if a coder wants to enjoy all worlds such as performance of c and each of Ruby, why shouldn't she. She just open the "universal programming language" settings, choose level of performance and ease of programming and a novel easy-to-operate language is created.

I for one, would have enjoyed the results of both projects, so if you, reader, know of such things, I'd appreciate a reply/comment. Thanks.

Portable Motor

This post is more an idea of a product rather than a research project, but I think it's ok. There are many new and exciting projects that try to produce exo-skeletons, i.e. devices that are mounted on the body and supply power for lifting and moving large things. Their main usage is for handicapped people and military stuff. The product I'm suggesting is along these lines but at a much smaller scale and for everyday use.

The concept is that nowadays electric engines are becoming light and commonplace, as you can see in Segways, electric scooters and bicycles. They all have a small electric engine that mount on top and supply the juice for operating the vehicle. I want to propose a different usage for the same electric motor, namely, helping people move uncomfortable and heavy wheeled things over rough terrain, such as bad walkways and pavements. For example, old people or weak ones have trouble moving the loaded shopping carts from the supermarket or grocery store. Imagine that they have a portable small and light-weight (or even draggable) motor that they can easily attach to the shopping cart and thus help them move it. Mind you, this is not for speed, as the usage for the electric scooters, but simply supplying lacking power in "pushing" the cart.

Another example is a baby trolley for young mothers. Some pavements and gardens require maneuvering for a large trolley, especially for twins. Also, mothers after birth have less strength to carry the trolley (and the associated bags that come with it). Imagine that a simple engine is attached to the trolley and, like Segway, respond to the mother's directions and supply the juice for moving the trolley without any effort or strength.

As for marketing and pricing issues: if such engines can be mounted on kids' bikes, I'm pretty sure they are cheap and easy to operate. Adding some guidance mechanism for them should also not be an issue and since their usage is for short walks, as opposed to an electric car, their size can be small and they can be recharged easily.

Sono-luminescence with Nanotubes

Sono-luminescence is an intriguing phenomenon where sound waves (sono) impinging on a liquid create flashes of light (luminescence). The physics behind this is quite complicated, yet recent research had shed some light on it. It appears that bubbles created by the sound waves inside the liquid, due to negative pressure, suddenly implode very fast, an event called cavitation, creating such high pressures and temperatures that they cause inside atoms and molecules to radiate. In other words, sound waves propagate through the liquid, alternating between high pressure and low pressure of the liquid medium. Due to the high intensity of the sounds waves, the (relative) negative pressure causes bubbles, i.e. pockets of gases, inside the liquid. These implode, i.e. the liquid crashes the bubbles, so fast and hard that the temperatures inside these bubbles are so high that anything inside the gas bubbles emits heat and sometimes, in unique conditions, radiation in the visible spectrum, i.e. light. Sono-luminescence has even been suggested as a possible avenue to cold-fusion, the alchemist stone of the modern age.

Nanotubes, on the other hand, are very small (nano = 10 to the power of -9, of a meter) tubes made out of carbon atoms. They hold great promise in many research areas since their properties are quite unique. They are extremely strong, yet bendable; they can be either conductive or isolators, depending on their condition; and they can be (relatively) easily manufactured in different sizes, length, shapes and constellations. The tubes circumference is made of covalently tied carbon atoms in a unique arrangement. They are usually produced in a liquid solvent.

Here comes the crux: the inside of the nanotube is very small, yet can accommodate the molecules and atoms that are part of the liquid the nanotubes are in. I suggest a sono-luminescence experiment in which the liquid contains nanotubes. The reason such an experiment could have interesting effects is that the cavitation, i.e. the implosion of the bubbles, can happen inside the nanotubes. The effects of such harsh conditions, namely, high pressures and high temperatures, on the nanotubes can be of great interest in the now extremely growing community. Furthermore, since there is a unique interplay between sound waves and electromagnetic waves in a nanotube environment, there could be interesting interactions between acoustic resonances (phonons) and electromagnetic ones (photons). The small size of the nanotubes makes the strength of these interactions very strong as they can be a waveguide and/or cavity-like amplifiers for both types of waves.

Uterosound

The ear develops during pregnancy at an early stage. There is also clear evidence that some learning and adaptation occurs in-utero in many sensory organs, such as smell, sound and even sight. The latter is unique, since there is no light in the uterus; nevertheless, the neurons in the retina are activated in a specific way, called retinal waves, so as to (in my opinion) optimally adjust and "calibrate" the upstream neuronal processing. Hearing is known to be developed in-utero, since there is evidence that one and two days old babies show preference for their mother's voice than to other people voices. From this information, several attempts to introduce "sophisticated sounds" to the womb have been made, in a marketing pitch that "if you play Mozart to your unborn child, she will come out smarter".

