Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryMedicine and Health

scientists-testing-in-lab-stockpack-adobe-stock
Scientists testing in lab.
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post
Author
News
Date
September 26, 2022
Categorized
Business and Finance, Medicine and Health
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Will AI Really Change Drug Development? Not So Fast…

Jeffrey Funk and Gary N. Smith note that AI was not significant in the development of COVID vaccines. Financial incentives ruled
News
September 26, 2022
3
Business and Finance, Medicine and Health

Something to know before you invest or entertain high hopes: Jeffrey Funk and Gary Smith published a recent article in Salon that offers a free cold shower. Some realities they cite: Most of the expense of drug development is in clinical trials on human beings, which can’t be automated. Any attempt to save time or money would come at identifiable costs in accuracy. Yes, COVID vaccines were a banner achievement for speedy drug development. But AI played little or no standout role in the process: Determined to get a COVID-19 vaccine to the public before the November 3, 2020, presidential election, the U.S. government devoted $14 billion to support the pharmaceutical companies’ vaccine efforts. The government agreed to pay Pfizer Read More ›

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Young attractive handicapped beauty blogger is filming video with smartphone at home.
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post
Author
News
Date
September 26, 2022
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Medicine and Health, Neuroscience
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Reality Check: Can Bionic Hands Really Compete With Nature?

A geographer born without a left forearm offers an honest assessment of the “bionic hand” arms race
News
September 26, 2022
4
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience

The author of a recent article in IEEE Spectrum was born without a left forearm so she can talk about the tech reality of prostheses from the front lines: Today, the people who design prostheses tend to be well-intentioned engineers rather than amputees themselves. The fleshy stumps of the world act as repositories for these designers’ dreams of a high-tech, superhuman future. I know this because throughout my life I have been fitted with some of the most cutting-edge prosthetic devices on the market. After being born missing my left forearm, I was one of the first cohorts of infants in the United States to be fitted with a myoelectric prosthetic hand, an electronic device controlled by the wearer’s muscles Read More ›

little-boy-eating-a-cake-little-boy-emotionally-eating-a-little-cake-stockpack-adobe-stock
Little boy eating a cake. Little boy emotionally eating a little cake
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post
Author
News
Date
September 22, 2022
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Medicine and Health, Psychology
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Are Our Tastes in Food Shaped Even Before We Are Born?

A recent experiment suggests that prenatal exposure to food tastes and smells could impact diet preferences later in life, with health consequences
News
September 22, 2022
6
Medicine and Health, Psychology

Recent research may shed some light: Researchers in Britain and France just published the first direct evidence showing that fetuses can actually taste and smell while still in the womb. These important findings could help scientists further our understanding of how human taste and smell receptors develop. But the most immediate implication is that a pregnant woman’s diet might influence their babies’ food preferences after birth. “A number of studies have suggested that babies can taste and smell in the womb, but they are based on post-birth outcomes while our study is the first to see these reactions prior to birth,” lead researcher Beyza Ustun, a postgraduate researcher in the Fetal and Neonatal Research Lab at Durham University, said in Read More ›

robot-with-artificial-intelligence-observing-human-skull-in-evolved-cybernetic-organism-world-3d-rendered-image-stockpack-adobe-stock
Robot with Artificial Intelligence observing human skull in Evolved Cybernetic organism world. 3d rendered image
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post
Author
News
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September 18, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Military

Researcher Warns: AI Can Develop Lethal Chemical Weapons Swiftly

Much public discussion of AI’s dangers turns on AI “taking over.” That’s hardly the serious risk we face
News
September 18, 2022
3
Medicine and Health, Military

The dangers of out-of-control artificial intelligence (AI) are sometimes misrepresented. The sci-fi version is that AI decides to take over from mere humans, like the iconic HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey: (1968). A more likely danger is bad actors using enormous computing power to cause harms that they could not have managed on their own. Here’s a sobering example: It took less than six hours for drug-developing AI to invent 40,000 potentially lethal molecules. Researchers put AI normally used to search for helpful drugs into a kind of “bad actor” mode to show how easily it could be abused at a biological arms control conference. All the researchers had to do was tweak their methodology to seek out, Read More ›

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Multi ethnic teenagers smiling outdoor making selfie
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post
Author
News
Date
September 15, 2022
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Medicine and Health, Politics
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Egnor: Why More Sex Change Medicine for Teens in US Than Europe?

