Researchers at UC Berkeley just gave everybody permission to conk out for a few Zs. They found that an hour-long nap can make you smarter in spades.

The team, lead by assistant professor of psychology Matthew Walker, tested the effects of a nap on 39 healthy people. Everyone in the study took a rigorous learning test. Then half the group took a nap while the other half stayed awake. Later in the day they took another learning test. Those who had stayed up were considerably worse than those who had a snooze.

Walker thinks sleep is needed to clear short-term memory storage to make room for new data. Without sleep, there simply isn’t enough space to learn and store new facts. From a UC Berkeley article:

In the latest study, Walker and his team have broken new ground in discovering that this memory-refreshing process occurs when nappers are engaged in a specific stage of sleep. Electroencephalogram tests, which measure electrical activity in the brain, indicated that this refreshing of memory capacity is related to Stage 2 non-REM sleep, which takes place between deep sleep (non-REM) and the dream state known as Rapid Eye Movement (REM). Previously, the purpose of this stage was unclear, but the new results offer evidence as to why humans spend at least half their sleeping hours in Stage 2, non-REM, Walker said.

Makes me wonder why we give up nap time after Kindergarden.

Link to UC Berkeley Article

It works like this: Each nanowire is made up of two materials, a central core and a casing. Flashing a current through the wire causes either the core or the casing to phase change from crystalized (neat and orderly) to amorphous (jumbled and messy). The whole wire can either be crystalized or amorphous, representing a one or a zero, a traditional bit. Zapping the core crystalized and the casing amorphous or vice versa, adds the “two,” giving birth to the “trit.” 

Team member Ritesh Agarwal spoke to PhysOrg.com about the discovery:

“The use of nanowires to create electronic memory is advantageous for several reasons, but a non-binary form of nanowire memory like we have created could allow for a huge increase in the memory density of potential future devices.”

That means more memory in smaller packages and, eventually, digital wristwatches that are smarter than I am.

Link to PhysOrg.com article.

Photo: MRAM never forgets. Ever.

Any technology that employs “spintronics” has got to be aces. MRAM (Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory) exploits the quantum spin states of electrons to store and access data. It’s basically a matter of measuring the resistance caused by different magnetic fields, then making the stuff that generates those fields do what you want it to do. It involves a lot of technical jiggery-pokery, but the end result is RAM that can store data permanently like a hard drive or flash drive, but is as fast as volatile system RAM. MRAM can essentially replace all the memory in a computer—system RAM, video RAM and storage media. Oh, and it uses about 10 percent of the power of DRAM.

The technology has been chugging along on the flat bit of the exponential Kurzweil curve for a few decades now, but it could be ready to shoot into the stratosphere. Several major corporations have decided to dump research money and talent into MRAM and consumers could see MRAM-equipped electronics before 2015.

Freescale Semiconductor, a company that cut its teeth on the venerable Motorola PowerPC chips, announced this week that it will join forces with a few venture capital firms to make MRAM. The new venture, called EverSpin Technologies, will attempt to create MRAM chips that can compete with ever-improving flash memory.

Toshiba and Hitachi are also funding big MRAM projects, as are the U.S. and Korean governments. I can’t wait.

Link to Cnet story.

Link to gizmodo story.