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Jul 3, 2018

Meta-analysis finds sustained benefits of neurofeedback for kids with ADHD

Posted by in categories: computing, neuroscience

Fascinating findings: “1. Neurofeedback yields significant reductions in parent ratings of inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive symptoms. 2. These reductions persist for up to 2–12 months after neurofeedback ends. 3. Although medication has a larger initial effect, symptom reductions resulting from neurofeedback and medication may be comparable over a more extended time period.”


In neurofeedback treatment for ADHD, individuals learn to alter their typical pattern of brainwave activity, i.e., EEG activity, to one that is consistent with a focused and attentive state.

This is done by collecting EEG data from individuals as they focus on stimuli presented on a computer screen. Their ability to control the stimuli, e.g., keeping the smile on a smiley face keeping a video playing, depends on their maintaining an EEG state that reflects focused attention.

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Jul 3, 2018

Germany’s Bayer closes $63 billion Monsanto takeover, plans to drop US company’s name

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, business, food, genetics

Monsanto’s agricultural biotechnology research and development operations that are going to Bayer are the largest in the world and include making genetically modified seeds for such crops as corn, soybeans and cotton. Corn represented almost 60 percent of Monsanto’s total seed and genomics business last year.


German conglomerate Bayer on Thursday closed its $63 billion merger with St. Louis-based agribusiness giant Monsanto and plans to drop the U.S. company’s name.

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Jul 2, 2018

I never said that! High-tech deception of ‘deepfake’ videos

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, security

WASHINGTON — Hey, did my congressman really say that? Is that really President Trump on that video, or am I being duped?

New technology on the internet lets anyone make videos of real people appearing to say things they’ve never said. Republicans and Democrats predict this high-tech way of putting words in someone’s mouth will become the latest weapon in disinformation wars against the United States and other Western democracies.

We’re not talking about lip-syncing videos. This technology uses facial mapping and artificial intelligence to produce videos that appear so genuine it’s hard to spot the phonies. Lawmakers and intelligence officials worry that the bogus videos — called deepfakes — could be used to threaten national security or interfere in elections.

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Jul 2, 2018

Sitting tied to raised risk of death from 14 diseases

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, neuroscience

(HealthDay)—Get up off of the couch: Sitting too much may kill you even if you exercise regularly.

If you sit for six hours a day or more, your risk of dying early jumps 19 percent, compared with people who sit fewer than three hours, an American Cancer Society study suggests.

And, the study authors added, sitting may kill you in 14 ways, including: cancer; heart disease; stroke; diabetes; kidney disease; suicide; chronic (COPD); lung disease; liver disease; peptic ulcer and other ; Parkinson’s disease; Alzheimer’s disease; nervous disorders; and .

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Jul 2, 2018

Birth of a planet captured for first time as gas giant bigger than Jupiter swirls into existence

Posted by in category: space

E ven by astronomical standards it is a discovery that is out of this world.

Scientists have for the first time witnessed the birth of a planet, a huge gas giant many times the size of Jupiter, swirling into existence 370 light years from Earth.

The theory of how gas planets form from a vortex of hydrogen and helium molecules captivated by their own gravity, is now widely accepted by scientists. But it has never been seen before, until now.

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Jul 2, 2018

It Would Take 200,000 Years at Light Speed to Cross the Milky Way

Posted by in category: space travel

The disk of our home galaxy – the Milky Way – is bigger than we previously thought. A new study shows it would take 200,000 years for a spaceship traveling at the speed of light to go across the entire galaxy.

Researchers made the find after analyzing the abundances of metals (heavy elements) in stars, also known as their metallicities. When looking beyond the previously assumed boundary of the Milky Way’s disk, scientists were surprised to see stars with compositions resembling those of disk stars. [Amazing Photos of Our Milky Way Galaxy]

“We have shown that there is an appreciable fraction of stars with higher metallicity, characteristic of disc stars, further out than the previously assumed limit on the radius of the galaxy disc,” study co-author Carlos Allende, a researcher at Astrophysics Institute of the Canary Islands (Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, said in a statement.

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Jul 2, 2018

How quantum computers will change everything without you noticing

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Everyone keeps saying quantum computers are going to change everything, but how come we’re still buying regular ones? Chances are, the quantum revolution will happen behind the scenes.

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Jul 2, 2018

A team of researchers may have actually found a cure to the common cold

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Researchers have created a new molecule — IMP-1088 — that can render the human body inhospitable for certain viruses. The tests carried out show it can block several strains of rhinovirus, which is the main cause of the common cold.

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Jul 2, 2018

Seattle bans plastic straws, utensils at restaurants, bars

Posted by in categories: business, food

Looking for a plastic straw to sip your soda? It’s no longer allowed in Seattle bars and restaurants.

Neither are plastic utensils in the latest push to reduce waste and prevent marine plastic pollution. Businesses that sell food or drinks won’t be allowed to offer the plastic items under a rule that went into effect Sunday.

Seattle is believed to be the first major U.S. city to ban single-use plastic straws and utensils in food service, according to Seattle Public Utilities. The eco-conscious city has been an environmental leader in the U.S., working to aggressively curb the amount of trash that goes into landfills by requiring more options that can be recycled or composted.

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Jul 2, 2018

Why Space Warfare is Inevitable

Posted by in categories: biological, cybercrime/malcode, geopolitics, military, space, treaties

There is increasing chatter among the world’s major military powers about how space is fast becoming the next battleground. China, Russia, and the United States are all taking steps that will ultimately result in the weaponisation of space. Any satellite that can change orbit can be considered a space weapon, but since many of the possible space-based scenarios have yet to occur, cybersecurity experts, military commanders, and policymakers do not fully understand the range of potential consequences that could result.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union was interested in paralysing America’s strategic forces, strategic command, and control and communications, so that its military command could not communicate with its forces. They would do so by first causing electromagnetic pulse (EMP) to sever communication and operational capabilities, and then launch a mass attack across the North Pole to blow up US Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs).

In 1967, the US, UK and Soviet Union signed the Outer Space Treaty, which was either ratified by or acceded to 105 countries (including China). It set in place laws regarding the use of outer space and banned any nation from stationing nuclear warheads, chemical or biological weapons in space. However, the Treaty does not prohibit the placement of conventional weapons in orbit, so such weapons as kinetic bombardment (i.e. attacking Earth with a projectile) are not strictly prohibited.

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