Challenging work tasks may have an upside for the brain

 

Older people who had had an enriched work environment fared better on thinking and memory tests as they aged. Credit: © DragonImages / Fotolia Professionals whose jobs require more speaking, developing strategies, conflict resolution and managerial tasks may experience better protection against memory and thinking decline in old age than their co-workers, according to a new study published in the April 29, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. "Our study is important because it suggests that the type of work you do throughout your career may have even more significance on your brain health than your education does," said study author Francisca S. Then, PhD, with the University of Leipzig in Germany. "Education is a well-known factor that influences dementia risk." For the study, 1,054 people over the age of 75 were given tests that measured their memory and thinking abilities every one-and-a-half years for eight years. The researchers also asked the participants about their work history and categorized the tasks they completed into three groups: executive, verbal and fluid. Examples of executive tasks are scheduling work and activities, developing strategies and resolving conflicts. Examples of verbal tasks are evaluating and interpreting information and fluid tasks were considered to be those which included selective attention and analyzing data. Memory and thinking abilities were examined through a clinical test, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). In this clinical test, a small decline in points can indicate a clinically relevant deficit. The study found that people whose careers included the highest level of all three types of tasks scored highest on the thinking and memory tests by two MMSE points over people with the lowest level. People with the highest level of all three types of tasks also had the slowest rate of cognitive decline. Over eight years, their rate of decline was half the rate of participants with a low level of mentally demanding work tasks. Among the three types of work tasks, high levels of executive and verbal tasks were distinctively associated with slower rates of memory and thinking decline. Participants with a high level of executive tasks scored two MMSE points higher on memory and thinking tests at the beginning of the study and five MMSE points higher after eight years in the study compared to participants with a low level of these tasks. Participants with a high level of verbal tasks declined an average two MMSE points less than those with a low level. "Challenges at work may indeed be a positive element, if they build up a person's mental reserve in the long-term," said Then. The study was supported by the Interdisciplinary Center for Clinical Research of the University of Leipzig and the LIFE Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases at the Leipzig University, Germany, which is funded by means of the European Social Fund and the Free State of Saxony. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by American Academy of Neurology (AAN). Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Francisca S. Then, Tobias Luck, Melanie Luppa, Hans-Helmut König, Matthias C. Angermeyer, and Steffi G. Riedel-Heller. Differential effects of enriched environment at work on cognitive decline in old age. Neurology, 2015 DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000001605

Living to 100: Lifestyle advice for would-be centenarians

 

What lifestyle factors are linked to living to 100 years old? Credit: © beeandbee / Fotolia For the past 50 years, researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy have followed the health of 855 Gothenburg men born in 1913. Now that the study is being wrapped up, it turns out that ten of the subjects lived to 100 and conclusions can be drawn about the secrets of their longevity. Over the past half century, the University Gothenburg has hosted one of the world's first prospective studies of aging. The subjects are 855 Gothenburg men born in 1913. The first surveys were conducted in 1963. Now that it has been determined that ten of the men lived to 100, the study is being wrapped up. Promotes longevity Various surveys at the age of 54, 60, 65, 75, 80 and 100 permitted the researchers to consider the factors that appear to promote longevity. A total of 27% (232) of the original group lived to the age of 80 and 13% (111) to 90. All in all, 1.1% of the subjects made it to their 100th birthday. According to the study, 42% of deaths after the age of 80 were due to cardiovascular disease, 20% to infectious diseases, 8% to stroke, 8% to cancer, 6% to pneumonia and 16% to other causes. A total of 23% of the over-80 group were diagnosed with some type of dementia. Unique design "The unique design has enabled us to identify the factors that influence survival after the age of 50," says Lars Wilhelmsen, who has been involved in the study for the past 50 years. "Our recommendation for people who aspire to centernarianism is to refrain from smoking, maintain healthy cholesterol levels and confine themselves to four cups of coffee a day." Correlation with the mother's age It also helps if you paid a high rent for a flat or owning a house at age 50 (indicating good socio-econmic standard), enjoy robust working capacity at a bicycle test when you are 54 and have a mother who lived for a long time. "Our findings that there is a correlation with maternal but not paternal longevity are fully consistent with a previous studies," Dr. Wilhelmsen says. "Given that the same associations have been demonstrated in Hawaii, the genetic factor appears to be a strong one." But still we found that this "genetic factor" was weaker than the other factors. So factors that can be influenced are important for a long life. No smokers Two of the 100-year-olds dropped out of the study due to dementia and one for personal reasons. Facts about the other seven: • Two lived at home and five in assisted living facilities • None of them smoked • All of them exhibited good temporal and spatial cognition • All of them wore hearing aids • Most of them wore glasses, were able to read and watch TV • All of them were slim and had good postures • All of them used walkers "Normally we conducted the surveys at hospitals, but we visited the seven centenarians at home," Dr. Wilhelmsen says. All of them were clinically healthy, satisfied with their circumstances and pleased to be living where they were." Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by University of Gothenburg. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Lars Wilhelmsen, Mikael Dellborg, Lennart Welin, Kurt Svärdsudd. Men born in 1913 followed to age 100 years. Scandinavian Cardiovascular Journal, 2015; 49 (1): 45 DOI: 10.3109/14017431.2015.1009940

Chegou o almoço !

