The animal world is full of different types of intelligence, from the simple bodily coordination of jellyfish to the navigation abilities of bees, the complex songs of birds and the imaginative symbolic thought of humans.
In an article published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, we argue the evolution of all these kinds of animal intelligence has been shaped by just five major changes in the computational capacity of brains.
Each change was a major transitional point in the history of life that changed what types of intelligence could evolve.
La persoanele care au avut diabet zaharat de tip 2, administrarea celei mai ridicate doze testate a tratamentului a determinat reducerea masei corporale cu 17%, la 36 de săptămâni de la administrare. Niciun alt medicament nu a avut un efect atât de important asupra greutății la această categorie de pacienți. Dintre persoanele non-diabetice, retatrutida a redus masa corporală cu minim 30% la peste 25% dintre aceștia, cu minim 20% la peste 60% dintre aceștia și cu minim 15% la aproape 85% dintre participanții fără diabet zaharat de tip 2.
Unde gravitaționale - emise în urma coliziunii a două găuri super-masive (concepție artist). Credit: Aurore Simonnet for the NANOGrav Collaboration
După ce în 2015 cercetătorii de la Caltech, MIT și LIGO Scientific Collaboration au detectat pentru prima oară unde gravitaționale (rezultatul coliziunii a două găuri negre), una dintre predicțiile teoriei generale a relativității a lui Albert Einstein, recent patru echipe separate de cercetători (din SUA, Europa, Australia și China) au anunțat că dețin date solide cu privire la existența unor unde gravitaționale de dimensiuni galactice, care afectează dinamica structurii spațiu-timp a universului.
Ca de obicei, presa a prezentat subiectul într-o natură senzaționalistă, fără mare legătură cu descoperirea în sine. Deși informațiile privind aceste tipuri de unde gravitaționale sunt importante, suntem încă departe de momentul în care putem spune că trebuie să ne schimbăm teoria privind nașterea universului ori că progresele făcute modifică / cimentează anumite aspecte privind apariția universului în mod fundamental și definitiv.
Former US Private First Class Stephen Green was found guilty of raping and killing a 14-year-old girl and murdering her family in Mahmudiyah, Iraq in 2006. Four years later, US Corporal Jeremy Morlock was convicted of ambushing, murdering and maiming Afghan civilians in 2010.
Now our recent study, published in Military Psychology, has identified a personality profile linked with such war atrocities. It raises the question of whether military organisations could and should take more care when recruiting people.
The examples of moral transgressions from the global “war on terror” suggest there is a link between antisocial personality traits and breaches of battlefield ethics. This is backed up by scientific evidence, with psychological studies dating back to the aftermath of World War II.
The latest health trend on TikTok has been dubbed “nature’s own Ozempic”. It’s the herbal preparation berberine. Influencers have been enthusiastically claiming its success in helping them lose weight, with their posts viewed by millions.
But what actually is berberine? How is it related to the drug Ozempic? Does it help people lose weight? And is it safe?
Detalii
Scris de: Tina Hinton, Nial Wheate and Rebecca Roubin
Credit: Buzan and Huber (2020) Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Author provided
This year, even before the northern hemisphere hot season began, temperature records were being shattered. Spain for instance saw temperatures in April (38.8°C) that would be out of the ordinary even at the peak of summer. South and south-east Asia in particular were hammered by a very persistent heatwave, and all-time record temperatures were experienced in countries such as Vietnam and Thailand (44°C and 45°C respectively). In Singapore, the more modest record was also broken, as temperatures hit 37°C. And in China, Shanghai just recorded its highest May temperature for over a century at 36.7°C.
Detalii
Scris de: Alan Thomas Kennedy-Asser, Dann Mitchell and Eunice Lo
Îndepărtarea părului este realizată cel mai adesea din motive estetice, 40% dintre femei raportând că prezintă pilozitate nedorită. Dintre acestea, 10% au hirsutism (creșterea excesivă a părului pe diverse părți ale corpului. n.n.), adesea în contextul sindromului ovarelor polichistice.
Părul nedorit sau în proporții considerate excesive poate avea consecințe negative la nivel psihologic și asupra calității vieții, putând determina stres, depresie sau izolare socială. Din aceste motive, disponibilitatea unor metode sigure și eficace pe termen lung de îndepărtare a părului are o importanță ridicată. De asemenea, îndepărtarea pilozității pe termen lung și cu traumatizarea minimă a tegumentului este utilă în terapia afecțiunilor inflamatorii cutanate care implică foliculul pilos.
Metodele de epilare cu laser sau de tip IPL (intense pulsed light) au devenit din ce în ce mai populare, fiind disponibile atât în saloane și clinici specializate, precum și prin intermediul unor dispozitive destinate pentru a fi utilizate neprofesional, acasă. Deoarece îndepărtarea părului prin aceste tehnologii este considerată de lungă durată, epilarea cu laser sau de tip IPL este adesea numită definitivă.
A meta-analysis helps resolve conflicting evidence on the benefits of tACS.
Figuring out how to enhance a person’s mental capabilities has been of considerable interest to psychology and neuroscience researchers like me for decades. From improving attention in high-stakes environments, like air traffic management, to reviving memory in people with dementia, the ability to improve cognitive function can have far-reaching consequences. New research suggests that brain stimulation could help achieve the goal of boosting mental function.
