Oldest living organism in the world? Only about 200.000 years old.
Picture by Manu San-Felix
You think your wrinkly Nan is old? Not even! There are organisms, mainly plants, who are thousands of years old, even tens- or hundreds of thousands. At The Guardian we can read that scientists have found a 15 kilometre long patch of Mediterranean Seagrass near a Spanish island, with the beautiful Latin name Posidonia oceanica, of an extraordinary age. This patch of underwater salad may be up to 200.000 years old! A grand old breaking of the previous record of seagrass lifespan, which was recorded in Tasmanian waters and sat at around a measly 40.000 years of age. Barely out of nappies that one!
You may wonder whether a single blade of seagrass is really as old as the dawn of the homo sapiens? Well, rest assured, no single blade is. Seagrass clones itself over vast stretches of seabed, growing by a dazzling speed of around 13 centimetres a year and is constantly nibbled away at by predators, destroyed by changing environments or gone old and mushy, leaving no single blades to become as ancient as our entire race. Regardless, this same patch of seagrass has been cloning (or simply “regrowing”) its exact, identical DNA for over all that time.
Compare it to the human body. You may have heard the myth that human cells are completely replaced every 7 or 10 years. This is false, but it does give some insight in how we can claim that the seagrass is the exact same organism for that long a period of time, even though its cells have been replaced many times over. In the case of human beings, our most important brain and heart cells don’t ever see replacement, they just die off. We call that forgetting. However, other parts of our body see a replenishment of cells up to 10% a year (like fat cells), effectively recreating parts of our human body over time. Unfortunately for us, this copying is fraught with errors, and gives us the concept of ageing or even cancer. Now imagine you’re all body, no brain, like the seagrass and you keep replicating over and over and over and over… Then yes, the seagrass is 200.000 years old.
As one scientist said in more detail;
“The finding of the ancient seagrass also illustrates the danger us humans pose to vulnerable ancient ecosystems. With our destructive fishing trawlers that needlessly destroy the ecosystems of the sea floor and the way we alter the climate with our rising CO2 emissions, of which most is stored in the oceans and seas, causing ocean acidification and uninhabitable dead-zones, we have caused a decline in seagrass development of 10% in the Mediterranean alone. And don’t forget the warming of the oceans happens at the same time. No wonder we are causing the largest era of biodiversity loss in millions of years. One even this hardy old patch of seagrass will likely not survive.”
Also check out this wondrous TED talk by artist Rachel Sussman, who is documenting the oldest living organisms and how they are under threat.
Gossip can have social and psychological benefits
We all like to gossip about others, but abhor to hear there has been gossiping about our own selves. Generally we therefore tend to think gossiping is always bad, but forget it right at those moment some juicy gossips are flowing from our own silky lips. Luckily there is a a science of gossip to be found in psychological studies and it shows that actually some sorts of gossip are not bad at all.
It seems pro-social gossip plays a vital role in what we call social control, a form of peer pressure. Unwanted behaviour will be gossiped about, making bad actors reflect on their deeds and potentially curb their negative behaviour in fear of social exclusion. In a sense gossiping gives people the opportunity to prepare or avoid a nasty experience with someone else, making selfish behaviour less rewarding and therefore less common. Secondly, pro-social gossip relieves stress. When expressing your feelings over a frustrating situation or your perspective on a stressing drama, that just feels good. You are being heard by your altruistic peers, who may even help you out beyond just hearing your lament.
Of course the anti-social forms of gossiping, out of envy or revenge while throwing a little lie in the mix to sauce things up, will actually get you gossiped about and can lower your social standing with the other gossipers of fair repute.
Read more on medicalxpress.com about the benefits of gossip. If this is your kind of science, then don’t miss out on a whole book on the subject of reputation (therefore also gossip) by John Whitfield, called People Will Talk.
The science of schadenfreude
When someone else falls on their buttocks in a spectacular display of flailing limbs, or another spills some soup on a pristine white shirt at a fancy office party, aren’t these the moments that make life worth it? Commonly enough, most of us will have to suppress a naughty chuckle at the misfortune of others. Is this bad? Not per se. A little article found on MSN.com details research in the field of schadenfreude by the University of Nijmegen. It tells us that the act of feeling good at another’s misfortune is a simple mechanism of self-affirmation. Depending on a person’s levels of self-esteem, he or she may need a little ego-boost saying “I’m not so bad after all, look at that dolt! I can eat soup better than him/her any day!”.
In a study conducted on students who were asked to appraise their level of schadenfreude after reading about a high performing student failing to get a great job, it became clear that the level of mirth at the misfortune of others is heavily dependent on our own levels of confidence. The more threatened or envious one is of another person, because we often assess our own positions to be inferior, the more enjoyment the failure of this person brings. Sounds like stating the obvious, but this information can be used in our daily lives to recognize that often these feelings of glee at the tribulations of others stem from our own hidden feelings of inadequacy. Living with this understanding enables us to feel more empathy for others and to face or address our own failings, which will enable us to grow into more confident people. Nothing wrong with a little chuckle though!
