March 2021

Natural News

Sewage Tells What Countries Do Most Designer Drugs

Razi Berry Despite deaths and hospitalizations linked to many new psychoactive substances (NPS), an international wastewater study led by the University of South Australia shows just how prevalent ‘party pills’ and ‘bath salts’ are in different parts of the world. In a new paper published in Water Research, the world’s most comprehensive wastewater analysis of […]

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Sleep is Crucial to Memory

Razi Berry When you slip into sleep, it’s easy to imagine that your brain shuts down, but University of Michigan research suggests that groups of neurons activated during prior learning keep humming, tattooing memories into your brain. U-M researchers have been studying how memories associated with a specific sensory event are formed and stored in

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New Brain Model Reveals How Our Eyesight Can ‘Trick’ Us

Razi Berry A computer network closely modelled on part of the human brain is enabling new insights into the way our brains process moving images — and explains some perplexing optical illusions. By using decades’ worth of data from human motion perception studies, researchers have trained an artificial neural network to estimate the speed and

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Social Media is Just Like Any Other ‘Addiction’

Razi Berry Our use of social media, specifically our efforts to maximize “likes,” follows a pattern of “reward learning,” concludes a new study by an international team of scientists. Its findings, which appear in the journal Nature Communications, reveal parallels with the behavior of animals, such as rats, in seeking food rewards. “These results establish

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A Bad Heart = A Bad Brain

Razi Berry Heart problems cause disturbed gene activity in the brain’s memory center, from which cognitive deficits arise. Researchers at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG) and the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK) come to this conclusion based on laboratory studies. They consider that they have found

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Importance of Learning ‘Slang’ When Studying a New Language

Razi Berry Experts say English slang and regional dialect should not be banned from classrooms but when you’re getting to grips with a second language how helpful is it to learn non-standard lingo? Very, says Sascha Stollhans, of the Department of Languages and Cultures at Lancaster University, who argues that standardized language norms are artificial

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Some Insight Into Bullying

Razi Berry Teens who bully, harass, or otherwise victimize their peers are not always lashing out in reaction to psychological problems or unhealthy home environments, but are often using aggression strategically to climb their school’s social hierarchy, a University of California, Davis, study suggests. These findings point to the reasons why most anti-bullying programs don’t

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The ‘Psychological Signature’ of Extremism

Razi Berry Researchers have mapped an underlying “psychological signature” for people who are predisposed to holding extreme social, political or religious attitudes, and support violence in the name of ideology. A new study suggests that a particular mix of personality traits and unconscious cognition — the ways our brains take in basic information — is

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Depression, Anxiety, Loneliness Peaking in College Students

Razi Berry A survey by a Boston University researcher of nearly 33,000 college students across the country reveals the prevalence of depression and anxiety in young people continues to increase, now reaching its highest levels, a sign of the mounting stress factors due to the coronavirus pandemic, political unrest, and systemic racism and inequality. “Half

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Why Stress Causes Cold Sores to Resurface

Razi Berry Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have shed light on what causes herpes simplex virus to flare up, explaining how stress, illness and even sunburn can trigger unwanted outbreaks. The discovery could lead to new ways to prevent cold sores and herpes-related eye disease from reoccurring, the researchers report. “Herpes

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