Weekly Science Picks

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Here we are at the end of one more impressive scientific week. The things appear as quite dramatic in this weekly review. Have you ever tried to imagine how that would work if you could experience a time freeze effect? Well, that’s not only the Matrix movie fiction, that’s our reality. Right now, the neuroscience is trying to explain such a phenomenon. It seems it’s about some tricks with consciousness. Does that mean our perception defines our reality, as Morpheus suggested to Neo. Well, maybe. At this stage, we just wanted to encourage your curiosity. Please keep thinking on these… Let’s start with this week editor’s selection.

Neuroscience: The man who saw time freeze

It’s easy to assume that time flows at the same rate for everybody, but experiences like Baker’s show that our continuous stream of consciousness is a fragile illusion, stitched together by the brain’s clever editing. By studying what happens during such extreme events, researchers are revealing how and why the brain plays these temporal tricks – and in some circumstances, they suggest, all of us can experience time warping.

How we created spooky experimental music in a superconductor lab

Superconductivity was first observed in mercury in 1911. Mercury superconducts at −269C, which is just four degrees above absolute zero. This is a bit cold to be of widespread practical use, and so scientists scrambled to discover new superconductors that work at higher temperatures. In the decades that followed, we discovered that most of the elements in the periodic table superconduct, and some alloys do too.

Going with the throughflow

The Indonesian Throughflow is a series of ocean currents linking the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It carries water from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean through the passages and straits of the Indonesian Archipelago.

New device allows brain to bypass spinal cord, move paralyzed limbs

For the first time ever, a paralyzed man can move his fingers and hand with his own thoughts thanks to a new device. A 23-year-old quadriplegic is the first patient to use Neurobridge, an electronic neural bypass for spinal cord injuries that reconnects the brain directly to muscles, allowing voluntary and functional control of a paralyzed limb.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this Weekly Science Picks as we did. Our aim is to accelerate your minds to think faster and better. Until the next time, please stayed tuned.