Tag: Quantum Stuff

When Dikker and her colleagues analyzed the results, published in 2021, they found that pairs who knew they were seeing neurofeedback grew more in sync over time — an effect driven by their motivation to stay focused on their partner, the researchers explained. More importantly, their heightened synchrony increased how socially connected the pair felt.… Continue reading The Social Benefits of Getting Our Brains in Sync

In a way, the integer distance problem was a victim of its own early successes. The hyperbola proof, with its ingenious simplicity, is emblematic of the philosophy espoused by Erdős, a highly influential mathematician who often spoke of “The Book” — an imagined volume of the most elegant proofs in mathematics. The culture of simplicity… Continue reading Merging Fields, Mathematicians Go the Distance on Old Problem

Electroconvulsive therapy has a public relations problem. The treatment, which sends electric currents through the brain to induce a brief seizure, has barbaric, inhumane connotations — for example, it was portrayed as a sadistic punishment in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. But for patients with depression that does not improve with medications,… Continue reading Brain’s ‘Background Noise’ May Explain Value of Shock Therapy

In 2020, scientists detected a gas called phosphine in the atmosphere of an Earth-size rocky planet. Knowing of no way that phosphine could be produced except through biological processes, “the scientists assert that something now alive is the only explanation for the chemical’s source,” the New York Times reported. As “biosignature gases” go, the phosphine… Continue reading Doubts Grow About the Biosignature Approach to Alien-Hunting

Random processes take place all around us. It rains one day but not the next; stocks and bonds gain and lose value; traffic jams coalesce and disappear. Because they’re governed by numerous factors that interact with one another in complicated ways, it’s impossible to predict the exact behavior of such systems. Instead, we think about… Continue reading Michel Talagrand Wins Abel Prize for Work Wrangling Randomness

Your grade school teacher probably didn’t show you how to add 20-digit numbers. But if you know how to add smaller numbers, all you need is paper and pencil and a bit of patience. Start with the ones place and work leftward step by step, and soon you’ll be stacking up quintillions with ease. Problems… Continue reading How Chain-of-Thought Reasoning Helps Neural Networks Compute