However, there is an obvious obstacle in developing such a device: sounds travel and distort on their journey from the outside world, until they reach the fetus's hearing organs. Sounds travel differently in liquids than in air, i.e. the speed of sound is much higher. Furthermore, women's bodies are not a uniform liquid (although made mostly of water), since they have many non-liquid organs, such as bones, muscles, kidneys etc. Hence, there is no clear relationship between the produced sound from the speakers outside the body and the actual sound sensed by the fetus.

In recent developments, there are now unique tools that are capable of analyzing the travel of sounds inside such a complex system as the human body. There are several ultrasound operations made today in a non-invasive manner, that heat up and destroy malignant tissue inside the body using sound-waves. However, analysis of sounds in the audible range, which has a much lower frequency than ultrasound, is much trickier. Nevertheless, advanced numerical tools that solve the wave equation in random and inhomogeneous media (which is the human body), exist today.

The project I'm suggesting involves a unique combination of imaging tools, advanced numerical sound-propagation tools and inverse problem analysis. I'll explain the steps toward the goal, which is to play the fetus sound in-utero that are identical, from a neuronal perspective, to sounds she will hear when she is born.

1.      Produce high definition imaging of the entire abdomen, with all organs and positions. This can be done in a non-invasive non-radiative manner using MRI and ultrasound. The output of this stage is a clear 3D map of the organs inside the mother's belly, including the position of the fetus.

2.      Use advance numerical tools, with the unique 3D map of the body, to understand, predict and invert the propagation of sound in such a complex medium. In other words, one can now know what the fetus senses when we make sounds outside the uterus, but more importantly one can know which sounds to produce outside in order for the fetus to hear what we want.

3.      Given the fetus developmental age, augmented by its 3D map, one can ascertain the level of auditory processing occurring prior to auditory neurons firing. In earlier ages, there is virtually no processing, whereas in later developmental stages the inner and outer ear are already there and influence the distortion of sounds dramatically.

4.      Given the inverse transform, i.e. which sounds to produce in order for the fetus to hear what we want, and given the fetus's auditory processing, we can now decide which sounds to produce, outside the body, for the fetus to "hear" sounds that are similar to those that it will hear after it is born.

This project is based on a huge assumption, and have some moral issues: should we even try to produce sounds in-utero that are not natural to the development of the fetus? I believe that the brain is a learning organ and that everything "thrown" at it, it will learn and adapt. I thus believe that if we make sounds such that the developing brain "hears" similarly to those that it will hear later on, after delivery, then I think that it will learn much faster to recognize sounds, voices and other auditory cues when it is a new born baby.

The Morphing Room

She entered her home after a long day. The single-room apartment looked completely bare, with no furniture of any kind, nor closets, tables or any possessions. However, she walked slowly to her favorite spot and simply said "chair, please". The floor rose to meet her descending body in a caressing embrace; several hexagonal columns, ending in small inflatable cushions rose from the floor in a three-dimensional arrangement she so admired. They created a chair under her and she finally relaxed. "A glass of wine, please" she said and an opening appeared in one of the walls, two feet above the floor. A small robot holding a glass of wine began to come out, and was met by an ascending column of hexagonals, which formed a straight path from the opening to the newly formed chair. The robot gracefully rolled on the path and upon reaching the chair's location, was raised to the chair's height by the last few hexagonals. She took the glass, murmuring an absent minded "thank you" and sipped her wine. Several minutes of relaxation were interrupted by a knock on the door. She placed her wine on the raised hexagonal and went to the door, whereupon her chair slowly receded to the floor. She opened the door and saw her friend smiling "am I too early?" "No, you're just on time". They both entered and the host said "two chairs and a table, please". An arranged of two chairs rose from the floor, adjacent to one of the walls, whereupon a slab came out of the wall between them, forming a comfortable corner. "Do you want to drink something before we begin?" she asked. "Just water, please". Another opening appeared in the wall and a path from it to the table formed just as a small robot rolled on it with a clear glass of water. The visitor, not yet accustomed to The Morphing Room was a little surprised and dropped the glass of water, which shattered on the floor. "I am so sorry", she said, "I'll help clean it up". "No need" her host smiled. All the hexagonals in the vicinity of the shattered glass descended to the floor, creating a flat surface. From an opening on the floor level came out a small robot and cleaned the floor, returning to another opening with the glass remnants. Another opening appeared and another robot came and wiped the water from the floor. After three minutes, the floor was clean and the hexagonals resumed their three dimensional arrangement prior to the incident. Another glass of water appeared and the visitor took it and drank. "Let's start" her host suggested. The table lit up and they worked on the work-table for some hours, sometimes interrupting their work with an order of a beverage or a snack. After they finished the visitor rose and said "I think we got it now, what do you think?" "I agree. Let's meet tomorrow again to finalize things." They embraced and the visitor left, accompanied by the reshaping of the room to its bare shape once more. During their goodbyes, several small robots appeared from the floor-level openings and cleared all the now-flat floors in a graceful easy dance. When she finally closed the door behind her friend, she was very tired. "Bed, please" she said and the usual arrangement of hexagonals of her soft bed rose from the floor the exact height she liked. From one of the openings a folded blanket came via another robot and was laid on the bed. She took it while the path leading the robot back to its niche descended to the floor. The lights dimmed and she quickly fell asleep.

