Science around the world!

Transgenic cows are doing things: Transgenic cows boost human insulin production by 10X. A genetically modified cow has produced milk containing human insulin, according to a new study. The proof-of-concept achievement could be scaled up to, eventually, produce enough insulin to ensure availability and reduced cost for all diabetics requiring the life-maintaining drug.

Cash cows!

Humans are doing things too!: Anti-piracy messages can cause people to pirate more rather than less, with gender differences. One threatening message influences women to reduce their piracy intentions by over 50% and men to increase it by 18%, finds a new study. Digital piracy is costly to creative economies across the world. Studies indicate that anti-piracy messages can cause people to pirate more rather than less, suggesting the presence of psychological reactance.

Doggies too!: Dogs could leave you less stressed and help you concentrate | Study found the strength of alpha-band brainwaves increased while participants played with and walked the dog, indicating a state of relaxed wakefulness.

A relaxing doggie

Propagandists are busy helping us being confused, disinformed, emotional and deceived: Many Americans find it difficult to differentiate between statements of fact and statements of opinion, finds a new study. As views grow more polarized, partisans increasingly see their side as holding facts and the opposing side as holding opinions. Researchers looked at three kinds of responses: accurate response, partisan error, and unbiased (or nonpartisan) error. 

Accurate fact-opinion differentiation occurs less frequently than partisan error and unbiased error. Accuracy increases with elements of political sophistication including civics knowledge, current events knowledge, cognitive ability, and education. Affective partisan polarization heightens levels of partisan error.

Faulty fact-opinion differentiation produces meta-level misinformation: Individuals disagree not only on the facts but also on what facts are. This can lead to information polarization because biased partisans tend to see their side as possessing the facts and the other side as possessing opinions. Faulty fact-opinion differentiation may also produce resistance to correction of misinformation if an “agree to disagree” mentality extends to questions of fact.

To see how well you can distinguish statements of fact from opinion statements, here are links to three different fun fact vs. opinion tests: test 1, test 2, test 3. What is your average score? Mine is . . . . . 

Neuroscientists are doing neuroscience things: Chronic inflammation caused by stress is affecting our collective thinking and behavior, and it’s keeping society in a “self-sustaining cycle of societal dysfunction and environmental degradation” which is keeping us from taking action on issues like climate change and social unrest. Scientists hypothesize that inflammatory stress is spreading among people at unprecedented rates, impairing human decision-making and behavior at scale – and hence our cognitive ability to address critical issues like climate change, the Covid-19 pandemic, and social unrest. The article also offers a mathematical model to test links among stress, inflammation, cognition, and healing. Early insights suggest the need for interventions at multiple levels to reduce stress and build resilience in both individuals and communities.

It's a good thing none of us here expose ourselves to stressful things like politics.

Exposing ourselves to non-stressful

things