Welcome to Overnight News Digest- Saturday Science. Since 2007 the OND has been a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time.
Topics tonight include:
- AI voice assistant proves effective in mental health treatment
- is Betelgeuse getting ready to explode?
- Mushrooms that communicate after it rains
- The brain and music
- Unexpected side effects of climate change
- NYC sinking under skyscraper weight
- Marble columns discovered from 1800-year-old shipwreck
- Citizen science counting minor planets/ asteroids
Neuroscience News
by Brian Flood
AI Voice Assistant Proves Effective in Mental Health Treatment
Summary: Researchers conducted a pioneering pilot study, utilizing an AI voice-based virtual coach, Lumen, for behavioral therapy. The study showed promising results, with improved depression and anxiety symptoms in patients alongside notable changes in brain activity.
The study brings hope for the use of virtual therapy to mitigate issues related to mental health care access. While not intended to replace traditional therapy, the technology could serve as an essential interim solution for patients awaiting treatment.
Key Facts:
- Lumen, an AI voice assistant, was used to deliver a form of psychotherapy in a pilot study, which led to improved depression and anxiety symptoms in patients.
- The UIC study reported changes in the brain activity of patients, particularly increased activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an area associated with cognitive control.
- The researchers emphasize that while Lumen and similar technology can’t replace human therapists, they can help bridge the gap between supply and demand in mental health care.
Big Think
by Ethan Siegel
Is Betelgeuse getting ready to explode?
- Betelgeuse, normally the 10th brightest star in the sky, has brightened over the past month to creep up to 7th place on the list of brightest stars.
- Although Betelgeuse is an intrinsically variable star, we don't yet know: is this just a normal phase in its variability, or is it preparing to go supernova?
- An unexpected source, the humble neutrino, will be the only indication we have as far as advance warning goes. The truth is, it could go at any time.
Neuroscience News
by News Desk
Symphony of Synapses: The Brain’s Intricate Dance with Music
Summary: Music engages a multitude of brain areas, showcasing a complex interplay between auditory processing, emotion, and memory centers. It elicits emotions through the release of dopamine, our brain’s pleasure molecule, explaining the joy we often find in a favorite tune.
Moreover, music’s power to evoke vivid memories highlights its connection to the hippocampus, our memory storage center.
This broad influence of music on our brain mechanisms is also harnessed in therapeutic contexts, such as treating neurological disorders or improving mental health.
Science Alert
by Russell Mclendon
Mushrooms Appear to Have Electrical 'Conversations' After It Rains
A forest often echoes with the sounds of its inhabitants, especially after rainfall. Birds coo and caw, insects chirp and buzz, frogs blip and bellow.
But not all forest conversations are audible – nor do they all include animals.
In a new study, scientists in Japan found intriguing hints that rain may prompt some fungi to communicate using underground electrical signals.
The researchers focused on small, tan mushrooms known as bicoloured deceivers (Laccaria bicolor), which they found growing on the floor of a secondary mixed forest at the Kawatabi Field Science Center of Tohoku University in Japan.
World Economic Forum
by Ian Shine
8 unexpected side effects of climate change
This article was originally published on 22 December 2022. It was updated on 15 May 2023.
- Climate change is having some unusual effects around the world.
- It is impacting everything from the sex and size of animals to the state of wine and coffee crops.
- It’s also making flights a lot bumpier and lightning strikes more frequent.
Sex-changing lizards, shrinking goats and the worsening quality of wine were not top of the agenda at COP27, but as the consequences of climate change become more severe, we’re likely to see some unusual effects.
Science Alert
by Clare Watson
New York City Could Be Sinking Under The Weight of Its Skyscrapers
New York is sinking, and its skyscrapers are bringing it down. That's the finding of a new study that modeled the geology beneath the city compared to satellite data showing its footprint is collapsing into Earth.
Technically called subsidence, this gradual settling or sudden sinking of Earth's surface occurs when soft sediments shift, or loads bearing down on the ground push it deeper still. There are many causes, but the weight of cities themselves is rarely studied.
New York is sinking at a rate of 1-2 millimeters per year, the study found, under the weight of its sky-high buildings. A few millimeters might not sound like much, but some parts of the city are subsiding much faster, on par with the fastest observed rates at which tectonic plates rebound when glaciers melt.
The deformation could spell trouble for the low-lying city home to more than 8 million people, so the findings should encourage further efforts to develop mitigation strategies to counter growing flood risk and rising sea levels – though perhaps building gigantic sea walls to fortify the city aren't the right answer.
"The point of the paper is to raise awareness that every additional high-rise building constructed at coastal, river, or lakefront settings could contribute to future flood risk," writes geologist Tom Parsons of the United States Geological Survey and his colleagues at the University of Rhode Island.
Times of Israel
by Amanda Borschel-Dan
Swimmer discovers precious marble cargo from 1,800-year-old Mediterranean shipwreck
Three weeks ago while swimming a mere 200 meters off the shore of the central beach town of Beit Yanai, recreational sea swimmer Gideon Harris took a dive of about four meters and stumbled upon a 1,800-year-old treasure trove of marble columns.
According to Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Kobi Sharvit, the columns are part of some 44 tons of marble blocks that appear to be from the wreck of a ship that was on its way to a Roman port — potentially Ashkelon or Gaza — to unload its precious cargo.
The IAA believes this sea-wrecked cargo — exposed during winter storms that brushed away centuries of sand — is the oldest of its kind known in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Your citizen science assignment:
Zooniverse
Did you know that asteroids are also called minor planets? Funded by NASA, our newest project invites you to discover unreported near-Earth asteroids in images taken by the Catalina Sky Survey. Read on below to learn more about how you can help out
The Daily Minor Planet.
The Daily Minor Planet
Attention all stargazers and asteroid hunters! We're thrilled to launch "
The Daily Minor Planet" , a project that invites volunteers from around the globe to join our team in the search for asteroids in our solar system. With your help, we can discover and track these celestial bodies.
As a volunteer, you'll get to examine images taken the previous night by the telescopes of the Catalina Sky Survey, a NASA funded search for near-Earth objects based at the University of Arizona. These images contain so many potential asteroids, that observers at the telescopes cannot possibly review them all. That is why we need your help! You can review short animations of images to look for the tell-tale moving dot that is an asteroid.