 

Brother, how lucky we are !

 

Your adolescent brain on alcohol: Changes last into adulthood

 

Repeated alcohol exposure during adolescence results in long-lasting changes in the region of the brain that controls learning and memory, according to a research team at Duke Medicine that used a rodent model as a surrogate for humans. The study, published April 27 in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, provides new insights at the cellular level for how alcohol exposure during adolescence, before the brain is fully developed, can result in cellular and synaptic abnormalities that have enduring, detrimental effects on behavior. "In the eyes of the law, once people reach the age of 18, they are considered adult, but the brain continues to mature and refine all the way into the mid-20s," said lead author Mary-Louise Risher, Ph.D., a post-doctoral researcher in the Duke Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. "It's important for young people to know that when they drink heavily during this period of development, there could be changes occurring that have a lasting impact on memory and other cognitive functions." Risher and colleagues, including senior author Scott Swartzwelder, Ph.D., a professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke and Senior Research Career Scientist at the Durham VA Medical Center, periodically exposed young rodents to a level of alcohol during adolescence that, in humans, would result in impairment, but not sedation. Afterward, these animals received no further exposure to alcohol, and grew into adulthood -- which in rats occurred within 24 to 29 days. Earlier studies by the Duke team and others have shown that adolescent animals exposed to alcohol grow into adults that are much less adept at memory tasks than normal animals -- even with no further alcohol exposure. What has not been known is how these impairments manifest at the cellular level in the region of the brain known as the hippocampus, where memory and learning are controlled. Using small electrical stimuli applied to the hippocampus, the Duke team measured a cellular mechanism called long-term potentiation, or LTP, which is the strengthening of brain synapses as they are used to learn new tasks or conjure memories. Learning occurs best when this synaptic activity is vigorous enough to build strong signal transmissions between neurons. LTP is highest in the young, and effective learning is crucial for adolescents to acquire large amounts of new memory during the transition to adulthood. The researchers expected they would find abnormally diminished LTP in the adult rats that had been exposed to alcohol during their adolescence. Surprisingly, however, LTP was actually hyperactive in these animals compared to the unexposed rodents. "At first blush, you would think the animals would be smarter," Swartzwelder said. "But that's the opposite of what we found. And it actually does make sense, because if you produce too much LTP in one of these circuits, there is a period of time where you can't produce any more. The circuit is saturated, and the animal stops learning. For learning to be efficient, your brain needs a delicate balance of excitation and inhibition -- too much in either direction and the circuits do not work optimally." Importantly, the LTP abnormality was accompanied by a structural change in individual nerve cells that Swartzwelder, Risher and colleagues identified. The tiny protrusions from the branches of the cells, called dendritic spines, had appeared lanky and spindly, suggesting immaturity. Mature spines are shorter and look a bit like mushrooms, refining cell-to-cell communication. "Something happens during adolescent alcohol exposure that changes the way the hippocampus and other regions of the brain function and how the cells actually look -- both the LTP and the dendritic spines have an immature appearance in adulthood," Swartzwelder said. Risher said this immature quality of the brain cells might be associated with behavioral immaturity. In addition to spine changes in the hippocampus, which affects learning, colleagues of the Duke group have shown structural changes in other brain regions that control impulsiveness and emotionality. "It's quite possible that alcohol disrupts the maturation process, which can affect these cognitive function later on," she said. "That's something we are eager to explore in ongoing studies." The researchers said additional studies would focus on the longer-term cognitive effects of alcohol on brains, along with additional cellular changes. Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by Duke University Medical Center. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference: Mary-Louise Risher, Rebekah L. Fleming, W. Christopher Risher, K. M. Miller, Rebecca C. Klein, Tiffany Wills, Shawn K. Acheson, Scott D. Moore, Wilkie A. Wilson, Cagla Eroglu and H. S. Swartzwelder. Adolescent Intermittent Alcohol Exposure: Persistence of Structural and Functional Hippocampal Abnormalities into Adulthood. Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 27 APR 2015 DOI: 10.1111/acer.12725

Cars That Run on Air and Water? Audi Rolls Out E-Diesel.

 

