How to Write Words in the Air

Calendar July 26, 2022 | Posted by admin

Scientists at Hongtuo Joint Laboratory in Wuhan, China, have invented what sounds like a mysterious yet fascinating laser pen that can write in mid-air — an intriguing approach that could, theoretically, be an onramp to “Star Wars”-esque hologram technology.

The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported yesterday that the pen uses ultra-short laser pulses to strip the electrons from air particles and turn them into light-emitting plasma with sufficient precision to form words in mid-air.

“With the brand new device, we can draw in the air without using paper and ink,” lab lead scientist Cao Xiangdong told the state-affiliated Science and Technology Daily this week, as reported by the SCMP.

The SCMP reported that the scientists said they used 3D scanning to arrange pixels and form Chinese characters, but didn’t completely explain how the process works. Long story short, it sounds awesome, but we’re gonna want to see more in the way of a demo.

The pen reportedly works in incredibly short laser bursts, equivalent to just a few quadrillionths of a second. At the same time, its power output is nearly incomprehensible.

The laser pen can reach one million megawatts, according to the SCMP, which isn’t too far off from the total amount of power the United States can generate. However, because the bursts are so short, the device doesn’t draw an immense amount of power, making it — the scientists say — relatively safe to use.

The team is hoping the pen could someday be used in quantum computing, brain imaging and other advanced tech. Or maybe we’ll even see some awesome new holographic technology.

Source: https://www.scmp.com/
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https://futurism.com/

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Drinking Tea May Improve Brain Health

Calendar September 24, 2019 | Posted by admin

In a recent study, Assistant Professor Feng Lei from the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine in Singapore shares that drinking tea regularly may improve brain efficiency. It is revealed that regular tea drinkers have better organised brain regions, which is associated with healthy cognitive function, as compared to non-tea drinkers.

By looking at brain imaging data of older adults, individuals who consumed either green tea, oolong tea, or black tea at least four times a week for about 25 years had brain regions that were interconnected in a more efficient way.

“Take the analogy of road traffic as an example – consider brain regions as destinations, while the connections between brain regions are roads. When a road system is better organised, the movement of vehicles and passengers is more efficient and uses less resources. Similarly, when the connections between brain regions are more structured, information processing can be performed more efficiently,” explained Asst Prof Feng.

The results suggests that drinking tea regularly has a protective effect against age-related decline in brain organisation.

Previous studies have also shown that tea intake is beneficial to human health, and the positive effects include mood improvement and cardiovascular disease prevention. Another study led by Asst Prof Feng in 2017 showed that daily consumption of tea can reduce the risk of cognitive decline in older people by 50 per cent.

Asst Prof Feng and his team plan to examine how tea and its bioactive compounds can affect cognitive decline next.

Source: http://nusmedicine.nus.edu.sg

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