Science

According to BigThink, a publication focused on education, what consciousness is and where it comes from has absorbed great minds for thousands of years. In today's world, it's a question posed by physicists, cognitive scientists, and neuroscientists. There are a few prevailing theories.

The first is known as materialism. This is the idea that consciousness emanates from matter. In the case of people, by the firing of neurons inside the brain. If you take the brain out of the equation, then consciousness doesn't exist at all.

The second theory is mind-body dualism. This is perhaps more often recognized in religion. Here, consciousness is separate from matter. It is a part of another aspect of the individual, which in religious terms we might call the soul.

According to CNN, in late 2019, a small piece of birch pitch (pictured above) was found by archeologists on Lolland, the fourth largest island of Denmark. A study uncovered a 5,700-year-old girl's entire genome and oral microbiome, marking the first time human genetic material has successfully been extracted from something besides human bones.

Nicknamed Lola, the young girl who chewed on the birch pitch had blue eyes, dark skin and dark hair. Her last meal included hazelnuts and mallard duck but no milk. She was lactose-intolerant, which serves to validate the theory that adults evolved the tolerance after dairy farming was introduced.

The 2019 Nobel Prize in chemistry has been awarded to three scientists who played a large role in developing lithium-ion batteries: Stanley Whittingham of the U.K., American John Goodenough (at 97, the oldest Nobel laureate ever), and Japan’s Akira Yoshino. Whittingham created the first functional lithium-ion battery in the 1970s, then Goodenough increased its capacity two-fold over the next 10 years. Finally, Yoshino removed the pure lithium, making it much safer to use.

Lithium-ion batteries are indispensable in today’s world, used in everything from cellphones to cordless power tools to electric cars. Rechargeable and able to store large amounts of energy, they have revolutionized electronics. As the Nobel Committee put it, "...this year’s chemistry laureates have laid the foundation of a wireless, fossil fuel-free society."

Recently, the ancient art of origami has begun to merge with modern engineering. Origami principles have inspired novel ways of packaging airbags, fashioning heart stents, folding solar sails designed to propel spacecraft, and even collapsible bullet-proof shields. 

Modern research in origami began in 1970 when an astrophysicist named Koryo Miura came up with a simple but elegant fold. Known as the Miura fold, or Miura-ori, he later repurposed the fold as a way to package large, flat membranes for deploying into space. In 1995, a Japanese satellite used the fold to store its solar panels for launch and unfurl them once in orbit.

Sex is supposed to be simple, at least at the molecular level. X + X = female and X + Y = male.

But as science looks more closely, it becomes increasingly clear that a pair of chromosomes is not always sufficient to distinguish girl/boy—either from the standpoint of sex (biological traits) or of gender (social identity).

In the cultural realm, this shift in perspective has received a wide embrace, with “nonbinary” definitions of gender—transfeminine, genderqueer—having already entered the vernacular. Less visible are the changes taking place in the biological sciences.

The emerging picture of “girlness” or “boyness” reveals the involvement of complex gene networks, extending far beyond the moment six weeks after gestation when the gonads begin to form.

To different extents, many of us are biological hybrids on a male-female continuum. New evidence suggests that the brain consists of a “mosaic” of cell types.

A European-Japanese spacecraft set off on a treacherous seven-year journey to Mercury to probe the solar system's smallest and least-explored planet.

The BepiColombo mission, only the third ever to visit Mercury, blasted off from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 rocket at 10:45 p.m. local time on Friday, October 19 (0145 GMT on Saturday), according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

Few spacecraft have visited Mercury because of the planet's proximity to the sun—less than 60 million kilometers (37.3 million miles) away compared with Earth's almost 150 million kilometers (93 million miles)—which makes any trip there challenging. Surface temperatures on the planet can reach highs of over 400℃ (750℉) during the day and drop to -170℃ (-275℉) at night.

Two scientists who discovered how to harness the body’s immune system to fight cancer won the 2018 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. James Allison, of the US, and Tasuku Honjo, of Japan, shared the 9m Swedish kronor ($1m/¥113m) prize.

The scientists’ groundbreaking work on the immune system has paved the way for a new class of cancer drugs that are already dramatically changing outcomes for patients. It is the first time the development of a cancer therapy has been recognised with a Nobel prize.

Allison said he was in a “state of shock” about having achieved “every scientist’s dream”. “I’d like to give a shout out to all the [cancer] patients out there to let them know we’re making progress here,” he said.

Honjo, who began his research after a medical school classmate died from stomach cancer, said: “I want to continue my research...so that this immune therapy will save more cancer patients than ever.”

In the summer of 2019, French swimmer and anti-plastic campaigner Ben Lecomte swam through the giant floating rubbish mass known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 

The exact size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is impossible to determine, but estimates put it anywhere from 700,000 to 15,000,000 km² (or the size of Texas to the size of Russia). The patch is caused by the North Pacific gyre—a circle of currents that keep plastic, waste and other pollution trapped. According to scientists, the Patch has been growing “exponentially” in recent years.

Lecomte and his support team sampled the water they swam through every day of the journey, gauging the level of plastic and microplastic pollution. As the expedition’s first mate, Tyral Dalitz, said, “The ocean is now filled with microplastics. Rather than calling it an island of trash, it is more like plastic smog throughout the ocean.” 

When I mentioned to a friend that my baseline neurosis had evolved from daily stress into anxiety, her response was, "Go for a float!"

A float?

Yes — spend an hour in a dark, soundproof room floating in a salted, body-temperature warm pool. "You just lie there and meditate," my friend told me.

As a doctor wary of overprescribing medications, I was intrigued by the idea that floating could combat stress and anxiety. So, I looked to see if there was any science to back up this claim. I visited the lab of neuropsychologist Justin Feinstein at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research, who is investigating float therapy as a nonpharmacological treatment for people with conditions like anxiety and depression.

Feinstein asked if I wanted to try it. So, after a quick shower, I jumped right in. It took a while to let my thoughts quiet down, but eventually I was so relaxed I fell asleep — while floating!