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margogramiak

How To Fight Deforestation In The Amazon From Your Couch | HuffPost - 0 views

  • If you’ve got as little as 30 seconds and a decent internet connection, you can help combat the deforestation of the Amazon. 
  • Some 15% of the Amazon, the world’s largest rainforest and a crucial carbon repository, has been cut or burned down. Around two-thirds of the Amazon lie within Brazil’s borders, where almost 157 square miles of forest were cleared in April alone. In addition to storing billions of tons of carbon, the Amazon is home to tens of millions of people and some 10% of the Earth’s biodiversity.
    • margogramiak
       
      all horrifying stats.
  • you just have to be a citizen that is concerned about the issue of deforestation,
    • margogramiak
       
      that's me!
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  • If you’ve got as little as 30 seconds and a decent internet connection, you can help combat the deforestation of the Amazon. 
    • margogramiak
       
      great!
  • to build an artificial intelligence model that can recognize signs of deforestation. That data can be used to alert governments and conservation organizations where intervention is needed and to inform policies that protect vital ecosystems. It may even one day predict where deforestation is likely to happen next.
    • margogramiak
       
      That sounds super cool, and definitely useful.
  • To monitor deforestation, conservation organizations need an eye in the sky.
    • margogramiak
       
      bird's eye view pictures of deforestation are always super impactful.
  • WRI’s Global Forest Watch online tracking system receives images of the world’s forests taken every few days by NASA satellites. A simple computer algorithm scans the images, flagging instances where before there were trees and now there are not. But slight disturbances, such as clouds, can trip up the computer, so experts are increasingly interested in using artificial intelligence.
    • margogramiak
       
      that's so cool.
  • Inman was surprised how willing people have been to spend their time clicking on abstract-looking pictures of the Amazon.
    • margogramiak
       
      I'm glad so many people want to help.
  • Look at these nine blocks and make a judgment about each one. Does that satellite image look like a situation where human beings have transformed the landscape in some way?” Inman explained.
    • margogramiak
       
      seems simple enough
  • It’s not always easy; that’s the point. For example, a brown patch in the trees could be the result of burning to clear land for agriculture (earning a check mark for human impact), or it could be the result of a natural forest fire (no check mark). Keen users might be able to spot subtle signs of intervention the computer would miss, like the thin yellow line of a dirt road running through the clearing. 
    • margogramiak
       
      I was thinking about this issue... that's a hard problem to solve.
  • SAS’s website offers a handful of examples comparing natural forest features and manmade changes. 
    • margogramiak
       
      I guess that would be helpful. What happens if someone messes up though?
  • users have analyzed almost 41,000 images, covering an area of rainforest nearly the size of the state of Montana. Deforestation caused by human activity is evident in almost 2 in 5 photos.
    • margogramiak
       
      wow.
  • The researchers hope to use historical images of these new geographies to create a predictive model that could identify areas most at risk of future deforestation. If they can show that their AI model is successful, it could be useful for NGOs, governments and forest monitoring bodies, enabling them to carefully track forest changes and respond by sending park rangers and conservation teams to threatened areas. In the meantime, it’s a great educational tool for the citizen scientists who use the app
    • margogramiak
       
      But then what do they do with this data? How do they use it to make a difference?
  • Users simply select the squares in which they’ve spotted some indication of human impact: the tell-tale quilt of farm plots, a highway, a suspiciously straight edge of tree line. 
    • margogramiak
       
      I could do that!
  • we have still had people from 80 different countries come onto the app and make literally hundreds of judgments that enabled us to resolve 40,000 images,
    • margogramiak
       
      I like how in a sense it makes all the users one big community because of their common goal of wanting to help the earth.
lucieperloff

Secrets of the 'uncrushable' beetle revealed - BBC News - 0 views

  • Equipped with super-tough body armour, the insect can survive being stamped on or even run over by a car.
  • Equipped with super-tough body armour, the insect can survive being stamped on or even run over by a car.
    • lucieperloff
       
      Oh no... Where does this thing live?
  • And the findings could give clues to building tougher materials for use in construction and aeronautics.
    • lucieperloff
       
      Can actually have a positive impact on society
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  • which allow the beetle to withstand forces of up to 149 Newtons (approximately 39,000 times the creature's body weight).
  • To test the potential of this type of structure as a way of joining different materials, such as plastics and metal, the scientists made a series of joints from metal and composites based on those seen in the beetle.
    • lucieperloff
       
      Able to improve science and technology from something found in nature
ilanaprincilus06

Why it's too soon to classify gaming addiction as a mental disorder | Science | The Gua... - 0 views