As research into clean cars expands, Audi unveils a synthetic diesel that’s made with water, air and carbon dioxide. Audi is making a synthetic diesel from water and carbon dioxide at a pilot plant in Dresden, Germany, that's run by its partner sunfire, a clean technology company. Photograph courtesy Sunfire Cars that run on a synthetic fuel, made from water and air, represent the cutting-edge of innovation now sweeping the auto industry. In a German factory, Audi is making “e-diesel” that uses— rather than emits—carbon dioxide. The carbon-neutral fuel contains no sulfur or fossil oil. If it catches on and is produced for a mass market, it could make internal combustion engines much cleaner in the future. “Synthetic diesel using CO2 is a huge success,” says Germany’s Federal Minister of Education and Research Johanna Wanka, who showed her support last week by putting the first five liters (1.3 gallons) into her work car, an Audi A8. E-diesel is the latest in a slew of breakthroughs aimed at building cleaner cars via carbon-neutral fuels or extended-range batteries. Earlier this month, in research partly funded by Shell*, Virginia Tech unveiled a much more affordable way to produce hydrogen fuel by using discarded corn cobs, stalks and husks. Alternatively-fueled cars are starting to hit the streets—and racetracks. In California later this year and in Northeast U.S. states next year, Toyota is launching Mirai, a four-door hydrogen-powered sedan that can go up to 300 miles on a full tank and emits nothing but water and vapor from its tailpipe. The Mirai was the first hydrogen-fueled vehicle to enter a NASCAR race on April 25 at the Richmond International Raceway. Recent Energy Stories Will Huge Batteries Save Us From Power Blackouts? Audi has been working on cleaner diesels since 2009, and the only raw materials needed for its newest synthetic are water and carbon dioxide. Its pilot plant in Dresden, operated by the German clean technology company sunfire, uses CO2 supplied by a biogas facility. Additional CO2 for e-diesel is captured from ambient air via technology from Audi’s Zurich-based partner Climeworks. “We are promoting another fuel based on CO2 that will allow long-distance mobility with virtually no impact on the climate,” says Reiner Mangold, Audi’s chief of sustainable product development, in announcing the first batch of e-diesel. He says this “fuel of the future” could be used in other industries and other countries. Making e-diesel requires several steps, which are powered by renewable energy sources such as wind and solar. High-temperature electrolysis splits water, heated to form steam, into hydrogen and oxygen. The oxygen is released into the atmosphere while the hydrogen is fed into a reactor, where it reacts with CO2 to form a liquid long-form hydrocarbon known as “blue crude.” Audi says the  efficiency of the overall process is “very high”—about 70 percent. “The engine runs quieter and fewer pollutants are created,” says sunfire Chief Technology Officer Christian von Olshausen. He says the demonstration facility, which opened in November, can produce up to 160 liters (42 gallons) per day, but a bigger plant could follow. “If we get the first sales order,” he says, “we will be ready to commercialize our technology.” *Shell is sponsor of The Great Energy Challenge, a special series that explores energy issues. National Geographic maintains autonomy over content. On Twitter: Follow Wendy Koch and get more environment and energy coverage at NatGeoGreen.

36 Ways To Be Irresistibly Attractive

 

