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POPSNew science could help solve climate crisis "Strong mitigation...combined with global-scale air capture and storage, afforestation, and (enhanced CO2 sinks) might be able to bring CO2 back to its pre-industrial level by 2100, thus removing the need for other geoengineering," the report said. The level of mitigation of emissions required is in line with United Nations scientists' recommendation to cut greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050, thereby keeping atmospheric CO2 below 450 parts per million and a global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius, Lenton told Reuters.
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POPSPharmaceutical Love Potion: Not Yet... In humans, brain regions associated with dopamine are activated in mothers looking at pictures of their children, and lovers at each other — and, perhaps instructively, in drug addicts taking heroin or cocaine. To Young, all this means that science may soon treat lovelessness as easily as it now treats depression and anxiety. "Drugs that manipulate brain systems at whim to enhance or diminish our love for another may not be far away," he writes. Not so fast, said Fisher. The alterations required to manipulate love, she said, are likely so complex and far-reaching as to be unattainable in a pill. "There are cognitive processes and limbic reactions associated with basic emotions," said Fisher. "And you can change brain chemistry, but you're still not going to change memories and experiences in a human being."
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POPSScience Behind Mysterious 'Fifth Taste' Revealed In the late 19th century, French chef and veal-stock inventor Auguste Escoffier suggested that a fifth taste was responsible for his mouth-watering brew. Though Escoffier's dishes were popular, his theories were dismissed until 1908, when Japanese chemist Kikunae Ikeda showed that an amino acid called glutamate underlies the taste of a hearty variety of seaweed soup. In honor of Ikeda, the taste was dubbed umami, the Japanese word for delicious. It took another 80 years for umami to be recognized by science as comparable to the other four tastes. In the meantime, monosodium glutamate became wildly popular as a flavor enhancer. But MSG can cause headaches and dizziness, and has been tenuously linked to long-term neurological disorders. Between the public dissatisfaction with MSG and growing demand for artificial meats and dairy products, an umami alternative is welcome.
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POPSSweden's Ultra-Modern Underground Data Center
When asked the motivation behind Pionen, Jon Karlung, CEO of Bahnhof said “Rather than just concentrating on technical hardware we decided to put humans in focus. Of course, the security, power, cooling, network, etc, are all top notch, but the people designing data centers often (always!) forget about the humans that are supposed to work with the stuff.” “Since we got hold of this unique nuclear bunker in central Stockholm deep below the rock, we just couldn't’t build it like a traditional – more boring – hosting center,” he said. “We wanted to make something different. The place itself needed something far out in design and science fiction was the natural source of inspiration in this case – plus of course some solid experience from having been a hosting provider for more than a decade.” Regarding the design of the facility, he said “I’m personally a big fan of old science fiction movies. Especially ones from the 70s like Logan’s Run, Silent Running, Star Wars...
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POPSFour Reasons Not to Give Up on Interstellar Travel It looks far, dark, and cold... Yet, 120 years ago, flight was science fiction as well. C. G. Jung said that all dreams of space travel are just an escape from one most difficult challenge of all, that is the journey to man's inner space. :-) ...and see my clip from last week on suggested FTL drive. It seems the motivation to escape an inner journey just grows.
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POPSFuture Drugs Will Make Troops Want to Fight Their report, “Emerging Cognitive Neuroscience and Related Technologies,” was released today. It charts a range of cognitive technologies that are potentially powerful — and, perhaps, powerfully troubling. Here are the report’s main areas of focus: Mind reading. The development of psychological models and neurological imaging has made it possible to see what people are thinking and whether they’re lying. Cognitive enhancement. Arguably the most developed area of cognitive neuroscience, with drugs already allowing soldiers to stay awake and alert for days at a time, Mind control. Largely pharmaceutical, for the moment, and a natural outgrowth of cognitive enhancement approaches and mind-reading insight: If we can alter the brain, why not control it? Mind control. Largely pharmaceutical, for the moment, and a natural outgrowth of cognitive enhancement approaches and mind-reading insight: If we can alter the brain, why not control it?
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POPSComplex decision? Don't sleep on it Since its publication two years ago by a Dutch research team in the journal Science, the earlier finding had been used to encourage decision-makers to make "snap" decisions (for example, in the best-selling book Blink, by Malcolm Gladwell) or to leave complex choices to the powers of unconscious thought ("Sleep on it", Dijksterhuis et al., Science, 2006). But in the new study, to be published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, scientists ran four experiments in which participants were presented with complex decisions and asked to choose the best option immediately ("blink"), after a period of conscious deliberation ("think"), or after a period of distraction ("sleep on it"), which is claimed to encourage "unconscious thought processes". In all experiments, there was some evidence that conscious deliberation can lead to better choices and little evidence for superiority of choices made "unconsciously".
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POPSDo economists need brains? For the past four years, a group of leading neuroeconomists and neuroscientists has met to refine questions about the brain and economic behaviour. Researchers trained in both neuroscience and economics are entering the field. Daniel Kahneman, a Princeton University psychologist who in 2002 won the Nobel prize in economics for his contribution to behavioural economics, is an enthusiastic supporter of the new field. “In many areas of economics, it will dominate, because it works,” says Mr Kahneman. Interesting read...
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POPSQuiet Explosion: Object Intermediate Between Normal Supernovae And Gamma-ray Bursts Found Stars that were at birth more massive than about 8 times the mass of our Sun end their relatively short life in a cosmic, cataclysmic firework lighting up the Universe. The outcome is the formation of the densest objects that exist, neutron stars and black holes. When exploding, some of the most massive stars emit a short cry of agony, in the form of a burst of very energetic light, X- or gamma-rays.
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POPSReligious beliefs significantly tied to political participation In contrast, if one believes that God is more inactive, as is common with Jews and mainline Protestants, then one would need to take action and more likely be politically engaged. "Our results have wide-ranging implications for both the study of political participation and the field of religion," the authors conclude. "It is focused types of religious beliefs, more than broad religious traditions, which impact political participation."
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POPSThey say they want a revolution Increasing computing power 10,000 times — to speeds in the hundreds of petaflops — would allow modellers to study simulations at the kilometre scale, enabling better predictions on the activity of hurricanes and, eventually, the local deep convection that transfers much energy into the upper atmosphere (see 'A real solution?'). This research could then be fed into operational models.
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POPSSeeing the future Using his hypothesis, called “perceiving-the-present,” he was able to systematically organize and explain more than 50 types of visual illusions that occur because our brains are trying to perceive the near future. His findings are described in May-June issue of the journal Cognitive Science.
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POPSA few good guys You must go to the web site and see a few of the greatest names in 20th century science
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POPSIt's not immoral to want to be immortal the prospect of immortality raises complex ethical social and economical issues. This is exactly why we need immortality! So we will have unlimited time to resolve these very issues. If there is one thing humanity won't give up is the dream of immortality. It is as ancient as our race.
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POPSLife 2.0. A fascinating article of what seems to be near future breakthrough that will radically change the course of human existence. The line between science and science fiction seems to become ever thinner
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POPSRead My Mind Important advancement in neuroscience towards improving the life of the seriously handicapped
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