NIKOLA TESLA
Cartoon scientist

Bright pictures of the great inventor

Nikola Tesla has become a popular figure in various forms of popular culture. His unique appearance in the field of science and invention, as well as his forward-thinking ideas and predictions, have served as an inspiration to countless artists around the world. Not surprisingly, he is frequently featured in science fiction, a genre that is well-suited to his inventions and the impact of his innovative technological solutions on humanity. Tesla's character and ideas have been portrayed not only in films but also in numerous video games. He has also inspired many composers to dedicate their music to him, and he is the main character of several operas. Tesla has become a favorite subject for painters and sculptors worldwide, and he is the hero of numerous comics and caricatures. Interestingly, some of the most compelling examples of these works were created during the height of his inventive achievements, when he enjoyed enormous popularity among the public.
The fact that the American public followed every new step of the genius inventor and that he was at the height of his fame at the end of the nineties of the 19th century is confirmed by an article published under the title "Summer Vacation of Great People", which is accompanied by a caricature depicting the most famous personalities of that time.

LIGHT
What could be faster?

An unimaginable state

It is commonly known that the speed of light is the maximum speed limit for anything that has mass. This means that nothing with mass can be accelerated beyond the speed of light. According to Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity, if an object with mass is accelerated, energy must be added to it. And, the faster it moves, the more energy it will require. Therefore, anything with mass requires an infinite amount of energy to reach the speed of light. All known energy sources are limited and finite. It is possible that the Universe contains only a limited amount of energy, which means that there is no energy in outer space to accelerate something with mass to the speed of light. This applies to everything that can be called "ordinary mass".However, there is a mention of particles called tachyons, which have a type of mass called "imaginary mass". Although there is no evidence that tachyons exist, according to the Theory of Relativity, their existence cannot be ruled out. If they exist, tachyons always travel faster than the speed of light and cannot slow down to below the speed of light.

THE BRAIN AS A COMPUTER
INTERFACE

Instead of the power of muscles -
the power of thoughts!

On January 30, 2024, the news spread around the world that the American biotechnology company Neuralink implanted a chip directly into the human brain, using a robotic arm, which should enable a patient suffering from quadriplegia to communicate with a computer and manage its commands with the power of thought. American businessman and innovator Elon Musk, (co)founder of Neuralink, announced that day on his social platform "X" that the unnamed patient was "recovering well after the operation", and that the implant, which he called "Telepathy", " detects nerve signals”. "Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than the fastest typist - well, that's our goal," Musk wrote. In the next post, in February, Musk added that the patient "seemed to have fully recovered" and was even able to manipulate the computer cursor with his mind. Finally, on March 20, Neuralink released a nine-minute livestream showing implant recipient Noland Arbaugh, 29, using the device to play a digital version of chess while talking about his first experiences with the technology that changed him. Life.
"It felt like I was actually moving the cursor, I was just staring at the screen and it moved wherever I wanted, and it was an amazing experience," Arbo explained. In a later live presentation on Neuralink's website, Noland admitted that the first time researchers gave him full control of the implant, he played his favorite computer game all night: "Now I can just lay in bed and play until willingly. Honestly, at the moment, my biggest limitation is that I occasionally have to wait for the battery to charge". The implant helped Noland Arbo to start learning French and Japanese because, when it comes to reading, the previous limitations are mostly gone; he also emphasized that, in the postoperative course, there are no cognitive impairments that could be considered complications of the procedure, and that he was able to leave the hospital only one day after the two-hour surgical procedureOn January 30, 2024, the world learned that American biotechnology company Neuralink had implanted a chip directly into the brain of a patient with quadriplegia. The implant was placed using a robotic arm and was designed to allow the patient to communicate with a computer and control it using the power of their thoughts. The implant was called "Telepathy" and was able to detect nerve signals. Elon Musk, the founder of Neuralink, announced the news on his social platform "X" and stated that the patient was recovering well. Musk also expressed his goal of enabling patients to communicate faster than the fastest typist, like Stephen Hawking.
In February, Musk posted an update that the patient had fully recovered and was able to move the computer cursor with their thoughts. Neuralink later released a nine-minute livestream in March showing implant recipient Noland Arbaugh using the device to play a digital version of chess and discussing his experiences with the life-changing technology. Arbaugh said that it felt like he was actually moving the cursor with his mind and that the experience was amazing.
Arbaugh also shared that he was able to start learning French and Japanese using the implant, as it had eliminated many of the previous limitations he had faced when reading. He emphasized that there were no cognitive impairments or complications from the procedure, and he was able to leave the hospital after just one day. He even joked that his biggest limitation was having to wait for the battery to charge before he could use the implant again.

