# brain: related noise in perception, like a type of "groupthink"

<< The findings, (..) offer new insights into the limits of perception and could aid in the design of so-called neuroprosthetics-devices that enable people to regain some lost sensory capabilities. >>

<< because neurons are highly interconnected, when one randomly responds incorrectly and misidentifies an image, it can influence other neurons to make the same mistake. >>

<< You can think of correlated noise like a type of 'groupthink,' in which neurons can act like lemmings, with one heedlessly following another into making a mistake, >> Surya Ganguli

<< Remarkably, the visual system is able to cut through about 90% of this neuronal noise, but the remaining 10% places a limit on how finely we can discern between two images that look very similar. >>

<< With this study, we've helped resolve a puzzle that's been around for over 30 years about what limits mammals-and by extension humans-when it comes to sensory perception, >> Mark Schnitzer

Adam Hadhazy. Misfiring from jittery neurons sets fundamental limit on perception.  Stanford University. Apr 9, 2020.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-04-misfiring-jittery-neurons-fundamental-limit.html

Rumyantsev OI, Lecoq JA, et al. Fundamental bounds on the fidelity of sensory cortical coding. Nature 580, 100–105 doi:.10.1038/ s41586-020-2130-2. Mar 18, 2020.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2130-2

# gst: apropos of slipping, the motion on a deformable ground under fast-moving sheets

<< Backed by experimental data from a laboratory machine that simulates the huge forces involved in glacier flow, glaciologists have written an equation that accounts for the motion of ice that rests on the soft, deformable ground underneath unusually fast-moving parts of ice sheets. >>

<< That equation - or "slip law" - is a tool that scientists can include in computer models of glacier movement over the deformable beds of mud, sand, pebbles, rocks and boulders under glaciers such as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, >> Neal Iverson

<< Models using the new slip law could better predict how quickly glaciers are sliding, how much ice they're sending to oceans and how that would affect sea-level rise. >>

Neal Iverson. Experiments lead to slip law for better forecasts of glacier speed, sea-level rise. Iowa State University. Apr 2, 2020.

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-04-law-glacier-sea-level.html

<< These observations should help to solve the long-standing problem of constructing a generalized slip law that combines the processes of hard-bedded sliding and bed deformation. >>

Lucas K. Zoet, Neal R. Iverson. A slip law for glaciers on deformable beds.  Science. Vol. 368, Issue 6486, pp. 76-78 doi: 10.1126/science.aaz1183.  Apr 3, 2020.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6486/76

# life: 27 proteins to confine a world to a (complex 3D) virus dance

<< The novel coronavirus sweeping the globe packs 27 proteins, each adopting a unique, often incredibly complex 3D structure. 

Each protein is part of the molecular toolkit that the virus uses to infect, replicate, and spread. >>

Tom Rickey. Scientists Take Aim at the Coronavirus Toolkit. PNNL. Mar 31, 2020.

https://www.pnnl.gov/news-media/scientists-take-aim-coronavirus-toolkit

https://phys.org/news/2020-04-scientists-aim-coronavirus-toolkit.html

Also 

keyword 'dance' in FonT 

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=dance

Also (quasi-stochastic poetry)

Catalisi d'astrattivo Tao. FonT.  Jan 22, 2005.

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2005/01/1808-catalisi-dastrattivo-tao.html

# astro: apropos of elusive predators ... the mid-sized mass black hole

<< Astronomers have found the best evidence for the perpetrator of a cosmic homicide: a black hole of an elusive class known as "intermediate-mass," which betrayed its existence by tearing apart a wayward star that passed too close. >>

<< These so-called intermediate-mass black holes (..) are a long-sought "missing link" in black hole evolution. >>

Claire Andreoli. Hubble finds best evidence for elusive mid-sized black hole. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. Mar 31, 2020

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-03-hubble-evidence-elusive-mid-sized-black.html

Dacheng Lin, Jay Strader, et al.  Multiwavelength Follow-up of the Hyperluminous Intermediate-mass Black Hole Candidate 3XMM J215022.4−055108. ApJL 892 L25. Mar 31, 2020

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ab745b

# life: to save Western lifestyle from a catapulting collapse (caused by one or two Wuhan "achoo") use a techno mask (e.g. "cowboy" or "burqa" techno masks)

<< WHEN YOU LOOK at photos of Americans during the 1918 influenza pandemic, one feature stands out above all else: masks.  (..)  Newspapers published instructions for sewing masks at home. >>

<< After the 1918 pandemic, the prophylactic use of masks among the general public largely fell out of favor in America and much of the West. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has almost never advised healthy people to wear masks in public to prevent influenza or other respiratory diseases. In the past few months, with medical supplies dangerously diminished, the CDC, US surgeon general Jerome Adams, and the World Health Organization have urged people not to buy masks, paradoxically claiming that masks are both essential for the safety of health care workers and incapable of protecting the public from Covid-19. >>

