Researchers Create Character With Reasoning Abilities Of A Child

This article was not as interesting to me as the test they used:

… To test “Eddie’s” reasoning powers, the group created a demo in Second Life that subjected their theory to a false-belief test.

In a typical real-life version of this test, a child witnesses a series of events in which Person A places an object (such as a teddy bear) in a certain location (such as a cabinet). Person A then leaves the room, and during his absence Person B moves the object to a new location (such as the refrigerator). The child is then asked to predict where Person A will look for the object when he gets back.

The right answer, of course, is the cabinet, but children age 4 and under will generally say the refrigerator because they haven’t yet formed a theory of the mind of others.

The researchers recreated the same situation in Second Life, using an automated theorem prover coupled with procedures for converting conversational English in Second Life into formal logic, the native language of the prover. – scidaily

Mysterious Craters Seen on Mercury

Craters come in all shapes and sizes, some more bizarre than others. Recent photos of Mercury have revealed two new categories of crater that scientists are puzzling over how to explain.

When NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft flew by the planet Jan. 14 it snapped pictures of several craters with strange dark halos and one crater with a spectacularly shiny bottom.

“The halos are really exceptional,” said MESSENGER science team member Clark Chapman of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “We’ve never seen anything like them on Mercury before and their formation is a mystery.”

Two of the craters are located in Mercury’s giant Caloris Basin, a thousand-mile-wide depression formed billions of years ago when Mercury was struck by a comet or asteroid. The larger of the two is about 40 miles wide. Both craters have dark rims or “halos,” and one is partially filled with an unknown shiny material.

Chapman offered two possible explanations for the halos:

1. The Layer Cake Theory: There could be a layer of dark material under the surface of Caloris Basin, resulting in chocolate-colored rims around craters that penetrate to just the right depth. If such a subterranean layer exists, however, it cannot be unique to the Basin. “We’ve found a number of dark halos outside of Caloris as well.”

2. The Impact Glass Model: Thermal energy from the impacts melted some of Mercury’s rocky surface. Perhaps molten rock splashed to the edge of the craters where it re-solidified as a dark, glassy substance. Similar “impact melts” are found around craters on Earth and the moon. If this hypothesis is correct, future astronauts on Mercury exploring the crater rims would find themselves crunching across fields of tiny glass shards.

Chapman noted that the moon also has some dark haloed craters. “Tycho is a well-known example,” he said. But lunar halos tend to be subtle and/or fragmentary. “The ones we see on Mercury are much more eye-catching and distinct.” – space

Brain-Tweaking Chemical Caused Gulf War Syndrome, Says Study

The controversial disorder known as Gulf War illness may have been caused by chemicals used in pesticides and anti-nerve gas pills.In an article published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, University of California, San Diego military health researcher Beatrice Golomb reviewed 115 studies on Gulf War illness, also known as GWI.

Approximately one in three veterans of the Persian Gulf War have reported lingering health problems associated with GWI, from neuropathic pain and loss of muscle control to chronic fatigue and forgetfulness.

The root — or roots — of GWI haven’t been conclusively determined. Among the possible causes are exposure to nerve gas, still-radioactive depleted uranium ammunition, an experimental anthrax vaccine and extreme stress. Golomb’s review focused on a class of chemicals known as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, or AChEIs. Acetylcholinesterase is an enzyme that regulates the activity of acetylcholine, a vital neurotransmitter.

Soldiers were exposed to AChEIs in pesticides, in pills given to blunt the effects of nerve gas, and in nerve gas released during the destruction of an Iraqi weapons depot. Researchers think that AChEI exposure may cause the overexpression of a rare but debilitating version of acetylcholinesterase previously associated with symptoms similar to those of afflicted soldiers.

Again and again, the studies reviewed by Golomb found that soldiers suffering from GWI had been exposed to AChEIs; the more they’d ingested — especially when taking AChEI-containing pills — the worse their symptoms were likely to be.

“Across studies, significant positive relationships of AChEi-related exposures to illness in GWV outnumber significant negative relationships more than chance would predict,”  wrote Golomb. “The studies show a high consistency, with most showing a significant (typically strong) positive association. Few nonsignificant findings are present and virtually no inverse associations.”

Golomb also noted that the symptoms of GWI are much like those reported by agricultural workers exposed to AChEI-containing pesticides, and follow effects predicted by AChEI tests on brain cells and animals.

Taken together, the evidence — epidemiological, animal, biological — is persuasive enough for Golomb to formally declare a cause-and-effect relationship. This isn’t just important for veterans of the Gulf War, she wrote; it could also explain the as-yet-undiagnosed afflictions of civilians exposed to AChEIs. – wired

Air Pollution Hinders Brain Processing

Researchers at Zuyd University in the Netherlands have reported that nanoparticles from inhaled air pollution reach the brain and alter the way it processes information.The study is the first to demonstrate this effect.

