Latest news with #BGR
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Aimless wandering is actually good for the brain
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission. The brain is a complex organ. Not only is it made up of multiple parts, all of which have important roles to play in processing information, but the way that the brain learns can also change based on what activities you're taking part in. For the longest time, the act of zoning out and aimlessly wandering around town, a store, or any other venue has often been viewed in a negative light. However, new research published in the journal Nature suggests that it might actually be the opposite. Instead of being bad for you, aimlessly wandering can unlock new potential for the brain to learn faster. Today's Top Deals Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Best Ring Video Doorbell deals Memorial Day security camera deals: Reolink's unbeatable sale has prices from $29.98 The act of learning without much structure, often called unsupervised learning, can actually be extremely helpful to the brain's development, the researchers discovered. According to their findings, mice that were exposed to unstructured environments and allowed to aimlessly wander through their surroundings were actually quicker to learn to complete reward-linked tasks than mice that weren't exposed to those environments. This research raises new questions about the way the brain learns. To discover this, researchers had to capture the activity of tens of thousands of neurons at the same time. When looking back at the data, the scientists uncovered a startling new truth: Learning can occur even when there aren't any specific tasks or goals involved. As the mice explored their environment, the neurons found in the visual cortex, a section of the brain responsible for processing information, actually encode visual features into the brain. This helps build an internal model of the world around the animal. Then, once a more goal-oriented task is placed in front of them, the information obtained by aimlessly wandering actually helped speed up learning for those more specific tasks. Of course, understanding exactly how our brains learn is a tough task. However, research like this is slowly helping us connect the dots. The researchers involved in this most recent study say that even though you might not feel like you're doing anything while aimlessly wandering around, you could be setting your brain up for faster learning down the line. It's unclear at the moment exactly how this might translate to the human brain. But given how similarly the brains of certain animals work compared to ours, it's likely that the way the brain learns in animals will be similar to how the human brain picks up new things, too. Hopefully, future research into the topic will provide us with even more data to dig into. For now, researchers at least have a good idea of where to look to start understanding the how the brain learns, and it starts with the visual cortex. More Top Deals Amazon gift card deals, offers & coupons 2025: Get $2,000+ free See the
Yahoo
a day ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Earthworm DNA may challenge everything we know about evolution
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission. When Charles Darwin first proposed how evolution works in 1859, it seemed plausible. Tiny changes stack up over time, eventually leading a species to become something entirely different. Aside from the evidence we have already that this might not be the case, as the fossil records just didn't back it up, many, including Darwin himself, wrote it off as the records being broken and lost. But what if that wasn't the case at all? What if evolution works in a completely different way? Instead of waiting on tiny changes to stack up overtime, what if things stayed mostly the same for a while, but then suddenly something big happened and massive changes appeared? That may be exactly how it works, new research shows, as scientists studying earthworm DNA say that it completely contradicts Darwin's explanation for how evolution works. Today's Top Deals Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Best Ring Video Doorbell deals Memorial Day security camera deals: Reolink's unbeatable sale has prices from $29.98 This new research was led by researchers at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Pompeu Fabra University (UPF). The researchers shared their findings in a new paper published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. These findings suggest that evolution may work with fast changes that ultimately lead to complete upheaval in how an organism is designed. The unlikely source of this new evidence is actually earthworm DNA. The researchers sequenced high-quality genomes of several different earthworm species for the first time ever. They then compared these genomes to those of leeches and even bristle worms. By digging deep, they were able to look back in the genome more than 200 million years. That's an unprecedented look at evolution at a scale previously reserved for studying the human genome. By looking at worm DNA, the researchers were able to get a glimpse at the evolution of life on our planet, as 200 million years ago would have been exactly when worms and other vertebrates like them ventured onto land for the first time. But instead of evidence of slow, tiny changes, the researchers discovered a massive 'upheaval' in the genome's history. This new evidence suggests that it isn't a broken record that's keeping us from fully understanding how evolution works. Instead, it's the theory itself that is holding us back. What's especially notable about the breakdown of the worm genome is that the changes seen within it 200 million years ago should have led to extinction if the changes were that chaotic. However, instead of leading to the species' demise, the worms adapted and even thrived. Of course, not every species will evolve the same way. Just because it works this way in worms doesn't mean it works that way in humans or other mammals. Each species' unique traits could play a part in the success or failure of their evolutionary journey. This could explain why other species of humans have died out, leaving only modern humans. But this is just the beginning. To truly understand how evolution works as a whole, we're going to need to dig even deeper. This new research might not have given us the complete answer, but it set us on the right path. More Top Deals Amazon gift card deals, offers & coupons 2025: Get $2,000+ free See the
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Hindustan Times
Stop saying 'Can you' to ChatGPT; Being polite could limit accuracy
