The quantum properties of superconducting qubits might be improved by coating them with a noble metal such as gold.
No evidence for ‘wind turbine syndrome’ claims: Windmill noise is no more stressful than traffic sounds, study suggests
Posted in biotech/medical, health, neuroscience | Leave a Comment on No evidence for ‘wind turbine syndrome’ claims: Windmill noise is no more stressful than traffic sounds, study suggests
A team of cognitive neuroscientists and acoustic engineers at Adam Mickiewicz University, in Poland, has found no evidence that wind turbine noise causes mental impairment. In their study, published in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communication, the group conducted experiments exposing human volunteers to various noises and measured a range of impacts.
Over the past several years, several groups and individuals around the world, most particularly in the U.S., have conceived of the idea of something called “wind turbine syndrome”—a theory that suggests noise from windmills can cause mental illness, or other health problems such as cancer. To date, such claims have not been backed up by research or any other type of proof. In this new effort, the research team in Poland sought to find out if there is any merit to the theory.
The researchers recruited 45 students at a local university who listened to various noises while wearing devices that measured their brainwaves. The researchers intentionally chose young volunteers because prior research has shown they are more sensitive to noise than older people.
Unlocking New Data for Earth Observation
Reliable data is one of the most valuable tools in scientific research. The more data sources scientists can access, the more accurate their findings become. Until recently, researchers in navigation and satellite geodesy saw a major missed opportunity — while thousands of satellites in mega-constellations orbited Earth for communication purposes, their signals couldn’t be used for positioning or Earth observation.
Scientists Have Discovered Shocking Amounts of Microplastics in the Brain — And It Could Be Increasing Our Risk of Dementia
Posted in biotech/medical, health, neuroscience | Leave a Comment on Scientists Have Discovered Shocking Amounts of Microplastics in the Brain — And It Could Be Increasing Our Risk of Dementia
The brain has higher concentrations of plastic particles compared to other organs, with increased levels found in dementia patients.
In a comprehensive commentary published in Brain Medicine, researchers highlight alarming new evidence of microplastic accumulation in human brain tissue, offering critical insights into potential health implications and prevention strategies. This commentary examines findings from a groundbreaking Nature Medicine article by Nihart et al. (2025) on the bioaccumulation of microplastics in the brains of deceased individuals.
The research reveals that human brains contain approximately a spoonful of microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs), with levels three to five times higher in individuals with documented dementia diagnoses. Even more concerning, brain tissue exhibited MNP concentrations seven to thirty times higher than those found in other organs, such as the liver or kidneys.
A new mass malware campaign is infecting users with a cryptocurrency miner named SilentCryptoMiner by masquerading it as a tool designed to circumvent internet blocks and restrictions around online services.
Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky said the activity is part of a larger trend where cybercriminals are increasingly leveraging Windows Packet Divert (WPD) tools to distribute malware under the guise of restriction bypass programs.
“Such software is often distributed in the form of archives with text installation instructions, in which the developers recommend disabling security solutions, citing false positives,” researchers Leonid Bezvershenko, Dmitry Pikush, and Oleg Kupreev said. “This plays into the hands of attackers by allowing them to persist in an unprotected system without the risk of detection.”
Ragnar Loader malware enables ransomware groups to maintain stealthy access, evade detection, and execute remote control operations.
Microsoft exposes a malvertising campaign impacting 1M+ devices, using GitHub, PowerShell, and RATs for data theft.
The brain’s ability to process information is known to be supported by intricate connections between different neuron populations. A key objective of neuroscience research has been to delineate the processes via which these connections influence information processing.
Researchers at the University of Padova, the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne recently carried out a study aimed at better understanding the contribution of excitatory and inhibitory neuron populations to the brain’s encoding of information. Their findings, published in Physical Review Letters, show that information processing is maximized when the activity of excitatory and inhibitory neurons is balanced.
“Our research was inspired by a fundamental question in neuroscience: how does the structure of the brain shape its ability to process information?” Giacomo Barzon, co-author of the paper, told Medical Xpress. “The brain continuously receives and integrates sensory inputs, and neurons do not act in isolation—they are part of complex, recurrent networks. One particularly intriguing feature of these networks is the balance between the activity of excitatory and inhibitory neurons, which has been observed across different brain regions.”
China is investing heavily in a new form of electronic warfare called cognitive EW but is the U.S. and rest of the world falling behind?