During the research, the Zuyd University team had 10 participants spend an hour in a closed room with either clean air or diesel engine exhaust, similar to an environment experienced by those who work in a garage or by the roadside.

The volunteers were monitored with an electroencephalograph (EEG) that measured electrical signals of the brain for a period of one hour after they left their room.

After 30 minutes, the researchers found that the brains of those in the rooms with diesel exhaust displayed an EEG stress response indicative of a change in processing functions in the cortex of the brain. This effect continued even though the participants were no longer exposed to the exhaust.

“We can only speculate what these effects may mean for the chronic exposure to air pollution encountered in busy cities where the levels of such soot particles can be very high,” lead researcher Paul Borm told BBC News.

“It is conceivable that the long-term effects of exposure to traffic nanoparticles may interfere with normal brain function and information processing. Further studies are necessary to explore this effect.”

Ken Donaldson, a professor of respiratory toxicology at the University of Edinburgh, told BBC News that a brain response to a new smell is not surprising.

“And it may not necessarily be negative, but such physiological changes do warrant investigation because there could indeed be a long-term effect. It’s a very interesting, and potentially important, study.”

Controlled studies examining air pollution’s effect on the brain presents ethical dilemmas, and longer-term studies of those living in areas of high pollution can be challenging since brain diseases are not always identified as the cause of death on death certificates. For instance, Alzheimer’s patients often die of infection.

However, a study of dogs in Mexico showed those living in Mexico City, an area of high pollution, had brain lesions similar to those observed in Alzheimer’s patients. The dogs in less-polluted rural areas had a much lower rate of brain damage.

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On the Net:

The study was published in the journal Particle and Fibre Toxicology. The full report can be viewed at http://www.particleandfibretoxicology.com/content/pdf/1743-8977-5-4.pdf

Mysteries of computer from 65BC are solved

A 2,000-year-old mechanical computer salvaged from a Roman shipwreck has astounded scientists who have finally unravelled the secrets of how the sophisticated device works. The machine was lost among cargo in 65BC when the ship carrying it sank in 42m of water off the coast of the Greek island of Antikythera. By chance, in 1900, a sponge diver called Elias Stadiatos discovered the wreck and recovered statues and other artifacts from the site.

The machine first came to light when an archaeologist working on the recovered objects noticed that a lump of rock had a gear wheel embedded in it. Closer inspection of material brought up from the stricken ship subsequently revealed 80 pieces of gear wheels, dials, clock-like hands and a wooden and bronze casing bearing ancient Greek inscriptions.

Since its discovery, scientists have been trying to reconstruct the device, which is now known to be an astronomical calendar capable of tracking with remarkable precision the position of the sun, several heavenly bodies and the phases of the moon. Experts believe it to be the earliest-known device to use gear wheels and by far the most sophisticated object to be found from the ancient and medieval periods.

Using modern computer x-ray tomography and high resolution surface scanning, a team led by Mike Edmunds and Tony Freeth at Cardiff University peered inside fragments of the crust-encased mechanism and read the faintest inscriptions that once covered the outer casing of the machine. Detailed imaging of the mechanism suggests it dates back to 150-100 BC and had 37 gear wheels enabling it to follow the movements of the moon and the sun through the zodiac, predict eclipses and even recreate the irregular orbit of the moon. The motion, known as the first lunar anomaly, was developed by the astronomer Hipparcus of Rhodes in the 2nd century BC, and he may have been consulted in the machine’s construction, the scientists speculate.

Remarkably, scans showed the device uses a differential gear, which was previously believed to have been invented in the 16th century. The level of miniaturisation and complexity of its parts is comparable to that of 18th century clocks.

Some researchers believe the machine, known as the Antikythera Mechanism, may have been among other treasure looted from Rhodes that was en route to Rome for a celebration staged by Julius Caesar.

One of the remaining mysteries is why the Greek technology invented for the machine seemed to disappear. No other civilisation is believed to have created anything as complex for another 1,000 years. One explanation could be that bronze was often recycled in the period the device was made, so many artefacts from that time have long ago been melted down and erased from the archaelogical record. The fateful sinking of the ship carrying the Antikythera Mechanism may have inadvertently preserved it. “This device is extraordinary, the only thing of its kind,” said Professor Edmunds. “The astronomy is exactly right … in terms of historic and scarcity value, I have to regard this mechanism as being more valuable than the Mona Lisa.” The research, which appears in the journal Nature today, was carried out with scientists at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens where the mechanism is held and the universities of Athens and Thessaloniki. -thothweb

National Science Week: alien life begins at home

 A jelly-like leviathan slowly glides in the black waters. Towards it, surrounded by the faint sparkle of tiny blue and red plankton, swims a torpedo-shaped creature with teeth of frozen crystal, hunting for a meal.

