A technology company says it's working on a project which would allow a human's consciousness to be transferred to an artificial body after their death.

In what sounds like a plot from a science fiction blockbuster, tech company Humai are working on human resurrection through artificial intelligence.

They're hopeful that the technology - bionics, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence - will be ready in just three decades.

Creating an imprint of people to remain after they go , Humai is using artificial intelligence and nanotechnology to store data of conversational styles, behavioral patterns, thought processes and information about how bodies function.

This data will be coded into multiple sensor technologies, which will be built into an artificial body with the brain of a deceased human.

The science as they explain it means using cloning technology, they will be able to restore the brain as it matures.

Their website explains: "Humai is an AI company with a mission to reinvent the afterlife. We want to bring you back to life after you die."

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Will death always be inevitable? We don't think so. HumaiTech.com
Posted by Humai on Sunday, November 15, 2015

"The artificial body functions will be controlled with your thoughts by measuring brain waves.

"As the brain ages we'll use nanotechnology to repair and improve cells," he adds, saying that cloning technology is going to help, and: "We believe we can resurrect the first human within 30 years."

Bocanegra, who says he doesn't believe that the "body was evolved with the best possible functions" says it's all about offering a choice.

"I don't think of it as fighting death. I think of it as making death optional.

"I personally can't imagine why anyone would want to die but I respect their wishes."

We believe in life after death. HumaiTech.com
Posted by Humai on Saturday, October 31, 2015

The company has five staff members, including two researchers, an AI expert and an ambassador.

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At the press of a button, the gurney holding Auriel Peterson slides slowly into the pale blue glow of a magnetic resonance imaging machine. Soon, all that's visible are the shins of her black track pants and the chartreuse-and-white soles of her running shoes, angled like the fins of a torpedo.

Behind a window in an adjacent room, a splayed-out cauliflower pattern appears on a computer screen in black and white. It's Peterson's brain. And it's probably the last thing about this exercise that will be so simply shaded.

From Peterson's perspective, the next hour will be spent in service, like the day she packed donated eyeglasses to send to Zimbabwe. But the ardent Mormon also knows she could be adding to a centuries-old debate about God and science.

So she says a silent prayer: "I hope they get what they need."

::

Other animals have hierarchies, organized behaviors, even a semblance of norms. Only humans have religion and science. And the two have seldom been on civil terms.

Jeff Anderson and Julie Korenberg, neuroscientists at the University of Utah, want to change that. They're among a growing number of scientists aiming their field's most sophisticated machinery at religious cognition.

"It amazes me how one of the most profound influences on human behavior is virtually completely unstudied," Anderson said. "We think about how much this drives people's behavior, and yet we don't know the first thing about where in the brain that's even registered."

The researchers want to see more than religion's registry on the brain. They want to know whether it differs across sects, or by intensity of belief. They want to see what genes it activates, what hormones it releases, and how it relates to social behaviors. Can the same basic circuitry produce Mother Teresa and the Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta? If so, how?

To approach even speculative answers to such questions, the researchers have to capture what goes on in the brain of a believer during a religious moment.

Right now, that depends on whether a maw of helium-cooled superconducting magnets can become Auriel Peterson's personal church.

The 26-year-old community college student lies still, clears her mind. The machine whirs and clicks, taking rapid-fire snapshots of the flux of blood through billions of neurons.

"I want you to spend the next six or seven minutes in quiet prayer," Anderson says into a microphone.

Anderson's team has rigged a video screen above Peterson's face, and placed a set of switches at her fingertips so she can convey how intense her religious feelings are when she sees quotes from Scripture or the Book of Mormon or images of religious figures.

She is the fifth subject to be scanned, and the research team hopes to record 15 others before sorting through the data for something of significance to science.

And, maybe, to religion: Peterson wants to see how the spirit manifests on her brain too.

"Within a week of announcing that we were going to do this project, we had over a hundred volunteers," Anderson said.

"I think some people worry that we're biologizing the religious response ... that that will demystify it or make it somehow less important," said Anderson, who was raised Mormon but left the church a decade ago.

There are plenty who would relish any data that support the idea that God is all in the mind. But Korenberg and Anderson aren't looking for how people come to believe in a supernatural being. They want to know what happens once they do believe.

"I think we're trying to do something much more simple, and that is look at private religious practice," said Korenberg, who is Jewish, was raised in a Catholic neighborhood in Natick, Mass., and sings in a Christian chorale. "I think that what we're expecting to find here is that Mormons aren't really going to be that different from Jews or Muslims."

