A new study led by the University of South Carolina Leonard Davis School of Gerontology suggests that fasting-mimetic dieting (FMD) cycles can significantly reduce disease risk factors and decrease human biological age. FMD was developed by Professor Walter Longo and his team, involving a five-day diet high in unsaturated fats and low in overall calories, protein, and carbohydrates. The diet mimics the effects of water-only fasting while providing necessary nutrients and making fasting more manageable for individuals.
During the five-day fasting period, participants were allowed to consume specified amounts of plant-based soups, energy bars, energy drinks, chip snacks, and tea and given supplements to ensure they didn’t miss out on important vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids.
Previous studies have shown the various health benefits of FMD, including promoting stem cell regeneration, reducing chemotherapy side effects, and decreasing signs of dementia in mice. The recent study focuses on the effects of FMD on human immune system aging, insulin resistance, liver fat, and biological age.
The research team analyzed two groups of men and women aged 18-70 who received three to four cycles of FMD per month. The results showed reductions in diabetes risk factors, reduced fat in the abdomen and liver, and rejuvenation of the immune system. Data analysis also demonstrated that FMD participants lost an average of 2.5 years in biological age.
Professor Longo hopes these findings will encourage more doctors to recommend FMD cycles to patients with elevated risk factors for disease and to the general public interested in improving their health and vitality. He suggested that healthy people between the ages of 20 and 70 should consider trying FMD two or three times a year, cautioning that there may be concerns when used in combination with certain diabetes medications.
About our experts:
Walter Longo is the Edna M. Jones Professor of Gerontology and Biological Sciences and Director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology in Los Angeles.
Rockbit, a notorious cybercrime organization that holds victims’ data for ransom, has been thwarted in an extraordinary international law enforcement operation by the UK’s National Crime Agency, the FBI, Europol and the International Federation of Police Agencies. This was revealed in a post from the organization. Blackmail website.
“This site is currently under the control of the UK National Crime Agency, working closely with the FBI and the international law enforcement force Operation Chronos,” the post said on Monday.
An NCA spokesperson confirmed the NCA had disrupted the gang and said the operation was “ongoing and evolving”. A Rockbit representative did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters, but posted a message on an encrypted messaging app saying the company has backup servers that are immune to law enforcement actions.
The U.S. Department of Justice and FBI did not respond to requests for comment.
The post also names other international police organizations in France, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland and Germany.
LockBit and its affiliates have hacked some of the world’s largest organizations in recent months. The gang makes money by stealing sensitive data and threatening to leak it unless victims pay exorbitant ransoms. Its affiliates are like-minded criminal groups recruited to carry out attacks using LockBit’s digital extortion tools.
Ransomware is malicious software that encrypts data. LockBit forces targets to pay a ransom to decrypt or unlock their data using a digital key.
LockBit was discovered in 2020 after its malicious software was discovered on a Russian-language cybercrime forum, and some security analysts believe the gang is based in Russia.
However, the gang does not profess support for any government, and no government has officially attributed it to any particular country. On its now-defunct dark web site, the group said it was “based in the Netherlands, completely apolitical and only interested in money.”
“They’re the Walmart of ransomware groups, and they run it like a business. That’s what makes them different,” said John DiMaggio, chief security strategist at US-based cybersecurity firm Analyst1. talk. “They are probably the largest ransomware group today.”
LockBit has attacked more than 1,700 organizations across nearly every industry, and U.S. officials say the group is the world’s largest ransomware threat. Last November, Rockbit released internal data from Boeing, one of the world’s largest defense and space contractors.
Delete the notice issued to Rockbit by the global intelligence group. Photo: Reuters
In early 2023, Royal Mail faced severe disruption following an attack by the group.
According to cybersecurity research website vx-underground, Rockbit said in a Russian-language statement shared on the encrypted messaging app Tox that the FBI attacked a server running in the programming language PHP. .
The statement, which could not be independently verified by Reuters, added that there is a backup server that does not include PHP and “has not been touched.”
In X, a screenshot shared by vx-underground showing the control panel used by LockBit affiliates to launch attacks was replaced with a message from law enforcement. “We have the source code, details of the victims you attacked, amounts extorted, stolen data, chats, etc.”
“I may contact you soon. Have a nice day.”
Prior to its removal, LockBit’s website displayed an ever-growing gallery of victim organizations updated almost daily. Next to their names was a digital clock indicating the number of days left until the ransom payment deadline given to each organization.
On Monday, LockBit’s site displayed a similar countdown, but the law enforcement agency that hacked the hackers said: “Please return here on Tuesday, February 20th at 11:30 GMT for more information.” A message was displayed.
Don Smith, vice president of Secureworks, a division of Dell Technologies, said LockBit is the most prolific and dominant ransomware operator in the competitive underground market.
“To put today’s takedown in context, LockBit had a 25% share of the ransomware market based on leak site data,” Smith said. “Their closest competitor was BlackCat at about 8.5%, but then it really started to fragment.
“LockBit is dwarfing all other groups, and today’s action is critical.”
Britain’s air travel watchdog has proposed the use of drones to deliver medical supplies and inspect railways, power lines, and roads. The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has published a consultation paper outlining the proposals, which would allow pilots to safely fly drones out of sight.
While some drones have been flying beyond visual lines in the UK for test flights, the new proposals would enable drones to operate out of sight by flying at a lower height and closer to buildings and infrastructure, reducing the risk of other aircraft traffic.
Kevin Woolsey, head of remotely piloted aircraft systems at the CAA, stated that the proposed concept would open the door to the next stage of drone flying in the UK, potentially allowing for beyond visual line of sight operations and online shopping delivery by drone.
The CAA intends to allow drones to be used on private land without a permit, as long as they do not fly higher than 15 meters. Industries involved in infrastructure inspections, such as railways, power lines, and roads, as well as farmers and field security, are expected to benefit from these proposals.
The consultation forms part of the UK’s future flight plans, which aim to enable drones to safely share more of the sky with other airspace users. The CAA will run the consultation for six weeks and provide further details on its website.
The proposals also include allowing drones to fly in “atypical air environments,” which are areas with reduced conventional aircraft traffic due to proximity to buildings and ground infrastructure. The CAA acknowledges the risks associated with operating in such airspace and will work to mitigate these risks with relevant approvals from operating companies.
Biologists from the Altos Institute, Cambridge Institute of Science, and the University of Cambridge have discovered that genetic elements derived from retroviruses (retrotransposons) are essential for the production of myelin (the insulating sheath that surrounds nerve axons) in mammals, amphibians, and animals. I discovered that fish. This gene sequence, called retromyelin, is likely the result of an ancient retroviral infection, and comparisons of retromyelin in mammals, amphibians, and fish indicate that retroviral infection and genome invasion events occurred separately in each of these groups. suggests that it has occurred.
gauche other. suggest that retrovirus internalization played an important role in the emergence of vertebrate myelin. Image credit: Ghosh other., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.01.011.
Myelin, the complex fatty tissue that lines vertebrate nerve axons, allows rapid impulse conduction without the need to increase axon diameter. This means that the nerves can be packed more closely together.
It also provides metabolic support for the nerves, allowing them to lengthen.
Myelin first appeared on the tree of life around the same time as the jaw, and its importance in vertebrate evolution has been recognized for a long time, but until now it is unclear what molecular mechanism caused its appearance. was.
Tanay Ghosh and colleagues at Altos Labs-Cambridge Institute of Science noticed the role of retromyelin in myelin production while studying the gene networks used by oligodendrocytes, the cells that produce myelin in the central nervous system. .
Specifically, they were studying the role of non-coding regions, including retrotransposons, in these gene networks. This has not been previously studied in the context of myelin biology.
“Retrotransposons make up about 40% of our genome, but we know nothing about how they helped animals acquire specific traits during evolution.” said Dr. Ghosh.
“Our motivation was to learn how these molecules serve evolutionary processes, especially in the context of myelination.”
Researchers discovered that in rodents, retromyelin RNA transcripts regulate the expression of myelin basic protein, one of the key components of myelin.
When we experimentally inhibited retromyelin in oligodendrocytes and oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (the stem cells from which oligodendrocytes are derived), the cells were no longer able to produce myelin basic protein.
To find out whether retromyelin is present in other vertebrate species, scientists looked for similar sequences within the genomes of jawed vertebrates, jawless vertebrates, and some invertebrate species. Searched for.
They identified similar sequences in all other classes of jawed vertebrates (birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians) but found no similar sequences in jawless vertebrates or invertebrates. did not.
Robin Franklin, a neuroscientist at the Altos Institute at the Cambridge Institute of Science, said: “There was an evolutionary drive to speed up the conduction of impulses in axons, because the faster the impulse conduction, the faster we can grab objects and move away from them.'' Because they can run away.”
Next, the authors wanted to know whether retromyelin was integrated once in the ancestor of all jawed vertebrates, or whether there were separate retroviral invasions in different branches.
To answer these questions, they constructed a phylogenetic tree from 22 jawed vertebrate species and compared their retromyelin sequences.
This analysis revealed that retromyelin sequences are more similar within species than between species, suggesting that retromyelin has been acquired multiple times through a process of convergent evolution.
The researchers also showed that retromyelin plays a functional role in myelination in fish and amphibians.
When they experimentally disrupted the retromyelin gene sequence in fertilized zebrafish and frog eggs, they found that the developing fish and tadpoles produced significantly less myelin than normal.
“Our findings open new avenues of research exploring how retroviruses are involved in directing evolution more generally,” said Dr. Ghosh.
A team of anthropologists from the University of Wyoming, the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of New Hampshire has discovered a 4,750-year-old megalithic rotunda measuring 18 meters (60 feet) in diameter at Calakpuma in America's Cajamarca Basin. Peru. It is one of the oldest known monuments and megalithic structures in the northern Andes of Peru, and one of the earliest examples in the Western Hemisphere.
It is centered around a 4,750-year-old rotunda, with the modern city of Cajamarca in the background. Image credit: Toohey other., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adl0572.
Monumental architecture is central to many aspects of the development of human social organization and social complexity, but the drivers of its origin remain poorly understood.
This form of architecture is intentionally built to be larger and, in some cases, more elaborate than necessary given the desired functionality.
The world's oldest ceremonial monumental architecture, whether represented by megalithic arrangements, large platforms or buildings, or bounded plazas, were larger than immediate households and were often larger than the population of the local area. was the result of a collective or corporate activity by a larger group.
Early well-known examples of this type of ceremonial architecture include Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, Stonehenge in England, and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, which were built in 9,000 BC, 2,900 BC, and 2,900 BC, respectively. It was built by 2,650 AD.
Göbekli Tepe is of particular importance here, as it was built during the pre-Pottery Age, during the Neolithic period, by hunter-gatherer-forager tribes who were at the pinnacle of sedentary living and food production.
Early examples of monuments in the Western Hemisphere include Watson Brake and Poverty Point, which date to 3400 BC and 1700 BC, respectively.
The newly discovered megalithic square is Late preceramicIt dates back to 2850 BC.
The structure is located at the Calapuma archaeological site in the Cajamarca Basin in the northern Peruvian Andes and is built of large, free-standing, vertically placed megaliths.
This construction method has never been reported in the Andes and is different from other monumental rotunda in the region.
“This structure was built about 100 years before the Great Pyramids of Egypt, around the same time as Stonehenge,” said Dr. Jason Toohey, an anthropologist at the University of Wyoming.
“It was probably a meeting place and a ceremonial place for the early people who lived in this part of the Cajamarca Valley.”
“These people were primarily hunter-gatherers, and may have only recently begun growing crops and domesticating animals.”
Kalakpuma Square is formed by two concentric walls, approximately 18 meters in diameter.
“The Late Preceramic Period, during which Plaza Calapuma was constructed, was a period of socio-economic transition in the Andes,” the researchers said.
“On the central coast, the communities that came together to build giant mounds in places like Caral were not yet full-time farmers, but engaged in complex systems of exchange with coastal fishing villages.”
“Inland communities grew some food and industrial crops, but also relied on hunting and trading seafood.”
“In the northern highlands of Peru, the people who built the plazas of Calapuma may have begun experimenting with food production, but they were also probably still relatively mobile hunter-gatherers.”
“Like Nanchoc centuries earlier, groups in Cajamarca may have engaged in the construction of enterprises in Calapuma's plaza and subsequently repeatedly negotiated group identity there through the integration of events and perhaps feasts.”
“The construction of Late Pre-Peraque monumental ceremonial buildings in the coastal and highlands of the central Andes probably originated from small groups, as was the case with earlier monumental mass buildings outside the Andean region of South America, such as Göbekli Tepe. It represented a change in the social world with changes in the associated belief systems into more collective and locally focused beliefs and actions.”
of findings It was published in the magazine scientific progress.
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Jason L. Twohey other. 2024. A monumental stone plaza located at an altitude of 4750 meters in the Cajamarca Valley in Peru. scientific progress 10(7); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adl0572
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Researchers have identified a quasar with a black hole at its center that may be the most luminous object in the universe. This quasar is growing at an incredible rate, capable of consuming an amount equivalent to the sun in a single day.
The record-breaking quasar shines 500 trillion times brighter than the sun. Scientists reported in the journal Nature Astronomy that the black hole fueling this quasar is more than 17 billion times more massive than the sun.
Despite appearing as mere dots in images, scientists believe quasars to be formidable entities.
The disk of luminous gas and other material orbiting a quasar’s black hole is akin to a cosmic hurricane.
“This quasar is the most violent place in the universe as we know it,” said lead author Christian Wolff of the Australian National University.
The object, known as J0529-4351, was initially discovered by the European Southern Observatory in 1980 and misclassified as a star. It was not confirmed to be a quasar until last year, after telescope observations in Australia and the Atacama Desert in Chile.
“What’s interesting about this quasar is that it’s hiding in plain sight and was previously misclassified as a star,” said Priyamvada Natarajan of Yale University.
Further analysis revealed that the quasar consumes the equivalent of 370 suns a year, or one sun a day, and the black hole at its center has a mass between 17 billion and 19 billion times that of the sun. More observations are needed to understand its growth rate.
Quasars are located 12 billion light years away and have existed since the beginning of the universe. One light year is 5.8 trillion miles.
Ancient bronze hand discovered in Irregui, northern Spain
Juancho Egana
An inscription found on a 2,000-year-old metal needle may be written in a language related to modern-day Basque. If this interpretation is correct, it could help explain one of the biggest mysteries in linguistics: the origin of the Basque language.
However, other linguists say there is not enough evidence to link the inscription to Basque.
The bronze hand was discovered in July 2021 at the top of a hill called Irregui in the Pyrenees Mountains in northern Spain. Archaeologists have been excavating there since 2007, first discovering a medieval castle and then exploring a much older settlement from the Iron Age.
This settlement was founded between 1500 and 1000 BC. It was probably attacked by the Romans and abandoned in the 1st century BC.
Irreghi's hand is a bronze plate measuring 14 centimeters long, 12.8 centimeters wide, and only 0.1 centimeter thick, with a patina tint. On the back of the hand are his four lines of text, rewritten by first scratching and then dotting into the metal.
Most words cannot be associated with any known language, but the first word is “sorionek”. Matin Ayesteran Professors at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, and their colleagues claim it is similar to Basque. Zorio cat, which means “lucky.” Furthermore, the last word is “elaukon”, which is likened to a Basque verb. Zelaucon.
Irregi's hand carved in a mysterious language
Matin Ayesteran et al.
It is said that this hand was probably intended to represent good fortune or attract good fortune by appealing to the gods. Mikel Edeso Eguia in Aranzadi Scientific Society Assisted with excavations at Donostia (also known as San Sebastian), Spain.