By Barrie Davenport Get your free starter kit HERE   “The secret of attraction is to love yourself. Attractive people judge neither themselves nor others. They are open to gestures of love. They think about love, and express their love in every action.” ~Deepak Chopra Here’s the bottom line: we want people to like us. Even when we say we don’t care what people think, we really do. We desire to be loved, respected, and viewed in a positive light. Our human interactions are vital to our sense of well-being, self-esteem, and happiness. When we discover that someone doesn’t like us or rejects us in some way, our emotions can run the gamut from defensive indignation to deep pain and profound sadness. For any of us who have attempted to be likable and attractive to everyone, you eventually realize the futility of this exhausting endeavor. It is impossible to “make” everyone like you, and even if you could, you will ultimately lose your self in the process. When you morph into a people pleaser or an actor playing roles to accommodate those you want to impress, you often alienate the very people you hope to charm. Only when we see ourselves as lovable and embrace our own authentic qualities, needs, ideas, values, and personality traits, do we release the pheromones of being attractive to others. Although not everyone will be intrigued by your authenticity, those who are attracted to you will generally be emotionally intelligent, mature individuals who value genuine and unaffected relationships. Self-love, self-confidence, and authenticity are the foundational elements of attractiveness. To strengthen this foundation and foster the transition from “trying to impress” to naturally attracting wonderful people attracting wonderful people into your life, there are some specific changes and shifts you can adopt.   Learn how to be attractive by taking these 36 actions: 1.  Develop your own personal operating system. Carve out and define your own reality, philosophy, values, and interests rather than automatically  accepting those of your family, peers, religion, or culture. 2.  Begin to let go of the need for validation. Don’t be motivated by the opinions or others or the desire for recognition. Be driven by what is important to you and what you value. 3.  Trust your instincts and allow for experimentation. Get to know yourself and discover what you enjoy and find exciting, even if you have to fail a few times. 4.  Accept others as they are. Begin letting go of judgments and criticism of others. Focus on people’s strengths rather than their faults. Learn to deal with difficult people without diminishing yourself. 5.  Really hear people. Go beyond just listening and understanding. Let people know that you really get them. 6.  Take care of unresolved matters in your life. Restore your integrity. Forgive and ask for forgiveness where necessary. Reclaim the energy you have given to these matters. 7.  Embrace a healthy lifestyle. Get some form of exercise daily. Eat healthy foods that support your body, not your emotions. Do this because you respect yourself, not to impress others. 8.  Cause things to happen. Don’t wait for them. Be a creator, an instigator, a collaborator. Share your enthusiasm. 9.  Show people you care. Don’t just talk about it. Show them in ways that are meaningful to them, not you. 10. Require the best of people. See them not only for who they are, but who they can be. Lovingly reflect that vision to them. 11. Ensure your own needs are met. Discern your primary needs, and communicate fully what is important and valuable to you  in your relationships. Don’t compromise these to keep peace or hang on. 12. Speak constructively. Use your words to uplift, inspire, motivate, and encourage. Don’t offer “constructive criticism” or subtle digs. 13. Laugh easily. Have a lightness about you. Take life less seriously and choose to find and create fun and joy. 14. Cease gossip. Choose not to talk about others in ways that are openly or subtlety critical. Don’t share information for the feeling of power or intrigue. 15. Make requests, not complaints. If you need something from someone, ask for it directly. Don’t whine or complain to them or others. 16. Handle situations fully. Kindly but clearly deal with negative issues as soon as possible. Don’t tolerate anything if it causes resentments. 17. Be done with arguments. Smile and walk away until healthy communication is possible. 18. Offer help only when asked. Don’t assume that others want you to fix them or that you know best for them. Be available and give help only when asked. 19. Care deeply, but remain detached. Let others know you care deeply about them when they have problems, but don’t get caught up in their problems. 20. See with your heart, not your eyes. Look beyond superficiality when seeing someone. Financial status, appearance, notoriety, all mean nothing. Look for the authentic person inside. 21.  Don’t say yes when you mean no. If you mean no, your yes will be harnessed with resentment. Say yes only when your yes is given freely. Free 3-Part Confidence Video Series [simpleselfconfidence.com] 22. Let others know you are grateful. Tell them and show them that you feel blessed to have them in your life. 23. Never play the guilt card. Don’t try to manipulate or hurt someone by trying to make them feel bad about their choices, decisions, or actions. 24. Give more than is expected. Don’t over-commit, but freely give more than you promise. 25. Be inter-developmental in your relationships. Don’t be controlling, dependent or co-dependent. Create relationships that are mutually uplifting, reward, and satisfying. 26. Be a big person. Don’t try to take credit, diminish others, or hold back on praise. Offer acknowledgment and power when it is needed and deserved. 27. Be confident enough to be humble. Be able to laugh at yourself, acknowledge your flaws and failures, and accept that they don’t define you. 28. Be open to learning. Don’t flaunt your intelligence or superior knowledge. Recognize that there is always something to learn, even from those who appear “less than.” 29. Be more engaged than engaging. Show your sincere interest in others. Use the word “you” more than “I.” Listen intently and reflect back to others who they are. 30. Give gifts that others want. Not just gifts to impress or that are important to you. 31. Challenge yourself constantly. Don’t settle for mediocre. Don’t languish in past accomplishments. Keep moving forward and exude enthusiasm about possibilities and the actions to make them happen. 32. Detach from adrenaline. Simplify your life enough so you are not rushed, stressed, cluttered, or distracted. Allow yourself time and room to focus. 33. Embrace the incredible power of now. Nothing is more valuable than this moment. Make it the best moment you possibly can right now. 34. Don’t fight the flow. Don’t struggle against people or situations you can’t control. Move effortlessly in a different direction. 35. Keep evolving. Stay on a path of self-improvement and stay alert for opportunities for shifts and growth. 36. Accept that you won’t be attractive to everyone. As you evolve and become more attractive, fewer people will be attracted to you — but what an incredible group they are! What other qualities or actions make people attractive to you? Please share your experiences and thoughts in the comments.

A phone with the ultimate macro feature

 

Wed, 04/29/2015 - 12:45pm The Optical Society WASHINGTON—If you thought scanning one of those strange, square QR codes with your phone was somewhat advanced, hold on to your seat.  Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have recently developed a device that can turn any smartphone into a DNA-scanning fluorescent microscope.  "A single DNA molecule, once stretched, is about two nanometers in width," said Aydogan Ozcan, HHMI Chancellor Professor, UCLA. “For perspective, that makes DNA about 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. Currently, imaging single DNA molecules requires bulky, expensive optical microscopy tools, which are mostly confined to advanced laboratory settings. In comparison, the components for my device are significantly less expensive.” Enter Ozcan's smartphone attachment—an external lens, thin-film interference filter, miniature dovetail stage mount for making fine alignments, and a laser diode, all enclosed in a small, 3D-printed case and integrated to act just like a fluorescence microscope. Although other smart-phone-turned-microscopes can image larger scale objects such as cells, Ozcan's group's latest mobile-phone optical attachment is the first to image and size the slim strand of a single DNA molecule. The device is intended for use in remote laboratory settings to diagnose various types of cancers and nervous system disorders, such as Alzheimer's, as well as detect drug resistance in infectious diseases. To use the camera it is necessary to first isolate and label the desired DNA with fluorescent tags. Ozcan says such laboratory procedures are possible even in remote locations and resource-limited settings. To scan the DNA, the group developed a computational interface and Windows smart application running on the same smart phone. The scanned information is then sent to a remote server in Ozcan's laboratory, which measures the length of the DNA molecules. Assuming you have a reliable data connection, the entire data processing takes less than 10 seconds. In their lab, Ozcan's group tested the device's accuracy by imaging fluorescently labeled and stretched DNA segments. It reliably sized DNA segments of 10,000 base pairs or longer. (A base pair is the basic structural unit of DNA.) Many important genes fall in this size range, including a bacterial gene notorious for giving Staphylococcus aureus and other bacteria antibiotic resistance that is about 14,000 base pairs long. The smartphone microscope demonstrated a significant drop in accuracy for 5,000 base-pair or shorter segments, however, due to the reduced detection signal-to-noise ratio and contrast for such short fragments. The problem could easily be remedied by replacing the device's current lens with one of a higher numerical aperture, Ozcan said. In addition to its use in point-of-care diagnostics, Ozcan proposes that his platform could also be useful for differentiating high molecular weight DNA fragments, which are problematic for conventional gel electrophoresis, a frequently used technique in biochemistry and molecular biology to size DNA and RNA fragments.  Ozcan's group next plans to test their device in the field to detect the presence of malaria-related drug resistance. About the Presentation The presentation, "Field-Portable Smartphone Microscopy Platform for Wide-field Imaging and Sizing of Single DNA molecules," by Qingshan Wei, Wei Luo, Samuel Chiang, Tara Kappel, Crystal Mejia, Derek Tseng, Raymond Yan Lok Chan, Eddie Yan, Hangfei Qi, Faizan Shabbir, Haydar Ozkan, Steve Feng, Aydogan Ozcan, will take place from 16:30 – 18:30, Thursday, 14 May 2015, in meeting room 212 A/C, San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California, USA. SOURCE: The Optical Society

