Cutting Edge Training Developed the Human Brain 80,000 Years Ago

Cutting Edge Training Developed the Human Brain 80,000 Years Ago

  6:26:00 PM    Science Lover

---

Advanced crafting of stone spearheads contributed to the development of new ways of human thinking and behaving, according to new findings by archaeologists from Lund University. The technology took a long time to acquire, required step by step planning and increased social interaction across the generations. This led to the human brain developing new abilities.

Cave in South Africa where excavations have taken 
place. (Credit: Image courtesy of Lund University)

Some 200,000 years ago, small groups of people wandered across Africa, looking anatomically much like present-day humans, but not thinking the way we do today. Studies of fossils and the rate of mutations in DNA show that the human species to which we all belong -- Homo sapiens sapiens -- has existed for 200,000 years.

But the archaeological research of recent years has shown that, even though the most ancient traces of modern humans are 200,000 years old, the development of modern cognitive behaviour is probably much younger. For about 100,000 years, there were people who looked like us, but who were cognitively and socially very different from us.



It is precisely that period of transformation that the researchers at Lund University in Sweden have studied. In the next issue of the Journal of Human Evolution, they present new findings on the early modern humans that existed in what is now South Africa, approximately 80,000 years ago.

The findings show that people at that time used advanced technology for the production of spearheads and that the complicated crafting process likely developed the working memory and social life of humans.

"When the technology was passed from one generation to the next, from adults to children, it became part of a cultural learning process which created a socially more advanced society than before. This affected the development of the human brain and cognitive ability," says Anders Högberg, PhD.

The technology led to increased social interaction within and across the generations. This happened because the crafting of stone spearheads took a long time to learn and required a lot of knowledge, both theoretical and practical. Producing a stone spearhead also required the ability to plan in several stages. This social learning contributed to the subsequent development of early modern humans' cognitive ability to express symbolism and abstract thoughts through their material culture, for example in the form of decorated objects.

"The excavations have been carried out in a small cave; the location we have studied is called Hollow Rock Shelter and lies 250 km north of Cape Town. We are cooperating with the University of Cape Town and the research we have just published is part of a larger research project on this location," says Professor Lars Larsson.

Read More

Mitochondrial Eve: Mother of All Humans Lived 200,000 Years Ago

Mitochondrial Eve: Mother of All Humans Lived 200,000 Years Ago

  10:05:00 AM    Science Lover

---

The most robust statistical examination to date of our species' genetic links to "mitochondrial Eve" -- the maternal ancestor of all living humans -- confirms that she lived about 200,000 years ago. The Rice University study was based on a side-by-side comparison of 10 human genetic models that each aim to determine when Eve lived using a very different set of assumptions about the way humans migrated, expanded and spread across Earth.

Artist's cross section of a mitochondrion. (Credit: iStockphoto/David Marchal)

The research is available online in the journal Theoretical Population Biology.

"Our findings underscore the importance of taking into account the random nature of population processes like growth and extinction," said study co-author Marek Kimmel, professor of statistics at Rice. "Classical, deterministic models, including several that have previously been applied to the dating of mitochondrial Eve, do not fully account for these random processes."

The quest to date mitochondrial Eve (mtEve) is an example of the way scientists probe the genetic past to learn more about mutation, selection and other genetic processes that play key roles in disease.

"This is why we are interested in patterns of genetic variability in general," Kimmel said. "They are very important for medicine."

For example, the way scientists attempt to date mtEve relies on modern genetic techniques. Genetic profiles of random blood donors are compared, and based upon the likenesses and differences between particular genes, scientists can assign a number that describes the degree to which any two donors are related to one another.

Using mitochondrial genomes to gauge relatedness is a way for geneticists to simplify the task of finding common ancestors that lived long ago. That is because the entire human genome contains more than 20,000 genes, and comparing the differences among so many genes for distant relatives is problematic, even with today's largest and fastest supercomputers.

But mitochondria -- the tiny organelles that serve as energy factories inside all human cells -- have their own genome. Besides containing 37 genes that rarely change, they contain a "hypervariable" region, which changes fast enough to provide a molecular clock calibrated to times comparable to the age of modern humanity. Because each person's mitochondrial genome is inherited from his or her mother, all mitochondrial lineages are maternal.

