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Human Behavior

The apocalypse likely won’t turn us into killers, game study says – CNET

When everything hits the fan, the end of the world is more likely to look like a friendly summer campout than an uber-violent scene from "Mad Max" or "The Walking Dead."

At least that's what researchers from a University of Buffalo-led team determined by looking at the in-game actions of over 80,000 players of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game ArcheAge.

Game data shows the end of the world might not be like the carnage of "Mad Max."

The MMORPG allows players to build, trade, fight, farm, explore and much more within a medieval world. The researchers used a closed beta test of the game as a way to study a hypothetical situation we've all thought about, but is impossible to study in real life: what would you do in your final days and hours if you knew the world was coming to an end?

In this case, players were told their virtual world would be destroyed at the end of 11 weeks. Once the game's beta test ended, all the data from the medieval MMORPG was deleted, so the scientists' thinking was that players' virtual actions leading up to the end of the test were a way of studying human behavior in an extreme situation where actions essentially become devoid of consequences and therefore meaningless.

It's obviously a bit of a stretch to compare the end of a beta test to the demise of human civilization, a point the researchers concede.

"We realize that, because this is a video game, the true consequences of the world ending are purely virtual. That being said, our dataset represents about as close as we can get to an actual end-of-the-world scenario," University of Buffalo postdoctoral researcher Ahreum Kang said in a statement. Kang is lead author of the study, which will be presented in April at the International World Wide Web Conference in Australia.

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Gear you need to weather the apocalypse (pictures)

Computer scientists analyzed over 275 million records of player behavior and found an increase in anti-social actions like murder, but only by a small percentage of players.

The researchers categorized players' behavior into activities like partying, combat and home building. While there weren't any other major changes in behaviors toward the end, there was a boost in positive sentiments on the game's chat, with players apparently reaching out to make or reconnect with friends before it was too late.

So if the world ends, we might see more psychos like Negan in "The Walking Dead," but the data shows that even in a virtual apocalypse, we're more likely to turn to friends and loved ones, and even make new friends as oblivion approaches.

"It's kind of like sitting next to a stranger on the airplane," Kang said. "You may keep to yourself during the flight, but as the plane reaches the runway, you strike up a conversation knowing the end is in sight."

Well, actually, I don't know many people who do that. But if I knew the flight was about to end in a crash, I suppose I probably would suddenly be a lot more chatty ... if only in a panicky kind of way.

Solving for XX: The industry seeks to overcome outdated ideas about "women in tech."

Crowd Control: A crowdsourced science fiction novel written by CNET readers.

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The apocalypse likely won't turn us into killers, game study says - CNET

Genetics

Genetics has proven that you’re uniquejust like everyone else – Quartz

Its often said that humans are 99.9% identical. and what makes us unique is a measly 0.1% of our genome. This may seem insignificant. But what these declarations fail to point out is that the human genome is made up of three billion base pairswhich means 0.1% is still equal to three million base pairs.

In those three million differences lie the changes that give you red hair instead of blonde, or green eyes instead of blue. You can find changes that increase your risk of obesity, or others that decrease your risk of heart disease; differences that make you taller or lactose intolerant, or allow you to run faster.

When I first started learning about genetic variation, I assumed these changesthe 0.1% that make us uniqueonly appeared in certain places, such as genes for height or inherited diseases like diabetes. I thought the rest of the genomethe other 99.9%was fixed; that the 0.1% that was different in me was more or less the same 0.1% that was different in you. But, as it turns out, the 0.1% of DNA that is different between people is not always the same 0.1%: Variation can happen anywhere in our genomes.

In fact, one group of scientists looking at 10,000 people found variants at 146 million unique positions, or about 4.8% of the genome. Another group collected the DNA from 15,000 people and found 254 million variants, roughly 8% of the genome. And as we continue to sequence 100,000, 100 million, or all seven billion people on the planet, we will find a lot more variation. This means that humans have many more differences than we first thought.

Imagine that your DNA is a car. There are certain obvious variants you can have: blue or white, two-door or four-door, convertible or sedan. These changes represent the 0.1%. Because the other 99.9%the engine, the seats, the steering wheel, the tireshas to be there for the car to work, we assume they are fixed.

