Hunters vs busybodies.
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In a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois, we had already been given clues about How the face could reveal political orientation: specifically, the ugliest people They tend to be progressive, the most beautiful, conservative.
Now a study that has just been published goes further and, thanks to an algorithm, achieves a degree of precision when it comes to guessing whether the person is conservative or liberal that even surpasses that of long questionnaires.
facial recognition
Depending on our ideology, we will lean slightly more towards more group empathy (taking care of our own) and less general (caring as a symbol, even if that means taking less care of our own). Both positions have their pros and cons..
What seems to contradict our intuition is that these political trends have a reflection in our face (which forces us to ask ourselves what came first, the chicken or the egg: we vote like this because we have a certain face or we get a certain face because we vote like that.
The degree of success of this algorithm, be that as it may, It's from 72 %.
In the study, a facial recognition algorithm was used on images of 1,085,795 people to predict their political orientation by comparing their similarity to the faces of other liberals and conservatives. Political orientation was correctly classified on the 72%, and accuracy was similar across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, and across diverse settings (Facebook and dating websites).
The greatest predictive power was provided head orientation (58%), followed by emotional expression (57%). Liberals tended to look at the camera more directly, were more likely to express surprise, and less likely to express disgust. Facial hair and glasses predicted political orientation with minimal accuracy (51-52%).
In future studies, a more detailed analysis could be obtained by exploring the links between political orientation and facial features extracted from images taken in a standardized environment while monitoring facial hair, grooming, facial expression and head orientation.
If you want to know more about this study and its implications, I explain it to you in the following video:
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The news
This new algorithm guesses if you are conservative or liberal with an accuracy of 72 %
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
A little bit of capsaicin, the active component of hot peppers (Capsicum), may be a secret ingredient for more stable and efficient perovskite solar cells.
This is what a new study carried out by Chinese and Swedish researchers suggests.
Polycrystalline solar cells
While metal halide perovskite semiconductors represent a promising component for next-generation solar cell technologies, they are plagued by nonradiative recombination, an undesirable electron-level process that reduces efficiency and increases heat losses. Researchers looked for an additive to mitigate these effects.
Because of the burning sensation it produces in the mouth, capsaicin is commonly used in food products to make them spicier. But the study also suggests that spraying capsaicin on the precursor of methylammonium lead triiodide perovskite (MAPbI3) during the manufacturing process leads to a higher abundance of electrons to conduct current on the surface of the semiconductor.
This addition of capsaicin resulted in MAPbI3 polycrystalline solar cells with the most efficient charge transport: Control devices showed an energy conversion efficiency of only 19.1%, devices containing capsaicin had an efficiency of 21.88%.
The improved solar cells also showed improved stability, maintaining more than 90% of their initial efficiency after 800 hours of storage in ambient air.
Capsaicin also greatly reduced the defect density of the perovskite film, increasing the electron density by an order of magnitude and increasing charge transport.
While capsaicin may provide a low-cost and widely available additive for the future development of highly efficient perovskite solar cells, The stability of the material must be further refined before it is ready for commercial applications.
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The news
The active component in hot peppers can increase the performance of solar cells
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
Several cities, including Austin, Texas, and New York, have considered banning fast food restaurants near schools, but Can we know if this strategy would be effective?
This studio investigates the effect of fast food availability on childhood weight outcomes by gender, race, and location.
No observable effects
The researchers used the body mass index of the Arkansas students, collected from 2004 to 2010, and compared it to home and school addresses through annual school records. The home address was used to geocode the location of the student residences.
Fast food restaurants were identified in the route between the children's homes and their schools. Fast food restaurants included major hamburger chains and drive-through restaurants (e.g. McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's), dairy stores with large fast food menus (e.g. Dairy Queen), take-out pizza establishments , taco places (e.g. Taco Bell), sandwich places (e.g. Subway, Quiznos), and fried chicken restaurants (e.g. KFC, Chick-Fil-A). The researchers excluded specialty stores such as ice cream shops that do not sell other fast foods (e.g., Baskin-Robbins), coffee shops (e.g., Starbucks), and donut shops (e.g., Krispy Kream).
Using a mean radius of 1.6 km to define exposure near home and school, the mean total exposure level was 3.34 restaurants. He 45.2% of children have at least one fast food restaurant located 800 meters from their school.
But the researchers concluded that changes in exposure had no effect on BMI score.
For example, increasing exposure to fast food at three restaurants moving from fourth to tenth grade increased the mean change in BMI by 0.003, less than one percent (0.7%) of the standard deviation.
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The news
The availability of fast food restaurants between children's homes and their schools does not affect children's weight
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
Procrastination, the tendency to postpone our duties, is a widespread evil, especially at a time when there are so many distractions and temptations in the form of leisure.
But among students it is something almost inherent, even among those who study a doctorate: all students They spend about a third of their waking hours in amusements that they themselves describe as a form of procrastination.
Leisure before exams
On average, Students dedicate more than eight hours to leisure activities during the two days before the exams, and their inability to properly manage time is one of their main concerns, as they themselves confess, and one of the reasons for abandoning their studies.
This trend exists regardless of the level of education being taken, as explained Piers Steel in his book Procrastination: Why we put off until tomorrow what we can do today:
It is one of the main reasons why most candidates for a doctorate degree leave the corresponding studies before having obtained it. After your name will appear the letters ABD (acronym in English for "everything but the thesis").
This tendency to postpone homework because we don't feel like it, because there are more interesting things to do or because we simply feel immense laziness is so powerful that it boycotts even the most carefully established plans and throws away the effort accumulated over years. even though it doesn't make any sense:
Incredible as it may seem, after having achieved admission to very competitive academic programs, after having taken all the doctoral courses, after having perhaps compiled the data for the thesis, when they only need to write and defend it, at least half , never completes the process despite the immense investment of time and the considerable reward it would bring them (on average, 30 percent more salary).
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The news
Procrastination among students: 33 % of all their time is dedicated to procrastinating
was originally published in
Xataka Science
by
Sergio Parra
.
Transmitting cancer from mother to child is rare, but it happens.
Twice as old as the Solar System.