Adventure Ausrama Blog

It is accepted that early photography was a difficult path for an enthusiast to take. Cameras were bulky and heavy. The person who took photos had to be a virtual specialist chemist. It is so different from the ease of trapping a moment in the present. A pioneer in this field was Ducos du Haurun a brilliant Frenchman. He took color photographs. Three different colored filters were used to capture negative shots developed on gelatin film. The yellow, red and blue layers were then assembled to produce a single print. Over time, Ducos du Hauron introduced practises to speed up the process. French investigators have analyzed some of the 18th century pictures. They used x-ray florescent spectroscopy, synchrotron-based infrared (IR) spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy to determine the chemicals used as pigments for the different colors. Photographs taken in 1878 showed that Prussian blue was the ingredient used for the blue gelatin layer. Carmine lake was the foundation pigmen...

One of the most difficult things to do is to develop a computer brain that operates like a human brain. Intelligence that evolved by nature is very complex. A computer "thinks" linearly with one activity followed by another. The human brain works outward from a central point, spreading out to different areas depending on the particular task. To say that Australia should concentrate on making the world's first bionic brain is a leap too far. Saying that $250m over ten years will get the job done is way off the mark. There are many scientists already working with much more money than that and they haven't achieved much. Pioneering the bionic ear and eye is kid stuff compared to replicating the brain. Using nerve activity to make artificial limbs move is also far from understanding human intelligence. Even after all these years measuring intelligence is beyond us. The IQ test only gives a score for rating cultural knowledge. It is misused by so many peo...