Discussion topics

The killing of the Japanese ex-prime minister, Shinzo Abe, shocked the whole world. Even though some of the people in Japan did not agree with his policies, the ex-prime minister’s murder is a sad event for the entire nation. 

The murder is shocking because it happened in Japan, where deaths from guns are very rare. It is also uncommon to hear about politicians being killed in developed countries. 

Please, have a look at the graphs below and discuss them with your teacher. 

For a long time, we believed that Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens (modern humans) were two separate species. With the advent of DNA sequencing, however, it was discovered that Sapiens interbred with Neanderthals as they migrated from Africa 60,000 years ago. Another previously unknown hominid species, known as Denisovans, was also discovered at that time, and it interbred with Sapiens and Neanderthals, too.

Gene sequencing shows that non-African genomes today contain about 2% Neanderthal DNA, and people from Papua, New Guinea, and Australia are about 3% Denisovan. Studies on modern African DNA are taking longer because climate, geography and politics make locating skeletons much more difficult.

We are able to look in the other direction as well thanks to new technologies in genetic sequencing and computation. It appears that Sapiens contributed their genes to Neanderthal DNA more than 200,000 years ago. There is also evidence that another unknown hominid species interbred with everyone else, making up 4%–8% of modern human DNA.

Clearly, prehistoric peoples met and mixed a great deal more than we previously thought. In fact, we might not actually be all that separate. As biologist Adam Siepel has said, “It suggests that maybe Neanderthals actually are us. As different as they are, maybe they’re just another version of us.”

There has been a lot of bad news in the last few years. Some people have decided to stop looking at the news because it's so bad. Since 2017, the number of people who avoid seeing the news has doubled in some places. The graph below shows the increase in countries around the world. Look at the graph and discuss it with your teacher.

A deadly 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit Afghanistan on June 22. So far, more than 1000 people have been reported dead, and at least another 1500 have been injured. This is a humanitarian disaster that requires aid.

People in remote areas have to dig through the rubble with their bare hands, hoping to find people under the destroyed buildings. In addition, recent rains have damaged many roads making access even more difficult. Afghanistan has already experienced multiple humanitarian crises in recent months. This has caused shortages. 95% of households do not have enough food and the health system is not functioning properly.

The Taliban leader, who seldom appears in public, addressed the international community for help. This is a difficult situation because many countries do not recognise the Taliban as an official government and do not want to send any money to this terrorist organization. This forces countries and organisations to question what they should do to assist and how.

Harvard Business Review has researched the mindsets that affect a person’s leadership ability. Here are different mindsets they have found.

Growth and Fixed Mindsets. People with a growth mindset believe that people change. Everyone can develop their abilities, intelligence, and talent. However, people with a fixed mindset believe people are born with specific skills and cannot develop them. 

Learning and Performance Mindsets. Learning mindsets mean people are motivated to learn something new just because they like learning. They want to learn without any external factors. On the other hand, people with performance mindsets are motivated to learn to get positive feedback or because they are afraid to get negative critiques. 

Promotion and Prevention Mindsets. People with promotion mindsets are focused on gaining something and winning. They tend to have goals and work on achieving them. People with prevention mindsets want to prevent losses and avoid problems.

Harvard Business Review says that people with the first type of mindsets in each paragraph become better leaders. They suggest companies teach their managers not only leadership skills but also how to change their mindset.

Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, says it will provide outside researchers more information on how political and social ads are targeted on its platform, providing insight into the ways that politicians, campaign operatives and political strategists buy and use ads during election periods. Starting from May 2022, academics and researchers registered with Facebook Open Research and Transparency will be allowed to see more detailed targeting data, including which interest categories—such as “people who like dogs” or “people who enjoy the outdoors”—have been chosen to aim ads at specific people.

Meta also plans to include summaries of targeting information for some of its ads in its publicly viewable Ad Library. Created in 2019, the Ad Library allows the public to obtain information about political ads, thus helping to safeguard elections against the misuse of digital advertising.

While Meta provides outsiders some access into how its ads are used, it has been known to restrict the amount of information available, citing privacy reasons. This has led to conflicts, including with a group of New York University academics in 2020.

Watch this short video about what happens in the brain when we sing. Listen carefully to hear what happens in the different parts of the brain.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta: Health Benefits of Singing

New research from the Babraham Institute has potentially made a revolutionary breakthrough in regenerative medicine. The scientists developed a method to rejuvenate skin cells by 30 years. 

Our cells have several functions, such as providing structure and support, transporting molecules, producing energy, helping with growth, creating metabolic reactions and helping in reproduction. However, with age, cells lose these functions and accumulate age marks. 

New research reprogrammed cells by restoring their functions and changing the molecular measures of biological age. Rejuvenated skin cells produced more collagen that helped heal wounds and provide structure to our skin, the same as natural young skin cells do. 

This research is based on the Nobel Prize method developed by Shinya Yamanaka in 2007 of creating stem cells—cells that have the ability to turn into any cell type with any function. 

Further research into this area might help not only to reduce the aging effect but also to help to cure age-related illnesses, such as Alzheimer's disease.

People generally think of trees as disconnected loners, competing for water, nutrients, and sunlight, with winners shading out losers and sucking them dry. But evidence to the contrary is coming to light. Forest trees are, in fact, cooperative and live in interdependent relationships maintained by communication and collective intelligence similar to an insect colony.

Unlike other organisms, most of the communication between trees happens underground, through a system known as the “Wood Wide Web”. “[Trees] in every forest that is not too damaged”, explains Peter Wohlleben, a German forester and author, “are connected to each other through underground fungal networks. Trees share water and nutrients through the networks, and also use them to communicate. They send distress signals about drought and disease, for example, or insect attacks, and other trees alter their behaviour when they receive these messages.”

As a fee for their services, the fungi consume about 30 percent of the sugar that the trees photosynthesize from sunlight. This sugar fuels the fungi as they scavenge the soil for nitrogen, phosphorus and other mineral nutrients, which they then pass on to the trees. For young saplings in dense parts of the forest, the network is a lifeline. Without sufficient sunlight to photosynthesize, saplings can only survive because big trees, including their parents, pump sugar into their roots through the network.