When I was a kid, my dad was king of fixing stuff on the fly. On more than one occaision, he'd patch together his broken semi, and limp it across the nation in order to make it home for the weekend.
Sure, he could have parked it at a shop on the east coast, and waited for his company to fix it. But that meant a weekend away from home. As long as the truck was packing ducttape, vise grips and some hefty jumper-cables -- Mattgyver was home every weekend.
It started turning into a game. Anytime we kids heard that dad had been forced to limp his rig home the night before, we'd race through breakfast and go pop the hood of the truck to find the ducttape, or alien wiring.
My wife and I shelled out a whopping $1,000 on our current ride nearly a year ago. It's holding up well - that is until the headlight switch went out on it. I priced a new switch at nearly $600 (plus labor).
So, after a day of sweating and wiring, lets say it's been nicely "Mattgyvered". Thanks, Dad, for mad skills.
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I found this video of a "robot" (ok, so its a little car that drives around) with the brain of a rat.
That's right, instead of a computer, it uses neurons from a rat, kept alive inside of a jar and linked via bluetooth to this little contraption
It sounds rather disturbing, if you ask me. But then I found this video from these scientists, explaining how this enables them to study memory, learning, and decision-making. Hopefully, by the time I am an alzheimer's patient, these guys will have a cure for me.
Or, at least have a use for my mal-functioning neurons. (Maybe they can put my brain in a jar, and I can go practice law somewhere)
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