Science Friday: UCSD scientists study brain electricity | Whiskers: Evolution Milestone | Startup Captures Geothermal Lithium

Scientists harness the power of electricity in the brain

(Medical Xpress) -- A paralyzed patient may someday be able to "think" a foot into flexing or a leg into moving, using technology that harnesses the power of electricity in the brain, and scientists at University of Michigan School of Kinesiology are now one big step closer.

Researchers at the school and colleagues from the Swartz Center for Computational Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego have developed technology that for the first time allows doctors and scientists to noninvasively isolate and measure electrical brain activity in moving people.

This technology is a key component of the kind of brain-computer interfaces that would allow a robotic exoskeleton controlled by a patient's thoughts to move that patient's limb, said Daniel Ferris, associate professor in the School of Kinesiology and author of a trio of papers detailing the research.
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http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-scientists-harness-power-electricity-brain.html

Whiskers Marked Milestone in Evolution of Mammals from Reptiles

ScienceDaily (Nov. 10, 2011) — Research from the University of Sheffield comparing rats and mice with their distance relatives the marsupial, suggests that moveable whiskers were an important milestone in the evolution of mammals from reptiles.

Using high-speed digital video recording and automatic tracking, the research team, which was led by Professor Tony Prescott from the University´s Department of Psychology, have shed light on how rodents such as mice and rats move their whiskers back-and-forth at high speed and in varying ways to actively sense the environment around them in a behaviour known as whisking. Whisking allows mice or rats to accurately determine the position, shape and texture of objects, make rapid and accurate decisions about objects, and then use the information to build environmental maps.

When running in a straight line, rats and mice move their whiskers back-and-forth the same amount on both sides. However when turning, they bias their whisker movements in the direction of the turn, and when the whiskers on one side of the head contact an object, those on the opposite side sweep round to gather more information. These active sensing strategies boost the information gained by the whiskers helping the animals to better understand their world through touch.

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111110125949.htm

Startup to Capture Lithium from Geothermal Plants

The approach could boost U.S. lithium production—just as demand is set to soar with increased electric-vehicle usage.

As portable electronics get more popular and the market for electric vehicles takes off, demand for lithium—a critical element in rechargeable lithium-ion batteries—could soar. Yet just two countries, Chile and Australia, dominate global lithium production.

California startup Simbol Materials thinks it can increase domestic production of lithium by extracting the element, along with manganese and zinc, from the brine used by geothermal plants.

In the late 1990s, the U.S. produced 75 percent of the world's lithium carbonate, but now it makes only 5 percent. This is, in part, because U.S. manufacturers couldn't compete with low-cost lithium chemicals from Chile. The U.S. produces no manganese at all. "Yet we have this resource, already being harnessed for geothermal power production," says Luka Erceg, Simbol's CEO. "This is an enormous opportunity to harvest clean renewable energy and produce critical materials in a sustainable manner."

Worldwide demand for lithium chemicals was about 102,000 tons in 2010. This is expected to go up to as much as 320,000 by 2020, mostly because of increased electric-vehicle use. The world's largest lithium resources are estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey to be in Bolivia. Most manufacturers, including the world's largest, in Chile, typically make the material by pumping brine into pools to evaporate in the sun for 18 to 24 months. This process leaves behind a concentrated lithium chloride that's converted into lithium carbonate. The only U.S. producer, Chemetall Foote, drills for brine at Silver Peak in Nevada.

Simbol plans to piggyback on a 50-megawatt geothermal plant near the Salton Sea in Imperial Valley, California, that pumps hot brine from deep underground to generate steam to drive a turbine. The plant currently injects the brine, which contains 30 percent dissolved solids, including lithium, manganese, and zinc, back into the ground after the steam is produced. Simbol will divert the brine from the power plant, before reinjection, into its processing equipment. There, the still-warm brine will flow through a proprietary medium that filters out the salts within hours. Simbol has also acquired the assets and intellectual property from a now-defunct Canadian company for a purification process that creates the world's highest-purity lithium carbonate. Erceg expects to compete with the lowest-cost Chilean producers, which produce lithium at $1,500 a ton.

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http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/39143/?p1=MstRcnt