We should not censor research on the importance of genes in intelligence or other abilities, but rather their political use

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No debemos censurar la investigación de la importancia de los genes en la inteligencia u otras aptitudes, sino su uso político

Intelligence, in part, is determined by genes. Skin color, however, does not influence intelligence because the genes involved in skin pigmentation are very few, so it is not precisely the skin that distinguishes us from each other.

Studying these kinds of things should not be anathema. There is always genetic influence, there is always environmental influence, and both genetic and environmental influence feed off each other in ways that we are not yet able to distinguish.


Censorships

What we should not demand is the dismissal of a professor for his ideas or approaches, as happened to Edward O. Wilson. Nor should we give a letter of nature to the harassment that they also suffered in 2017 Sergei Tabachnikov and Theodore Hill after publishing a study in Mathematical Intelligencer where a mathematical model was proposed to explain that there was more variability in intelligence between men and women (that is, that there are more geniuses among the male gender, but also more idiots).

The study was accepted after peer review, but its publication was finally withdrawn due to pressure from the Women in Mathematics association at Pennsylvania State University, among others. A scientific article is only withdrawn if it is proven that there is academic fraud, not because the ideas it conveys do not fit with our ideology.

Finally, the criticism of poorly understood genetic determinism involves the assumption of an environmental determinism so inflexible that, if true, it would turn us into puppets. Individuals lacking free will manipulated from birth by our parents, the media, culture. It didn't matter what our parents were like, what was on television or what country we were born in: we would never be free to choose. We would just be what they want us to be. We would not be responsible for our actions. We would kill others or decide to have children because we have been manipulated into it.

Those who should be imprisoned would be the promoters of those ideas and not ourselves (who, in fact, ironically, would become those who would democratically decide how to manipulate the next generation based on how we have been manipulated).

It doesn't sound even remotely less terrifying than genetic determinism.
Fortunately, things are not that simple. Neither in terms of genes, nor in terms of the environment.

To better understand this whole great debate, I recommend the following video, which analyzes the assumption of what would happen if we found a lost tribe of people with green skin who... are more intelligent than us:


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We should not censor research on the importance of genes in intelligence or other abilities, but rather their political use

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Every time you watch the following video you will hear something different even if nothing changes: the McGurk effect

By portal-3

Cada vez que veas el siguiente vídeo escucharás algo diferente aunque nada cambie: el efecto McGurk

Pay attention to the first seconds of the following video. Depending on what you are thinking, depending on what your brain is focused on, you may hear one phrase or another. The phrase will always be the same, but every time you listen to the video you will hear a different phrase if you change your thought.

It's not a Matrix bug. It is not magic or witchcraft. It is just one more example of how sloppy our brains sometimes are, and that evolution is blind and random. Welcome to McGurk effect: what researchers call a 'perceptual phenomenon' and which arises from a mismatch between sound and visual signals.


Bike or Rental?

Before watching the following video, think about the word "bike" or "rental." Every time you play it, you will hear one word or another, just changing your thinking:

He McGurk Effect suggests that, in a multisensory conversation (that is, in which information reaches us from different senses), the brain is governed by a principle of 'causal inference'. From a pair of syllables, one visual and the other auditory, the brain calculates the probability that they come from the same speaker, and based on that one sound is perceived and another. That's why in the video you can hear "bike" or "rental" depending on whether you are thinking of one word or the other.

Michael Beauchamp, professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine, explains the McGurk effect in a study: If we visually see lips pronouncing the syllable 'ga' and simultaneously hear the sound 'ba', our brain will 'hear' the 'da'. That is, what the eyes see can change what the ear perceives.

If you want to feel the magic again, here is the video again (sometimes the effect is not as powerful if you use headphones, by the way):


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Every time you watch the following video you will hear something different even if nothing changes: the McGurk effect

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This simulation suggests what would happen in the hypothetical case if we detected an asteroid heading towards Earth

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Esta simulación sugiere qué es lo que pasaría en el caso hipotético de si detectaramos un asteroide rumbo a la Tierra

A group of experts attended a week-long exercise led by NASA in which they faced a hypothetical scenario: An asteroid 56 million kilometers away was approaching the planet and could impact in six months.

What has happened in this simulation?

Doomsday

The fictional asteroid in the simulation was called 2021PDC. In NASA's scenario, it was first "detected" on April 19, at which time it was thought to have a 5 percent chance of hitting our planet on October 20. six months after the date of its discovery.

Manicouagan Impac Crater 0 Gwcucdq Width 1320

But Day 2 of the exercise fast-forwarded to May 2, when new calculations of the impact trajectory showed that 2021PDC would almost certainly hit Europe or North Africa.

Participants in the simulation considered several missions to try to destroy the asteroid or divert it from its path.

With each passing day during the exercise, participants learned more about the asteroid's size, trajectory, and impact potential. They also had to cooperate and use their technological knowledge to see if anything could be done to stop the space rock.

They concluded that such missions could not take off in the short period of time before the asteroid impact. They also considered trying to blow up or destroy the asteroid with a nuclear explosive device, without success. That is, we could not save ourselves.

