BRAIN POWER: A group of scientists, including Chris Diorio from Computer Science and Engineering, has built a circuit of 16 artificial neurons with a system of connections, or synapses, that mimics certain brain functions. The circuit is built with transistors on a chip and may one day help process auditory and visual information for robots as well as help the blind see and the deaf hear. Diorio told The New York Times about the potential of such technology: “It is a very simple circuit, but it represents a good understanding and a good starting point,” he said. “Now that we have this primitive circuit, we can use this understanding to build larger-scale biologically inspired circuits.”

IMPERFECT STORM: There are some doubts as to how perfect the storm depicted in The Perfect Storm really was. Cliff Mass, a UW atmospheric sciences professor, told the Los Angeles Times, that the 1991 North Atlantic storm that inspired the movie was a mere squall in comparison to others. The Columbus Day storm that hit the West Coast in 1962, for example, packed a much more potent punch. “The Columbus Day storm is considered to be the most damaging mid-latitude cyclone that has hit the United States probably in the last 100 years. If you were going to have a ‘perfect storm’ in terms of intensity of damage and destruction, that would be it.”

PREMATURE PLAQUE: Researchers in Alabama have found convincing evidence that a chemical found in dental plaque is causing mothers to deliver early. In a USA Today article about the study, Roy Page, director of the UW’s Regional Clinical Dental Research Center, gave the striking findings his endorsement. “The conclusions make sense. Prostaglandin injections are used to induce abortions,” he said, referring to a component of the plaque that commonly builds up on teeth.

SUMMER THAW: Well, maybe not according to one UW oceanographer. Drew Rothrock agrees with recent estimates that the Arctic ice sheet is melting at such a rapid rate that within 50 years it could be nothing but ocean water during summer months. But Rothrock told The New York Times he’s not convinced it will happen that way. A shift in the winds, could save the day. “I think it is quite possible that in the next 10 years we will see the winds revert to a more historical pattern, so that the ice begins to reside longer in the Arctic and thicken up again. I would be cautious about predicting doom.” ¶n