  • In Europe, recent figures indicate that games are played by more than two thirds of children and adolescents, and a substantial number of adults now play games
  • 30 academics wrote a paper in which they opposed the gaming disorder classification, arguing there was a lack of consensus among researchers who study games and that the quality of the evidence base was low.
  • gaming disorder in the WHO draft are very similar to those used to define gambling disorder. It’s an interesting approach, but it risks pathologising behaviours that are normal for hundreds of millions of regular gamers.
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  • This could stigmatise many highly engaged people for whom gaming is one of their main hobbies.
  • concerns about gaming addiction might reflect a moral panic instead of solid science.
  • there is no consensus on the definition of video game addiction, the essential symptoms or indicators, or the core features of the mental health condition.
  • What is currently missing is a body of studies where scientists preregister their methods and hypotheses prior to collecting data samples online.
  • we believe rigorous scientific research into gaming addiction is essential.
lucieperloff

Meet a Bee With a Very Big Brain - The New York Times - 0 views

  • The large shaggy bee also has a very large brain.
  • The large shaggy bee also has a very large brain.
    • lucieperloff
       
      Relative to other bees? Or to similar sized insects?
  • That means when it comes to insects, the rules that have guided brain evolution in other animals may not apply.
    • lucieperloff
       
      Makes sense because insects and mammals have had very differnt evolutionary obstacles to overcome and survive
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  • “Bees manage surprisingly complex behavior with tiny brains,” making the evolution of bee brains an especially interesting subject.
    • lucieperloff
       
      Maybe the size of the bee's brains doesn't actually relate to their intelligence
  • Bees that only go through one generation each year have larger brains, relative to their body size, than bees with multiple generations a year.
  • A bee with a broad diet can fly into a field and drink the first nectar it finds. But a bee with a specialized diet may have to spot its preferred bloom, with its specific color and fragrance, among a whole field of similar flowers — a task that might require more brain.
    • lucieperloff
       
      This is where it could be more important for bees to have larger brains
  • Larger brains have also been linked to social behavior in primates and other mammals. But scientists found no connection between brain size and whether a bee lived in hives like honeybees or was a loner like our big-brained aster-eater.
  • “Highly social species have smaller brains because each individual is more like a cell in the body of the hive,”
  • Dr. Tibbetts said that even for vertebrates, whether bigger-brained animals are smarter is a topic of wide debate.
    • lucieperloff
       
      You can't really compare the intelligence of a bee and another vertebrate
lucieperloff

A Theory About Conspiracy Theories - The New York Times - 0 views

  • More than 1 in 3 Americans believe that the Chinese government engineered the coronavirus as a weapon, and another third are convinced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has exaggerated the threat of Covid-19 to undermine President Trump.
  • Another is less so: a more solitary, anxious figure, moody and detached, perhaps including many who are older and living alone.
  • all conspiring to use Covid-19 for their own dark purposes.
    • lucieperloff
       
      Taking advantage of a very realistic fear and making it much more dramatic
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  • Still, psychologists do not have a good handle on the types of people who are prone to buy into Big Lie theories, especially the horror-film versions.
    • lucieperloff
       
      To an extent, most people are prone to buy into these theories
  • The theories afford some psychological ballast, a sense of control, an internal narrative to make sense of a world that seems senseless.
    • lucieperloff
       
      People don't like thinking things are random!! They like having some semblance of control!!
  • “With all changes happening in politics, the polarization and lack of respect, conspiracy theories are playing a bigger role in people’s thinking and behavior possibly than ever,”
  • Conspiracy theories are as old as human society, of course, and in the days when communities were small and vulnerable, being on guard for hidden plots was likely a matter of personal survival,
    • lucieperloff
       
      Believing conspiracy theories could have been important to survival at one point in time
  • More than 1 in 3 Americans believe that the Chinese government engineered the coronavirus as a weapon, and another third are convinced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has exaggerated the threat of Covid-19 to undermine President Trump.
    • lucieperloff
       
      Conspiracy theories affect everyone around us. Constantly.
  • “You really have a perfect storm, in that the theories are directed at those who have fears of getting sick and dying or infecting someone else,”
    • lucieperloff
       
      Theories take advantage of those who already are extremely vulnerable and stressed
  • About 60 percent scored low on the scales, meaning they were resistant to such theories; the other 40 percent ranged above average or higher.
  • For example, qualities like conscientiousness, modesty and altruism were very weakly related to a person’s susceptibility. Levels of anger or sincerity bore no apparent relation; nor did self-esteem.
    • lucieperloff
       
      Are these the results scientists were expecting?
  • The personality features that were solidly linked to conspiracy beliefs included some usual suspects: entitlement, self-centered impulsivity, cold-heartedness (the confident injustice collector), elevated levels of depressive moods and anxiousness (the moody figure, confined by age or circumstance).
  • It’s a pattern of magical thinking that goes well beyond garden variety superstition and usually comes across socially as disjointed, uncanny or “off.”
  • when distracted, people are far more likely to forward headlines and stories without vetting their sources much, if at all.
    • lucieperloff
       