…There are, of course, plenty of mysteries to solve here on Earth – the Prime Minister, for example, wants to know: “What is the single scientific advance that would do most to help us reduce poverty across the globe?”

But according to an ongoing poll for National Science and Engineering Week, being carried out at www.the-ba.net/thebigquestion, it is extraterrestrials that have commanded the public imagination.

You only need to look at our own world to see that life can emerge in different environments. We have found hardy microbes in environments previously thought too hostile to support life.

But bigger life forms can also flourish: nobody thought that krill (Euphausia superba), shrimp-like crustaceans, could live at crushing pressures 9,800ft below the Antarctic ocean, yet it was reported a few days ago by Professor Andy Clarke of the British Antarctic Survey that a robotic underwater vehicle, Isis, had gathered evidence of them at pressures 300 times greater than that on the surface.

This has spurred speculation that if there is life down there, ET might be somewhere “up there”.

While some scientists suspect that bacteria may once have thrived on Mars, and may still lurk there, by far the most promising site in our own solar system is Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons – at least according to the experts responding to the Science Week poll.  – telegraph

 

Southwest Grounds 41 Planes

Southwest Airlines says it grounded 41 planes last night in the wake of its recent admission that it had missed required inspections of some planes for structural cracks. Spokeswoman Christi Day says the move resulted in some flights being canceled Wednesday, but she doesn’t have a precise figure.

The move comes as Southwest faces a $10.2 million civil penalty for continuing to fly nearly 50 planes after the airline admitted that it had missed required inspections of the planes.

Southwest also put three employees on leave after being notified of the penalty by the Federal Aviation Administration. – bre

50 people looking for solar image of Mary lose sight

At least 50 people in Kottayam district have reportedly lost their vision after gazing at the sun looking for an image of Virgin Mary.

Though alarmed health authorities have installed a signboard to counter the rumour that a solar image of Virgin Mary appeared to the believers, curious onlookers, including foreign travellers, have been thronging the venue of the ‘miracle’. St Joseph’s ENT and Eye Hospital in Kanjirappally alone has recorded 48 cases of vision loss due to photochemical burns on the retina. “All our patients have similar history and symptoms. The damage is to the macula, the most sensitive part of retina. They have developed photochemical, not thermal, burns after continuously gazing at the sun,” Dr Annamma James Isaac, the hospital’s ophthalmologist, said. The hospital has been receiving patients with these abnormal symptoms since Friday. When the doctors found a pattern in the case sheets, they reported it to the district medical officer. The health department has now put up a signboard at the hotelier’s house near Erumeli, where the divine image is said to have appeared, warning people against exposing their eyes to sunlight.

Even the churches in the vicinity disowned the miracle during Sunday mass after health officers and doctors approached the clergy. The house in question has been the centre of local rumours for a few months. The hotelier, who has since moved to another house, had claimed that statues of Mother Mary in his house have been crying honey and bleeding oil and perfumes. Though people have been flocking to the “blessed land” – hastily christened Rosa Mystica Mountain – for long, the mad rush for the image in the sky began a week ago. There are quite a few people still seeking the miracle, despite the experiences of their unfortunate predecessors and strict health warnings against gazing at the sun with the naked eye.

“The patients show varying degrees of severity. They are mostly girls in 12-26 age group. Our youngest patient is 12 and the oldest 60. Most of them were looking at the sun between 2 and 4 pm, when UV1 and UV2 rays are harshest,” Dr James Isaac said. He added that they could identify the problem as solar retinopathy because they were aware of the local sensation.

“Most patients may hopefully improve their vision. But there may be long-term effects on the retina,” he added. – dnaindia

And in my hour of darkness, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, “You’ll go blind.”

Creepy Gnome terrorises town in General Guemes, Salta, Argentina | The Sun

Teenager Jose Alvarez – who filmed the gnome – yesterday told national newspaper El Tribuno that they caught the creature while larking about in their hometown of General Guemes, in the province of Salta, Argentina. He said: “We were chatting about our last fishing trip. It was one in the morning. “I began to film a bit with my mobile phone while the others were chatting and joking. “Suddenly we heard something – a weird noise as if someone was throwing stones. “We looked to one side and saw that the grass was moving. To begin with we thought it was a dog but when we saw this gnome-like figure begin to emerge we were really afraid.” Jose added that other locals had come forward to say they had spotted the gnome. He said: “This is no joke. We are still afraid to go out – just like everyone else in the neighbourhood now. “One of my friends was so scared after seeing that thing that we had to take him to the hospital.”

from thesun.co.uk posted with vodpod

Manta Ray Airship

from www.youtube.com posted with vodpod

The real ones leap out of the water but they don’t really glide much compared to flying fish. Here are some photos of leaping Manta Rays.