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POPSChange you can believe in - change for the worse Do you like paying taxes, then watch government become bigger and more incompetent? Do you like discovering your family doesn't have enough income and start looking for a second job, only to find there are none? Do you really want a health care system like Canada's (ask any Canadian what they think of their health care - they wait over a year for an MRI, for example..) Did you like Carter's sky high inflation with a downward spiraling productivity? Then you will LOVE the change Obama brings you.
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POPSBrain Blasting Laser In a world first, a man was strapped to a bed in Paris and had laser beams fired into his brain. He not only survived but, amazingly, wasn't James Bond.
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POPSOne hundred tesla without self-destructing Why would anyone need a magnet that strong? Greg Boebinger, director of the Magnet Lab, says that this magnetic field strength is the only way to test the properties of newly discovered high-temperature superconductors like iron oxyarsenide, which may improve the performance of MRI machines and high-voltage power lines while lowering their cost. A 100‑T magnet would also let you conduct certain zero-gravity experiments without traveling into space and let you develop magnetic propulsion systems that could eventually replace those that burn rocket fuel.
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POPSWhy you should go with your gut feeling To uncover this ability, Pessiglione and colleague Chris Frith, of University College London, tested 20 volunteers with a simple game based on winning and losing small amounts of money. On a computer screen, the volunteers watched an animated abstract pattern which for a couple of tenths of a second included one of three symbols part way through. Unbeknownst to the subjects, the symbols indicated whether they would lose or gain £1 or break even if they accepted the gamble. Surprisingly, subjects got better at predicting whether they would win or not, eventually plateauing at slightly above chance, strong evidence that volunteers do not consciously notice the symbols but are affected by them nonetheless.
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POPSScanning the brain in real time Learning to control your own mind. There have been three ways to affect the brain.(for argument's sake) the psychiatrist's couch, the knife, and with medication. Now with the improved MRI technology we can look inside our brain in real time, and affect the way we think. The video wont clip but video lasts for 3min56sec and can be seen following the top link, or is 13.6MB download from the link in the clip (The 'desktop' link works, itunes seems only to be a download from the site)
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POPSThe Brain Unmasked Diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) is one of these twists. It uses magnetic resonance signals to track the movement of water molecules in the brain: water diffuses along the length of neural wires, called axons. Scientists can use these diffusion measurements to map the wires, creating a detailed blueprint of the brain's connectivity.
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POPSPlaying with drugs for "Mind Control" LSD, radiation, and electroshock all ended up as dead ends in the MKULTRA program's quest for mind control. Still, the search for ways to penetrate minds continues. Recent studies suggest that noninvasive brain scans, taken with a functional MRI (fMRI), make the mind more transparent. Private companies tout fMRI as an improved lie detector, and the government has taken notice. Programs funded by the Department of Defense have looked into the feasibility of fMRI research.
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POPSRoom temperature superconductivity: One step closer to the Holy Grail of physics The researchers have discovered where the charge 'hole' carriers that play a significant role in the superconductivity originate within the electronic structure of copper-oxide superconductors. These findings are particularly important for the next step of deciphering the glue that binds the holes together and determining what enables them to superconduct.
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POPSMen And Women Respond Differently To Stress The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine is reporting research that shows that different parts of the brain are activated in males and females when confronted with a stressful situation. The researchers examined the activity of participant's brains using fMRI while exposed to stress.
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POPSGenetically engineered cells make their own nanomagnets, providing clear MRI images. If genetically engineering cells to produce their own magnetic nanoparticles proves successful, this provides a new window through which to view many biological processes as they unfold, from the formation of tumors to the migration of stem cells injected to treat disease. "It's just amazing that they can get a mammalian cell to actually make the material," says Lee Josephson, an associate professor at the Harvard Medical School's Center for Molecular Imaging Research. "I think it's a really meaningful piece of work."
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POPS Neuronal Computations Governing Strategic Social Interactions in the Human Brain Furthermore, a number of brain areas previously implicated in mentalizing, such as the superior temporal sulcus (STS) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), showed changes in their activity over time. These changes are predicted by the mathematical model, suggesting that the brain itself uses mathematical operations similar to that encapsulated in the model to solve the task.