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A new study in The Lancet rates the harmfulness of 20 psychoactive drugs according to 16 criteria and finds that alcohol comes out on top. Although that conclusion is generating headlines, it is not at all surprising, since alcohol is, by several important measures (including acute toxicity, impairment of driving ability, and the long-term health effects of heavy use), the most dangerous widely used intoxicant, and its abuse is also associated with violence, family breakdown, and social estrangement. A group of British drug experts gathered by the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs (ISCD) rated alcohol higher than most or all of the other drugs for health damage, mortality, impairment of mental functioning, accidental injury, economic cost, loss of relationships, and negative impact on community. Over all, alcohol rated 72 points on a 100-point scale, compared to 55 for heroin, 54 for crack cocaine, and 33 for methamphetamine. Cannabis got a middling score of 20, while MDMA (Ecstasy), LSD, and psilocybin mushrooms were at the low end, with ratings of 9, 7, and 6, respectively.

ScienceDaily (Dec. 3, 2010) - IBM scientists have unveiled a new chip technology that integrates electrical and optical devices on the same piece of silicon, enabling computer chips to communicate using pulses of light (instead of electrical signals), resulting in smaller, faster and more power-efficient chips than is possible with conventional technologies.

Over the past couple of years, cybercriminals have increasingly focused on finding ways to inject malicious code into legitimate websites. Typically they've done this by embedding code in an editable part of a page and using this code to serve up harmful content from another part of the Web. But this activity can be difficult to spot because websites also increasingly pull in legitimate content, such as ads, videos, or snippets of code, from outside sites.

ETHEREAL quantum entanglement has been captured in solid crystals, showing that it is more robust than once assumed. These entanglement traps could make quantum computing and communication more practical.

'Quantum information technology is a field of physics aimed at harnessing some of the deepest phenomena in physics to create wholly new forms of technology, such as computers and communication systems,' said Erik Gauger of Oxford University's Department of Materials, an author of the paper.

For several decades, astronomers and cosmologists have been piling up data that indicates most of the matter in the Universe is dark, interacting only via gravity. As modified theories of gravity failed to account for observation, candidates for dark mater were winnowed down until one remained in favor: the weakly interactive massive particle, or WIMP. Over the past several years, potential signals of WIMPs have appeared in space and on Earth; that, combined with the startup of the LHC, has given the research community the sense that it's close to pinning down the identity of the WIMPs. But a review in this week's Nature considers what might happen if we fail.

Graphene-based modulators could soon allow consumers to stream full-length, high-definition, 3-D movies onto a smartphone in a matter of seconds, the researchers said.

Theodore Berger and his team at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Department of Biomedical Engineering have developed a neural prosthesis for rats that is able to restore their ability to form long-term memories after they had been pharmacologically blocked. In a dramatic demonstration, Berger blocked the ability to rats to form long-term memories by using pharmacological agents to disrupt the neural circuitry that communicates between two subregions of the hippocampus, CA1 and CA3, which interact to create long-term memory, prior research has shown. The rats were unable to remember which lever to pull to gain a reward, or could only remember for 5-10 seconds, when previously they could remember for a long period of time. The researchers then developed an artificial hippocampal system that could duplicate the pattern of interaction between CA3-CA1 interactions. Long-term memory capability returned to the pharmacologically blocked rats when the team activated the electronic device programmed to duplicate the memory-encoding function. The researchers went on to show that if a prosthetic device and its associated electrodes were implanted in animals with a normal, functioning hippocampus, the device could actually strengthen the memory being generated internally in the brain and enhance the memory capability of normal rats. "These integrated experimental modeling studies show for the first time that with sufficient information about the neural coding of memories, a neural prosthesis capable of real-time identification and manipulation of the encoding process can restore and even enhance cognitive mnemonic processes," says the paper. Next steps, according to Berger and Deadwyler, will be attempts to duplicate the rat results in primates (monkeys), with the aim of eventually creating prostheses that might help human victims of Alzheimer's disease, stroke, or injury recover function. Ref.: "A Cortical Neural Prosthesis for Restoring and Enhancing

'Open knowledge' is any content, information or data that people are free to use, re-use and redistribute - without any legal, technological or social restriction. We detail exactly what openness entails in the Open Knowledge Definition.

Numenta.org Platform for Intelligent Computing The mission of this project is to build and support a community interested in machine learning and machine intelligence based on modeling the neocortex and the principles upon which it works.

Metamaps.cc is a free and open source web platform for changemakers, innovators, educators and students. It enables individuals and communities to build and visualize their shared knowledge and unlock their collective intelligence.

Trivedi Science has been helping the farming community to enhance crop production through advanced integrated farming methods. The organization works in close relation with Mahendra Kumar Trivedi, the spiritual master who is capable of the divine power of Energy Transmission.

Urban buildings with large terraces and backyards are apt for initiating communal container gardening schemes which will be of great benefit to the entire neighborhood. Using differently colored containers for each plant variety is an efficient way to make it organic gardening.

Scientific communities have clearly indicated that lack of stem cells highly affect the quality of life a person is living. Those who have more stem cells in the body always live the healthy and superior life.

"Inspiring discovery through free access to biodiversity knowledge. The Biodiversity Heritage Library works collaboratively to make biodiversity literature openly available to the world as part of a global biodiversity community."

Everyone could join Mahendra Trivedi at the specialized two-hour live webcast "Empower your Magnetism" on February 11, 2015, at 9PM ET. Where they could hear his thought-provoking discourse and will communicate with him together with thousands of individuals from across the globe.

The official DuraSpace wiki, which provides a framework for our user communities to build references and resources. Use the links directly below to visit the home page for each of our technologies.

"a chronological and cartographical history application"

We build tools and communities to promote open knowledge around the world.