Catherine Shalloe, Author at Breakpoint Book

Hey, kids: Now there’s a new kit that lets you control a cockroach’s brain

Trying to teach kids about neuroscience and neurotechnology? What better way to engage a class then by taking over a cockroach’s brain! The RoboRoach allows a class to perform brain surgery on a cockroach and after the brief surgery, they can control its every move through bluetooth on a smartphone. Definitely a thrilling, new way to excite students about science.

For $100 — and a little bit of surgery — the RoboRoach can control a cockroach’s brain patterns to make it move via smartphone app. It’s aimed at helping kids understand neuroscience and neurotechnology in a more hands-on way.

‘Tawny crazy ants’ invade Fla. by millions

We all know how irritating ants can be, but nothing tops the infuriation of technology killing, livestock attacking ants. Now spread in over 20 counties in Florida and extending into Texas, millions of “Twany Crazy Ants” are slowly, but surely spreading around the States.

Insects called “Tawny Crazy Ants” have invaded 20 Florida counties by the millions.
Researchers said these ants can reach densities 100 times greater than all other ants in the area combined.

Wow, A Lot Of Stuff Just Happened In SEO

SEO news skyrocketed in the past week. Between Apple, Google, Yelp, and Facebook all incorporating new products and features, companies are demonstrating how fast search engines are growing. Take a further look to see exactly what happened in the past week with SEO…

It’s been a pretty big week for search and SEO news. There have been a lot of announcements, not only from Google, but from Google competitors. Let’s recap, and discuss in the comments. Which of the latest announcements do you

Wearable technology: This time it’s a $2,000 helmet

Wouldn’t it be handy for a motorcyclist with no sense of direction to safely navigate while riding? Well LiveMap, a Russian startup, created a helmet that will do just that. Using augmented-reality LiveMap devised a way for cyclists to navigate with ease through their very own helmet.

Russian startup LiveMap is working on a state-of-art motorbike helmet with a built-in navigation system that can take voice commands.

Google Fiber Helped a Sick Boy Throw a Baseball Pitch with Robots

Nick LeGrande is a 14 year old who loves baseball. But unlike most 14 year olds he suffers from a life-threatening blood disease called Aplastic Anemia, which makes it impossible for him to go to his favorite sports games. After Nick was diagnosed, Google Fiber went to Kansas City looking for ways high speed internet could impact peoples lives. They connected with Nick and found a way for him to participate in a baseball game 1,800 miles away. Check out how Google Fiber helped Nick LeGrande throw out the first ever telerobotic pitch at the Oakland A’s v New York Yankee’s game all the way from Kansas City.

When you combine Google Fiber, a robot and a boy 1,800 miles away from a baseball game, you already know it’s going to be a good story. Like most boys, Nick LeGrande wanted to play ball when he …

Mozilla launches Science Lab to help researchers transform scientific practice through the open Web

Mozilla draws attention to the fact that scientists created the web. They also draw attention to the fact that science researchers have yet to fully use the web in order benefit the science community and furthermore, society. Mozilla’s Science Lab hopes to bring scientists together by starting a dialogue about ongoing projects that may better society. Check out what Mozilla’s hopes are for this project and their plan to make this website a successful one.

Mozilla today announced the Mozilla Science Lab, a new initiative to help researchers around the world use the open Web to shape science’s future, taking it out of the analog… Keep reading

Restaurant Industry Embraces Apps and Mobile Technology to Enhance Customer Service and Operational Efficiency

With the Age of Apps upon us, it’s not surprising that companies have begun creating apps to simplify the functionality of restaurants. Restaurants now have the option to download apps that help with seating, management, serving, and more. This innovation will most definitely serve as a victory for both the restaurant and the customer.

Restaurants Using Apps, Like the New Suite from HME Wireless, to Enhance Customer Service (PRWeb June 14, 2013)

Nuclear bomb tests reveal brain regeneration in humans

Nuclear bomb tests throughout the cold war prove beneficial to science. Scientists found that throughout adulthood a specific set of genes called dentate gyrus recreate themselves, staying forever youthful. Check out more about the idea of brain regeneration in News Scientist….

