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Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong. So why are doctors-to a striking extent-still drawing upon misinformation in their everyday practice? Dr. John Ioannidis has spent his career challenging his peers by exposing their bad science. 

Fresh insights into why we conform to peer pressure could explain how despotic leaders bend people to their will

Your brain is like a pile of sand, but don't worry: that's why it has such remarkable powers

Quantum foam - grainy bumps in the fabric of space-time - might explain why light from a distant galaxy arrived four minutes later than expected, offering

Promiscuous females may be the key to a species' survival, according to new research by the Universities of Exeter and Liverpool. Published today (25 February) in Current Biology, the study could solve the mystery of why females of most species have multiple mates, despite this being more risky for the individual.

You may have more in common with Kanzi, Panbanisha and Nyota, three language-competent bonobos living at Great Ape Trust, than you thought. And those similarities, right at your fingertip, might one day tell scientists more about the effect of culture on neurological disorders that limit human expression. Among humans, pointing is a universal language, an alternative to spoken words to convey a message. Before they speak, infants point, a gesture scientists agree is closely associated with word learning. But when an ape points, scientists break rank on the question of whether pointing is a uniquely human behavior. Some of the world's leading voices in modern primatology have argued that although apes may gesture in a way that resembles human pointing, the genetic and cognitive differences between apes and humans are so great that the apes' signals have no specific intent. Not so, say Great Ape Trust scientists, who argued in a recently published scientific paper, "Why Apes Point: Pointing Gestures in Spontaneous Conversation of Language-Competent Pan/Homo Bonobos," that not only do Kanzi, Panbanisha and Nyota point with their index fingers in conversation as a human being might, these bonobos do so with specific intent and objectives in mind.

ScienceDaily (Jan. 7, 2011) - Certain molecules do exist in two forms which are symmetrical mirror images of each other: they are known as chiral molecules. On Earth, the chiral molecules of life, especially amino acids and sugars, exist in only one form, either left-handed or right-handed. Why is it that life has initially chosen one form over the other?

Music, an abstract stimulus, can arouse feelings of euphoria and craving, similar to tangible rewards that involve the striatal dopaminergic system. Using the neurochemical specificity of [11C]raclopride positron emission tomography scanning, combined with psychophysiological measures of autonomic nervous system activity, we found endogenous dopamine release in the striatum at peak emotional arousal during music listening. To examine the time course of dopamine release, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging with the same stimuli and listeners, and found a functional dissociation: the caudate was more involved during the anticipation and the nucleus accumbens was more involved during the experience of peak emotional responses to music. These results indicate that intense pleasure in response to music can lead to dopamine release in the striatal system. Notably, the anticipation of an abstract reward can result in dopamine release in an anatomical pathway distinct from that associated with the peak pleasure itself. Our results help to explain why music is of such high value across all human societies.

In what may feel like a flashback to the porn wars of the '60s, a new study investigates the link between a country's relative gender equality and the degree of female "empowerment" in the X-rated entertainment it consumes. Researchers at the University of Hawaii focused on three countries in particular: Norway, the United States and Japan, which are respectively ranked 1st, 15th and (yikes) 54th on the United Nations' Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). To simplify their analysis, their library of smut was limited to explicit photographs of women "from mainstream pornographic magazines and Internet websites, as well as from the portfolios of the most popular porn stars from each nation." Then they set out to evaluate each image on both a disempowerment and an empowerment scale, using respective measures like whether the woman is "bound and dominated" by "leashes, collars, gags, or handcuffs" or "whether she has a natural looking body." Their hypothesis was that societies with greater gender equity will consume pornography that has more representations of "empowered women" and less of "disempowered women." It turned out the former was true, but, contradictory as it may sound, the latter was not. "While Norwegian pornography offers a wider variety of body types -- conforming less to a societal ideal that is disempowering to the average woman -- there are still many images that do not promote a healthy respect for women," the researchers explain. In other words, Norwegian porn showed more signs of female empowerment, but X-rated images in all three countries equally depicted women in demeaning positions and scenarios. This, the researchers surmise, "suggests that empowerment and disempowerment within pornography are potentially different constructs." So, gender equality is accompanied by sexual interest in a broader range of beauty types but not a decrease in porn's infantilization of females, use of dominating fetish gear on women or any of the other characteristics th

Together with ever-improving observations of the early universe, grand simulations are beginning to paint a single, unifying picture of why the universe looks as it does. At its heart is an almost invisible scaffold of dark matter and cold gas on which the visible constituents of the universe hang - a structure known as the cosmic web.

