Scary Science

[libby]

Haifa-based scientist Jeff Steinhauer has simulated a black hole in his laboratory, and it might be the breakthrough that helps celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking win the Nobel Prize. CNN's Ian lee reports.

http://www.cnn.com/videos/tech/2016/08/26/black-hole-breakthrough-lee-pkg.cnn

  Wish I could think of something smart to say other than all I know about black holes is what I learned from Star Trek .... Seriously, a black hole is a singularity, which is defined as "a point of infinite curvature of space, where the equations of general relativity break down." (As my friend Dorothy sometimes says, "There. Is that as clear as mud?")

Thanks for posting that, Locutus. My life is kinda crazy right now, so stopping and thinking about something totally different that I've always been interested in really helps. 

[Locutus]

I'm just wondering about the ramifications of something like that if the experiment goes awry, or if he is successful in maintaining a black hole for any extended period of time in the laboratory. 

[libby]

I'm just wondering about the ramifications of something like that if the experiment goes awry, or if he is successful in maintaining a black hole for any extended period of time in the laboratory. 

Beyond being curious, I guess I hope he is wrong, because if he's right, and he can get the same result again --  and it doesn't fizzle out ?

[The Troll]

I'm just wondering about the ramifications of something like that if the experiment goes awry, or if he is successful in maintaining a black hole for any extended period of time in the laboratory. 

  I don't think man with his puny science could make a black hole.  But, but if he did we wouldn't have any time to find a hole to crawl in before it gobbled us up.   

[me]

I'm just wondering about the ramifications of something like that if the experiment goes awry, or if he is successful in maintaining a black hole for any extended period of time in the laboratory. 

A little far fetched I know but it would be awful if it did go awry and started absorbing all the sound waves and exchanging them for a total different type of sound wave from inside especially if those sound waves were out of our hearing range. I really don't think that would happen but it did go through my mind.

[libby]

 

Haifa-based scientist Jeff Steinhauer has simulated a black hole in his laboratory, and it might be the breakthrough that helps celebrated physicist Stephen Hawking win the Nobel Prize. CNN's Ian lee reports.

http://www.cnn.com/videos/tech/2016/08/26/black-hole-breakthrough-lee-pkg.cnn

Now what could possibly go wrong with that? 

Beyond being curious, I guess I hope he is wrong, because if he's right, and he can get the same result again --  and it doesn't fizzle out ?

I've had a little time to think, and today listened to the comments of Jeff Steinhauer, and, it seems we don't have anything to worry about (yet).  "It's not a real black hole -- it absorbs sound waves" -- he said.  As Locutus wrote above, what could possibly go wrong with that? 

[Locutus]

"It's not a real black hole -- it absorbs sound waves" -- he said.  As Locutus wrote above, what could possibly go wrong with that? 

Nothing as long as we can get him to create and maintain one right beside Donald Trump's mouth! 

[me]

Nothing as long as we can get him to create and maintain one right beside Donald Trump's mouth! 

I'm thinkin' more like Hillary's mouth, that laugh and voice are like nails on a chalkboard. Well, I have to include Palin in this too I guess as bad as I hate to but her voice is also very annoying. I know it's the one they were born with and they can't help it but dang........

[libby]

I miss Bo D's science stories! Where are you, Bo?

[Locutus]

Me too! 

[Henry Hawk]

Same here!!

[Locutus]

I think it's safe to say that he's gone fishin'. 

[me]

I think it's safe to say that he's gone fishin'. 

I would say you're probably correct. I look for him back when the temps drop and the snow flies.

[libby]

The following is from yesterday's Washington Post. Fascinating stuff.


Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is linked to delayed brain development


By Amy Ellis Nutt February 15

A new study confirms that ADHD, especially in children, such as this Maryland adolescent negotiating a laser maze, is a brain disorder. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)


For the first time, scientists can point to substantial empirical evidence that people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder have brain structures that differ from those of people without ADHD. The common disorder, they conclude, should be considered a problem of delayed brain maturation and not, as it is often portrayed, a problem of motivation or parenting.

In conducting the largest brain imaging study of its kind, an international team of researchers found that ADHD involves decreased volume in key brain regions, in particular the amygdala, which is responsible for regulating the emotions. Although the study, published Wednesday in the Lancet Psychiatry, included children, adolescents and adults, the scientists said the greatest differences in brain volume appeared in the brains of children.

[ADHD linked to banned chemical still in use in hospitals]

Of seven subcortical brain regions targeted in the study, five, including the amygdala, were found to be smaller in those with ADHD, compared with those in a control group. The other regions that showed reductions in volume were: the caudate nucleus (which has been linked to goal-directed action), the putamen (involved in learning and responding to stimuli), the nucleus accumbens (which processes rewards and motivation) and the hippocampus (where memories are formed).

The first author, geneticist Martine Hoogman of Radboud University in the Netherlands, said the amygdala "is a structure that is not so well known to be implicated in ADHD. ... We do know from other functional studies of the amygdala that it is involved in emotion regulation and recognizing emotional stimuli. But it is also involved in the process of [inhibiting] a response. Both cognitive processes are characteristic of ADHD, so it does make sense to have found this structure to be implicated in ADHD."

The research was conducted by an ADHD working group that is part of a worldwide consortium called ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta Analysis). The group aims to bring together scientists in fields such as imaging, genomics, neurology and psychiatry to better understand brain structure and function. Its ADHD project was four times the size of the previously largest study and was conducted at 23 locations in nine countries by 80 researchers, primarily psychiatrists and neuroscientists.


A total of 3,242 people, ages 4 to 63, underwent MRI brain scans. Almost half of them had been diagnosed with ADHD. The other half were control subjects.

"The reliability of ADHD research has not been great, because of [small] sample sizes," said Jonathan Posner, who did not take part in the study but who does pediatric brain imaging research at Columbia University Medical School. "So because this study was orders of magnitude higher in terms of participants, and because it involved sampling broadly and internationally, it gives us more confidence."

[My daughter has my eyes, my hair and my ADHD]

By being able to point to measurable differences in the brains of those with ADHD, the ENGIMA scientists hope their study will also help the general public better understand the disorder.

"I think most scientists in the field already know that the brains of people with ADHD show differences, but I now hope to have shown convincing evidence ... that will reach the general public," said Hoogman, "and show that it has [a basis in the brain] just like other psychiatric disorders. ... We know that ADHD deals with stigma, but we also know that increasing knowledge will reduce stigma."

The researchers were able to conclude that the brain differences were not related to medication people took, to other psychiatric disorders people with ADHD may also have had, or even to the severity of their symptoms.

The smaller brain structures in children with ADHD but not in adults fits with a "delayed peak volume" theory that ADHD is associated with an "altered velocity of cortical development," the authors said. That is, their brain development may be delayed compared with children who do not have ADHD, but it may catch up as they grow into adulthood.

[CDC: Americans are overmedicating youngest children with ADHD]

Finding that the amygdala, the brain's emotional regulator, had the greatest volume reduction in ADHD was particularly important to the researchers because of the ubiquity of emotional problems in the disorder. The study might be relevant for updates to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, the guidebook psychiatrists use to identify conditions. "Those [emotional] symptoms are often present in patients with ADHD," the authors wrote, "but these disease characteristics have not [yet] been included into the official DSM criteria."
amy.nutt@washpostcom