Technology News
Researchers Are Now Giving Neural Networks Virtual Drugs
A team of researchers has come up with a new way to test psychedelic drugs that does not require any human participation. They plan on administering virtual drugs to neural networks and studying their effects. Scientists were able to successfully recreate drug-related hallucinations by playing around with image-generating neural nets. The end results were true to how humans described their visual experiences with drugs. “They can help illustrate how psychedelics perturb perception and can be used to guide hypotheses on how sensory information is prevented from updating the brain’s model of the world.”
Lenovo’s ThinkReality A3 Smart Glasses can show up to five virtual displays
Lenovo has launched a new ThinkReality device for CES 2021,which it says it’s “one of the most advanced and versatile” smart glasses for enterprise customers. The smart glasses that can be used for applications like 3D visualization and augmented reality guided workflows at a time when the world is “looking to adopt new technologies for smart collaboration.” The ThinkReality A3 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 SoC for virtual and mixed reality headsets. It can show up to five virtual 1080p displays and has an 8-megapixel camera that can provide 1080p video, as well as dual fish-eye cameras for room-scale tracking.
Science News
Including Unhealthy Foods May Diminish Positive Effects of an Otherwise Healthy Diet
Researchers have reported diminished benefits of a Mediterranean diet among those with high frequency of eating unhealthy foods. Participants with slower cognitive decline over the years of follow up were those who adhered closest to the Mediterranean diet, along with limiting foods that are part of Western diet, whereas participants who ate more of the Western diet had no beneficial effect of healthy food components in slowing cognitive decline. “Individuals who had a high Mediterranean diet score compared to those who had the lowest score were equivalent to being 5.8 years younger in age cognitively.”
New Study Finds that Delivering the News with Humor Makes Young Adults More Likely to Remember and Share
New research suggests that humor may help keep people informed about politics. When compared to non-humorous news clips, viewers are not only more likely to share humorously-presented news, but they are also more likely to remember the content from these segments. The findings also show that humorous news clips elicited greater activity in brain regions associated with thinking about what other people think and feel, which highlights the social nature of comedy. “For democracy to work, it is really important for people to engage with news and politics and to be informed about public affairs.”
Business News
Chip shortage forces Ford, Toyota, Nissan, FCA to cut vehicle production
Ford, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler and Nissan said on they would cut vehicle production this month due to a shortage of semiconductors, becoming the latest automakers hit by a chip crunch as demand rebounds from the coronavirus crisis. Honda also said its output in Japan could be affected by a shortage of semiconductors. Automakers and electronic makers are facing a global shortage of chips as consumer demand has been bouncing back from the coronavirus pandemic, causing manufacturing delays. The chip supply issues may limit near-term auto production for the industry, but officials said they are prioritizing production of higher-profit vehicles.
Global Food Prices at Six-Year High Are Set to Keep On Climbing
Global food prices reached a six-year high in December and are likely to keep rising into 2021. A United Nations gauge of food prices has jumped 18% since May, as adverse weather, government measures to safeguard supplies and robust demand helped fuel rallies across agricultural commodities from grains to palm oil. It’s bad news for consumers whose incomes have been hurt by the Covid-19 crisis, and adds to concerns about global food security that’s being affected by conflicts and weather shocks. That’s especially true for the poorest countries having to contend with limited social safety nets and purchasing power
Miscellaneous News
US intelligence agencies have 180 days to share what they know about UFOs, thanks to the Covid-19 relief and spending bill
When President Donald Trump signed the coronavirus relief, so began the 180-day countdown for US intelligence agencies to tell Congress what they know about UFOs. The director of National Intelligence and the secretary of defense have a little less than six months now to provide the congressional intelligence and armed services committees with an unclassified report about “unidentified aerial phenomena.” That report must contain detailed analyses of UFO data and intelligence collected by the Office of Naval Intelligence, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force and the FBI.
Call for UK prisons to trial free cannabis to see if it cuts drug deaths
Prisons should trial free cannabis schemes for drug-dependent inmates to ascertain whether it could reduce overdose deaths, bring down violence and help people overcome opioid addiction, a police and crime commissioner has said. If justice authorities were serious about reducing harms and violence in prisons, “they should be addressing the causes” such as the cheap synthetic cannabinoid spice that is rife and can be deadly, as opposed to cannabis. Recreational cannabis remains illegal but the plant has been legalised for medical use in the UK.