But electric cars have shown us that we dont need the gas cap, the gas tank, or even a gas engine any more; we can replace those things with a variant like batteries and charging ports. And maybe one day well develop cars that have boosters instead of tires so we can hover over the ground.

In other words, what we believe is static may actually be variable. More than 0.1% of the car can change and it still be a car, just like the human genome.

With the rise of services that offer to sequence your DNA, more and more people are talking about the value of personal genomics and what you might uncover about yourself. These kinds of mail-in tests are an easy way to point to something tangiblelike your blue eyes or the waddle you and your grandmother shareand say It runs in the family. You might even say, Theres a gene for that!

But those examples of straight-forward, visible evidence are just starting points in the immense and only partially explored field of personal genomics. There are also many variations of our genomes that are invisible to the naked eye, like the way we metabolize caffeine, have a distaste for cilantro, or the more serious examples of predispositions toward certain types of cancers and diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinsons.

There are also all sorts of other gene variants we havent discovered yet. Because our data is limited by the amount of sequenced DNA available for study, scientists like myself have only explored a small portion of the genetic variation that exists in the world.

As access to personal genomics becomes a more practical option and more people opt in to research, this data pool grows every day. This means our theories will become much less theoretical in the months and years to come, and it soon wont be surprising to discover theres a gene for almost every trait.

So what does all this variation actually mean? What do we learn by cataloging all this information?

The consequences of sequencing millions of peoples DNA and identifying new genetic variants are both simultaneously predictable and unknown. On the predictable side, we are going to learn a lot more about human health and disease: Individual genetic variants and groups of genetic variants will be found to play a role in obesity, heart disease, and cancer, among other factors. We are going to find genetic variants responsible for rare diseases that have gone undiagnosed.

But its the unknown findings that get me excited. We dont know how many unique variants we will find. And while our current understanding of biology suggests some positions in DNA are not variable (because any change in these genes disrupts the basic function of being human), we may discover that these positions actually are variable and can change. Were also getting to a point where we will be able to better study the role of environmentwhat you are exposed to, the things you choose to eat, the activities you decided to engage inand how it interacts with your DNA. With this information, we will be able to better make predictions about you as an individual.

There is still so much for us to discover about human genetic variation. A variant that increases risk for a disease today might turn out to be protective for another disease tomorrow. The more people who get their DNA sequencedwhether for personal or research purposesthe more we will discover.

We each carry three billion base pairs of information inside us with the potential to unravel a piece of the mystery that makes us all so fundamentally human. At the end of the day, we are all still more similar than we are differentbut we are just beginning to understand how important our differences are.

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Genetics has proven that you're uniquejust like everyone else - Quartz

Embryology

Blue Mountain students learn lesson from chicks – Republican & Herald

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ANDY MATSKO/STAFF PHOTOS Fourth-graders in Shannan Burciks class watch chicks in their classroom at Blue Mountain Elementary East. The chicks are part of an embryology project for a lesson on the life cycle.

ANDY MATSKO/STAFF PHOTO Blue Mountain Elementary East fourth graders raised chicks in their classroom on Monday, March 20, 2017.

ORWIGSBURG Fourth-grade students at Blue Mountain Elementary East are using chicks to learn about the life cycle.

About 105 children in the five fourth-grade classes are participating in the embryology project.

They all have different personalities. Some are jumpy. Some are calm, Merik Brayford, 10, a student in teacher Shannan Burciks class, said.

The project started Feb. 21. Sixty eggs were provided by a local 4-H club. More than half have hatched and one died. The lesson extended outside the classroom on March 13 when the students watched the chicks on Facebook after the teachers took them home because of Winter Storm Stella.

On Monday, the students had the opportunity to interact with the chicks. Burcik said the chicks will go to local farms this week to live long, healthy, happy lives.

The first chick in Burciks class was born Wednesday. Ten of the 12 eggs in her the class have hatched.

Dont squeeze him, one student said.

The children were taught the proper way to hold the chick in the palm of the hand and to gently protect it with the other hand.

The chicks were kept in a plastic container with a heat lamp. They were fed corn meal and water.

Burcik said having the eggs at her house and their subsequent hatching was like having a newborn at the house. She said the chicks needed care and attention.

They love their bellies rubbed, Burcik said.

Oddly, she said she thinks they like Frank Sinatra music, because they seemed happy.