The group thus determined that none of the existing technologies on Earth could prevent the hypothetical asteroid from hitting given the six-month simulation timeframe. In this alternate reality, the asteroid crashed into Eastern Europe.

To our knowledge, no asteroid currently poses a threat to Earth in this way. But it is estimated that two-thirds of asteroids 140 meters in size or larger, large enough to wreak considerable havoc, remain undiscovered. That is why NASA and other agencies are trying to prepare for such a situation.


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This simulation suggests what would happen in the hypothetical case if we detected an asteroid heading towards Earth

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Traffic pollution linked to early markers of cardiovascular disease in children

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Se relaciona la contaminación del tráfico con marcadores tempranos de enfermedad cardiovascular en niños

According to him USC Children's Health Study, which followed a group of children into adulthood, daily exposure to road traffic emissions during childhood May lay the foundation for cardiovascular disease in adulthood.

The research, recently published in the journal Environmental Health, used ultrasound to examine the carotid arteries in participants at age 10 and again a decade later. Changes in the intima-media thickness of the carotid artery is a measure of very early stage atherosclerosis, the underlying cause of most cardiovascular diseases.

Early detection

The study was based on the most recent Children's Health Study cohort: approximately 5,000 children. Children in the current study came from 13 communities in Southern California, representing a mix of backgrounds.

For each child, the researchers calculated average residential exposures to regional environmental pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter using regulatory air monitoring data. They estimated exposure to nitrogen oxides based on the proximity of a child's home to busy highways.

Still, future studies will provide a more complete picture of the interaction between diet, physical activity, and pollution exposure.

Early detection of changes in the carotid artery has the potential to improve understanding of how cardiovascular disease develops over time in relation to air pollution, and thereby helping to identify children at risk of cardiovascular disease in adulthood.


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Traffic pollution linked to early markers of cardiovascular disease in children

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Taking care of our healthcare personnel is also good, because it prevents medical errors.

By portal-3

Cuidar a nuestro personal sanitario es bueno, también, porque eso evita errores médicos

As concluded A study Led by The Ohio State University College of Nursing, critical care nurses with poor physical and mental health reported significantly more medical errors than nurses in better health.

The study findings published in the American Journal of Critical Care.

In times of COVID-19 it would be worse

The authors cited research on the prevalence of symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout among critical care nurses as a basis for examining the potential correlation between well-being and medical errors. The study surveyed almost 800 members.

Those who reported poorer health and well-being were 31% to 62% more likely to make medical errors.

The study, which was conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic, also found that "nurses who perceived their workplace to be highly supportive of their well-being were twice as likely to have better physical health."

The authors mention that levels of stress, anxiety and depression probably be even higher in the current environment than before the pandemic, when the study was conducted.


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Taking care of our healthcare personnel is also good, because it prevents medical errors.

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This portable artificial intelligence device reports the discomfort felt by children with atopic dermatitis

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Este dispositivo portátil de inteligencia artificial informa de las molestias que sienten los niños con dermatitis atópica

The itch either pruritus It is an irritating sensation that awakens the need to scratch the skin. Sometimes it can feel like something like pain, but it is different. You often feel like one part of your body itches, but sometimes you may feel itchy all over your body. Along with itching, you may also get a rash or hives.

It's a difficult symptom to measure, especially for the millions of children with atopic dermatitis, also known as eczema. Children can only verbalize or quantify their suffering through a survey or scale.. It may also be difficult to objectively measure itch in adults with liver disease, kidney disease, and certain cancers who experience its symptoms.

Therefore, it is difficult to keep track of how well treatments and medications are working.

Soft electronics + AI

But now there is a wearable sensor that actually quantifies itch by measuring scratching when placed on the hand. Developed by scientists at Northwestern University, while tested in patients with atopic dermatitis, can be used in any condition that causes itching.

The sensor can also support clinical trials for new treatments, track treatment response, and monitor disease worsening, all without leaving home.

This is the first sensor capable of capturing all forms of scratching, related to the movement of the fingers, wrist and elbow. It is also the first validated in a pediatric population where conditions such as atopic dermatitis are the most common..

This sensor combines advances in soft electronics that wrap seamlessly around your hand with machine learning algorithms that specifically identify scratching without being fooled by similar movement-related movements (e.g., hand waving). The sensor measures both low-frequency movement and high-frequency vibrations of the hand to significantly improve accuracy compared to wristwatch tools.

The sensor has been in the Food and Drug Administration's Drug Discovery Tool program. This program allows novel devices like this sensor to be qualified to help in the approval of new medications.


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More than 300 years after the arrival of Europeans to the New World, the Amazon had already been depopulated and reforested

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Más de 300 años de la llegada de los europeos al Nuevo Mundo, la Amazonia ya había sido despoblada y reforestada

It is estimated that between 90 and 95% of the indigenous population of the Amazon died after 1492, because, when Europeans first arrived on the coasts of South America, brutal waves of disease, war, slavery and genocide followed.

However, new measurements suggest that, in many places, land abandonment and reforestation began between 300 and 600 years before the arrival of Europeans.

