26 julho 2015
The Sombrero Galaxy from Hubble
Why does the Sombrero Galaxy look like a hat? Reasons include the Sombrero's unusually large and extended central bulge of stars, and dark prominent dust lanes that appear in a disk that we see nearly edge-on. Billions of old stars cause the diffuse glow of the extended central bulge. Close inspection of the bulge in the above photograph shows many points of light that are actually globular clusters. M104's spectacular dust rings harbor many younger and brighter stars, and show intricate details astronomers don't yet fully understand. The very center of the Sombrero glows across the electromagnetic spectrum, and is thought to house a large black hole. Fifty million-year-old light from the Sombrero Galaxy can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation of Virgo.
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latimes: How many gallons of water does it take to produce a...
How many gallons of water does it take to produce a single ounce of your favorite beverage? The message is clear: Save water. Drink beer.
whyshoulddothing: movie is like the imdb of tumblr
whyshoulddothing: movie is like the imdb of tumblr
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There have been 1,950 U.S. Senators. Most have been white (affluent) males. Here’s the breakdown...
There have been 1,950 U.S. Senators. Most have been white (affluent) males. Here’s the breakdown on everybody else.
whyshoulddothing: movie is like the imdb of tumblr
whyshoulddothing: movie is like the imdb of tumblr
Read More
coast of kimberley, western australia, photographed by terra...
coast of kimberley, western australia, photographed by terra & aqua, june-july 2015.
from the dampier peninsula in the west to cape londonderry in the east. just east of the dampier peninsula is king sound, outlet of the fitzroy river. where the king sound opens into the indian ocean we find the magnificently-named buccaneer archipelago.
the traditional owners of this coastline include the nimanburu, njulnjul, warwa, bardi, djaberadjabera, yawijibaya, unggarranggu, worrora, wunambal-gaambera, and ngarinyin peoples.
image credit: nasa/modis. animation: ageofdestruction.
age
neurosciencestuff: A little jolt helps the brain get back on...
A little jolt helps the brain get back on track
Applying mild electrical stimulation to an area of the brain associated with cognitive control helps people with schizophrenia to recognize errors and adjust their behavior to avoid them as much as it helps healthy subjects do so, according to a new study by Vanderbilt psychologists. The research was published June 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
One of the core symptoms of schizophrenia is poor cognitive control—a constellation of abilities including working memory, attention, focus and error-monitoring. Error-monitoring can be measured by “post-error slowing”—the almost imperceptible pause healthy people take after committing a mistake, like making a typo, in order to avoid doing it again. “It has been known for decades that error-monitoring is reduced in individuals with schizophrenia,” said Sohee Park, Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Psychology, who contributed to the research. “This impairment has been extremely difficult to remediate.”
An important brain area involved in cognitive control is the medial frontal cortex. In previous research, lead author Robert Reinhart, a graduate student in psychology, was able to improve post-error slowing in healthy individuals by applying a very safe, low-voltage electric current—transcranial direct stimulation, or tDCS—to the medial-frontal cortex of the brain. He wanted to see if people with schizophrenia could benefit as well.
First, participants donned EEG monitors and performed a challenging cognitive control task specifically designed to trip them up. “We saw a beautiful burst of low-frequency activity [from the medial-frontal cortex] right after someone made a mistake,” said Reinhart. “But it was deficient in our patients with schizophrenia.”
In healthy individuals, these theta waves were steady and synchronized, but in people with schizophrenia, the waves were weak and disorganized, suggesting that they were having a harder time processing the mistake. And the subjects’ behavior bore that out—the healthy subjects slowed down by a few milliseconds when they made mistakes and did better in the next round, while the subjects with schizophrenia did not.
After tDCS, the picture was dramatically different. The electrical stimulation to the scalp significantly improved the strength and synchrony of the brain waves in both groups but most notably in people with schizophrenia. “The results of our study clearly indicate that it is possible to restore error-monitoring in people with schizophrenia with tDCS,” said Park.
In addition to measuring post-error slowing, the researchers measured how well the medial-frontal cortex communicated with another region of the frontal lobe called the lateral prefrontal cortex, which is also believed to play a role in adaptive control. Reinhart and his co-investigators found that this connection was abnormally reduced in people with schizophrenia compared to healthy people, but that again, stimulation improved the connection between the two regions equally well for both groups. This was another important finding, because it strongly suggests that this particular symptom of schizophrenia is not due to a categorical difference in the brain. Rather, it suggests that the schizophrenic brain is doing what a healthy brain does—it’s just not doing it as well.
