The Power of Nothing
Could studying the placebo effect change the way we think about medicine?
The Power of Nothing
Could studying the placebo effect change the way we think about medicine?
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A previously little-considered heating effect could shrink estimates of the habitable zone of the Milky Way’s most numerous class of stars — ‘M’ or red dwarfs — by up to one half, says Rory Barnes, an astrobiologist at the University of Washington in Seattle. That factor — gravitational heating via tides — suggests a menagerie…
Fatherhood Alters Men’s Behavior
Scientists say new dads exhibit hormonal changes and, in turn, alter their behavior, which suggests that having children influences men in far-reaching ways. The research found that when a dad was more involved with his kids, he had better health, drank less and had lower substance use, as well as prompting men to be less…
Neutrinos Could Help Explain Missing Antimatter
Neutrinos produced by a nuclear reactor in China are changing from one flavour to another more rapidly than expected. The result means physicists could soon explain why the universe is filled with matter instead of featureless radiation. Neutrinos and antineutrinos each come in three flavours: electron, muon and tau. As they fly through space, these…
Mystery Glow of Dark Matter Halos Fueled by Extragalactic Stars
Stars ripped from their home galaxies as they collide with other galaxies can get slung into giant invisible cocoons of dark matter, researchers say, which might explain mysterious radiation pervading the sky. These findings suggest the halos of dark matter surrounding galaxies are not completely dark after all, but contain a small number of stars,…
Botanical Institutions To Catalog World’s Plants
The World Flora catalog is being planned, to be comprised of scientific information and images of plant species worldwide. The project was created in part to help halt the loss of plant biodiversity around the world. Researchers at four institutions will look at historic data on known plants and review and update it before adding it to the catalog.
When Will AI Be Created?
Human-level AI (HLAI) appears to be the topic of the week. Kevin Drum at Mother Jones thinks AIs will be as smart as humans by 2040. Karl Smith at Forbes and “M.S.” at The Economist seem to roughly concur with Drum on this timeline. Moshe Vardi, the editor-in-chief of the world’s most-read computer science magazine,…