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This article is about the neuroscience of how fake news grabs our attention, produces false memories, and appeals to our emotions. “Highly emotionally provocative information stands a stronger chance of lingering in our minds and being incorporated into long-term memory banks.” "Fake news" is a relatively new term, but some people now see it as one of the biggest threats to democracy and free debate. But how is this going to work? At least some insight can be given by neuroscience.  The first job of Fake News is to catch our attention, and novelty is key for that reason. Researchers Gordon Pennycook and David Rand have suggested that one of the reasons for the success of hyperpartisan claims is that they tend to be outlandish. Human beings have developed an extraordinary skill in a world full of surprises to easily identify and direct themselves towards unexpected knowledge or events. Novelty is an essential concept that underlies the behavioural neural bas...

Recently, the Blue Brain Project has created a model that defines the brain as a structure built from multidimensional spaces and structures. This new study helps us better understand our brains and may even give us clues to answer questions such as where memories are made in our brain. The brain is an extremely complex organ, particularly the human brain, and science is still far from knowing all the aspects of its structure. Nonetheless, by using computer models, a team of scientists working on the Blue Brain Project are now working to better understand the brain. [Credit: EPFL’s Blue Brain] The latest model showed the brain as a multi-dimensional space and building structure. "We found a world we had never imagined," said neuroscientist Henry Markram, Blue Brain Project director and professor at the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland. These structures exist in numerous numbers, in the smallest fleck of our brain, up to the seventh dimension. There w...

Formed in 1999 in Jack Ma's Hangzhou flat, Alibaba has ridden China's seemingly insatiable appetite for online shopping to become one of the most valuable companies in the world. The US-listed company confirmed plans to add further value on Friday but listed additional shares in Hong Kong in a $13 billion offer.  Alibaba is one of the world's most valuable companies Here are the answers to the company's key questions: How did Alibaba start? Ma, a former English teacher who claims never to have written a line of computer code, had dabbled with mixed success in various ventures before friends introduced him to the internet during a trip to the United States in the 1990s. With Amazon already making waves in online shopping, Ma persuaded a group of Chinese and foreign friends to face $60,000 for an e-commerce business-to-business venture in 1999. Ma called it "Alibaba" because the word was easily pronounced in nearly every language, even ...

Physicists have assumed for years that two-trick ponies were the Cooper pairs, the electron duos that allow superconductors to conduct electricity without resistance. The pairs either glide freely, create a superconducting state, or create an isolating state by jamming up inside a material, which is impossible to move.  But a team of researchers has shown in a new paper published in Science that Cooper pairs can also conduct electricity with some resistance, as is the case with standard metals.  Small holes punched into a superconductive material of high temperature revealed that Cooper pairs, electron duos that allow superconductivity, can also conduct electricity in the same way as metals do.  [ Credit: Valles lab / Brown University] "There was evidence that this metallic state would arise in thin film superconductors as they were cooled down to their superconducting temperature, but whether or not that state involved Cooper pairs was an open question....

A team of researchers from Michigan State University managed to develop a fully transparent solar panel – a breakthrough that could lead to countless applications in architecture, as well as other fields such as mobile electronics or the automotive industry. Previous attempts to create such a device have been made, but results were never satisfying enough, with low efficiency and poor material quality. Researcher Yimu Zhao holding up a transparent luminescent solar concentrator module – Photography: Yimu Zhao Transparent Solar Panels: The MSU team emphasized on the see-through factor. They developed a transparent luminescent solar concentrator, or TLSC, that can be placed over a window or any other clear surface. The concentrator can harvest solar energy without affecting light transmittance. The technology uses organic molecules which absorb wavelengths of light that are invisible to the human eye, like infrared and ultraviolet light. A transparent luminescent ...

Medical history is a treasure trove of strange and marvellous stories of mysterious diseases and remedies.  1. The guy who swallowed "the entire knives on the boat"  In 1808 an American sailor, who complained about persistent abdominal pain, was admitted to Guy's Hospital in London. Doctors could not understand his cause, refusing to believe his account of swallowing' dozens' of knives. His explanation was not clear. He died a couple of months later, and doctors found out that his sailor was telling the truth. The corroded remnants of more than thirty clasp knives were swallowed into his stomach and lungs as part of an appallingly misdirected party trick. He had swallowed up to 14 in a single session on a memorable occasion-but it was a few years before he paid the ultimate price. 2. A boy who honked like a goose The German physician Karl August von Burow was called in 1848 to deal with one of the strangest cases of his life, or anybody els...

Did you know that your brain fires a neural signal called "error positivity" 0.5 seconds after making a mistake?  That's it! And guess what: According to a new study by Michigan State University researchers, the signal is much stronger for meditators. Meditators still make mistakes, but their brains tell them loudly about these errors. Meditation style is key: you need to do so-called "open-monitoring meditation," concentrating on your body emotions, thoughts, and body sensations. "Tune in and be vigilant about everything that happens in your mind and body. The goal is to sit quietly and pay close attention to where the mind is travelling without getting too caught up in the scenery, "Dr Jeff Lin, co-author of the study, said in a statement. Remember that the emphasis on your breath or rhythm is different. [Photo: Spencer Selover /Pexels] Two hundred mediation novices meditated for only twenty minutes for the study and then took a co...

The standard workweek in the United States since the Great depression was at least 40 hours ' workweek, which lasts five days, Monday to Friday, but about a quarter of U.S. workers today do not work that way.  People have been playing for over 80 years with the idea of a four-day workweek. Here's how the idea developed from the Great Depression to the new successful experiment from Microsoft. Throughout the twentieth century, researchers and activists have estimated the average worker will fall by hours with increased productivity. In 1928, economist John Maynard Keynes expected a workweek of 15 hours within a hundred years. In 1965, an even short 14-hour week with seven weeks of holidays was predicted by a Senate subcommittee by 2000.  [Photo: bruce mars /Pexels] Many highly qualified technical administrators such as Google's co-founder Larry Page have praised the concept of four days ' work, and studies have shown that it could have advantages su...