Newton Kid's News Bulletin
Our news are focused on science, technology, health, and other interesting discoveries.
How It Feels to Have a Stroke?
Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor from Harvard University has written a new book on her own experience on a stroke:
Dr. Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened -- as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding -- she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how our brains define us and connect us to the world and to one another. We could choose to live in the present time and happiness by using our right side of brain, or see "who we are" by using the right side of brain.
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is one-of-a-kind program
To learn more about its competition, please watch an
introduction video.
>>>
Are You Smarter Than a Chimp?
Some financial wizards might remember there was a monkey who did better than most of the mutual fund managers in picking up stocks for both NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) and NASDAQ (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations). Now there is a new prove that young chimps have better photographic memories than humans. See the following video from New Scientist >>>:
How well are doing in this memory test?
Can you beat the chimpanzee?
The Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University in Japan has conducted research on chimpanzee's brain powers. Their tests have shown young chimps outperform adult humans in a memory test, a Concentration-like game using numerals on a computer screen. First Dr. Matzuzawa and his colleagues trained chimps to recognize the numerals 1 through 9 in sequence. Ai, the first chimp trained, an adult female was found with a memory capability equal to that of adult humans.
When the researchers went to see if there was a difference with chimps younger than 6, the animals had a touch screen where scattered numerals appeared for up to two-thirds of a second and were then masked by white squares. With the shortest exposure time, about a fifth of a second, the chimps had an 80% accuracy rate, compared with adult humans' 40%. The findings are described in Current Biology, Vol 17, R1004-R1005, 04 December 2007.
One day our planet may be ruled by chimpaznees (a reserve evolution), if our kids are not studying hard. Our young people are our only hope to beat the chimps in the memory tests. >>>
Dr. Matsuzawa said the ability reminded him of the phenomenon called eidetic imagery, in which a person memorizes details of a complex scene at a glance. This so-called photographic memory is present in a very small number of children, and is often associated with autism.
Dr. Matsuzawa speculated that perhaps somewhere back in common evolution, humans and chimps had this ability. But humans lost it because they gained something else, communicating through a complex language.
As Ai demonstrates, adult chimps lose the ability, too. Dr. Matsuzawa suggested that as the chimps age, their memory capability is otherwise occupied.
In other words, we all need a little of autism in order to have better photographic memories. So don't be afraid of being "special" if you are gifted a kid. >>>