Carbon dating brain cells provides conclusive evidence that part of the adult human brain constantly renews itself – and that this neurogenesis persists in old age.

Google Glass Gets A Teardown, Revealing It Can Be Hacked To Prescription Glasses

The Google Glass has been broken down to see exactly how it pieces together, and may have some people wanting it more. See some of the key features of Google Glass and what it takes to make up this brand new product…

Google Glass isn’t in the hands of consumers yet, but a pair of intrepid Glass explorers didn’t let that stop them from taking the thing apart to see what makes it tick. This teardown is also …

Most Insurance Agencies Say Technology Helped Fiscal Growth: Survey

Insurance agencies are linking their use of technology to their bump in revenues. An astounding 92% of the medium sized firms grew in 2012. However are insurance companies also linking their successes to mobile technology or are they finding it to be a hinderance?

The majority of insurance agencies (77 percent) directly attribute their fiscal growth during 2012-2013 to the use of technology, according to a new industry survey. The survey, conducted by …

Prying open the black box of the brain

Each of our brains are unique due to a multitude of different experiences we undergo. And although we understand parts of the brain there is so much that we cannot even begin to fathom of how it works and what is in it. The black box contains information that we wouldn’t even know about ourselves individually and it’s something we may never understand. Scientists cannot even begin to comprehend how the brain fully functions and yearn for a theory on how it all works. President Obama has initiated BRAIN, a research effort to fully understand how a healthy brain works and functions over an organisms life.

The human brain is the most complex biological structure on Earth. It has about 100 billion neurons-each of which has thousands of connections to other neurons.

Boddie Smartwatch: Polish start-up Rearden Technology launches a social media solution via crowd-funding site Indiegogo

Can’t seem to be away from your smart phones for an extended period of time? The Polish start-up, Rearden Technology, launched a crowd-funding campaign via Indiegogo to fund the production of the Boddie Smartwatch. This innovative invention allows you to stay connected without your phones using gesture technology and this wearable technology even allows you to locate your stolen/lost mobile devices. The future is here.

As we continue to grow more and more attached to technology, the weight of social relationships and ever-connectedness builds with it. While we all seem to subconsciously know the downside of this lopsided relationship, few of us do anything to address it. But…

Getting A College Degree Or Self-Learning?

Is it really important to have a college degree when entering the tech world? Some believe that in order to get a good job degrees aren’t important anymore, but that’s not completely true. Depending on what you plan on doing shows if you need a degree or not. Although degree’s don’t assure success, they can act as a very helpful tool when getting started or applying for jobs.

Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are some of the biggest names in the tech industry and they were also dropouts. Using them as examples, it’s been going around on the Internet that you can still make it big and earn billions even if you don’t have a college … Continue reading “

Dad’s life stress exposure can affect offspring brain development

Are you a stressed out father or father-to-be? You may forget about all the stresses you have experienced in your lifetime, but your sperm certainly will not. According to new research conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, a father’s exposure to life stresses may pass stress-related mental disorders from father to child.

Stress felt by dad — whether as a preadolescent or adult — leaves a lasting impression on his sperm that gives sons and daughters a blunted reaction to stress, according to a new preclinical …

What your brain won’t let you see

At some point we all make fun of someone for being selective hearing or thinking. Ulric Neisser experimented with that idea. He proved that as humans our brains are extremely selective with what we see and think. Hundreds of studies have now proved that we tend to over look things that are right in front of us.

New research reaffirms our minds are riddled with unconscious biases and stereotypes

Hands-free technology causing driver ‘inattention blindness’

People are surprisingly blind to the things in the periphery of their vision even if that “thing” is so clear and obvious. In a famous study by Simons and Chabris (1999), they found that people are only able to perceive things that they consciously focus their attention on can only notice an unexpected object when it is similar to the object that they are attending and depending on how difficult it is to monitor the visual field. This phenomenon is called “inattention blindness.” It is clear how this phenomenon can affect our driving abilities, but new research suggests that these hand-free devices which are supposed to be making driving safer may actually have a counterproductive effect.

Voice control and voice interaction with gadgets is particularly distracting.