To infer mtEve's age, scientists must convert the measures of relatedness between random blood donors into a measure of time.

"You have to translate the differences between gene sequences into how they evolved in time," said co-author Krzysztof Cyran, vice head of the Institute of Informatics at Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, Poland. "And how they evolved in time depends upon the model of evolution that you use. So, for instance, what is the rate of genetic mutation, and is that rate of change uniform in time? And what about the process of random loss of genetic variants, which we call genetic drift?"

Within each model, the answers to these questions take the form of coefficients -- numeric constants that are plugged into the equation that returns the answer for when mtEve lived.

Each model has its own assumptions, and each assumption has mathematical implications. To further complicate matters, some of the assumptions are not valid for human populations. For example, some models assume that population size never changes. That is not true for humans, whose population has grown exponentially for at least several thousand generations. Other models assume perfect mixing of genes, meaning that any two humans anywhere in the world have an equal chance of producing offspring.

Cyran said human genetic models have become more complex over the past couple of decades as theorists have tried to correct for invalid assumptions. But some of the corrections -- like adding branching processes that attempt to capture the dynamics of population growth in early human migrations -- are extremely complex. Which raises the question of whether less complex models might do equally well in capturing what's occurring.

"We wanted to see how sensitive the estimates were to the assumptions of the models," Kimmel said. "We found that all of the models that accounted for random population size -- such as different branching processes -- gave similar estimates. This is reassuring, because it shows that refining the assumptions of the model, beyond a certain point, may not be that important in the big picture."

The research was supported by grants from the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education and the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. It has resulted from a standing collaboration between Rice University and Silesian University of Technology.

Read More

Robots Created That Develop Emotions in Interaction With Humans

Robots Created That Develop Emotions in Interaction With Humans

  10:15:00 AM    Science Lover

---

The first prototype robots capable of developing emotions as they interact with their human caregivers and expressing a whole range of emotions have been finalised by researchers.

Dr Cañamero with a sad robot. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of Hertfordshire)

Led by Dr. Lola Cañamero at the University of Hertfordshire, and in collaboration with a consortium of universities and robotic companies across Europe, these robots differ from others in the way that they form attachments, interact and express emotion through bodily expression.

Developed as part of the interdisciplinary project FEELIX GROWING (Feel, Interact, eXpress: a Global approach to development with Interdisciplinary Grounding), funded by the European Commission and coordinated by Dr. Cañamero, the robots have been developed so that they learn to interact with and respond to humans in a similar way as children learn to do it, and use the same types of expressive and behavioural cues that babies use to learn to interact socially and emotionally with others.

The robots have been created through modelling the early attachment process that human and chimpanzee infants undergo with their caregivers when they develop a preference for a primary caregiver.

They are programmed to learn to adapt to the actions and mood of their human caregivers, and to become particularly attached to an individual who interacts with the robot in a way that is particularly suited to its personality profile and learning needs. The more they interact, and are given the appropriate feedback and level of engagement from the human caregiver, the stronger the bond developed and the amount learned.

The robots are capable of expressing anger, fear, sadness, happiness, excitement and pride and will demonstrate very visible distress if the caregiver fails to provide them comfort when confronted by a stressful situation that they cannot cope with or to interact with them when they need it.

"This behaviour is modelled on what a young child does," said Dr Cañamero. "This is also very similar to the way chimpanzees and other non-human primates develop affective bonds with their caregivers."

This is the first time that early attachment models of human and non-human primates have been used to program robots that develop emotions in interaction with humans.

"We are working on non-verbal cues and the emotions are revealed through physical postures, gestures and movements of the body rather than facial or verbal expression," Dr Cañamero added.

The researchers led by Dr. Cañamero at the University of Hertfordshire are now extending the prototype further and adapting it as part of the EU project ALIZ-E, which will develop robots that learn to be carer/companion for diabetic children in hospital settings.

Within this project, coordinated by Dr Tony Belpaeme of the University of Plymouth, the Hertfordshire group will lead research related to the emotions and non-linguistic behaviour of the robots. The future robot companions will combine non-linguistic and linguistic communication to interact with the children and become increasingly adapted to their individual profiles in order to support both, therapeutic aspects of their treatment and their social and emotional wellbeing.

