HAPPY CARICOM Day, Guyana! The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is an organization of 15 Caribbean nations and dependencies. CARICOM’s main purposes are to promote economic integration and cooperation among its members, to ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and to coordinate foreign policy.

The Secretariat’s headquarters is based in Georgetown, Guyana.Enjoy the holiday, my fellow Guyanese!
Now, who says science is expensive? Researchers at the University of Washington have designed a computer-interfaced drawing pad and with a fibre-optic pen for under $100 to help scientists see the insides of the brain of children with learning disabilities while they actively read and write. This inside look at the brain activity of children will help shed more light on neural connections, and why the brain functions differently in some cases.
In their approach, the researchers hollowed out a ballpoint pen and inserted two optical fibres connected to a light-tight box where they recorded the pen’s movement. They also made a square wooden pad (like a tablet/iPad) to hold a piece of paper printed with continuously varying colour gradients. Even though there are a few MRI-compatible writing devices out there, these researchers created a device at a tenth of the cost, by simply using supplies already found in most labs: A computer, pen, fibre-optics, wooden pad and printed paper.
The new device connects to a computer equipped with software, and records every aspect of handwriting the child makes: Stroke order, speed, hesitations and lift- offs. The researchers say understanding how these physical patterns correlate with a child’s brain pattern can help scientists understand the neural connections involved.
Scientists need a tool that allows them to see in real-time what a person is writing, while the scanning is going on in the brain; they knew that fibre-optics were an appropriate tool. Question is: How can you use a fibre-optic device to track handwriting?
The custom-made pen and pad gives researchers the ability to record handwriting during an active magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) session which gives them the ability to assess behavior and brain function at the same time.
In the research project, researchers studied 11- and 14-year-olds with either dyslexia or dysgraphia, which are both handwriting and letter-processing disorders and children without learning disabilities. The children looked at printed directions on a screen while their heads were inside the MRI and the pads were on a foam pad on their laps.
According to the study, the volunteers were given four, minute blocks of reading and writing tasks and then asked to just think about writing an essay (they later wrote the essay when not using the MRI). After comparing the results, researchers discovered that just thinking about writing the essay for these children, caused many of the same brain responses as actual writing the essay would cause.
Picture yourself writing a letter, there’s a part of the brain that lights up as if you’re writing the letter, when you imagine yourself writing, it’s almost as if you’re actually writing, minus the motion problems.
Researchers have already see results that surprise them including certain centers and neural pathways they didn’t necessarily expect to be activated.
In addition to learning disorders, the under $100USD fiber optic pen and pad could also help researchers study adult diseases that cause motor control problems including stroke, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease.
There are several diseases where you cannot move your hand in a smooth way or you’re completely paralyzed, with this new device, it’s all getting recorded with every stroke and it will help scientist and I.T professionals to study these neurological diseases.
Is this not excellent news people? Certainly is!  I strongly believe science and technology is God made partners and this pen is a proven fact. Now let’s look at another pen that does some magnificent things.

Get Ready to Doodle With the First 3D Drawing Pen
Remember Etch A Sketch? Created by a French inventor in the late 1950s in his basement, but sold through the Ohio Art Company, it kept thousands of kids and adults entertained for decades, event today.
And now we take a giant step forward in the world of doodling – the first 3D drawing pen, the 3Doodler is here. Recently launched on Kickstarter by a new company out of Boston called Wobbleworks, the company hopes to raise $30,000 USD to get these pens into the market before end of 2013.
The interesting thing about these inventors is they have been around the block. Serial inventors and co-founders, Peter Dilworth and Maxwell Bogue, met in China while working on other projects and have been developing gadgets and toys for more than 20 years. It paid off, the 3Doodler is a brand new way of creating 3D objects and the company wants to make it the most affordable 3D printing device on the market.
For early backers on Kickstarter, the 3Doodler pen will be available for $50 USD. The also teamed up with leading Etsy artists to provide an Etsy Special for early backers.
The pen has been designed to be compact and easy to use; you just plug it into a power socket and can start drawing anything within minutes.
The inventors wanted to design a 3D printing device that could be used within minutes, without needing any technical knowledge, software or computers. They also wanted it to be affordable as well as fun, so that anyone could 3Doodle.
If you can scribble, trace or wave a finger in the air you can use a 3Doodler. As you draw, plastic comes out of the pen, is cooled by an integrated fan, and solidifies right in front of you. You can draw on any surface and lift it up into the air to create your own 3D objects.
This is crazy, imagine you can make anything out of a pen by just drawing and lifting it up, I can’t wait to put my hand on one! Bet you can’t too, right!