memory

The Touching Reason Prehistoric People May Have Collected And Reused Old Tools

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Prehistoric sites are full of stone tools that appear to have two life cycles: They’ve been crafted, used, and discarded before being picked up a second time and used again. A new study puts forward an interesting hypothesis as to why this is.   The research suggests that the recycling of these tools is about … Read more

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey review: An emotive exploration of memory

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Samuel L. Jackson’s streaming debut is touching, yet somewhat lacking in mystery and suspense Humans 9 March 2022 By Jon O’Brien Ptolemy Grey (Samuel L. Jackson) has advanced dementia, but a new drug changes everything Hopper Stone/Apple TV+ The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey Walter Mosley Apple TV+ “I GOT to set things right,” says … Read more

Neuroscientists Find Two Types of Brain Cells That Help Us Make Memories

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Researchers have discovered two types of human brain cells that physically help us form memories. These cells play a significant role in dividing continuous conscious experience into distinct segments that can be recalled in the future.    As we move from the past, through the present, and into the future, we form autobiographical memories – … Read more

What Freezing Ants Can Tell Us About How Their Memory Works

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We humans are versatile and accomplished navigators, but insects might have navigation skills that are even better. For them, it’s literally a matter of life and death – and that’s why we decided to freeze some ants and beetles (don’t worry, they still survived) to learn more about how they remember their way home after … Read more

Physicists Have Observed a Strange New Kind of Transition in Electronic Crystals

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As basic science teaches us, changes in temperature can result in phase transitions in materials – like when water solidifies as ice in the freezing cold. However, in some cases the temperature that triggers the change is different depending on whether the material is cooling down or warming up. This is known as a hysteresis … Read more

Encryption: Computers can use memory chips as source of random numbers

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Random numbers – a vital part of encryption – are hard for computers to generate, but a new trick turns memory chips into a source of random noise Technology 11 January 2022 By Matthew Sparkes A DRAM memory chip on a circuit board B Christopher / Alamy Computers struggle to create randomness, but a new … Read more

This Robot Learned to Solve a Maze Using Mammal-Like ‘Brain’ Circuits For Memory

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Rather than engineering robotic solutions from scratch, some of our most impressive advances have come from copying what nature has already come up with. New research shows how we can extend that approach to robot ‘minds’, in this case by getting a robot to learn the best route out of a maze all by itself – even … Read more