A new study measured people’s capacity to distinguish what’s fake from what’s real in terms of digital content. This time, it is not about fake news but doctored images. The Internet is filled with edited pictures that can fool people if they are not paying attentions. However, the findings of the study indicate that it is not so much about attention. People can’t seem to spot photoshopped scenes anymore.

Only 45% Managed to Locate the Edited Bits from a Fake Picture

Participants in the study went through a series of tests that involved imagery. Some of them were real, while others were manipulated in editing software such as the popular Adobe Photoshop. However, both these categories depicted real-life scenes with no over-fetched compositions such as superpowers.

First of all, people had to identify a series of images as being either real or fake. There were 60% of them who managed to tell the edited from the real ones. However, given that a study ran by chance would render 50% accuracy, people’s results were not so encouraging.

Moving on, participants were afterward asked to identify exactly the bits in their fake pictures that were altered. At this stage, only 45% located the Photoshopped scenes correctly. Sophie Nightingale is a doctoral candidate at the University of Warwick who is the author of this study. Her conclusion was that although people can handle this situation better than chance, they have not yet a trained eye to tell fiction from reality.

“This has serious implications because of the high level of images, and possibly fake images, that people are exposed to.”

The Capacity to Spot Photoshopped Scenes Is Crucial for People’s Online Activities

In today’s world, the human society became dependent on social platforms, media, and the Internet for both professional and personal reasons. Therefore, it is important to them to keep a reality check while staying connected to the online for such a long time.

On top of that, there are daily cases when users are outraged and invest feelings and energy for the morality of a picture. In the end, the source of online conflicts turns out to be a forgery.

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For five years, the U.S. space agency has been talking about how likely a Mars mission is with today’s technology. On top of that, scientists chose even a deadline for such a dauntless space journey somewhere in the 2030s. The institution has already done some important steps towards this direction. They built the Space Launch System which would launch the Orion spaceship. However, after so many efforts, NASA finally admitted that they don’t have the necessary funds to make this project come true.

NASA Used to Deny Any Rumor or Report Regarding Their Financial Situation

Over the past years, NASA was on a rampage to deny any rumor that might have put their Mars mission in jeopardy. For instance, the National Research Council released a report according to which the agency had too many goals for one purpose yet too low a budget. NASA’s reply was that it had already given green light to the Journey to Mars project.

However, the agency reached a point where it had to admit the reality. NASA no longer has the necessary funds to achieve all its dreams. On Wednesday, NASA’s chief of human spaceflight delivered the news during the meeting of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

The Agency Announced that There Would Be No Additional Support to Have Necessary Funds for a Manned Mars Mission

At this event, NASA’s William H. Gerstenmaier had to confront the question on the exact date when humans would land on the Red Planet. The chief explained that the agency has no hope to receive extra monetary resources. Therefore, the funds will be limited to what they have now plus a possible inflation of 2%. As it is, this scientific department has no viable financial platform to accomplish such ambitions.

The Space Launch System and Oberon spacecraft demanded extensive finances to come to completion. Therefore, the remaining budget doesn’t have the potential anymore to address the need for additional vehicles to perform a Mars landing.

Image source: NASA

Milky Way is full of surprises. One of the most recent discoveries uncovers our galaxy as just a temporary point for the route of fastest stars. These are called hypervelocity stars, and they reach such high speeds that they can run away from their original galaxy. So far, scientists couldn’t figure out where they come from and how they can reach such extreme speeds. However, they might have just discovered the answers.

Scientists Wanted to Learn Why the Fastest Stars Were Located only in Leo and Sextans Constellations

In the past, scientists could only resort to some possible theories to scratch the surface of this mystery. For instance, they believed that such hypervelocity stars must have been influenced by supermassive black holes to leave their position and wander the universe.

Other suggestions proposed a dwarf galaxy that left their stars behind when they came too close to Milky Way. Probably the most sensible of them all is the binary theory. Once one in a pair became a supernova, its partner was propelled at incredible speeds.

However, scientists came closer to the truth the moment they observed that most such stars were roaming the Sextans and Leo constellations. To find their answers, they collected data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey which they ran through computer software for simulations.

The Origin of Hypervelocity Stars Is the Large Magellanic Cloud

The results pointed out to a dwarf galaxy that orbits our Milky Way called the Large Magellanic Cloud. Thanks to today’s technology, scientists were able to simulate the course of each runaway celestial body that exited LMC only to enter our galaxy for the last two billion years. Researchers employed simulations one more time to determine the gravitational effects between the two galaxies.

It turns out that LMC orbits around Milky Way at 248.5 miles per second. This condition propels stars from the cloud into our galaxy at high enough speeds to become fastest stars around. Around half of these ejected bodies were identified as hypervelocity stars. Moreover, the reason why they are located in Sextans and Leo constellation is that this is where LMC orbit is.

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Pesticides have become necessary in today’s world to guard the crops that have to support such a large consumerism. However, people might have to make some sacrifices according to recent scientific findings. A team of researchers discovered that a common pesticide in today’s industry might be at fault for weakened honey bees.

