Pong, the first successful video game, turns 40; play the classic game here
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/pong-the-first-successful-video-game-turns-40-play-the-classic-game-here/307930-11.htmlhttp://ibnlive.in.com/news/pong-the-first-successful-video-game-turns-40-play-the-classic-game-here/307930-11.html
Taking leave of our senses
When in love, we suspend rational judgement of the person, and this
helps ensure that love is sustained through the years and guarantees a
lasting relationship.
A recent story in The Daily Mail explained how, when in the
presence of or shown a picture of someone they were passionately in love
with, most people have a fairly characteristic response. An important
part of their brain – the frontal lobe – that governs their capacity to
make rational judgements, seems to shut down. Since its publication the
story, though it has not exactly gone viral, has been echoed by a large
number of news sources all over the world, both online and in print. The
ironical thing is that the research study on which this story is based
was first published in September 2000, by Andreas Bartels and Semir
Zeki. Obviously, it was not considered hot enough then to be reported,
but with the increasing interest on the part of the general public in
the findings of scientific research concerning love, sex and
relationships, it’s evidently more saleable now.
The leader of this and several other such neurobiological studies, Prof
Semir Zeki, is the author of several scholarly books on the visual brain
(the most recent being The Splendours and Miseries of The Brain),
a Fellow of the Royal Society and the Professor of Neuroaesthetics (a
discipline connecting science and art, that he pioneered) at the
University College, London. He has done much path-breaking research on
the relationship between the human brain on the one hand and beauty, art
and love on the other. I understand he is scheduled to speak tomorrow
on Neurobiology of Love and Beauty at the 25th Foundation Day
Celebrations of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology at
Hyderabad, and am sorry that I won’t be able to hear him there. But
hopefully the Internet will make available the text of this talk soon
enough.
Let’s try to understand what precisely Prof Zeki’s research threw up. By
using the fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) technique,
researchers can see which specific part of the brain is activated when
we perform certain tasks, by assessing the oxygen flow to its component
parts. Zeki and his co-workers studied the fMRI responses of 17 healthy
male and female volunteers when they were shown pictures of their
romantic partners compared to pictures of their friends. They found a
distinctive difference between the way people responded to friends and
to romantic partners. While both activated the expected areas in the
brain that are associated with positive emotions, certain portions of
the brain were significantly deactivated when pictures of the romantic
partners were presented. Portions of the prefrontal cortex (which
governs judgement and social behaviour) and middle temporal cortex
(which regulates negative emotions) were deactivated, as is usually the
case when we are happy. But, the more interesting finding was the
deactivation of the amygdala which controls fear, sadness and
aggression. Friends activated this part of the brain, but lovers
deactivated it.
Other research has also established that people in love have some
chemical changes in their brains as well. There is a surge of a
neurotransmitter (chemical messenger in the brain) called Dopamine which
gives us a feeling of euphoria. But there's also a depletion of another
neurotransmitter called Serotonin, which is why we tend to feel easily
anxious, jittery and depressed. There is also a deluge of adrenaline
making our heart beat faster, our palms sweaty, and our mouths go dry in
the presence of the one we love.
So, putting this all together, when in love, we temporarily take leave
of our senses. We suspend rational judgement, we are fearless and we
think only positive thoughts. We can swing between euphoria, anxiety and
depression, within minutes. It’s almost like we’ve consumed a narcotic
drug. And here’s the rub. Another interesting finding of the study was
that the same portions of the brain that get activated by the narcotic
drug cocaine are also activated by romantic love.
The biological explanation of all of this is that a temporary suspension
of their judgement of each other is desirable to increase the
likelihood of two human beings to reproduce. But in our country, we seem
to be doing rather nicely without this. Which is probably the basis for
the derogatory conclusion that love is blind. Or worse, that falling in
love is the dumbest thing one can do. However, I suspect that this
suspension of judgement is a very useful mechanism to ensure that love
can sustain through the years and make for a lasting relationship. For
most relationships break because we judge each other too harshly, based
on our expectation that our partner should be perfect in order to cater
to all our needs throughout our lives. I also suspect that if fMRIs were
done on Indian mothers when it comes to their sons or Indian fathers
when it comes to their daughters, a fair number of them might well show
significantly deactivated prefrontal lobes.
