readings in psychology for 10 april 2014 @PsychScience #Psychology #glass

Willie Nelson came to Cal Poly proving you can still be a wonderful performer at 81

Here’s what we are reading today:

• the ‘heart bleed bug”

“A major new security vulnerability dubbed Heartbleed was disclosed Monday night with severe implications for the entire Web. The bug can scrape a server’s memory, where sensitive user data is stored, including private data such as usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers.

It’s an extremely serious issue, affecting some 500,000 servers, according to Netcraft, an Internet research firm. Here’s what you can do to make sure your information is protected, according to security experts contacted by CNET:”

• pesticides and parkinson’s disease

“What exactly causes Parkinson’s disease is far from figured out. But a clue has been lurking in cornfields for years.
 
The data confirm it: farmers are more prone to Parkinson’s than the general population. And pesticides could be to blame. Over a decade of evidence shows a clear association between pesticide exposure and a higher risk for the second most common neurodegenerative disease, after Alzheimer’s. A new study published inNeurology proposes a potential mechanism by which at least some pesticides might contribute to Parkinson’s. “

• neanderthals were good parents

“A research team from PALAEO (Centre for Human Palaeoecology and Evolutionary Origins) and the Department of Archaeology at York offer a new and distinctive perspective which suggests that Neanderthal children experienced strong emotional attachments with their immediate social group, used play to develop skills and played a significant role in their society.

The traditional perception of the toughness of Neanderthal childhood is based largely on biological evidence, but the archaeologists, led by Dr Penny Spikins, also studied cultural and social evidence to explore the experience of Neanderthal children.In research published in the Oxford Journal of Archaeology, they found that Neanderthal childhood experience was subtly different from that of their modern human counterparts in that it had a greater focus on social relationships within their group. Investigation of Neanderthal burials suggests that children played a particularly significant role in their society, particularly in symbolic expression.”

• sleep and memory

“In the current study, Dylan Barnes and Donald Wilson, PhD, of the City University of New York, the Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, and New York University Langone Medical School exposed rats to new and previously encountered odor information while the animals slept. To precisely control the animals’ odor experience during periods of wakefulness and sleep, the researchers delivered electrical stimulation to brain circuits involved in odor processing rather than relying on the delivery of real odors to the animals.

Exposure to new odor information during sleep made it more difficult for the animals to distinguish the learned odor from the other odors. “While previous work has demonstrated the role of sleep replay on memory strength, these are the first data to show that memory accuracy can also independently be influenced during sleep,” Wilson said.”

• Google glass

“Researchers at Newcastle University in England believe that Glass can provide automated reminders in a user’s field of vision.

“We’re looking at the ways in which people with Parkinson’s can use this technology to provide them with prompts whilst they’re out, reminders, and to help them live more independently,” said Dr. John Vines, senior research associate at the Digital Interaction group at Newcastle’s Culture Lab, in a video.”