Researchers Planted Three Fields in Three Different Countries with Treated and Non-Treated Seeds

Honey bees are another reason why humans are still dependent on nature despite so many technological advancements. Without them, farmers can’t grow their crops because of lack of pollination process. Unfortunately, it has come to authorities’ attention that their population is starting to shrink down year after year.

As a consequence, scientists tried to decipher the cause of this negative phenomenon. They looked to almost all aspects, be it parasites, diseases, pesticides, and poor diet. However, none of them compare in complexity with the research paper coming from an international team from Germany, Hungary, and Britain.

They started their work by planting around 7.7 square miles with rapeseed. From this plant comes a type of cooking oil, which is called canola in America. One part of the territory received seeds treated with insecticides, and the other got seeds as they were. Afterward, researchers recorded the activity of bees in the spring of 2015. At this period, the seeds gave flowers, and new bees were born.

Pesticides Are Partly to Be Blamed for Weakened Honey Bees

The bees from the treated fields of Hungary and Britain experienced a weaker reproduction session the following period. However, the fields in Germany did them no harm. Scientists took some honey samples to their labs and discovered that their diet was more varied than other beehives.

This means that the worker bees brought back pollen from many other sources. Bees resorted only 10% to pesticide-treated crops. By comparison, the bees from Germany and Hungary didn’t go too far, and 50% of their nutrition relied on treated flowers.

This means that the controversial pesticides neonicotinoids do lead to weaker honey bees. However, the authors of the study said that the cause resembles cancer in its depth. Healthy hives can survive pesticide as long as they remain disease-free and enjoy a diverse nutrition.

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Elon Musk had one of his most lucrative weekends in his life. His private space company, SpaceX, delivered two rockets into space within 48 hours. The operation was a successful event which proved that rocket landings are no longer part of a fictional world.

Musk Wants Rocket Landings and Recycling Ready in 24 Hours

Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, SpaceX for short, may have been up to a bumpy start, yet the improvements it succeeded are already astronomical. Over the last weekend, the company launched two Falcon 9 rockets. Both of them carried important satellites to activate into orbit. On top of that, the company managed to recover both rockets after launch. This means that they can be recycled and become operational once more for yet another mission.

The recovering mission entails refurbishing, remounting them on their launching pads, and activating them once more. This is still a pioneering step for the space industry, yet Elon Musk doesn’t want to stop here. The following improvement will be squeezing the time between two launches to only record-breaking 24 hours.

Space Industry Makes New Breakthroughs Month after Month Thanks to Acerb Competition

Rocket landings and recycling did not only make the company more time efficient, but it also cut down on a lot of financial needs. Therefore, SpaceX has already inked 50 contracts that are to be honored by the end of 2018. Many companies across a wide range of industries are hurrying to place their own satellites into space. Therefore, the demand is flourishing for such a private space organization.

So far, SpaceX achieved nine successful launches for the year of 2017. The company owns three launch pads, and it is planning the fourth one already which will open in 2018 in Brownsville, Texas. Nonetheless, Elon Musk doesn’t lack competition. Other private firms such as Sierra Nevada and Boeing want a piece of this innovative market. Thanks to this challenging industry competition, the space market breaks new frontiers almost each month.

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Despite past ruthless deadlocks, SpaceX managed to overcome many obstacles and become a successful private space company. It was last Saturday when the company launched yet another flawless cargo mission. There was a reused spacecraft that sent essential supplies to the International Space Station which is 250 miles above our Blue Planet. However, this seemingly basic mission carried another precious cargo as well. This is about a Chinese experiment that managed to bypass a U.S. ban.

The Chinese Experiment Looks into Gene Mutation

For many years now, the space industry functioned under a ban on collaboration between the United States and China. However, on Saturday, Elon Musk’s space company delivered a Chinese experiment to ISS. This asset revolves around gene mutation and what effects it gets from space radiation. These efforts might prove to be of value for streamlining human space travel experience.

The entities behind this research are Beijing Institute Technology and NanoRacks. They paid SpaceX around $200,000 to collaborate with them for transportation preparations and data collection as well. Even though it is common for scientists to turn to space for research purposes, this is a special event nonetheless. This is because such a partnership marks the first time the U.S. section from Space Station has ever carried out a Chinese experiment.

The First Chinese U.S. Collaboration Was Possible Thanks to NanoRacks

While the space industry is highly dependent on international collaboration, there was a ban in 2011 on any ties between Chinese and U.S. efforts. Republican John Culberson gave a clear explanation for this peculiarity. As long as the Chinese space program remains under the control of People’s Liberation Army and its government, it will always be in danger of being employed as a tool for cyber espionage. Therefore, American lawmakers don’t want NASA to serve illegal purposes unknowingly.

SpaceX did not offer any comment on the licensing conditions of their recent mission. However, NanoRacks described its collaboration with the Beijing Institute as completely sealed against any interference that might penetrate the discretion of the Space Station system. As a consequence, the controversial experiment did not need the State Department approval to be sent to the U.S. space section.

