Amy Coney Barrett Doesn't Understand the Trauma of Adoption
I’m a mother myself, to an adorable 6-year-old self-proclaimed Fortnite expert, and as is often the case, I did not know I was pregnant with him until the usual symptoms appeared a few weeks into the pregnancy. As anyone who has gestated a human will tell you, there is a vast difference between the fourth week of pregnancy and the 40th. By the 40th, you’re familiar with your baby’s regular rhythms of kicking and moving.
All Your Memories Are Stored by One Weird Protein from an Ancient Virus
How does memory work? The further we seem to dive in, the more questions we stumble upon about how the function of memory first evolved. Scientists made a key breakthrough with the identification of the Arc protein in 1995, observing how its role in the plastic changes in neurons was critical to memory consolidation. This protein is already a big deal, but the Arc picture just got a lot more interesting. In a study published Thursday in the journal Cell, a team of researchers at the University of Utah, the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, and MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, argue that Arc took its place in the brain as a result of a random chance encounter millions of years ago.
Madison Saw Something in the Constitution We Should Open Our Eyes To
As James Madison explains it in Federalist No. 43, it means that “In a confederacy founded on republican principles, and composed of republican members, the superintending government ought clearly to possess authority to defend the system against aristocratic or monarchial innovations.” He goes on: “The more intimate the nature of such a Union may be, the greater interest have the members in the political institutions of each other; and the greater right to insist that the forms of government under which the compact was entered into, should be substantially maintained.” Of course, there’s no real chance in the modern era that any state will become a “monarchy” or “aristocracy” in the 18th-century sense.
Photos Reveal 19-Month-Old Boy's Point of View After Photographer Dad Gives Him His Old Camera
The world looks very different through the eyes of a 19-month-old, which we can now see thanks to the pictures taken by Stanley Jones, the son of British Army photographer Timothy Jones. One bright and summery day, Jones shared his old Canon G12 with Stanley and taught him how to press the shutter and shout out “say cheese.” Jones writes, “He wandered round the house and garden snapping away saying ‘cheese' at everything. He even managed to switch the settings to ‘sepia' at one point.” Every photographer has his own style—even young Stanley, who “looks through the viewfinder…rather than use the LCD screen on the back.” Nevertheless, his photographs showcase a day in the life of a two-foot-tall child.
The Bomb Didn’t Beat Japan … Stalin Did
The U.S. use of nuclear weapons against Japan during World War II has long been a subject of emotional debate. Initially, few questioned President Truman’s decision to drop two atomic bombs, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But, in 1965, historian Gar Alperovitz argued that, although the bombs did force an immediate end to the war, Japan’s leaders had wanted to surrender anyway and likely would have done so before the American invasion planned for November 1.
Macro Photography Series Captures Tiny Harvest Mice Playing in Tulips
While you might associate macro photography with detailed images of creepy crawlies, there are other (much cuter) creatures that deserve up close attention. These adorable images of harvest mice exploring tulips were taken by Miles Herbert, a British photographer who runs Captivelight—a photography studio that holds workshops for aspiring photographers who are interested in capturing “birds of prey, reptiles, frogs and other beasties.” Rather than disturb wildlife, these particular harvest mice were captive bred and photographed in an indoor studio. Herbert explains, “We provide a service for photographers looking for high impact pictures of the animals, and using a purpose built studio means that we are not weather dependent.” Don’t worry though, once these tiny mice are strong enough, they’re released into the wild at a local nature reserve.
‘Yeah, we’re spooked’: AI starting to have big real-world impact, says expert
A scientist who wrote a leading textbook on artificial intelligence has said experts are “spooked” by their own success in the field, comparing the advance of AI to the development of the atom bomb. Prof Stuart Russell, the founder of the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence at the University of California, Berkeley, said most experts believed that machines more intelligent than humans would be developed this century, and he called for international treaties to regulate the development of the technology. “The AI community has not yet adjusted to the fact that we are now starting to have a really big impact in the real world,” he told the Guardian. “That simply wasn’t the case for most of the history of the field – we were just in the lab, developing things, trying to get stuff to work, mostly failing to get stuff to work. So the question of real-world impact was just not germane at all. And we have to grow up very quickly to catch up.”
Missouri Inmates Sew Custom Quilts For Foster Children: ‘It Kind Of Breaks Your Heart’
Every so often, Jim Williams wakes up in the middle of the night and lies awake inside his prison cell, thinking about quilt designs. As his fellow inmates at South Central Correctional Center snore and shift in their sleep, Williams mulls over the layout of cloth shapes, rearranging them in his mind. “I’m kind of a perfectionist,” he said.
