Here is what I am reading today:
“Computer programs can be taught to differentiate between the brain scans of healthy adolescents and those most at risk of developing psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety and depression, according to research published yesterday in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The research suggests that it may be possible to design programs that can accurately predict which at-risk adolescents will subsequently develop these disorders.”
Google is in a lot of hot water over recent revelations about how it tracks user activity on Apple devices — particularly iPhones and iPads. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, an independent researcher has discovered that Google embeds hidden software on many websites — software designed to circumvent the default settings on a web browser to record a user’s behavior.
“A new study led by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found significant differences in brain development starting at age 6 months in high-risk infants who later develop autism, compared to high-risk infants who did not develop autism.”
“Mice genetically engineered to be susceptible to autism-like behaviors that were exposed to a common flame retardant were less fertile and their offspring were smaller, less sociable and demonstrated marked deficits in learning and long-term memory when compared with the offspring of normal unexposed mice, a study by researchers at UC Davis has found. The researchers said the study is the first to link genetics and epigenetics with exposure to a flame retardant chemical.”
“Making play sets more interactive and giving children with autism greater opportunities to control and add content of their own to the game could improve cooperative play with other children as well as giving them greater confidence in understanding how objects interact.”
“Babies still too small to speak know how to make jokes and form friendships, say researchers at an Australian university who have spent two years filming the behaviour of young children.”
11 Comments
N8 · February 19, 2012 at 12:42 pm
“Computer programs to…”
Advances like this are fantastic. Having tools readily available to more easily diagnose items that may be of a “simpler nature” has the ability to free up doctors to focus on matters of a more complicated nature, etc. BUT I personally wouldn’t be too trusting of something like this. Almost nothing can surpass human judgment and analytical skills. I would think there would be greater room for error with computers vs. people. Also, by having a doctor instead of a computer analyze a scan easily detectable items will be found, and items that a computer wouldn’t be able to identify would also be detectable. So, I think computer analysis has some benefits, but cannot surpass the benefits of a human analysis.
astiers · February 20, 2012 at 12:35 pm
In response to “google got caught”:
This just shows that our moves are constantly being watched. Many people are concerned about personal privacy and invasions by the government but this article illustrates how normal companies use these “known loopholes” to track use. How do we know that they really only use the information to modify ad campaigns?! I’m not super worried about my personal preferences for a honda car ad over a chevy car ad being known but what about my search history? Google and any other company sneaking around the cookies should be penalized and better security needs to be established.
astiers · February 20, 2012 at 12:40 pm
In response to “babies make friends before they can speak” :
This study doesn’t really surprise me. It is an innate social skill to make friends even as babies. As hunter-gatherers, humans needed friends to help protect themselves. It is not surprising then that this innate skill begins immediately after birth. Babies share the same fears but they may experience them at different times to offering protecting or friendship is a way of making social connections that provide both partners security.
shelby_fisher · February 21, 2012 at 11:28 am
In response to the computer programs being able to diagnose high vs low risk individuals for different psychological problems, I think medically it makes sense to scan for that. However, It might have a negative effect on the patient if they have not shown symptoms for that disorder yet. Unless more research has been done, I don’t think the sample size is significant enough to show how effective the scanning is. If it ends up being effective, this could be a great tool to do more research on preventative methods for psychological disorders.
Katie · February 21, 2012 at 11:53 pm
In response to “babies make friends before they can speak”:
Communication can be in so many forms, and we forget that verbal communication is only part of it! I was just researching communication types online, and non-verbal communication includes: gestures, body language, facial expressions, and eye contact. Research actually shows that most of our communication is nonverbal.
So why do we always think we can’t communicate with other people that don’t have a verbal language yet (babies) or people that speak the same language as us? Friendships can be based on so many markers that don’t have to involve speaking – it’s really cool that we can start that as early as 1 year old.
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2008/News/WTX050330.htmThis article says that babies as young as four months old are able to recognize nonverbal communication signals. And beyond that, they not only recognize it but also can contribute to it with joking around, etc. That’s really neat to see that our “social networking” neurons are developed that early.
shelby_fisher · February 22, 2012 at 7:41 pm
In response to Google Got Caught…
I new that Google was tailoring its ads towards it’s users by tracking their searches but I didn’t know that it was essentially hacking our networks. I honestly don’t mind if the ads are tailored towards me because I ignore them anyways. But if they have to get around certain blocks to do so, that seems a but intrusive. With all of the SOPA talk going around, it’s probably just a matter of time before this becomes a legal issue as well.
Samantha_Neher · February 23, 2012 at 3:03 pm
In response to “Google got caught”…
I always knew that google tracked sties that you searched. If you have a gmail account through which you use iGoogle to search, it saves all of your searches and your entire web history right there in the google account. When I noticed this I thought it was a little too much and changed the privacy setting so that it couldn’t do that. However, I had no idea they were still able to track everything I do on the internet. It’s a little scary knowing that someone is always watching your next move online. I hope that Apple gets this fixed with the iPhone because who doesn’t check everything on their iPhones these days. We shouldn’t have to be worried about people having such easy access to what we do online. Especially if they could save all our personal information, whether they claim to have done that or not. It’s not a comforting feeling.
Samantha_Neher · February 23, 2012 at 3:38 pm
In response to “babies make friends even before they can speak”…
I found this article interesting as I have worked with children for a good portion of my life and been able to see these interactions first hand. When I was in high school I worked in day care with children of the same age that this study was observing. I can remember how the children would do silly things when their friends were watching them in order to make each other laugh. They always responded best to interaction with the adults if we did silly things as well. It was a way that we were able to come down to their level and communicate with them in the same way they were communicating with their other play mates. I think it’s very true that babies can make friends before they can speak. Humans have that ability to bond just with facial expressions and hand gestures.
scasey · February 24, 2012 at 10:03 am
“The bad health effects of a common flame retardant” reminded me of another way we are putting our health in jeopardy by over-using antibiotics. Antibiotics can now be found in a multitude of products from cutting boards to toys to clothing. (See http://www.tufts.edu/med/apua/about_issue/agents.shtml for more information) Although this is a highly debated issue, I believe that it is not wise to use antibiotics in this way. We often do not realize the consequences of introducing chemicals into our daily environment until it is too late.
JamesWoodhead · February 25, 2012 at 5:56 pm
In response to “google got caught”
I didn’t find this surprising at all, and I don’t think many people would be surprised to see their internet activity is monitored. I have noticed it most from advertising on almost every page I am on. I could tell something was keeping tabs on the websites I was visiting because all the products I would look at would be in advertisements all over the place. It is a little unsettling to know that there isn’t any privacy on the internet. I especially don’t like that Google was sneaky about obtaining user information and spied on people. At some point this could become a bigger issue and require some regulation.
Aiwong · March 5, 2012 at 12:05 pm
Response to “Babies make friends before they can speak”
I can definitely relate to this article. I have two nieces close in age (4,5) who have been “best friends” since birth. Even if one was a year old, she was able to identify my older niece as a friend. However, they truly have a love-hate friendship because there is this ongoing competition between the two. The younger one actually tells me she wants to be “better” than my other niece. She seeks constant equal treatment as her even though she is 10 months younger. They get in “fights” when they see the other one getting something better than them. At Christmas, everyone in the family has to get them the same present so no favortism occurs. On a lighter note, they act as regular best friends and have the “no boys allowed” mentality already.
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