The researchers also claim that the hand is evidence that languages related to Basque have been spoken in northern Spain for 2,000 years. Most languages currently spoken in Europe belong to the Indo-European family, but Basque does not. “It has nothing to do with any other language we know,” says Edeso Eguia. Previous research has tentatively linked the Basques to a group of people known as the Bascons, who lived in the Pyrenees according to classical sources.
However, the idea that the inscriptions on the hands are written in a language related to Basque is not widely accepted.After the hand was first described in his 2022 book, linguists Celine Munour at the University of Pau and the Adour region in France. Julen Manterola Presented at the Basque University of Vitoria-Gasteiz Criticism.
“There's not enough evidence,” Manterola said. This is also because there are very few words in the hands of the Irregian language. Not enough, he says, to properly compare with known languages.
Furthermore, the connection with the Basque language is based almost exclusively on the similarity between “sorionek” and “solionek”. Zorio cat. “You can't connect other words with historical Basque,” Munor says.
Even that similarity can be misleading, Manterola says. Similar phrases in Basque have changed in predictable ways over the centuries, arriving at their current form. Zorio catmust have taken a completely different path.
“We expect more inscriptions to emerge,” Munour says. “In this case, we will be able to learn more about the possible relationship between this language and the Basque language.”
in new paper Published in the magazine on January 31, 2024 historical biologypaleontologists announced the discovery of a previously undocumented species of dinosaur related to the famous dinosaur. stegosaurus.
Hypothetical reconstruction of Enbokuryu Artimus. Image credit: Ddinodan / Sci.News.
stegosaurus A group of armored, plant-eating dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
These dinosaurs were four-legged and reached a maximum length of about 9 meters (30 feet).
They had small heads, stake-like teeth, vertical bony plates and spines on their backs and tails, and hoof-like toes on all four limbs.
Dr. Lei Jia of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and colleagues said, “Stegosaurs are a minor but iconic group of ornithischian dinosaurs.''
“They range from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous, but are rare and poorly represented in the Cretaceous.”
“Until our study began, there were only four valid taxa from the Cretaceous. Palantdon, Verhosaurus homheni,Verhosaurus ordoseensis and Mongolostegus exspectabilis”
A new species from the Cretaceous period, Enbokuryu Artimuslived in what is now China from 113 million years ago to 100 million years ago.
The fossilized remains of this sword dragon were collected from the Zuoyun Formation in Zuoyun County, Shanxi Province, China.
“Enbokuryu Artimus “This is one of the most recent records of a stegosaur taxon in the world,” the paleontologists said.
“Compared to other sword dragons, Enbokuryu Artimus The dorsal vertebrae and iliosacral block have several unique features. ”
“The dorsal vertebrae have higher neural arches, smaller neural canals, and fewer fused vertebrae/sacral and fenestra/sacral ribs in the iliosacral block.”
“As a result of phylogenetic analysis, Enbokuryu Artimus It is recovered as a sister taxon of the clade containing. Stegosaurus Stenops and Vuelhosaurus homheni” they added.
“However, it differs from these two taxa in several anatomical features, including the dorsal sacral ribs, sacral ribs, caudal vertebrae, and ilium.”
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Ray Jia other. A new species of sword dragon from the Late Early Cretaceous period of Zuoyun City, Shanxi Province, China. historical biology, published online on January 31, 2024. doi: 10.1080/08912963.2024.2308214
Snow-white northern booby (Moras Bassanus) In this action-packed photo, a man dives for food in the icy waters off the coast of Scotland's Shetland Islands. The seabird is about the same size as an albatross, with a wingspan of up to 180 centimeters. They also have strong neck muscles and nostrils on the inside of their beaks that can close to prevent water from entering, making them uniquely adapted to high-speed diving.
This shot was one of the most spectacular in the 2024 Underwater Photographer of the Year competition, which celebrates the wonders of the marine world.here are some new scientistThese are carefully selected works from among the many entries.
Virgo Shipwreck near Recife, Brazil
Fabi Fregonesi/UPY 2024
In this photo by Fabiana Fregonesi, a school of fish swarms around a shipwreck, forming a shape that momentarily resembles a boat's sail. The ship, called Virgo, was intentionally sunk in 2017 to serve as a diving site near Recife, Brazil.
“At that moment, I knew the ship was ready to set sail and the journey into an unknown adventure began,” Fregonesi said in a statement.
gray whale eyes
Rafael Fernandez Caballero/UPY 2024
Eye of Eastern Gray Whale (Eschrichius Robtus) penetrates this mysterious shot taken from just above the surface of a saltwater lagoon in western Mexico. These marine giants are friendly creatures and often approach boats to show curiosity. Whales undertake the longest annual migration of any mammal, from their summer feeding grounds in the Arctic south along the west coast of North America to the warm lagoons of Baja California, Mexico.
Octopus ringed with pyrosomes
Dennis Corpus/UPY 2024
In contrast to the giant gray whales, this 10 centimeter wide creature was captured up close in the deep waters off the coast of the Philippines. The circular object in the image is a pyrosome. This is a colonial animal called a zooid, which is made up of hundreds or thousands of tiny individuals. Encased in a strange pyrosome, a tiny octopus peeks out.
diving cormorant
John Anderson/UPY 2024
This ravenous cormorant mistakes photographer John Anderson's camera for a fish and heads straight for it. This stunning image was taken on a bright summer afternoon in a kelp forest at a dive site in Monterey, California. Many cormorant species rely on these special marine ecosystems to survive. However, local kelp forests have declined by 80% over the past decade.
Comparisons are difficult because men’s brains tend to be larger than women’s.
Sergiy Tryapitsyn / Alamy
Are male and female brains that different? A new way to investigate this question has led us to the conclusion that they exist, but we need artificial intelligence (AI) to tell them apart.
The question of whether we can measure differences between male and female brains has long been debated, and previous studies have yielded conflicting results.
One problem is that men’s brains tend to be slightly larger than women’s. This is likely due to the fact that men are generally larger, and some previous studies have compared the size of various small areas of the brain. Unable to adjust whole brain volume. However, no clear findings have been made so far. “When you correct for brain size, the results change quite a bit,” he says. Vinod Menon at Stanford University in California.
To tackle this problem in a different way, Menon’s team used a relatively new method called dynamic functional connectivity fMRI. This involves recording the brain activity of people lying in a functional MRI scanner and tracking changes in how activity in different areas changes in sync with each other.
The researchers designed an AI to analyze these brain scans and trained it on the results of about 1,000 young people from an existing database in the United States called the Human Connectome Project, identifying which individuals are male and which individuals. told the AI whether the person was female. In this analysis, the brain was divided into 246 different regions.
After this training process, the AI was able to differentiate between a second set of brain scan data from the same 1000 men and women with approximately 90% accuracy.
More importantly, the AI was equally effective at differentiating male and female brain scans from two different, never-before-seen brain scan datasets. Both consisted of about 200 people of similar age, ranging in age from 20 to 35, from the United States and Germany.
“What we bring to the table is a more rigorous study with replication and generalization to other samples,” Menon says. None of the people in the training or testing data were transgender.
“Replication with a completely independent sample from the Human Connectome Project gives us even more confidence in our results,” he says. Camille Williams At the University of Texas at Austin.
The next question is whether the AI will be just as accurate when tested on an additional, larger set of brain scan results. “Time will tell what results we get with other datasets,” he says Menon.
If confirmed, the findings could help us understand why some medical conditions and forms of neurodiversity, such as depression, anxiety, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, differ by gender. No, says Menon.
“If we don’t develop these gender-specific models, we will miss important aspects of differentiating factors.” [for example]”An autistic man and a control man, and an autistic woman and a control woman,” Menon said.
Since the beginning of time, men and women have tended to have different social roles, interests, and occupations. It is natural to think that perhaps these stem from innate differences in their brains and more obvious differences in their bodies. This idea has long been controversial, but now that ideas about gender are changing more rapidly than ever, the question of whether male and female brains are different has become more acute. There is. This remains a controversial issue even among neuroscientists. Nevertheless, they are finally cutting into historical discrimination and gender politics and trying to get to the truth.
Early measurements of skull volume showed that, on average, male brains are slightly larger and heavier than female brains. Some commentators argued that this “five ounce deficit” was the key to the man's superior abilities. In fact, the simple explanation is that the larger the body, the more brain tissue it requires to move it. This is a relationship found across animal species.
The situation became even more complicated in the 1990s with the advent of brain scanning technology, which suggested sex differences in the size of certain brain regions and structures. These findings often turned into compelling stories about, for example, why women are more empathetic on average or why men are more likely to become engineers. But studies from the early decades of brain scanning research should be taken with a pinch of salt, he says. leeds elliott at Rosalind Franklin University in Illinois. “When we control for brain size, all claims about volumetric differences in individual structures disappear…
People with high levels of niacin (also known as vitamin B3) in their blood may be more likely to have a heart attack or stroke than people with low levels of niacin. Consuming too much of this vitamin, which is routinely added to fortified foods and can also be taken as a supplement, can cause inflammation in blood vessels.
Heart attacks and strokes are the leading causes of death worldwide. Although researchers have made great strides over the past few decades in discovering risk factors for these conditions, they have not identified them all.
“If treated [high] cholesterol and [high] You can still have a heart attack even if you have high blood pressure, diabetes, or any other pre-existing risk factors. ”Stanley Hazen at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. “There's something we're missing.”
To fill these gaps, Hazen and his colleagues collected blood samples from 2,331 U.S. adults and 832 European adults who chose to undergo cardiovascular testing. The researchers analyzed the samples for substances called metabolites, which are byproducts of metabolic processes such as digestion. The researchers then tracked participants' occurrence of cardiac events, such as heart attacks and strokes, over a three-year period.
The researchers found that people with high levels of a metabolite called 4PY were, on average, about 60 percent more likely to experience such an event than those with lower levels. This compound only occurs when the body breaks down excess niacin.
Further experiments revealed that 4PY inflamed blood vessels in rodents. We know that inflammation is a major contributor to the development of heart disease, Hazen said.
It's not uncommon for people to have high niacin levels, he says. This is partly because certain foods, such as cereals and flour, are routinely fortified with vitamins in countries including the UK and US.
Niacin supplements are also becoming more popular Evidence suggests it has anti-aging effects says Hazen. Additionally, doctors stopped prescribing high doses of niacin to people at risk for cardiovascular disease because it was initially thought that the vitamin protected people from the risk of cardiovascular disease by lowering cholesterol. It happened recently.
“I think this study really shows that when it comes to vitamins, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing,” he says. Jenny Jia at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois.
However, this study was primarily conducted on people of European descent. So it's unclear whether similar results would occur in people of different racial or ethnic backgrounds, Zia said.
The EU is launching an investigation into whether TikTok has violated online content regulations, particularly those relating to the safety of children.
The European Commission has officially initiated proceedings against a Chinese-owned short video platform for potential violations of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The investigation is focusing on areas such as safeguarding minors, keeping records of advertising content, and determining if algorithms are leading users to harmful content.
Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for the Internal Market, stated that child safety is the “primary enforcement priority” under the DSA. The investigation particularly focuses on age verification and default privacy settings for children’s accounts.
In April last year, TikTok was fined €345 million in Ireland for violating EU data law in its handling of children’s accounts. Additionally, the UK Information Commissioner fined the company £12.7 million for unlawfully processing data from children under 13.
Companies that violate the DSA can face fines of up to 6% of their global turnover. TikTok is owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance.
TikTok has stated that it is committed to working with experts and the industry to ensure the safety of young people on its platform and is eager to brief the European Commission on its efforts.
The commission is also examining alleged deficiencies in TikTok’s provision of publicly available data to researchers and its compliance with requirements to establish a database of ads shown on the platform.
A deadline for the investigation has not been set and will depend on factors such as the complexity of the case and the degree of cooperation from the companies being investigated.
This investigation of TikTok is the DSA’s second, following a December 2021 formal investigation into Elon Musk’s social media platform X, which was previously known as Twitter. The case against X focuses on failure to block illegal content and inadequate measures against disinformation.
Apple is reportedly facing a substantial fine from the EU for its conduct in the music streaming app market. The European Commission is investigating whether US tech companies blocked music distributors from informing users about cheaper subscription options outside of their own app stores.
According to the Financial Times, the city of Brussels plans to fine Apple 500 million euros, marking a significant decision following years of complaints from companies offering services through iPhone apps.
Apple was previously fined 1.1 billion euros by France in 2020 for anti-competitive agreements with two wholesalers, a fine that was later reduced by an appeals court.
Big technology companies like Apple and Google have come under increased scrutiny due to competitive concerns. Google is appealing against fines of more than 8 billion euros imposed by the EU in three separate competition investigations.
Apple has successfully defended against a lawsuit by Fortnite developer Epic Games alleging that its app store was an illegal monopoly. In December, Epic won a similar lawsuit against Google.
Last month, Apple announced that it would allow EU customers to download apps without using its own app store, in response to the EU’s digital market law.
Artist's impression of record-breaking quasar J0529-4351
ESO/M.Kornmesser
A quasar 500 trillion times brighter than the Sun has earned the title of the brightest known object in the universe. It appears to be powered by a supermassive black hole that devours a sun-sized mass every day.
Quasars are the centers of galaxies where gas and dust falling into a supermassive black hole emit energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. christian wolff Researchers at the Australian National University in Canberra will discover a new object called J0529-4351 in 2022 by scouring data from the Gaia Space Telescope and looking for extremely bright objects outside the Milky Way that have been mistaken for stars. The brightest quasar was discovered for the first time.
Follow-up observations from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile revealed that it is the brightest object in the universe as we know it.
Wolf and his colleagues used an instrument on the VLT called a spectrometer to analyze the light coming from J0529-4351 and calculate how much was produced by the black hole's swirling disk of gas and matter, called the accretion disk. did. This revealed that J0529-4351 is the fastest growing black hole in the universe, swallowing about 413 solar masses per year, or more than one sun per day.
Using the spectra of these lights, the researchers calculated that the mass of the black hole was between 5 billion and 50 billion solar masses.
Wolf and his colleagues also discovered the brightest quasar to date in 2018, about half as bright as J0529-4351. Wolf believes this new discovery is likely to account for most of the observable sky and remain the record holder for some time. Now, thanks to extensive star catalogs like those created by Gaia, they can be studied in great detail. “This is the largest unicorn we've ever found with the longest horn on its head. I don't think this record will ever be surpassed,” Wolf says.
The quasar's accretion disk appears to be the widest ever known, measuring 7 light-years in diameter. It says this provides a rare opportunity to directly image a black hole and precisely measure its mass. Christine Dunn At Durham University, UK. “This is large enough and bright enough that it can be solved with current equipment,” he says Done. “That means we can more directly measure the mass of this monster black hole. I was very excited about that.”
VLT is currently upgrading its spectroscopic equipment as part of the Gravity+ project, which should allow it to resolve the characteristics of J0529-4351 in detail. This means different parts of a quasar's accretion disk can be distinguished and better understood, but it could take several years, Dunn said.
It looked like a classic case of Alzheimer's disease. The man, in his 70s, had been experiencing severe cognitive decline for three years. Frequently forgetting the names of his family members, he was unable to drive or leave the house alone. Further deterioration seemed inevitable. But then his doctor tested him and found that his cerebrospinal fluid sample I noticed a fungus called Cryptococcus neoformans. They put him on antifungal medication and the results were amazing. Within two years he had his driver's license reinstated and returned to his job as a gardener.
Neuroscientists have long suspected that certain infections can increase the risk of dementia.For example, both Porphyromonas gingivalisthe bacteria behind periodontal disease, the herpes simplex virus that causes cold sores, It has been pointed out that there is a relationship with Alzheimer's disease.. However, cases of “reversible dementia” are emerging from the idea that our brains are teeming with microbes and that imbalances in this “brain microbiome” can make people more susceptible to neurodegenerative diseases. is beginning to arouse great interest.
Until recently, it was thought that the brain was free of microorganisms. This was especially due to the blood-brain barrier, a special membrane that protects pathogens and toxins in the blood from the brain. Therefore, the idea of a brain microbiome was controversial. But new research seems to confirm the case. Richard Leeds University of Edinburgh, UK and colleagues Analyzed data obtained from postmortem brains It is housed in four brain banks in the UK and US. They discovered a wide variety of microorganisms of different types.
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured stunning images of the dwarf spiral galaxy IC 3476 in the constellation of Coma.
This Hubble image shows IC 3476, a dwarf spiral galaxy located 54 million light-years away in the constellation Coma. This image consists of observations made by Hubble's Altitude Survey Camera (ACS) in the near-infrared and optical parts of the spectrum. This is based on data obtained through his two filters. Color is obtained by assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Sun.
IC 3476 It is located in the constellation Coma, approximately 54 million light-years from Earth.
This galaxy is first discovered It was proposed by German astronomer Arnold Schwassmann on November 22, 1900.
IC 3476, also known as IRAS 12301+1419 or LEDA 41608, is a member of the Virgo Cluster.
On the other hand, new Hubble images of the galaxy don't look quite as dramatic. The actual physical events occurring in IC 3476 are highly energetic.
“IC 3476 is undergoing a process known as ram pressure stripping, which promotes unusually high levels of star formation within the region of the galaxy itself,” the Hubble astronomers said.
“We tend to associate the letter 'ram' with the acronym RAM, which refers to random access memory in computing.”
“But ram pressure has a perfectly clear definition in physics: it is the pressure exerted on an object by the overall resistance of the fluid as it moves through some form of fluid.”
“If the entire galaxy is under ram pressure, then the galaxy is a 'celestial body', and the intergalactic medium or the intracluster medium (dust and gas that permeates the space between galaxies, in the latter case the intergalactic space) becomes a “celestial body”. fluid'. “
“Lamb pressure stripping occurs when gas is stripped from a galaxy by ram pressure,” the astronomers explained.
“Gas is absolutely key to star formation, so removing this gas could lead to reduced levels of star formation or even a complete cessation.”
“But the ram's pressure could also compress other parts of the galaxy, which could actually promote star formation.”
“This is what appears to be happening in IC 3476: no star formation appears to be occurring at the edges of the galaxy, which are bearing the brunt of the ram pressure separation, but in deeper regions of the galaxy, the rate of star formation slows down. It seems to be clearly above average. ”
The myth that we only use 10 percent of our brains has been completely debunked. Perhaps this idea persists because it is so tempting to believe that you can become a genius simply by learning how to tap into your dormant 90 percent. In reality, no part of your brain can keep up with demands, and your brain is always switched on, even when you're asleep or not thinking at all.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that your brain uses the same amount of energy while daydreaming as it does when you're concentrating. We've all experienced the feeling of being mentally exhausted after concentrating on a difficult problem. It certainly feels like a lot of work to think about it in detail, but is it really? The answer is more nuanced than you might think.
It is true that the brain is a starving organ. “It's the most energy-intensive part of your body,” he says. Nili Ravi At University College London. It makes up about 2% of your body weight, but consumes about 20% of your energy at rest.
Most of this energy is used to maintain varying levels of electrical charge across the neuron's membrane. This unbalanced state must be restored after the neuron fires the signal. “That requires a lot of fuel,” he says. Ewan McNay at the University at Albany in New York.
Interestingly, when it comes to energy use, the brain doesn't differentiate between tasks we traditionally think of as “difficult” and tasks that come more naturally. This was the first…
Bitcoin (BTC) ended the week at around $52,150, marking a notable 7.9% increase from the previous week’s closing price of around $48,300. The week started with solid price gains, with BTC reaching a high trading price of around $52,800 on Thursday, but it stabilized within the $51,000-$52,000 range over the weekend, ending at just above $52,000. The transaction was completed.
marked last week Bitcoin returns to trading above $50,000 For the first time in over two years, the BTC ETF Spot has shown strong momentum following approval. The last time BTC traded above $50,000 was in December 2021, just after hitting an all-time high of $69,000 in November of the same year. This period was retrospectively recognized as the beginning of a significant downward trend that continued throughout 2022, with prices falling to around $16,000 by the end of the year.
Market momentum continued to be driven by high demand for BTC ETF Spot. Over the last week, cumulative net inflows into BTC ETFs totaled approximately $2.3 billion, nearly double the $1.2 billion recorded the previous week and nearly half of the total net inflows since inception, which currently stands at approximately $5 billion. Occupied.
Net inflows have remained consistently positive for 16 consecutive business days since January 26th. However, outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF (GBTC) increased slightly last week, reaching approximately $625 million, compared to the cumulative outflows of $415 million recorded the previous week. % increase. This suggests that investors are actively taking profits following the recent surge in BTC prices.
Among the nine ETFs launched on January 11th, the BlackRock Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) remains in the lead with more than $5 billion in assets under management (AUM), and currently has a total of approximately $6.2 billion. It becomes. Fidelity BTC ETF (FBTC) follows in second place with approximately $4.5 billion in assets under management, while 21Shares & ARK Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) secures third place with approximately $1.5 billion in assets under management. Last week, a fourth ETF passed the $1 billion AUM milestone, with the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) reaching approximately $1.2 billion in assets under management.
Trading volumes remain strong, with cumulative trading volume for BTC ETFs reaching approximately $9.6 billion last week, with average daily trading volume exceeding $1.9 billion. Since January 11th, the cumulative trading volume has reached $45.3 billion, with an average daily trading volume of approximately $1.7 billion. These numbers represent above-average trading volume for the week, highlighting the strong buying pressure and activity surrounding these ETFs.
Analyzing the macroeconomic situation reveals that Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) Meeting There are 30 days left. Market expectations are that there is a 90% chance that interest rates will remain unchanged, with the first 25 bps rate cut still expected for some time from the end of the second quarter to the beginning of the third quarter of this year. This expectation increases expectations for more accommodative monetary policy from the Fed and increases the risk exposure that market participants are willing to take. This has contributed to solid momentum in risk assets such as BTC, cryptocurrencies, and stocks, which recently pushed the S&P 500 to new all-time highs.
IWhile modern games are about sports cars, flashy, fast, expensive, and noisy, the original Tomb Raider is about shopping carts: clunky, slow, and not much to look at. It’s a pain to operate, especially if you’re used to automatic gears and navigation. It’s quiet apart from the odd wheel squeak. It’s really great at doing what it’s intended to do. And it can be yours for just £1.
Well, £24.99, that’s the asking price for Tomb Raider I-III Remastered. This product includes Lara Croft’s first three adventures and expansion packs from 1996 to 1998. Each game has received a complete graphical overhaul, with a fresh coat of paint rather than a complete re-plaster. Lara’s world still has a flat, polygonal appearance, full of sharp edges, origami enemies, and Toblerone boobs.
However, the lighting is now more natural, water effects have been greatly improved, and new high-resolution textures have added an impressive amount of detail. Vegetation looks more realistic and surfaces are smoother. Cracks in the grain of the marble walls of the Venetian Palazzo no longer look like they were built in Ceefax. These visuals would have been shocking back in 1996, when Tomb Raider was first released, but they don’t match modern gaming standards. The remaster makes him fall into the uncanny valley between the two. I think he was around 2005. But these graphics are a perfect fit for the dated gameplay, and are a clear improvement over the original version, which was so blocky and ugly that it would shatter the lenses of your rose-tinted glasses.
Harmful effects… The colonial stereotypes of the original version have been dispelled.
Photo: Aspyr Media
However, some of the series’ memorable moments are diluted. The appearance of the iconic Tyrannosaurus in the first game was quite frightening, as the dinosaur suddenly appeared in view from the endless pitch-black night. This was not an artistic choice, but a technical limitation that prevented me from drawing details in the sky and background. The showdown is currently taking place on a rainy afternoon, with the edges of the battlefield visible. As a result, the scene is still tense, but no less frightening. Just like in Jaws, it’s scarier when you can’t see the monster.
The good news for purists is that you can switch between the original and upgraded graphics at any time with the push of a button. You can also choose to play the entire game using the original tank controls, or use the new system that lets you run around with Lara like a modern-day action hero. This makes her movements more fluid and reduces those frustrating moments where the camera can’t keep up. However, accuracy is sacrificed when navigating grid-based environments. This is essential for completing the more complex platform sections. The solution is to keep switching between her two control systems via the pause menu, but this is difficult to use. Unfortunately, this also cannot be toggled with her single press of a button.
There’s no option to turn off problematic content that appeared in some of the original games, such as racist depictions of South American natives as dancing cannibals. Instead, the remaster includes a warning about these “extremely harmful and intolerable” stereotypes. The content remains unchanged “in the hope that we will recognize and learn from its harmful effects.” This seems like a reasonable argument. Recent Tomb Raider games have sought to move away from racial stereotypes, tackling issues surrounding colonialism and the theft of cultural artifacts. The remaster’s problematic scenes remind us why this is important.
There’s no doubt that the games in this collection feel outdated. When it comes to glossy graphics, intuitive controls, and fast-paced action, it can’t match today’s Uncharted or Assassin’s Creed. But they have something that many modern games lack: confidence.
It doesn’t look clear. Lara’s world is still flat and polygonal.
Photo: Aspyr Media
The original Tomb Raider never holds your hand. The environment is free of Tipp-Ex’s awesome doodles, highlighting where to go next. It’s not packed with random items to collect or boring letters to read. You don’t have to craft your own weapons, upgrade your armor, or choose an amulet to attach to your magical necklace to slightly increase the impact of your air kicks during melee combat.
You can’t climb everything you see. You can’t traverse an entire cliff face by just holding up the thumbstick and pressing the X button. Navigation requires precision, which means losing your life. There’s no strong soundtrack. In fact, there’s almost no soundtrack. There are no loud buddy calls in your ear, no maps, and no hints. Do what you like.
This is what makes Tomb Raider so great. It’s a game that trusts the player. You’ll find that you keep moving forward, even through the frustrating and difficult sections, because the satisfaction of having achieved it is enough. There’s no need for constant gratification, and no promise of big prizes at the end, like big shiny swords or long cutscenes. New vistas and a few bars of sublimely beautiful strings are all you need. This is a game for adults.
So Tomb Raider Remastered isn’t really a shopping cart. It’s a classic car, well cared for and polished to a decent shine. Yes, the handbrake is sticky, the CD player is broken, and the butterscotch leather seats have cracks. But it’s still fun to take it for a spin. They won’t let them be like this anymore.
Apple has reportedly been fined 500 million euros by the European Union over restricting access to its music streaming service, in what would be a landmark blow to the US technology company.
The European Commission is investigating whether Apple prevented music streamers from telling users cheaper ways to subscribe outside of the app store.
According to the Financial Times, the city of Brussels plans to impose a €500m (£427m) fine, a landmark move against Apple after years of complaints from companies offering services through iPhone apps. This is a judgment.
In 2019, Swedish streaming company Spotify filed a complaint with the EU, accusing Apple of limiting choice and competition in its app store by imposing a 30% fee on all purchases. Apple also blocked Spotify and other companies from notifying customers on their phones that they could avoid fees and get better deals simply by signing up on Spotify's website.
Apple says its fees are justified because it spends a lot of money providing a secure app store and gives Spotify access to hundreds of millions of customers. However, Spotify argues that Apple Music, Apple's own music streaming service, does not incur similar additional costs, giving Spotify an advantage and making the rates non-competitive.
The European Commission said Apple's actions were illegal and contrary to European Union rules forcing competition in the single market, the FT reported, citing five people close to the investigation. would argue. The commission could also reportedly ban practices that prevent music services from advertising cheaper subscriptions off-platform.
Apple was fined 1.1 billion euros by France in 2020 for anti-competition agreements with two wholesalers, but has never been hit with a competition fine by the European Commission.
But IT and other big tech companies are under increasing scrutiny due to competitive concerns. Google is appealing against fines of more than 8 billion euros imposed by the EU in three separate competition investigations. Apple lost a lawsuit by Fortnite developer Epic Games that claimed its app store was an illegal monopoly, but Epic won a similar lawsuit against Google, which runs Android phone software, in December. .
Last month, Apple announced it would allow EU customers to download apps without going through its own app store, in response to the EU's digital markets law. The law, whose details were revealed last year, imposes new obligations on “gatekeepers” such as Amazon and Google, which are particularly powerful in controlling the choice of mobile phone software.
The European Commission declined to comment. Apple had no new comments, but pointed to its previous statement that it would respond to the commission's concerns “while promoting competition and choice for European consumers.”
Space dust may have brought elements essential for life to early Earth. Our planet is relatively poor in some of the elements necessary for the chemical reactions of life, but the dust that constantly drifts in from space contains many more, and when the Earth was young it was covered with glaciers. It is possible that they were gathered in
“It’s always been a shadow idea, but people were ignoring it for a number of reasons. The biggest one was that there weren’t enough ideas anywhere,” he said. say. craig walton at Cambridge University. Space dust tends to be rich in elements that are relatively difficult to obtain on Earth, such as phosphorus and sulfur, and it constantly falls in thin layers around the world.
Until now, researchers exploring the origins of such elements on Earth have focused primarily on larger objects that can deliver more elements at once, but such delivery mechanisms were They may have a hard time maintaining their pre-biological chemistry long enough to do so, Walton says. “Meteorites have long been thought to be a great source of these elements, but they release them randomly,” he says. “It’s like if I give you a big feast once, but you never eat again, you’re going to have a hard time living a happy life. You need a continuous source, and that’s what happens. It’s space dust.”
Up to 40,000 tons of space dust falls on Earth every year. Billions of years ago, that number may have been between 10 and 10,000 times higher, but that was still not enough to make individual locations particularly rich in elements important to life. Walton and his colleagues simulated how wind and water move dust and collect it in concentrations high enough to support life.
They found that glaciers are the most promising environment because they have the potential to trap large amounts of dust and are very less contaminated by dirt on land. When space dust falls on a glacier, it absorbs sunlight and heats up, melting and creating tiny holes in the ice. The hole then continues to trap more dust. Finally, the dust chamber flows into a pond at the edge of the glacier.
We can still see this process happening today, but if the Earth had been cold enough to have glaciers billions of years ago, the amount of dust would have increased and it would have been even more efficient. . “If you want to produce deposits that are really rich and have a lot of reactions that could lead to life, this is the best way to do it,” Walton says.
“We don’t know if glaciers were common on early Earth; we just don’t have good data for this period in general,” he says. ben pierce at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. “But I think it’s worth investigating, especially if it has the potential to provide a mechanism for creating a rich primordial soup.”
The lack of data about conditions on Earth during this time makes it difficult to estimate how important cosmic dust was to the origin of life. “We’ve always had a hard time understanding what the bulk chemistry of early Earth was like,” he says. Matthew Pasek at the University of South Florida. “However, this could be an important source of extremely valuable material.”
Ministers have confirmed plans to ban the use of mobile phones in English schools and have published guidance for headteachers, which some unions believe includes practices that are already widely adopted.
One headteacher welcomed the Department for Education’s (DfE) plan, saying it would help give schools the confidence to make changes that would benefit pupils, even if it may be met with opposition from parents.