5 Types of Social Media Content Your Audience Really Wants

Social Media and branding has moved from a one-sided information sharing system to a complete interactive phenomenon and consumers are loving it. With the attention absorbing social media content it is imperative that brands make sure that their information is exciting and valuable to consumers, otherwise the attention will dissolve allowing consumers to move onto something else. But no need to worry, capturing consumers attention can be simple just by adding a few features into your social media content.

There’s no single reason we follow brands, but it’s certainly rooted in the idea that we as consumers, supporters and fans want to have a deeper relationship with them. But just because a fan wants to follow your brand doesn’t mean you’re entitled to provide them with any content you wish.

Dunkin’ Donuts flap proves the power of social media and a cool head

There are always an abundance of examples of how not to use social media. Dunkin’ Donuts provides a spectacular example of how social media can help avoid corporate blunders when dealing with disgruntled customers.

Picture this: You own a small retail shop. An angry woman comes into your store and begins complaining-loudly and profanely-about bad service she says she received the prior day.

#FML Facebook Introduces Hashtags

#MoreHashtags. The hashtag obsession has now moved into one of the only sources of social media left that did not contain clickable hashtags. Facebook has added the clickable hashtags into the mix in order to boost searches and conversations around the Facebook domain.

There’s no #stopping hashtags. Facebook is confirming it will officially support the maddeningly ubiquitous categorization tool starting today, allowing users to #hashtag posts and making those hashtags #clickable. Clicking a hashtag will bring up a list of posts from friends …

How Your Brain Perceives Time (And How to Use it to Your Advantage)

By understanding how your brain views time, you can easily get the edge on those difficult or time consuming projects. By mastering why things take longer than planned, how to increase or decrease the urgency of projects, why it’s okay to move quickly and make mistakes, and how to change the value of time you can fully take advantage of your time, simply by knowing the brains ways of looking at time.

We might not be able to create more time when we need it most-like when a deadline is approaching-but we can use the understanding of how we perceive time to our advantage. Why Things Always Take …

What Instagram Taught A Photographer About Life

The social media app Instagram has drastically increased its popularity since it was introduced to the world. This rapid increase in users and exposure was only heightened with the Facebook’s billion dollar acquisition of Instagram. See what the photo sharing and filter app has taught a photographer about life.

Dirk Dallas, a graphic designer currently residing in southern California, downloaded the photo-sharing and -filtering app Instagram the day it came out on October 6, 2010. “It didn’t make sense …

Amazon Creates A 3D Printing Store, Vaulting The Technology Into The Mainstream

Amazon just opened a 3D printing store. What is 3D printing? What exactly does this mean? What are the implications that such store will have on the industry? Answers here!

If you thought you and your RepRap were safe from posers, you’re sunk: Amazon has just opened a store for 3D printers and printer accessories that seems to, at the very least, allow smaller manufacturers to get a foothold in an increasingly tight market.

Yoga Is Going To Save Your Brain

Ever thought Yoga could improve your test scores and increase your brain function? Well it’s true! After a study published in the Journal of Physical Activity and Health, it proves that doing yoga will boost your scores.

Do you vaguely dislike yoga. Well, that’s too bad, because it’s either that or fail every test you’re ever exposed to, because yoga is going to save your brain.

Facebook Hashtags Allow 1.1 Billion Users to Communicate Further

With hashtags becoming all the craze with both consumers and advertisers, it was hard for facebook not to add in the option of searchable hashtags. In order to keep up with other social media services such as instagram and twitter, Facebook had to do something to stay competitive with the other sites.

Facebook Hashtags Allow 1.1 Billion Users to Communicate Further

Facebook, as announced on Wednesday, will soon be mimicking Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest’s hashtag – but only better …

LOOK: Facebook Reunites Mother And Son After 22 Years

Facebook becomes a hero by bringing together a mother and son after 22 years. Mother, Cherie Alvis, used Facebook to post a photo explaining how she was trying to find her son she put up for adoption 22 years ago. 4 days later her son wrote on her timeline, “Here I am, Mom”. By using technology to her advantage Cherie has found her son, an option that would not have even been available to anyone even 10 years ago.

On June 3, Cherie Alvis posted pictures to Facebook of her infant son — a baby she’d given up for adoption 22 years ago. The…