The trillion-frame-per-second camera

 

Imagem meramente ilustrativa não tendo relação com o artigo abaixo. Wed, 04/29/2015 - 1:58pm The Optical Society WASHINGTON—When a crystal lattice is excited by a laser pulse, waves of jostling atoms can travel through the material at close to one sixth the speed of light, or approximately 28,000 miles/second. Scientists now have a new tool to take movies of such superfast movement in a single shot. Researchers from Japan have developed a new high-speed camera that can record events at a rate of more than 1-trillion-frames-per-second. That speed is more than one thousand times faster than conventional high-speed cameras. Called STAMP, for Sequentially Timed All-optical Mapping Photography, the new camera technology "holds great promise for studying a diverse range of previously unexplored complex ultrafast phenomena," said Keiichi Nakagawa, a research fellow at the University of Tokyo, who worked to develop the camera with colleagues from an array of Japanese research institutions. Conventional high-speed cameras are limited by the processing speed of their mechanical and electrical components. STAMP overcomes these limitations by using only fast, optical components. Another optical imaging technique, called the pump-probe method, can create movies with an even higher frame rate than STAMP, but can only capture one frame at a time—limiting its use to processes that are exactly reproducible. “Many physical and biological phenomena are difficult to reproduce,” said Nakagawa. “This inspired me to work on an ultrafast camera that could take multiple frames in a single shot.” Nakagawa himself experienced the need for such a camera while he was a master's student studying how acoustic shock waves changed living cells. Scientists believe mechanical stress, like that caused by acoustic waves, might increase bone and blood vessel growth, but they had no tools for capturing the dynamics of such a fast, transient event as a shock wave passing through a cell. "Since there was no suitable technique, I decided to develop a new high-speed imaging technique in my doctoral program," Nakagawa said. STAMP relies on a property of light called dispersion that can be observed in the way a misty sky splits sunshine into a rainbow of colors. Similarly, STAMP splits an ultrashort pulse of light into a barrage of different colored flashes that hit the imaged object in rapid-fire succession. Each separate color flash can then be analyzed to string together a moving picture of what the object looked like over the time it took the dispersed light pulse to travel through the device. In the first iteration of STAMP, which the team described in a paper published in Nature Photonics in August 2014, the number of frames that the camera could take in a single shot was limited to six. Currently, the team is constructing an improved STAMP system that can acquire 25 sequential images. Nakagawa believes the number of frames could eventually be increased to 100 with current technology. Nakagawa notes that because STAMP operates on the assumption that all the differently colored daughter pulses interact with the imaged object in the same way, the camera should not be used to image samples whose optical properties change over the range of wavelengths STAMP uses. Even given STAMP's limitations, the technology has enormous potential, Nakagawa says. His team has already used it with image electronic motion and lattice vibrations in a crystal of lithium niobate and to observe how a laser focused onto a glass plate creates a hot, rapidly expanding plume of plasma. Nakagawa notes that the camera could be used to explore a wide range of ultrafast phenomena for the first time, including the laser ignition of fusion, the phase transition of materials, and the dynamics of a Coulomb explosion, an event in which intense electromagnetic fields (for example from a narrow laser beam) can force a small amount of solid material to explode into a hot plasma of ionized atomic particles. "I think it is important to note that there might be many potential applications of STAMP that I have not imagined," Nakagawa said. "I hope more researchers will become interested in STAMP." SOURCE: The Optical Society

Fatos que talvez desafiem a sua lógica!