---

The Morphing Room is based on the concept of a changing floor that can meet the three dimensional needs of its occupants. The floor is made of height-adjustable components that can shift and create a three dimensional shape at will and recede back to the floor when it is no longer needed. Another important consequence of this arrangement is that simple robotic helpers can be incorporated into the room. Their locomotion can be completely limited to two dimensions with no obstacles, a task easily achieved today. Their third dimension movement is performed by the coordinating floor and obstacles are usually removed either by the descending floor or by other robots. This enables very simple robotics to operate, clean and help the occupant of the room in whatever they need. Furthermore, the walls become completely accessible in all heights since the floor makes it accessible.

Technology. The basic ingredients of The Morphing Room is an array of hexagonals that must fulfill the following requirements:

1.      Rise and descend quickly to any desirable height: this can be done either by electric or hydraulic pistons below the floor level.

2.      Strong enough to support the weight of a person: this can be done with today's reinforced plastic materials.

3.      Modifiable endpoint to allow for either hard or soft endings: this can be done by inflatable cushions, whose air can pass in the middle of the hexagonal.

The walls are also an important part of The Morphing Room. They are composed of many compartments, each responsible for a different function, e.g. refrigerator, cupboard, closet, garbage, etc. They can be laid out in any arrangement, since height is of no importance, but to facilitate its function.

An assembly of helper robots are also an important, yet not mandatory, part of The Morphing Room. The room facilitates the use of simpler robots, since the environment changes to accommodate simpler navigation and reachability for the robots. They should be divided to two basic types, namely, graspers for bringing things and cleaners that clean the floor (and only the floor, since all else can become a floor). While more complex robots can facilitate more complex dynamics, e.g. quadcopters can have a truly three-dimensional maneuverability, they are not necessary in The Morphing Room.

 To conclude, The Morphing Room is a new design for a malleable room in which the floor can change its shape to accommodate the requirements of its inhabitant. The floor also facilitates accessibility to all heights of specially designed walls and enables an entourage of simple robots to keep it serviceable and clean.

Indexing the Brain

For the last two decades, Human Brain Mapping (HBM) research has flourished, generating tens of thousands of research papers that describe the anatomical and functional structure of the human brain. This is mainly accredited to the infiltration of fMRI research to every branch related to neuroscience, from cognition, to decision making, neuro-economics, as well as sensory perception and motor actions and planning. There is a huge amount of data out there that is hardly indexed, and the number of fMRI papers is increasing every year.

I believe that current technological tools, mainly web scraping, crawlers and natural language processing (NLP) tools, have reached a point that one can create an automatic tool that "reads" all these papers and aggregate them in a single database according to anatomical as well as functional structure.

In order to understand how to implement this project, as well as how to use its products, a short explanation on fRMI research is in order. A typical research begins with an experimental design, where the most basic one is composed of two conditions, for example presenting the subject with a picture of either a house or a face. Then the experiment begins inside the fMRI research and is repeated many times per subject, as well as on many subjects, in order to get a statistically significant result. Such a result is usually described as: "area A was more active under condition X than condition Y". This result thus suggests that area A is somehow involved in processing condition X. For example, it was shown that an area called the Fusiform Gyrus is more active when seeing faces than when seeing houses and this result (with many others) suggests that the Fusiform Gyrus area is involved in processing visual aspects of faces.

