Damian Cruse of the Cambridge group thinks he may have found a solution in electroencephalography (EEG), a cheaper and more portable way of measuring brain activity via electrodes pasted to the patient's scalp.

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The team argues that switching the voltage applied to these electrodes in a particular way should create a pattern of polarisation in the rod which moves superluminally, just like the charge distribution in the plasma surrounding a pulsar.

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Data is stored in the magnetic state of the electrodes, similar to the way data is stored in a magnetic hard drive.

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In the control, the researchers placed the electrodes in just the same way but surreptitiously turned off the juice before the task started.

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One way this can be successfully accomplished is by "multiplexing" the electrodes normally used to relay touch input -- that is, using the same electrodes to handle the signals for both touch control and the pixels of the LCD, according to a 2010 IHS report on touch-screen displays.

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