      Distractions can easily be undermined and make people believe conspiracy theories
  • They have a core constituency, and in the digital era its members are going to quickly find one another.
    • lucieperloff
       
      Spread through the internet and social media
huffem4

Algorithms reveal changes in stereotypes | Stanford News - 2 views

  • The researchers used word embeddings – an algorithmic technique that can map relationships and associations between words –  to measure changes in gender and ethnic stereotypes over the past century in the United States.
  • Our prior research has shown that embeddings effectively capture existing stereotypes and that those biases can be systematically removed. But we think that, instead of removing those stereotypes, we can also use embeddings as a historical lens for quantitative, linguistic and sociological analyses of biases.”
  • Take the word “honorable.” Using the embedding tool, previous research found that the adjective has a closer relationship to the word “man” than the word “woman.”
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  • One of the key findings to emerge was how biases toward women changed for the better – in some ways – over time.
  • For example, adjectives such as “intelligent,” “logical” and “thoughtful” were associated more with men in the first half of the 20th century. But since the 1960s, the same words have increasingly been associated with women with every following decade, correlating with the women’s movement in the 1960s, although a gap still remains.
  • For example, in the 1910s, words like “barbaric,” “monstrous” and “cruel” were the adjectives most associated with Asian last names. By the 1990s, those adjectives were replaced by words like “inhibited,” “passive” and “sensitive.” This linguistic change correlates with a sharp increase in Asian immigration to the United States in the 1960s and 1980s and a change in cultural stereotypes, the researchers said.
  • “It underscores the importance of humanists and computer scientists working together. There is a power to these new machine-learning methods in humanities research that is just being understood,”
adonahue011

Study Finds Brain Injury Changes Moral Judgment - The New York Times - 0 views

    • adonahue011
       
      Interesting how much our body is interconnected
  • for hurting others relies on a part of neural anatomy, one that likely evolved before the brain regions responsible for analysis and planning.
  • hypothetical;
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    • adonahue011
       
      Interesting how they started their study with a complete hypothetical idea of these moral decisions.
  • confirm the central role of the damaged region — the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which is thought to generate social emotions, like compassion.
    • adonahue011
       
      We also learned about the importance of the prefrontal cortex, as it controls our social emotions and can have a great effect on our decision making.
  • The new study seals the case by demonstrating that a very specific kind of emotion-based judgment is altered when the region is offline.
  • people with the injury will even endorse suffocating an infant if that would save more lives.
  • at least two systems working when we make moral judgments,
    • adonahue011
       
      TOK topic we discussed
  • There’s an emotional system that depends on this specific part of the brain
  • system that performs more utilitarian cost-benefit analyses
  • Jurors have reduced sentences based on brain-imaging results, and experts say that any evidence of damage to this ventromedial area could sway judgments of moral competency in some cases.
  • The new study focused on six patients who had suffered very specific damage to the ventromedial area from an aneurysm or a tumor
    • adonahue011
       
      The study format
  • can be lucid, easygoing, talkative and intelligent, but blind to subtle social cues, making them socially awkward.
  • They strongly favored flipping the switch, just as group of people without injuries did.
    • adonahue011
       
      Interesting collection of data,
  • the ventromedial cortex
  • All three groups also strongly rejected doing harm to others in situations that were not a matter of trading one certain death for another.
    • adonahue011
       
      They were presenting the correct moral choices
  • some of the same moral instincts
  • a large difference in the participants’ decisions emerged when there was no switch to flip
  • taking direct action to kill or harm someone (pushing him in front of the runaway boxcar, for example) and serving a greater good.
    • adonahue011
       
      The difference: when there was no switch to flip
  • were about twice as likely as the other participants to say they would push someone in front of the train (if that was the only option)
  • The ventromedial area is a primitive part of the cortex that appears to have evolved to help humans and other mammals navigate social interactions
  • The area has connections to deeper, unconscious regions like the brain stem,
  • The ventromedial area integrates these signals with others from the cortex, including emotional memories, to help generate familiar social reactions.
  • This tension between cost-benefit calculations and instinctive emotion in part reflects the brain’s continuing adjustment to the vast social changes that have occurred since the ventromedial area first took shape
  • transforms the way people make moral judgments in life-or-death situations, scientists are reporting today.
  • this rare injury expressed increased willingness to kill or harm another person if doing so would save others' lives.
katedriscoll