Thanks to Shaun B for the tip, read the whole article here.
Try these books if these kinds of studies and the subject of self-esteem and happiness interest you;
Stumbling Upon Happiness – Daniel Gilbert
The Happiness Hypothesis – Jonathan Haidt
59 Seconds – Richard Wiseman
Skin transformed into brain cells
“Skin cells have been converted directly into cells which develop into the main components of the brain, by researchers studying mice in California.
The experiment, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, skipped the middle “stem cell” stage in the process.
The researchers said they were “thrilled” at the potential medical uses.
Far more tests are needed before the technique could be used on human skin.
Stem cells, which can become any other specialist type of cell from brain to bone, are thought to have huge promise in a range of treatments. Many trials are taking place, such as in stroke patients or specific forms of blindness.
One of the big questions for the field is where to get the cells from. There are ethical concerns around embryonic stem cells and patients would need to take immunosuppressant drugs as any stem cell tissue would not match their own.
An alternative method has been to take skin cells and reprogram them into “induced” stem cells. These could be made from a patient’s own cells and then turned into the cell type required, however, the process results in cancer-causing genes being activated.
The research group, at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California, is looking at another option – converting a person’s own skin cells into specialist cells, without creating “induced” stem cells. It has already transformed skin cells directly into neurons.”
Read more at BBC News
How Do Placebos Relieve Pain?
“Scientists and doctors have been studying placebos for more than half a century. These inert “sugar pills” remain highly controversial, yet they are widely used in clinical treatment today—especially in the area of pain management. So-called “placebo analgesia” has been observed again and again not only in the pain clinic, but also in the neuroscience lab, where scientists have documented a placebo response in the brain’s pain pathways.
Despite this evidence, nobody really understands the psychological processes involved in placebo analgesia. Presumably the power of these inert substances has something to do with the expectation of relief, but how do expectations translate into basic cognitive processes, like attention and thought? One possibility is that when sufferers expect relief, they are able to redirect their attention away from their pain, creating an analgesic effect. If that’s the case, then expectation itself might actually act as an agent of cognitive control, and the mind’s executive powers might be the link between expectation and relief. Imaging studies have revealed placebo-related activity in a brain region involved in executive function—bolstering this theory.
But this brain imaging evidence is merely suggestive, and the theory has never been tested directly. A team of psychological scientists, headed up by Jason Buhle of Columbia University, decided to investigate this explanation for placebo analgesia. The brain has a limited supply of cognitive power, so if indeed placebo analgesia requires executive attention, then performance on a demanding cognitive task should interfere with pain relief from a placebo, and vice versa. One kind of executive power is working memory, and in previous work Buhle and colleagues have shown that performing a difficult working memory task itself reduces pain, presumably by distracting sufferers. So in a new experiment, they tested whether this same cognitive task interferes with the relief offered by a placebo drug, as one would expect if they are using the same cognitive mechanisms. If not, then the evidence would suggest that sugar pills and distraction have independent analgesic effects.”
Read more at Psychological Science (Thanks Annette)
The Debunking Handbook
There’s a very strong likelihood that if you’re reading this you’re either:
a) a rational skeptic
b) a trojan spiritualist
c) a fan of Derren Brown
Good news then that all three will find something to enjoy in The Debunking Handbook, an Ebook that is free to download courtesy of skepticalscience.com, a website that focuses primarily on explaining what peer-reviewed science has to say about global warming.
They describe it thus:
“Although there is a great deal of psychological research on misinformation, there’s no summary of the literature that offers practical guidelines on the most effective ways of reducing the influence of myths.
The Debunking Handbook boils the research down into a short, simple summary, intended as a guide for communicators in all areas (not just climate) who encounter misinformation.”
Feel free to go grab your copy of The Debunking Handbook and then come back here to let us know what you think. It shouldn’t take you long, it’s only seven pages long.
Souce: Lifehacker
(Thanks to DG for the scoop)
Matrix-Style Learning Infiltrates Your Mind
“While it may not help you learn how to Kung Fu fight or fly a B212 Helicopter, a neurofeedback method of learning is reminiscent of something we might have seen in the movie, The Matrix.
The technique would provide more immediate and long-lasting knowledge in tasks that demand a significant level of visual performance, like hitting a curve ball or learning to play the piano.
Researchers from Boston University (BU) and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories in Kyoto, Japan recently demonstrated that they could induce brain activity patterns to match a targeted state by decoding a person’s functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan of their visual cortex.
In the future, researchers envision a person watching a computer screen and having their brain patterns manipulated to match those of a desired level of task performance, perhaps of an athlete or someone healing from an accident or disease.
Their findings were published in the most recent issue of Science.
“Adult early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning,” lead author and BU neuroscientist Takeo Watanabe said in a National Science Foundation press release.
However, there is one wrinkle in this Matrix-style approach to learning: the method worked on subjects even when they weren’t aware of what they were learning.