One factor in the difference between the United States and Europe may be less accurate information in the United States
News
September 15, 2022
4
Medicine and Health, Politics

Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor offers a look at the radical trend to medicine and life-altering surgery based on teen identity issues: Despite the logical gibberish, trans-activism has had a frightening impact on medical practice and medical ethics. ‘Gender affirmation’ clinics exist in medical centers across the country, and many clinics offer hormonal treatment and even radical surgery to children and adults. Boston Children’s Hospital — probably the most prominent children’s hospital in the country —  has offered mastectomies to girls as young as 15 for “gender reassignment,” and has offered patients phalloplasty (the surgical creation of a ‘penis’), metoidioplasty (cutting tissue to lengthen the clitoris), creation of a scrotum with testicular implants, hysterectomy, vaginoplasty (amputation of the penis and testicles with construction of a ‘vagina’) Read More ›

ultrasound-examination-of-the-head-examination-of-a-month-old-baby-stockpack-adobe-stock
Ultrasound examination of the head. Examination of a month old baby
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post
Author
News
Date
September 7, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Woman Missing Her Brain’s Language Lobe Pens New York Times Piece

Helen Santoro’s parents were told she would “never speak and would need to be institutionalized.” She became a science writer instead
News
September 7, 2022
4
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Children who suffer perinatal strokes may be left with large holes or lesions where brain regions should be. Many are severely disabled. But some are not disabled at all. One woman, Helen Santoro, was so little affected by the lack of a left temporal lobe that she got dropped from a research study of the aftermath. Now a science writer, she published an article last week in the New York Times about her efforts to understand and unravel the mystery. Perinatal stroke is often discovered, as in her case, when the newborn child has trouble with breathing or sucking reflexes. A brain scan showed “a huge hole’ where her left temporal lobe should have been, just above the ear. Because Read More ›

close-up-flying-small-lesser-horseshoe-bat-rhinolophus-hipposideros-hunting-night-moths-insect-pest-catching-in-darkness-via-ultrasound-echolocation-dark-background-detail-wildlife-animal-portrait-stockpack-adobe-stock
Close up flying small lesser horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hipposideros) hunting night moths insect pest catching in darkness via ultrasound echolocation. Dark background detail wildlife animal portrait.
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post
Author
News
Date
September 3, 2022
Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Medicine and Health, Neuroscience
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There Really Is a “Batman” and He Isn’t in the Comics

Daniel Kish lost both eyes to cancer as a baby. With nothing to lose, he discovered human echolocation
News
September 3, 2022
4
Human exceptionalism, Medicine and Health, Neuroscience

Perhaps one should not really say that Daniel Kish “discovered” human echolocation. Yet, having no other options as a blind infant cancer survivor, he discovered early on — and began to publicize — a sense that few sighted persons would even think of: He calls his method FlashSonar or SonarVision. He elaborated for the BBC: Do people need to be blind to do it? Not necessarily: In 2021, a small study led by researchers at Durham University showed that blind and sighted people alike could learn to effectively use flash sonar in just 10 weeks, amounting to something like 40 to 60 hours of total training. By the end of it, some of them were even better at specific tests Read More ›

belly-of-a-pregnant-woman-stockpack-adobe-stock
belly of a pregnant woman
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post
Author
News
Date
August 26, 2022
Categorized
Censorship, Ethics, Medicine and Health, Social Media
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Google Employees Demand Corporate War on Crisis Pregnancy Centers

The recent Dobbs decision returning abortion legislation to the states has also spurred abortion activists to violence against pro-life crisis pregnancy centers
News
August 26, 2022
5
Censorship, Ethics, Medicine and Health, Social Media

Recently, in a petition circulated by the Alphabet Workers Union, 650 Google employees asked the firm to suppress search results for pro-life crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) “by removing results for fake abortion providers” as well as to stop collecting users’ data on abortion-related searches. Yelp has already doubled down against the centers: As the linked story notes, Yelp has decided to flag them with a “consumer notice,” warning users that “Crisis Pregnancy Centers typically provide limited medical services and may not have licensed medical professionals onsite” (translation: no abortionists on staff). Utilizing the common leftist tactic of accusing people who express a different view of dispensing “misinformation,” Yelp said in a statement that “it’s been well-reported” (well… “reported”) “that crisis Read More ›

brain anatomy
Real human half brain anatomy isolated on black background
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post
Author
News
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August 19, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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A Neurosurgeon on Why Some People Function With Only Half a Brain