Until now, Korenberg and Anderson have done what medical researchers do -- studied abnormalities. She has spent 15 years investigating the neurochemical and genetic roots of Williams syndrome, an obscure brain abnormality somewhat like the inverse of autism; it causes people to become hypersocial but befuddled by simple objects. They have extreme emotional reactions to music, akin to religious ecstasy.

Anderson, for his part, scanned the brains of people with autism, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis. But he thought a lot about religion's hold on the mind, and when he had the chance to scan Zen Buddhist monks a few years ago, he jumped. And he realized he had been overlooking a ready-made sample right in front of him: Mormons.

"They have thousands of hours of practice doing exactly the one thing that we're interested in, which is identifying when they are feeling spiritual influences," Anderson said. "And there also is a really generous tradition of participation in science and contribution, voluntarism, that makes for a really nice study design and a focused group."

Other scientists who started from similar premises have strayed into metaphysics. Neuroscientist Andrew Newberg began by scanning the brains of Franciscan nuns and Tibetan Buddhists and wound up founding "neurotheology," which fuses science with mysticism. Newberg has co-written a series of bestselling books on the topic, including "Why God Won't Go Away."

"There's still value in doing those studies, even if the study doesn't answer the big question -- does God exist," said Newberg, now the research director of the Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University and Hospital in Philadelphia. "We still learn about the brain; we still learn about the nature of spiritual experiences and practices. And those have practical implications."

Neuroscientist Mario Beauregard of the University of Arizona is writing a book criticizing the scientific belief that there eventually will be a material explanation for everything. His work helped disprove earlier studies that purported to find a "God spot" in the brain.

"There really is no such thing," said Michael Inzlicht, a psychologist at the University of Toronto who also has studied religion's effect on the brain. "Thinking of God could maybe activate certain spots of the brain, but they weren't evolved for that purpose. They have evolved for some other reason and have been co-opted for religious cognition."

Most neuroscientists have long since abandoned any search for a "God spot," and settled on delving deeper into networks involving attention, salience, self-reflection, emotion and other functions.

Anderson and Korenberg are curious about chemicals produced or released by brain activity. Oxytocin, a hormone produced in the hypothalamus, has been associated with intimacy, fidelity and bonding, but also with social bias.

::

Peterson has been in the scanner for more than an hour when they slide the gurney out. She stirs, and asks for tissues. Tears streak her face.

Two assistants draw blood to test for levels of oxytocin and other chemicals and rush down the hall to put it in a centrifuge, then pack the samples on dry ice before such chemicals degrade. Then they lead Peterson to a meeting room for debriefing.

With pen and paper, she charts her emotional responses to each of the prompts. Then she checks off descriptions that fit her feelings, from a lexicon familiar to any Mormon -- promptings, warnings, burning in the bosom, alignment of heart and mind, pure intelligence.

"I don't have to pick one, right?" she says. "Good. There were so many."

Although she describes herself as "young in spirituality," Peterson, a third-generation Christian, said she had ample practice at priming her mind for a spiritual state. The MRI machine wasn't much of an obstacle.

"I just had to tune out the noise," she says. "I just tried to remember people and experiences."

Some religious passages reminded her of people she had met on her mission, of elders, or of her father, an attorney in Fresno who emailed the ad for the Utah project and suggested she try it. Like him, Peterson was skeptical that science would show them much they did not already know about their spiritual life. But it was worth a try.

Peterson has trouble explaining what a religious moment is like. "It's one of those things you have to experience," she tells them. "It's like witnessing a baby being born. Until you see it, you really don't get it."

Then she and the scientists exchange thank-yous. They walk out into the twilight, alone again with their own questions.

Credit: Sci-Tech Today

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Stephen Hawking thinks our days are numbered — unless we find a new planet to live on.

During a talk at the Oxford Union debating society recently, the renowned theoretical physicist said humanity probably had only about 1,000 years left before going extinct.

Hawking, 74, has spoken several times of what he sees as our doomed fate, with the risk of things like nuclear war increasing as well as the threat of global climate change. He has also warned that the development of artificial intelligence could end mankind.

Our only hope of escaping these dangers, Hawking says, is by finding another habitable planet.

"We must also continue to go into space for the future of humanity," he said. "I don't think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping beyond our fragile planet."

NASA launched its Kepler spacecraft in 2009 with a mission to do just that. It was designed to search the nearby region of our galaxy for Earth-size planets orbiting in the habitable zone of stars similar to our sun. This zone is called the "Goldilocks zone" because it is the range in which pressure and temperature are "just right" for liquid water to exist on a planet's surface.

"Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, wonder about what makes the universe exist," he said. "Be curious. However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don't just give up."

This year, astronomers were excited by the discovery of Proxima B, an Earth-size planet orbiting in the star Proxima Centauri's Goldilocks zone. It also lies just 4.2 light-years away from us, which in space terms is pretty close. So far, Proxima B seems to be our best chance of escape.

Hawking's speech ended with his encouraging the students to stay curious, and he told them to remember to "look up to the stars and not down at your feet."

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A team of scientists at a Belgian university say they have created a machine that turns urine into drinkable water and fertilizer using solar energy, a technique which could be applied in rural areas and developing countries.

While there are other options for treating wastewater, the system applied at the University of Ghent uses a special membrane, is said to be energy-efficient and to be applicable in areas that are off the electricity grid.

“We’re able to recover fertilizer and drinking water from urine using just a simple process and solar energy,” said University of Ghent researcher Sebastiaan Derese.

The urine is collected in a big tank, heated in a solar-powered boiler before passing through the membrane where the water is recovered and nutrients such as potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus are separated.

Under the slogan #peeforscience, the team recently deployed the machine at a 10-day music and theatre festival in central Ghent, recovering 1,000 litres of water from the urine of revellers.

The aim is to install larger versions of the machine in sports venues or airports but also to take it to a rural community in the developing world where fertilisers and reliable drinking water are short in supply, Derese said.

As was the case with previous projects the research team was engaged in, the water recovered from the city festival will be used to make one of Belgium’s most coveted specialties – beer.

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Few foods are as cool as a cucumber. These low-calorie veggies contain many nutritional benefits, including hydrating properties and valuable nutrients.

While most people think of cucumbers as vegetables, they are actually a fruit. They contain seeds and grow from the ovaries of flowering plants. Cucumbers are members of the plant family Cucurbitaceae, which also includes squashes and melons. The most common type of slicing cucumber found in a grocery store is the garden cucumber, Cucumis sativus, according to World’s Healthiest Foods.

Cucumbers are good sources of phytonutrients (plant chemicals that have protective or disease preventive properties) such flavonoids, lignans and triterpenes, which have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer benefits, according to World’s Healthiest Foods. The peel and seeds are the most nutrient-dense parts of the cucumber. They contain fiber and beta-carotene, a form of vitamin A that is good for eyes, reports Livestrong.com

Health benefits of cucumbers

Hydration
According to Ware, a registered dietitian nutritionist in Orlando, Florida “Cucumbers are 95 percent water." This makes cucumbers a great way to stay hydrated, especially during the summer. A cup of cucumber slices is “nearly as thirst-quenching as a glass of water,” according to Eating Well magazine.

The anti-inflammatory compounds in cucumbers help remove waste from the body and reduce skin irritation. Preliminary research also suggests cucumbers promote anti-wrinkling and anti-aging activity, according to an article in the journal Filoterapia.

Cancer prevention
Cucumbers contain two phytonutrient compounds associated with anti-cancer benefits: lignans and cucurbitacins. In recent years, pharmaceutical companies have been paying special attention to cucurbitacins, hoping to use them in new cancer drugs. According to a 2010 research review published in Scientific World Journal, scientists have found that cucurbitacins can help block the signaling pathways that are important for cancer cell proliferation and survival.

Skin Care
You’ve probably seen pictures of people at a spa relaxing with cucumber slices over their eyes. It turns out there’s science behind this pampering ritual. Ware explained, “Cucumbers have a cooling and soothing effect that decreases swelling, irritation and inflammation when used topically. Cucumber slices can be placed on the eyes can decrease morning puffiness or alleviate and treat sunburn when placed on the affected areas.” She also noted that high vegetable intake is associated with a healthy complexion in general.

Bone health
According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, in the past few decades, it has become clear that vitamin K is important to bone health, and one cup of cucumber contains about 19 percent of the recommended daily intake of vitamin K. One review published in Nutrition noted that vitamin K intake might reduce fracture rates, work with vitamin D to increase bone density and positively affect calcium balance.

Antioxidants
Cucumbers contain several antioxidants, including vitamin C, beta-carotene and manganese, as well as flavonoids, triterpenes and lignans that have anti-inflammatory properties. Vitamin C is well known for its immune system benefits, and beta-carotene has been shown to be beneficial for vision, according to the Mayo Clinic.

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This video is an excellent visualization that gives one a sense of the immensity of scale that exists in the known universe... an infinite scalar fractal series of embedded boundary conditions from the infinitely large to the infinitely small.

