Life on Earth may have arrived very early on the cosmic timeline At this moment, two Voyager probes are speeding out into the unknown each carrying a "golden record" with information about our planet, our many different languages, our sciences and arts. The thinking was that those records could tell other civilizations in the cosmos about ourselves when they encounter the probes. But if a new theory about life in the universe is correct, those records may never find an audience. The new theoretical study comes from scientists from Oxford and Harvard and suggests that life on Earth may have arrived early cosmically speaking, so the advanced civilization we're always combing the galaxy for might actually be us. The general assumption that other civilizations older than our own exist in the universe seems well-founded. But the new research study, led by Professor Avi Loeb of Harvard University, suggests that life in the universe is statistically much more likely in the future than it is now. That's partly down to the preponderance of red dwarves.
Key to All Optical Illusions Discovered Humans can see into the future, says a cognitive scientist. It's nothing like the alleged predictive powers of Nostradamus, but we do get a glimpse of events one-tenth of a second before they occur. And the mechanism behind that can also explain why we are tricked by optical illusions. Researcher Mark Changizi of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York says it starts with a neural lag that most everyone experiences while awake. When light hits your retina, about one-tenth of a second goes by before the brain translates the signal into a visual perception of the world. Scientists already knew about the lag, yet they have debated over exactly how we compensate, with one school of thought proposing our motor system somehow modifies our movements to offset the delay. Changizi now says it's our visual system that has evolved to compensate for neural delays, generating images of what will occur one-tenth of a second into the future. Explaining illusions Grand unified theory
Oldest Fossils On Earth Discovered, Raising Chances Of Alien Life How Artificial Intelligence May Change Human Relationships Artificial intelligence has opened up a whole new world of human-machine interaction. But what happens next? Pixabay Artificial intelligence (AI) is, in its broadest sense, the ability of a machine to behave in a way that a human operator doesn’t directly control. An artificially intelligent computer program can troubleshoot your software for you, control a robot worker without direct supervision, or provide gamers with a challenging opponent in a video game. The most sophisticated AI can interact with human users on a person-to-person basis. We’re not quite to that point yet, but it’s on the horizon. Already, AI is being built into bots that can hold conversations with us and even simulate emotional attachments. What, in other words, happens when average human beings get access to convincing human replicas that will do whatever they’re told? The Current State Of The Art Jiuguang Wang/FlickrAn AI robot named Simon lays blocks at AAAI 2010. Your (Soon-To-Be) Robot Pal Wikimedia Commons
theconversation Understanding exactly how and why humans evolved is clearly one of the most important goals in science. But despite a significant amount of research to date, these questions have remained a bit of a mystery. Of course, there is no shortage of theories – it has even been suggested that humans are just visiting aliens. However, most of the credible models tend to take something that is unique to humans – such as language – and show how all the other bits of being human derive from that. But focusing on one dramatic change as an evolutionary driver in this way may not be the best approach to understanding our past. Hunting is a good example, as it is often used to explain human evolution. What’s more, it takes communication, cooperation and technology (those stone tools came in handy) to acquire it, so hunting could also explain a number of other typically human traits. Certainly there were periods that involved a more dynamic series of changes than others. The big picture Take body size.
Elon Musk Reveals His Biggest Fear About Artificial Intelligence Bill Pugliano/Getty Images Elon Musk has long heralded the 21st century as the era of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), but that hardly means he doesn’t harbor any reservations about it. Already supporting Open A.I., a non-profit research organization meant to ensure that the technology is developed with safety and ethics in mind, on Wednesday the SpaceX and Tesla CEO offered Fortune more candid concerns about A.I. Contrary to popular concerns, Musk says that the biggest threat A.I. may pose to society is not that it will develop a mind of its own, but that it will follow the orders of those who operate it to the T. “I think the biggest risk is not that A.I. will develop a will of its own,” Musk said, “but rather that it will follow the will of the people that establish its utility function.” Musk then proceeds to offer an example to illustrate his point. “That,” Musk says, “would obviously be quite bad.” Meanwhile, investment in A.I. continues to boom.