<< Recently, some experts have disputed this contradictory advice. They propose that widespread use of masks is one of the many reasons why China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have controlled outbreaks of coronavirus much more effectively than the US and Europe. "Of course masks work," sociologist Zeynep Tufekci wrote in a New York Times editorial. "Their use has always been advised as part of the standard response to being around infected people." Public health expert Shan Soe-Lin and epidemiologist Robert Hecht made a similar argument in the Boston Globe (..) Last week, George Gao, director-general of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that America and Europe are making a "big mistake" by not telling the public to wear masks during the ongoing pandemic. >>

<< N95s (N95 mask) are so-named because they filter out 95 percent of particles with a diameter of 0.3 microns, (..) Particles 0.3 microns wide are just the right size to ride a stream of air through a filter’s fibrous maze, but it is still possible to thwart them with enough twists and turns.>>

<< the bacterium that causes anthrax is 0.8 microns wide and 1.4 microns long, whereas influenza viruses and coronaviruses are usually between 0.08 and 0.12 microns. But microbes expelled from someone’s respiratory tract are rarely naked: the droplets they travel in range in size from 0.6 to more than 1,000 microns. >>

<< Although surgical masks are not tightly sealed like N95s, the filters they contain are still a major impediment to microbes. The CDC and other health agencies often say that surgical masks catch only spurts of bodily fluids and very large respiratory droplets, and that they cannot filter tiny infectious particles. But this is simply not true. >>

<< Because so many trials find only a marginal benefit or none at all, some health agencies have decided against recommending masks to the general public. But the inconsistency of randomized trials does not negate the robust physical evidence that masks block respiratory droplets and microbes.  >>

<< "To be honest, it’s common sense," says Tang (virologist Julian Tang). "If you put something in front of your face, it’s going to help more than not." If enough people wear masks at least somewhat correctly at least some of the time, the overall benefits could be dramatic. A 2011 review of high-quality studies found that among all physical interventions used against respiratory viruses-including handwashing, gloves, and social distancing-masks performed best, although a combination of strategies was still optimal. >>

It's Time to Face Facts, America: Masks Work. Official advice has been confusing, but the science isn't hard to grok. Everyone should cover up. Wired. Ideas. March 30, 2020.

https://www.wired.com/story/its-time-to-face-facts-america-masks-work/

Also 

a funky, immediate approach of the sneezing from Wuhan (a relative safe barrier - this device is NOT a filter) FonT.  Mar 20, 2020

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2020/03/life-funky-immediate-approach-of.html

Also

climate change plus Zika, then a behavioral transition, hat burqa- like everywhere ... FonT.  Mar13, 2016.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2016/03/s-epidemiol-climate-change-plus-zika.html

Also

keyword 'virus' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=virus

keyword 'virus' in Notes (quasi- stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=virus

keyword 'snake' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=snake

keyword 'bat' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=bat

# evol: the feathered dinosaur may have been one of the last surviving raptors

<< A new feathered dinosaur that lived in New Mexico 67 million years ago is one of the last known surviving raptor species, >>

<< Dineobellator notohesperus adds to scientists' understanding of the paleo-biodiversity of the American Southwest, offering a clearer picture of what life was like in this region near the end of the reign of the dinosaurs. >>

<< Jasinski (Steven Jasinski) and his coauthors gave the species its official name, Dineobellator notohesperus, which means "Navajo warrior from the Southwest," in honor of the people who today live in the same region where this dinosaur once dwelled. >>

New feathered dinosaur was one of the last surviving raptors. University of Pennsylvania. Mar 26, 2020.

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-03-feathered-dinosaur-surviving-raptors.html

Steven E. Jasinski, Robert M. Sullivan,   Peter Dodson. New Dromaeosaurid Dinosaur (Theropoda, Dromaeosauridae) from New Mexico and Biodiversity of Dromaeosaurids at the end of the Cretaceous. Sci Rep 10, 5105. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-61480-7. Mar 26, 2020.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-61480-7

# gst: hyperuniform- disordered platforms to create, detect and manipulate light

AA << introduced a hyperuniform-disordered platform to realize near-infrared photonic devices to create, detect and manipulate light. >>

Thamarasee Jeewandara. Hyperuniform disordered waveguides and devices for near infrared silicon photonics. Phys.org. Jan 13, 2020. 

https://m.phys.org/news/2020-01-hyperuniform-disordered-waveguides-devices-infrared.html

AA << show that the hyperuniform-disordered platform enables improved  compactness, enhanced energy efficiency, and better temperature  stability compared to the silicon  photonics devices based on rib and  strip waveguides. >>

Milan M. Milosevic, Weining Man, et al. Hyperuniform disordered waveguides and devices for near infrared silicon photonics. Sci Rep 9, 20338. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-56692-5. Dec 30, 2019.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-56692-5