Right now the largest boundary we can see is the observable universe, about 13.82 billion years old (about 93 billion light years across) down to the Planck length, the smallest vibration of the electromagnetic spectrum. We are embedded in those scales, in fact, we are about medium sized.

WATCH BELOW:

The known universe visualization zoom by AMNH
...
Posted by Jamie Janover on Friday, October 16, 2015

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At some point this century, we will confront the prospect of immortality, says award-winning journalist Steven Kotler. After our bodies die, it will be possible to upload our minds into a computer, and then download them into another body. The implications for humanity are difficult to fathom.

As Kotler says, the basic engine of evolution is death — by physically adapting to our environment, our genes are preserved long enough to pass to the next generation. But human culture would also be thrown into uncharted territory.

Religious systems claims to guide the morality of human action, and they posit what exists after our natural death, so it's unclear what claim these dogmas would have to human behavior in a world where we live forever.

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Mosquitoes fly at about two kilometres per hour (1.2mph), which sounds slow, but at their size it's like you flying over a hundred times that! They are going blindingly fast for something that small.

You can't catch them for a few reasons. One, they see you coming. Their eyes are big and round and multifaceted, so they are quite capable of seeing above and behind themselves. You can't sneak up on a mosquito easily.

Second, your hand moves slower than they fly and has more distance to cover. The mosquito doesn't need to move far to get away, while your big and slow hand has to travel all the way to your head.

Lastly, the mosquito makes decisions faster than you. When you decide to hit a fly, a signal goes from your brain to your spinal cord to your arm muscles to start the hand in motion. The time it takes is a few milliseconds. But once the mosquito sees motion, a signal from its brain goes to its nerve cord to its wing muscles, and the time ends up being a fraction of a nanosecond. They think and act 100 times faster than you can. Your hand never really had a chance!

Matan Shelomi, entomologist
Air pressure from your hand also serves to blow the extremely light mosquito out from under it prior to impact, aiding in escape. This is why fly swatters are made of mesh, not a solid panel.

Keith Sibson
Insects have fast-acting, wired-in escape strategies. However... someone taught me once how to kill a house fly with your hands, and it works. The trick: when the fly is sitting on a surface, clap your hands together above the fly. The fly will see the motion and take off going up, flying into your hands just as they come together. Insect reflexes are fast, but also predictable.

Paul King
False, I can really consistently nail mosquitoes, even in mid-air. But I can never catch those dang flies without a swatter.

Jacob Vanwagoner
They're usually hard to see, and there's too many. Should you kill one, expect another one to be snacking on you in the meantime.

Anne W Zahra
One low-tech solution to mosquitoes is a box fan. Mosquitoes fly poorly as insects go, and if you have a steady breeze going, that seems to keep at least most of them at bay.

How do You kill mosquitoes?

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Whether your glass is half empty or half full, we all focus on the negatives when we’re looking for “the one,” according to a recent study.

When deciding whether to get into a serious relationship with someone else, people often talk in terms of “deal-breakers.” It could be an unwanted personality trait, their social status, their beliefs, etc. It turns out people don't always look for the best in people, at least when it comes to prospective partners. According to psychologists from five universities, people evaluating mate potential tend to focus on relationship deal-breakers – the negative traits of a person – as opposed to the positive.

The study, published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, looked at what over 6,500 people seek in sexual, romantic, and friendship contexts, as well as which values they feel are most important.

Of course, the affairs of the heart are a very subjective thing. For example, one person might deem impulsivity as a positive trait, while others might see it as a negative. According to the researchers, the top deal-breakers were unattractiveness, unhealthy lifestyle, undesirable personality traits, differing religious beliefs, limited social status, and differing relationship goals.

Their findings showed that people evaluating potential relationships tend to focus more on a person's negative characteristics than their positive ones. So much so, that a few negative traits could override many positive traits. They additionally found that women place greater emphasis on these deal-breakers in general.

In a statement, Gregory Webster, one of the study’s authors from the University of Florida, said: “We have a general tendency to attend more closely to negative information than we do to positive information.”

“Things that can harm are generally more important [to pay attention to] than things that can help you,” he added.

So in effect, most relationships fail because we stay more focused on the negative traits of a partner instead of on the good in them.

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A 'younger gene' has been identified by scientists with black people twice as likely to have it than their white counterparts.

Harvard scientists led a study involving almost one million people with private genetic database 23andMe and found one in ten white and a fifth of black Americans carry the 'genetic recipe' for youthful skin.

Researchers working on Olay's largest ever study, believe its presence can result in people looking up to 10 years younger than they actually are.

