Emotional Computers; Parents Don't Know Where Their Kids Are
Discovered: An anti-drinking drug, emotional computers, parents don't know where there kids are sometimes, there's oxygen and possibly life on Saturn's moon, and a creature that sees without eyes.
- Computers that understand human emotions. We're one step closer to real-life Bicentennial Man. (Not something we're sure we want, but it's not up to us, we guess.) Science has developed a machine that (kind of) understands human emotions. "In addition to enhancing the content of the message, the new technology provides information regarding the cognitive states, motivation levels and social dynamics of the students," explains researcher Sidney D'Mello. Sounds potentially romantic. But, for now, the technology is supposed to help kids learn better. "Much like a gifted human tutor, AutoTutor and Affective AutoTutor attempt to keep the student balanced between the extremes of boredom and bewilderment by subtly modulating the pace, direction and complexity of the learning task," continues D'Mello. Student teacher relationship, perhaps? [University of Notre Dame]
- Parents don't know where their kids are sometimes. Not as often as you hooligans might like. But, at least once a month, the answer was no for 36 percent and nearly 25 percent of 15 year old boys and girls, respectively. This should concern moms and dads because the research also found, bad things happen at night when parents don't know what's going on. For example, "64 percent of 15 year old girls who stay out frequently past 9 pm without their parent's knowledge consumed alcohol more than once in the last month, compared with only 25 per cent of girls who hadn't stayed out in the past month," explains the research. "Five times more boys who frequently stay out late without their parents knowing where they are report ever having used cannabis, compared to boys who do not stay out late," continues the research. [Understanding Society]
- There's oxygen and maybe life on one of Saturn's moon. The research is all about oxygen, but what we care about is alliens. What do you have research? "The concentration of oxygen in Dione's atmosphere is roughly similar to what you would find in Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of about 300 miles. It's not enough to sustain life," said researcher Robert Tokar. Oh. Bummer. So what does this mean, then? "But -- together with similar observations of other moons around Saturn and Jupiter -- these are definitive examples of a process by which a lot of oxygen can be produced in icy celestial bodies that are bombarded by charged particles or photons from the Sun or whatever light source happens to be nearby," he continued, meaning, the possibility of life, one day, maybe. [DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory]
- A creature that sees without eyes. There's this hydra that has no eyes, no eyeballs, no eye sockets -- nothing. But it still responds to light. Basically, their tentacles have these cells that react to light somehow and do the seeing for them. That would like seeing with our fingers. [BioMed Central Limited]
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