DIVE THE TITANIC
OceanGate is offering people the chance to explore the RMS Titanic, 3,800 metres below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, starting in 2019. No manned expeditions have visited the wreck in 15 years.
They’re not purely sightseeing missions. Since the ship sank in 1912, she’s been subject to microorganisms munching away at the ship’s steel structure, and no accurate estimates have been made about how long the shipwreck will be recognisable. The crew on OceanGate’s missions will collaborate with scientific experts to assess the decay of the site, collecting 4K images and video, scanning the wreck and the debris field, and collecting laser and sonar data. This will all be done from aboard the Titan, a small submersible that can fit up to six people (a passenger, four crew and a sub pilot). During the 90-minute descent, passengers will be able to look for bioluminescent creatures, help the pilot monitor the inertial navigation system and pick up views of the ship via sonar.
During three hours exploring the wreck, the team will check out the ship’s deck, investigate the area where the ship’s famous grand staircase was located, and take a look at the ship’s enormous debris field, where numerous artefacts have sat for over a century.
OceanGate’s taking bookings already. A ticket costs $105,129 per person (approx £80,000), which OceanGate claims is the cost of the first-class ticket on the ship’s original 1912 sailing, adjusted for inflation.
when the minimum preparation time, the reaction time, is half a second.
Could identifying two brain states help in medicine?
This is basic research and we never know for sure if this will actually lead to a clinical application. It is a long-term goal. This could potentially be used for rehab of patients after stroke or tumour surgery: we can say, “We know that these two states have to exist in a healthy subject, now they’re both present again, the patient has re-learned the proper ability.” Or even a step further, knowing the configuration for a certain state and the errors involved, to try and reactivate that by artificial electric stimulation. Another potential application is prosthetics and how to control a robot limb by brain activity. Knowing that movement is a distinct state helps a lot because you want the arm to only move when the patient wants it to move.