Some of the students said it was hard to concentrate on their lesson Monday because of all the noise the chicks made.

The opportunity to experience the life of the chicks firsthand is not something you get out of a textbook, Burcik said.

She said the children were in awe of the chicks and each one means something special to them.

A chick named Wobbles has difficulty walking, so a rubber band was tied around his legs to help him walk better. Lucky Chick was born on St. Patricks Day and Hope is named after someone who has medical issues. Dynamite is one of the most active of the group.

Dynamite is very spunky. Hes actually the teenager of the group, Burcik said.

Ian Correll, 9, said he liked Dynamite the best.

He jumps all over the place. He makes all the class laugh. Hes very wild, he said.

The children didnt want their new friends to go.

Let me take them home, they said.

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Blue Mountain students learn lesson from chicks - Republican & Herald

Anatomy

The anatomy of a tornadic storm – KOCO Oklahoma City

OKLAHOMA CITY

With storm season right around the corner, it will be common to hear KOCO meteorologists and storm chasers use severe storm terms. Commonly used terms may be "wall cloud" or "mesocyclone.: Here is a breakdown of what these terms mean.

Supercell: An often dangerous thunderstorms that consists primarily of a single, rotating updraft, which persists for much longer than 1020 minutes.

Mesocylone: A cyclonically rotating vortex, around 1-6 miles in diameter, in a thunderstorm

Wall cloud: A local, often abrupt lowering from a cumulonimbus cloud base into a low-hanging accessory cloud. A wall cloud marks the lower portion of a very strong updraft, usually associated with a supercell or severe multicell storm. It typically develops near the precipitation region of the cumulonimbus. Wall clouds that exhibit significant rotation and vertical motions often precede tornado formation by a few minutes to an hour.

Updraft: The part of the supercell storm that has rising vertical motion moving towards the top of the storm. The downdraft is the part of the storm that falls vertically, which typically contains rain, hail and sometimes damaging winds.

Click the image above to see the diagram of a supercell storm and clickhere for a complete weather glossary.

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The anatomy of a tornadic storm - KOCO Oklahoma City

Anatomy

Anatomy Of A Decision, Part 2: The Newsroom – Benzinga

GLG has produced a new series of videos focused on decision making in the business world.

As part of the series, GLG, the world's leading membership network for professional learning, has interviewed a number of business leaders to ask about what considerations go into making important decisions.

In this installment, GLG speaks with former New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson about her decision-making process in the newsroom.

Abramson said her background as an investigative journalist in Washington helped prepare her for the role of executive editor.

When you have to confront powerful people about unpleasant things that they dont want to talk about like their personal finances or their campaign finances, you develop a kind of calm steadiness that allows you not to get horribly nervous, Abramson explained.

Abramson discussed at length possibly the most difficult and important leadership decision she had to make during her career. Back in 2013, Times reporter Eric Schmidt was working on a story about an intercepted conversation between Al-Qaeda leaders that led the United States to raise the terror alert level at the time. Abramson received a phone call from the director of national intelligence, who told her that the New York Times would have blood on its hands if they chose to publish the story.

Abramson emphasized the importance of communication and placing trust in her team.

I spoke at length with Eric. It was very important to me. He was closest the reporter is always closest to the story, she said.

In talking to him, I really felt that we could go ahead and publish the story, but that Eric and I agreed we could withhold the details that it was Zawahiri and someone in Yemen. The story had other valuable information to explain this higher terror alert to our readers but that those details, while obviously its the leader of Al-Qaeda, are newsworthy, they might not be essential to the reader understanding the contours of the story.

Abramson said the media is constantly facing the difficult decision of addressing national security or law enforcement issues that could potentially compromise ongoing investigations and put people in danger.

Its really a balancing test, and theres no perfect formula for it, where you weigh the urgency of the story and is it important for the public to know, and if it is, to balance that against the seriousness of the request and the sensitivity of the story that it might cause actual harm, she concluded.

While Abramson said the top responsibility of any journalists is to keep the public informed, sensitive information comes with a heavy burden of responsibility when peoples lives may be at risk.