Researcher Alexa Kimball, professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School, said: 'Many of us felt that people with darker skin aged better because of more pigment and better photo [sunlight] protection, but we have found there is much more to it than that.

'They have other characteristics in their skin which confer good ageing, which until now we had no idea about.'

The search for youthful looks has spawned a multibillion-pound cosmetics industry and increasing use of Botox.

'What's exciting about these findings is that the genes that make up the unique skin fingerprint of 'exceptional skin agers' may hold the key to successful ageing,' said Dr Rosemarie Osborne, a beauty research fellow for Procter & Gamble.

'Decoding which pathways they affect, and understanding why they are acting differently in these women, ' nature or nurture', can enable Olay researchers to help more women achieve skin that looks like the exception, not the rule, at any stage of life.'

The drug works by temporarily paralysing the muscles that create wrinkles. Liz Hurley, Lulu, Meg Ryan and Leslie Ash are among those who have had botulinum injections to get rid of facial lines.

British actress and Oscar-winner Emma Thompson is a well-known critic and even formed the 'British Anti-Cosmetic Surgery League,' with Kate Winslet and Rachel Weisz, making a pact never to dabble in plastic surgery or other treatments.

But this project suggests they could be amongst the lucky few with the genetic recipe to naturally keep them young-looking.

The broad notion that black skin ages better than white is not a new one with Chris Griffiths, professor of dermatology at Manchester University, finding the extracellular matrix, a spongy material between skin cells, retains a better structure among black people.

Credit: Daily Mail UK

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The world has only touched the surface of technological progress and computers may soon be able to transmit the complexities of human personalities, a prominent inventor says.

Sebastian Thrun, who founded the Google X laboratory where the Internet search giant has developed Google Glass and driverless cars, said it was often difficult to grasp concepts before they come to fruition.

But he said that, much like data is now routinely transmitted via computers, the same may soon be true for full personalities.

"Perhaps we can get to the point where we can outsource our own personal experiences entirely into a computer -- and possibly our own personality. Maybe we're going to have a demo at some point where the computer runs 'Sebastian,'" he told a symposium Thursday evening at Stanford University.

"It's maybe unimaginable but it's not as far off as people think. It's very doable," said the German-born computer scientist, who remains a fellow at Google.

"I do believe that in all these technologies we have just scratched the surface. Almost everything interesting hasn't been invented yet," he said.

Other upcoming inventions predicted by Thrun include flying cars, computers that are implantable into the human body, and medical treatments that will drastically curb unnatural deaths.

Thrun was speaking as part of events to mark the premiere of "The Demo," an experimental opera about the 1968 data transmission test by scientist Doug Engelbart that helped pave the way for the creation of the Internet.

But Jaron Lanier, a virtual reality pioneer known for his books on the philosophy of computers, doubted that scientists could ascertain how to share personalities.

"You are a moving target, and the way you change yourself in response to the presence of that technology would undo any ability to measure whether it has succeeded," he said.

Lanier warned that Silicon Valley puts too much faith in technology's progress.

"I think we are going to have a real struggle to define ourselves in a humane and sweet way as we go through a lot of changes," he said.

He warned that technological innovations risked worsening inequality, saying: "I don't think the interests of entrepreneurs and everyone else are always aligned."

He gave the example of Egypt, saying that Silicon Valley was too congratulatory about the role of social media in the 2011 revolution that brought down strongman Hosni Mubarak.

"When it starts to go wrong, we don't take responsibility for that. There is a way in which we are being a little selective in tallying our victories," he said.

Credit: Y! news

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Happiness is a state of mind, the gurus say.

Well, actually, it could be more a function of genes, the authors of an unusual scientific study asserted on Thursday January 14 2016.

Nations whose inhabitants boast a certain gene variant, they found, had much higher self-reported happiness levels.

Happiness at the national level was more closely related to this variant than factors like wealth, country stability, or even disease prevalence -- possibly explaining, for example, why Nigerians rate themselves happier than Germans.

"Feeling happy, relaxed and in a good mood does not depend on the prosperity and safety of a country," study co-author Michael Minkov of the Varna University of Management in Bulgaria, told AFP.

"Actually the correlation between happiness and safety seems to be inverse. The highest murder and robbery rates in the world are in northern Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa and that is precisely where the happiest and most relaxed people are."

The study, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Happiness Studies, claims to be the first to show a link between genetics and happiness at the national level.

Minkov and his colleague Michael Harris Bond from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, relied on the World Values Survey (WVS), a ranking based on questionnaires in which respondents have to rate themselves as "very happy," "rather happy," "not very happy" or "not at all happy".