An example Abstract of an fMRI research paper (quite old):

"Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we found an area in the fusiform gyrus in 12 of the 15 subjects tested that was significantly more active when the subjects viewed faces than when they viewed assorted common objects. This face activation was used to define a specific region of interest individually for each subject, within which several new tests of face specificity were run. In each of five subjects tested, the predefined candidate “face area” also responded significantly more strongly to passive viewing of (1) intact than scrambled two-tone faces, (2) full front-view face photos than front-view photos of houses, and (in a different set of five subjects) (3) three-quarter-view face photos (with hair concealed) than photos of human hands; it also responded more strongly during (4) a consecutive matching task performed on three-quarter-view faces versus hands. Our technique of running multiple tests applied to the same region defined functionally within individual subjects provides a solution to two common problems in functional imaging: (1) the requirement to correct for multiple statistical comparisons and (2) the inevitable ambiguity in the interpretation of any study in which only two or three conditions are compared. Our data allow us to reject alternative accounts of the function of the fusiform face area (area “FF”) that appeal to visual attention, subordinate-level classification, or general processing of any animate or human forms, demonstrating that this region is selectively involved in the perception of faces." From: Nancy Kanwisher, Josh McDermott, and Marvin M. Chun, "The Fusiform Face Area: A Module in Human Extrastriate Cortex Specialized for Face Perception". The Journal of Neuroscience, 1 June 1997, 17(11):4302-4311

The first sentence has all the relevant information for the project: an area "fusiform gyrus" and condition "subjects viewed faces than when they viewed assorted common objects".

Furthermore, most papers have fMRI images that show the exact area of activation, as well as standard 3D coordinates within the brain call Talaraich coordinates. The project should thus first create an indexed database of papers according to their coordinates and/or function/condition; then using NLP tools to extract the meaning of the area from many such papers. The product is thus a tool for future researchers that can query such a database for a specific area they discover in their own research and get not only proper citations for their papers (which is important), but also a suggestion for the meaning of the areas they discovered. If it works, the tool can be even more powerful; usually each experiment results in several areas that are active, because more recent experiments are much more complex and examine higher cognitive functions (e.g. neuroeconomics). Hence, the tool can actually suggest a reconstruction of the experiment all by itself. How? Given the active areas, the tool knows and connects, via NLP and extensions, what function each area performs and can integrate all of these into a hypothesis of the experiment that gave such activation. This is a huge step in human brain mapping research and neuroscience in general: it is akin to reading the inner as well as outer environment of a person, solely from an fMRI scan (a little different from recent "thought reading" experiments, which focus on much finer details).

How to implement this project?

1.      Crawlers in the internet can search specific sites of neuroscience-related journals (not that many) and automatically scan for specific keywords: fMRI, subjects, research, etc.

2.      Once a candidate paper is found, the relevant areas are searched for (again, not that many); or searching for Talaraich coordinates inside the paper.

3.      Milestone: An indexed 3D map/database of human brain papers.

4.      Scanning all papers in the database for a description of the experiment/condition.

5.      Using state-of-the-art NLP tools to extract and index database of conditions/experiments such that there would be overlap between papers.

6.      Milestone: An indexed 3D map/database of the human brain function.

Quantum Dice

Nowadays all chance games, e.g. backgammon, risk, card games, etc. rely on the physics of Chaos theory. I suggest to make them depend on Quantum theory and thus make them truly chance games. In order to understand this project some background is in order.

Chaos theory states that given a small change in initial conditions, the amount of change in later times grows exponential, i.e. the changes later are huge. The so-called "butterfly effect"  states (wrongly, I think) that a butterfly moving its wing in Africa can cause a hurricane in America. My interpretation of Chaos theory (which I learned since I was 16 years old) is somewhat different. The "problem" in Chaos theory is not in random or even small effects; the problem is lack of knowledge of them. Chaos theory has completely no randomness in it; it is based on Newtonian deterministic dynamics. Hence, as Newton stated, if you know all the initial conditions, you can predict the future completely. Chaos theory states that if you don't know all the initial conditions, i.e. some conditions are simply unknown or immeasurable, then chaotic systems will be unpredictable as time progresses. The uncertainty in prediction is due to lack of knowledge and not true randomness.

How all of this relates to chance games? Rolling the dice means that you do not know all the initial conditions, e.g. the exact force expended, the friction with the air and the table, the exact shape and mass-distribution of the dice, etc. Hence, each throw has some different initial conditions and hence you cannot predict its future. A counter-example: weighted-dice have known important initial condition of asymmetric mass-distribution, such that no matter the other initial conditions, the toss is always the same. Weighted dice show how knowing, or better yet determining, the initial conditions can result in a predictable future in an otherwise chaotic system. Shuffling of cards prior to distribution follows the same logic.

So why is quantum physics so different? Quantum physics has shown that (to the best of our scientific knowledge) there is an inherent randomness in the world, i.e. there are some systems that you cannot, even if you know everything (all the initial conditions), predict their future. Once you make your measurement of the future, the result is completely and utterly random. I will not go in detail how this is possible or how that was proven, but you can look at my Quantum Computer Games to get the gist of it. However, this is a known scientific fact. A question arises: what are those quantum systems that behave in such a random way? The answer is small (really small) systems, such as a single atom, a single electron or such (although larger systems have been shown to behave in a quantum manner, the record being a virus!).

