Ever had poison ivy? If so, you probably noticed that scratching made the rash much worse. But scratching an itch, especially one as intense as that caused by poison ivy, is nigh irresistible — and feels so satisfying. If you think about it, says Daniel Kaplan, who is a dermatologist and immunologist at the University of Pittsburgh, that’s a little curious. When comparing this action to pain, pain causes you to stop what you’re doing and tend to the wound. But the pain also creates a memo ...read more
With popular genetic testing company 23andMe filing for bankruptcy, what does the future of ancestry DNA look like?A team of researchers from the University of Michigan says it is going to look more like a movie than a portrait, thanks to a new statistical model that can be used to trace ancestry in a new way.Redefining the Family TreeThis new statistical method, developed by Gideon Bradburd and fellow University of Michigan (U-M) researchers Michael Grundler and Jonathan Terhorst, promises to g ...read more
Wheat can be vulnerable to diseases that may increase as the Earth warms. A team of scientists across five continents may have found a way to help wheat fight back, according to two papers published in the journal Science."Climate change is causing diseases to appear in places previously unseen,” Brande Wulff., a researcher at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia and an author of the study, said in a press release. “We need more study of plant immunity t ...read more
Salt makes almost everything taste better — we add it while cooking to enhance the flavor of other ingredients, sprinkle some into baking to balance out sweetness, and enjoy it in our favorite snacks, like chips, pretzels, and microwave popcorn. Besides these obvious sources, many highly processed foods — foods we wouldn't ordinarily consider salty — contain an unexpectedly high amount of sodium, such as canned goods, salad dressings, cold cuts, various cheeses, flavored yogurts, ketchup, ...read more
Generative AI (Gen AI) tools like ChatGPT have become an ever-present part of many people’s personal and working lives. And whether they are causing more harm than good to our cognitive skills or problem solving is a growing concern. Experts are worried that dependence on Gen AI is making users who lean heavily on these tools “dumber,” according to research findings.In a recent paper, a team from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University found that “higher confidence in Gen AI is associat ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine