Simulated brain scores top test marks : Nature

Simulated brain scores top test marks : Nature News & Comment: As Spaun sees a stream of numbers, it extracts visual features so that it can recognize the digits. It can then perform at least eight different tasks, from simple ones like copying an image, to more complex ones similar to those found on IQ tests, such as finding the next number in a series. When finished, it writes out its answer with a physically modelled arm.

Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality? - NYTimes.com

Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality? - NYTimes.com: Sommer was baffled by this development but didn’t immediately grasp its significance. (It was nearly a decade before the word “immortal” was first used to describe the species.) But several biologists in Genoa, fascinated by Sommer’s finding, continued to study the species, and in 1996 they published a paper called “Reversing the Life Cycle.” The scientists described how the species — at any stage of its development — could transform itself back to a polyp, the organism’s earliest stage of life, “thus escaping death and achieving potential immortality.” This finding appeared to debunk the most fundamental law of the natural world — you are born, and then you die.

How to forget fear | The Times

How to forget fear | The Times

 "This experiment capitalised on the knowledge that traumatic memories are not written just once but every time we remember them. When we first record memories the presence of certain proteins strengthens connections between the synapses — the gaps between nerve cells — in the brain. However, every time we recall these memories subsequently the proteins break down and must be remade from scratch. During this period of reconsolidation our memory is vulnerable to reshaping. Like that open Word document on your laptop, it can be rewritten."