<< Microsoft has temporarily stopped fixing a serious security flaw on personal computers powered by certain chips from Advanced Micro Devices because the repair is crippling the affected machines >>
Microsoft stops fixing security flaw on PCs with AMD chips. Jan 9, 2018.
https://m.phys.org/news/2018-01-microsoft-flaw-pcs-amd-chips.html
Windows operating system security update block for some AMD based devices. Jan 10, 2018.
<< During inattentive wakefulness and non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep, the neocortex and thalamus cooperatively engage in rhythmic activities >>
<< thalamic oscillations of low-vigilance states have a plasticity function that (..) can shape ongoing oscillations during inattention and NREM sleep and may potentially reconfigure thalamic networks for faithful information processing during attentive wakefulness >>
Vincenzo Crunelli, Magor L. Lorincz, et al. Dual function of thalamic low-vigilance state oscillations: rhythm-regulation and plasticity. Nature Reviews Neurosci doi: 10.1038/nrn.2017.151. Jan 11, 2018
<< When [AA] placed the material inside a gas chamber and cranked up the air pressure from one bar (about the atmospheric pressure at sea level) to five bars, the cube’s volume increased by about 3 percent >>
Maria Temming. This material does weird things under pressure. Microcube is designed so that pressure makes it expand instead of compress. Science News. 2017; 192 (11): 12. Dec 23, 2017.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/material-does-weird-things-under-pressure
Jingyuan Qu, Alexander Gerber, et al. Experiments on Metamaterials with Negative Effective Static Compressibility. Phys. Rev. 2017; X7, 041060. Dec 8, 2017
https://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.7.041060
<< There are many anecdotes about Australian birds of prey using fire, according to ornithologist Bob Gosford at the Central Land Council in Alice Springs, Northern Territory >>
<< The three species mentioned are black kites (Milvus migrans), whistling kites (Haliastur sphenurus) and brown falcons (Falco berigora) >>
Andy Coghlan. Arsonist falcons suggest birds discovered fire before humans did. Jan 5, 2018.
<< Why is it difficult to refold a previously folded sheet of paper? [AA] show that even crease patterns with only one designed folding motion inevitably contain an exponential number of "distractor" folding branches accessible from a bifurcation at the flat state >>
Menachem Stern, Matthew B. Pinson, Arvind Murugan. The Complexity of Folding Self-Folding Origami. Phys. Rev. X 7, 041070 – Dec 22, 2017.
https://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.7.041070
Louise Lerner. Scientists lay out why some origami won't fold under pressure. Jan4, 2018.
https://m.phys.org/news/2018-01-scientists-origami-wont-pressure.html
<< Mice can learn to overcome their naturally aggressive approach to conflict resolution, instead adopting a cooperative strategy >>
AA << demonstrate that pairs of mice can learn to coordinate their behaviour to achieve an egalitarian distribution of rewards — but only when rewards are delivered directly to the brain, rather than through food >>
Scott M. Rennie, Michael. L. Platt. Mice learn to avoid the rat race. Nature News and Views. Dec 21, 2017.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-017-08835-9
Choe Il-Hwan, Byun Junweon, et al. Mice in social conflict show rule-observance behavior enhancing long-term benefit. Nature Comm. 2017; 8 (1176). doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01091-5. Nov 07, 2017
<< This is the first time that an entire newt [the Iberian ribbed newt Pleurodeles waltl] genome has been sequenced, an achievement that can give rise to new discoveries on the amphibian's ability to recreate brain neurons as well as entire body parts. Amongst the first findings are a multitude of copies of a certain microRNA group, which in mammals is mainly found in embryonic stem cells, but also in tumour cells >>
Salamander genome gives clues about unique regenerative ability. Dec 22, 2017
https://m.phys.org/news/2017-12-salamander-genome-clues-unique-regenerative.html
Ahmed Elewa, Heng Wang, et al. Reading and editing the Pleurodeles waltl genome reveals novel features of tetrapod regeneration. Nature Comm 2017; 8 (2286). doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01964-9. Dec 22, 2017
