Do you speak Stargate?? Well, it must me the SciFi person in me!
Here’s what we are reading today:
““As more women entered the labor force and became professionals, a lot of them put off having children, said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, who was not involved in the analysis. “But then they realize that there’s a biological clock, and they start playing catch up as they understand the importance of family life, and know that it’s something they want.”
Gretchen Livingston, the Pew senior researcher who did the analysis, said that with so many women now earning advanced degrees, the profile of the group has probably altered.”
“”Addiction to amphetamines and cocaine devastates lives, families and communities in Oregon and across the U.S. Our research pinpoints how these addictive drugs interfere with the dopamine transporter and normal signaling in the brain, bringing us closer to developing effective treatments for people who are addicted to cocaine and amphetamines,” said Eric Gouaux, Ph.D., senior scientist in the Vollum Institute at OHSU, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.”
“Four of the nearly 50 self-driving cars now rolling around California have gotten into accidents since September, when the state began issuing permits for companies to test them on public roads.”
“Now, using optogenetics, a technique that controls neural activity with light, MIT researchers have provided the first evidence that directly links FD neurons to face-discrimination in primates—specifically, differentiating between males and females.
Working with macaque monkeys trained to correctly identify images of male or female faces, the researchers used a light-sensitive protein to suppress subregions of FD neurons in the inferior temporal (IT) cortex, a visual information-processing region. In suppressing the neurons, the researchers observed a small yet significant impairment in the animals’ ability to properly identify genders.”
“At IBM Research, meanwhile, researchers “are working to create a FORTRAN for neurosynaptic chips,” according to Dharmendra S. Modha, principal investigator and senior manager, IBM Research. Modha, in an IBM video on building blocks for cognitive systems, remarked how much sensors, cameras, and microphones now populate earth and space. “We are inundated with realtime noisy multimodal data.” In turn, today’s computers are increasingly challenged, he said, by power, by volume, and by speed of response. “Cognitive computing is a new synthesis of software and silicon inspired by the brain.””
“”It’s a small, but important step,” said Dmitri Strukov, a professor of electrical and computer engineering. With time and further progress, the circuitry may eventually be expanded and scaled to approach something like the human brain’s, which has 1015 (one quadrillion) synaptic connections.
For all its errors and potential for faultiness, the human brain remains a model of computational power and efficiency for engineers like Strukov and his colleagues, Mirko Prezioso, Farnood Merrikh-Bayat, Brian Hoskins and Gina Adam. That’s because the brain can accomplish certain functions in a fraction of a second what computers would require far more time and energy to perform.”
27 Comments
aalvar52 · May 13, 2015 at 6:25 pm
I read the article “babies and advanced degrees are compatible.” I found it very interesting to read about the trends in motherhood and women’s higher education. I kind of made the assumption in my mind that women who are extremely passionate in their academic career had little or no time for children, but it was interesting to see the actual numbers on how many women with masters degrees or higher have children. I would not have guessed that the number of women gaining higher education and having children is becoming more common, but the article explained many factors that made it all make sense. I think as time continues, women will continue to branch out and be able to have a successful career with many years of higher education, and also balance a family life.
hannahburgardt · May 14, 2015 at 9:59 am
I would love to have self driving cars. We all could be much more productive if we could do our homework while the car drove us to our friend’s house. We could also get more sleep if we were traveling far away instead of driving a long distance. I’m sure there would be less accidents as well since drunk drivers and sleepy drivers could just sit in the car while the car drove us to the destination. However, the fact there has been 5 accidents out of 50 cars means that there still needs to be some modifications of the system before the entire public starts using these cars.
I will be interested to see when in the future when we will have these cars.
rachel_wallin · May 14, 2015 at 10:58 am
I read the NY Times article about babies and advanced degrees this week. This particularly intrigued me because I plan to go far in my education, and I also plan to expand my family while doing so. I’ve always been fond of the idea of being a younger mom, but I also want to complete my master’s degree. I’m glad that women are feeling more comfortable and confident in completing an advanced degree and having children at the same time. I feel as if my generation will continue this legacy. I’m not sure what exactly was is the cause of this shift that Gretchen Livingston studied, but I’m sensing that it’s because of a female empowerment movement that’s been kind of taking over in the recent years. This also excites me because I’m a WGS minor and I’m all for people doing what they want, how they want to.
mehicks · May 14, 2015 at 2:14 pm
The article regarding women with children and advanced degrees was great insight into the modern problem that many educated women are facing. With the number of women receiving advanced degrees on the rise, it has become more common for mothers to have children later. It is understandable that women do not want to be pregnant and have babies when they are earning their degree, but it has become increasingly familiar that women are then waiting too long and surpassing their biological clock, forcing mothers-to-be to become pregnant while receiving their advanced degree. I think that this is extremely interesting and also a concern that many young women my age are beginning to understand and acknowledge. Everybody has grown to understand the importance of a women’s biological clock and the increasing number of problems when women wait and push their age for pregnancy.
I also thought that it was interesting that educated and uneducated women have differing amounts of children, with uneducated women having a higher percentage of more than 4 children than educated women.
meteresi · May 15, 2015 at 1:09 pm
I read and really enjoyed the article about more women with higher degrees having children. While I am excited to hear that more women who want higher degrees and also want children are finding ways to do both, I still feel like we have a long way to go. In my own life I have struggled to find a way to “sequence” (or plan how and when exactly I can plan) my desire to someday become an MFT (which requires a masters degree and many hours of supervised clinical hours) with my even bigger desire to be a mom, and specifically a stay at home mom when my kids are young. There are still a few barriers. One, if I take out all of the debt that would be required to complete my masters degree, I feel that student loan debt can often limit options for women. Had I completed my masters degree before I had a child, I would not have been able to stay at home just because of the debt. There are some part time or job sharing positions that use graduate degrees, but I don’t think there are enough for the amount of women who do not want to work 40+ hour weeks when they have children. It is still really hard on families (I believe) to have both parents working high demand careers. I saw it firsthand when I worked in infant childcare at Google. We had many highly educated moms who had a nanny pick up and drop off their 6 month old babies from 10 hour long days at childcare. Education is good, and careers are good, but figuring out the when/how is still pretty complicated.
lpreeshl · May 15, 2015 at 2:12 pm
Being a student that’s interested in going into substance abuse counseling and related fields, I decided to read into the article about “curing” addiction to cocaine and amphetamine. A long time in the making (about 20 years!), this is a huge breakthrough for addicts and addition programs! I had no idea that the cause of these addictions had otherwise alluded us, as I thought addiction was just something that couldn’t be cured with a miracle drug but with hard work and immense self-control. I’m really excited to see where these discoveries take us in developing pharmaceutical aids in battling addiction, as well as whether the research will go beyond cocaine and amphetamine to other drugs and addictions. This is a huge step forward! I just hope pharmaceutical companies don’t make it next to impossible to afford any developed medications…
OwenHevrdejs · May 16, 2015 at 9:55 pm
Hello!
I really enjoyed the article about self-driving cars. It was a little bit scary ready that four of the fifty crashed, as that statistic makes it look like the cars are a hazard for other people. However, it was a bit of a relief to hear that people were driving the two of them. I think that self driving cars would be wonderful and convenient. I’m interested to see how this research proceeds.
Thanks for sharing!
OwenHevrdejs · May 16, 2015 at 9:55 pm
Hello!
I really enjoyed the article about self-driving cars. It was a little bit scary ready that four of the fifty crashed, as that statistic makes it look like the cars are a hazard for other people. However, it was a bit of a relief to hear that people were driving the two of them. I think that self driving cars would be wonderful and convenient. I’m interested to see how this research proceeds.
