Tag Archives: frequency

Mammalian Brain Knows Where It’s at

By Guest PostDecember 8, 2012Sciencebehavior, brain, brain injury, brown university, conventional wisdom, depression, disease, egocentric movement, electrical activity, fish sculpture, frequency, hippocampus, humans, journal, location, memory, neuron, neuropsychiatric diseases, neuroscientist, object, omar ahmed, parahippocampal cortex, pattern, phc, por, postrhinal cortex, primate neuroanatomy, rebecca burwell, region, rhythm, schizophrenia, sharon furtak, Space, spiking, theta, treat

A new study in the journal Neuron suggests that the brain uses a different region than neuroscientists had thought to associate objects and locations in the space around an individual. Knowing where this fundamental process occurs could help treat disease and brain injury as well as inform basic understanding of how the brain supports memory and guides behavior.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Where are you?

Conventional wisdom in brain research says that you just used your hippocampus to answer that question, but that might not be the whole story. The context of place depends on not just how you got there, but also the things you see around you. A new study in Neuron provides evidence that a different part of the brain is important for understanding where you are based on the spatial layout of the objects in that place. The finding, in rats, has a direct analogy to primate neuroanatomy. (more…)

Amazonian Tribal Warfare Sheds Light on Modern Violence, Says MU Anthropologist

By Guest PostOctober 10, 2012Culture, Scienceafghanistan, altercation, Amazon, amazon forest, amazonian, amazonian warfare, anthropologist, cause, christianity, civilization, clash, cultural factor, cultural identity, culture influence, deadly attack, death, drew bailey, european contact, europeans, evolutionary history, external raid, frequency, global goal, humans, instinctual motivation, intensity, internal raid, intertribal warfare, libya, missouri, modern gang, mortality, primate ancestor, rival group, river basin, robert walker, south america, tribal life, tribal society, university, us embassy, violence, violent conflict, war, was treachery

Developing a shared sense of global community could help reduce major episodes of violence

In the tribal societies of the Amazon forest, violent conflict accounted for 30 percent of all deaths before contact with Europeans, according to a recent study by University of Missouri anthropologist Robert Walker. Understanding the reasons behind those altercations in the Amazon sheds light on the instinctual motivations that continue to drive human groups to violence, as well as the ways culture influences the intensity and frequency of violence.

“The same reasons – revenge, honor, territory and jealousy over women – that fueled deadly conflicts in the Amazon continue to drive violence in today’s world,” said Walker, lead author and assistant professor of anthropology in MU’s College of Arts and Science. “Humans’ evolutionary history of violent conflict among rival groups goes back to our primate ancestors. It takes a great deal of social training and institutional control to resist our instincts and solve disputes with words instead of weapons. Fortunately, people have developed ways to channel those instincts away from actual deadly conflict. For example, sports and video games often involve the same impulses to defeat a rival group.” (more…)

Know How Much You’re Texting While Driving? U-M Study Says No

By Guest PostSeptember 27, 2012Technologyalarm clock, automatic behavior, driving, frequency, habit, human behavior, joseph bayer, michigan, mobile communication, public safety, scott campbell, Technology, texting, texts, university, young adults

ANN ARBOR, Mich.— Texting while driving is a serious threat to public safety, but a new University of Michigan study suggests that we might not be aware of our actions.

U-M researchers found that texting while driving is predicted by a person’s level of “habit”—more so than how much someone texts.

When people check their cell phones without thinking about it, the habit represents a type of automatic behavior, or automaticity, the researchers say. Automaticity, which was the key variable in the study, is triggered by situational cues and lacks control, awareness, intention and attention. (more…)

The Original Twitter? Tiny Electronic Tags Monitor Birds’ Social Networks

By Guest PostSeptember 24, 2012Nature, Sciencearchipelago, bird, brian otis, broadcast, costa rica, crow, drexel university, ecology, encounternet, forest, frequency, galapagos islands, german, internet, islands, john burt, lysanne snijders, Netherlands, new caledonia, radio tracking, radio transmitter, scotland, social behavior, social mobility, social network, South Pacific, st andrews, Technology, university, Washington, wireless sensor, woodland bird

If two birds meet deep in the forest, does anybody hear? Until now, nobody did, unless an intrepid biologist was hiding underneath a bush and watching their behavior, or the birds happened to meet near a research monitoring station. But an electronic tag designed at the University of Washington can for the first time see when birds meet in the wild.