Opinion | Contaminated Memories - The New York Times - 0 views

  • But human memory is inherently flawed, and eyewitness misidentification plays a role in two-thirds of convictions overturned through DNA testing nationwide.
  • Although most of us trust our recollections, cognitive scientists like Elizabeth Loftus have shown that suggestions and post-event information can modify memories
  • Eyewitness testimony is particularly powerful precisely because the emotion fueling it is often completely genuine. The person delivering the testimony may believe in its fidelity regardless of its accuracy. But as Ms. Beerntsen’s case reminds us, it’s devastatingly easy for a witness to misidentify, so we need safeguards to ensure that those convicted are genuinely deserving.
  •  
    This article really ties into what we talked about with memory. Specifically mentioning how we learned that later events can alter your memories.
anonymous

Human Brain: facts and information - 0 views

  • The human brain is more complex than any other known structure in the universe.
  • Weighing in at three pounds, on average, this spongy mass of fat and protein is made up of two overarching types of cells—called glia and neurons—and it contains many billions of each.
  • The cerebrum is the largest part of the brain, accounting for 85 percent of the organ's weight. The distinctive, deeply wrinkled outer surface is the cerebral cortex. It's the cerebrum that makes the human brain—and therefore humans—so formidable. Animals such as elephants, dolphins, and whales actually have larger brains, but humans have the most developed cerebrum. It's packed to capacity inside our skulls, with deep folds that cleverly maximize the total surface area of the cortex.
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  • The cerebrum has two halves, or hemispheres, that are further divided into four regions, or lobes. The frontal lobes, located behind the forehead, are involved with speech, thought, learning, emotion, and movement.
  • Behind them are the parietal lobes, which process sensory information such as touch, temperature, and pain.
  • At the rear of the brain are the occipital lobes, dealing with vision
  • Lastly, there are the temporal lobes, near the temples, which are involved with hearing and memory.
  • The second-largest part of the brain is the cerebellum, which sits beneath the back of the cerebrum.
  • diencephalon, located in the core of the brain. A complex of structures roughly the size of an apricot, its two major sections are the thalamus and hypothalamus
  • The brain is extremely sensitive and delicate, and so it requires maximum protection, which is provided by the hard bone of the skull and three tough membranes called meninges.
  • Want more proof that the brain is extraordinary? Look no further than the blood-brain barrier.
  • This led scientists to learn that the brain has an ingenious, protective layer. Called the blood-brain barrier, it’s made up of special, tightly bound cells that together function as a kind of semi-permeable gate throughout most of the organ. It keeps the brain environment safe and stable by preventing some toxins, pathogens, and other harmful substances from entering the brain through the bloodstream, while simultaneously allowing oxygen and vital nutrients to pass through.
  • One in five Americans suffers from some form of neurological damage, a wide-ranging list that includes stroke, epilepsy, and cerebral palsy, as well as dementia.
  • Alzheimer’s disease, which is characterized in part by a gradual progression of short-term memory loss, disorientation, and mood swings, is the most common cause of dementia. It is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States
  • 50 million people suffer from Alzheimer’s or some form of dementia. While there are a handful of drugs available to mitigate Alzheimer’s symptoms, there is no cure.
  • Unfortunately, negative attitudes toward people who suffer from mental illness are widespread. The stigma attached to mental illness can create feelings of shame, embarrassment, and rejection, causing many people to suffer in silence.
  • In the United States, where anxiety disorders are the most common forms of mental illness, only about 40 percent of sufferers receive treatment. Anxiety disorders often stem from abnormalities in the brain’s hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.
  • Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, is a mental health condition that also affects adults but is far more often diagnosed in children.
  • ADHD is characterized by hyperactivity and an inability to stay focused.
  • Depression is another common mental health condition. It is the leading cause of disability worldwide and is often accompanied by anxiety. Depression can be marked by an array of symptoms, including persistent sadness, irritability, and changes in appetite.
  • The good news is that in general, anxiety and depression are highly treatable through various medications—which help the brain use certain chemicals more efficiently—and through forms of therapy
  •  
    Here is some anatomy of the brain and descriptions of diseases like Alzheimer's and conditions like ADHD, depression, anxiety.
caelengrubb

The Neuroscience of Illusion - Scientific American - 0 views

  • It is a fact of neuroscience that everything we experience is a figment of our imagination.
  • Although our sensations feel accurate and truthful, they do not necessarily reproduce the physical reality of the outside world
  • One of the most important tools used by neuroscientists to understand how the brain creates its sense of reality is the visual illusion.
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  • Long before scientists were studying the properties of neurons, artists had devised a series of techniques to deceive the brain into thinking that a flat canvas was three-dimensional or that a series of brushstrokes was indeed a still life.
  • Visual illusions are defined by the dissociation between the physical reality and the subjective perception of an object or event.
  • Brightness, color, shading, eye movement and other factors can have powerful effects on what we “see.”
caelengrubb