 

Você sabia que: Há bastante ferro no corpo humano para se fazer um prego de 3 polegadas. A torre Eiffel fica 15cm mais alta no verão. Dentes de castores nunca param de crescer. A maior sentença de prisão imposta a alguém foi de 10.000 anos. Se tubarões ficarem de "ponta a cabeça" entram em coma. O cérebro dos Neandertais era maior que o nosso. O cavalo marinho é o mais lento dos peixes. Hitler foi votado como homem do ano pela TIME de 1938. Sua pupila se dilata 45% quando seus olhos vêem algo agradável. São necessárias 595 laranjas para carregar um único iPhone. As girafas limpam suas orelhas com sua língua de mais de 18 polegadas. Minhocas têm até 9 corações. Colombo pensava que a Terra tinha forma de pera. A Nintendo era dona de uma frota de táxis. O cão mais velho de que se tem registro morreu aos 29 anos. Homens estão mais propícios a ser atingidos por raios que as mulheres. Dentes são as estruturas mais fortes do corpo humano. Clinofobia é o medo de ir para a cama. O mel é o único alimento que não apodrece. O filme Titanic custou mais que o navio Titanic. O io-io era usado originalmente como arma. Podemos entender uma sentença misturada, desde que a primeira e a última letras de cada palavra estejam em seus lugares corretos. Vênus é o único planeta do sistema solar que gira em sentido horário. Elvis era naturalmente loiro. a mentira mais falada no mundo é "Eu estou bem". Mulheres choram 4 vezes mais que os homens. Coalas dormem 22 horas por dia. Um coração bate em média 3 bilhões de vezes durante uma vida. O Fusca foi concebido por Hitler. O maior título de um livro continha 670 palavras. Haja criatividade! Humanos e bananas compartilham 50% do mesmo DNA. O maior coral já formado tinha 160.000 pessoas. Mageirocofobia é o medo de cozinhar. A guerra mais curta da história durou 38 minutos. Uma pessoa normal irá comer 35 toneladas de comida durante a vida. Se você gritar por 8 anos, 7 meses e 6 dias irá produzir energia suficiente para aquecer uma xícara de café. Em porções iguais, um limão e um morango têm a mesma quantidade de açúcar. Se não tivesse mudado de nome, o buscador mais famoso dos dias de hoje se chamaria Back Rub. Créditos: Mind Junker

6 links that will show you what Google knows about you

 

Want to find out all the things Google knows about you? Here are 6 links that will show you some of the data Google has about you. 1. Find out what Google thinks about you In order to serve relevant ads, Google collects data about you and creates a profile. You can control and review the information Google has on you here: http://www.google.com/settings/ads/ Google also has a tool called Google Analytics, that helps publishers see what pages you have viewed on their website, how many times you have visited it, how long did you stay etc. You can opt out if you don’t want this type of data to be collected: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout 2. Find out your location history If you use Android, your mobile device may be sending your location to Google. You can see your entire location history here: https://maps.google.com/locationhistory 3. Find out your entire Google Search history Google saves every single search you have ever done. On top of that, they record every Google ad you have clicked on. This log is available in Google web history controls: https://www.google.com/history/ 4. Get a monthly security and privacy report from Google Google offers an Account activity page that tells you about all the Google services you are using. You can even enable a monthly report that will be sent to your email: https://www.google.com/settings/dashboard 5. Find out all the apps and extensions that are accessing your Google data The Account activity page also offers a list of all the apps that have any type of access to your data. You can see the exact type of permissions granted to the app and revoke access to your data here: https://security.google.com/settings/security/permissions 6. Export all of your data out of Google Google lets you export all your data: bookmarks, emails, contacts, drive files, profile info, your youtube videos, photos and more here: https://www.google.com/takeout BONUS Google also keeps a history of your YouTube searches. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/feed/history/search_history Source: http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/online-safety/security-tools/

The 37 most astounding facts about sex you'll ever read

 