A new study led by a biologist at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews used the UW tags to see whether crows might learn to use tools from one another. The findings, published last week in Current Biology, supported the theory by showing an unexpected amount of social mobility, with the crows often spending time near birds outside their immediate family. (more…)

Good Vibrations

By Guest PostAugust 17, 2012Scienceabsolute zero, amplification, attometer scale, berkeley lab, cavity optomechanics, dan stamper kurn, daniel brooks, death star, eit, electromagnetically induced transparency, electron, fabry pferot, frequency, good vibrations, gravitational wave, light, mechanical motion, mechanical resonator, microfabricated atom chip, millennium falcon, motions of objects, nathan brahms, nonclassical light, optical cavity, optomechanical amplifier, optomechanical system, optomechanical systems, optomechanics, picowatts, ponderomotive force, quantum fluctuation, quantum mechanics, quantum optical device, quantum optical effects, radiation, science fiction, squeezing, star wars, sydney schreppler, Technology, thierry botter, thomas purdy, tractor beam, ultracold atoms, ultrasensitive force sensors

Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley Researchers Record First Direct Observations of Quantum Effects in an Optomechanical System

A long-time staple of science fiction is the tractor beam, a technology in which light is used to move massive objects – recall the tractor beam in the movie Star Wars that captured the Millennium Falcon and pulled it into the Death Star. While tractor beams of this sort remain science fiction, beams of light today are being used to mechanically manipulate atoms or tiny glass beads, with rapid progress being made to control increasingly larger objects. Those who see major roles for optomechanical systems in a host of future technologies will take heart in the latest results from a first-of-its-kind experiment.

Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley, using a unique optical trapping system that provides ensembles of ultracold atoms, have recorded the first direct observations of distinctly quantum optical effects – amplification and squeezing – in an optomechanical system. Their findings point the way toward low-power quantum optical devices and enhanced detection of gravitational waves among other possibilities. (more…)

Motion Sensors Detect Horse Lameness Earlier Than Veterinarians, MU Study Finds

By Guest PostJuly 5, 2012Nature, Scienceailment, equine veterinarian, frequency, horse, human eye, kevin keegan, lameness, lameness locator, meghan mccracken, sensitivity level, shoes on horse

MU-developed “Lameness Locator” system helps diagnose lameness sooner, makes treatment easier

COLUMBIA, Mo. — The most common ailment to affect a horse is lameness. A University of Missouri equine veterinarian has developed a way to detect this problem using a motion detection system called the “Lameness Locator.” Now, Kevin Keegan, a professor of equine surgery in the College of Veterinary Medicine at MU, has found that his Lameness Locator can detect lameness earlier than veterinarians using the traditional method of a subjective eye test. (more…)

Inspired by Insects

By Guest PostApril 25, 2012Sciencebioactive hydrogel matrices, biomimetic, cell adhesion, cicadas, degradation, elastic, frequency, gel, grasshopper, hmscs, human mesenchymal stem cells, kristi kiick, microsecond, multipotent cells, phonation, polypeptide hydrogel, protein, radio wave, regenerative power, resilin, speak, susan thibeault, timothy mcculloch, tissue, torsional wave apparatus, united states, university of delaware, vibratory stimulation, vocal folds, voice problem, words, xinqiao jia

For treatment of vocal fold disorders, UD researchers look to insect protein

A one-inch long grasshopper can leap a distance of about 20 inches. Cicadas can produce sound at about the same frequency as radio waves. Fleas measuring only millimeters can jump an astonishing 100 times their height in microseconds. How do they do it? They make use of a naturally occurring protein called resilin.

Resilin is a protein in the composite structures found in the leg and wing joints, and sound producing organs of insects. Highly elastic, it responds to exceptionally high rates of speed and demonstrates unmatched resilience after being stretched or deformed. (more…)

Internet Use Promotes Democracy Best in Countries That Are Already Partially Free

By Guest PostApril 9, 2012Politics, Technologyafrobarometer, arab world, asia, asian barometer, autocratic regime, democracy, democratic revolution, elizabeth stoycheff, erik nisbet, frequency, internet, internet use, katy pearce, Kenya, mobilize citizen, mozambique, ohio state university, political change, political regime, pro democratic attitude, senegal, singapore, sociodemographic factor, sub-saharan africa, Tanzania, uganda, zambia

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Although use of the internet has been credited with helping spur democratic revolutions in the Arab world and elsewhere, a new multinational study suggests the internet is most likely to play a role only in specific situations.

Researchers at Ohio State University found that the internet spurs pro-democratic attitudes most in countries that already have introduced some reforms in that direction. (more…)