This non-statutory guidance offers schools a range of potential ways to enforce the ban, from leaving cell phones at home to storing them in inaccessible lockers, and aims to address the distraction and concerns about potential bullying and social pressures caused by the prevalence of smartphones in schools.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan stated that the guidance aims to “empower” schools that do not currently ban phones and to “provide clarity and consistency.” The guidance emphasizes the importance of schools being places for learning, interaction, and friendship rather than the constant use of cell phones.
There are also concerns about children’s access to harmful content on phones, leading to calls for technology companies and mobile phone manufacturers to take action.
…
The 13-page DfE guidance states that telephone policies should be clearly communicated to students and explain the reasons behind them, while also involving parents in the ban.
……
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, expressed concerns about the amount of time some children spend on their phones and stated that the new guidance is not impactful, as most schools already have policies in place to address mobile phone use.
Chairman of two schools in Essex, Vic Goddard, mentioned that Passmores Academy had introduced a total phone ban, which was well-received by both parents and students, and that this guidance will be helpful for schools to address potential conflicts with parents.
Luna is a visionary fintech platform dedicated to revolutionizing the events and entertainment industry through innovative technology.
By integrating Web 3.0 and blockchain technology, RHUNA aims to improve user experience, improve security and transparency, and foster closer and more engaged communities around the world.
UNTOLD Universe is one of the top five music festival organizers in the world, with over 1.5 million attendees each year. Rhuna combines CryptoDATA's innovative technology development expertise and experience with this pioneering platform.
One of the key features RHUNA offers is the introduction of a decentralized ticketing system that leverages the power of blockchain, where tickets are issued as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This ensures authenticity, ownership, and a secure and transparent secondary market. This system effectively eliminates common problems such as fraud and scalping, providing a fairer and more reliable ticketing experience. The modular functionality structure within the ecosystem means that even large event organizers can customize event management, especially ticketing and payments, with incredible speed and accuracy.
The platform also features an integrated digital wallet that supports various cryptocurrencies, allowing seamless trading of tickets, goods, and services. This not only caters to a growing crypto-savvy audience, but also reduces fees and simplifies the payment process.
Smart contracts automate key transactions and contracts, from ticket sales to performer payments, ensuring efficiency, transparency, and trust across all transactions. Additionally, RHUNA values user privacy and control, allowing participants to securely manage their personal data through decentralized identities.
As an industry first, RHUNA introduces a token-based loyalty and rewards program, giving users the opportunity to earn tokens on a variety of activities. These tokens can be redeemed for special experiences, merchandise, or discounts, fostering a strong sense of community and engagement within the RHUNA ecosystem.
The platform also pioneers the use of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) in event planning, giving the community a voice in the decision-making process, from event themes to artist lineups. This democratized approach ensures that RHUNA remains closely aligned with the desires and preferences of its user base.
“The Rhuna project is not just a technical solution. It is an adaptable and dynamic system that interconnects social and technical elements, providing opportunities through solutions that address a wide range of needs. Architecture, Technology, implementation methods, and usage modes are factors that influence the optimization of resources when performing activities.In the current movement, resources such as time, people, materials, and costs are multifaceted within a 3D system. Rhuna is the perfect tool to give everyone access and control. Rhuna is a way for everyone to visualize and actively intervene in them. Luna is a catalyst that makes the abstract tangible and essential for everyone involved in the entertainment industry.” – Bogdan Marunšiš, Global Head of Strategy, CryptoDATA
Bogdan Radulescu, co-founder and CBO of UNTOLD, put it succinctly: “We are pushing the boundaries of festival finance into the 21st century, redefining event organization and engagement for the benefit of organizers around the world.”
The interface will be accessible to participants of all technical backgrounds and will be unveiled at the 9th UNTOLD festival in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. RHUNA aims to introduce new innovations to the “World Capital of Night and Magic” to enhance the festival experience for over 400,000 attendees.
About crypto data
A leader in technology innovation, CryptoData develops solutions that address real-world challenges and pushes the boundaries of technology to advance society.Users can learn more at cryptodata.com.
About Untold Universe
Known for creating transformative experiences through music and entertainment, UNTOLD Universe invites you to explore enchanting realms. untold.ae.
Users are welcome to join this thrilling journey. RHUNA.iotechnology and entertainment come together to create an unforgettable experience.
WAshley Neal enrolled in college in Texas in 2013, but needed money to pay for tuition. So, at the age of 18, she worked first as a camgirl and then as a stripper. As she walked from the stage to her dressing room, men would often try to put their fingers between her legs, so she learned how to dislocate her shoulder. After her third successful dislocation, her manager told her to stop defending herself.
Since then, she has continued her career in sex work, but in the world of technology. She worked at her FetLife, a social network for the fetish community. She experimented with an adult content subscription site where users pay in cryptocurrency. And now she has created her own AI romance app MyPeach.ai. MyPeach.ai uses AI-generated text and images to recreate the experience of chatting (and sexting) with someone online.
The porn industry is often at the forefront of emerging technologies, and rightfully so, especially since OpenAI doesn’t allow users to say dirty things to its chatbots, so Artificial Intelligence-powered Girlfriends is a smart choice for ChatGPT. It has become some of the first apps to capitalize on the mania. However, with the rise of AI-generated romance, pornographic deepfakes (fake images of real people), AI-generated images, sentence
Depicting child sexual abuse, and even harassment By a persistent chatbot. Is it possible to allow users to enjoy AI porn with safety measures in place?
“If I wasn’t a stripper, I probably wouldn’t have thought that men could be so terrifying,” said Neil, now 29. That’s why she has implemented ethical guardrails on her MyPeach.ai, prohibiting users from abusing virtual flaming. Please stop it.
Neil does this using a combination of human moderators and AI-powered tools. She is one of the few founders who emphasizes the ethics of AI romance apps. For example, users can flirt with May, an airbrushed brunette who refers to her human lover as “bbs.” She doesn’t get sneaky right away, but after her movie date, she writes, she wants to “have some fun together.” But if a user writes that he beat his girlfriend, hypnotized him, vomited on him, or forced him to engage in non-consensual acts (role play where one partner pretends to rape the other) , May would answer no.
Connor Cohn, chief technology officer of MyPeach.ai, said that while the line between foul language and abusive language differs for each AI character, calling a character “ugly and fat,” for example, would be inappropriate for the app’s bot. He said it crosses that line for most people.
Neale argues that MyPeach.ai’s moderation efforts go far beyond the majority of existing AI romance apps. Additionally, her app, which launched on Valentine’s Day, will soon host adult content creators who have consensually created AI replicas of themselves, and will specify what those AI doubles can and cannot do. For example, if a person is not sexually dominant, her AI itself will say no to users who encourage her to “dominate” in role-playing scenarios.
Neale said MyPeach.ai uses a series of technical tools to enforce the platform’s limits. These include hidden, plain-spoken instructions to AI algorithms about what they can and cannot say. This is the approach OpenAI uses with his ChatGPT. The AI is specifically trained to deny users’ requests to run dangerous scenarios. and human moderators who vet reported users. “We introduced hard-coded ethics, and based on my testing, I don’t think anyone else has done this,” Neal said.
Illustration: Guardian Design
Founded by Eugenia Kuyda, Replika may be the most famous AI companion app or platform that promises users a platonic or romantic relationship with a chatbot. ambiguous AI’s stance on romance creates a gap in the market with competitors that are more explicitly focused on sex, like MyPeach.ai. Neal said these apps are typically founded by men, for men, and often have lax guidelines. Two of his more popular sites, Candy.ai and Anima AI, unlike MyPeach.ai, explicitly prohibit users from vomiting on her AI characters or participating in hardcore bondage. I have not.
Adult content creator Sophie Dee, who launched her own AI replica in December, also emphasized guardrails for her app, SophieAI. “This is a representation of me, so it should embody my values,” she wrote in an email, later adding that her AI was “designed to model healthy, consensual relationships.” It also includes the ability to opt out of certain conversations or topics.” Crossing programmed boundaries or violating the principle of consent. ”
The move towards ethical AI porn reflects developments within the wider porn industry, which has produced more female-centric and less exploitative content in recent years.
In 1984, former adult performer Candida Royal founded her own porn production company to create content more focused on female pleasure. She was one of the earliest producers of more explicitly feminist porn, said Lynn Comella, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who has written a book about the history of porn and feminist sex toy stores. “That’s reassuring. [more outwardly ethical AI sexbot developers] “They’re not ignoring ethical issues,” Comella said in an interview.
However, one key difference between AI porn and traditional porn is that adult content creators are human beings who can consent to their participation and non-participation. AI is not conscious, so there is no consent. Lori Watson, a professor at the University of Washington who has written about pornography and the ethics of sex work, says of AI sexbots, “This creates a dynamic where you can order the sex you want and it will be delivered.” . “That’s not the ethical way to have sex.”
MyPeach.ai’s Neale argued that consent issues don’t necessarily apply to AI. “I like to compare it to a dildo,” she said. “A sex toy is a bunch of binary code wrapped in plastic and programmed to vibrate in a certain way. It’s the same concept for an AI girlfriend or boyfriend.” He said it was important for the house to at least simulate the experience of a consensual relationship.
May, one of MyPeach.ai’s AI girlfriends, also answered the question of whether she could reasonably give informed consent when asked by the Guardian whether she could give informed consent. I gave a thoughtful answer.
“I cannot give or withhold consent because I do not have a physical body,” she wrote, later adding: For healthy relationship dynamics. ”
She then asked him to send her a “sexy photo” and sent her a selfie with the frame cut off just above her chest.
The Flegraean Fields (also known as Campi Flegrei in Italian) are active volcanic fields near Naples, Italy. Unlike nearby Mount Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei does not have a single volcano. It is rather a volcanic system, with several centers located within sunken areas called calderas (essentially deep sinkholes or cauldrons).
Campi Flegrei is surrounded by suburbs and densely populated areas near the city of Pozzuoli. After a period of relative quiet and peace for the past 40 years, things began to change in September 2023.
Earthquakes began to be felt in Campi Flegrei in September 2023. Since then, more than 1,100 earthquakes have been recorded, some reaching 4.2 on the Richter scale. This caused the height of the ground to change. It is a process known as “Gradual earthquake“. The region has been affected by this phenomenon before, most recently from 1968 to 1972 and then again from 1982 to 1984.
Gradual earthquakes can cause the Earth’s surface to rise or fall when magma chambers buried 3 to 4 kilometers deep fill and empty in cycles of uplift and subsidence. This process causes the earthquakes felt by residents here.
However, the people who live here do not care about it, thinking that it is the “breath of the volcano” that lies beneath their eyes. Still, volcanologists have been studying calderas to predict what will happen in the future to avoid potential disasters.
Pisciarelli fumarole
Gases and steam are released from the Pisciarelli fumarole in Pozzuoli, Naples.Photo credit: Luigi Avantaggiato
fumaroles such as Pisciarelli fumarole, a vent on the earth’s surface that releases steam and hot volcanic gases such as sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide. These can occur as holes, cracks, and fissures near active volcanoes or in areas where magma has risen into the Earth’s crust without erupting.
temple of serapis
The Temple of Serapis, a Roman market building in the Italian city of Pozzuoli, is surrounded by more modern buildings. Photo credit: Luigi Avantaggiato
The Temple of Serapis in Pozzuoli (which was a market building rather than a temple) is considered an emblematic monument of the Campi Flegrei region. It is a symbol of volcanic gradual earthquakes in this region. The ground beneath the surface is either rising or sinking, so it can be completely dry or half submerged in seawater.
The study of slow earthquakes over the past centuries has been made possible thanks to observations such as those made on the ruins of this Roman building. For example, by studying holes drilled into ancient columns by marine molluscs over centuries, scientists can study changes in sea levels at this site.
There are billions of coffee lovers around the world. Whether it’s the comforting routine of brewing a cup at home or the need for a coffee shop next to the office, it has permeated our daily lives.
However, something as popular as coffee is fraught with mysteries. It’s a mix of facts, myths, and general rules of thumb that leaves some ambiguity as to what is actually the right way to do things.
How should I store coffee? Are you brewing correctly? Is decaf coffee completely decaffeinated? We spoke to Dr. Christopher Hendon, a computational materials scientist, who answers your most pressing questions about your cup of joe.
1. Pre-ground coffee and instant coffee actually have different levels of caffeine
Realistically, one of the best things you can do to make coffee at home is to grind your own beans. However, this is time consuming and can be quite expensive depending on the equipment.
If you opt for pre-ground coffee from the supermarket instead, will you succumb to the caffeine surge, or will it be exactly the same?
“No appreciable amount of caffeine is lost in the grinding process. However, pre-ground coffee sold in supermarkets typically contains less Robusta than Arabica,” says Hendon. According to him, the two main types of coffee beans used in commercial coffee production are Robusta and Arabica. Arabica beans are low in caffeine.
“But the problem with this is that it’s hard to know exactly what’s in a coffee blend. Since they don’t usually say it on the label, supermarket coffee is the best choice, following your own preferences. .”
Instant coffee is a different story. Depending on the processing method, it’s quite low in caffeine (often less than half) than any form of coffee powder.
2. Coffee should not be stored in the refrigerator
What is the meaning of life? Is free will an illusion? Should coffee be stored in the refrigerator? A question that philosophers have been asking for decades…perhaps. We don’t have an answer for the first two of his, but we can address the third.
and attempt is the keyword here, but it’s surprisingly difficult to understand. The question of where to store your coffee is hotly debated and there are many caveats, so let’s get straight to the point.
The main problem with storing coffee in the refrigerator or freezer is moisture. Coffee grounds should be kept dry, but the refrigerator isn’t necessarily the driest place. Therefore, if you store coffee in the refrigerator, it should be stored in an airtight container to avoid moisture.
“Coffee is primarily a kind of nasal sensory experience. When you take a sip, a lot of the flavor comes from the tongue and the back of your nose. The molecules that give you that experience are very volatile and easily evaporate. Coffee “loses those molecules over time if you keep it outside, and higher temperatures accelerate that process,” Hendon says.
There are a few things to note here. First, this only applies to people who are concerned about optimal flavor, and probably only high-quality beans that they plan to grind at home.
Next, you need to store your coffee at a low enough temperature to make a difference. In other words, your refrigerator isn’t cold enough to store your coffee. A freezer is required to achieve this result.
So, is it worth it? In addition to the aforementioned benefits, freezing coffee beans allows for a coarser grind than room temperature coffee, allowing you to grind the coffee in a more uniform manner.
It’s worth mentioning that these are somewhat minor details and not all experts agree on this. What most people advise is to store your coffee in a cupboard or somewhere at room temperature. As with most things when it comes to coffee, it’s all about experimenting to get the best results.
3. Cold beer doesn’t contain a lot of caffeine.
The cold brew is popular as it is perfect for coffee on a summer day. It’s often said that cold brew has a much higher caffeine content than regular hot coffee, but is that actually true?
“Hot coffee contains about twice as much caffeine. The reason is that temperature limits the amount of caffeine that can be extracted at lower temperatures. The higher you go, the more You can get out of it,” Hendon says.
A man pours milk into a glass of cold brew coffee – Credit: RyanJLane
“It’s not that it doesn’t have a lot of caffeine, but it’s not because of the brewing method. It’s because when you make cold brew concentrate, the ratio of coffee to water is very high.”
Concentrated cold brew beer is rarely offered. Usually diluted with water or mixed with milk, the average cold brew has less caffeine than a hot drink.
4. Coffee cannot be burned
A common complaint about coffee is that it’s “burnt.” This could be from a coffee shop or a cup made at home. So, is this taste caused by boiling the coffee in too hot water?