Fossil pollen records

The Amazon is a vast region in the horizontal and northern part of South America that includes the rainforest of the Amazon River basin.

According to this new study published in ScienceTherefore, depopulation and subsequent reforestation in the Amazon began centuries before the arrival of Europeans and did not contribute to the decline observed atmospheric CO2 during the 17th century.

Deforestationinbrazil2

The data suggest that, in many places, land abandonment and reforestation began between 300 and 600 years before the arrival of Europeans.

To reach these conclusions, researcher Mark Bush and his colleagues at the Florida Institute of Technology, in Melbourne (Australia), evaluated fossil pollen records from 39 places in the Amazon that record changes in forest cover over the last 2,000 years.

That does not mean, of course, that the cascading effects of environmental change, pre-European pandemics and/or social strife may have contributed as well. Nevertheless, It is possible that indigenous populations in some areas of the Amazon were already declining when Europeans arrived..


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More than 300 years after the arrival of Europeans to the New World, the Amazon had already been depopulated and reforested

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China launches the central capsule of its future space station, one of the largest and most sophisticated space facilities

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China lanza la cápsula central de su futura estación espacial, una de las instalaciones espaciales más grandes y sofisticadas

It took off at 3:23 UTC, from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on Hainan Island, southern China, the central capsule of your space station.

The central capsule, called Tianhe, or Harmony of the Heavens, is 16.6 meters long and 4.2 meters in diameter. The construction of the space station marks the beginning of the third stage of China's manned space program, which was approved by the government in 1992.

The largest ship in China

Specifically, a Long March 5B heavy-lift carrier rocket has been launched, with a central stage and four side boosters, an equivalent height to an 18-story building and a takeoff weight of 849 tons.

The launch is intended to transport the 22.5-ton capsule, the largest and heaviest spacecraft China has ever built, to a low Earth orbit about 400 kilometers above Earth to place the first piece of the country's space station.

The multi-module space station, called Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace, will be mainly composed of three components, a central module attached to two space laboratories, with a combined weight of almost 70 tons. The entire Tiangong station is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2022 and is scheduled to operate for about 15 years.

The module sent will be essential for the future operations of the space station, since the astronauts will live there and control the entire station from the inside. Next year, Tiangong's two space laboratories, two manned missions and two robotic cargo flights to continue station construction.

c


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China launches the central capsule of its future space station, one of the largest and most sophisticated space facilities

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Lightning produces more hydroxyl radicals than expected and that is very good for our atmosphere

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Los rayos produce más radicales hidroxilos de lo esperado y eso es muy bueno para nuestra atmósfera

Previously unobserved extreme amounts of atmospheric hydroxyl and hydroperoxyl radicals (HO2), which have been generated directly by lightning sparks, are involved in cleaning our atmosphere.

This is what it suggests a new study published in Science. These amounts are much higher than expected, and that's a good thing.

OH controls toxic gases

We already knew that lightning increases the atmosphere's ability to clean itself by producing reactive nitric oxide (NO), which, through subsequent atmospheric chemistry, ultimately leads to the formation of atmospheric oxidants, including ozone ( O3) and hydroxyl radicals (OH).

Lightning

OH is the most important oxidizing species in the atmosphere, controlling the concentrations of toxic and climate-relevant gases such as carbon monoxide and methane.

According to the researchers, these quantities are several orders of magnitude above any previous measurement of atmospheric OH or HO2.

Although the results are uncertain, perhaps by a factor of ten, they suggest that the OH generated by lightning in all storms occurring globally at any given time could be responsible for between 2 and 16% of the oxidation capacity of the Earth's atmosphere.


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Lightning produces more hydroxyl radicals than expected and that is very good for our atmosphere

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How to violate the fingerprint recognition of a mobile phone using a 3D printer

By portal-3

Cómo violar el reconocimiento de huella dactilares de un móvil usando una impresora 3D

The cybersecurity organization Cisco Talos Intelligence Group has discovered that recreating fingerprints to carry out identity theft can be achieved with an 80 percent success rate, and that you don't need expensive equipment to achieve it.

The researchers they were able to achieve the feat with a readily available 3-D printer that recreated a finger that he printed with a simple mold and glue.

3d print

Testers found that Apple products were more vulnerable to biometric override than units running Windows 10. But they noticed they were able to make more attempts to log in on iPads because they knew the codes that overrode the five-entry limit on fingerprint attempts. Without those codes, your success rate would have been noticeably lower.

"Still, this level of success rate means that we have a very high probability of unlocking any of the devices tested, the researchers noted.

The proliferation of 3D printers low-cost made it easier for researchers to bypass fingerprint-based biometric barriers.

All in all, consumers can generally feel safe, because hackers must overcome significant barriers to break security (they must obtain a user's fingerprint and then the user's device), so the probability of being attacked is not high. .

The results show that fingerprints are good enough to protect the average person's privacy if they lose their phone. However, a person who is likely to be targeted by a well-funded and motivated hacker should not use fingerprint authentication.


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How to violate the fingerprint recognition of a mobile phone using a 3D printer

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by
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