Thanks for sharing!
aijarami · May 16, 2015 at 10:21 pm
I was reading the article on the brain in the box, and in my memory and cognition class we read an article that had something to do about this. It would be neat to see something more like this. But it starts to make you think how far we would be able to get to be able to have a separate AI that operates as our secondary or back up brain. Without getting to conspiracy-y, would it be able to develop its own conscious after operating back and forth with use.
slbonill · May 17, 2015 at 3:25 pm
I read the article “More women find more room for babies and advanced degrees”. I found this article relevant to what we learned last week in class about biological clocks. In the last decade, more women are bearing children before the age of 40 because they realize that they have a critical time period for reproductive success. It is amazing that women are more aware of the idea of biological clocks so that chances of birth complications are reduced. I found it interesting to discover that younger women are now giving birth less. I find this change interesting as perhaps maybe younger women are unaware or less concerned with their biological time clocks because they are younger.
michellevanriper · May 20, 2015 at 9:27 am
I read the article on the relationship between having an advanced degree and having children. I think their findings make sense because of things I have seen. First, I know just getting an education is definitely on the rise especially for women. I learned that women in the 1950’s would go to college just to take sewing, cooking and other home classes, but their main reason to be in college was to earn their Mrs. degree (to find a husband). So they would drop out once they found their husband since education had no value to them anymore. I think that now getting a bachelor’s degree is the norm. It doesn’t really make you standout that you have a bachelor’s degree so the level keeps getting higher. With this said I know a lot more women are enrolled in advanced education and I could see why this would make it hard to have kids in your prime child bearing years because you are in school and probably majorly stressed. I think this works though because not only are women with higher degrees having children on the rise but also stay at home fathers are on the rise. I think these two facts are very associated with each other and since it is starting to become socially acceptable for a father to be the primary caregiver, this allows the mother to be able to go to school and finish her degree while still having kids. Although these are just my speculations on why their findings occur, I would be interested to see if they come up with other data to back up why it is that the rates are changing over the years.
hannahburgardt · May 20, 2015 at 9:48 am
In regards to more women pursuing advanced degrees, I think it is wonderful that more women are doing this. Now that more women are receiving advanced degrees, more women can be in high standing positions. However, I do feel like it would be very difficult to be a mother and receive your PhD at the same time, however, Dr.Freberg and many other women Professors were able to manage! However, I do feel that women shouldn’t wait to have children until they are in their 40’s due to the health risks for the mother and child. I wonder if we, as a society, can figure out a less stressful way for younger mothers to receive advanced degrees? Maybe if more young women who are planning on becoming mothers knew that receiving an advanced degree was possible, maybe we would have more women with advanced degrees.
alliemulloy · May 20, 2015 at 5:08 pm
I loved reading the article “More women find more room for babies and advanced degrees”! It was really comforting knowing that as a young woman approaching adulthood and making choices regarding education or “settling down”, that there are a lot of women successfully taking the advanced education route and still essentially getting what they want: a family. However, while reading it did concern me that family sizes are decreasing and I am curious as to what our population will look like in generations to come.
alliemulloy · May 20, 2015 at 5:21 pm
I couldn’t help but read “Neuroscientists pinpoint neurons that help primates tell faces apart” following reading about woman and families. I think knowing face discriminating neurons and understanding those circuits is incredible. It’s amazing how much you can progress and move forward in the field of behavior and vision just from understanding one aspect of recognition! It’s also crazy to think that these small neurons are what let us pick out a familiar face from a crowd of 100 or more! I will definitely be keeping up with this study!
rachel_wallin · May 23, 2015 at 6:45 pm
This week I read about Google’s self-driving cars. I’m not sure how I feel about this particular article. It started off priming us to believe that these cars aren’t reliable and shouldn’t be out on the road. While this may be true for now, until they get the kinks out of the self-driving system, we won’t know for sure if this is completely disastrous. I personally think that these cars, once fixed and efficient, will do everyone a huge favor. When we drive we often go into Default Mode Network and aren’t paying full attention to the road. This causes us to be in more accidents when we aren’t paying attention to our surroundings and the other cars around us. These self-driving cars will do the work for us so we won’t need to worry about entering DMN while driving our cars. It could also give us the opportunity to spend more time in leisure activities like reading the paper, or eating a healthy breakfast if you don’t have time because of your commute – both of which are good for us physically and mentally.