1. Cleopatra is credited with the invention of the vibrator. She is said to have taken insects and placed them inside a hollow sphere. The insects would become agitated and begin buzzing around, causing the sphere to vibrate. 2. The human clitoris extends 9cm under the skin. 3. French bulldogs cannot reproduce naturally because they are too top heavy. Every French bulldog puppy is born of artificial insemination. 4. Amazon River Dolphins are the only species of animal recorded to have engaged in nasal sex. 5. Avocado is the Aztec word for testicle. In Aztec culture, avocados were considered sexually powerful and were restricted for virgins. 6. The average erection contains enough blood to keep three gerbils alive. 7. Four Popes have died during sex. 8. The average human sperm cell or spermocyte contains about 37.5Mb of genetic data. So when orgasm occurs, roughly 1.5Gb of data is ‘ejaculated’ in about 3 seconds, a data transfer rate 6 orders of magnitude, or a few million times, faster than an average internet connection. 9. Opossums have a double-headed penis. 10. Kangaroos have three vaginas. 11. About 100 million couples around the world have sex every day. That means around 65,000 couples are having sex right now. 12. Human males ejaculate at 27mph. 13. Female hyenas have clitorises that extend seven inches out of their bodies and serve as pseudopenises as well as the birth canal. 14. Thailand is world leader in women cutting of their husbands’ penises. 15. Thailand also performs the largest number of sexual reassignment surgeries in the world, mostly on foreigners. However, the country with the second most sex change operations, and the highest number to do so on its own citizens, is Iran. 16. The blue whale can ejaculate about 200 gallons of semen. 17. Pigs orgasm for 30 minutes. 18. A woman’s breasts increase in size by up to 25% when she is sexually aroused. 19. If your parents had waited five seconds later, or began five seconds earlier you wouldn’t be here. 20. Alligator’s have erections for 100% of their lifetime. 21. The clitoris is anatomically and developmentally synonymous with the male penis, it just lacks a urethra. 22. It’s illegal in Florida to have sex in any position other than Missionary. Though that’s still lawful, it’s illegal to kiss a woman’s breasts while engaging in heterosexual sex in the Missionary position. 23. The antechinus, a type of Australian rodent, has sex for about twenty-four hours, after which most males die of exhaustion. . 24. Make-up is meant to simulate what a woman’s face looks like mid-orgasm. Reddish or dark pink lipstick mimics the way lips will engorge with blood. Blush mimics flushed skin. Eyeliner and darker eyeshadow will make the eyes appear half closed, hence the term “bedroom eyes”. 25. It’s also believed that red underwear is considered sexy because it’s an evolutionary callback to when our rumps used to get all hot and red when the ladies of the species wanted a man. 26. Tapirs have an elbow in their penises. 27. In Victorian times, a slang term for a prostitute was “blowsy”. At the same time, “blow” was slang for ejaculation. So, by the 1930s, the act of fellatio came to be known as a blow job. In Ancient Greece, the common slang for a blow job was “playing the flute” 28. The barnacle, by percent of total body mass, has the largest penis of the entire animal kingdom, often more than 50% of their soft tissue. 29. From an evolutionary standpoint, women are louder in bed to attract other males. Men are taught by evolution to become more aroused when they think a woman has had sex recently. 30. When banana slugs have sex, sometimes they get stuck, and the male and female each take turns nibbling at the penis until they get unstuck. 31. The right whale, though not the largest whale, possesses the largest testes of any animal in the world. They weigh around half a ton. 32. According to a survey conducted by Intel, 46% of American women would give up having sex for two weeks rather than logging off the Internet for the same amount of time, 33. When a grasshopper ejaculates, it looses 1/3 of its body mass. 34. Penguins only orgasm once a year. 35. Praying Mantis sex. The male has second brain in his bottom to continue having sex while the female eats him. 36. The record for having sex with the most men in 24 hours goes to American Lisa Sparks who bedded an incredible 919. That’s roughly 38 men per hour. 37. A full-grown female blue whale has a clitoris three feet in length. Image credit: Jean Koulev

Mesmo com pena de morte, uso de drogas na Indonésia deve crescer 45% em 2015

 