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Anatomy Of A Decision, Part 1: The C-Suite _______ Image Credit: "New York Times Newsroom" By Bpaulh (Own work (Original text: self-made)) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Posted-In: Al-Qaeda GLG Jill Abramson New York TimesNews Management Media Interview Best of Benzinga

2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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Anatomy Of A Decision, Part 2: The Newsroom - Benzinga

Anatomy

Sarah Drew Asked Grey’s Anatomy to Include a Breast Pump Scene, and We’re All for It – Glamour

Last week's episode of Grey's Anatomy was a major one for April and Jackson (the proof is in all those Twitter reaction gifs). Fans finally got their wish for a hot and heavy romantic moment between the pair when the two passionately hooked up on a work trip in snowy Montana. (Thank you, Catherine Avery, for so brilliantly setting that up!)

"That episode ended with a tremendous amount of hope," Sarah Drew (who plays April) explained during the cast's recent panel at Paleyfest. "Whether that translates into romance or just a solidification that they are each others person and theyll always be best friends, that has yet to be seen. Well see what happens.

Although social media was abuzz that the couple might finally get back together, there was a subtle, more significant moment in the episode that viewers might have skipped over. About 10 minutes into the episode, Jackson is on the phone with April, where she's sitting on the bed in her Montana hotel room. She's got her laptop in front of her, but it's not her main focus. Instead, she's tightening a bottle having just breast pumped milk for her baby, Harriet, who was back in Seattle with Catherine.

What's significant about that, you ask? Originally, that wasn't in the scene.

"I asked to have [that] pumping scene," Drew revealed to Glamour. "As a breastfeeding mother, I would be pumping if I was away from my baby. So that action, that cut, made it into the scene. Its something I really care about and is part of, for me, what it means to be a working mother. You have to account for all of that stuff when you travel away from your child. I always really celebrate the moments where we get a window into that struggle or that journey."

Drew approached the episode's directornone other than Kevin McKidd, who plays Dr. Owen Hunt on the seriesfor permission to add the breast pumping equipment to the scene. "I was like, 'It's not in the script, but I would like to have a pump here, and I would like to be doing this action. And can we make sure that we have a wide enough shot to see it?'" (The reason for the wide shot, by the way, was that so viewers could see all the equipment required to pump breast milk. That means the plastic cords, as well as the cooler that comes with the pump which has a special ice pack so you can nestle four bottles inside without spillage.)

PHOTO: Eric McCandless/ABC

True to his word that "our show beautifully depicts the struggle we all have as human beings to juggle our lives," McKidd was happy to honor Drew's request.

"Weve been on the show so long, so we know who our characters are; its important to honor that," McKidd told Glamour. "Sarah has been playing this part for eight years. It was really important to her, so I was like, Of course, were going to do that.' One of the big themes of our show is how do we make the best life with so many commitments when were all pulled in so many directions? In that moment, it really portrayed that well. It's important to show that were all multitasking all the time, especially these doctors who are committed to their patients, but also their own lives going on, too. Its nice to let the audience know that were all going through it together.

McKidd's compassion and understanding for Drew's request only solidified why she's thrilled to have a job on such an inclusive set like Grey's. "On our set, all of the women feel free to speak up," she explained. "Its always been; Ive always felt that way. Ive always had a voice, and thats been an important thing for me since the moment I had my first baby. Like, Oh my gosh, this is so hard! Lets talk about how hard this is!

Another thing Drew loves about the show? Shonda Rhimes' commitment to showing the character's children on screen even if they aren't directly involved in that episode's storyline. "They show that daycare exists in the hospital, so you get this sense these doctors are working really hardand they are able to go in and grab 10, 15 minutes [with their kids]," she said. "Look, parenthood is hard as it is; parenthood is super hard if you are at home and that is your primary focus. Parenthood is also super hard if youre trying to juggle it with work, and these people are kicking ass and taking names at work. Its neat to see that struggle."

Added McKidd: "One of the director's jobs is to tell these stories as beautifully as we can, as truthful as we can, and to make sure everyone is included in the discussions. I think a good director manages to do that and still be a strong leader."

And for those viewers at home that did pick up on the brief scene, Drew said it was a very empowering moment for her and the show. "There were some people that tweeted about it and they were so grateful," she told us. "They were like, Yes! Even one of our wardrobe girls had a baby a year ago, and she said that was her favorite part of the whole episode. She was so grateful that it made it there on the screen. So, yeah, it was so cool.