Synesthesia: Some People Really Can Taste The Rainbow : The Salt : NPR - 0 views

  • These people have synesthesia — a neurological condition in which stimulation of one sense (e.g., taste) produces experiences in a totally different sense (e.g., sight).
  • , approximately one in 27 people has some form of synesthesia.
  • But only a very few people — maybe only 1 percent of synesthetes — have sensory crossovers that affect their relationship with food and drink.
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  • Sean Day is president of the American Synesthesia Association and has been tracking research on this condition for more than three decades
  • Summarizing the state of current research, Day says the brains of synesthetes do appear to be anatomically different (although he cautions that scientists have only studied a few types of synesthesia so far).
  • , it seems that the neural connections between different sensory parts of the brain are more myelinated in people with synesthesia
  • Myelin is a fatty sheath that surrounds neurons and enables neural signals to travel more quickly.
  • This allows parts of the brain that are responsible for different senses to communicate when they normally wouldn't.
caelengrubb

Even Non-Amputees Can Feel a Phantom Limb | Invisible Hand | Live Science - 0 views

  • Amputees often suffer from a phenomenon known as phantom limb syndrome, but researchers now say that non-amputees can also be made to feel phantom limbs, and even pain, when knives are jabbed into nonexistent hands.
  • In phantom limb syndrome, people suffer from the illusion that a limb exists even if it is missing
  • Phantom limbs occur in 95 percent of amputees who lose an arm or leg
    • caelengrubb
       
      I didn't know that it was this common
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  • Doctors have known of this syndrome since the 16th century. (After Lord Horatio Nelson lost part of his right arm during a battle in 1797, he said he felt fingers pressing into his missing palm, sensations the admiral cited as direct evidence for the existence of a soul.)
  • Not only can the mind fool people into thinking a missing limb is there when it is not, but experiments prove that people can be fooled into thinking another object is part of them. The deception is known as the rubber hand illusion.
  • To play this trick, start with a table with a screen running up its middle, and sit in front of the table so the right arm is hidden from view. A fake right arm is visible on the table. If both the right hand and the rubber hand are simultaneously stroked with a brush for a few minutes, a 1998 study found eight of 10 volunteers experienced the disarming illusion that the dummy hand was their hand.
  • In another experiment, the volunteers were asked to close their eyes and quickly point with their left hand to where they perceived their right hand was. Those experiencing the invisible hand illusion would point at the invisible hand rather than their real hand.
  • The scientists had previously found objects that did not resemble body parts, such as a block of wood, cannot be experienced as one's own hand, "so we were extremely surprised to find that the brain can accept an invisible hand as part of the body,
  • "We believe that the crucial difference lies in that we are very used to feeling our hands without seeing them, and we can move our hands in empty space but not through solid objects," Guterstam said. "The empty space close to the body represents an array of potential locations for the limbs."
  • The researchers scanned the brains of 14 volunteers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Perceiving the invisible-hand illusion led to increased activity in the same parts of the brain that are normally active when individuals see their real hand being touched or when participants experience a prosthetic hand as their own.
  • There could be important differences between the invisible hand illusion and phantom sensations, Ehrsson said. "For example, signals from damaged nerves could contribute to phantom limbs and phantom pain in a way that would be different from our illusion in limbed-individuals," Ehrsson said.
anonymous

How Engaging With Art Affects the Human Brain | American Association for the Advancemen... - 0 views

  • Today, the neurological mechanisms underlying these responses are the subject of fascination to artists, curators and scientists alike.
  • "Once you circle these little things and come to the end of this little project, you'll be invited to compare where you came out against what the results of this experiment were and are," Vikan said. "What you'll find in this show is that there is an amazing convergence. The people that came to the museum liked and disliked the same categories of shapes as the people in the lab as the people in the fMRIs."
  • "Art accesses some of the most advanced processes of human intuitive analysis and expressivity and a key form of aesthetic appreciation is through embodied cognition, the ability to project oneself as an agent in the depicted scene,
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  • Embodied cognition is "the sense of drawing you in and making you really feel the quality of the paintings,"
  • The Birth of Venus" because it makes them feel as though they are floating in with Venus on the seashell. Similarly, viewers can feel the flinging of the paint on the canvas when appreciating a drip painting by Jackson Pollock.
  • Mirror neurons, cells in the brain that respond similarly when observing and performing an action, are responsible for embodied cognition
  • Most research on the effects of music education has been done on populations that are privileged enough to afford private music instruction so Kraus is studying music instruction in group settings
  • "But observing the action requires the information to flow inward from the image you're seeing into the control centers. So that bidirectional flow is what's captured in this concept of mirror neurons and it gives the extra vividness to this aesthetics of art appreciation
  • Performing an action requires the information to flow out from the control centers to the limbs,
  • While congenitally blind people usually don't have activation in the visual area of the brain, in brain scans done after the subjects were taught to draw from memory,
  • Hearing speech in noise is one area in which musicians are uniquely skilled. In standardized tests, musicians across the lifespan were much better than the general public at listening to sentences and repeating them back as the level of background noise increased, Kraus said.
  • Artists are known to be better observers and exhibit better memory than non-artists. In an effort to see what happens in the brain when an individual is drawing and whether drawing can increase the brain's plasticity
  • Musicians are also known for their ability to keep rhythm, a skill that is correlated with reading ability and how precisely the brain responds to sound. After one year, students who participated in the group music instruction were faster and more accurate at keeping a beat than students in the control group, Kraus said.
  • "To sum things up, we are what we do and our past shapes our present," Kraus said. "Auditory biology is not frozen in time. It's a moving target. And music education really does seem to enhance communication by strengthening language skills."
  • "When you're doing art, your brain is running full speed,"
  • "It's hitting on all eight cylinders. So if you can figure out what's happening to the brain on art,
anonymous

