The Youth Blog

In the literal sense of the term, a green robot is being developed by a team of scientists led by Andy Adamatzky and they are calling it Plasmobot. The plasmodium algae, a slimy mould found in damp places in UK is its basis.

Plasmodium branches its protoplasm in search of nutrients and finds the shortest distance to get it. It is stimulated by sunlight or other chemical stimuli. By feeding it oat flakes it oscillates and grows in a specified direction carrying objects with it. Similarly, plasmobot will span the shortest distance between objects and carry signals in specified directions. The robots will have parallel inputs and outputs, a network of sensors and the number crunching power of super computers. It will be a fully controllable and programmable amorphous intelligent robot. Seems typical sci-fi stuff doesn’t it!

Scientists at the University of Reading are developing a new robot which is controlled by a biological brain. Such robots have been designed before but there is always a computer in the loop for decoding information. The ‘brain’ will be made of neuron cultured on an MEA (Multi Electrode Array), which will control the robot, via a Bluetooth connection. This venture will provide an insight into the working of the human brain and is expected to help aging people and in finding a remedy for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other brain related diseases. The MEA is a dish with around 60 electrodes which receive electrical signals from the cells thus sending a message to the robot which will make it move and help it in navigating around obstacles. Scientists are also planning to find out how memories manifest themselves in the neurons by observing how the robot behaves on being repeatedly sent to familiar locations.

Foot Note- Before developing a biological brain for a robot, could not they find a way to install one in humans? I seriously believe some people need them real bad.

Microsoft’s Partner Group Manager Simon Aldous admitted in an interview with PCR that the new Windows 7 is inspired by rival company Apple’s MAC OS. Aldous was quoted as saying, “One of the things that people say an awful lot about the Apple Mac is that the OS is fantastic, that it’s very graphical and easy to use. What we’ve tried to do with Windows 7 – whether it’s traditional format or in a touch format – is create a Mac look and feel in terms of graphics. We’ve significantly improved the graphical user interface, but it’s built on that very stable core Vista technology, which is far more stable than the current Mac platform.” This isn’t the first incident to highlight the similarity between Windows 7 and MAC. In one of his early reviews Walt Mossberg noted that the new taskbar in Windows 7 “is a concept borrowed from Apple’s similar feature, the Dock.”

Microsoft quickly responded to Aldous’ comments with a post on their blog titled, ‘How we really designed the look and feel of Windows 7’. The blog states, “An inaccurate quote has been floating around the Internet today about the design origins of Windows 7 and whether its look and feel was “borrowed” from Mac OS X. Unfortunately this came from a Microsoft employee who was not involved in any aspect of designing Windows 7”. No matter what Microsoft might have to say about its latest baby, the similarities Windows 7 has with MAC are too glaring to escape notice.