The study results are reassuring and they point to two larger truths
News
August 19, 2022
4
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Yesterday, we ran a story about a recent study in which 40 people who had half of their brains removed (hemispherectomy) as children — due to intractable epilepsy — did unexpectedly well on psychological tests. Some say that it’s easy to explain because the brain has so many redundant elements. But is that all we need to know? We asked pediatric neurosurgeon Michael Egnor for some thoughts on that approach and he replied: The means by which people with major parts of their brains removed maintain function are not understood. It’s nonsense to say, as some do, that “The brain is massively parallel and recursive and functions under network rules and laws.” That’s typical neuroscience gibberish. The fact is that Read More ›

these-two-are-little-genius-mixed-media-stockpack-adobe-stock
These two are little genius . Mixed media
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post
Author
News
Date
August 12, 2022
Categorized
Biology, Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind, Science Fiction, Transhumanism
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Why Breeding Smarter Humans Won’t Work: Basic Genetics 101

Biochemist Michael Denton explains that, in human genetics, everything is connected to everything else; geneticists call it pleiotropy
News
August 12, 2022
4
Biology, Medicine and Health, Philosophy of Mind, Science Fiction, Transhumanism

Recently, we looked at the question of whether human IQ could be artificially increased via genetic engineering. One proposal was to mass produce human embryos, implanting only the smart ones and discarding the rest. All other issues aside, it’s unclear how to determine which kids will turn out to be the smart ones. Now biochemist Michael Denton, author of a number of books including the recent Miracle of Man (2022), writes to tell us that the idea won’t work due to fundamental genetics. Noting that theoretical physicist Stephen Hsu, who advanced the idea of discarding embryos above, is not a medical geneticist, he told Mind Matters News, Its true there are many genes involved in brain development but most genes Read More ›

old-human-skeleton-in-ancient-tomb-at-archaeological-excavation-stockpack-adobe-stock
Old human skeleton in ancient tomb at archaeological excavation
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post
Author
News
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August 5, 2022
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Medicine and Health, Neuroscience
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Human Brain Shape Hardly Changed in 160,000 Years

Faces changed, yes, and researchers think diet may have played a role
News
August 5, 2022
4
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience

The changes in human heads over the past 160,000 years were not driven by a changing brain, researchers say. It was the human face that changed, according to a recent article at New Scientist: Comparing the braincases of early modern human children with adults for the first time allowed the researchers to isolate the brain’s role in the evolution of the skull. The team was surprised to find that while the size and proportions of the skulls of H. sapiens children from 160,000 years ago were largely comparable to children today, the adults looked remarkably different to those of modern adults, with much longer faces and more pronounced features. Human faces continue to grow until the age of around 20, Read More ›

close-up-of-a-womans-ear-and-hand-through-a-torn-hole-in-the-paper-yellow-background-copy-space-the-concept-of-eavesdropping-espionage-gossip-and-tabloids-stockpack-adobe-stock
Close-up of a woman's ear and hand through a torn hole in the paper. Yellow background, copy space. The concept of eavesdropping, espionage, gossip and tabloids.
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post
Author
News
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August 2, 2022
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Medicine and Health
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Now the Deaf Can See the Words They Can’t Hear

Speech-to-text technology via cell phone networks and special glasses allow people with hearing loss to see conversations they cannot hear — displayed as subtitles
News
August 2, 2022
4
Medicine and Health

Dan Scarfe says he first got the idea for eyeglasses that display subtitles (XRAI Glasses) when he watched his 97-year-old grandfather struggle to understand conversations at Christmas last year. For TV, Grandpa had subtitles. The Toronto-based tech entrepreneur realized that speech-to-text and cell phone technology would let him to subtitle everyday conversations and display them on glasses. Here’s how it works: The deaf woman wearing the glasses is reading the subtitles: The AR glasses are connected to a mobile phone which handles the processing and graphics generation. “What our software effectively does is it takes an audio feed from the microphone on these glasses [and] sends it down to the phone,” said Scarfe. “On the phone we are effectively turning Read More ›

chef-cook-food-with-fire-at-kitchen-restaurant-cook-with-wok-at-kitchen-stockpack-adobe-stock
Chef cook food with fire at kitchen restaurant. Cook with wok at kitchen.
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post
Author
News
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July 28, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health
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If AI Is Like Fire, Let’s Not Get Left With Its Ashes