As I write this, my wife and I have just completed 25 years of being
married to each other, during which period we have kept our prefrontal
cortices pretty busy – activating and deactivating them on a regular
basis – to the point that they have pretty much given up now, and remain
in a state of irreparable deactivation, thereby increasing the
likelihood that we’re going to remain in a state of mutual happiness
till death do us part.
Love may be blind. It may be dumb. But whatever anyone else says, there’s nothing quite like it.
I was right about Higgs Boson particle all along, says Peter Higgs
25 mins ago#CERN #Higgs Boson particle #Large Hadron Collider #NewsTracker
Brussels: The physicists who theorised
the existence of a basic subatomic particle half a century ago are
confident recent data is proving they were right all along.
Peter Higgs, whose eponymous “Higgs boson” is the long-sought target of the $10 billion Large Hadron collider in Switzerland, told reporters on Tuesday he was sure a particle detected last July was one he had predicted in 1964.
“I think it will turn out to be (the Higgs boson), but it’s just a question of getting out the additional information.”
Data so far from CERN’s LHC particle accelerator seemed unlikely to
reveal a more exotic set of particles, Higgs said, and “fit too well”
with a single particle that gives mass to matter envisaged by the
Standard Model of physics.
“As far as I can see from the results now it’s not yet totally confirmed, but it’s practically sure – I’m ready to bet on it,” Belgian physicist Francois Englert, who also theorised the particle, said before giving a speech to the European Parliament in Brussels.
Although the scientists predicted the presence of the particle years earlier, it took a multinational effort of over 100 countries to build the LHC, which two years into its operation yielded a result.
Higgs said that this type of collaborative research helped not only science, but the economy as a whole, and he was worried about proposed cuts to European Union science funding.
“What you do by cutting the science budget is to reduce your supply of young trained scientists who will do other things which are obviously more useful for your economy,” he said.
“You may be cutting down on things which will provide a stimulus for your economy in the not too distant future.”
For Higgs, who at 83 has retired from active research, the sudden attention brought on by the LHC discovery last July has been a little overwhelming.
“It has resulted in piles of piles of letters and emails on my floor at home,” he said, explaining he had needed to enlist help from a team of colleagues just to sort through it.
The bashful professor has no hard feelings that he’s not yet been tapped for the Nobel Prize in physics, saying he “was reprieved” and “got a stay of execution”.
Touted by some as a possible winner in 2013, Higgs said that winning the Nobel for his work might leave the prize committee the unenviable task of having to choose between a number of co-discoverers, but he acknowledged he was in the running.
“As for what happens next year, I certainly feel vulnerable.”
Reuters
Peter Higgs, whose eponymous “Higgs boson” is the long-sought target of the $10 billion Large Hadron collider in Switzerland, told reporters on Tuesday he was sure a particle detected last July was one he had predicted in 1964.
“I think it will turn out to be (the Higgs boson), but it’s just a question of getting out the additional information.”
The Large Hadron Collider. AP.
“As far as I can see from the results now it’s not yet totally confirmed, but it’s practically sure – I’m ready to bet on it,” Belgian physicist Francois Englert, who also theorised the particle, said before giving a speech to the European Parliament in Brussels.
Although the scientists predicted the presence of the particle years earlier, it took a multinational effort of over 100 countries to build the LHC, which two years into its operation yielded a result.
Higgs said that this type of collaborative research helped not only science, but the economy as a whole, and he was worried about proposed cuts to European Union science funding.
“What you do by cutting the science budget is to reduce your supply of young trained scientists who will do other things which are obviously more useful for your economy,” he said.
“You may be cutting down on things which will provide a stimulus for your economy in the not too distant future.”
For Higgs, who at 83 has retired from active research, the sudden attention brought on by the LHC discovery last July has been a little overwhelming.
“It has resulted in piles of piles of letters and emails on my floor at home,” he said, explaining he had needed to enlist help from a team of colleagues just to sort through it.
The bashful professor has no hard feelings that he’s not yet been tapped for the Nobel Prize in physics, saying he “was reprieved” and “got a stay of execution”.
Touted by some as a possible winner in 2013, Higgs said that winning the Nobel for his work might leave the prize committee the unenviable task of having to choose between a number of co-discoverers, but he acknowledged he was in the running.
“As for what happens next year, I certainly feel vulnerable.”
Reuters
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