slbonill · May 24, 2015 at 10:20 pm
I read the article on how we are able to distinguish different people’s faces from one another. Through the study of Optogenetics, neuroscientists are able to pinpoint and zero in on neurons and measure their activity alone without interfering with any other neuron. I found the study that uses monkeys very intriguing because they were able to tell a man’s face from a woman’s and vice versa. I find it very amusing how we are able to walk down the street and recognize familiar faces despite being formerly acquainted with the person or not. Our FD neurons allow us to recognize faces that we’ve seen once or more than once. This familiarity then drives us to activate the neurons in our brain involved with memory to remember that person’s name. It’s great that we all have FD neurons that help us recognize people by looking at their faces. We all have the ability to recognize people’s faces, but the difference between people is how good their memory is.
aalvar52 · May 26, 2015 at 10:18 am
The article regarding the pace of drinking in relation to glass shape and the presence or absence of markings was a very interesting read. I never would have thought about the concept that factors like that influence the amount of alcohol consumed. I think the problem with making change and controlling the amount of alcohol consumed is in the bar owners. It was found that curved glasses, and glasses without markings resulted in more alcohol consumption. This past weekend, I turned 21. Every glass that I drank out of was curved and did not have markings. Bars are more concerned with making money that they do not care about the well-being of its consumers. They use the facts that will make people drink more and use it to their advantage. It would be interesting to find out other similar factors that contribute to the rate and amount of alcohol consumed.
slippp3 · May 26, 2015 at 2:50 pm
I read the article about the self driving google cars and I always thought that those cars were very cool and high tech but I would never trust driving around one. It is a really good idea but I don’t think that it is yet realistic and completely safe. Also the radars on top of the cars are so bulky! I wouldn’t want that on top of my car. The fact that there have been multiple crashes/accidents with these self driving cars just goes to show that they are not yet ready to be driven by themselves and have my confidence that it is completely safe. Maybe later on in the future though!
angiepereida · May 26, 2015 at 5:35 pm
I am a psychology major who is a women and gender studies minor so I find the topic of babies and advanced degrees very interesting. This is something that is applicable to my life as I plan to obtain a masters and eventually have children. I feel like the article addresses how it is becoming more friendly for women to pursue both without obstacles with its comment on how that women with PhD’s do not necessarily go into research anymore and so they go into more family friendly occupations. The real hindrance was the role of the women pulling two shifts with her career and her family and now it is becoming easier to pursue education and balance home life. It is still more common for women with less education to have more children and for the high degree women to have less which I think is interesting and could be studied further.
michellevanriper · May 27, 2015 at 9:31 am
I read the article on self-driving cars. I didn’t realize how close our society and technology is coming to actually having a self-driving car. I kind of thought it was a thing of the distant future. I think that it’s exciting for the possibility of a self-driving car but in reality there are many problems that seem to be arising. It seems like the companies are trying to hide things because they won’t talk about the accidents that has happened recently involving the self-driving vehicles. I think it is really necessary to have all the information about these cars released not only to people who may purchase these cars, but also all of society because as normal car drivers, we may have to make changes or adjustments to these new types of cars. I’m sure if I saw a car driving itself with no one in it, or someone in it that wasn’t paying attention I would probably freak out a little. I am also curious to know how much these cars would cost and also when these cars are projected to be on the market for consumers to purchase.
hannahburgardt · May 27, 2015 at 10:21 am
In regards to being addicted to cocaine and other drugs, I would hope that since we know that being addicted to these drugs effects the dopamine system, you would think that we could figure out a way to fix the levels of dopamine. I know that in Medford, Oregon is a major meth city and I’m sure other places in California and Oregon have many drug users. It’s terrible to think that people try these drugs once and then become addicted and ruin their lives and their families lives. I really hope that there will be a dopamine treatment someday so that we can help these people.