“We found that subjects were not aware of what was to be learned while behavioral data obtained before and after the neurofeedback training showed that subjects’ visual performance improved specifically for the target orientation,” Watanabe said.
Fascinating — sure — but this does open up the door to hypnosis and mind control, which Watanabe is keenly aware of.
“We have to be careful,” he said, “so that this method is not used in an unethical way.” Sounds like a good plot line for the next Matrix movie.”
Via Discovery News (Thanks Annette)
How Music Affects the Brain and How You Can Use It to Your Advantage
“Music can often make or break a day. It can change your mood, amp you up for exercise, and help you recover from injury. But how does it work exactly, and how can you use it to your advantage?
Photo by JT Theriot.
Recently, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords used music therapy to help her learn to talk again. The still unproven theory revolves around the idea that music is represented in multiple parts of the brain and therefore accesses deeper pathways between neurons. Music then helps patients connect the stored knowledge of words through songs and helps create the new connections needed for speech. This same idea has been used for stroke victims in the past, and has been referred to as the Kenny Rogers Effect.
You don’t need to have suffer from brain damage to get the benefits though, lets take a look at how music affects the brain in a more casual sense, and how you can use it to enhance your day-to-day.
Recall Memories
You might remember reports back in the 1990s that said that studying while listening to Mozart increases the likelihood of performing well on a test, but that has been disproven in some studies, and in turn, studies have shown some music has a negative affect on fact retention if you’re studying numbers or lists. Still, performing music has been proven to increase memory and language skills, but for listeners, it’s better used as a means to recall memories. It has been shown in Alzheimer’s patients to help with memory recall, and even restore cognitive function. It works for Alzheimer’s patients in the same way it works in everyone else.
When you listen to music you know, it stimulates the hippocampus, which handles long-term storage in the brain. Doing so can also bring out relevant memories you made while listening to a particular song. So, even though the Mozart-effect has essentially been disproven, the idea that forming a new memory with music, and then using the same music again later to recall the memory still appears to be a sound idea. If you’re having trouble remembering something, you might have better luck if you play the same music you were listening to when you first made the thought.”
Read more at Lifehacker (Thanks Annette)
People Will Virtually Kill One To Save Five
“It’s a moral and ethical problem that has been studied before: you see a train heading towards five hikers and you have the power to save them. Just pull a switch to make the train swerve out of the way on another track. BUT you’ll kill another hiker who won’t see the train coming at all. What do you do? Intervene? Or no?
Variations on this have vexed philosophers (and their students) for decades. Carlos David Navarrete, an evolutionary psychologist at Michigan State University, decided to apply a little technology to the problem.
He created a 3D, virtual environment in which subjects would experience the actual situation. Each subject was given a joystick that would throw the (virtual) switch, thus saving five people by sacrificing one. To monitor their emotional states, he attached sensors to the subjects’ fingertips. This is the first time anyone has measured a “physical” response to the ethical dilemma.
The result itself wasn’t that surprising: of the 147 participants, 133 (90.5 percent) pulled the switch to divert the train, resulting in the death of the one person. Fourteen participants allowed the train to kill the five. Eleven participants did not pull the switch at all, while three pulled the switch but then returned it to its original position. All this is consistent with earlier studies that didn’t use virtual reality.
The new data shows, however, that participants who did not pull the switch were more emotionally aroused. Nobody knows why that is. It may be because people “freeze up” during highly anxious moments, such as when soldiers fail to use their weapons in battle, Navarrete said in a press release.
For Navarette, the interesting thing was that while most people made the utilitarian choice -– sacrificing one to save many –- humans have to overcome a natural aversion to hurting other people. Rationalizing the choice (weighing the costs and benefits) can help people overcome that to make tough decisions like that. But in some cases, a person can get so anxious that they can’t make a decision at all, or make the wrong one.”
Via Discovery News (Thanks Annette)
Popping a multivitamin can lead to debauchery
“Taking supplements may lead to poorer health, not because of what they do to your body, but what they do to your mind.
When people take supplements they get a false sense of invulnerability, a new study shows. And that can translate into a greater tendency to head down the path of risky behavior.
The intriguing study published in Psychological Science, found that people didn’t even need to be given real supplements for this devil-may-care attitude to develop – they just needed to be told they were swallowing something healthful.
For their study, Taiwanese researchers gave placebo pills to 82 volunteers, half of whom were told the capsules contained vitamins. The rest were told the truth – that these were simply sugar pills.
The big surprise came when the researchers surveyed the two groups. Those taking phony supplements reported a greater sense of invulnerability and less of a desire to exercise. They also were more likely to consider engaging in casual sex, sunbathing and binge-drinking.
At the end of the study the two groups were told they could choose between a healthful meal and an all-you-can-eat buffet. Sure enough, more of those in the group who were told they’d taken a supplement said they’d prefer the buffet.”
Read more at MSNBC (Thanks Annette)
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