AI AND HUMANS

The first "plug and play" implant for people with paralysis

Stable records, which are records that are not deleted, allow the brain and the machine learning system to form a "partnership" relationship over time. Researchers at the Weil Institute for Neuroscience, UC San Francisco, are making progress in the field of prosthetic limbs controlled by the brain. They have demonstrated that machine learning techniques can help a paralyzed individual learn to control a computer cursor with their brain without requiring extensive daily retraining. This is a significant improvement over previous brain-computer interface (BCI) efforts.
"The field of brain-computer interface (BCI) has made significant progress in recent years. However, the existing BCI systems had to be reset and recalibrated daily, which prevented the use of the brain's natural learning processes. This is akin to asking someone to learn how to ride a bike repeatedly. Senior study author Karunesh Ganguly, PhD, an associate professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), stated that adapting an artificial learning system to work seamlessly with the complex long-term patterns that our brains operate on has not been previously observed in people with paralysis."

MEDICINE
Obesity

A pandemic affecting a billion people

One in eight people on our planet are clinically obese, increasing their risk of serious chronic diseases such as diabetes and cancer.
Not too long ago, hunger and malnutrition were the primary health concerns around the world alongside infectious diseases. However, today, the major health scourge is overweight and obesity. This is because they pose a significant risk for the development of numerous serious diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, stroke, dementia, osteoarthritis, obstructive sleep apnea, and certain types of cancer.
Over the past 50 years, obesity has spread to pandemic levels. According to a study published in the Lancet medical journal ahead of World Obesity Day on March 4, more than one billion people will be classified as obese in 2022, the latest year for which relevant study data is available. Given that overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive accumulation of fat that poses a health risk, researchers from Britain's Imperial College London and the World Health Organization (WHO) based their findings on data from 3,663 representative weight and height studies. more than 222 million people, from 190 countries. In addition to the fact that today every eighth inhabitant of the planet is clinically obese, the data also show that since 1990 obesity has more than doubled, and among adults it has quadrupled: in 2022, two and a half billion adults (over 18 years old) were registered with overweight, and within that number 890 million are obese, that is, 43 per cent of adults are overweight and 16 percent are obese; in the same year, there were 37 million children under the age of five who were overweight, as well as 390 million adolescents (5 to 19 years of age), including 160 million of them with obesity.
The data on childhood obesity is a matter of grave concern as it is likely to persist into adulthood. In 1975, less than one per cent of children between the ages of five and 19 were affected by obesity, but now that figure has reached 10 per cent, and it is expected to rise to 18 to 20 per cent by 2035. Additionally, obesity rates have increased more rapidly than anticipated during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among children under the age of five.

ANNIVERSARIES
100 years since the first flight around the world

In an open cockpit with one engine

In 1924, four American aeroplanes made a groundbreaking trip around the world, covering over 42 thousand kilometers in 175 days with stops in 22 countries. This impressive feat required extensive training of flight crews for landing and water takeoffs, as well as diplomatic negotiations and thorough logistical planning both on land and at sea.
Only two decades after two American engineers, brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright, introduced their invention in 1903, a controlled flying machine heavier than air, with its own propulsion, already in 1924 the first aeroplane flight around the world was recorded. In the meantime, with one of the most famous stories in American history about the research work of the Wright brothers, the global aviation era begins, in which it will soon be shown that the most distant points on the planet can still be successfully connected by air. After the Wrights solved the basic technical problems of flying related to the lifting, propulsion and control of the aircraft, and presented all this at the beginning of the 20th century not only theoretically, talking about "Some aeronautical experiments", but also practically on their aeroplane, both civil and military aviation they started to develop very quickly.
By the beginning of the Great War in 1914, and in Europe - where the Wright brothers presented their invention to the public in 1908 - in addition to air balloons and kites, the first airships and "aeroplanes" (planes) were being developed, which were initially used for military purposes. Italian-Turkish War for Libya, 1911-1912. , was the first military conflict in which Italy introduced a new means of warfare, using aircraft for reconnaissance and bombing enemy positions, so that already in the First World War the air force became a key part of the war machine. In the still undeveloped civil aviation, pioneering airlines are just beginning to present their flying machines to the public and win over the public to the new technology that will change the world.
The first around-the-world flight was undertaken by military aviators who were members of the US Air Force's predecessors. The journey was a pioneering feat, with four planes flying more than 42,000 kilometres over 175 days, with 363 hours of flying and landings in 22 countries. The purpose of the journey was to test the practicality and possibilities of new technology as well as to promote American industry and popularize the military's air force. It was a remarkable achievement, especially considering that airports as we know them today didn't exist at that time. The flight required extensive training of the flight crews, diplomatic activities, and thorough logistical planning on land and sea.