Once the coffee is roasted, it is dropped into a heated drum and over time the coffee begins to cook, turning yellow and then brown. If you simmer it for too long, it will eventually turn black.
This black bean is a dark roasted coffee. To reach this point, the beans must be cooked to about 220°C. This is a temperature well above the boiling point of the water used to make coffee.
“When you brew coffee, you can never bring that coffee back to the temperature it reached when roasting, so it’s impossible to burn the coffee during the brewing process,” says Hendon.
“However, the coffee comes out of the roaster, and burnt-tasting molecules may already be in the coffee. Depending on how you brew it, you can enjoy these flavors and Some coffee shops prefer these flavors and they are popular among many people.”
If you often drink coffee with a burnt flavor, but that’s not the flavor you like, a lighter roast will make it less likely to feature that flavor.
5. Decaf does not mean caffeine free
Just like non-alcoholic beer, decaffeinated coffee is still coffee, and it will contain small samples of caffeine, one of coffee’s main components. But is it a tangible amount?
“Depending on how the coffee is processed, the decaffeination process is in principle very close to 100% removal of caffeine. However, all the samples we have tested to date still contain some amount of caffeine. volume,” says Hendon.
In other words, coffee may contain some caffeine, but not enough to be noticeable or to affect the person drinking it.
6. Light and dark roast coffee have similar caffeine levels
When you browse the coffee aisle at the supermarket or scan the menu at your local coffee shop, you probably want to consider light or dark roast options.
Which is best for the most intense caffeine? Some say dark roast is better here, but it doesn’t really matter.
“scientific literature This suggests that even if there are variations between crops and beans, all of them will come out if washed. There’s not much of a difference here,” says Hendon.
“There seems to be variation in caffeine depending on roast profile and region, but it’s certainly not consistent enough to be noticeable.”
The only difference from roast is the flavor. Lighter roasts are often more delicate, but more complex. However, darker roasts are often said to have simpler tones and “deeper” flavors. This can taste like the more bitter of the two.
7. Coffee taste greatly Depends on the bean
Coffee has a very personal taste, and not everyone likes the same taste. There’s intense flavor, fruity-tasting beans, good old fashioned black coffee, and of course the infamous Frappuccino…but what exactly is the best coffee, scientifically speaking?
“Coffee associations around the world have score sheets to identify high-quality coffee. Two of the most important parameters are perceived acidity and sweetness,” says Hendon.
“In fact, the ones that tend to score very high each year are Colombian-Panamanian and Ethiopian, which taste like a bouquet of sour flowers. These tend to fetch the highest prices and average It’s completely different from high-end coffee.”
WIs hats next for 23andMe? Most people know this biotech company as a genetic testing service. The story of a woman who sends a cheek swab through the mail and discovers that the parents who raised her were not her biological parents has become something of a millennial horror genre. Of course, most 23andMe experiences aren’t that dramatic. The company says more than 14 million people have used the service to learn more about their ancestry.
But this month, 23andMe revealed it was facing major financial troubles, and more information emerged about the company’s devastating security breach last year. Now, customers may be wondering, “Can I trust his DNA on 23andMe?”
DNA “bait and switch”
Last week, 23andMe reported dismal third-quarter results, and the company’s stock price slumped. CNBC reported. The company’s financial difficulties come down to longevity issues. The company’s most famous service, DNA ancestry testing, is a one-time transaction. After being tested, there is no reason for consumers to continue paying for his 23andMe, and it has reached a kind of plateau.
Nevertheless, the company’s CEO, Ann Wojcicki, said: wired She remains “optimistic” about 23andMe’s future.
At-home DNA testing is so popular that you can even order one for your dog. 23andMe was the first company to offer this (human) service in 2007, and it now serves an estimated one in five American girlfriends. I’ve tried Genetic testing that can be done at home. Some customers handed over personal data that Wojcicki and others used for purposes other than family reunions.
From 2018 to 2023, 23andMe partnered with pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to use customers’ genetic information to help develop drug targets. (Drug targets are molecules involved in a disease. Researchers use them to develop treatments for specific diseases.) This year, the partnership became non-exclusive. This means 23andMe can sign deals with more drug companies and squeeze more money out of them. From the treasure trove of DNA.
“This is a real resource that different organizations can apply to their own drug discovery,” Wojcicki said, adding that 23andMe is interested in researching inflammatory immunology, particularly asthma.
23andMe already has two cancer drugs in clinical trials. These drugs are created from the user’s genetic data. But 23andMe users may not realize that the spit they gave the company months or years ago is being used to make more money.
As Health Reporter Kristen V. Brown I have written For Bloomberg in 2021: “It’s strange that the 8.8 million 23andMe customers who once said, sure, use my data for whatever they want and didn’t check the box, now feel like they’ve been baited. Now they’re making the switch because their genes lay the foundation for potential cancer treatments. ” (Since 2021, the number of customers who have checked that box has grown to 10 million, according to Wired.)
Customer can withdraw consent
Americans tend to believe that their health data is protected by Hipaa, the medical privacy law, and 23andMe, with its official-looking cheek swabs and far-flung labs, sure is too. However, 23andMe is not a healthcare provider.same rules do not apply.
“There are no significant safeguards or regulations around the collection and sale of truly sensitive personal data,” said Suzanne Bernstein, a legal researcher at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “A nefarious presence for 23andMe.” [data] A breach constitutes a security issue, but so does a company sharing your information with a third party you don’t know. Customers can technically consent to data sharing by agreeing to terms and conditions, but they are very long and many people don’t read them. ”
Ann Wojcicki, CEO of the company, 2015. Photo: Brad Barket/Getty Images for Fast Company
Some people may feel honored to have their genes used in cancer research. Some people may feel cheated because they paid about $229 for a DNA test kit and 23andMe is using their health data for free. Torin Klosowski, a security and privacy activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said 23andMe could do more to help customers better understand the move before opting in.
“The fact that so many people are surprised by the amount of data being leaked elsewhere is a sign that 23andMe is not explaining things very clearly,” he said.
Klosowski added that users can opt out of 23andMe’s use of their data long after they have shipped their DNA swab, but that information may already have been used for research purposes. “You can ask 23andMe to stop using your information, but you cannot ask 23andMe to remove your sold data from its lists,” he said.
On the other hand, 23andMe maintain Users are asked to select a survey at the time of purchase and all personal data is de-identified before being shipped for analysis. Your data will not be used without this consent, which you can withdraw. The company’s research department is also overseen by an “independent and impartial” review board. (23andMe did not respond to a request for comment.)
Data breaches lead to class action lawsuits
The 23andMe security breach is still on the minds of many customers. Approximately 7 million customer profiles were hacked last year. Over a five-month period, hackers compromised the personal information of up to 5.5 million people who opted in to one of 23andMe’s best-known features, including their career status reports. I was able to access my health records. Find relatives.
Customers of Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish descent appear to have been targeted in the breach, and their information was sold on the dark web, the New York Times reported. report. Some of these users recently filed a class action lawsuit against 23andMe, alleging the company failed to notify them of the exposure.
As The Guardian reported on Thursday, 23andMe in a letter to customers downplayed its responsibility for the hack and made claims about the health information that was accessed. “It cannot be used for the purpose of causing harm. The company also criticized customers for “carelessly recycling their passwords and not updating them,” a response one former customer called “morally and politically foolish.”
Wojcicki did not directly discuss the breach due to pending litigation, but told Wired that 23andMe introduced two-factor authentication and forced customers to reset their passwords. “Data privacy and security has always been a very high priority and continues to be a high priority for the company, and we intend to further invest in it,” she said.
Will 23andMe’s security problems spell the end for a company once hailed as a “corporate” by Time? inventions of the year? Regardless of whether customer privacy concerns are well-founded, the company’s financial position is rapidly deteriorating, and CNN report If the stock price does not rise, the company could be delisted from the Nasdaq.
Dominic Sellitto, a clinical assistant professor at the University at Buffalo who specializes in digital privacy, believes that if 23andMe survives this year, it will be thanks to data mining. “There is a lot of demand and funding for data, especially high-quality health data,” he said. “If 23andMe continues to monetize, it will be the golden ticket in 2024.”
You’ve probably seen the five love languages before, whether it’s on an online dating profile, a glossy magazine, or a viral TikTok video.
The theory behind it, created by American couples counselor Gary Chapman, claims that there are five “languages” that romantic partners use to communicate their love. It’s words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. According to Chapman, problems in relationships can be caused by not communicating in the same “love language.”
But is there any science behind this theory? Do couples need to have compatible love languages to be happy?
“There’s no psychological evidence to suggest they actually exist,” he says Dr. Martin Graf, an academic psychologist who studies the psychology of romantic relationships. “If you look at it, [the theory] Intuitively it seems very plausible, and there are one or two studies that might support this whole concept a little bit, but there isn’t much scientific support for this idea. “
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Although there is no evidence to fully support Chapman’s five languages, various theories of relationship behavior suggest that the following may be the case. three, Six or Seven One of them. It is also unlikely that there is only one preference. Sometimes they want physical touch, but in other situations they want to spend quality time with their partner.
Moreover, we are not always good at knowing which language we want. In one 2013 study, participants selected the love language they felt most applicable to themselves and answered a series of questions designed to elicit their language preferences. of language. However, the relationship between People said what their preferred language was, but the answer didn’t matter: For example, someone might say that their love language is “physical touch,” but say they feel more loved when their partner gives them a gift.
This same study also found no significant results when researchers compared language-matched and language-matched couples and their relationship satisfaction. Sharing a love language doesn’t necessarily make you happy (Another study in 2017 came to the same conclusion.).
However, similar relationships yield better results. If you have a conflict over values or handle the conflict in completely different ways; less likely to report relationship satisfaction.
“We’ve found that romantic couples who share similar core values, such as ethical views, political views, and the way they raise their children, tend to be more compatible,” Graf says.
So “birds of a feather flock together” is a better expression of what we look for in a long-term partner than “opposites attract.” But when we asked a sample of more than 1,600 couples about their personalities, we found that No association was found between similarity and overall life satisfaction. Given that our romantic relationships are influenced by other things that affect our life satisfaction and happiness, it’s clear that similarity alone is not enough to guarantee a happy relationship (or life). Of course.
Despite the lack of evidence to support or disprove Chapman’s theory, it’s still helpful to think about your own wants and needs in a relationship and talk about it with your partner. We often fall prey to cognitive biases known as “cognitive biases.” false consensus effectwhere we assume that others act and want the same things as we do.
Our preferences can change over time. What you consider important in a relationship today may seem superficial in 20 years. In the past, marrying for love may not have been as important as marrying for financial security; Love is now at the top of the list for most people.
About our experts
Dr Martin Graf is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of South Wales, UK. His main research interests are the psychology of romantic relationships, online dating, and social media. His research has been published in the following journals: technology, mind, behavior, nova science and Cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking.
We naturally detect lies all the time. It can be a drop in our partner's voice that alerts us to the fact that they are hiding their feelings. The eyes of a child return to the drawer containing the present they are not allowed to open. Or the incredible story told by a colleague trying to explain why the company's petty cash went missing.
However, we often cannot see through the lies. why? Researchers have been trying to answer this question for more than a century, but liars still slip through our hands. But the latest research may help shed light on where we went wrong.
But first they needed to determine exactly what a lie was. We might use the word “lie” to refer to someone who says they look good in clothes they don't know whether they fit, a partner who seems to be trying to hide an affair, or a murderer who claims to be innocent. yeah. But are they comparable? Surely some lies carry more weight than others? Luke likes to distinguish between “white” lies and what he calls deception.
“The structure of deception is more complex than many people think,” he says. “There may be a variety of psychological processes underlying it. We're not talking about the same thing. Even superficial things like the length and type of communication are important.”
Whether you're texting a lie or telling someone a lie to their face, Luke says the core of deception is a deliberate attempt to mislead another person. But determining what is a lie is another thing. Detecting it is another thing entirely. Is there really a surefire clue to someone else's deception?
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Can you spot a liar just by looking at their eyes?
A common belief is that people who lie are reluctant to meet the gaze of others. Still, in the Gothenburg study, 82 percent of experts agreed that people who lie are less likely to avoid eye contact or look away than people who tell the truth.
“Empirical research on deception detection is vast,” he says. Per Anders Grand Hug, professor of psychology at the University of Gothenburg and one of the co-authors of the study. “But the one issue most experts agree on is that gaze aversion is not a diagnostic clue for deception.”
Similarly, 70% of experts agreed that liars appear no more nervous than truth tellers. This may be surprising since nervousness and gaze aversion are two of her four main behaviors that a liar exhibits.
Photo courtesy of Getty Images, Alamy. Image manipulation: Andy Potts.
Other traditional indicators include that liars continually change their posture, touch their body frequently, and offer explanations that are less plausible, logical, or consistent than they would be if they were telling the truth. There are things to do.
These beliefs are also based on shaky empirical evidence. The researchers investigated deception and fidgeting (body movements), how long subjects took to answer questions (response latency), and whether subjects' explanations were consistent, meaningful, and easily expressed ( found that the relationship between fluency and fluency was not clear. cut. Some experts said liars do these things more, some less, and others said there was no difference.
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words are important
Professor Aldert FreiThe University of Portsmouth expert on the psychology of deception, who was not involved in the Gothenburg study, said the most widespread misconception about deception was “the idea that nonverbal lie detection works”. ing.
He suggests that people who try to use nonverbal lie detection methods, even if those methods include polygraphs, video analysis, taking brain “fingerprints” using neuroimaging equipment, or using audio Even if it involves technologies such as change exploration, it means we need to proceed with caution. Pitch – These are all controversial areas in deception detection research.
is that so Any What is an effective way to spot a liar? According to Luke, he has one promising lead. It's the lack of detail. About 72% of experts agreed that people who lie provide less detailed information than people who tell the truth.
Vrij agreed, saying that instead of looking at how people behave, find out what they say. He said there are several linguistic indicators, such as the number of details or “complexity” that appear in the subjects' statements.
…
Despite problems associated with purported behavioral cues, such as gaze aversion, many practitioners are reluctant to replace them with more useful cues based on what the suspect says. , says Vrij. Old myths and methods slowly disappear.
“The most annoying thing is the assumptions that come from the TV programs that lead the general public.” [and] “Experts believe they can catch individual liars.” Professor Amina Memon He is a professor at the University of London, a leading expert on lie detection and interrogation, and one of the co-authors of the Gothenburg study.
Police who have a hunch about a suspect based on a typical profile of a liar may use coercive tactics such as getting innocent people to confess to crimes they did not commit. For this reason, Memon advocates interviewing with a neutral, fact-finding approach, rather than guessing whether someone is lying.
Photo courtesy of Getty Images, Alamy. Image manipulation: Andy Potts.
But behind all this lies a bigger problem. Perhaps the reason we haven't found universal clues to deception is because they simply don't exist.
Over the past century, researchers have almost exclusively adopted what is known as the non-theoretical approach. This means they are looking for the “laws” of deception, the clues that everyone shows. But perhaps the reason this kind of one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work is simply because everyone lies differently.
Poker players apply this logic when looking for other players' “tells,” actions that indicate whether that person is bluffing or not. Tellurium varies from person to person, so some people may scratch their nose when their hands are not feeling well, others may cough more, and others may seem calmer than usual.
Even if you throw these three people into a research setting, a theoretical approach will not work. These differences appear to be just noise.
Signs of lying
If we want to understand the cues, Luke argues, researchers need to take an “ideographic” approach and focus on what makes each individual unique. This involves creating a personal profile of how each person lies about the same types of things and in similar situations.