Related: Here's Why Grey's Anatomy Will Probably Never End

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Sarah Drew Asked Grey's Anatomy to Include a Breast Pump Scene, and We're All for It - Glamour

Neuroscience

Neuroscience: This Is How to Make Something Compulsively Shareable – Inc.com

If you've been online at all recently, you probably saw the sweet, hilarious video of the well meaning Korea expert whose interview with the BBC was memorably crashed by his two adorable kids. (If not, go take a look. It'll brighten your day.) It's hard to miss because it is absolutely everywhere.

But here's a question for you: in a sea of clips of kids doing funny things, what caused this particular video to become an instant worldwide phenomenon? Why did this one interview fail among all the world's interview fails go viral?

When something goes viral, it can feel magical. Sure, laying the groundwork by promoting your content, building a following, and studying past successes definitely helps, but as anyone who has ever tried to make something compulsively shareable can tell you, at the end of the day, it's always feels like kind of a crap shoot.

But now research is chipping away at that mystery by peering into people's brains to see what's going on when they decide what to share. Soon, scientists hope, they'll be able to predict what's about to go viral by looking at a brain scan. In the meantime, they're learning much more about the process of what makes something so shareable.

To figure out what is happening in our heads when we pass along a funny video or awe-inspiring article to our friends, a team from a neuroscience research lab at the University of Pennsylvania stuck participants in an fMRI machine and recorded their brain activity while they looked at headlines and abstracts of 80 New York Times articles on health and fitness.

Each participant told the researchers how likely they were to share a particular article and also simply read it themselves. The scientists also had access to data on how frequently the articles were recommended in real life. By examining all this information together the team came to an interesting conclusion -- people use a two-pronged process to decide what to share.

Regardless of whether a subject was interested in reading an article or sharing it, two distinct brain sections were active -- one involved in processing social relationships and another in developing our own self-image. This suggests that the decision to engage with an article is based both on how that article will reflect on you (What does this article say about me?) and on recipients' interest (Will my friends enjoy it?).

"People are interested in reading or sharing content that connects to their own experiences, or to their sense of who they are or who they want to be. They share things that might improve their relationships, make them look smart or empathic or cast them in a positive light," senior author Emily Falk, said summing up the results.

This characteristic double activation could potentially be used to predict what people will share based on a brain scan. But it also offers a more practical lesson for those hoping to ignite a viral sensation. Sharing is a way to shape identity as much as it is a way to inform or entertain friends. Compulsively shareable content is usually a flattering mirror.

That video of the kids crashing the Skype interview, for instance, advertises your own experience of work-life balance struggles and a healthy appreciation of the absurdities of life with young children. Posting inspirational quotes marks you as a striver. Snarky wine-related memes in your feed demonstrate you're a clear-eyed realist in a world of inauthentic try-hards, etc.

For marketers, this suggest that until you can manage to install an fMRI machine in your office, if you want to know whether something will go viral, you'd do well to ask yourself a straightforward question: What does this content suggest about the sharer, and how many people want to project themselves that way?

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Neuroscience: This Is How to Make Something Compulsively Shareable - Inc.com

Neuroscience

Neuroscience technique measures how well films will do at box office – Phys.Org

March 20, 2017 by Kayla Stoner Cerf and Barnett test their technique on their own brains at the AMC Theatres in Northbrook, Illinois. Credit: Northwestern University

Through a provocative new neuroscience-based marketing research method developed at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, brain waves of viewers watching trailers in movie theaters produced surprisingly accurate information about how well the films did at the box office upon release.

Through the study, which included 122 moviegoers, researchers were able to determine what type of content is most engaging and memorable to consumers.

Neuroscience and business professor Moran Cerf and neuroscience Ph.D. researcher Sam Barnett developed a new technique using brain monitoring (electroencephalography; EEG). They measured participants' level of engagement with advertisements in real time by analyzing their brain waves.

"It turns out, when our brains are truly engaged with the content we are watching, they essentially look the same as one another," Barnett said.

Each film trailer was assigned a neural similarity score based on the extent to which viewers had similar brain patterns. Similar brain activity is a sign of greater engagement with the content. Higher neural similarity scores correlated directly with improved memory of the movie trailers and higher ticket sales when the films were released.

