Showing posts with label scientists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scientists. Show all posts
Scientists decode why Einstein was a genius
According to the study led by Florida State University evolutionary anthropologist Dean Falk, portions of Einstein's brain have been found to be unlike those of most people and could be related to his extraordinary cognitive abilities.
Falk and his colleagues describe for the first time the entire cerebral cortex of Einstein's brain from an examination of 14 recently discovered photographs.
The researchers compared Einstein's brain to 85 "normal" human brains and, in light of current functional imaging studies, interpreted its unusual features.
"Although the overall size and asymmetrical shape of Einstein's brain were normal, the prefrontal, somatosensory, primary motor, parietal, temporal and occipital cortices were extraordinary.
"These may have provided the neurological underpinnings for some of his visuospatial and mathematical abilities, for instance," said Falk. The study was published in the journal Brain. On Einstein's death in 1955, his brain was removed and photographed from multiple angles with the permission of his family. Furthermore, it was sectioned into 240 blocks from which histological slides were prepared.
A great majority of the photographs, blocks and slides were lost from public sight for more than 55 years. The 14 photographs used by the researchers now are held by the National Museum of Health and Medicine.
The study also published the "roadmap" to Einstein's brain prepared in 1955 by Dr Thomas Harvey to illustrate the locations within his previously whole brain of 240 dissected blocks of tissue, which provides a key to locating the origins within the brain of the newly emerged histological slides.
Nobel Physics to make new fast computers
Serge Haroche of France and David Wineland of the United States on Tuesday won the Nobel Prize for work in quantum physics that could one day open the way to revolutionary computers.
The pair were honoured for pioneering optical experiments in "Measuring and manipulation of Individual quntum systems" the Physics Nobel jury said in its citation
"Their groundbreaking methods have enabled this field of research to take the very first steps towards building a new type of superfast computer based on quantum physics,".
The research has also led to the construction of extremely precise clocks that could become the future basis for a new standard of time, with more than hundred-fold greater precision than present-day caesium clocks.
The two scientists specialize in quantum entanglement, a phenomenon of particle physics that has been proven by experiments but remains poorly understood.
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