Lifeboat Foundation

We might be amidst a chip shortage, but if you enjoy reverse-engineering, there’s never a shortage of intriguing old chips to dig into – and the 2513N 5×7 character ROM is one such chip. Amidst a long thread probing a few of these (Twitter, ThreadReader link), [TubeTime] has realized that two address lines were shorted inside of the package. A Twitter dopamine-fueled quest for truth has led them to try their hand at making the chip work anyway. Trying to clear the short with an external PSU led to a bond wire popping instead, as evidenced by the ESD diode connection disappearing.

A dozen minutes of sandpaper work resulted in the bare die exposed, making quick work of the bond wires as a side effect. Apparently, having the bond pads a bit too close has resulted in a factory defect where two of the pads merged together. No wonder the PSU wouldn’t take that on! Some X-acto work later, the short was cleared. But without the bond wires, how would [TubeTime] connect to it? This is where the work pictured comes in. Soldering to the remains of the bond wires has proven to be fruitful, reviving the chip enough to continue investigating, even if, it appears, it was never functional to begin with. The thread continued on with comparing ROMs from a few different chips [TubeTime] had on hand and inferences on what could’ve happened that led to this IC going out in the wild.

Such soldering experiments are always fun to try and pull off! We rarely see soldering on such a small scale, as thankfully, it’s not always needed, but it’s a joy to witness when someone does IC or PCB microsurgery to fix factory defects that render our devices inoperable before they were even shipped. Each time that a fellow hacker dares to grind the IC epoxy layers down and save a game console or an unidentified complex board, the world gets a little brighter. And if you aren’t forced to do it for repair reasons, you can always try it in an attempt to build the smallest NES in existence!

𝙎𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙗𝙚 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙢𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣, 𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙚𝙧 𝙡𝙖𝙗𝙮𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙝𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙚𝙚-𝙥𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙖𝙣 𝙙𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙙𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙚𝙥 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢 𝙘𝙮𝙘𝙡𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙗𝙤𝙩𝙝 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙩𝙝 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙚.

The Neuro-Network.

𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬? 𝐒𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧’𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭

Continue reading “Can deep sleep help devastating brain disorders? Scientists studying Parkinson’s want to find out” »

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If you are a scientist, willing to share your science with curious teens, consider joining Lecturers Without Borders!

Established by three scientists, Luibov Tupikina, Athanasia Nikolau, and Clara Delphin Zemp, and high school teacher Mikhail Khotyakov, Lecturers Without Borders (LeWiBo) is an international volunteer grassroots organization that brings together enthusiastic science researchers and science-minded teens. LeWiBo founders noticed that scientists tend to travel a lot – for fieldwork, conferences, or lecturing – and realized scientists could be a great source of knowledge and inspiration to local schools. To this end, they asked scientists to volunteer for talks and workshops. The first lecture, delivered in Nepal in 2017 by two researchers, a mathematician and a climatologist, was a great success. In the next couple of years, LeWiBo volunteers presented at schools in Russia and Belarus; Indonesia and Uganda; India and Nepal. Then, the pandemic forced everything into the digital realm, bringing together scientists and schools across the globe. I met with two of LeWiBo’s co-founders, physicist Athanasia Nikolaou and math teacher Mikhail Khotyakov, as well as their coordinator, Anastasia Mityagina, to talk about their offerings and future plans.

Julia Brodsky: So, how many people volunteer for LeWiBo at this time?

Continue reading “How Lecturers Without Borders Shares The Joy Of Science” »

The microbots are applied nasally to treat brain diseases.

Scientists have successfully guided a microbot through the nasal pathways to the brain of a mouse. If the same approach can be replicated in humans, it could be a game-changer against neurodegenerative disease, enabling doctors to deliver therapies directly to the brain.

A research team led by DGIST (the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea) has created a microrobot propelled by magnets that can navigate the human body. The trial, published in the journal Advanced Materials, describes how they manufactured the microrobot, dubbed a Cellbot, by magnetizing stem cells extracted from the human nasal cavity. The scientists then tested the ability of the Cellbot to move through the body’s confined vessels and passages to reach its target, which it completed with ease.

Continue reading “New microbots can travel to the brain via the nose and deliver treatments” »

Yale researchers were awarded a grant from the Swebilius Foundation for their breakthroughs in increasing the functionality of brain-machine interface chips designed to treat epilepsy.

Pioneer Suzana Herculano-Houzel discusses the challenges and solutions of comparing brain size and function across species and shares her groundbreaking insights into the uniqueness, or lack thereof, of the human brain. #WorldSciU

This lecture was recorded on XXX at the World Science Festival in New York City.

Continue reading “WSU Master Class: Big Brains, Small Brains with Suzana Herculano-Houzel” »

The size and complexity of cephalopod brain structures differ depending on the habitats the creatures occupy, a study finds.

Today, the ECoG grids most commonly used in surgeries typically have between 16 and 64 sensors, although research grade grids with up to 256 sensors can be custom made. The device created at UCSD is therefore a major advance in the field. It could improve neurosurgeons’ ability to remove as much of a brain tumour as possible while minimising damage to healthy tissue. In the case of epilepsy, the higher resolution could enable a surgeon to precisely identify the brain regions where seizures are originating, so that these can be removed without touching nearby regions not involved in seizure initiation. In this way, these high-resolution grids may enhance preservation of normal, functioning brain tissue.

ECoG grids with sensors in the thousands could also help in uncovering a deeper understanding of how the brain functions. Basic science advances, in turn, could lead to improved treatments grounded in enhanced understanding of brain function.

The team at UCSD – who collaborated with Massachusetts General Hospital and Oregon Health & Science University – achieved their breakthrough by packing individual sensors significantly closer to each other, while avoiding problematic interference between nearby sensors. The ECoG grids already in clinical use typically have sensors that are spaced one centimetre apart. But the new 1,024-sensor device has sensors just one millimetre apart, with a total grid area measuring three by three centimetres and is scalable to 2,048 sensors.