Can Brown Noise Turn Off Your Brain? – New York Times
— Delivered by Feed43 service
Computers Tech Games Crypto Music and More
— Delivered by Feed43 service
Struggling to get your head around the concept of infinity, and something actually going on forever?
Well Netflix has rounded up a bunch of particle physicists, cosmologists, and mathematicians to try and help explain it to you.
In the trailer above for the streamer’s upcoming documentary we see various space-y shots paired with smart people saying things like: “Is infinity a number, an idea, a place? Probably all of the above.”
Intriguing.
The human brain is an amazing computing machine. Weighing only three pounds or so, it can process information a thousand times faster than the fastest supercomputer, store a thousand times more information than a powerful laptop, and do it all using no more energy than a 20-watt lightbulb. Researchers are trying to replicate this success using soft, flexible organic materials that can operate like biological neurons and someday might even be able to interconnect with them. Eventually, soft “neuromorphic” computer chips could be implanted directly into the brain, allowing people to control an artificial arm or a computer monitor simply by thinking about it.
Like real neurons — but unlike conventional computer chips — these new devices can send and receive both chemical and electrical signals. “Your brain works with chemicals, with neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin. Our materials are able to interact electrochemically with them,” says Alberto Salleo, a materials scientist at Stanford University who wrote about the potential for organic neuromorphic devices in the 2021 Annual Review of Materials Research. Salleo and other researchers have created electronic devices using these soft organic materials that can act like transistors (which amplify and switch electrical signals) and memory cells (which store information) and other basic electronic components.
The work grows out of an increasing interest in neuromorphic computer circuits that mimic how human neural connections, or synapses, work. These circuits, whether made of silicon, metal or organic materials, work less like those in digital computers and more like the networks of neurons in the human brain…. An individual neuron receives signals from many other neurons, and all these signals together add up to affect the electrical state of the receiving neuron. In effect, each neuron serves as both a calculating device — integrating the value of all the signals it has received — and a memory device: storing the value of all of those combined signals as an infinitely variable analog value, rather than the zero-or-one of digital computers.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The anime series based on CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 starts streaming on Netflix on September 13th, a new trailer has revealed. Jack in, boot up and sit down to watch the not-safe-for-work trailer for Cyberpunk: Edgerunners below. Just tell your boss they’re needed in a meeting or something.
PRESCRIPTION steroids can wreck your mental health by damaging the brain, according to a study.
Millions of Brits take the strong medicines for conditions like asthma, arthritis and allergies.
Prescription steroids are widely used but damaging over the long-term[/caption]
But scans reveal long-term use leads to structure changes in white and grey brain matter.
It could trigger anxiety, depression and other mental health issues, said scientists at Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Study author Professor Onno Meijer said: “These findings are remarkable given the common psychiatric side effects of glucocorticoids.”
Experts studied brain scans from 25,000 middle-aged people in the UK – including 779 who were taking steroid medication pills or inhalers.
People on the meds had “less intact” white matter, they found.
White matter is packed with vital nerves that transmit information around the skull.
Read more on medicine risks
Physical damage makes the nerves less able to function.
Steroid use was also linked to size changes in the caudate and amygdala brain regions, which control emotions.
Past studies have found patients are at higher risk of depression than people not taking the medicines.
The drugs, known as glucocorticoids, work by controlling the body’s immune system and stopping it over-reacting.
This reduces the risk of asthma attacks, severe allergic reactions or joint pain and swelling caused by arthritis or lupus.
Writing in the journal BMJ Open, Prof Meijer said: “These medications are prescribed for a wide range of conditions and are used by a substantial proportion of the population.
“Awareness of the potential of glucocorticoids to affect the brain and cause neuropsychiatric symptoms is important.”
Read More on The Sun
Researchers added that long-term steroid use is “associated with many potentially serious metabolic, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal side effects.”
NHS advice says patients may get side effects from steroid medicines but adds: “Do not stop taking your medicine without talking to your doctor.”
The Connection of Brain Fog With Metabolic Health HealthifyMe – Blog HealthifyMe – Blog – The definitive guide to weight loss, fitness and living a healthier life.
Have you ever experienced mental sluggishness, as though doing any cognitive job required a lot of extra mental energy? Have you ever had trouble recalling the information you already know, struggled to focus, or seen your mental concentration shifting from one thing to another? The condition is known as “brain fog”, and you may be […]
The post The Connection of Brain Fog With Metabolic Health appeared first on HealthifyMe – Blog.