Sabine
patreon
A One-Atom Computer & The Genetics of Mathematical Ability
🕑 Added 2023-03-01 20:15:00 +0000 UTCNon-Dusting Surfaces
Researchers from the University of Texas have imprinted surfaces with nanometer-sized pyramids and found it to drastically increase the amount of dust that just slips off. They produced the method to prevent dust from sticking to devices in outer space, where no one’s around to dust them, but the discovery might also reduce the need for cleaning agents for solar panels and windows. Paper here, press release here, and a short video here.
______________________________________________________________________
Mathematical Ability May Be Partly Genetic
A study of more than 1000 Chinese children in elementary school found that mathematical and reasoning skills were strongly linked to several genetic variants. Paper here, press release here.
______________________________________________________________________
Researchers Propose a One-Atom Computer
A group from Tulane University in Louisiana has shown that, at least theoretically, even a single atom can be used to perform calculations. They envision this would be done by shining light onto the atom, with the calculation result then extracted from the outgoing light. Paper here, press release here.
Comments
My sister has dyslexia and we both have ADHD. I might be autistic, not diagnosed yet. I struggled in high school with anything more complicated than basic arithmetic despite understanding the concepts of formulas, trigonometry, etc., it was too abstract for me at that stage in life though. I found plotting basic equations Cartesian co-ordinates satisfying though, probably because I could *see* the end results.
Several of the "math" genes also are correlated with autism spectrum disorder and dyscalcula, which makes sense. But then they go on to say that the spatial conception ability gene is also associated with Alzheimer's -- well, that sucks (assuming that these findings are reproducible).
D Brown
Looking back, I see that all my siblings were fairly bright. I think we got that from our mother. How bright? I scored in the top 3% in the city-wide high school seniors math exam. Not only did I not study for the exam, I did not know there was an exam until the day of the exam. One of the drawbacks of going to a poor inner-city school.