Out of more than a dozen film trailers watched during the course of the four-week study, "X-Men: Days of Future Past" produced the highest neural similarity score, was remembered by the majority of viewers and ultimately earned the highest box office sales. On the other hand, "Mr. Peabody & Sherman" produced the lowest level of neural similarity, was only remembered by one out of five participants and generated a quarter of the weekly ticket sales that "X-Men" delivered.

The neural similarity method also identified the peak moments of engagement. Movie trailers that achieve that moment in the first 16-21 seconds had the highest ticket sales upon release.

Barnett pointed out how the neural similarity method could have helped "Muppets Most Wanted," which ran previews during the time of the study, reach its maximum potential.

"'The Muppets' trailer's highest engagement came too late," Barnett said, noting that engagement in the second half of the trailer was much higher after non-puppet actors Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell and Tina Fey were introduced. "If the production company had used our neural similarity technique in their focus groups, they could have considered edits to increase the engagement and ticket sales."

Neural similarity scores predict future sales with more than 20 percent higher accuracy, in this context, compared to traditional survey methods like focus groups. Measuring brain waves in the moment without interrupting the experience helps to eliminate the risks of insincere survey responses as well as recall bias, according to Cerf and Barnett.

"People are probably going to remember a trailer for movies like 'X-Men' or 'Spiderman' best because they are already familiar with the characters," Barnett added. "But with our method, we are not only testing their memory, but also how engaged they feel with the content of the advertisement as it's playing."

Through the course of the study, the researchers found that simpler content drove the highest engagement and neural similarity scores.

Complexity rankings were based on the total number of words in the movie trailer, the number of unique words and the variation in the image. The simplest trailers with the fewest words and cleanest visuals achieved higher engagement and eventually higher ticket sales.

Cerf and Barnett's paper, published in the prestigious Journal of Consumer Research, discusses the brain research method and its implications beyond marketing alone. Cerf and Barnett are also conducting research on how it can be used in classroom environments, sports stadiums and political campaigns.

"We can use this method to measure the effectiveness of any advertisement, speech, lecture, song anything you can think of where memory and engagement matter," Cerf said. "And we can do it more accurately than traditional methods."

Explore further: EEGs can predict a movie's success better then surveys

More information: Samuel B. Barnett et al. A Ticket for Your Thoughts: Method for Predicting Movie Trailer Recall and Future Ticket Sales Using Neural Similarity among Moviegoers, Journal of Consumer Research (2017). DOI: 10.1093/jcr/ucw083

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Neuroscience

Cognitive neuroscience postgrads: delving into the mysteries of the mind – The Guardian

Prof Tim Andrews of the University of York: We can ask questions about the way in which the brain and the mind work. Photograph: Suxy Harrison/Suzy Harrison/University of York

How does the brain think? That is the question posed by a masters degree in cognitive neuroscience, which is being taken increasingly by students interested in the link between the brain and the mind.

And the proliferation of sophisticated machines, such as MRI scanners that can diagnose dementia, has created a need for trained people to analyse the information they provide.

Prof Tim Andrews, director of the MSc in cognitive neuroscience at the University of York, says: The MSc is designed to show students how modern techniques in brain imaging can be used to ask questions about the way in which the brain and the mind work.

Students at York gain experience in functional magnetic resonance imaging, magnetoencephalography, electroencephalography (EEG), and transcranial magnetic stimulation. They also design experiments to learn from and explain the brain mechanisms that underpin learning and behaviour.

The course, which is also run at Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool Hope universities, is aimed mainly at people interested in an academic career in cognitive neuroscience in other words those who want to pursue a PhD and follow an academic path.

If you are interested in having a career in the field and asking questions about the brain, you need to understand how these tools that have been developed work and how to understand the data, says Andrews.

York has its own MRI scanner, which is housed in the York Neuroimaging Centre. The university is highly rated for neuroscience and has invested heavily in equipment, giving students first-hand experience of using brain-imaging techniques.

The University of Birmingham also gives students access to expensive kit and a research centre. According to Dr Pia Rotshtein who developed the universitys MSc in brain imaging and cognitive neuroscience one of the courses biggest pluses is that students receive two research placements, where they are able to work with international researchers in the field.

The masters in cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging at Liverpool Hope University is only in its second year, but has already doubled its student numbers from five to 10.

