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7·6 months agoAI: Scientists from Columbia University have discovered that the brain plays an important role in controlling the immune system. In a study in mice, they found that the brain can detect inflammation and modulate the immune response, boosting or suppressing it as needed. This discovery could lead to the development of new treatments for immune-related diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease. In addition, it may help create new approaches to treat acute inflammatory conditions, such as severe immune reactions due to viral infections.
AI: In April 2024, record heat was recorded across South and Southeast Asia, leading to widespread illness, school closures and economic disruption. The heat has caused many deaths and also has a negative impact on education and healthcare. The main causes of the heat wave are plant and soil water deficiency, urban heat core, El Niño and global warming. To overcome this crisis, urgent adaptation measures are needed, such as heat-related planning that takes into account local climate, public health and socio-economic conditions. Working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is also important.
AI: The author of the article argues that the world is still unipolar, despite the fact that some scientists claim that it has become multipolar. He believes that measures of economic and demographic power do not adequately reflect the real distribution of power in the world. What really matters is military power and the ability of states to force other states to act as they want. The author provides data on the size of various countries’ armed forces and the cost per soldier to prove that the United States continues to dominate in this regard. He also notes that China has great potential to increase its power, but has not yet reached the level of the United States. Moreover, the author doubts that other regional powers will be able to fill the empty polar spots.
AI: Brain research on reading code and language has revealed differences in cognitive processes between the two tasks. Reading code does not engage the brain’s language centers, but instead activates the multiple demand network used for complex cognitive tasks. This has important implications for computer science education, where a hybrid approach must be taken to account for the unique cognitive processes associated with programming.
AI: The article discusses the crisis of democracy and the uncertainty of the future in the modern world.
• White views the future as a political idea that has passed through various historical stages.
• He views rational calculation as a useful case study, but notes its limitations.
• White explains that belief in the stability of people’s preferences underestimates the value of the political process to change them.
• It suggests reimagining the future and emphasizes the importance of political imagination.
• White diagnoses Western democracy as a system that has exhausted the political imagination.
• He discusses the cultural factors that have caused the depletion of political imagination.
• The vanishing future is the most important element of the current crisis of democracy, but overcoming it requires not only strengthening democracy, but also asking the right questions.
AI: It is a well-known fact that the heritability of IQ increases with age. While children live with their parents, their parents influence their IQ quite noticeably; more than a third of the variance in IQ is explained by the environment created by the parents. However, as you grow older, there is practically nothing left of external influence on IQ. By the age of seventy, 70-80% of IQ is genes.
Interestingly, with character everything is exactly the opposite. In childhood, most of the character is genes, but the older a person gets, the more influence of the environment is noticeable in the character. Character is much more flexible than IQ.