This research has important implications for treatment. “The global burden of schizophrenia is greater than that of untreated AIDS, metastatic cancer or severe dementia. Cognitive deficits in people with schizophrenia are treated with drugs, without significant success,” Park said. “But I want to emphasize that there is much work to do before we can be certain that tDCS can be used as a treatment. We need to work out why and how these changes occur, how long these effects last and whether there are other consequences.”
The researchers also caution that the tDCS systems used in research or the clinic shouldn’t be confused with consumer devices that deliver electric current to the brain. “In the laboratory, tDCS is conducted in a controlled environment, and the safety of specific tDCS protocols are approved by institutional ethics review boards,” Reinhart said. Home hobbyists should not try to replicate the research themselves.
Especialista alerta sobre responder a sinais alienígenas
Professor Matthew Bailes aconselhou contra a tentativa de corresponder a uma raça extraterrestre.
Na semana passada, o professor Stephen Hawking e uma série de outros proeminentes cientistas anunciaram o lançamento de uma nova iniciativa de 100 milhões dólares projetado para encontrar evidências de vida extraterrestre inteligente.
O empreendimento será uma das mais completas e extensas já realizada e vai se concentrar em pegar sinais de sinais de rádio que poderiam ter sido enviados por alguém fora no espaço.
Enquanto ouvir estas mensagens alienígenas poderiam nos ajudar a aprender mais sobre o nosso lugar no universo porém nem todo mundo acredita que esta tentativa de se comunicar com os ETs seria do nosso interesse.
Matthew Bailes da Universidade de Swinburne em Melbourne, que está a cargo dos esforços de encontrar sinais de vida em outros planetas, sustenta que o estabelecimento de comunicações com uma raça alienígena capaz de enviar sinais através de grandes distâncias poderiam levar a humanidade à ruína.
“A história da civilizações que entraram em contato com civilizações mais avançadas não é feliz”, disse ele.
Seus sentimentos ecoam os de pesquisadores e cientistas que assinaram uma petição no início deste ano para avisar que extraterrestres inteligentes são tão susceptíveis a serem hostis como estão a ser pacíficos.
Para procurar um sinal Professor Bailes e sua equipe estará usando o radiotelescópio Parkes no que foi descrito como uma “abordagem do Vale do Silício para a busca de vida inteligente.”
“A dificuldade é saber que tipo de sinal que estamos procurando”, ele disse. “Não existe manual sobre como encontrar extraterrestres. Nós vamos ter que imaginar o tipo de transmissão de uma raça alienígena pode enviar.”
“O sinal é susceptível de ser bastante fraco após grandes distâncias. Precisamos estar à procura de civilizações avançadas que têm significativamente mais grunhido de transmissão do que somos capazes”.
Suposto ET é visto em telhado de fazenda no México
Um suposto ET teria sido registrado em telhado de fazenda no México.
De acordo com a rede mexicana de notícias “El Mañana”, eles afirmam: “Na primeira quinzena de Julho de 2015, um vídeo que aparentemente pode ser real, não há sinais de edição ou alteração nas imagens com animação, um homem teria ouviu barulhos estranhos vindos do exterior e começado a gravar.
O que ele registrou na câmera mudou sua vida para sempre! Ele capturou o que parece ser um alienígena procurando no telhado de sua casa, sem roupa, com características que não se assemelham a raça humana, com uma cabeça pequena e pescoço longo, ao longo de grandes membros.
Esqueleto alienígena pode provar que houve vida em Marte
Exploradores espaciais que tem vasculhado imagens virtuais do river Curiosity dizem ter encontrado ‘restos fossilizados’ no Planeta Vermelho.
A incompreensível imagem de uma estranha forma de “esqueleto” em Marte poderia ser a prova definitiva de que extraterrestres viviam lá, de acordo com os teóricos da conspiração.
E sugere o estereótipo galáctico de “pequenos homens verdes” pode ter base científica.
Formas de ossos cobertos de poeira são claramente visíveis, junto com o que parece ser uma pequena cabeça, torso e dois braços de bebê.