Students at Liverpool Hope are able to use the EEG lab, which is on campus, as well as other labs that are located locally. However, they have to go into the city to use the MRI scanners in the University of Liverpools Magnetic Resonance and Image Analysis Research Centre.

Megan Kelleher, 22, has a first degree in psychology from Liverpool Hope University. She signed up for its cognitive neuroscience MSc to pursue her interest in the connections between the mind and the brain.

In the final year of my undergraduate degree I had the chance to take an option in cognitive neuroscience, which I found fascinating. In my dissertation I used neuroimaging electroencephalography (EEG) methodology to explore peoples emotional responses to familiar and unfamiliar kinds of music. You can see quite clearly how the brain reacts to different genres of music and which music people prefer.

I am finding the masters a challenge, but Im learning a lot. We have learned about the structure and functions of the brain and about memory and brain damage. One of the most interesting topics we have done is neural plasticity, which is about how the brain develops over time and changes when you are learning new things. Now we have begun to learn how to analyse EEG data, following up on the work I did in my undergraduate dissertation. I feel that once I have completed this MSc I will be able to call myself a scientist.

Science is now bridging the gap between psychology and biology, which were onceseen as separate domains. Having a masters in cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging means employers know you are up to date and have conducted modern, advanced research. For my dissertation I hope to investigate evolutionary psychology, using EEG neuroimaging. After my masters, I am planning to continue in academia, either by taking a PhD or a doctorate in clinical psychology.

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Cognitive neuroscience postgrads: delving into the mysteries of the mind - The Guardian

Immunology

Trinitys New Immunology Research Centre Seeks Funding from SFI – The University Times

Sinad Baker for The University Times

Trinitys newest research centre will find out in early May whether they will receive funding from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), after a round of interviews and applications that will determine the future of the ambitious immunology institution.

Trinity is currently seeking funding from the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), to establish the INNATE Inflammation and Immunology Research Centre in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI).

In an email to The University Times, Prof Andrew Bowie, the Head of Immunology in Trinity, confirmed that the centre has a final interview on March 1st, and should receive SFIs final decision in early May.

Bowie declined to comment further, due to the sensitive information involved in the application, which is still being considered by SFI.

SFI funding would not only see the creation of the centre but also the refurbishment of a space in TBSI in which it will be housed.

The new centre will follow a similar model to that of other Trinity research institutes, collaborating with industry and integrating researchers from other Irish universities, including University College Dublin (UCD) and Maynooth University. The centre will specialise in research on the immune system and inflammation, a bodily reaction at the centre of many diseases, including arthritis, diabetes, cancer and bowel disease.

One of the key members of the new centre is expert in immunology Prof Luke ONeill. ONeill was recently granted a lab by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in Stevenage, England where he will act as Trinity supervisor to two Trinity PhD students, whom GSK will fund to work with their scientists, researching immunology and inflammatory diseases. Elected as a Fellow in 2016 to the prestigious Royal Society, ONeill is one of Trinitys most successful researchers, and has attracted millions in researching funding over the years.

At a meeting of Trinitys Finance Committee in December, the committee noted that the INNATE proposal has the potential to generate a number of financial and strategic benefits for Trinity. The establishment of the centre will also include refurbishment costs for a space in TBSI, with the committee noting that the costs for the space should come from Trinitys funding contribution to the centre. Rental costs for any additional space will be met, however, by INNATE.

The committee also noted that the Faculty of Health Sciences should make a contribution to the refurbishment of the space. If the bid for funding from SFI is successful, the finance committee requested that INNATE would re-engage with the Faculty of Health Science in order to try and secure additional financial support. However if the application is unsuccessful it was was agreed that no refurbishment of TBSI would take place.

SFI currently provides funds for three research centres in Trinity: the Centre for Future Networks and Communications research (CONNECT), the Centre for Advanced Materials and Bio-Engineering Research (AMBER) and ADAPT, which specialises in digital technology. In February, Trinity received 2 million in funding from SFI for the development of the Colleges infrastructure, and numerous principal investigators and Trinity staff rely on funding from the organisation to complete their research. In 2015/16, 46 per cent of total research funding in Trinity came from SFI.

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Trinitys New Immunology Research Centre Seeks Funding from SFI - The University Times