The Aha! Moment: The Science Behind Creative Insight » Brain World - 0 views

  • The Aha! Moment: The Science Behind Creative Insight
  • For most of us, it usually occurs at the most inopportune times; never when we’re searching for it.
  • To Archimedes, it happened in the bathtub. Newton experienced it while wandering an apple orchard. Arthur Fry: church. Each encountered an epiphany, that powerful moment of spontaneous insight. Archimedes shouted Eureka! upon realizing how to calculate density and volume; to Newton came the law of universal gravity; to Arthur Fry, Post-it notes.
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  • Behold the proverbial “aha!” moment — a key phenomenon that emerges in a range of situations, from offering a solution to a problem or a new interpretation of a situation to more simple feats such as understanding a joke or solving a crossword puzzle.
  • There are many different representations we use colloquially to describe good ideas — sparks, flashes, light-bulb moments; inspirations and innovations; muses and visions.
  • they usually materialize abruptly, without warning and seemingly out of thin air.
  • Laboratories and psychologists have attempted to study this phenomenon using behavioral methods for nearly a century, resulting merely in speculations as to where these ideas come from and how they form. Lately, though, with recent advancements and tools of cognitive neuroscience, researchers are able to explain the inner workings of the brain during moments of insigh
  • scientists have found that these sudden sparks are the result of a complex series of brain states.
  • Findings also suggest that we require more neural processes operating at different time scales in these moments than we use when solving a problem analytically or methodically.
  • Participants were presented with three words (e.g., crab, pine, sauce), and were instructed to think of a single word that forms a familiar two-word phrase with all three (e.g., apple can join with crab, pine, and sauce to form pineapple, crabapple, and applesauce). As soon as participants thought of a solution word, they pressed a button to indicate whether the answer had come to them suddenly (through insight), or if they used a methodical hypothesis testing approach — in other words, a trial-and-error approach.
  • Gamma activity indicates a constellation of neurons binding together for the first time in the brain to create a new neural network pathway.
  • This is the creation of a new idea. Immediately following that gamma spike, the new idea pops into our consciousness, which we identify as the aha! moment.
runlai_jiang

What Is Synesthesia? Definition and Types - 0 views

  • The term "synesthesia" comes from the Greek words syn, which means "together", and aisthesis, which means "sensation." Synesthesia is a perception in which stimulating one sensory or cognitive pathway  causes experiences in another sense or cognitive pathway. In other words, a sense or concept is connected to a different sense or concept, such as hearing a color or tasting a word. The connection between pathways is involuntary and consistent over time, rather than conscious or arbitrary.
  • Types of SynesthesiaThere are many different types of synesthesia, but they may be categorized as falling into one of two groups: associative synesthesia and projective synesthesia. An associate feels a connection between a stimulus and a sense, w
  • There are at least 80 known types of synesthesia, but some are more common than others: Chromesthesia: In this common form of synesthesia, sounds and colors are associated with each other. For example, the musical note "D" may correspond to seeing the color green.Grapheme-color synesthesia: This is a common form of synesthesia characterized by seeing graphemes (letter or numerals) shaded with a color. Synesthetes don't associate the same colors for a grapheme as each other, although the letter "A" does appear to be red to many individuals. Persons who experience grapheme-color synesthesia sometimes report seeing impossible colors when red and green or blue and yellow graphemes appear next to each other in a word or number. Number form: A number form is a mental shape or map of numbers resulting from seeing or thinking about numbers.Lexical-gustatory synesthesia: This a rare type of synesthesia in which hearing a word results in tasting a flavor. For example, a person's name might taste like chocolate.Mirror-touch synesthesia: While rare, mirror-touch synesthesia is noteworthy because it can be disruptive to a synesthete's life. In this form of synesthesia, an individual feels the same sensation in response to a stimulus as another person. For example, seeing a person being tapped on the shoulder would cause the synesthete to feel a tap on
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  • How Synesthesia WorksScientists have yet to make a definitive determination of the mechanism of synesthesia. It may be due to increased cross-talk between specialized regions of the brain. Another possible mechanism is that inhibition in a neural pathway is reduced in synesthetes, allowing multi-sensory processing of stimuli. Some researchers believe synesthesia is based on the way the brain extracts and assigns the meaning of a stimulus (ideasthesia).
  • Who Has Synesthesia?Julia Simner, a psychologist studying synesthesia at of the University of Edinburgh, estimates at least 4% of the population has synesthesia and that over 1% of people have grapheme-color synesthesia (colored numbers and letters). More women have synesthesia than men. Some research suggests the incidenc
  • Can You Develop Synesthesia?There are documented cases of non-synesthetes developing synesthesia. Specifically, head trauma, stroke, brain tumors, and temporal lobe epilepsy may produce synesthesia. Temporary synesthesia may result from exposure to the psychedelic drugs mescaline or LSD, from sensory deprivation, or from meditation.
runlai_jiang