In a new book, Georgetown University researchers examine what can go right and wrong with adapting our culture to artificial intelligence
News
July 28, 2022
3
Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health

Ben Buchanan and Andrew Imbrie, Georgetown University researchers on loan to the U.S. government, think that the invention of artificial intelligence is like the invention of fire. It can bring great benefits — but comes with unavoidable great risks that are equally a consequence of its power to help us. They are honest about AI’s failures, left unattended. As authors of The New Fire: War, Peace, and Democracy in the Age of AI (MIT Press, 2022), they offer some examples from everyday life that certainly give pause for thought: Despite its extraordinary power, AI is far from perfect. Bias insidiously sneaks into AI systems, especially when they learn from data sets of human decisions. The real-world consequences can be severe. Read More ›

pileated-woodpecker-nest-in-florida-stockpack-adobe-stock
Pileated woodpecker nest in Florida
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post
Author
News
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July 28, 2022
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Medicine and Health, Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience
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Woodpeckers: There Are Advantages to Having a Small Brain

Woodpeckers absorb 1200 to 1400 g shock driving their beaks into wood — but a shock absorbing skull doesn’t explain the absence of damage
News
July 28, 2022
3
Medicine and Health, Natural Intelligence, Neuroscience

How do woodpeckers absorb a remarkable amount of shock to the head — 1200 to 1400 g — for each hit on a tree? A football player might absorb 120 g — without damaging their brains? The answers could help minimize brain damage in humans and suggested explanations include a surplus of tau proteins (2017), an unusual bone in the tongue, and head movements that minimize brain damage. A new research team challenges such explanations saying that their data show that woodpecker heads” act more like stiff hammers” and that “any shock absorbance would hinder the woodpeckers’ pecking abilities.” But then what about the bird’s brain? While the deceleration shock with each peck exceeds the known threshold for a concussion Read More ›

hand-holding-mobile-smart-phone-with-notification-icons-and-city-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
Hand holding mobile smart phone, with notification icons and city background
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post
Author
News
Date
July 26, 2022
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Censorship, Medicine and Health, Social Media
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Facebook Blinks: No Longer Wants to Censor COVID “Misinformation”

Global Affairs President Nick Clegg has revealed that Facebook is seeking the guidance of its Oversight Board about removing “false claims”
News
July 26, 2022
4
Censorship, Medicine and Health, Social Media

Citing the view that the COVID-19 pandemic has “evolved,” Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is deciding whether to continue removing “misinformation” about the pandemic from the platform: Meta has asked the company’s Oversight Board, which is funded by Meta but operates independently, to decide whether removing “false claims about masks, social distancing and vaccines” on Facebook is still appropriate as “countries around the world seek to return to more normal life,” Meta’s president of global affairs, Nick Clegg, said Tuesday in a blog post. Sherri Walsh, “Facebook parent Meta to reconsider removing COVID-19 misinformation” at UPI (July 26, 2022) The U.S. government had put a lot of pressure on Meta, as UPI notes, and Facebook removed 25 million items of information. Read More ›

cyber-bullying-concept-people-using-notebook-computer-laptop-for-social-media-interactions-with-notification-icons-of-hate-speech-and-mean-comment-in-social-network-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
cyber bullying concept. people using notebook computer laptop for social media interactions with notification icons of hate speech and mean comment in social network
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post
Author
Andrew McDiarmid
Date
July 25, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Psychology, Social Media
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Social Media Can Literally Kill. It Killed Cheslie Chryst

Chryst’s suicide — and Constant Wu’s thwarted attempt — spotlight the toxic cyberbullying that is intrinsic to Big Tech’s formula for success
Andrew McDiarmid
July 25, 2022
5
Medicine and Health, Psychology, Social Media