They compared this to data on the ethnic prevalence of "A allele", a variant of a gene involved in regulating anandamide, a substance which enhances sensory pleasure and helps reduce pain.
The country with the highest happiness rating, Mexico, also had the highest estimated prevalence of A allele, the researchers found.

Ghana and Nigeria also had high ratings for both, as did Columbia, Venezuela and Ecuador.

Iraq and Jordan, along with Hong Kong, China, Thailand and Taiwan — all of which had a low prevalence of A allele — were also the least likely to rate themselves as "very happy".

Northern Europeans had a much higher prevalence of the A allele, and rate themselves happier than those in central and southern Europe.

The genetic data used corresponded to ethnicity, which meant researchers had to estimate "national" figures by taking into account each country's mix of ethnic groups.

Evolution was one possible explanation for higher A allele prevalence in equatorial and tropical environments, said Minkov.

Perhaps "to survive in those stressful societies you need genes that help you cope with the stress," he said. The same may be true for cold, harsh northern Europe.

Genes are, of course, not the whole story, the team emphasized.

And there were exceptions: Russians and Estonians, with high A allele prevalence, scored low on the happiness scale.

This "may be a lasting effect of the economic and political difficulties that East European countries continue to experience," the authors wrote.

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Imagine being able to erase your most traumatic memories. Scientists have discovered a way to change how our brains perceive memories, which could leave bad flashbacks truly in the past.

Many of us assume that memory is like a faithful recording of our lives stored in our brains, persistent and unchanging.

Shockingly, that’s not the case. Researchers have discovered that memory is changeable. The act of recalling something alters it.

Forming memories actually causes a physical change in the brain — a seismic discovery made by Nobel Prize-winning ­neuro-scientist Eric Kandel of Columbia University.

When you create a memory, new synaptic connections grow between neurons in the brain. But each time you call up a memory, it must then be resaved like a file on your computer — and it gets modified in the process.

If this stands, it could provide an avenue for people to completely forget bad past experiences and otherwise which in itself is not a bad thing.


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Ever reach for your vibrating smartphone in your pocket, only to find it didn’t buzz at all?

You’re not alone.

It’s called “phantom vibration syndrome” — yes, it’s a real psychological phenomenon — and studies in the past few years have found, when surveying college undergraduates, that the majority experience a “phantom vibration” once every two weeks.

Georgia Tech School of Public Policy professor Robert Rosenberger explains the phenomenon in a recent video.

He calls it a real hallucination, and chalks it up to our phones giving us a new “learned bodily habit.”

“The phone actually becomes a part of you, and you become trained to perceive the phone’s vibrations as an incoming call or text,” Rosenberger explains. “Due to these kinds of habits, it becomes really easy to mis-perceive other similar sensations.”

So if your phone shifts in your pocket, your pants brush up against something or you have a quick muscle spasm in your leg, it’s easy to think it’s a vibration and eagerly grab for your device — only to find no one’s calling.

Bottom line: One emoji at a time, our smartphones are training us. That’s not scary at all, right? :-


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Artificial intelligence is getting smarter by leaps and bounds — within this century, research suggests, a computer AI could be as "smart" as a human being. And then, says Nick Bostrom, it will overtake us: "Machine intelligence is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make."

A philosopher and technologist, Bostrom asks us to think hard about the world we're building right now, driven by thinking machines. Will our smart machines help to preserve humanity and our values — or will they have values of their own?

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.

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Although success is something we all hope to achieve, it can be a real struggle. You might think the extroverts of the world have the best shot at achieving their life goals, but science disagrees. A tendency to enjoy your alone time over socializing can actually help you achieve ultimate success. Here’s why.

1. No Approval Needed
When you enjoy your alone time, you tend to be your own best friend. This tendency can serve you well for a variety of reasons. One of the keys to success is making choices you can be confident in. When you are not focused on remaining a member of a group, you can focus in on whatever options you think are in your best interest. Another way this can help is by simply reducing the amount of stress surrounding your work. No longer do you need to dedicate brain power to worrying about what others think. Instead, you get to focus on perfecting your work by your own standards.

One of the reasons introverts don’t seek the approval of others is explained by Jonathan Cheek, a psychologist at Wellesley College: “Some people simply have a low need for affiliation.” Cheek suggests that this may be connected to genetics, stating that “those who choose the living room over the ballroom may have inherited their temperament.”

2. Less Impulsive Choices
Those who love to spend time alone tend to think more carefully about their choices. When it comes to making big decisions, this can significantly increase the likelihood of selecting the best possible option. Dr. Maryam Jahdi, a physician at Ohio State University, explains that for those who prefer time alone, “behavior is guided more by consequences and less by rewards.”