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In a study titled Why Is Intelligence Negatively Associated with Religiousness, Edward Dutton and Dimitri Van der Linded tried to explain the link between intelligence and disbelief in God, as more and more individuals with high IQs prefer to adopt an atheist approach to life.

Religion Seen as Instinct

In a context where religion is seen as a primordial instinct and intelligence is the capability of overcoming and challenging one’s instincts, atheism can be easily explained. According to the two social scientists:

“The link between intelligence and religion can be explained if religion is considered an instinct, and intelligence the ability to rise above one’s instincts.”

In order to learn more about the link between intelligence and disbelief in God, the researchers came up with an Intelligence-Mismatch Association Model based on three pre-existing models that tried to explain the same theorem.

Their results suggested intelligence is an “inclination toward the non-instinctive.” Therefore, individuals with high IQs will have an appetence for solving evolutionary puzzles. Since religion requires a certain amount of instinct, blind faith as followers call it, intelligent individuals will be forced to abandon the practice, thus deepening the hiatus between disbelief and high cognitive capabilities.

Stress Amplifies One’s Religious Beliefs

The same study managed to explain why some people turn to religion after experiencing a traumatic episode. The human brain perceives any impending danger or trauma as stress, and in an attempt to overcome the stressful situation, it will automatically direct more resources towards instinct rather than logic.

Seeing as religion is an instinct, or so Dutton and Van der Linden suggest, people going through stressful times will be more likely to turn to religion because their logic is impaired.

While the two social scientists do make some valid points, their entire theory is based on a supposition, just like all other models created prior to this study. In truth, there are many reasons why people don’t feel attracted to religion or why they renounce it.

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Although it might sound like a horror movie plot, there are around 7,000 bodies buried beneath the Mississippi University campus. The place where the Mississippi Medical Center Campus now stands first belonged to a mental institution named the Insane Asylum. Seeing as medicine in the 19th century wasn’t as evolved as it is today, the institution had its very own cemetery.

Over 35,000 Patients Were Treated in the Insane Asylum

Between 1855 and 1935 more than 35,000 people were admitted to this institution. Some of the patients died while receiving treatment here. Seeing as it was the only mental hospital in the state, the dead were buried in the asylum’s cemetery. After 80 years of activity, the Insane Asylum was relocated, the space now belonging to the Mississippi University.

In 2013, construction workers uncovered 66 coffins while digging on campus. The discovery was just the tip of the iceberg. After a year, they found more than 1,000 coffins. Now, current estimations show the university is home to the remains of around 7,000 insane asylum patients.

Seeing as campus officials can’t simply leave the bodies there, they decided to exhume and rebury them. The problem is that the costs of this process can reach a staggering $28.5 million. In consequence, they have come up with a cost-efficient backup plan.

The Insane Asylum Patients Will Receive a Memorial

The University of Mississippi decided to create a memorial to commemorate the deceased mental patients. Even more, a specialized and one-of-a-kind lab will be built, researchers receiving all equipment necessary to analyze the clothing, coffins, and bodies of the 19th-century insane asylum residents. By doing this, they will learn more about pre-modern mental health care.

With the help of the newly-founded Asylum Hill Research Consortium – a group that reunites renowned archaeologists, historians, and anthropologists – the University of Mississippi will be able to uncover the deep dark secrets of the 66 patients that were unearthed 4 years ago.

The rest of the bodies will remain untouched, the institution preferring to build its adjacent bodies in other locations, leaving the dead rest. As a bonus, tourists will be able to visit the location to pay their respects to the deceased.

Image source: Wikipedia

 

The European XFEL has received the title of the biggest X-ray in the world. There is no wonder to this. The X-ray light can achieve a wavelength of 0.8mm. This is 500 times smaller than a visible light can have. Moreover, the laser is capable of a repetition rate of 27,000 pulses per second. However, during its first light, the laser was programmed to deliver only one pulse per second.

European XFEL’s First Light Symbolized its Last Key Milestone

The European X-ray free-electron laser or XFEL for short is the result of collaborative work among 11 countries. Its location is in Germany at a research unit dubbed as DESY, and it has 2.11 miles in length. By successfully shooting its first light, the project has accomplished the last important milestone in its development. As a consequence, the innovative tool is ready for its official launch in September 2017.

The managing director of the European XFEL, professor Robert Feidenhans, remarked that the completion of such a complex project is the result of an outstanding collaborative effort. The next steps before the official launch imply redirecting the powerful flashes with the use of special mirrors towards the experiment hall. Afterward, workers have to select experiment stations one by one.

“This is an important moment that our partners and we have worked towards for many years.”

There Are Numerous Utilities for the Largest X-Ray in the World

At the moment, there are only five powerful X-ray lasers in the entire world. The latest one, European XFEL, is the most modern and comprehensive one of them all. Researchers are confident that thanks to this tool, the impossible would turn in possible. As such, the laser will play an important role in unique experiments that belong to a large range of disciplines such as biology, physics, chemistry, nanotechnology, and materials science.

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