Tudo está bem colocado neste artigo. A atração pelas drogas é bem mais forte do que qualquer pena anunciada pelo governo Indonésio.  Isso significa que não há executados, há mártires porque suas penas poderiam ser outras. Eles viciaram muitos usuários? Morreram por isso? Então o número de usuários deveria baixar, e não subir. Projeção da agência nacional diz que deve haver 5,8 milhões de usuários no país até o fim do ano; atualmente há 4 milhões As penas de morte, método adotado pelo governo da Indonésia para conter o tráfico de drogas e diminuir o uso de entorpecentes no país, não devem surtir o efeito esperado pelo presidente Joko Widodo em 2015 – que se elegeu com a promessa de que acabaria com o tráfico mediante pena fatal a traficantes. Ontem: ONU pede suspensão de execuções de condenados à morte na Indonésia AP Ambulância que transporta o corpo de Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira chega à ilha de Nusakambangan, na Indonésia (arquivo) Dia 18: Cinzas de brasileiro fuzilado na Indonésia serão levadas para o Rio de Janeiro Segundo dados da Agência Nacional de Entorpecentes (BNN, na sigla em inglês) divulgados pelo The Jakarta Post em novembro de 2014, os atuais 4 milhões de usuários devem se transformar em 5,8 milhões, ou 3% da população indonésia, até o fim deste ano. "Não há evidências confiáveis que atestem a eficácia da pena de morte em prevenir crimes. O próprio fato de as pessoas, mesmo sabendo desse tipo de pena, continuarem a cometer crimes, é prova disso", explica Rafael Franzini, representante no Brasil do Escritório das Nações Unidas sobre Drogas e Crime (Unodc). Para a BNN, um dos principais problemas da Indonésia para um número tão expressivo de usuários é, além do envolvimento de autoridades no envio e receptação do material, sua alta taxa de pobreza. De acordo com o Boletim de Estudos Econômicos da Indonésia, o abismo que separa ricos e pobres é maior do que em qualquer outra nação em desenvolvimento no mundo. Enquanto ricos ficam cada vez mais ricos, cerca de 40% dos 250 milhões de habitantes do país ainda vivem com menos de US$ 2 – menos de R$ 5 por dia. Chanceler: "Fuzilamento provoca sombra na relação entre Brasil e Indonésia" Dados do relatório "World Drug Report 2014", do Unodc, afirmam que na Ásia a maconha é consumida por 1,9% da população com idade entre 15 e 64 anos. Depois dela estão os estimulantes do tipo anfetaminas (ATS) – excluindo o ecstasy – com 0,7%, e o ecstasy, 0,4% . Na Indonésia, assim como acontece no Japão e Camboja, a maioria dos usuários usa a metanfetamina (MA), droga estimulante cujos efeitos se manifestam no sistema nervoso central e periférico.  No mundo, há entre 16 e 39 milhões de usuários regulares de drogas. Entretanto, somente um em cada seis tem acesso a tratamento para se livrar do vício, de acordo com a ONU. Controvérsia No último sábado (17), a execução do brasileiro Marco Archer Cardoso Moreira, 53, e de outros cinco presos por tráfico de drogas provocou críticas mundiais ao governo de Widodo. Após o fuzilamento, a presidente Dilma Rousseff disse estar "consternada" e "indignada" e convocou para consultas o embaixador do Brasil em Jacarta. O ministro das Relações Exteriores, Mauro Vieira, disse que a execução causou "sombra" na relação entre Brasil-Indonésia. Cenário: Execuções têm apoio público na Indonésia     "O fato de Dilma ter chamado seu embaixador é simbólico, mas significa reprovação. A Indonésia quer que respeitem sua soberania. Mas acredito que o Brasil deve adotar medidas importantes na ONU, por exemplo, para fomentar o fim da pena de morte", afirma Paulo César Correa Borges, professor de direito penal da Unesp. Além do brasileiro, foram executados o indonésio Rani Andriani alias Melisa Aprilia, os nigerianos Daniel Enemuo e Namaona Denis, o holandês Ang Kim Soei e o vietnamita Tran Thi Bich Hanh. A Anistia Internacional disse que as primeiras execuções sob a liderança do novo presidente, que tomou posse em novembro, foram "um passo para trás" para os direitos humanos. "É importante ressaltar que as sentenças devem respeitar a dignidade humana. A pena de morte pode levar a erros irreparáveis", diz Gilberto Duarte, analista de Programa de Estado de Direito do Unodc. Duarte ressaltou também que as maiores taxas de execução no mundo são sentenciadas a populações específicas, como pessoas com doenças mentais. Traficantes brasileiros Outros 962 estão presos no exterior por crimes envolvendo drogas, informou o Ministério das Relações Exteriores. O número, atualizado em 31 de dezembro de 2013, representa 30% dos 3.209 brasileiros em prisões fora do país. Os países com mais números de brasileiros são Turquia, 45; África do Sul, 36; Austrália, seis; e China, quatro, todos por crimes como tráfico ou porte de drogas. Há também presos em Cingapura, Tailândia, Cabo Verde, Moçambique, Líbano, Jordânia, Catar, Nicarágua, República Dominicana e Nova Zelândia. Nesses países, o número de presos nascidos no Brasil varia de um a três. Na América do Sul, dos 128 brasileiros presos por envolvimento com drogas, 48 estão no Paraguai, 34 na Bolívia, 23 na Argentina, 23 no Peru, 17 na Venezuela, 14 na Colômbia e 12 no Uruguai. Um terço dos 864 brasileiros em prisões de outras nações do continente foram detidos por esse tipo de crime.

Dive discovers missing aircraft hangar of sunken WW II-era Japanese submarine

 

The dramatic discovery of a lost World War II-era Imperial Japanese Navy mega-submarine by a University of Hawaii and U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) team in December 2013 inspired a new search by NHK, the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation, to find key missing pieces of the battleship. The recent survey, the first to return to I-400 submarine since its discovery, successfully located, mapped and captured on video for the first time not only the submarine's hangar and conning tower (navigation platform), and the submarine's bell. More at: http://www.hawaii.edu/news/2015/04/28/dive-discovers-missing-aircraft-hangar-of-sunken-wwii-era-japanese-submarine/ Credit: University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL). The dramatic discovery of a lost World War II-era Imperial Japanese Navy mega-submarine by a University of Hawai'i and U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) team in December 2013 inspired a new search by NHK, the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation, to find key missing pieces of the battleship. The recent survey, the first to return to I-400 submarine since its discovery, successfully located, mapped, and captured on video for the first time not only the submarine's hangar and conning tower (navigation platform), but an unexpected and significant new discovery -- the submarine's bell. Torn from the submarine by the explosive forces that broke apart and sank I-400, the bell lies close to the conning tower on the seafloor. The massive aircraft hangar, large enough to launch three float-plane bombers, was the defining feature of the I-400. After the end of the war, the I-400 was deliberately sunk at sea outside of Pearl Harbor to keep its technological innovations safe from the Soviet Union. "We didn't have detailed enough bottom mapping data to help locate the hangar, conning tower, and other signature features missing from the wreck of the I-400," said Terry Kerby, operations director and chief submarine pilot of the Hawai'i Undersea Research Laboratory (HURL). "With only one dive day to try to find anything, we knew there was a strong chance we might spend the dive looking at the barren sandy bottom." Kerby continued: "We made a lucky guess where to start when we approached the main hull of the I-400 from the northwest. Our guess started to pay off when the giant hangar door came into view, followed by the conning tower and hangar. Many items were amazingly intact for something that had ripped out of the hull of a sinking 400-foot-long submarine." Video of initial sighting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmjmPHNYXO8 Story Source: The above story is based on materials provided by University of Hawaii at Manoa. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.