The Secret Histories of Those @#$%ing Computer Symbols
They are road signs for your daily rituals-the instantly recognized symbols and icons you press, click, and ogle countless times a day when you interact with your computer. But how much do you know about their origins?
Head over to PopSci’s gallery to find out the origin of various symbols (Thanks @XxLadyClaireXx)
The secrets of the ads that ‘stalk’ you
Imagine walking into a shoe shop in the high street, picking up and looking at a few pairs of shoes, before putting them down and leaving the store. Then imagine checking out a few other shops before popping into a newsagent, where you start flicking through a newspaper. As you do this, a display appears with the exact same shoes that you were interested in half an hour earlier, along with a deal attempting to lure you back to make a purchase.
That experience is pretty much analogous to personalised retargeting in the online advertising world and might explain why you might sometimes feel like those shoes or those bikes are stalking you across the web.
Brands such as Office and Halfords are amongst the first in the UK to employ this sort of retargeting technology, provided by companies such as Criteo and Struq. Take a visit to one of their websites, browse a few items and then check out thesun.co.uk and you are pretty likely to be greeted by your selected items in an ad on the side of the site. See below:
Read more at Wired (Thanks @XxLadyClaireXx)
Age Confirmed for ‘Eve,’ Mother of All Humans: 200,000 years
A maternal ancestor to all living humans called mitochondrial Eve likely lived about 200,000 years ago, at roughly the same time anatomically modern humans are believed to have emerged, a new review study confirms.
The results are based on analyses of mitochondrial DNA. Found in the energy-producing centers of cells, mitochondrial DNA is only passed down the maternal line, and can be traced back to one woman.
However, this doesn’t mean she was the first modern woman, rather it indicates that only her descendants survive to the present day. “There is always some other female that predated mitochondrial Eve, whose DNA didn’t make it up to modernity,” said Marek Kimmel, a professor of statistics at Rice University. “So the age of the mitochondrial Eve is always less than the age of the true, first female modern human.”
Full Article at LiveScience
‘Immortal’ Trees Can’t Escape Aging
“With immortality comes immobility.
Because some quaking aspen trees can reproduce by copying themselves, some people have wondered whether they might live forever, at least theoretically. But even if that’s possible, they’re still not immune from the ravages of time.
As aspen clones grow older, a slow buildup of genetic mutations impairs their pollen production. After a few tens of thousands of years, they won’t produce any pollen at all.
When that happens, trees will still be able to sprout clones from their root tips, but they won’t be able to make seeds. They’ll be stuck in place, vulnerable to disease or disaster.
“There’s a slow and steady loss of fertility with age,” said San Diego State geneticist Dilara Ally. “Because we were able to calculate the rate at which male fertility was lost, we could estimate how long it would take fertility in the oldest clone to dwindle away entirely.”
From the time they’re seedlings, quaking aspens like those studied by Ally reproduce clonally, sprouting new trees from specialized root tips. As they mature, they also start to self-fertilize, producing clonal seeds. In both cases, the resulting tree is a copy of the original.
Individual trees have a lifespan of about 200 years, but clones — scientists consider the collective as as single entity — can sprawl for acres, all descended from one original tree, and apparently able to reproduce indefinitely.”
Read more at Wired (Thanks @UKgnome)
Study reveals how old age is linked to the breakdown of brain function
It’s unavoidable: breakdowns in brain connections slow down our physical response times as we age, a new study suggests.
This slower reactivity is associated with an age-related breakdown in the corpus callosum, a part of the brain that acts as a dam during one-sided motor activities to prevent unwanted connectivity, or cross-talk, between the two halves of the brain, said Rachael Seidler, associate professor in the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology and Department of Psychology, and lead study author.
At other times the corpus callosum acts at a bridge and cross-talk is helpful, such as in certain cognitive functions or two-sided motor skills.
The U-M study is the first known to show that this cross-talk happens even while older adults are at rest, said Seidler, who also has appointments in the Institute of Gerontology and the Neuroscience Graduate Program. This resting cross-talk suggests that it is not helpful or compensatory for the two halves of the brain to communicate during one-sided motor movements because the opposite side of the brain controls the part of the body that is moving. So, when both sides of the brain talk simultaneously while one side of the body tries to move, confusion and slower responses result, Seidler said.
The Mystery of the missing plastic
We’re referring to the great patch of plastic in the North Atlantic Gyre. You might have read the stories in DISCOVER and elsewhere about the more famous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a Texas-sized soup of tiny plastic pieces in the middle of that ocean. Circulating ocean currents create these gyres in several places around the world, and ocean-borne plastic gets trapped. The Woods Hole paper is the result of a two-decade study of the Atlantic patch that produced a surprising result: The amount in total plastic appears to have leveled off—at least according to the data.
Humans haven’t stopped putting plastic into the ocean, so what gives?