Telomeres are necessary for several reasons, among them to act as 'padding' during cell duplication. Every time a linear DNA molecule is replicated it loses a few base pairs from the ends (the reason why is quite interesting,

Telomeres are necessary for several reasons, among them to act as 'padding' during cell duplication. Every time a linear DNA molecule is replicated it loses a few base pairs from the ends (the reason why is quite interesting,

Brain, bodily awareness, and the emergence of a conscious self: these entities and their relations are explored by Germanphilosopher and cognitive scientist Metzinger. Extensively working with neuroscientists he has come to the conclusion that, in fact, there is no such thing as a "self" -- that a "self" is simply the content of a model created by our brain - part of a virtual reality we create for ourselves. But if the self is not "real," he asks, why and how did it evolve? How does the brain construct the self? In a series of fascinating virtual reality experiments, Metzinger and his colleagues have attempted to create so-called "out-of-body experiences" in the lab, in order to explore these questions. As a philosopher, he offers a discussion of many of the latest results in robotics, neuroscience, dream and meditation research, and argues that the brain is much more powerful than we have ever imagined. He shows us, for example, that we now have the first machines that have developed an inner image of their own body -- and actually use this model to create intelligent behavior. In addition, studies exploring the connections between phantom limbs and the brain have shown us that even people born without arms or legs sometimes experience a sensation that they do in fact have limbs that are not there. Experiments like the "rubber-hand illusion" demonstrate how we can experience a fake hand as part of our self and even feel a sensation of touch on the phantom hand form the basis and testing ground for the idea that what we have called the "self" in the past is just the content of a transparent self-model in our brains. Now, as new ways of manipulating the conscious mind-brain appear on the scene, it will soon become possible to alter our subjective reality in an unprecedented manner. The cultural consequences of this, Metzinger claims, may be immense: we will need a new approach to ethics, and we will be forced to think about ourselves in a fundamentally new way. At

As a subclass of agriculture, dairy farming is also a long-term enterprise that's producing milk and other dairy products. Farming a dairy involves heavy investment in terms of land, building, cows etc that's why supporting the movement of enterprising label the trivedi effect treated cows have shown an increase in milk production and reproduction too.

Explore & Share at 9th World Congress on Biopolymers & Bioplastics, London, UK (A solution for Current & Future Global Predicament) August 26-27, 2019 London, UK: Since 2016, Biopolymer Congress has been contributing successfully to the global scientific research field. 8th World Congress on Biopolymers & Bioplastics was held during June 28-29, 2018 at Berlin, Germany with the theme "Biopolymer- A Drug to heal the nature". Active participation of Scientists, Engineers, Researchers, Students and Leaders from the fields of Polymer Science, plastics, Green technology, medical, and Biomaterials is highly appreciated and made this event a blast. Thanks to all of our Organizing Committee members, honourable guests, wonderful speakers, conference attendees and Media partners. With the success of Biopolymer Congress 2018 at Berlin, we are feeling proud to announce Biopolymer Congress 2019 conference with the theme "A solution for current & future Global predicament", is going to held in London, UK, during August 26-27, 2019. Importance and Scope: Over the past few years, global economic activities have increased a lot. This tremendous growth has raised serious problems about current important patterns of production and consumption. As the current society has increased its attention in understanding of the environmental aspects and its industrial practices, greater attention has been given to the concept of sustainable economic systems that rely on energy from undepletable source and materials. The use of biologically derived Polymers become as an important component of this global world. The history of Biopolymer is not a long one. Various reasons are associated with the research and development of Biopolymers. Use of Bioplastics will make a tremendous change and will help rid of the conventional plastics, which is a welcome change. Why to attend?: To take preventive steps for Global Predicament, Biopolymer Congress 2019 offers a fantastic opportunity to meet and

"Magenta is a Google Brain project to ask and answer the questions, "Can we use machine learning to create compelling art and music? If so, how? If not, why not?" Our work is done in TensorFlow, and we regularly release our models and tools in open source. These are accompanied by demos, tutorial blog postings and technical papers. To follow our progress, watch our GitHub and join our discussion group."

ScienceDaily (June 9, 2011) - On rare occasion, the light-sensing photoreceptor cells in the eye misfire and signal to the brain as if they have captured photons, when in reality they haven't. For years this phenomenon remained a mystery. Reporting in the June 10 issue of Science, neuroscientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have discovered that a light-capturing pigment molecule in photoreceptors can be triggered by heat, as well, giving rise to these false alarms.