The FEELIX GROWING project has been funded by the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission. The other partners in the project are: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France), Université de Cergy Pontoise (France), Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland), University of Portsmouth (U.K.), Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (Greece), Entertainment Robotics (Denmark), and Aldebaran Robotics (France).

Read More

TalkTalk - the Search Engine of the Future

TalkTalk - the Search Engine of the Future

  9:20:00 PM    Science Lover

---

After a lot of hush-hush for several years the much longed for search engine TalkTalk was presented to the press this week. One day talking basically made me speechless; the future has never looked brighter in finding information.

TalkTalk will open to the public next week and this service will be something that you will use more than you can imagine. For the first time you can not only talk to the search engine, you can discuss with it what you are looking for.

If you want to know more about the oil price, TalkTalk asks if you want to know the current oil price, the development of the oil price, or news related to the oil price. You say that you want to read news about it and TalkTalk asks you if you prefer a certain source (information that is stored for you if you want). TalkTalk then direct you to your source, or let you have the latest news related to the oil price in order from the most respected sources.

If you are looking for a certain person, you say his name, and TalkTalk will ask you what you know about him, is he alive, where is he working, is he publicly known etc. Then it asks you what you want to know and easily guide you to a website to find the information. This has made the search possible for a person named Gary Smith which has been impossible through previous search services.

Compared to other search services that uses a certain algorithm to provide data from a search, the artificial intelligence behind TalkTalk is said to easily spot if a certain source is aiming to deceive the searcher. TalkTalk also evaluates and stores every given reply and discussion, to learn how to give even more precise answers. How well this will work in the long run is yet to be seen, but thousands of people have challenged TalkTalk to tune it in before the launch, and the quality is remarkably good.

The first talking search engine saw the light of day more than 30 years ago and was called Speegle. It could read you the results from a written search on the Internet, and was more for the visually handicapped. TalkTalk is there for you 24/7 just a phone call away and on the Internet.

So far, TalkTalk can not read the information from a certain source to you by phone, if it is not in the public domain or freely available. There are currently negotiations to find an arrangment for this, but it would most likely be difficult due to copyright, and to secure an income for the publisher.

TalkTalk is also set to answer questions directly where there is a definite answer. So I called the phone service and it replied "TalkTalk, how may I help you?" I said "Which is the most populous nation in the world?" and before I was ready to take down the answer, it replied "India...anything else?"

Several new features are in the works, licensed from the same artificial intelligence technology. It is more detailed services like how to repair your car, a joker that have thousands of jokes to cheer you up, and the giant project to let everyone have access to a therapist with the same knowledge about the human mind as any experienced therapist.

TalkTalk is accessible over Internet and also by phone for all major territories, even though it only talks English. There are no plans to add other languages in the near future, most likely beacuse the giant investments needed. When you are tired of asking TalkTalk all your questions, just ask, "Where is TalkTalk?" and you will get an answer that will make you leave it with a smile on your lips.

Argument: Artificial intelligence will develop during year 2020-2030 and by then the computers are at the same level as the human brain. Today search engines are used frequently all over the world, and combined with artificial intelligence you will have a friend to talk to that can either give you answers to all the questions you have, or direct you to them.

Questions: What other services can use artificial intelligence? How will education change in the future if basically all knowledge is just a phone call away?

This news Publish in future : Year 2035

Read More

Evolution's Footprints in Human Genome Precisely Tracked Using New Approach

Evolution's Footprints in Human Genome Precisely Tracked Using New Approach

  10:08:00 AM    Science Lover

---

Fossils may provide tantalizing clues to human history but they also lack some vital information, such as revealing which pieces of human DNA have been favored by evolution because they confer beneficial traits -- resistance to infection or the ability to digest milk, for example. These signs can only be revealed through genetic studies of modern humans and other related species, though the task has proven difficult.

Researchers have developed a new method for pinpointing pieces of human DNA have been favored by evolution within the human genome. The technique offers greater precision and resolution than ever before. (Credit: iStockphoto)

Now, in a paper appearing in the January 7 edition of Science Express, researchers describe a method for pinpointing these preferred regions within the human genome that offers greater precision and resolution than ever before, and the possibility of deeply understanding both our genetic past and present.

Read More