Week 7: Micrometeorites and Neurotech

IMG_4639.jpg

This week we learned about meteorites on a microscopic scale. Up till now I believed meteorites were large rocks from space that fell onto Earth's surface, but scientists estimate that about 48.5 tons of meteoritic material falls on the Earth each day. Micrometeorites are tiny specks of meteoroids from outer space that typically measure less than a millimeter across. I was interested to learn that their journey through space and Earth's atmosphere changes their appearance and even chemical makeup. Some smaller meteoroids never even make it to the Earth's surface because they vaporize before reaching it. I look forward to searching for these micrometeorites in class!

IMG_4624.jpg

On the topic of microscopy, Victoria brought in a microscope for us to play with. The above image is a microscopic view of a classmate's scab. One of the groups mentioned incorporating microscopic images of the human body into fashion so I'm curious to see how they use the microscope in their project. Perhaps they may even use a viewer's own skin in real time.

IMG_4625.jpg

Lastly, we got to experiment with the Neorosky Mindwave EEG headset. The software it connects to had games that detect blinking and shooting games, interestingly. Although I'm not sure how accurate it was since the blinking game "detected" blinks even when the wearer was not blinking, it was still cool to see an EEG being used right before me. My project partner, Ryan, took the EEG set home to explore how we can employ it in our final project, but he discovered it may not be possible to get live EEG data from the device since it is outdated. Although this is unfortunate, we are looking into other ways to get neural data such as a brain simulation software. NEURON's simulation environment uses computational models of neurons and networks of neurons. This way we can safely feed the makeshift brain noise pollution and gather output. This upcoming week we will be looking into this more!

Works Cited

Schrock, J. (2023, February 26). Remains of meteorite found after falling from Sky over Darke County. WRGT. Retrieved February 26, 2023, from https://dayton247now.com/news/local/remains-of-meteorite-found-after-falling-from-sky-over-darke-county-arcanum-police#:~:text=When%20a%20meteoroid%20survives%20a,on%20the%20Earth%20each%20day. 

Zampogna, G. (2020, July 27). City Stardust: Micrometeorites in our own backyards. Bell Museum. Retrieved February 26, 2023, from https://www.bellmuseum.umn.edu/blog/city-stardust-micrometeorites/ 

Welcome to the community of neuron users and developers! NEURON. (n.d.). Retrieved February 26, 2023, from https://neuron.yale.edu/neuron/