Tag: science

New Study Shows For First Time Men and Women’s Brains Work Differently

In what may prove a massive blow to the transgender lobby, scientists have officially proven for the first time that male and female brains are distinct and operate differently.

“There has never been any definitive proof of difference in activity in the brains of men and women, but Stanford University has shown that it is possible to tell the sexes apart based on activity in “hotspot” areas,” reports the Telegraph.

Researchers discovered that “sex is a robust determinant of human brain organisation” in key areas of the brain including ones that regulate emotion, memory, sexual stimulation, habit forming and introspection.

The “default mode network” which is the neurological center for “self” is also different between men and women.

The differences explain what we normally experience in the real world – for example why men have better spatial awareness and working memory whereas women have better long term memory.

The team trained an AI system to process vast amounts of data and was then tasked with being asked to determine whether an MRI brain scan came from a man or a woman.

“When the researchers tested the model on about 1,500 brain scans, the model was able to tell if the scan came from a woman or a man more than 90 per cent of the time,” reports the newspaper.

“Our findings suggest that differences in brain activity patterns across these key brain regions contribute to sex-specific variations in cognitive functioning,” said Dr Vinod Menon, prof of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Stanford.

So there you have it. It’s biology, not society that shapes brain divergence.

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NAVAL RESEARCH LABORATORY LEVERAGES EXOTIC PROPERTIES OF 2D WAVEGUIDES TO CAPTURE THE LIGHT OF DARK EXCITONS

A milestone discovery of waveguides based on two-dimensional materials with “exotic” properties has been achieved, according to researchers with the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL).

The breakthrough was achieved during studies involving hexagonal boron nitride, a two-dimensional material, by the U.S. Navy’s official corporate research lab while working with researchers from Kansas State University.

EXPERIMENTS IN THE REALM OF 2D MATERIALS

2D materials are a unique class of substances that result from the reduction of a material to its recognized monolayer limits through processes of mechanical peeling. This results in a unique class of ultra-thin 2D materials which have a variety of applications.

The most famous 2D material is graphene, which is formed from bonded carbon atoms to create a sheet that is just one atom in thickness. Such materials can be separated into layers by exploiting what is known as the van der Waals attraction, which describes an attracting force between atoms or molecules that is dependent on distance, rather than chemical bonding.

Following successful recent experiments with graphene, researchers have engaged in experimentation with other novel 2D materials, including hexagonal boron nitride (BN), the softest and most stable of BN’s forms which has already seen applications as a lubricant in machine components, as well as in some cosmetic products.

However, of greater interest to studies at the NRL are the ways these materials can be leveraged at the nanoscale level. This makes them particularly useful for developing applications where extremely thin optical and electrical components are necessary.

Hexagonal boron nitride is a particularly special case, given that past samples examined by NRL scientists revealed its potentially useful optical qualities. However, further studies soon revealed a surprise: that the compound possessed other hidden, and extremely promising capabilities.

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Leading Scientific Journal Humiliated After Publishing Fake AI-Generated Paper About Rat With Giant Penis

A leading scientific journal faces humiliation after it published a completely fake paper, purportedly written by Chinese researchers, which contained AI generated images of a rat with a penis bigger than its own body.

The Telegraph reports that the journal Frontiers in Cell and Development Biology published a paper that claimed to show the signalling pathway of sperm stem cells, but depicted a rat sitting upright with a massive dick and four giant testicles.

The illustration was reportedly created by using Midjourney, the AI imaging tool, which added labels to the ridiculous diagram using terms that don’t exist, including “dissilced”, “testtomcels” and “senctolic”.

Another ludicrous image to the right of the rat displays “sterrn cells” in a Petri dish being spooned out.

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The existence of a new kind of magnetism has been confirmed

A new kind of magnetism has been measured for the first time. Altermagnets, which contain a blend of properties from different classes of existing magnets, could be used to make high capacity and fast memory devices or new kinds of magnetic computers.

Until the 20th century, there was thought to be only one kind of permanent magnet, a ferromagnet, the effects of which can be seen in objects with relatively strong external magnetic fields like fridge magnets or compass needles.

These fields are caused by the magnetic spins of the magnets’ electrons lining up in one direction.

But, in the 1930s, French physicist Louis Néel discovered another kind of magnetism, called antiferromagnetism, where the electrons’ spins are alternately up and down. Although antiferromagnets lack the external fields of ferromagnets, they do show interesting internal magnetic properties because of the alternating spins.

Then in 2019, researchers predicted a perplexing electric current in the crystal structure of certain antiferromagnets, called the anomalous Hall effect, which couldn’t be explained by the conventional theory of alternating spins. The current was moving without any external magnetic field.

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Scientists Try Risky Air And Water Experiments Hoping To Stop Climate Change

Scientists desperate to stop or reverse climate change are dumping chemicals in the ocean and spraying saltwater in the air. What can go wrong? I discuss the short and long term.

The Wall Street Journal reports Scientists Resort to Once-Unthinkable Solutions to Cool the Planet

Dumping chemicals in the ocean? Spraying saltwater into clouds? Injecting reflective particles into the sky? Scientists are resorting to once unthinkable techniques to cool the planet because global efforts to check greenhouse gas emissions are failing.

These geoengineering approaches were once considered taboo by scientists and regulators who feared that tinkering with the environment could have unintended consequences, but now researchers are receiving taxpayer funds and private investments to get out of the lab and test these methods outdoors.

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A BREAKTHROUGH IN THE CONTROL OF QUANTUM PHENOMENA AT ROOM TEMPERATURE HAS BEEN ACHIEVED, RESEARCHERS SAY

Quantum physics and mechanical engineering have been united in a breakthrough method allowing the control of quantum phenomena at room temperature, according to the findings of a pioneering new study.