A New Antidote for Noisy Airports: Slower Planes - WSJ - 0 views

  • Urban airports like Boston’s Logan thought they had silenced noise issues with quieter planes. Now complaints pour in from suburbs 10 to 15 miles away because new navigation routes have created relentless noise for some homeowners. Photo: Alamy By Scott McCartney Scott McCartney The Wall Street Journal BiographyScott McCartney @MiddleSeat Scott.McCartney@wsj.com March 7, 2018 8:39 a.m. ET 146 COMMENTS saveSB107507240220
  • It turns out engines aren’t the major culprit anymore. New airplanes are much quieter. It’s the “whoosh” that big airplanes make racing through the air.
  • Computer models suggest slowing departures by 30 knots—about 35 miles an hour—would reduce noise on the ground significantly.
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  • The FAA says it’s impressed and is moving forward with recommendations Boston has made.
  • . A working group is forming to evaluate the main recommendation to slow departing jets to a speed limit of 220 knots during the climb to 10,000 feet, down from 250 knots.
  • New routes put planes over quiet communities. Complaints soared. Phoenix neighborhoods sued the FAA; Chicago neighborhoods are pushing for rotating runway use. Neighborhoods from California to Washington, D.C., are fighting the new procedures that airlines and the FAA insist are vital to future travel.
  • “It’s a concentration problem. It’s a frequency problem. It’s not really a noise problem.”
  • “The flights wake you up. We get a lot of complaints from young families with children,” says Mr. Wright, a data analyst who works from home for a major health-care company.
  • In Boston, an analysis suggested only 54% of the complaints Massport received resulted from noise louder than 45 decibels—about the level of background noise. When it’s relentless, you notice it more.
  • With a 30-knot reduction, noise directly under the flight track would decrease by between 1.5 and 5 decibels and the footprint on the ground would get a lot skinnier, sharply reducing the number of people affected, Mr. Hansman says.
  • The industry trade association Airlines for America has offered cautious support of the Boston recommendations. In a statement, the group said the changes must be safe, work with a variety of aircraft and not reduce the airport’s capacity for takeoffs and landings.
  • Air-traffic controllers will need to delay a departure a bit to put more room between a slower plane and a faster one, or modify its course slightly.
knudsenlu

A New Geo-Engineering Scheme to Prevent Catastrophic Sea-Level Rise - The Atlantic - 0 views

  • PRINCETON, N.J.—Geo-engineering, its most enthusiastic advocates will tell you, isn’t only possible. It’s already happening.
  • We know, they say, because we’re doing it—we just call it global warming. As humanity dumps billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year, we’ve engineered a different climate system: one that is hotter, wetter, and more unwieldy than what people have lived in since the dawn of agriculture.
  • Researchers speculate that planes could periodically spray a clear gas into the high atmosphere that would prevent some sunlight from reaching Earth’s surface, cooling the globe in turn.
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  • “At the same time I think he’s one of the very few people who’s said, okay, is there something we can do to slow how [ice] is going to change and how it will flow in the future?” she said. “This is kind of high-risk for young scientists, because everybody wants you to do what everyone else is doing. But somebody has to take those first steps.”
knudsenlu