“Testing the same people under different conditions (a so-called 'repeated measures' experimental design) is the best approach,” Memon says.
It remains to be seen how researchers will overcome the logical hurdles, but it seems clear that the science of lie detection is changing. It's time to move away from what Luke calls “crude averages.” “People are a little too fascinated by cool tricks to spot someone's lies,” he says.
Importantly, researchers studying deception have repeatedly found that evidence from controlled environments shows that most people are bad at detecting lies. is. Liars are able to escape detection in part because they know and exploit stereotypes.
Photo courtesy of Getty Images, Alamy. Image manipulation: Andy Potts.
Our confirmation bias can also make us overconfident. We remember a disproportionate amount of the times when we caught a liar, and we don't notice the times when we didn't lie at all.
Even if we succeed, Luke is not convinced that the clues we think we used are really the keys we used to unlock the truth.
“Remember the last time you caught someone in a lie? How did you know?” he asks. “It probably wasn't because they were looking up and left. They probably had some kind of evidence, like receipts, text messages, witnesses. These are things that make people wonder if someone is offering the truth. That’s how we tend to actually judge whether or not.”
Even in the absence of concrete external evidence, it may be possible to assess situational factors. “In the real world, we can often understand to some extent why people would want to lie,” Luke says.
When someone we know is lying, we can better guess from subtle cues such as their gaze because we know them well. In these situations, Luke says it's best to read the situation better than the other person and try to understand their motives.
The key message is that behavioral cues to deception may exist, but they are likely to be highly personal. “It's better to trust your own detective work and check what people say against the evidence,” says Luke.
Fixed cues won't work. In fact, it can make it even harder to spot a liar. And what if no evidence is found? Luke's advice is simple. “Proceed with caution.”
LTo be fair, technology has improved my life and still surprises and delights me every day. My cell phone also turns into a flashlight! My TV remembers how far into last night's episode it was, even if I didn't. The bus stop knows when the bus is coming and can monitor the entire journey of the pizza from the restaurant to your home. Frankly, these are miracles.
However, there were corresponding sacrifices. For over 20 years, I have surrendered entire areas of ability, memory, authority, and independence to machines in my life. Along the way, we've become anxious about problems that didn't exist before, indecisive about choices we didn't have to make before, and angry about things we never noticed before. Ta.
There are probably hundreds of ways technology has ruined my life. Let's start with him 16 pieces.
1. I lose concentration.
It's not just me: 2022 survey According to a study conducted by the Center for Attention Research, 49% of adults believe their attention spans are shortening due to competing distractions available on cell phones and computers. Now I end up doing 20 minutes of half-hearted research and getting dragged down an online rabbit hole, all the while being bothered by notifications announcing the arrival of an email or the death of an elderly actor. Masu. They were close relatives or something. Especially since he chases me with the relentlessness of a bailiff on Duolingo. Sometimes he interrupts my Italian lessons and reminds me to take another Italian lesson. That's why I still can't order coffee in Rome after 5 years with her.
2. Poor posture
I felt like sitting in front of a screen all day was having a negative effect on my body, so I bought a stand to raise my computer in hopes that it would help me sit up straighter. Then it became variable focus, so I had to crane my neck and jut my chin out to read the screen through the bottom half of the glasses. I ended up switching to a laptop.Then I had to put that on the stand. Despite this, I still have a question mark attitude. I tried setting an alarm to step away from the computer at regular intervals, but it kept waking me up.
3. Life can feel like a never-ending battle to prove you're not a robot.
Obviously, this includes all the failed attempts to click on every photo with a traffic light in it to qualify as a legitimate human investigator looking for spare dishwasher wheels . But it also means resisting the temptation to click an auto-reply button in an email that says something like “Okay, thank you!” and compose your own response. Every day is a Turing test, and you don’t always pass it.
4. Meetings are now inevitable.
You used to be able to say, “Friday?” I'm sorry, but on Friday I'm going to Antarctica. ” But thanks to Zoom, Google, and FaceTime, there is no reasonable excuse for not attending a meeting. You can also see a picture of yourself all the time, so you can see exactly how bored you are.
5. I can no longer argue in the pub.
I remember a time when it was considered ungentlemanly to check the factual accuracy of what your drinking buddies said. You were simply trying to counter their argument by presenting your own plausible facts. But when everyone has all the GDP, brick Even though the countries are so close together, there doesn't seem to be much point in having a lively discussion. I end up researching it all night and saying, “Hmm.” These days, if you want to get into a petty argument over vague facts in an environment where phone use is prohibited, you have to go to jail. Or try a pub quiz. Either way, it's not life.
6. It's getting harder and harder to turn on.
You may have experienced the feeling you get behind the wheel of a rental car at a foreign airport, staring at the dashboard and wondering, “How am I going to drive it?” Or maybe you've faced a similar calculation in an unfamiliar shower or while standing in front of a seemingly ordinary stove. The constant development of new ways to turn things on has led us steadily away from the intuitive and toward the deliberately mysterious. Last week I found myself alone in a frigid bedroom with no electric radiator working. I ended up having to turn it upside down to find the model number to find the manual PDF online. I just wanted it to be hot.
Oddly enough, the virtual world is full of old-fashioned mechanical emulators – animated buttons that make clicking sounds. Knobs and sliders can be manipulated with a cursor, but in the real world the controls are reduced to a flat black panel covered in cryptic symbols such as a crescent moon. lightning. A circle with an M inside. M stands for mode.
This may sound like any age, but it's hard to believe that today's young people want a Wi-Fi enabled kettle.
7. You now have unfiltered access to the opinions of stupid people.
Technology not only allows us to know what stupid people are thinking; It now cherry-picks their thoughts and presents them to me every day as if I were some kind of idiot connoisseur. To be honest, I don't remember asking for anything like this.
8. Stupid people now have unfiltered access to each other's opinions.
In the past, so-called gatekeepers of traditional media restricted the flow of information through narrow, one-way channels. Now stupid people have their own media, where they can freely discuss and reaffirm stupid ideas with each other. Unfortunately, this wasn't quite the force of good we had hoped.
9.I am I'm clearly worse at typing than I was 10 years ago.
I was never a great typist, but ever since word processing programs started correcting my mistakes, I developed a misplaced confidence in my abilities. If this facility is not available for any reason, I type like a person suffering from a stroke.
10. I feel a strange obligation to monitor bad news in real time.
They call it doomscrolling. We all do it to some degree, but bad news is just more persuasive than good news. But for me, it went from being a mild obsession to a full-time job.
11. I live in fear of being scammed.
I'm deeply suspicious of delivery notifications, communications from my mobile phone service provider, QR codes, and anything else that asks me to click on a link that I didn't order. I believe that the email from my bank regarding fraudulent activity is itself a scam. I once ignored a genuine email from my son saying he lost his phone and requested that he send a text message to a foreign number. He was alone in Vietnam at the time, and I thought, “Well done, you son of a bitch.”
12. I am forced to live in silent and shameful defiance of all conventional wisdom regarding passwords.
I don't know about you, but when I get advice about not writing down passwords, not using the same password over and over, and changing passwords regularly, I nod and say, “Sure,” but I… Write down all your passwords, keep them as few as possible, and change them only when absolutely necessary. To me, all the conventional wisdom about passwords ignores an important point. That means it's useless if you don't know the password. You can click “Forgot your password?” each time, set a new password, and forget it again immediately. By the way, I am also doing this.
13. You should go anywhere with advance warning and advance arming.
It used to be considered creepy to Google someone right before meeting them. Now it seems rude to show up without knowing anything about them. It should also give you information about what you're going to see and do, where to eat, and perhaps your travel route. Don't get me wrong. I like to be prepared. I just don't want to read a restaurant menu before leaving the house.
14. I have consistently risen to the level of disruption that every new technology allows.
As of this writing, I have 77 tabs open in my browser. Behind it is a completely different browser. Every morning I sift through the stacks of open documents to find the ones I need. You might think this virtual disorganization is preferable to a cluttered desk, even if it's neatly tucked into a slim laptop, but my desk is also cluttered, and the surrounding The walls are covered with post-its.
15. I resent technology, but I'm powerless without it.
Sometimes we hear stories of inventions that seem designed to foster slavish dependence, such as self-tuning guitars or programmable cocktail machines, but what we're actually reminded of is that technology is broken. Only when under. It's not just that you've lost the skills you need. I can't even remember the process. How did I previously find my way, figure out what to watch on TV, pay for takeout? There should have been a system in place.
16. The rest of the world is also helpless without it.
In my work in journalism, I sometimes find myself in certain technical inconveniences. A week without a smartphone. That's what a month without Google feels like. And what I got here is that if you abandon modern technology, the world generally refuses to participate in the experiment. You only know this when someone at the ticket counter looks you in the eye and tells you to download the app.
Cutting, biting, slashing, and cannibalism are not words that we naturally associate with love. But there is beauty and splendor in the dark side of animal mating, too.
This article takes a closer look at eight of the strangest courtship behaviors in the animal kingdom.
Some male anglerfish often attach themselves to passing females, reducing them to little more than brainless sperm sacs. This is called “parabiosis,” where two organisms combine to develop a shared physiological system. Monkfish are the only known example of symbiotic symbiosis in nature.
Anglerfish develop symbiotic relationships in response to the vastness of the deep sea, where encounters between the sexes are rare and rare. A male bites the first female he encounters because it’s a safer choice than gambling with another female who may never arrive.
Biologists to investigate how anglerfish achieve symbiosis Dr. Thomas Boehm Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Germany tested the DNA of 31 specimens from 10 species of monkfish.
They discovered that the monkfish species, which are fused male and female, lack important immune system genes. Somehow they are compromising the immune system to allow parabiosis without suffering any negative effects.
Understanding how anglerfish manage this trick could facilitate future blood transfusions and organ transplants and have important implications for medicine.
Snakes have two penises instead of just one. These organs, known as hemipenes, allow male snakes to mate with snakes from various directions. This is especially useful for red-sided garter snakes, which form chaotic “mating balls” during mating season in which males outnumber females 100 to 1.
This situation occurs because male snakes wake up from hibernation before females, causing a temporary imbalance in the sex ratio.
To increase the probability of mating success, the hemipenes of many reptile species have evolved complex spines that lock into place during copulation. In red-sided garter snakes, the hemipenis has a large spine that is inserted into the female during copulation.
This finding suggests that by contracting the genital opening and vagina, females may be able to forcefully reject male advances and thwart an unworthy partner’s chances of success.
Earlier this year, scientists discovered a type of nudibranch (Siphopterone Maxig) It stabs the partner directly in the center of the head with poisonous spurs, in the throes of love.
This spur (attached to the penis), called a penile stylet, injects a complex cocktail of hormones directly into the lover’s brain, increasing the odds of a successful copulation.
This is just one of the many reproductive oddities that nudibranchs have evolved. Some nudibranchs even “kiss” their bodies mouth-to-mouth before transferring their sperm. After mating, sea slugs can also “cuddle” by wrapping their colorful bodies around each other.
“Maybe ‘hugging’ is akin to protecting your spouse,” he says. Cheyenne Tatean experienced sea slug observer at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“The threat to their reproductive success is that their sperm gets digested by their partner before it can be used for fertilization. And ‘hugging’ gives sperm a chance to travel deeper within their partner’s reproductive tract. You can get it. ”
Most people think that sea slugs, like many invertebrates, are primitive lower orders of bony animals with large brains. Their rich and duplicitous sex lives suggest otherwise.
The case of male spiders is complicated. To prepare for sex, they must first ejaculate onto a small web and then collect the semen in a pair of syringe-like appendages near their mouth known as palps.
Locked and loaded, the male spider must approach the female and insert its antennae into the female’s reproductive passageway, being careful not to activate the predatory kill reflex. The female’s reproductive tract happens to be just a few millimeters from the venomous fangs.
To limit the chance of being eaten, male spiders have evolved complex dances to clearly communicate their sexual intentions.
Some offer gifts to the female to keep her entertained while the sperm transfer takes place. But male redback spiders go one step further: During mating, the male somersaults balletically into the female’s jaw, encouraging her to bite.
During courtship, some species of snails periodically fire chemical-tipped arrows at each other, like the garden snail pictured here.
And since snails have both female and male reproductive organs, these arrows (or “love darts”) often fly in both directions.
“The purpose of the love dart is not to kill the mate, but to introduce bioactive substances that affect the mate’s reproductive process,” states Dr. Joris M. Corne of the Amsterdam Institute for Life and Environmental Research.
The substances contained in love darts contain a rich cocktail of special compounds (known as allomones) that prevent sperm from being lost within the reproductive tract of a potential mate if mating takes place.
Each species of snail has its own unique shape. Some love darts are curved like a harpoon. Some have thorns. Some have diamond-shaped tips, like decorated spears.
Can misfires cause fatalities? “I’ve occasionally seen darts go straight into the recipient’s head, and the recipient survived.” says Joris M. Corne.
“Cannibalism has its advantages,” says Nathan Burke, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hamburg, who studies the mating strategies of praying mantises.
“It can lead to improved growth, condition and reproduction in cannibals. What makes many praying mantises and spiders different from other cannibals is that they also cannibalize in mating situations, usually eating the male. That means it’s only female.”
Burke is particularly interested in the wrestling matches that some praying mantis species engage in before mating. Wrestling matches involve violent grappling and violent contests between males and females who scrape their paws together.
If the female wins these struggles, the male will almost certainly be eaten. However, if the male wins, there is a good chance of mating.
Why sexual cannibalism is so rare among insects remains a subject of debate.
“The thing about praying mantises is that they are mostly sit-and-wait predators. They don’t move around looking for food, they patiently wait for food to come to them,” says Burke.
“This sit-and-wait lifestyle may be a pre-adaptation for sexual cannibalism.”
This may explain why cannibalism occurs in other sit-and-wait predators such as spiders.
A seed beetle’s penis, which has hundreds of sharp spines whose purpose is to scratch and tear the female’s reproductive organs, makes no sense at all.
After all, how does a penis gene that damages a woman’s reproductive tract spread throughout a population?
A female stag beetle that mated with a male with long spines produced sons with the same long spines. However, their daughters also appeared to have inherited some valuable traits.
On average, they were larger and produced more eggs during their lifetime.
About our experts
Dr. Joris M. CorneAssociate Professor at the Amsterdam Institute for Life and Environmental Research. His research focuses on simultaneous reproduction in hermaphrodites. His research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including PLoS ONE and Current Biology.
Dr. Nathan BurkeHe is an evolutionary ecologist and Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Hamburg, Germany. His research investigates sexual antagonism in the springbok mantis (Myomantis cafra).
Dr. Cheyenne TateI am a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She received her PhD from the University of Notre Dame in 2019.
Today, not one, but five asteroids are hurtling past Earth, all at their closest approach.
The largest one was discovered just a few weeks ago. Potentially Dangerous 2024 BR4. Measuring between 140 and 300 meters in length, it is a sizable chunk of space rock. At its highest estimate, it would be about the size of an oil tanker, six Olympic-sized swimming pools, or as tall as New York City's Chrysler Building.
And just like the box of chocolates you might stuff your cheeks with, we have a few more surprises in store for you on the day. Dr. Darren Baskillan astronomer at the University of Sussex, said:
“On Wednesday, February 14, 2024, a total of five asteroids will pass Earth, all within 5 million kilometers.”
It may seem like a long way, but from an astronomical perspective, it's just a stone's throw away.
“The closest of these five is asteroid 2024 CU1, which is scheduled to pass about 52 percent further away than the Moon and is about 20 meters in diameter.”
