Intra-cranial electroencephalography (iEEG) is a technology using tiny electrodes in the brain to record signals, and Precision Neuroscience set a world record with 4,096 electrodes.
Wilder Penfield pioneered important techniques in brain surgery and epilepsy treatment, including the Montreal Procedure and temporal lobectomy, affecting both surgical outcomes and scientific understanding of the brain.
Stereo EEG, a variant of iEEG, allows for deep brain signal recording, and using iEEG in a Stroop task helped identify brain regions involved in attentional control processes in the prefrontal cortex.
Researchers developed a new tool called SLiPP that helps quickly find proteins that interact with lipids. This is important because lipids play key roles in cell functions and diseases.
SLiPP uses machine learning to distinguish between protein pockets likely to bind lipids and those that won't. This makes it easier to identify potential targets for drug discovery.
The tool has been successfully tested on different organisms, showing it can accurately predict lipid-binding proteins. This helps scientists explore new areas in lipid biology and disease research.
Baboons can learn to assess scatterplots and identify trends, similar to humans. This shows that different species can have overlapping skills in certain tasks.
In general, smart baboons can outperform less intelligent humans in recognizing relationships in data. This highlights that intelligence can vary greatly, even within our own species.
The study suggests that education plays a big role in developing skills, like understanding statistics. Humans often learn these concepts in school, while baboons do not.
Nate Hagens' podcast 'The Great Simplification' discusses the critical role of energy in human civilization and the potential for ecological overshoot to lead to major changes for humanity's survival.
The concept of 'Energy Blindness' is explored in a conversation between Nate Hagens and Steve Keen, tracing back to Adam Smith, known as 'the Father of Economics'.
The podcast conversation between Nate Hagens and Steve Keen is available both in audio and video formats for different preferences.
Science communication should be personalized and emotional to engage people effectively.
Revisiting and retesting myths is an essential part of the scientific process and can lead to different results.
Encouraging transparency in scientific publishing, advocating for open access, and embracing the self-correcting nature of science can help address the reproducibility crisis.
Otters are important urban wildlife and their poop, called spraint, can tell us a lot about their diet and health. Researchers study spraint to understand what otters eat and to check for parasites or pollution.
River otters tend to be clean and use specific spots, called latrines, to poop. This behavior might be social, but researchers aren't completely sure why they do it.
Even in polluted areas, river otters are resilient and continue to survive and reproduce. It's important for us to help make urban environments healthier for wildlife.
Space Ambition attracted over 8,000 readers and completed more than 50 research projects in its first year. It's great to see such a big community focused on space and technology!
The team believes that space technology can solve many of Earth's problems and aims to make it more understandable and accessible for everyone. They want to connect space with everyday life.
Readers have shared inspiring stories about how the blog has influenced their careers, which shows the positive impact of their work in the space sector. It's awesome to see people motivated to pursue their dreams!
Real social networks exhibit more complex behaviors than simple mathematical models can capture.
The structure of social media follower counts differs significantly from the Erdős–Rényi network model, with some users having exponentially more followers than others.
Recent network models like the Barabási-Albert model better represent the dynamics of online social networks like Twitter, where heavy-tailed distributions of follower counts emerge.
In the 1960s, nuclear power was as cheap as coal, at about 3.2 cents per kWh in 2024 dollars.
Nuclear power plants require significantly less material and labor compared to coal plants, making them potentially cheaper to build and operate.
High regulatory costs, escalating material and labor expenses, and a misdirected regulatory system have contributed to making nuclear power more expensive than it should be.
Reliability is crucial when working with large language models, and prompt ensembles offer a straightforward way to make them more accurate and consistent.
Prompt ensembles show generalization across different language models, reducing sensitivity to changing underlying models and prompts.
Aggregation of multiple outputs from prompt ensembles is complex but crucial for improving model performance, requiring sophisticated strategies beyond simple majority voting.
Long-term monthly payments and lump sum cash transfers are both effective ways of helping people, but short-term monthly payments are less effective.
The Copenhagen Consensus Center has identified twelve programs that are more cost-effective than unconditional cash transfers for addressing global poverty.
Malaria vaccines may be less cost-effective than bednets and seasonal malaria chemoprevention due to logistical challenges and similar efficacy.
European Space Agency is developing a sustainable human presence on the Moon with innovative concepts and technology.
European startups like Spartan Space and ASI are contributing to the development of lunar habitats and outposts.
Efforts by ESA and European companies in developing lunar landers, OTVs, training centers, and communication services are crucial for establishing a sustained presence on the Moon.
Clinical sequencing is becoming a major part of the medical field, especially in areas like oncology and genetic disease testing. However, many clinicians still find it challenging to use these new testing methods.
Protein sequencing is an emerging area with potential advancements on the horizon, particularly with new technologies like Nanopore. It's an exciting field that many are watching closely.
Single cell analysis remains a hot topic, but companies like 10X Genomics are facing challenges with growth and patent issues. There are still many experiments and innovations happening in this space.
Science should help us make better choices now, not just speculate about the past. We should focus on how what we learn can improve our lives today.
Understanding historical impacts like slavery can teach us more about current issues, such as trust and economic development, rather than just dwelling on the past for its own sake.
Scientists should prioritize research that benefits society instead of just following personal interests. Our work should aim to make the world better and address current problems.
Our consciousness and internal thoughts are essential to our human experience, leading to the question of where they originate in the brain.
Neuroscience faces challenges in understanding consciousness, with the field needing a new paradigm to address the relationship between brain function and conscious experience.
Different perspectives, such as intrinsic introspection and extrinsic scientific observation, have evolved through history, shaping how we view the world and ourselves.
Horsetails have existed since the time of dinosaurs and are among the oldest plants on Earth. They haven’t changed much over millions of years, making them fascinating survivors.
While horsetails are often seen as garden pests, they have historical importance and have been used by various cultures for food and tools. However, some parts can be toxic, especially to horses.
There is a common myth that horsetails can accumulate gold, but research shows they actually indicate arsenic. They are good at collecting silica, which gives them their nickname as 'scouring rush'.
Steering tokens are used to guide AI models' output and can influence the tone and focus of generated responses.
Neologisms and steering tokens create a shared semiospace, bridging human language with the internal structures of AI models for collaborative and meaningful interactions.
The concept of a 'semioscape' portrays digital environments as evolving landscapes of meaning-making, highlighting the dynamic interplay between human language, AI-generated content, and societal factors.
The concept of viewing time differently through the lens of the Minute Man and the Millennium Man prompts questions about our understanding of speed and time in the world.
Biological processes at the cellular level can occur at astonishing speeds, with enzymes performing millions of chemical reactions per second and protein 'motors' spinning thousands of times a minute.
Scientists use innovative experiments to directly observe rapid biological processes, such as watching ATP synthase spin or tracking ribosomes moving along messenger RNA strands, to gain a deeper understanding of the intricate workings of life.