La neurociencia estudia el sistema nervioso desde las bases de su desarrollo hasta las aplicaciones en medicina moderna para solucionar trastornos y enfermedades de la población.
El estudio del cerebro y su papel en el aprendizaje, la memoria y el lenguaje han sido claves a lo largo de la historia para el entendimiento que tenemos hoy por hoy de lo que somos y cómo funcionamos.
¿Te interesa el funcionamiento del cerebro? ¿Conoces las bases de la neurociencia y cómo se aplica en nuestro día a día? Demuéstralo con este test y comprueba lo que sabes de neurociencia.
]]>Cuando hace unos meses Alexia Putellas recogió el Balón de Oro, el mayor honor individual a nivel futbolístico del mundo, no solo estaba conquistando un territorio dominado, hasta hace poco, por los hombres. También estaba inspirando a miles de niñas y mujeres de su generación, que ahora saben que es posible llegar a lo más alto como jugadoras profesionales. Su millón y medio de seguidores en Instagram da una idea de la magnitud de la figura de la capitana culé.
La falta de referentes femeninos es, en parte, lo que hace que muchas mujeres con un currículum sobresaliente perciban que sus logros se deben más a factores como la suerte que no a sus capacidades. Es lo que conocemos como ‘síndrome de la impostora’, un concepto que la escritora, conferenciante y analista especializada en marca personal Neus Arqués ha diseccionado en su último libro: Impostoras y estupendas. Para que los demás vean tu talento, primero lo tienes que ver tú (Alienta Editorial).
]]>All types of mental disorders come with a hidden cost in the form of cognitive dysfunction, including deficits in memory, attention, executive functions and processing speed, according to a comprehensive study that my colleagues and I published in June 2021 in the journal Clinical Psychology Review.
We found that both diagnosable mental disorders, as well as some common symptoms such as anxiety and worry, carry a so-called “cognitive price.” We termed this phenomenon “The C Factor” – short for cognitive dysfunction. This can be defined either as lower performance on cognitive tests or reduction in cognitive abilities such as attention and memory. Our analysis suggests that it can be found across disorders and that it constitutes an integral part of poorer mental health.
]]>The Earth is mainly a water world — more than 70 percent of its surface is covered by oceans — and yet we know so little about what resides beneath the waves.
The ocean, in this light, is like an alien world within our own. Many of its creatures are still unknown to us — both in kind and number. Their behaviors and adaptations remain inexplicable. Even the very contours of this world are still unmapped: We probably know more about the surface of Mars than we know about the ocean floor.
Understanding the sea is to understand our planet better, at a fundamental level. “There’s so much about how the planet works that is basically preserved in this sort of underwater museum,” Vicki Ferrini, senior research scientist at Columbia University, told Vox’s Mandy Nguyen last year.
But not only is the ocean a source of mystery, it’s also a place of adventure. On Unexplainable — Vox’s podcast about big mysteries and all the things we learn by investigating the unknown — we’ve been talking to the scientists who have gone on journeys to understand this watery realm. They’ve come across fearsome creatures like the giant squid, conducted forensic investigations of mysterious deaths, visited octopus cities, and ventured down as deep as humanly possible.
]]>Since the dawn of humanity, we have looked questioningly to the heavens with great interest and awe. We’ve called on the stars to guide us, and have made some of humanity’s most interesting discoveries based on those observations. This also led us to question our existence and how we came to be in this moment in time.
That journey began some 14 billion years ago, when the Big Bang led to the universe emerging from a hot, dense sea of matter and energy. As the cosmos expanded and cooled, they spawned galaxies, stars, planets, and eventually, life.
In the above visualization, Pablo Carlos Buddassi illustrates this journey of epic proportions in the intricately designed Nature Timespiral, depicting the various eras that the Earth has gone through since the inception of the universe itself.
Not much is known about what came before the Big Bang, but we do know that it launched a sequence of events that gave rise to the universal laws of physics and the chemical elements that make up matter. How the Earth came about, and life subsequently followed, is a wondrous story of time and change.
Let’s look at what transpired after the Big Bang to trace our journey through the cosmos.
The Big Bang formed the entire universe that we know, including the elements, forces, stars, and planets. Hydrogen and massive dissipation of heat dominated the initial stages of the universe.
During a time span known as the Hadean eon, our Solar System formed within a large cloud of gas and dust. The Sun’s gravitational pull brought together spatial particles to create the Earth and other planets, but they would take a long time to reach their modern forms.
After its initial formation, the surface of the Earth was extremely hot and entirely liquid. This subsequent eon saw the planet cool down massively, solidifying some of the liquid surface and giving rise to oceans and continents, as well as the first recorded history of rocks.
Early in this time frame, known as the Archean eon, life appeared on Earth. The oldest discovered fossils, consisting of tiny, preserved microorganisms, date to this eon roughly 3.5 billion years ago.
]]>El cristianismo es una rama de judaísmo; eso es obvio: Jesús era un judío devoto. Pero al separarse la sinagoga y formar un cuerpo diverso al judío, comenzó a experimentar ciertos cambios en su posturas. Una de ellas fue la representación iconográfica de la divinidad.
En el judaísmo está taxativamente prohibido representar imagen alguna, como se lee en el texto del Éxodo 20.4: “No te harás estatua ni imagen alguna de lo que hay arriba, en el cielo, abajo, en la tierra, y en las aguas debajo de la tierra. No te postres ante esos dioses, ni les sirvas, porque yo, Yahvé, tu Dios, soy un Dios celoso. Yo pido cuentas a hijos, nietos y biznietos por la maldad de sus padres que no me quisieron.” El mandato es claro. Pero 5 capítulos más tarde, en el mismo libro del Éxodo leemos: “Así mismo, harás dos querubines de oro macizo, y los pondrás en las extremidades de la cubierta. Pondrás un querubín a una extremidad, y el otro en la otra; formarán un solo cuerpo con la cubierta, a sus dos lados. Los querubines extenderán sus alas hacia arriba y sus alas cubrirán el Lugar del Perdón. Estarán de frente el uno al otro y sus caras mirarán hacia el Lugar del Perdón. Lo pondrás sobre el Arca, y pondrás dentro de ella el Testimonio que yo te daré.”
Y así, en infinitos lugares de la Biblia, se hacen imágenes, como cuando Dios manda a Moisés a hacer una serpiente de bronce. La diferencia con el paganismo es que para las religiones de oriente de aquellos tiempos, la divinidad era la estatua. El dios era la escultura, el dios moraba dentro de la escultura, por eso los egipcios debían lavar todos los días las esculturas de sus dioses y ofrendarles comida, porque esa escultura de arcilla o piedra era el mismo dios.
]]>In a new book published by the Oxford University Press, Australian Catholic University’s Dr. Sam Baron and his colleagues provide the first systematic analysis of the idea that time does not exist.
Does time exist? The answer to this question may seem obvious: of course it does! Just look at a calendar or a clock.
But developments in physics suggest the non-existence of time is an open possibility, and one that we should take seriously.
How can that be, and what would it mean? It’ll take a little while to explain, but don’t worry: even if time doesn’t exist, our lives will go on as usual.
Crisis in Physics
Physics is in crisis. For the past century or so, we have explained the Universe with two wildly successful physical theories: general relativity and quantum mechanics.
Quantum mechanics describes how things work in the incredibly tiny world of particles and particle interactions. General relativity describes the big picture of gravity and how objects move.
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