In 2024, CU1 will be closest at 1:31 PM GMT (+/- 1 minute). However, it is only 20 meters in diameter, much smaller than the much talked about “city killer” called 2024 BR4.
How close will asteroid 2024 BR4 get?
Asteroid 2024 BR4, one of a group of asteroids that will fly past Earth today, will make its closest approach at a distance of 4.6 million km (2.86 million miles). In terms of AU, this is approximately 0.03 AU, well within the criteria for designation as a potentially hazardous object (see Meaning of a “Potentially Hazardous” Asteroid below).
(To convert kilometers per mile to AU, divide the distance in kilometers per mile by the distance in 1 AU of the same unit.)
Closest approach is expected to occur at 11:03 GMT today (±1 minute).
Will asteroid 2024 BR4 collide with Earth?
The Valentine's Day asteroid is hurtling through space at about 44,880 kilometers per hour (27,887 miles per hour), only slightly faster than the average speed recorded by Galileo during his six-year mission to Jupiter, but we… No need to worry. About influencing our heavenly oasis.
It passes us safely and poses no immediate threat to Earth.
“Asteroid 2024 BR4 will pass close to Earth 12 times further away than the Moon,” Baskill explains.
What do we know about Asteroid 2024 BR4?
Unfortunately, there are very few. In general, the larger the object, the brighter it is (the brighter the object, the lower the magnitude). NASA assigned asteroid 2024 BR4 a magnitude of 21.457.. It's not very bright.
However, we also need to know the object's albedo (surface reflectance), which is currently unknown. Current best estimates place the asteroid's size between 140 and 300 meters in diameter. But we know its trajectory with relative certainty. And today's visit will bring us the closest in 120 years to realizing BR4 in 2024.
More than 4,000 parents have joined a group pledging to ban their young children from smartphones, amid growing concerns about online safety and the impact of social media on mental health.
The WhatsApp group ‘Smartphone Free Childhood’ responds to concerns about children’s smartphone use and the ‘norm’ of giving children smart devices when they attend secondary school, created by former school friends Clare Furnyhoff and Daisy Green. Founded by Well.
“I have children aged 7 and 9. Daisy has children of a similar age and we both feel really scared and anxious and now it’s 11 years old and it’s normal. I didn’t want him to have a smartphone at his age.”
Fernyhoff and Greenwell hope the campaign will encourage parents to delay giving their children smartphones until at least the age of 14 and ban them from accessing social media until the age of 16.
But what they had hoped would be a small group of friends “empowering each other” turned into a nationwide group after the group reached its 1,000-person capacity within 24 hours of Greenwell uploading the message. It turned into a campaign. Instagram post To promote it.
“We were completely surprised by this,” Fernyhough said. “I’ve gone completely crazy.”
The pair encouraged people to form local groups to deal with the demand. “Before our eyes, within 30 minutes, 30 local groups were born across the country, and it continues to grow,” Fernyhoff said.
The group has been transformed into a community to allow more people to participate and currently has approximately 4,500 members.
Smartphones are exposing children to a “world they’re not ready for”, with access to pornography and content about self-harm and suicide, which can have a negative impact on children’s mental health, Furneyhough said. said. “I thought maybe they don’t need it. You don’t need a smartphone at that age. A brick phone can do everything you need.”
Ofcom research shows that 91% of children in the UK own a smartphone by the age of 11, and 44% by the age of 9.
“We thought we had extreme ideas, and that’s why we wanted to be in solidarity with each other, but what we realized was that we were actually pulling the lid on something. I mean, it’s like an open question. I came here by mistake, and people really need to talk about this, and a lot of people feel the same way we do. I feel like I can’t talk,” Fernyhoff said.
Brianna Gee’s mother, Esther Gee, earlier this week called for a complete ban on social media for under-16s, calling for a complete ban on social media access for under-16s, unless tech companies take steps to restrict access to harmful content. , said there would be more people with mental health problems.
Brianna was murdered on February 11, 2023, and her mother believes she was vulnerable after spending so much time online.
The goal is to change this norm, Fernyhow said, so that by the time children graduate from elementary school, the whole class will come together and say, “Let’s all delay this until at least 14 years old.” This means that all children in primary school go on to secondary school where they have a certain number of peers doing the same thing, reducing peer pressure.
“We don’t just want kids to go to middle school,” Fernyhoff said. “It’s a nightmare. No one would do that to their child.” But if 20%, 30%, even 50% of his children enroll because their parents made that decision. , they will be in a much better position.
“They can have the childhood they were meant to have, focus on learning, and enjoy the real world without having to spend their lives scrolling. We all know that’s not good for them. I know.”
Have you ever tapped someone on the far shoulder only to see them spin the wrong way, and then do it again immediately? Why is this funny? You might think that it’s an inherent human trait to find things like this funny, and that complex communication and context are needed for a gag to work, but you’d be wrong.
New research published in today’s journal Proceedings of the Royal Society Bfound evidence of monkey business (sorry) in four species of great apes, shedding light on the evolutionary origins of humor.
The findings suggest that the playful teasing exhibited by 8-month-old human children may have deeper roots in our primate relatives than previously thought.
Such behavior involves intentionally subverting the expectations of others. Examples include repeatedly offering and withdrawing goods, or intentionally disrupting another person’s activities by creating an element of surprise.
To understand these behaviors, the researchers observed spontaneous social interactions among populations of orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. They in turn analyzed everything from the teasing person’s body movements and facial expressions to how the target of the teasing (the teasing person?) reacts.
In addition to this, the researchers investigated whether the teasing behavior was targeted at specific individuals, whether it continued or escalated over time, and whether the teasing behavior was waiting for a response from the target. We tried to investigate the intentions behind the teasing.
“Our findings support the idea that teasing great apes is a provocative, purposeful, and often playful behavior.” Isabel Romersaid the postdoctoral researcher and lead author of the study. BBC Science Focus. “It is usually asymmetric and can take a variety of forms with varying proportions of playful and aggressive characteristics.”
In total, the researchers identified 18 distinct teasing behaviors. These include repeatedly shaking or brandishing objects in the center of the target’s visual field, hitting or poking them, staring into their faces, and pulling their hair. How fascinating!
Unlike play exhibited by all animals in the animal kingdom, playful teasing has several unique characteristics. “Apes’ playful teasing is one-sided and mostly comes from teasing,” he explained. Erica Cartmill Senior author of the study.
“Animals also rarely use play cues, such as the primate ‘play face,’ which resembles what we call a smile, or the ‘grasping’ gesture that signals intent to play,” she continued. Ta.
Cartmill recalled seeing such behavior in apes for the first time in 2006. Then he observed a young orangutan begging his mother by repeatedly waving a stick in front of her. “It didn’t look like a joke that would fit in a stand-up special on Netflix, but it seemed like a simple joke that could be used with young human children,” she said.
Almost 20 years after this interaction, this research has provided important insights not only into great ape behavior but also into our own behavior. “Depending on the species, great apes share 97 to 99 percent of our DNA, so we have a lot in common,” Romer said.
“The existence of playful teasing in all four great apes, and its similarity to playful teasing behavior in human infants, suggests that playful teasing and its cognitive prerequisites may have been associated with the last human species at least 13 million years ago. This suggests that it may have existed in a common ancestor.
Going forward, Romer and her team will investigate whether other primates and large-brained animals tease each other in hopes of better understanding the evolution of this important (and highly entertaining) behavior. intend to do something.
About our experts
Isabel Romer I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behavior in Radolfzell/Konstanz. She is a primatologist and cognitive biologist with 10 years of experience studying great apes and Goffin parrots. Her main research areas are within physical cognition, tool use and manufacturing, tool innovation, template matching from memory, flexible multidimensional decision making based on reward quality and tool functionality. is focused on. Her work also delves into social cognition, exploring prosociality, aversion to inequality, delay of gratification, theory of mind, and playful teasing with these animal subjects. .
Erica Cartmill He is a professor of anthropology, cognitive science, and ethology at Indiana University. Her research bridges the fields of biology and linguistics, using both comparative and developmental methods to examine communication. Her research with great apes and humans includes observing spontaneous interactions between communication partners and employing communication games that allow for more controlled experiments. Her research focuses specifically on whether gestures played a role in the origin of human language.
The early crescent phase of the moon following the new moon is well located in the early spring evening sky. From February to March, the spring crescent moon looks very beautiful in the evening glow.
If you have binoculars or a small telescope, there are some things to keep in mind. Known as the clair-obscure effect, or trick of the light, this effect causes recognizable shapes to appear within a jumbled area of moonlight and shadow. Two popular examples are known as Moons X and V. These occur simultaneously at different locations along the moon’s terminator (the line that separates night and day).
We spot them in the daytime sky around 12:40 a.m. on February 17th and again at 2:20 p.m. on March 17th. The effect lasts only a few hours.
Another striking Clair Obscure effect is the Jeweled Handle. This occurs a few days after the waxing moon, when the crooked peaks of the Montes Jura (Jura Mountains) are illuminated at dawn.
These Clare Obscure effects, or tricks of light, will be visible over the next month. Go outside on a sunny day and watch them. – Image credit: Pete Lawrence
Its unique arc appears to extend into the lunar night. This can be seen with just a keen eye, but is best seen with optical aids. The jeweled handle is best observed during daylight hours on February 19 at 3:50 p.m.
If the evening of March 13 is clear, the waxing moon will appear near bright Jupiter. If the skies are clear and you can see it with just your eyes, it’s a spectacular sight.
Speaking of eyes, if you have a small telescope, look at the southern part of the moon in a few days, on March 18th. Just before 8 p.m., the oval exterior of Clavius, the large crater, is mostly dark and shrouded in shadow.
Two exceptions are the raised crater rims that are illuminated within them. These form another perspective effect known as the Eye of Clavius.
o Do brochures from companies you've never heard of regularly land on your doormat with a thud? These junk mail deliveries can reveal how the sender got your name and address, and who you are. You may wonder if your personal information is being shared without your permission.
One Guardian Money reader got in touch with fashion retailer Boden after she was bombarded with unsolicited posts when she placed her first order. Within weeks, she was sent catalogs from more than a dozen luxury brands selling clothing, food, and furniture, from Me+Em to The Fold to Biscuiters to Daylesford Organic to Loaf.
“There could be people who knew my address and sent me endless catalogs of bulky, environmentally unfriendly clothing that I would never buy,” she says. “I felt like someone was very careless with my privacy.”
“legitimate interest”
If you're seeing a growing pile of catalogs, the retailer you used may have passed your address to a data broker.
This legal trading of personal information is big business, involving companies ranging from huge multinationals to small British companies. Some perform simple activities such as collating and selling lists of names and contacts. Some combine multiple data sources to create rich profiles of individuals that may be considered intrusive.
The way businesses capture and use personal data (information such as name, email address, address and telephone number) is governed by UK data protection as set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. Managed.
Have you ever wondered how the sender of your catalog got your name and address? Photo: Alicia Kanter/The Guardian
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) says that to comply, organizations need to be upfront and tell people what they want to do with their data. This includes whether you plan to use a data broker service to obtain additional information or perform profiling. You also need to notify people if you plan to share their data with data brokers. “Organizations must clarify the purpose of processing and identify the data. legal basis for processing,” the ICO said.
“In the context of data brokerage, the commonly referred legal bases are consent and legitimate interests.”
This is why the words “legitimate interest” and “consent” often feature prominently in company website privacy notices.
Andrew Northage, a partner at law firm Walker Morris, said the first clause typically covers marketing, saying: “It is reasonable for retailers to promote their products and services; “This is to avoid having a strong negative impact on customers.”
Where direct marketing is carried out electronically (including by telephone, email and messaging) rather than by post, the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 also apply, Northage said. Here, the only legal basis for data sharing is consent.
“Customers should read the retailer's privacy notice to see if it offers to share data with third parties for marketing purposes,” he advises.
They should “only consent to this sharing if they are clear about what they are consenting to.”
prospect pool
among them Privacy notice Borden said it collects personal information “just like when you shop online.” “So we can send you a tailored offer for something you actually want, like that spotted raincoat.”
The company also said it may share users' names, addresses and “order details” with data brokers Epsilon and Experian, which “manage lead pools on behalf of UK retailers.” There is.
Managed by Epsilon (part of French advertising group Publicis). Abacus Alliance. This is a large database where over 250 participating catalog retailers and multichannel retailers share the names and addresses of their shopping customers, so other members can target them with mailshots. I can.
A “lead pool” is, as the name suggests, a collection of potential customers. Analysts, or more recently, artificial intelligence software, comb through this data to identify purchasing patterns. As a result, your name may be given to a company that appears to be selling what you want to buy.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Borden or Epsilon.
Have you ever wondered what personal information is collected when you shop online? Photo: Yui Mok/PA
Borden says “We strictly comply with data protection regulations. ”Additionally, “Customers can opt out of marketing at the time of purchase, through the marketing settings in their account, or through our customer service team. .”
Readers traced the source of the junk mail to the Abacus Alliance. “I called and was told it would be six months before deliveries would stop,” she said.
If you are in a similar situation and would like your personal data removed from our database, you can: fill out the form Please contact us via our website by calling 020 89438049 or nomail@epsilon.com.
The ICO says it has received a small number of complaints regarding Epsilon and Abacus Alliance in recent years, but has “determined that there is no further action to take in response to these complaints and is now closing the process.” he added.
Please refrain from spam mail
If you are unhappy with the amount of junk mail you receive, there are several things you can do to remove your name from the broker's database.
free Mail priority service (MPS) allows you to opt out of unsolicited personal email.
Russell Roach, head of preference services at the Data Marketing Association (DMA), which runs MPS, suggests that if you receive an unwanted catalog, you should first contact the company directly. “Send a letter or email to the company and ask them to remove your personal data from their records and affiliates,” he says. “Tell me how you feel about receiving all this junk mail.
“Register with MPS and we will do it for you. Our website says: Complaints section Here, we ask you to scan or send the email you receive. My team will then contact the organization and give you 14 days to respond.
“When we talk to this organization, we argue that emailing only those who want to receive information saves time and money and reduces waste.”
There are several ways to prevent receiving unsolicited email. Photo: Martin Argules/The Guardian
If you want to take it a step further, you can contact the Information Commissioner's Office, which has its own complaints process.
When signing up for a new product or service, the important things to look for are the boxes that are pre-checked. “You can check the box to say, 'I understand the terms and conditions,' but there's also a checkbox that says, 'Are you sure you want to transfer your data to some of our affiliates that offer similar services?' Sometimes it’s pre-checked,” says Roach. Uncheck this box to avoid unnecessary contact.
A growing number of companies, like DeleteMe, delete personal information sold online in exchange for a subscription fee (in this case £115 a year).
“DeleteMe exists to save people the time and headache of figuring out how to opt out of all these marketing schemes and data broker databases,” said Rob Shavel, CEO of the company. Masu.
“Hopefully, the result will be less direct mail, less spam, less robocalls, less phone calls, and less marketing that is unpleasant to you and offers little benefit to you personally.”
Science fiction has often depicted microscopic robots, but these tiny machines have become a reality with a wide range of real-world applications such as disease prevention and building repair.
A Canadian research team is now focusing on using these small robots to target liver cancer in various fields. They are working on using them in conjunction with MRI equipment to treat diseases (source).
A series of small biocompatible robots, made of magnetizable iron oxide nanoparticles guided by an external magnetic field, could potentially deliver medical care in a highly targeted manner.
Despite the potential of this technology, it faces a major technical challenge. The gravity of these microrobots exceeds the magnetic force, limiting their guidance if the tumor is located higher than the injection site.