Jun 27, 2025 11:50 AM IST Do you often use terms like 'please', 'can you', 'thank you', and other polite phrases to ChatGPT or any other AI chatbot? Then you are confusing and limiting the advanced capabilities of AI models. A few months back, it was reported that using such terms and phrases is costing OpenAI millions of dollars. A generative AI chatbot is itself a revolutionary advancement that has Natural Language Understanding along with conversational context. This enables chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini AI, and others to interact with humans without the need for them to learn a different techie language. However, there are some rules for interactions which are to be followed to make the most of Gen AI tools. Know more about what being polite to a chatbot restricts their capabilities. Avoid using terms like 'can,' 'could,' 'please,' and others to ChatGPT. Here's why.(Pexels) Also read: ChatGPT now lets you download Deep Research reports as PDFs - here's how In a professional world, being polite is considered basic human etiquette, and we often tend to speak like humans even with an AI chatbot. However, using terms like 'Thank you' and 'Please' could cost an AI-based company millions of dollars. Reportedly, these polite phrases consume greater amounts of energy, as the AI Chatbot can take additional time to process the prompt. Therefore, it is suggested that while having a conversation with AI, users should keep in mind to write short and clear prompts which consume less processing time, which will eventually reduce the energy consumption. Also read: How to use ChatGPT to colourise old black-and-white images: Step-by-step guide Additionally, words like 'Can' and 'Could' should also be restricted and are considered 'most dangerous' according to a BGR report. For instance, if you are using terms like ' Can you' in prompts could confuse AI and could also result in an entirely different result. These terms also make AI chatbots less accurate in comparison to when you provide a direct prompt. Therefore, if you want to make the most of ChatGPT, then we have listed some words to avoid while having a conversation with the AI chatbot Words to avoid while using ChatGPT Avoid being indecisive, using words like 'Maybe', 'It is possible', and similar terms like if you desire a straightforward answer. Therefore, use direct terms like 'Explain,' "write," "create," and "summarise." Avoid using words like 'just,' 'really,' 'actually,' 'basically,' and 'kind of,' if you want ChatGPT to be concise. These terms do not add any value to AI understanding and affect the quality of prompts, resulting in less directness. Avoid using qualifiers like "a lot," "many," "recently," or "often" as it may not help ChatGPT generate valuable responses. These words are subjective and may lead AI to misinterpret the prompt. Avoid using terms like 'I'm sorry' as it shows the user is less confident. Since AI tries to mirror human tonality, it may provide responses in similar tones, which could affect accuracy. Mobile Finder: Nothing Phone 3 LATEST specs, features, and price
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Research shows caffeine could help slow cellular aging
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission. Health experts tend to go back and forth on whether or not caffeine is actually good for you, or how much you should ingest every day. No matter which side you land on, there's no arguing that a cup of caffeine (in the form of coffee or any other liquid) has become a big part of many of our lives. And now, researchers say that caffeine could actually help with cellular aging. According to a new paper published in Microbial Cell, caffeine may actually slow cellular aging by activating a primary energy-sensing pathway in your body called AMPK. The researchers involved in the new findings used fission yeast in lieu of human cells. When exposed to caffeine, they found that the AMPK activity in the yeast increased, allowing cells to better manage stress, repair their DNA, and even regulate their growth. Today's Top Deals Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Best Ring Video Doorbell deals Memorial Day security camera deals: Reolink's unbeatable sale has prices from $29.98 This research follows closely on the heels of additional dives into whether or not coffee is good for you. As one of our primary sources of daily caffeine, the benefits of coffee have long been debated among the health community. This new development is deeper, though, as it looks at caffeine as a whole. Considering how much scientists have worked to try to get age-reversing medication, finding something that can help slow cellular aging could be a dream come true for some scientists. The key to how caffeine helps with cellular aging comes down to the switch that it interacts with. However, instead of interacting directly with the trigger, a growth regulator called TOR (Target of Rapamycin), caffeine only interacts with AMPK, which helps cells cope with lower energy. The effect that caffeine has on AMPK seems to influence how cells grow, as well as how they repair their DNA. Each of the attributes that caffeine has an effect on is tied to both aging and disease, which is why caffeine has long been heralded as being beneficial for health and longevity, at least in controlled amounts. Future research that digs deeper into this connection could help us understand the role caffeine plays in cellular aging even more. More Top Deals Amazon gift card deals, offers & coupons 2025: Get $2,000+ free See the
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
The shortest day of your life could be this summer – here's when
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, BGR may receive an affiliate commission. We could soon be living through the shortest day of our lives. According to reports, Earth is continuingly spinning faster on its axis. While we've known about this phenomenon for a few years now, scientists are paying close attention to the length of the days this summer. According to a report from Time and Date, July 9, July 22, or August 5 could be the shortest days in recent years. We know for a fact that Earth's rotational speed has been increasing since at least 2020. And each year, we see slightly shorter days during the middle of the year. Today's Top Deals Best deals: Tech, laptops, TVs, and more sales Best Ring Video Doorbell deals Memorial Day security camera deals: Reolink's unbeatable sale has prices from $29.98 Now, it's worth noting that the shortest day of our lives won't be noticeably shorter in the grand scheme of things. In fact, the difference in the Earth's rotational speed that day won't even be noticeable, except when looking at it through the perspective of the atomic clock. That's because while technically shorter, the day will only be around 1.51 milliseconds shorter, at most. Exactly why the Earth's rotation has accelerated is unclear, but scientists believe it could have a lasting impact. Not only will it shorten our days, but that can also affect a slew of other things, like the global climate and more. While we don't know the exact reason why, we do know that tidal forces from the Moon and Sun contribute to the Earth's rotation. However, the list of things that can affect the speed of the Earth's rotation, and thus the length of the day, is longer than you'd expect. Most believe that the change is driven by forces within the Earth, but it's impossible to completely rule out atmospheric conditions, too. Still, knowing when the shortest day of our lives will occur is important information if we want to stay up to date with how the Earth is doing as a whole. It's no secret that the Earth will one day be swallowed up by the Sun. However, until that happens, the Earth will continue to survive as it has for billions of years. And as it survives, the rotational speed that drives our days will shorten and even increase as the forces affecting it change and evolve. While we don't know which of the three days listed above will turn out to be the shortest day of our lives, we know it's very likely to happen again, at least until the Earth slows down. More Top Deals Amazon gift card deals, offers & coupons 2025: Get $2,000+ free See the
