Vous êtes cordiallement invités au vernissage de l'exposition Remedios' Terrarium.
Gallerie de la Faculté des Beaux-Arts (FoFA Gallery)
Université Concordia
Jeudi le 20 Mars, 18h00 - 20h00
une performance se déroulera au crépuscule
Célébrant sept années d'explorations avec les espaces spéculatifs augmentés par les médias, Remedios' Terrarium propose un aperçu des trois dernières années ou les conversations sur l'art et la philosophie ont pris racine chez les chercheurs affiliés à l'atelier TML de Montréal.
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Topological Media Lab
http://topologicalmedialab.net/remediosterrarium/
Exposition: 20 Mars au 4 Avril 2008.
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You are cordially invited to the vernissage for the Remedios' Terrarium exhibit at the
Faculty of Fine Arts Gallery
Concordia University
Thursday, March 20, 18h00 - 20h00
with a performance at dusk
We celebrate the seventh year of the Topological Media Lab's experiments with responsive media spaces, and share three years of conversations in art and philosophy with affiliate researchers since the atelier established itself in Montreal.
lundi 17 mars 2008
mardi 11 mars 2008
Tiny Brain-Like Computer Created
***Found on Yahoo News***
look at what this might imply for biotech...
Special to LiveScienceLiveScience.com
The most powerful computer known is the brain, and now scientists have designed a machine just a few molecules large that mimics how the brain works.
So far the device can simultaneously carry out 16 times more operations than a normal computer transistor. Researchers suggest the invention might eventually prove able to perform roughly 1,000 times more operations than a transistor.
This machine could not only serve as the foundation of a powerful computer, but also serve as the controlling element of complex gadgets such as microscopic doctors or factories, scientists added.
The device is made of a compound known as duroquinone. This molecule resembles a hexagonal plate with four cones linked to it, "like a small car," explained researcher Anirban Bandyopadhyay, an artificial intelligence and molecular electronics scientist at the National Institute for Materials Science at Tsukuba in Japan.
Duroquinone is less than a nanometer, or a billionth of a meter large. This makes it hundreds of times smaller than a wavelength of visible light.
The machine is made of 17 duroquinone molecules. One molecule sits at the center of a ring formed by the remaining 16. The entire invention sits on a surface of gold.
How it works
Scientists operate the device by tweaking the center duroquinone with electrical pulses from an extremely sharp electrically conductive needle. The molecule and its four cones can shift around in a variety of ways depending on different properties of the pulse - say, the pulse's strength.
Since weak chemical bonds link the center duroquinone with the surrounding 16 duroquinones, each of those shifts too. Imagine, for instance, a spider in the middle of a web made of 16 strands. If the spider moves in one direction, each thread linked to it experiences a slightly different tug from all the others.
In this way, a pulse to the central duroquinone can simultaneously transmit different instructions to each of the surrounding 16 duroquinones. The researchers say this design was inspired by that of brain cells, which can radiate branches out like a tree, with each branch used to communicate with another brain cell.
"All those connections are why the brain is so powerful," Bandyopadhyay said.
Since duroquinone possesses four cones, each molecule essentially has four different settings. Since the central molecule can simultaneously control 16 other duroquinones, mathematically this means a single pulse at the machine can have 4^16 - or nearly 4.3 billion - different outcomes.
In comparison, a normal computer transistor can only carry out just one instruction at once, and only has two settings - 0 and 1. This means a single pulse at it can only have two different outcomes.
Putting it to work
The idea is to hook this new gadget up with other molecules - either copies of itself or different compounds other scientists have invented. For instance, researchers have created a host of machines just a molecule or so large over the last decade or two - motors, propellers, switches, elevators, sensors and so on. The new invention might offer a way to control all those other compounds to work as a whole. Indeed, Bandyopadhyay and his colleagues revealed they could hook up eight other such "molecular machines" to their invention, working together as if they were part of a miniature factory.
This invention could serve as the controlling element of complex assemblies of molecular machines, Bandyopadhyay suggested. One future application for such assemblies "could be in medical science," he told LiveScience. "Imagine taking assemblies of molecular machines and inserting them into the blood, perhaps if you wanted to destroy a tumor inside the body."
The device currently is operated with an extremely sharp electrically conductive needle - specifically, that belonging to a scanning tunneling microscope, a bulky machine far larger than the 17 molecules in question. However, Bandyopadhyay hopes that in the future they can issue commands to their invention using molecules that deliver electric pulses instead.
The device needs to be made in vacuum conditions at extremely cold temperatures - about -321 degrees F (-196 degrees C). Bandyopadhyay said it could be operated at room temperature, however.