[This article is republished with permission from the New York Post (July 23, 2022) where it appeared under the title “Constance Wu’s suicide tweet proves social media can mean life or death.”] “Looking back, it’s surreal that a few DMs convinced me to end my own life, but that’s what happened.”  Last week, actress Constance Wu confessed on Twitter that she had tried to take her own life after she made “careless tweets” about the renewal of her TV show, ABC’s “Fresh Off the Boat,” in May 2019. “So upset right now that I’m literally crying,” she had posted about the show’s renewal, which had forced her to give up another project she was passionate about. As would be expected on a public Read More ›

senior-active-couple-practicing-trekking-in-park-among-green-trees-on-summer-weekend-stockpack-adobe-stock
Senior active couple practicing trekking in park among green trees on summer weekend
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post
Author
News
Date
July 21, 2022
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Medicine and Health
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Can Tracking Daily Activity Patterns Help Predict Dementia?

It’s hardly a glamorous use for fit bit-type technology. But it could help with critical health and lifestyle decisions
News
July 21, 2022
3
Medicine and Health

We all make mistakes and our minds wander. With seniors, the question naturally arises, “Am I developing dementia?” If so, identifying and addressing the problem early might stop it or slow it down. Not all dementias are irreversible. For example, some dementias are caused by medication or infection, and thus treatable. Even dementias that are not treatable now might become so later. One Johns Hopkins research team recently reported “significant differences in movement patterns between participants with normal cognition and those with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease.” Using activity trackers, the team was following 585 participants in the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging (BLSA), of whom 36 participants had either mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s diagnoses: Adjusting for differences Read More ›

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Type
post
Author
News
Date
July 20, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Neuroscientists: We hear when we are asleep — but we don’t listen

The new finding may help determine whether an apparently unconscious or demented person can actually understand what is said to him
News
July 20, 2022
4
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Earlier this week, we talked about the fact that the human nose is much more sensitive than we sometimes think. Our sense of smell gets ignored in favor of visual, auditory, or symbolic information — but it’s still there. The same goes with our hearing when we are asleep, researchers say: The researchers were surprised to discover that the brain’s response to sound remains powerful during sleep in all parameters but one: the level of alpha-beta waves associated with attention to the auditory input and related expectations. This means that during sleep, the brain analyzes the auditory input but is unable to focus on the sound or identify it, and therefore no conscious awareness ensues. Tel-Aviv University, “During sleep the Read More ›

brain-stroke-concept-migraine-and-headache-conceptual-image-3d-illustration-stockpack-adobe-stock
Brain stroke concept. Migraine and headache conceptual image, 3D illustration
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post
Author
News
Date
July 20, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Thrones Star Can Speak While Lacking “Quite a Bit” of Brain. How?

Yes, Emilia Clarke is lucky her aneurysms weren’t worse but, given our brains’ complexity, how do our mental abilities survive?
News
July 20, 2022
5
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Game of Thrones (2011–2019) star Emilia Clarke, who suffered two aneurysms in her twenties, told BBC News that “‘quite a bit’ of her brain no longer functions” after the extensive bleeding and surgeries: “There’s quite a bit missing, which always makes me laugh,” Clarke said, speaking about her brain. “Strokes, basically, as soon as any part of your brain doesn’t get blood for a second, it’s gone. So, the blood finds a different route to get around, but then whatever bit is missing is therefore gone.” … Clarke said at the time that the surgery left her with “a deep paranoia” over whether it would prevent her from continuing a career as an actor. But she went on to star Read More ›

papers sheets with question marks
Diverse business people hiding faces behind papers sheets with question marks, standing in row in office. Identity and equality employee at work, candidates waiting for job interview, recruitment.
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post
Author
News
Date
July 19, 2022
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Philosophy, Science
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Researchers: If We Tell Folks More About Science, They Trust Less

Part 3: The researchers argue that doubts about science arise from conflict with beliefs. The many COVID-19 debacles suggest other causes…
News
July 19, 2022
4
Medicine and Health, Philosophy, Science

We’ve been looking (here and here) at a summary at a science news site of a paper that bemoans the decline of trust in science. The author did a good job and doubtless means well. But the outcome — unintentionally — typifies the reasons so many people distrust claims made on behalf of science. For example, the third factor for distrust that we are asked to consider is that information we learn from science sources can go against our personal beliefs: “Scientific information can be difficult to swallow, and many individuals would sooner reject the evidence than accept information that suggests they might have been wrong,” the team wrote in their paper. “This inclination is wholly understandable, and scientists should Read More ›