In the third part of this blog series, we will finish looking into human consciousness by thinking about what happens to it after death. If you have not seen the episodes, do not worry, spoilers are kept at a minimum! You can read parts 1 and 2 here. San Junipero is a virtual afterlife into… Read more »
General Science
Machines can talk like humans now?
There are a variety of text messaging applications available that make communicating with friends easy. These applications typically require users to sign up for a username as a form of identification. Friends can add each other on the application by sharing their usernames, and then friends can initiate and respond to chats from each other…. Read more »
Brain technology in Black Mirror: Technological myths or real possibilities? Part II
In the second part of this blog series, we will look at three episodes where proposed technologies involve human consciousness. We will see if these technologies can become real possibilities in the near future. If you have not seen the episodes, do not worry, spoilers are kept at a minimum! You can also read part… Read more »
Strength in Numbers? The Meaning of Scientific Consensus
“Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus.”… Read more »
Creating a Science Communication Collective at IU
As you might know, here at ScIU, we like to publish weekly blog posts about science happening on campus — especially science that might not be reaching other news outlets — because a lot of the work happening here at IU is amazing, and we believe that broader audiences should have access to it. Another… Read more »
Science Fest 2019
Falling leaves, pumpkin spice, and football — it’s that time of year again in the Bloomington community: Science Fest is tomorrow! Grab your goggles and plug your ears, the Science Fest is coming up! Did we mention it’s FREE? https://t.co/saS44RYdMV pic.twitter.com/N9jcx2EsXf — Indiana University Bloomington (@IUBloomington) October 9, 2019
Brain technology in Black Mirror: Technological myths or real possibilities? Part I
If you happen to watch Black Mirror, it is quite likely that you have been scared by the brain implant technologies depicted in the show. In fact, almost a quarter of this show—at least five episodes of the current 22— illustrate the dangers of brain implants. The horror stories range widely, from transferring someone’s consciousness into… Read more »
How neuroscientists and engineers make good collaborative partners
To treat a knee scrape, people often put a band-aid on it. Or, to relieve back pain, people may use an ice pack. While these examples involve anatomical regions that people can easily locate and treat, this is not always the case with all aspects of anatomy. For instance, to observe the brain, which is… Read more »
Why Are There No Sunspots?
It’s easy to think of the sun as a simple bright sphere in the sky, constant and unchanging; but, that is far from reality. The sun is dynamic, with many solar flares, cells of convection, and even storms. One of the easiest changes to see are sunspots, which are located on the surface of the… Read more »
Dead people are people too: online trafficking of archaeological skeletons and artifacts
This is a ScIU guest post by Krystiana Krupa, a Ph.D. candidate in IU’s Department of Anthropology and Research Associate for IU NAGPRA, and Molly Mesner Bleyhl, a Ph.D. student in IU’s Department of Anthropology and Graduate Assistant for IU NAGPRA It seems that once a deceased person is skeletonized, our society overall tends to… Read more »