More powerful still
Bandyopadhyay added they could expand their device from a two-dimensional ring of 16 duroquinones around the center to a three-dimensional sphere of 1,024 duroquinones. This means it could perform 1,024 instructions at once, for 4^1024 different outcomes - a number larger than a 1 with 1,000 zeroes after it. They would control the molecule at the center of the sphere by manipulating "handles" sticking out from the core.
"We are definitely going to 3-D from 2-D immediately," Bandyopadhyay said.
Bandyopadhyay and his colleague Somobrata Acharya detailed their findings online March 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The most powerful computer known is the brain, and now scientists have designed a machine just a few molecules large that mimics how the brain works.
So far the device can simultaneously carry out 16 times more operations than a normal computer transistor. Researchers suggest the invention might eventually prove able to perform roughly 1,000 times more operations than a transistor.
This machine could not only serve as the foundation of a powerful computer, but also serve as the controlling element of complex gadgets such as microscopic doctors or factories, scientists added.
The device is made of a compound known as duroquinone. This molecule resembles a hexagonal plate with four cones linked to it, "like a small car," explained researcher Anirban Bandyopadhyay, an artificial intelligence and molecular electronics scientist at the National Institute for Materials Science at Tsukuba in Japan.
Duroquinone is less than a nanometer, or a billionth of a meter large. This makes it hundreds of times smaller than a wavelength of visible light.
The machine is made of 17 duroquinone molecules. One molecule sits at the center of a ring formed by the remaining 16. The entire invention sits on a surface of gold.
How it works
Scientists operate the device by tweaking the center duroquinone with electrical pulses from an extremely sharp electrically conductive needle. The molecule and its four cones can shift around in a variety of ways depending on different properties of the pulse - say, the pulse's strength.
Since weak chemical bonds link the center duroquinone with the surrounding 16 duroquinones, each of those shifts too. Imagine, for instance, a spider in the middle of a web made of 16 strands. If the spider moves in one direction, each thread linked to it experiences a slightly different tug from all the others.
In this way, a pulse to the central duroquinone can simultaneously transmit different instructions to each of the surrounding 16 duroquinones. The researchers say this design was inspired by that of brain cells, which can radiate branches out like a tree, with each branch used to communicate with another brain cell.
"All those connections are why the brain is so powerful," Bandyopadhyay said.
Since duroquinone possesses four cones, each molecule essentially has four different settings. Since the central molecule can simultaneously control 16 other duroquinones, mathematically this means a single pulse at the machine can have 4^16 - or nearly 4.3 billion - different outcomes.
In comparison, a normal computer transistor can only carry out just one instruction at once, and only has two settings - 0 and 1. This means a single pulse at it can only have two different outcomes.
Putting it to work
The idea is to hook this new gadget up with other molecules - either copies of itself or different compounds other scientists have invented. For instance, researchers have created a host of machines just a molecule or so large over the last decade or two - motors, propellers, switches, elevators, sensors and so on. The new invention might offer a way to control all those other compounds to work as a whole. Indeed, Bandyopadhyay and his colleagues revealed they could hook up eight other such "molecular machines" to their invention, working together as if they were part of a miniature factory.
This invention could serve as the controlling element of complex assemblies of molecular machines, Bandyopadhyay suggested. One future application for such assemblies "could be in medical science," he told LiveScience. "Imagine taking assemblies of molecular machines and inserting them into the blood, perhaps if you wanted to destroy a tumor inside the body."
The device currently is operated with an extremely sharp electrically conductive needle - specifically, that belonging to a scanning tunneling microscope, a bulky machine far larger than the 17 molecules in question. However, Bandyopadhyay hopes that in the future they can issue commands to their invention using molecules that deliver electric pulses instead.
The device needs to be made in vacuum conditions at extremely cold temperatures - about -321 degrees F (-196 degrees C). Bandyopadhyay said it could be operated at room temperature, however.
More powerful still
Bandyopadhyay added they could expand their device from a two-dimensional ring of 16 duroquinones around the center to a three-dimensional sphere of 1,024 duroquinones. This means it could perform 1,024 instructions at once, for 4^1024 different outcomes - a number larger than a 1 with 1,000 zeroes after it. They would control the molecule at the center of the sphere by manipulating "handles" sticking out from the core.
"We are definitely going to 3-D from 2-D immediately," Bandyopadhyay said.
Bandyopadhyay and his colleague Somobrata Acharya detailed their findings online March 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
vendredi 29 février 2008
regenerative medecine
http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/142
Very interesting link from David. Have a look at it if you have a 20 min.It's about the body regenerating itself (to ill).