In quantum mechanics, observing and controlling quantum phenomena has traditionally only occurred under conditions where temperatures approach absolute zero. Theoretically the coldest temperature attainable and roughly equivalent to around -459.67 Fahrenheit, absolute zero is the point at which matter becomes so cold that the motion of particles would cease.

Although allowing for easier detection of quantum effects, reaching such astoundingly cold temperatures is not easy, and has limited applications and studies involving quantum technologies.

“Reaching the regime of room temperature quantum optomechanics has been an open challenge since decades,” says Tobias J. Kippenberg, the co-author of a new study that, based on its findings, could finally present practical ways of overcoming such challenges.

According to Kippenberg, the new work has brought what physicists call Heisenberg’s microscope—once only realized as a theoretical model—into reality.

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Publisher Retracts Three Abortion Studies

Sage Journals retracted three abortion studies — including two cited by a federal judge in a case against the abortion pill mifepristoneopens in a new tab or window (Mifeprex) — after an investigation revealed methodological flaws and misleading conclusions.

In the retraction noticeopens in a new tab or window, Sage stated that an investigation following concerns raised by a reader about one article revealed that the way some data are presented “leads to an inaccurate conclusion” and that its study cohort “has problems that could affect the article’s conclusions.”

Subsequently, the journal conducted post-publication peer review of two more studies involving similar author groups that relied on the same dataset, and found “fundamental problems with the study design and methodology, unjustified or incorrect factual assumptions, material errors in the authors’ analysis of the data, and misleading presentations of the data.”

All three retracted articles had been published in the journal Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology and were led by James Studnicki, ScD, MPH, MBA, the vice president and director of data analytics at the Charlotte Lozier Institute, the Arlington, Virginia-based research arm of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

“Sage confirmed that all but one of the article’s authors had an affiliation with one or more of [the] Charlotte Lozier Institute, Elliot Institute, and American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists [AAPLOG], all pro-life advocacy organizations, despite having declared they had no conflicts of interest when they submitted the article for publication or in the article itself,” the retraction notice statedopens in a new tab or window. AAPLOG is one of the partnering organizations of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine,opens in a new tab or window which is the plaintiff in the case against the FDA’s approval of mifepristone.

In an emailed statement, Studnicki told MedPage Today that “all authors fully complied with Sage’s conflict disclosure requirements. They reported their organizational affiliations, as well as [Charlotte Lozier Institute] funding of the study, as part of the submission for publication.”

“In fact, the ER study includes 10 mentions of [the Charlotte Lozier Institute] and the authors’ professional status or relationship there. There is nothing that we were required to report that we did not report,” he said.

During the investigation, Sage also found that one of the people who peer reviewed the research prior to original publication was also associated with the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Thus, Sage determined that under Committee of Publication Ethics (COPE) standards, the initial peer review was “unreliable.”

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Research Shows Gender-Reassignment Treatments Have No Mental Health Benefits, National Pediatricians Group Says

A review of more than 60 studies has concluded that “there is no long-term evidence that mental health concerns are decreased or alleviated after ‘gender-affirming therapy,’” according to a national group of physicians.

The American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds) on Wednesday issued its position statement opposing the use of so-called “gender-affirming” medications, such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, social transition, and surgery for youth who have a gender identity not congruent with their sex.

“We urge medical professionals and parents to affirm the truth about childhood gender dysphoria in the presence of harmful thoughts and address the underlying mental illness, adverse events, and family dysfunction,” said Dr. Jane Anderson, lead author and vice president of ACPeds, in a statement.

The group found there is substantial evidence that transgender youth suffer from high rates of mental health problems.

“From this review of the literature, there is strong evidence that children and adolescents who identify as transgender have experienced significant psychological trauma leading to their gender dysphoria,” ACPeds concluded.

ACPeds position outlines the studies that have led a number of European countries, including Finland, Norway, and Sweden, to reverse their positions and reject gender-reassignment treatments in young people.

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Will people again be afraid of the creation of a black hole on Earth? CERN is promoting a new particle accelerator that will be seven times more powerful than the LHC

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the largest particle accelerator in the world. It will remain so for a long time, but CERN is already moving forward with plans to create a much larger collider.

CERN initially unveiled plans for the new accelerator in 2019. Now the center says it wants its construction plans to be approved within five years, which would put the collider up and running in the 2040s.

More precisely, during this period the installation will work as part of the first stage, when scientists will collide electrons and positrons. The second phase will be implemented only in the 2070s – then protons will begin to collide at the accelerator.

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LUCID DREAMING BREAKTHROUGH ACHIEVED AS RESEARCHERS REPORT SUCCESSFUL CONTROL OF A VIRTUAL OBJECT WHILE SLEEPING

The first two-way control of a virtual object by study participants while lucid dreaming has been documented, according to the findings of a new research effort.

Researchers with REMspace, a California startup, report that five participants in the recent study were successfully able to control a virtual Cybertruck while lucid dreaming, and even avoid obstacles that appeared on a screen.

MULTITASKING WHILE DREAMING

Humans spend an incredible amount of time sleeping. The average time spent in restful sleep during a person’s life amounts to around 227,760 hours, which equals 26 years or about a third of the lifespan of the average person. Meanwhile, an additional 33 years of our lives, on average, are spent just trying to fall asleep.

While the human body requires sleep for a variety of reasons, which include resting our bodies and allowing our brains a crucial “system reset”, many people lament the amount of time spent on sleep that could be applied toward other activities.

Past research has shown that some people may be successful at solving problems while they sleep, or at least that sleeping may help reactivate memories in ways that may help an individual glean new insights into issues they are facing or problems they need to solve.

The researchers at REMspace decided to take these past findings further, and find out whether people could be connected to computers while sleeping to see if they could successfully solve tasks from within a dream state.

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