Earth - Severe droughts explain the mysterious fall of the Maya When the Spanish conquistadores sailed for Central America in 1517, their goal was to vanquish the resident Maya civilisation. But the colonists arrived to find that much of their work had been done for them. By the time the Spanish made landfall, the Maya’s political and economic powerhouse has vanished The Maya’s towering limestone cities – a classic feature of one of the ancient world’s most advanced societies – were already being reclaimed by the jungle. The question of how the Maya met their end is one of history's most enduring mysteries. The first Maya sites were built during the first millennium BC, and the civilisation reached its height around AD600. It’s likely that still more Maya ruins lie hidden beneath the region’s thick tropical forest. The Maya had a strong grasp of mathematics and astronomy and used the only known written script in Mesoamerica After about 200 years of serious archaeological study, we know enough about the Maya to be suitably impressed.
Scientists have identified a part of the brain responsible for the placebo effect Scientists think they've located a region of the brain that's linked to the placebo effect - a psychological phenomenon where patients feel better because they think they've been given real drugs, when in fact all they've been given is sugar pills. The findings could not only help researchers identify those who are more likely to experience a placebo effect - it could also lead to more personalised treatments for those suffering from chronic pain, giving scientists a new way to tailor drugs to particular brain types. Working with 98 volunteers with chronic knee osteoarthritis, the team used a customised functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique to identify a specific region in the mid-frontal gyrus part of the brain that could be linked to the placebo effect. From the original pool of volunteers, they then randomly selected 39, and used this technique to try and identify those who responded well to placebo treatments. "It also will provide more evidence-based measurements.
Watch How Humans Conquered the World in 200,000 Years American Museum of Natural History Humans, in our current evolved forms, have been around on Earth for about 200,000 years or so, a relative drop in the bucket when compared to the dozens of billions of years on the galactic calendar. But despite our insignificance on any sprawled out timeline, our species' ability to conquer to world is completely unprecedented, and when its sprawled out before you—spanning millennia in just mere minutes—the results are fascinating if not a bit scary. Advertisement - Continue Reading Below The American Museum of Natural History did precisely that, charting humanity's population over our entire 200,000-year-old lifetime. The short 6-minute animation also makes note of huge events and empires in human history to help provide context for certain population bursts. For 99 percent of our history, thing are relatively stable with a small creep in population over time. Source: YouTube via Digg
Your Body Is Acidic. Here Is What You Need To Do (The Real Truth Behind Cancer You Will Never Hear From Your Doctor) Nobel prize Winner Dr. Otto H Warburg, who discovered the real cause of cancer, has found that the root cause of cancer is oxygen deficiency. Oxygen deficiency leads to an acidic state in the human body. Dr. Warburg also found that cancer cells are anaerobic (do not breathe oxygen) and cannot survive in the presence of high levels of oxygen, as found in an alkaline state. “All normal cells have an absolute requirement for oxygen, but cancer cells can live without oxygen – a rule without exception. Our diet plays a vital role in maintaining proper pH levels in the body. An imbalanced pH can interrupt cellular activities and functions. If you keep your body in an acidic state for a long period of time, it can drastically accelerate aging. Therefore, maintaining pH balance is one of the important tools to optimizing your health. Ingredients: 1/3 tsp. baking soda and 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, or organic apple cider vinegar. Method: Mix everything together. References: U.S.
New evidence found of human activity 1.4 million years ago at the site of Barranco León in Orce – HeritageDaily 2 Shares Share Tweet Email 0 Comments The research team that has carried out the last campaign found remains of stone carving along with cutting and fracturing marks on the bones of animals that lived on the margins of the great lake that dominated and conditioned life in the north of the province of Granada. The scientists, led by professor Juan Manuel Jimenez Arenas from the University of Granada, have found nearly a thousand records in this campaign, which now must be analyzed, and have been able to establish a spatial association between lithic industry, limestone blocks and animal remains localized in the site’s SW sector. The research team that has conducted the last excavation campaign at the site of Barranco León in Orce (Granada), led by professor Juan Manuel Jimenez Arenas from the University of Granada (UGR), has found new evidence of human activity 1.4 million years ago. 3D reconstruction Finally, the diffusion work carried out during the campaign period stands out.