• Carrolade@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    11 hours ago

    Yeah, that’s fair. I mean, essentially the whole world is “quantum”, given quantum phenomena govern the subatomic particles we’re all made from.

    I’ll give these guys a pass, though, they just want good PR for their new research project, so they employed some mild clickbait. Which is fair in today’s world. They’re not technically wrong, lasers are a utilization of quantum physics.

    • theneverfox@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      9 hours ago

      I think they’re doing themselves a huge disservice though…I mean, my first reaction was “okay, this makes absolutely no sense”, because I have a basic understanding of biology and physics

      The technology stands for itself… You can image brain activity with a silly looking hat instead of strapping people into a giant machine. And it’s better than the big machine in every way.

      Why would you try to make it mysterious? I could explain to a child why this is cool technology in 30 seconds

      Also, I don’t think this team invented the opm tech or even the headset, so they basically bought a medical device, slapped the word magic on it, and pretended like it was this cool new thing they invented

      This group is just researching the effects of shooting big guns on the brain. They might spend more on bullets than they did for the hat. They’re using a cool, fairly new, toy that is already in use elsewhere… It feels like they’re just being dishonest TBH

      • Carrolade@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        8 hours ago

        This particular research project is working on making the hat smaller, so it’s more portable. That’s what this small team is working on specifically.

        Regarding the wording they used, well yeah, you may have some interest in science, but that doesn’t mean the broader public does. If they make people like us, hanging out in a tech community, raise an eyebrow but also generate some buzz among the broader public, that’s probably a smart move on their part. The word “quantum” can do that, the way bigger words like “miniaturization” can’t.

        • theneverfox@pawb.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          5 hours ago

          They didn’t even say they were working on miniaturization. Instead they implied they invented a new technology, and added the word quantum before someone else’s invention and presented it as a new technology

          The broader public will never care about this either way. This is so specific that it’s barely even popsci…I mean the results might be interesting, starting a study using the latest toy isn’t

          The more I think about it, the more dishonest it seems

          • Carrolade@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            2 hours ago

            This new generation of MEG lifts limitations that have historically confined scanners to universities, paving the way for mobile systems that can be taken directly to those who will benefit most

            Mobile means smaller, so you can move it around. Did you even read the article? They don’t imply they invented something new anywhere, you just made that up.

            Nor did they just add “quantum”. The word is featured in the links I provided above about MEG, from the NIH and Yale. Did you even look at those?

            • theneverfox@pawb.social
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              2 hours ago

              No, see I kept reading. I searched the keywords and went from there. It’s opm-meg, not meg… That’s the big ass machine vs the silly hat

              These people aren’t the vanguard. They’re not the ones pushing the limits of the technology… They’re just another group using it

              • Carrolade@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                2 hours ago

                No, OPM-MEG is still done with a large machine, where do you think all the wires coming out of the silly hat go? I don’t think you read much at all.

                • theneverfox@pawb.social
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  2 hours ago

                  They go to the fucking lasers. They’re fiber optic cables. The big machine was a device your head was strapped into, and you couldn’t move or you’d disrupt the readings

                  See? This is what I mean by dishonest. My research took me to other groups who built this tech. If they miniaturized it, it was incremental improvement on the big advancement someone else made

                  • Carrolade@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    English
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    2 hours ago

                    Well of course it’s an incremental improvement. Nobody but you is claiming anyone invented anything new.

                    The wearable headset as it sits is still not portable, making it portable would be an excellent, and incremental, yes, advancement.

                    From a different article:

                    Although the wearable MEG system is housed inside a magnetically shielded room, it is still essential to cancel out the remnant Earth’s field. To do this, the team constructed a set of bi-planar electromagnetic coils that generate fields equal and opposite to the remnant Earth’s field. The coils – designed on two 1.6 m2 planes, placed either side of the subject – achieved a 15-fold reduction in the remnant field.

                    Making this portable if possible would be very useful.