Why Asia Is Fast Becoming A Global Leader In Neuroscience - 0 views

  • The world is on the cusp of redefining brain aging. Asia Pacific, known for countries with rapidly aging populations, has unimaginable potential to lead the charge in research and innovation for better, younger, healthier brains.
  • The human brain contains approximately 80 billion neurons, has trillions of connections, is estimated to store up to 2.5 petabytes of memory, and for more than 3000 years we’ve asked questions about how it works.
  • One thing we have realized is that as exceptional as our brain is, the biological process of aging, also occurs in the brain.
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  • Asian scientists, laboratories and companies are fast becoming a major driver for this innovation – perhaps not a surprise as we are already facing the challenges of an aging population such as growing economic, societal and personal costs.
  • It is an exciting time to be a neuroscientist and we are closer now than ever to developing breakthrough treatments and technologies that have the potential to make real societal impacts. Neuroscience has advanced more in the last 10 years than the previous 50, and with new perspectives starting to find a voice, I’m quite excited to see what the next 10 years will hold.
knudsenlu

Outsmarting Our Primitive Responses to Fear - The New York Times - 0 views

  • fear drives much of human behavior. And it’s not just fear of physical harm that makes us want to hide under the covers. The twin fears of intimacy and rejection, for example, shape many of our social interactions.
  • Scientists say fear and its companion — the fight, flight or freeze response — can save us when faced with imminent physical harm.
  • It’s why you jump when you sense rustling in the bushes before realizing it’s just your neighbor’s cat. That reflex can save your life in certain circumstances such as leaping out of the way of an oncoming car. Trouble starts when you can’t tamp down your amygdala’s response, which makes you obsess and perhaps do counterproductive things when faced with concerning but not life-threatening events like the Equifax hack or a vulnerable social situation like asking someone out on a date.
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  • Consciously activating the more measured, analytical part of your brain is the key to controlling runaway fear and anxiety.
  • But it’s not so easy in an era when social media and cable news make us aware of every actual or potential disaster occurring anywhere in the world (and in a repeating loop). It’s even more difficult if you have lots of stress or instability at home or work.
  • “Our culture valorizes strength and power and showing fear is considered weakness,” said Leon Hoffman, co-director of the Pacella Research Center at the New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute in Manhattan. “But you are actually stronger if you can acknowledge fear.”
  • “The more you try to suppress fear, either by ignoring it or doing something else to displace it, the more you will actually experience it,” said Kristy Dalrymple, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
  • Psychologists and neuroscientists are also finding that the amygdala is less apt to freak out if you are reminded that you are loved or could be loved. For example, seeing images of people with frightened expressions is usually a huge trigger for the amygdala, but that response is greatly diminished when subjects are first shown pictures of people being cared for or hugged.
runlai_jiang

Impossible Colors and How to See Them - 0 views

  • Impossible Colors and How to See Them
  • How Impossible Colors Work Basically, the human eye has three types of cone cells that register color that work in an antagonistic fashion:Blue versus yellowRed versus greenLight versus darkThere is overlap between the wavelengths of light covered by the cone cells, so you see more than just blue, yellow, red, and green. White, for example, is not a wavelength of light, yet the human eye perceives it as a mixture of different spectral colors. Because of the opponent process, you can't see both blue and yellow at the same time, nor red and green. These combinations are so-called impossible colors.
  • Chimerical Colors Hyperbolic colors may be seen by staring at a color and then viewing the afterimage on the complementary color opposite it on the color wheel. Dave King / Getty Images
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  • While you can't ordinarily see both red and green or both blue and yellow, visual scientist Hewitt Crane and his colleague Thomas Piantanida published a paper in Science claiming such perception was possible. In their 1983 paper "On Seeing Reddish Green and Yellowish Blue" they claimed volunteers viewing adjacent red and green stripes could see reddish green, while viewers of adjacent yellow and blue stripes could see yellowish blue. The researchers used an eye tracker to hold the
  • The impossible colors reddish green and yellowish blue are imaginary colors that do not occur in the light spectrum. Another type of imaginary color is a chimerical color. A chimerical color is seen by looking at a color until the cone cells are fatigued and then looking at a different color. This produces an afterimage perceived by the brain, not the eyes.Examples of chimerical colors include:Self-luminous colors: Self-luminous colors appear to glow even though no light is emitted. An
  • Stygian colors: Stygian colors are dark and supersaturated. For example, "stygian blue" may be seen by staring at bright yellow and then looking at black. The normal afterimage is dark blue. When viewed against black, the resulting blue is as dark as black, yet colored. Stygian colors appear on black because certain neurons only fire signals in the dark.Hyperbolic colors:
  • Impossible colors like reddish green or yellowish blue are trickier to see. To try to see these colors, put a yellow object and blue object right next to each other and cross your eyes so that the two objects overlap. The same procedure works for green and red. The overlapping region may appear to be a mix of the two colors (i.e., green for blue and yellow, brown for red and green), a field of dots of the component colors, or an unfamiliar color that is both red/green or yellow/blue at once!
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