etietje · May 27, 2015 at 2:43 pm
When reading the New York Times article “More Women Find Room for Babies and Advanced Degrees”, I found it very interesting and relevant. As a woman who does want to have a family and an advanced degree, I am always thinking about when the right time to have a child would be. I feel that so often women are forced to choose between their career and being a mom, especially women with advanced degrees. This new research goes to show that it is possible, and many women are doing it! In fact, on Buzzfeed yesterday there was a quiz labeled “Career or Kid?” that listed 3 different options: kid, career, or both. When both was clicked (which it was 86% of the time in the poll), Buzzfeed encouraged women to do both because it is indeed possible.
mehicks · May 28, 2015 at 1:43 pm
It is incredible how far our science has come in so little time. After reading the article about how cocaine and amphetamines disrupt the brains normal function, it occurred to me how much current research is changing people’s lives. This is groundbreaking research, which can and will greatly affect people affected by drug addiction. This research will surely start a new realm of research on how to help addicts overcome their addiction. With that being said, addiction cannot just be treated by a drug. This is like trying to say that somebody who is depressed should just take their medication and then they will be fine. Former addicts continue to fight an everyday battle, no matter how long they have been sober, in order to stay sober. The future of this drug is bright, but I hope that with the availability of a medicine to overcome addiction it does not change people’s attitude on how to stay sober (support groups, healthy habits) as well as the urge to try addictive drugs with the thought that anybody can take a pill and the addiction is gone.
rachel_wallin · May 29, 2015 at 9:40 am
This week I read the article on the new discovery of how we tell faces apart. It’s really impressing how our technology these days can differentiate different neurons in our brains enough to be able to tell us what exactly they are used for. This makes me think about when we learned in lecture how our brain light up in certain areas when we are looking at people we love, as opposed to people we like. I wonder if these FD neurons react differently when we are looking and recognizing a face we love – and if the feelings of love differ in how the neurons react as well, for example with a family member, a close friend, or a romantic interest. It’s really amazing how our brains are wired. I wonder what other kinds of specific neurons we have and what they do.
jnader · May 31, 2015 at 2:23 pm
I read the article “a little snort too much” and it really was some exciting news to hear concerning addictive drugs. I unfortunately have a cousin who is addicted to cocaine and for years he has been in and out of rehab and it just feels like a vicious cycle that has been hard to watch. Therefore, to know that highly addictive drugs impact normal brain functioning paves the way to treatment options. Since discoveries have been made to show what exactly it does to the brain, it can help with the production of a drug that can counteract this process. Any advancements in pharmaceuticals to help addicts recover would be an amazing step in helping people turn their lives around. However, I just tend to be more skeptical about using drugs to help people stop being addicted to another drug. It just seems like a way to get someone hooked on another substance especially for a person who is used to being dependent on a substance.
aalvar52 · June 1, 2015 at 8:29 pm
The article “a little snort too much” stimulated some interesting thoughts in my mind. The article was very well written. It was very informative and brief, yet still gave valuable information regarding cocaine and amphetamine addiction. After learning that cocaine and amphetamine addiction are associated with dopamine signal, it makes sense as to why these drugs have such significant impacts on the lives of so many adults. Today, in class, we discussed smaller dose amphetamines (adderall and ritalin). I am curious to know if people can get addicted to lower dose drugs like these to the same extent that people get addicted to cocaine. If so, how? I would also like to know what the leading research is on treating these types of addictions. In all, this article really got me thinking and it was a very brief, yet insightful read.
esmeraldadiego · June 3, 2015 at 7:10 pm
I read the article “babies and advanced degrees are compatible.” I found this article very interesting as my own parents chose to have three children while my mom was in school; her first during undergrad and two more, myself included, while she was in medical school. In her second year of medical school the lecturers advised the medical students that if they were planning on starting a family that during the second year would be the best year to do so. Additionally while my mom was in medical school there was a part of the town in Palo Alto called Escondido Village that was housing specifically for students with families. I think it’s interesting how much the university fostered an environment for students to start a family while they were in school especially given that this was in 1990-1994.