Mainstream Cellular Phones

So who remembers what a "telephone" is? Not just that wireless thing hanging from your kitchen wall. I'm talking old school turn dial phones. Well, I would understand for the kids of today to have little or no recollection of such a futile tool. It was the thing of the past. Who needs those when everyone is carrying around a cell phone. It is personal, light, and useful for more than just calls anymore. So how much has the telephone evolved since the old turn dials? Let us look at just a few of the advancements that phones have had over the years.

One the greatest differences that can be made about cell phones and telephones is the literal fact that telephones run via telephone wiring and now fiber-optics along cable lines. Cell phones are run via satellites sending signals from one phone to the other. The use of satellites over cable and phone lines is the fact that it travels faster and without any cords of wires. It can get reception from just about anywhere and can be used at any time. As far as fiber optics has come for sending information, it doesn't beat the waves used in cell phones.

Another large difference in the old home phone and the cell phones is the portability. Before, when you had to talk gossip with your best friend on the phone, you would have to take the phone cord, pull it all the way to the bathroom and lock yourself in to keep from others to listen. With cell phones, you can take it outside, upstairs, in the car, in a tree, etc. Also, even when they created portable phones in the 80's, they were large and clunky. Now they are sleek enough to fit in a wallet.

The cell phones have come up with other numerous ways to just simply communicate. Not only can you just talk into the phone, but you can have speaker phone, walkie-talkie mode (where everything is voice activated), text messages, AIM connections, etc. If you thought saying words was hard, there are now other ways of "speaking".

With the advancement of memory, cell phones have features never dreamed of by older phones: Cameras, music, games, AIM, Internet, and other fun little bells and whistles. The phones started putting in the little things like the planner with calendar, the calculator, the stop watch, etc into its entourage. Then they slowly added innovations like music downloads, an Internet connection, and music that takes their importance and shoots it through the roof. Now there is no need for any other electronic, it is all on your paper thin 1 by 2 inch phone. You don't need anything else.

One last thing I can mention that makes cell phones so great is the fact that they are cheap! I mean whne I can see a hobo on the greyhound buses using a cell phone, then you know that it is accessable to anyone and everyone. In which it should....except not to hobos....

Resources: RazorTurn Dial Phone

Super Small and Super Cool

As I think you can guess, I love science in all of its scientificness. In high school, I had all sorts of opportunities to do cool experiments and use cool equipment. There was one thing we had that not even most colleges have and I think its time I pay tribute to it.

Oh, I’m sorry, I lied. They’re really two things.

The science teachers at my high school were amazing teachers and they worked hard. For a few years, they wrote letter after letter and pushed hard until they got a grant to buy a new microscope. And it was worth the effort.

They bought an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The AFM works kind of like SONAR. An arm with a point on the end of it wiggles at its natural frequency (Everything has a natural frequency, which is why singers can break glass, but this a whole different blog post entirely) sweeps across a sample at a certain speed that you set. As it goes over a sample, the very tiny differences in height make the arm wiggle higher or lower. Software takes this information, which it collects by bouncing a laser off the top of the arm, and makes a picture on a screen.

I’ve looked at cat fur with this microscope. It looked like an alien landscape. Even better, it can be used to look at live samples. You want to see a little protein form in an amoeba? You can do it with the AFM.

Thanks Physik for the picture of silicon

Brain-Computer Interface

Imagine you could just think about composing a paper and your words would appear in front of you. And you could just think about surfing the web, and you saw it. Or you could just think about the latest first person shooter and then you were in it, able to touch and smell the environment. It might not be so long before that's possible.

A few years ago, Rhesus monkeys were trained to control a robotic arm using just their thoughts. (cite) And some humans even have robotic prostheses which respond to their thoughts and give rudimentary feedback as the sensation of touch. (cite)

With further refinement, it's not a huge leap to my hypothetical in the beginning. As computers' speed grows exponentially, it won't be long before one can fit in your head and it could connect to the internet through Wi-Fi.

How such a computer's interface would work is anyone's guess. Mine is that you could control it with your thoughts like a limb, and it would superimpose its feedback onto your senses.

Of course, there would be problems associated with a brain-computer interface. Getting a computer virus could be disastrous.

I'm still gonna get one anyway.