Very interesting link from David. Have a look at it if you have a 20 min.It's about the body regenerating itself (to ill).
jeudi 28 février 2008
Lancement de livre: Ollivier Dyens
Ce soir 17hrs
Ev-725 (1515 rue st-cath ouest)
Concordia
lancement de : La condition inhumaine
Ev-725 (1515 rue st-cath ouest)
Concordia
lancement de : La condition inhumaine
vendredi 15 février 2008
nouveau site web!
allez-voir le site web!
il y aura bientôt un forum pour discuter de questions d'actualité.
www.transhumain.net
il y aura bientôt un forum pour discuter de questions d'actualité.
www.transhumain.net
vendredi 8 février 2008
mercredi 6 février 2008
FEB. 7 WITH DAVID WILSON.
THE DEFIANT IMAGINATION SERIES CONTINUES ON FEB. 7 WITH DAVID WILSON.
Event: Talk by Visiting Artist David Wilson entitled The Museum of Jurassic Technology, presented by Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Arts
Date: Thursday, February 7
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: D.B. Clarke Theatre, Concordia University, 1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. West
Cost: Free admission. No reservations required. Everyone welcome.
Info: 514-848-2424 ext. 4261 or http://finearts.concordia.ca
BACKGROUND:
This is the second lecture of THE DEFIANT IMAGINATION LECTURE SERIES 2008, presented by Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Arts. This dynamic lecture series brings together innovators of the critical imagination to explore the role of art in contemporary society.
The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, California is a museum like no other. A cross between a genuine museum, a wunderkammer (cabinet of wonders) and a performance art piece, it challenges the role of museum and archival practice, blurring boundaries between the real and the unreal.
David Wilson, its director and founder and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant (2003), has dedicated himself to the advancement of knowledge and public appreciation of the lower Jurassic. Wilson’s extraordinary collection of specimens, which includes spore-inhaling ants, x-ray bats, stink ants, human horns, peach-pit carvings and his novel theories of oblivion, are among the many marvels of Museum of Jurassic Technology. Currently, the museum and its director are the subject of a book by Lawrence Weschler entitled Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder.
The Defiant Imagination series will close with its final artist’s talk on February 27 featuring Carol Becker, incoming Dean of The School of the Arts at Columbia University in New York, whose talk is entitled What We Do: Values Implicit in Schools of Art and Design. (Note: DATE CHANGE FROM PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED DATE OF FEB. 28).
PLEASE NOTE: For those of you who missed the first lecture on Jan. 23, featuring Theo Jansen and his Strandbeest, a video of his talk has been posted at: http://news.concordia.ca/main_story/012174.shtml
--
Ann Tanner-McDonald, APR
Communications Advisor
Faculty of Fine Arts
Concordia University
Tel 514-848-2424 ext. 2867
Ann.Tanner-McDonald@concordia.ca
Fax 514-848-4599
Event: Talk by Visiting Artist David Wilson entitled The Museum of Jurassic Technology, presented by Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Arts
Date: Thursday, February 7
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: D.B. Clarke Theatre, Concordia University, 1455 De Maisonneuve Blvd. West
Cost: Free admission. No reservations required. Everyone welcome.
Info: 514-848-2424 ext. 4261 or http://finearts.concordia.ca
BACKGROUND:
This is the second lecture of THE DEFIANT IMAGINATION LECTURE SERIES 2008, presented by Concordia University’s Faculty of Fine Arts. This dynamic lecture series brings together innovators of the critical imagination to explore the role of art in contemporary society.
The Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, California is a museum like no other. A cross between a genuine museum, a wunderkammer (cabinet of wonders) and a performance art piece, it challenges the role of museum and archival practice, blurring boundaries between the real and the unreal.
David Wilson, its director and founder and recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant (2003), has dedicated himself to the advancement of knowledge and public appreciation of the lower Jurassic. Wilson’s extraordinary collection of specimens, which includes spore-inhaling ants, x-ray bats, stink ants, human horns, peach-pit carvings and his novel theories of oblivion, are among the many marvels of Museum of Jurassic Technology. Currently, the museum and its director are the subject of a book by Lawrence Weschler entitled Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder.
The Defiant Imagination series will close with its final artist’s talk on February 27 featuring Carol Becker, incoming Dean of The School of the Arts at Columbia University in New York, whose talk is entitled What We Do: Values Implicit in Schools of Art and Design. (Note: DATE CHANGE FROM PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED DATE OF FEB. 28).
PLEASE NOTE: For those of you who missed the first lecture on Jan. 23, featuring Theo Jansen and his Strandbeest, a video of his talk has been posted at: http://news.concordia.ca/main_story/012174.shtml
--
Ann Tanner-McDonald, APR
Communications Advisor
Faculty of Fine Arts
Concordia University
Tel 514-848-2424 ext. 2867
Ann.Tanner-McDonald@concordia.ca
Fax 514-848-4599
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