This tendency to favor consequences over rewards has been linked to brain chemistry. In 2013, a study conducted by Cornell University’s Richard Depue showed a difference in the release of dopamine levels. For extroverts, dopamine was released at a greater rate upon receiving a reward. Introverts who prefer to spend some time alone experience less dopamine releases, thus they do not seek rewards in the same way as extroverts.

Being less impulsive can help with all sorts of challenges — everything from wasting money on those last-minute treats at the grocery store to holding out for that bigger, but more elusive, trade bargains. Holding back, thinking it through, and contemplating precisely what move is the best option will help you get ahead.

3. Money Wise
For those who know consequences matter more than rewards, it can be much easier to spend money wisely. Those who love to spend time alone know how to think through decisions. This is perfect for making financial decisions which require, “avoiding bad decisions, negative consequences and missed opportunities,” according to Dr. Jahdi.

You need look no further than Warren Buffet to see this is a key to success. In a US News interview, Buffet is described as “a classic example of an introvert taking careful, well-calibrated risks.” If there is one thing that can help someone achieve success, it’s being smart with money.

So, embrace your alone time and use it wisely — it may be your key to a successful life.

*Written by:
Louise Williams Learn more »

Recently named the best place to work in the United States federal government for the fourth year in a row, NASA is looking for the best candidates to work in the best job on or off the planet. The astronaut candidate application website now is live and accepting submissions through Feb. 18.

You may apply at:

https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/423817000

The agency expects to announce final candidate selections in mid-2017. Those chosen may fly on any of four different U.S. spacecraft during their careers: the International Space Station, two commercial crew spacecraft currently in development by U.S. companies, and NASA’s Orion deep-space exploration vehicle.

“NASA is on an ambitious journey to Mars and we’re looking for talented men and women from diverse backgrounds and every walk of life to help get us there,” said NASA Administrator and former astronaut Charles Bolden. “Today, we opened the application process for our next class of astronauts, extraordinary people who will take the next giant leap in exploration. This group will launch to space from U.S. soil on American-made spacecraft and blaze the trail on our journey to the Red Planet.”

NASA astronauts will again launch to the International Space Station from Florida’s Space Coast on American-made commercial spacecraft -- Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and the SpaceX Crew Dragon. These spacecraft will allow NASA to add a seventh crew member to each station mission, effectively doubling the amount of time astronauts will be able to devote to research in space, expanding scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies.

Astronauts also will lift off again from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida aboard the Orion spacecraft, launched on the agency’s Space Launch System rocket, to unprecedented missions in lunar orbit. There, the space agency will learn more about conducting complex operations in a deep space environment before moving on to longer duration missions as it progresses on its journey to Mars.

To help accomplish this work, NASA will select qualified astronaut candidates from a diverse pool of people with a wide variety of backgrounds, including engineers, scientists and physicians. According to the professional networking site LinkedIn, some 3 million of the site’s members working in the United States appear to meet the minimum academic eligibility requirements for the job.

“NASA’s mission, and what we need from the astronauts helping to carry it out, has evolved over the years,” said Brian Kelly, director of Flight Operations at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Some people would be surprised to learn they might have what it takes. We want and need a diverse mix of individuals to ensure we have the best astronaut corps possible.”

Astronaut candidates must have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science or mathematics. An advanced degree is desirable. Candidates also must have at least three years of related, progressively responsible professional experience, or at least 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet aircraft. Astronaut candidates must pass the NASA long-duration astronaut physical.

“The Office of Personnel Management is proud to support NASA’s efforts to recruit our country’s next generation of astronauts,” said Beth Cobert, acting director of OPM. “One of this agency's primary goals is to help attract, recruit, hire and retain the best and most talented workforce to serve the American people. We stand ready to help NASA find and support the talent it needs to fulfill its exciting mission to Mars. I’m proud to help agencies across government shape the federal workforce of the future by providing such tools as USAJOBS, our one-stop source for federal job and employment information.”

For more information about a career as an astronaut, and application requirements, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/astronauts

Follow NASA on LinkedIn, and find more NASA jobs, at:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/nasa

Stephanie Schierholz
Headquarters, Washington
+1 202-358-1100
stephanie.schierholz@nasa.gov

Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters / Brandi Dean
Johnson Space Center, Houston
+1 281-483-5111
nicole.cloutier-1@nasa.gov / brandi.k.dean@nasa.gov Learn more »

New research has raised the possibility of creating more effective treatments for people who suffer from chronic pain - which could be as simple as encouraging them to take more exercise. Patients can be made more resistant to pain by altering the structure of their brains, scientists believe.