The project thus suggests to use a quantum system as the chance element in chance games. This is obviously not easy since quantum systems are hard to manufacture and maintain. The most formidable challenge is to isolate the system from the environment. However, I can envision a small portable product whose sole purpose is to generate a 0 or a 1, randomly, based on a quantum system. Suggestions for such a system are: single-photon emitters, which are now commonplace in research laboratories; solid-state systems, which are becoming the most promising avenue to the coveted quantum computers; quantum-dot systems, which can hold a single electron. Such a system can easily be transferred to a dice (1-6) or distribution of cards, using standard (classical) hardware. Hence, the results of such a product, the quantum die, will be truly random and give a little tweak to the word "chance" in chance games.

Rewarding derivatives

In modern child-in-the-center world, there is a fear to reward success, so as to not offend those children that never win in contests. "Everybody wins" is proclaimed to induce equality. However, it can also induce stagnation and remove the desire to improve.  There is merit in the problem that children who are unlucky to be surrounded by more capable children indeed never win, which is very bad for their self-esteem.

I propose a new reward system for competitions that include a numerical grade, e.g. sports events of individuals such as running, jumping, etc. Up until now, the first place went to the person with the best grade, the second place to the one with the second grade and third to the third. I suggest a new system: the first place goes to the one with the best grade, as before, but the second place goes to the one with the best improvement in his grade, and the third place is chosen at random from the other contestants. For example, if several children compete in a running contest, each child should have his own personal record (by record I mean really recorded somewhere, for example from previous contests). The first place goes to the one that arrived first, but the second place goes to the child that improved his personal record the most. The third place goes to another child, chosen randomly.

This system has several advantages:

1.       Even if there is a single most skilled child, the second and third places can go to other children.
2.       It promotes the will to simply improve, so even if one has a lousy score, if he improves by a lot, he wins.
3.       One can never be second place for a long time, since by definition improvements always become smaller and smaller. Hence, many children will win second place.
4.       The third place teaches children that not everything in life is deterministic, and there is always a measure of luck.

As for the third place, someone once asked me: Is life more similar to backgammon or chess? While I wish it was more like chess, life has taught me that backgammon is probably a more appropriate metaphor. Children should be taught that winning is composed of three things: being the best, improving the most and sheer luck!

Printing flowers

Today, one can print objects in 3D in various materials, from plastic to rubber. A new emerging field is that of biological 3D printing. The main idea is to print specific tailor-made organs from the cells of a specific patients. This can reduce the implanting complications, as well as optimize the properties of the implanted organ, such as shape and size. However, for some reason, 3D biological printing has focused on humans. The reason is obvious since it can save lives and have a huge market.

I want to suggest a new market, e.g. printing flowers. If there is such a technology to print human organs, I believe that it can be simpler to print plants and flowers. Think of printing a flower with a unique shape and color; designing your own plant and shrubbery; choosing whatever you want from the fauna world.

The market for this is, I believe, quite large. In the entertainment market, consider a flower with the petals spelling your girlfriend's name or a single custom-made flower that has your fiancé's unique combination of colors.

In the biological market, this can induce a unique combination of traits in a single organism, instead of genetic recombination, one can print out a single plant from several plant's cell types, thus for a mind-boggling example, print a delicate plant that produces important proteins surrounded by a tough bark from an oak tree.

In these 3D printing days, imagination is the limit; why confine it to humans?

introduction

This is my very first blog post, so I apologize for not conforming to "standard" blogging.
I'm Goren Gordon and I'm the eternal researcher. I've spent my last 18 years studying in universities and it's time to give something back.

The Research Fountain's purpose is to publish research ideas and projects that I cannot do myself, yet I believe they are doable and worthy. I have too many of those to keep in my e-drawer, so I decided to share them with the world, in the hope that someone with time, energy, money or all of the above will make something of them. My goal is to post an idea a week, on average, but we'll see how I progress with this goal.

I claim no ownership on these ideas and anyone can feel free to pursue them. I would appreciate if someone actually does something with them, to get some feedback. Also, if someone has any knowledge that the idea was already done, I'd appreciate a link.

One last remark, so you can take the ideas I write seriously: I have a triple-double, i.e. two undergraduates in Medicine and Physics; two masters in Business and Physics; and two PhDs in Neuroscience and Physics. I wrote over 40 research papers, five patents and one app. All can be found on my website: http://gorengordon.com .

So let's start...