In the Reinhart Lab at Boston University, my colleagues and I have been examining the effects of an emerging brain stimulation technology – transcranial alternating current stimulation, or tACS – on different mental functions in patients and healthy people.
During this procedure, people wear an elastic cap embedded with electrodes that deliver weak electrical currents oscillating at specific frequencies to their scalp. By applying these controlled currents to specific brain regions, it is possible to alter brain activity by nudging neurons to fire rhythmically.
Despre subiectul infidelității am mai scris un articol în urmă cu câteva luni, în care am prezentat principalele motive ale infidelității.
Un studiu recent (poate fi citit integral, gratuit (eng.)), publicat în Archives of Sexual Behavior, vine cu câteva concluzii interesant, pe care le prezint, succint, mai jos:
People who want to do good in the world are vulnerable to an insidious form of mental manipulation. (Credit: Lorenzo Rossi/Alamy)
At a recent party, a stranger standing next to me spoke up suddenly when a snazzy ad for an electric vehicle appeared on the television. “EVs harm the environment way more than gas cars,” she announced to the room.
“Well, no,” I responded. “I have an EV, and it’s not even close. Gas cars are much worse for the environment.”
Then she moved closer to me, as if confiding a dark secret, and said, “By driving an EV, you are killing small children in Africa.” I’d done enough research to know her statement was false, yet it still felt like a punch to the gut. I second-guessed myself. Had I missed something? Was I causing harm without realizing it? All I could muster was a murmured, “No, no, that’s not true,” before backing away from the conversation.
An intermingling of the senses creates not just a different way of perceiving the world, but a window into your past, like psychological amber.
My consciousness is a constant stream of color. Whether I’m reading, texting a friend, or doing math homework, every letter or number I see comes swathed in its own characteristic hue. My 7’s are forest green, L’s are orange, and both A’s and 4’s are hot pink.
Growing up, I did not realize my experience was atypical until I read A Mango Shaped Space by Wendy Mass in middle school. The book tells the story of 13-year old Mia Winchell, who experiences synesthesia, a mingling of the senses. Mia involuntarily sees letters, numbers and even sounds in specific colors. The book described my experience perfectly except for one thing – my colors were different. Since then, I’ve wondered what gives every synesthete their own unique associations; why does the K look lavender to me, but blue for someone else? What neural process transforms an impersonal, black T into my vivid, lime green T?
Țările care produc baterii pentru mașini electrice vor avea atât avantaje economice, cât și de natură politică. În prezent, câștigătorul este în mod clar China, care controlează fiecare pas al producției de baterii litiu-ion, de la obținerea materiilor prime la producția de mașini electrice.
Într-un recent articol, NYTimes arată care este situația de fapt în ce privește procesul de producție al bateriilor și mașinilor electrice.
Loss of muscle mass and a slower metabolism are just some of the physical changes caused by the menopause.
Many women begin experiencing symptoms of the menopause around age 50. As hormones begin to fluctuate and change, women might start experiencing a range of symptoms, such as hot flushes, joint pain, low mood and vaginal dryness. The menopause can also be accompanied by a range of physical changes too – including loss of muscle mass, loss of bone density and a slowed metabolism.
Fortunately, regular exercise – specifically weightlifting – can help mitigate these changes somewhat and improve overall health and wellbeing. Here are just some of the ways weightlifting can be beneficial to women going through the menopause.
Detalii
Scris de: Athalie Redwood-Brown and Jennifer Wilson
The way we see and describe hues varies widely for many reasons: from our individual eye structure, to how our brain processes images, to what language we speak, or even if we live near a body of water
What color is a tree, or the sky, or a sunset? At first glance, the answers seem obvious. But it turns out there is plenty of variation in how people see the world — both between individuals and between different cultural groups.
A lot of factors feed into how people perceive and talk about color, from the biology of our eyes to how our brains process that information, to the words our languages use to talk about color categories. There’s plenty of room for differences, all along the way.
Some neuroscientists think psychedelic drugs and the hallucinations they induce could help reveal how the brain generates our perceptions of the world around us — and of ourselves.
“Everything became imbued with a sense of vitality and life and vividness. If I picked up a pebble from the beach, it would move. It would glisten and gleam and sparkle and be absolutely captivating,” says neuroscientist Anil Seth. “Somebody looking at me would see me staring at a stone for hours.”
Or what seemed like hours to Seth. A researcher at the UK’s University of Sussex, he studies how the brain helps us perceive the world within and without, and is intrigued by what psychedelics such as LSD can tell us about how the brain creates these perceptions. So a few years ago, he decided to try some, in controlled doses and with trusted people by his side. He had a notebook to keep track of his experiences. “I didn’t write very much in the notebook,” he says, laughing.
•How the brain shapes reality (video) - contrar opiniei încă dominante, percepția are loc din interior către exterior, ceea ce explică și configurația cerebrală (mai mulți neuroni care transferă informație către exteriorul creierului), dar și iluziile optice (persistența în a vedea „greșit” realitatea). •How Words Struggle For Existence in Our Brains - cuvintele din mintea noastră duc un fel de luptă pentru existență (pentru a nu fi uitate). Cele care rămân în vocabularul activ au trei trăsături: sunt învățate la vârste mici, se referă la ceva concret și au conținut emoțional.