Outra forma branca e pequena, que parece ser da mesma textura, também é vista a vários metros de distância.
Para o ufólogo Jeffery Pritchett, ele diz realmente acreditar que “os restos fossilizados são de uma criatura”.
“É difícil dizer o que isso parecia ser inicialmente, mas alguns de seus restos estão um pouco longe dele, na parte inferior da foto.”
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Despite his premature death at the age of just 37, Lev Vygotsky is widely considered as one of the leading developmental psychologists of the 20th century. In addition to his seminal contribution to the relationship between language and thought, Lev Vygotsky also put forward ideas regarding the psychology of play, in particular the process of self-regulation through creative play.
This classic article which was originally given in the form of a speech provides several key insights into Lev Vygotsky’s theories of play.
Coco Chanel and Salvador Dali. According to a recent (and...
Coco Chanel and Salvador Dali. According to a recent (and controversial) biography, Coco Chanel had multiple affairs including with women and then-married Dali.
O pé-de-elefante nuclear
Na década de 80, a humanidade esteve perto de criar uma medusa, não o animal que todos nós conhecemos, mas sim outra entidade, composta por químicos pesados. É totalmente impossível chegar a poder observar uma de perto, porque toda a radiação por ela emitida é demasiada para um corpo humano, levando-o à morte, posteriormente.
Esta imagem provém de uma formação semelhante a um tapete de lava, originada no centro de um reator do porão da central nuclear de Chernobyl. Ela foi nomeada de "pé-de-elefante" e pesa centenas de toneladas, mas só tem dois metros de extensão e meio metro de altura. A densidade do pé-de-elefante ultrapassa recordes para uma massa nuclear com as suas proporções. As fotografias existentes deste fenómeno só puderam ser tiradas a partir de um espelho no canto do corredor, visto que a câmara-robô que foi enviada até àquela sala com o objetivo de o gravar em imagens foi destruída pela radiação. Ainda não foram divulgadas as respetivas medições da temperatura.
Artigos resumidos e especializados neste assunto informam que o peso desta formação ultrapassa as 1200 toneladas e só perde 10 quilos de urânio por ano. Como se não bastasse, ainda resiste às condições ambientais e é protegida pelo abrigo nuclear da central, daí o fato de se prever que os quilos de urânio perdidos serão gradualmente menores ao passar do tempo, até que chegará a um ponto que deixará de perder massa.
O material de que o pé-de-elefante é feito chama-se "corium" e só é produzido em acidentes nucleares: o combustível sólido derrete-se e torna-se num líquido espesso e extremamente quente que corrói tudo o que se encontra à sua frente. Nem mesmo o ferro, betão ou areia escapam.
O pé-de-elefante é uma mistura de componentes radioativos, combustíveis e materiais da própria central nuclear e eventualmente, solidificou-se de uma maneira semelhante à do vidro, quando passa pelo devido processo de formação.
Com todos estes dados, prevê-se que a radiação de Chernobyl durará mais de cem mil anos.
Adaptado de: creepypastabrazil
via @notiun
July 26th 1948: Desegregation of US militaryOn this day in 1948,...
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Truman at the signing of the order
Executive Order 9981
July 26th 1948: Desegregation of US military
On this day in 1948, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 to abolish racial discrimination in the military. The order established the President’s Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity in the Armed Services, which committed the United States government to the desegregation of the military, and equality within the ranks. This came in the aftermath of the Second World War, where thousands of African-American men and women joined the armed forces. The discrimination faced by African-American soldiers while fighting for their country led to a ‘Double V’ campaign against fascism abroad and racism at home. Activists like A. Philip Randolph had pushed for integration of the armed forces for a long time before Truman’s action. President Truman aimed to implement limited civil rights legislation to protect African-Americans but was thwarted by the threat of Southern filibuster in Congress; he therefore resorted to executive action and by the end of the Korean War the US military was almost completely integrated. Full civil desegregation in the United States did not begin until after the 1954 Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka which ruled school segregation unconstitutional.
fastcompany: “My own experience inspired me to spread the word...
“My own experience inspired me to spread the word and encourage other mothers, as well as non-mothers, to see breastfeeding the way it’s supposed to be seen.”
These gorgeous photos of mothers breastfeeding will change the way you see public breastfeeding
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