Reality vs imagination; Rhinos vs poachers; Mathematics against Big Bang

This week, Chinese researchers reported An almost complete skull representing the first species of known Sauropods in East Asia. A USDA team Identified virus From a parasitic mite resistant to environments, causing collapses of honey bee colony. And archaeologists report that the Philippines had a technologically advanced maritime culture 35,000 years ago.

In addition, neurological researchers have isolated the structure of the brain which distinguishes the imagination of reality; Ecologists make progress in the protection of endangered rhinos against poachers; And the theory of the “great rebound” of the origin of the universe obtained a mathematical strengthening:

Apprehended reality

As a rule, people can distinguish between real sensory information and imagination. But under certain conditions, including the symptoms of schizophrenia and the effects of hallucinogens, individuals can find it difficult to judge what is real and what is not. Now researchers from the University College London have determined that a brain structure called the Fusiform gyrusLocated on the underside of the temporal lobe, is responsible for determining whether the information comes from an external stimulus or is generated by the imagination.

In the study27 participants looked at simple visual models while imagining them simultaneously. The task involved in search of a specific low model in a noisy background; The real motive was present in 50% of the images. Participants were also invited to imagine a model as well as the one they were looking for or different, and to indicate how lively the mental images were.

In situations where the real and imaginary models were the same, and the participants reported lively mental imagery, they were more likely to say that they saw a real scheme even in the trials that did not include it, confused their mental imagery with reality. The digitization of functional MRI during the experiments allowed researchers to identify the models of brain activity which distinguish the reality of imaginary visualizations. The force of activity in the fusiform gyrus was a predictor to know if the subjects considered an experience as real or imagined.

FRANCE POACHERS

Over the decades, countries and organizations have spent large quantities to protect the populations of rhinos against poaching due to the black market trade of several million dollars in rhino horns. Now researchers report that the unit of individuals of protected populations is a major deterrence to poachingAchieving a 78% reduction in poaching using only 1.2% of the rhino protection budget.

Tim Kuiper from the University of Nelson Mandela said: “We have documented the poaching of 1,985 rhinoceros (around 6.5% of the population per year) in 11 reserves of Greater Kruger over seven years. This landscape is a critical world bastion which retains about 25% of all Rhinoceros in Africa.”

The study offers conservation donors advice to target effective interventions; Others include reactive Application of the lawIncluding follow -up dogs, helicopters and detection cameras. Many researchers believe that these types of interventions simply lead poachers to other rhino populations, and researchers from the present study observe that arrested poachers are often recurrences, which suggests that the police are not the most effective deterrence.

Big Bang refuted

The singularities are the theoretical points to which gravity is so intense that space-time itself decomposes. Although they are predicted by mathematics, whenever a prediction calls for a mass that increases without limit or becomes infinite, you can be sure that something is lacking in mathematics.

Suppose therefore that singularities can never form – it is the basis of a proposal By an international collaborative of physics, which suggested that the big bang was in fact a “big rebound”, in which a huge amount of mass has reached quantum level density and instead of forming a singularity, exploded towards the outside, due to a rule called the principle of quantum exclusion. He indicates that no identical fermion can occupy the same thing quantum state.

The researchers demonstrate that the rule prevents particles from the collapse of the matter from hurrying indefinitely, which makes an rebound inevitable.

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