Scientists discovered for the first time that people left in agony by arthritis develop more receptors in the brain that respond to opiate pain relief.

Having extra receptors makes the body more resistant to pain – both by using our bodies’ natural painkillers, endorphins, and through prescribed opiates such as morphine.

The researchers believe that if we can find out how the body increases the number of opiate receptors, we will be able to improve pain relief treatments.

But some people seem to cope better with long-term severe pain, leading scientists to investigate which coping mechanisms were at work.

The University of Manchester team found that the more opiate receptors an individual has, the better able they are to resist pain.

To test the theory, the scientists warmed the skin of patients with a laser to measure how much pain they could withstand.

They then scanned their brains with a PET scanner to count the number of opiate receptors.

Prof Jones said that as well as drug treatments, something as simple as taking exercise could also boost opiate receptors.

‘We know that exercise can activate the natural opiate system in the brain,’ he told the Daily Mail.
‘What we don’t know is how it regulates how many opiate receptors we have. Having more exercise might increase the number of opiate receptors.’

Fellow researcher Dr Christopher Brown, from Manchester University, said: ‘As far as we are aware, this is the first time that these changes have been associated with increased resilience to pain and shown to be adaptive

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The Neanderthal or Neandertal (named after the Neandertal area) was a species of human in the genus Homo that became extinct between 41,000 and 39,000 years ago. They were closely related to modern humans, differing in DNA by just 0.12%. Remains left by Neanderthals include bone and stone tools, which are found in Eurasia, from Western Europe to Central and Northern Asia and the Middle East.

The Neanderthal is generally classified by biologists as the species Homo neanderthalensis, but a minority considers them to be a subspecies of Homo sapiens (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis).

For the first time in history, scientists have worked out how they probably sounded like.

FACTS:

1. The throat of a Neanderthal is shorter than that of a human, meaning a Neanderthal voice was likely higher.

2. Neanderthals' voices would have been affected by their deep rib cages and large nasal cavities.

Vocal experts examine the first full skeleton of a neanderthal ever to be discovered and uncover insights into the most likely sound our primitive cousins would have made. Interesting short video from BBC show 'Neanderthal: The Rebirth'.

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Sense of smell is just about the strongest sense humans have. It can either disance us or attract us to someone. Think of that person who smells like S**t or something you don't want to investigate...disgusting right? Now think of that guy/girl who always walks past you smelling like heaven itself. You can't get enough of them, right? That is the person you want to be.

Ok, so how do I become the smell-good person?

1. Make sure to regularly take showers or baths. If you have rigorous activities that make you sweat during the day, then you may have to take one shower in the morning and another one at night. I know this tip is a given, but some things really do deserve extra emphasis.

2. Figure out what scents work best with your natural pheromones. For women there are flowery scents, fresh scents, sugary sweet ones, and woodsy ones (almost like a cologne). I have found that sugary sweet perfumes and floral scents are wonderful on me. However, this can be hard to decide. Just walk up to a department store counter and start testing them out. If you have any questions, just ask the sales attendants. They should have the perfume descriptions on hand.

3. Once you know what type of scent you need, decide between body spray and perfume. Personally, I use a combination of both. The good thing about body sprays is that they are very affordable, and there is normally a wonderful lotion and body wash right next the spray on the shelf. This makes it easy to layer it on, so that you smell amazing in a natural way. Body sprays are great, but they are also very light and they tend to wear off quickly. So if you have some money to spend and you are looking for a durable scent, hit the fragrance counters. Ask for a set that comes with the lotion and a mini bottle.

4. Know where to apply the scent. You can use several methods. The traditional way is to spray or dab all of your pulse points; over your heart, behind you ears, on your neck, inside both wrists, inside both elbows, lower abdomen, and behind your knees. It lasts you all day, lol. However if you are just going out for awhile, then you might want to just spray the air, step through the scent and then spray your hair. An added extra is to spray the back of your neck if you know you're gonna be getting a hug, or up close and personal with someone ;).

5. Always carry around the little mini bottles or roll-ons. This can be a great refresher in the middle of your school/work day. Or it can be there for you half-way through a date =). The point is, with these little suckers, you can always smell wonderful!

So, maybe this isn't the most important thing in the world. But it can greatly enhance your personal style and brighten up your day. Plus, wouldn't it be great if when people thought of you they'd say "Mmm...That girl/guy always smells soooo good!"

Originally written by: Illusive Allure

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