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Toward A Unified Theory Of How Language Evolved

Toward A Unified Theory Of How Language Evolved

May 09 2025 | comment(s)

Humans are the only species on earth that uses language, combining sounds into words and words into sentence with infinite meanings.

We do this using linguistic rules for calls and sentence structure. "A dog eats" tells us one thing while "a big dog" means another while "you're such a dog" from a friend at the bar means something else completely.

Humans have mastered syntax.

How did that evolve? The comparative approach, comparing the vocal production of other primates, with that of humans, provides some answers. Other primates typically use a single call type while some species combine calls, it is mostly as an alarm. All those known are too limited to be a precursor to the complex, open-ended combinatorial system that is human language.
Brain Organoid Research Shows Science Academia Needs Stronger Ethical Oversight

Brain Organoid Research Shows Science Academia Needs Stronger Ethical Oversight

May 09 2025 | comment(s)

As the Trump administration continues to make significant cuts to NIH budgets and personnel and to freeze billions of dollars of funding to major research universities – citing ideological concerns – there’s more being threatened than just progress in science and medicine. Something valuable but often overlooked is also being hit hard: preventing research abuse.

If You Buy Magic Rocks, You're The Target Market For HoLDI-MS To Detect Nanoplastic

If You Buy Magic Rocks, You're The Target Market For HoLDI-MS To Detect Nanoplastic

May 09 2025 | comment(s)

Homeopathic levels of plastic are the latest environmental scaremongering fad (Nanoplastics! Microplastics!) dominating partisan corporate media when they are not suddenly simping for Trickle Down Economics, Vaccines, and Capitalism they distrusted just a short while ago.

Naturally, companies are rushing to keep you safe from plastic which can be detected in everything. If you want to detect it in your home and annoy your family talking about how much virtual cancer you want to avoid, A McGill team fired up the 3-D printer and made the hollow-laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (HoLDI-MS) test platform.

That's right, a plastic detector made from...plastic.
Only Polarized People Want Companies In Polarized Political Issues

Only Polarized People Want Companies In Polarized Political Issues

May 08 2025 | comment(s)

Last year, companies began to pull back from promoting their Diversity Equity Inclusion efforts and social justice activists blamed the incoming Trump administration. It has been a violation of federal law to discriminate for 60 years so to moderates it seemed odd to add a layer of discrimination in hiring, even one deemed positive. And they never considered it may have instead been done at all due to pressure from the previous administration.

The backlash was entirely predictable, but in both cases it was on the fringes. For no benefit, corporate CEOs were ignoring the 'stay out of it unless your customers are dominated by it' mantra.
Becoming The Music: How Our Brains Sync With Sound To Create Emotion

Becoming The Music: How Our Brains Sync With Sound To Create Emotion

May 07 2025 | comment(s)

Some psychologists believe our brains and bodies don’t just understand music, we become it. We physically resonate with it. They call their belief Neural Resonance Theory (NRT). 

They use Theory is in the name, but it is not a theory like gravity or evolution, the proper name means it is more like String Theory. An idea that needs scientific rigor to be shown true. 

NRT maintains that rather than relying on learned expectations or prediction, musical experiences arise from the brain’s natural oscillations that sync with rhythm, melody and harmony.


You Can't Spell Replanted Rainforest Without T-E-R-M-I-T-E

You Can't Spell Replanted Rainforest Without T-E-R-M-I-T-E

May 07 2025 | comment(s)

Nature is out to kill everything, it is the circle of life, and that is why replanting rainforest without including some termites is counter-intuitively bad, finds a new paper.

The balance of nature doesn't exist and believing that plant diversity alone will work is in defiance of how ecosystems work. That may mean introducing termites. There is a certainly NIMBYism that will occur, just like wealthy elites who oppose nuclear energy and claim wind power is viable hire a phalanx of lawyers to block wind projects near their homes. A company or agency spending money on new trees isn't going to like giving those over to termites either. It would require convincing.
PM2.5 Is Killing You, Claim Ecologists, Except There Are No Deaths

PM2.5 Is Killing You, Claim Ecologists, Except There Are No Deaths

May 07 2025 | comment(s)

A new simulation claims small-micron particulate matter, so small you need an electron microscope to see it, is killing 250,000 people each year. PM10, 10 microns in size, is a well-known killer. That is wildfires and smog but after smog was drastically reduced in the 1990s, the target went down 400%, to 2.5. Suddenly air quality maps could be orange and red again, even though the air is cleaner in wealthier countries than it has been since the 1980s.
COVID-19 Border Closures Increased German Dislike Of Immigrants

COVID-19 Border Closures Increased German Dislike Of Immigrants

May 07 2025 | comment(s)

Early in 2020, the President of the United States said America should cut travel from China due to COVID-19 concerns. This was dismissed as xenophobia by states like New York and California, because the World Health Organisation had not declared it a pandemic.(1)

In Europe, 18 countries knew better than to wait for WHO to ignore claims from China that it was not a pandemic and closed their borders.
Fisetin To Prevent Artery Hardening

Fisetin To Prevent Artery Hardening

May 06 2025 | comment(s)

In a new study, researchers found that the polyphenol fisetin helps protect blood vessels from hardening, which is a common problem in older adults and people with kidney disease. 

If eventually validated in human trials, it might mean it could prevent vascular calcification and reduce cardiovascular damage caused by aging and chronic kidney disease. Fisetin is in the flavonols family and is found naturally in fruits and vegetables but is also sold as an unvalidated supplement outside FDA testing.


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Social Drinking Is A Bigger Problem Than Drinking Alcohol Alone

Social Drinking Is A Bigger Problem Than Drinking Alcohol Alone

May 06 2025 | comment(s)

No doctor tells patients to smoke cigarettes "in moderation", they are a known carcinogen and not smoking cigarettes is one of the top three ways to prevent lifestyle diseases. Yet culture has been grabbed by twin pincers when it comes to alcohol. American women are told if they have a glass of wine their child may get fetal alcohol syndrome while everyone else will be fine with alcohol in moderation.(1)