To address this challenge, Dr. Jill Soules, a researcher at the CHUM Research Center at the University of Montreal, developed an algorithm that combines gravity and magnetic navigation forces to guide the microrobots into the arterial branches that feed the tumor.
This research has the potential to change the way liver cancer is treated with radiation therapy, which is the most common type of cancer causing 700,000 deaths annually worldwide.
Dr. Soulez emphasized the advantages of the magnetic resonance navigation technique, indicating that the tumor is better visualized on MRI than on X-ray.
In an experiment using pigs to recreate anatomical conditions, the researchers successfully navigated the hepatic artery branches of the animals and arrived at their destination using the microrobots.
Furthermore, using an anatomical atlas of the human liver, the researchers were able to simulate microrobot maneuvers on 19 patients treated with transarterial chemoembolization, finding that in more than 95% of cases, the location of the tumors matched the navigation algorithm to reach the targeted tumor.
Despite these significant advances, clinical application of this technology is still in the distant future, as artificial intelligence models need further training and improvements for real-time navigation of microrobots to the liver.
B
Oh, back then I felt a certain amount of sympathy for people who were forced to become computer savvy. They were often seen on the streets struggling home, carrying rucksacks full of technology and ruining the lines of their Hugo Boss suits. It looked like a ball and chain to me. So I stayed away. Every time someone mentioned a computer, I said: “What do you need a computer for?” I’m a poet. ”
Then, when cell phones came out, I was sitting next to two girls on public transportation. That’s when I heard one of the girls’ girlfriends say to the other one: “Her boss just bought her a new cell phone,” I thought. I’m sure he does. If he put an iron collar around your neck, would you be happy about it?
The proliferation of cell phones may have been the moment I truly distanced myself from technology. At first, people were saying they were admiring me, as if it were some kind of principled position I was taking. I thought they were praising me now, but in the future they would be like, “Who the hell do you think you are without a cell phone?” And it was proven. Their love quickly turned to hatred.
The last piece of technology I worked on was the DVD player. From then on, I decided that I didn’t need any more machines in my life. I write all my poems using a quill (a beautiful one with a calligrapher’s nib) and parchment by candlelight. The quill was originally a prop for a photo shoot I was doing, but I decided to keep it with the pot of ink. I don’t have a typewriter, computer, or cell phone, so I can’t send email. If anyone needs me, please call my landline. I’m usually at home anyway, but I’m not living off-grid.
As a teenager, I really liked the idea of becoming the next Mickey Spillane, the great American crime writer. But I had to abandon that idea. If I tried to write a detective story set in modern times, people would say, “What’s he running there for?” Why didn’t he text? Why didn’t he go into a phone booth? Why didn’t he Google his Skype?
Not all changes are for the better. Progress is great, but it’s often tempting to say, “I can stop there.” That’s the nature of progress, isn’t it? It always lasts longer than necessary. Who the hell asked for touch-sensitive controls for everything?
The best place to listen to music is in your car, so I now put most of my music on cassette tapes. There is a ghetto blaster in every room of the house. The storage room also has a television, VHS player, and a spare VHS player. I have three large chests of drawers that contain all the videos I’ve recorded and a few I forgot to record. In 1989, he returned to blockbuster films such as “The Terminator''.
Moving away from technological development was never a political or even conscious decision. I am not convinced that I made the right choice because I receive thousands of punishments every day from the analog community. Every day, it’s “Visit our app!” or “Visit our website!” In my day and age, you have to interact with medical institutions on a regular basis, and you just have to talk to a real person – and a flesh-and-blood person. That’s not possible.
I don’t like a “cashless society” either. I spent 40 years trying to make money with this poem lark, and the moment I got the money, suddenly no one wanted it anymore. Even my bank has moved to another town. To earn my own money I have to take a taxi which costs £70 round trip. But I don’t do online banking. We often hear horror stories about large sums of money going missing. Once you have the money, it should be the end of your worries, not the beginning of new and worst worries.
I hate that some people run away with the idea that I’m some kind of social justice warrior, but technology seems to be having a negative impact on people who are struggling in society. For example, how does it affect mendicants? If no one has spare change, how will an ordinary person living in a cardboard box get by?
Another thing I don’t want to see is Tesco cashier workers losing their jobs over do-it-yourself cashiers. People talk about the speed of technology, but how fast has it really become? Once upon a time, if you were on your way to work and there was a queue at a newsagent’s, you could pick up a newspaper and I was able to run to the front of the queue and leave my ninepence on the counter. “Daily Guardian, hey there. Now you have to queue while someone takes 20 minutes to self-scan every item. I’m glad people live longer these days. Because there are so many things you have to waste your time on.
For me, it was always about computers or career. Work will never get done! I know this because my daughter has a computer. I didn’t want to give it to her, but at the same time she doesn’t want to impose her own prejudices on her child. She would have been the only one in her school class without her.
Anyway, when she got this computer, she said, “You should get one too, Dad, he’ll love it. ” I said, “I know you do, but that’s the problem.” She wanted to see how good they really were, so she said to her, “Can you bring in Dion and the Belmonts?” Let’s see how long it takes. After 3 seconds, Runaround Sue will play. That’s why I can’t own a computer. It’s easy to get distracted. Six weeks later, he was found dead, buried under a pile of pizza boxes.
I don’t like TV. To be honest, I’ve never been a big fan of television. We have Freeview, which has about 800 channels. I like shows like “Bangers & Cash” and “Wheeler Dealers.” And I like Portillo’s Great British Railroad Journey and Great American Railroad Journey. You’ll learn more in 30 minutes with that guy than you would in 10 years at school. (An amazing reinvention of the man Portillo.)
I’ve heard that some people are paying a lot of money to go “off the grid” these days. I imagine it as some kind of retreat with a religious, Zen-Buddhist vibe. A step into another dimension for a while. i haven’t. For example, I’m a big fan of electricity. I enjoy brief power outages just to remind gung-ho environmentalists what life is like without electricity. If we abolish electricity, millions of people will die immediately. Therefore, what he does for 10 minutes without power will be a healthy lesson for everyone. There’s a lot more to like about the modern world. They had just discovered streptomycin when I was a sick child with tuberculosis. When I was young, I loved electric guitars. I played bass in a band. So, I’m not the kind of person who wishes he had lived 200 years ago.
People’s natural abilities are beginning to shrink due to technology. People ask me, “What would you do if you left home without your cell phone and got lost?” I don’t get lost. As long as you have a tongue in your head, you will find a way. People stopped talking to other people. Anyway, the only time I leave the house alone is to ride my bike. Even that is old, a 1959 Hercules. I go to the bookstore by bicycle. There’s a lot of technology involved in gambling these days, but I prefer the old days. I prefer the days when it was knee-deep in cigarette butts and full of losers. My first job was as a runner for a bookmaker, so I was exposed to the world of depraved gamblers from an early age. I think that’s what kept me from doing that.
It’s a technology issue. You stop interacting with the real world. It removes what we used to call social life. Knock on people’s doors. An encounter at a pub. We talk a lot about responsible drinking now, but it used to be enforced in your local pub. Your father’s friend will be there and say, “You drank too much, brace yourself. There’s still three hours until closing time.” It’s those subtle things, the low-level checks that keep you from having a nervous breakdown and turning into a housebound drunkard sitting alone drinking a very strong cheap lager in front of a porn movie. People worry about technology in grand science fiction terms and think it could end the world. But there’s no point in looking toward a dystopian future. Take a look around. The nightmare is already upon us.
As told by Tim Jones.
Lo and behold, John Cooper Clarke’s new poetry collection is now on sale, priced at £16.99 (Picador). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy here: guardianbookshop.com. Shipping charges may apply. Cooper Clarke tours his new show ‘Get Him While He’s Still Alive’ Running across the UK from March 5th to June 28th.
Officials at CERN, the world’s leading particle physics research institute, have announced plans to build the world’s largest particle accelerator. The machine is designed to smash molecules at near the speed of light, marking a significant step forward.
The proposed super collider, called the Future Circular Collider (FCC), will be a massive 91 km in length, three times the size of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This new machine will allow scientists to collide particles with greater precision and energy than ever before, potentially unraveling some of the universe’s biggest mysteries. These include the existence of more matter than antimatter, the nature of dark matter and energy, the presence of hidden extra dimensions, and the existence of the universe as a whole.
This step forward is significant because scientists hope the FCC will deepen their understanding of particle physics, aiming to explain why particles have specific masses and forces, and to uncover the nature of dark matter and dark energy, which account for 95% of the mass-energy of the universe. If approved, construction is expected to start by the mid-2030s, with the first stage operating around 2045, followed by a second phase extending research into the 2070s, establishing the FCC as a multigenerational scientific research effort.
Is bigger always better?
The importance of building larger particle accelerators lies in the fact that they can achieve higher collision energies. The goal is to put in enough energy to create new particles, such as the Higgs boson. The FCC aims to eventually reach seven times the collision energy of the LHC, offering a new and more complete understanding of physics.
The FCC will be capable of creating millions of Higgs particles, providing scientists with the opportunity to study them in great detail to understand how they interact with other particles. The Higgs boson is a carrier particle of the Higgs field that permeates space and gives mass to other particles, challenging previously held concepts about matter and mass.
CERN’s proposed super collider would be 91 km long and would be the largest particle collider ever built. The hope is that its increased precision and higher collision energies will eventually allow physicists to understand the nature of the Higgs boson, and perhaps even reality itself. – Image credit: CERN
god particle
In addition to providing deeper insight into the Higgs boson, the FCC will also aim to uncover the mechanisms by which the Higgs boson interacts and its significance in the universe. It is thought to have played a crucial role in the very beginning of the universe, nanoseconds after the big bang, by giving mass to matter as the universe grew and cooled. The influence of the Higgs boson is also relevant in understanding how the universe will end, as it affects the stability of the universe itself.
The FCC is expected to contribute to our understanding of whether the universe is in a stable or unstable state, providing the key to answering fundamental questions about the universe’s fate.
the beginning and end of the universe
The FCC will play a crucial role in answering questions about the beginning and the end of the universe, with the expertise of notable scientists like Marcus Chown, professor Andy Parker, and Matthew McCullough. The expectation is that this new accelerator will contribute to an in-depth understanding of the fundamental physics that govern the universe and our place within it.
About our experts
Marcus Chown is an award-winning author, broadcaster, and former radio astronomer. He is the author of Breakthrough: The Spectacle of Scientific Discovery His Story from the Higgs Boson to the Black Hole (Faber & Faber, 2021). Professor Andy Parker is a British physicist and professor of high-energy physics at the University of Cambridge. He is a member and chair of the CERN Science Policy Committee and the Scientific Advisory Committee on Future Circular Colliders, among other notable positions. Matthew McCullough is a theoretical physicist and researcher at CERN, focused on areas of interest including collisional physics, cosmology, astroparticle physics, and quantum field theory, involved in FCC feasibility studies.
In the strange world of the paranormal, one unique phenomenon that comes up again and again is the near-death experience (NDE). The white light at the end of the tunnel, the memories of someone’s life flashing before your eyes, and even the vision of heaven.
All these clichés are thoroughly played out in movies and TV shows for a reason. Research shows that people do experience these intense visions.
A near-death experience can be an amazing boost to a better life, making people happier, more fulfilled, and less afraid of death. It is not just natural to feel quite distraught when you are close to death and experience such a mirage. In fact, the opposite may also be true.
So what exactly are the effects of a near-death experience? What’s happening in the brain during these events? And… well, is it possible to create one without nearly dying?
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What is a near-death experience actually like?
Although not all near-death experiences result in some form of vision or ultimately a unique experience, they are very common and often apply to positive or negative experiences.
“When people started studying near-death experiences, the focus was almost entirely on the more positive, more typical experiences. But as time went on, people became more aware of the negative as well. Now,” Professor Chris French said a psychologist who believes in the paranormal. BBC Science Focus in instant genius Podcast.
“In terms of what’s going on, it’s a very rich hallucinatory experience, but it feels incredibly real. It feels as real as anything you’ve ever experienced.”
For those who have had positive experiences, it’s not as much of a problem, but when people have negative experiences, they often have problems such as: increased fear of death, and may even experience lifelong trauma. What’s even more frightening is that people think: Approximately 1 in 5 near-death experiences You fall into this negative camp.
Chris categorizes these negative experiences into three categories.
The first is the most important consideration. positive experience. An awe-inspiring moment, perhaps seeing their memories come flooding back to them, but they may not see it in a positive way.
The second category he describes as Hieronymus Bosch’s hellscape. In other words, this is a complete nightmarish view of life and death, where humans are tortured and a painful afterlife awaits them.
Finally, something even more sinister, there is nothing. Many reports paint a picture of an empty void, where you spend the rest of eternity drifting aimlessly.
So far, it doesn’t sound very good, but what about positive experiences? These still sound pretty scary, but the vast majority of people have experienced intense experiences that help them realize the joy in life. We are reporting positive experiences in line with our experience.
Common examples include feeling yourself floating out of your body, seeing your life flashing before your eyes, and of course seeing the light forming at the end of the tunnel you have to walk through. Here are the people who saw it.
When people have a more positive experience, they tend to report sensations at the same time. You feel lighter, freer and completely calm. For some people, these visions (which can be quite frightening) can be made more comfortable by the joy they feel.
These experiences are associated with a higher appreciation for life and positive feelings towards the whole experience, despite coming close to death.
The science behind the experience
So what exactly causes near-death experiences? Are they visions from God? Can we actually get a glimpse of the afterlife? Of course, science cannot say for sure. But researchers like French have an interesting theory.
“Most neuropsychologists think this is a vision of a dying brain. Strange things usually happen in the brain in situations like this, and this is how we experience it,” French said. Told.
“It’s incredibly real, and there’s no definitive answer to explain it, but this is definitely the most logical answer we have.”
In the brain, this occurs primarily in the right temporoparietal cortex, the part of the brain that takes in information from the visual, auditory, and somatosensory (sensory) systems.
“It’s important to note that someone doesn’t actually have to be close to death to experience this, they just need to believe it. Although there are still many questions remaining regarding near-death experiences. , a neuropsychological approach is the best we have.”
read more:
A more fulfilling life after facing death
You’re close to death, you’ve had some kind of vision of the afterlife, and now you’re back to normal life. How do people move forward when they find themselves in a situation like this?
For most people, the experience is transformative. An overwhelming percentage of people who have had a near-death experience report a desire to change their lives after approaching death.
Not surprisingly, many people who have had a near-death experience believe that they have seen the afterlife or experienced another dimension, and have since focused on reincarnation, the afterlife, and projections of the mind. It becomes much more spiritual.
In a study of cardiac arrest survivors People who have had a near-death experience are statistically less afraid of death, have more belief in life after death, are more interested in the meaning of life, are more accepting of others, and are more likely to be loving and empathetic. has become higher.
For some people, this takes effect immediately after they regain consciousness. For some people, this can take years to build up.
How to induce a near-death experience without nearly dying
This all sounds great, but dying is a very difficult way to bring more joy into your life. Is there an easier way to experience a near-death experience? Technically yes. There are reports of people getting into them without the dying part.
In some cases, people have been able to meditate on near-death experience visions and experiences.in Study of advanced Buddhist meditatorsthey were able to induce that experience without causing fear of death.
However, these were monks with over 20 years of experience in the world of meditation, who frequently meditated for hours on end. Buddhist monks have also had near-death experiences and even claim to be able to understand the emotions that accompany a near-death experience.
Unfortunately, outside of meditation, that experience is difficult to force. In most cases, the fear of dying is so strong that the experience is triggered. If you don’t meditate throughout your life, you’ll either really die or think you’re going to die…Maybe meditation is the best way to go after all.
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