“We know that global production of plastics has increased substantially over the time period” and disposal also has increased, said Kara Lavender Law of the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Mass. “If there is more plastic trash it’s hard to believe more is not making it into the ocean. There is missing plastic out there,” she said
Full story by AP and Discover 80 Beats
7 ways to get the best sleep ever
“You’ve done all the obvious stuff — cut out late-night caffeine, made sure your bedroom is dark and cozy, avoided scary movies or struggling with your to-do list right before bed. So why are you still tossing and turning? “Certain habits you’re unaware of could be sabotaging your sleep,” says Kristen L. Knutson, Ph.D., assistant professor and sleep specialist at the University of Chicago’s Department of Medicine. And, as you may know, lack of shut-eye doesn’t just leave you foggy the next day: Chronic, long-term insufficient sleep ups your odds of diabetes, depression, cardiovascular disease, even weight gain. So what to do? Try these unexpected tweaks, and wake up feeling incredibly well-rested.
Step 1: Halt your afternoon habit
It’s a no-brainer that drinking coffee or tea right before you hit the sack won’t do you any sleep favors. But you also need to watch your afternoon drinks, says Joan Salge Blake, RD, a clinical associate professor at Boston University. Love your 4 p.m. peach tea? It’s got caffeine, and so do some flavored waters and even orange sodas, Blake warns. Check the labels on your favorite midday drinks — any that boast energy-boosting benefits are likely culprits. Then, if possible, stop sipping them by 2 p.m., so there’s time for their effects to wear off. Naturally, coffee drinks pack a real wallop, so stay away from them after lunch.”
Read more at CNN (Thanks @XxLadyClaireXx)
Fossil Reveals 48-Million-Year History of Zombie Ants
“A 48-million-year-old fossilised leaf has revealed the oldest known evidence of a macabre part of nature — parasites taking control of their hosts to turn them into zombies. The discovery has been made by a research team led by Dr David P Hughes, from the University of Exeter, who studies parasites that can take over the minds of their hosts.
All manner of animals are susceptible to the often deadly body invasion, but scientists have been trying to track down when and where such parasites evolved.
Dr Hughes, from the University’s School of Biosciences, said: “There are various techniques, called a molecular clock approach, which we can use to estimate where and when they developed and fossils are an important source of information to calibrate such clocks. “This leaf shows clear signs of one well documented form of zombie-parasite, a fungus which infects ants and then manipulates their behaviour.”
The fungus, called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, causes ants to leave their colonies and head for a leaf which provides the ideal conditions for the host to reproduce.
When it gets there the ant goes into a ‘death grip’- biting down very hard on the major vein of a leaf. This means that when the ant dies, its body stays put so the fungus has time to grow and release its spores to infect other ants.”
Read more at Science Daily (Thanks @XxLadyClaireXx)
We can see where life started
“That age-old question, “where did life on Earth start?” now has a new answer.
If the life between the mica sheets hypothesis is correct, life would have originated between sheets of mica that were layered like the pages in a book.
The so-called “life between the sheets” mica hypothesis was developed by Helen Hansma of the University of California.
According to the theory, structured compartments that commonly form between layers of mica – a common mineral that cleaves into smooth sheets – may have sheltered molecules that were the progenitors to cells.
Provided with the right physical and chemical environment in the structured compartments to survive and evolve, the molecules eventually reorganized into cells, while still sheltered between mica sheets.
Mica chunks embedded in rocks could have provided the right physical and chemical environment for pre-life molecules and developing cells because mica compartments could have held, protected and sheltered molecules, and thereby promoted their survival.
Also, mica could have provided enough isolation for molecules to evolve without being disturbed and still allow molecules to migrate towards one another and eventually bond together to form large organic molecules.
And mica compartments may have provided something akin to a template for the production of a life form composed of compartments, which are now known as cells.
Mica sheets are held together by potassium. If high levels of potassium were donated by mica sheets to developing cells, the high levels of potassium found in mica sheets could account for the high levels of potassium currently found in human cells.”
Read more at Sunday Mercury (Thanks @XxLadyClaireXx)
The world’s best countries
The phrase “world’s best” belongs on a mug next to the word “dad”, but as reductionist as it sounds, the rather wonderfully made infographic over at Newsweek is a fascinating insight in to the rankings of various countries.
The detailed comparison such as ’quality of life ranking’ includes: income inequality, gender gap, % living on less than $2 a day, Consumption per capita, homicide rate, environmental health and unemployment – all of which can be compared to any other country based on its population size, income group or region.
Surprisingly the UK ranks at 8th in the world overall, and 2nd if you take in to consideration our population size. We do however rank 28th for Political Environment among the world’s “high income” countries and drop to 33rd when you include everyone. Ahead of us are Costa Rica, Lithuania and Poland.
Kazakhstan makes a surprising appearance at 14th for education with a 99.5% literacy rate and 15 years of average schooling.
Once you start to play you’ll find it becomes strangely addictive.
