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What Is Pokémon Go and Why You Should Care
Nintendo has recently-released the Pokémon Go smartphone game has taken the U.S. by storm, ushering in a new age in gaming and augmented reality.
A Pokémon called Pikachu
To put it simply, Pokémon Go is a location-based augmented reality game for your smartphone, the first true hit of this genre. It was developed by Niantic, a company under Google's umbrella. Since it was released in the US a week ago, the game has become a cultural and social phenomenon, quickly going viral, rivaling such online stalwarts as Twitter in popularity.
What do you do in this game? You point your smartphone at the world around you and try to catch magical creatures called Pokémon (short for "pocket monster") that seem to appear on the screen. It's an amazing extension of the game space from the screen to the whole of your everyday experience.
The game uses GPS to pinpoint your location and inserts the little monsters into real spaces that you look at through the phone's camera. The game populates the creatures all over your city, with different kinds of Pokémon materializing depending on where you are and the time of the day. This way you have to go to more places to find all the monsters.
The game is actually smart enough to populate your world with the monsters that are location-dependent. For instance, being on a beach would prompt a water-based Pokémon to pop up.
Once you catch them (which requires you to battle them), you can train the Pokémon and make them fight each other. In the game's parlance, this makes you a "trainer". You can also fight other such trainers to give your little monster expanded abilities and to up your ability to find even rarer Pokémon.
Another aspect of the game are PokéStops, which are specific locations in the "real" world that you can see on a map inside the game. Once you go to these places, you can buy (for real money) the game's weapons called Poké Balls and Pokémon-hatching eggs. You can also buy and set up lures that can attract Pokémon to these locations (a technique used by some businesses like cafes to attract hordes of obsessed Pokémon hunters).
To get all the monsters, you need to travel a lot, both day and night.
How popular has the game been? People are looking for Pokémon all over their cities, parks, offices, and even while in Ubers. The game was even used by some enterprising robbers to lure victims.
The Pokémon franchise is owned by Nintendo and already had a viral phase in the late 1990s, when it became wildly popular on the company's handheld consoles, spawning a tv show, movies and trading cards. The tremendous popularity of this new incarnation of the game brought Nintendo's market value up by $9 billion.
The game's amazing spread has caused much attention and scrutiny, including criticism of how it gathers user data, allowing for possible breaches of security. The developers announced that they are working on a patch to fix any such issues.
The game is available for both iOS and Android.
Happy hunting (and watch out for that light pole as you walk glued to your screen)!
Popular
New study says cosmic acceleration and dark energy don't exist
An Oxford scientist claims a Nobel-Prize-winning conclusion is wrong.
31 October, 2019
Type la supernova remnant
NASA
Surprising Science
- Paper by Oxford University physicist Subir Sarkar and his colleagues challenges how conclusions about cosmic acceleration and dark energy were reached.
- Physicists who proved cosmic acceleration shared a Nobel Prize.
- Sarkar used statistical analysis to question key data, but his methodology also has detractors.
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<p>Is our Universe's expansion speeding up? The 2011 Nobel Prize went to three scientists for proving just that. But what if the evidence they used to come up with this conclusion was wrongly interpreted and the supposed cosmic acceleration is simply an <em>artifact</em> of our movement through a local part of the Universe? In the big picture, there's no speeding up. What's also not there is the mysterious <strong>dark energy, </strong>thought to be creating that acceleration, says a new paper from a group of physicists who take issue with the supernovae-related evidence that was used to come up with the original Nobel-worthy conclusion. </p><p>The <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2011/press-release/" target="_blank">Nobel Prize</a> for the cosmic acceleration idea, if you're wondering, was won by <strong>Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt,</strong> and <strong>Adam Riess </strong>for "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae". They used evidence from exploded stars called <strong>"la supernovae"</strong> or <strong>"standard candles"</strong> to show that the Universe's expansion was getting faster. These kinds of supernovas are so bright that we actually know their absolute brightness. This fact allows scientists to calculate the distance of these explosions from Earth, while studying the red shift in the light they emit points to the Universe's rate of expansion. In 1998, groups led by Perlmutter and Schmidt found light from 50 supernova to be dimmer than it was supposed to be, leading them to conclude that cosmic expansion was actually accelerating (thanks to dark energy – a yet-to-be-directly-observed enigmatic force that supposedly takes up <strong>68% </strong>of all mass-energy in the Universe while causing it to expand).</p>
<p>But while the expansion has become accepted as science fact, there have been some who see things differently. Following up on his 2015 paper on this subject, Oxford University physicist <strong>Subir Sarkar </strong>and his colleagues at the <a href="https://www.nbi.ku.dk/english/" target="_blank">Niels Bohr Institute</a> and the <a href="http://www.iap.fr/?langue=en" target="_blank">Paris Institute of Astrophysics</a> now published a second study taking issue with the idea of a Universe growing with acceleration. </p><p>As explained in <a href="https://physicsworld.com/a/dark-energy-debate-reignited-by-controversial-analysis-of-supernovae-data/" target="_blank">Physics World,</a> by statistically analyzing a sample of <strong>740 l</strong>a supernovae in their 2015 paper, Sarkar's team found "only marginal" support for cosmic acceleration with low statistical significance. The difference in their approach was in how they looked at the procedures used to calculate the absolute brightness of supernovae and how their light is absorbed by dust that gets in the way.</p>
2011 Nobel Laureates in Physics, Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="28ce83ddb06a68f48f7723de30df35de"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7RDs9qJ-kw0?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>2011 Nobel Laureates in Physics, Perlmutter, Schmidt and Riess, describe how an assumed error turned into the surprise discovery that the universe is expandi...<p>Critics of that paper abounded, taking issues with their methodology and pointing to other data that showed acceleration. Now, in the second paper, to be published in <em>Astronomy and Astrophysics</em>, the scientists continue to assail the supernovae evidence and the idea of cosmic acceleration by pointing to anomalies in the red-shift data and how calculations with respect to the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) are carried out. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"If you look at supernovae in only a small part of the sky, it would look like you had cosmic acceleration," <a href="https://physicsworld.com/a/dark-energy-debate-reignited-by-controversial-analysis-of-supernovae-data/" target="_blank">Sarkar says.</a> "But we are saying that it is just a local effect, that we are non-Copernican observers. It has nothing to do with the overall dynamics of the universe and therefore nothing to do with dark energy."</p>
<p>Riess disagrees with Sarkar's conclusions and data, calling it outdated. His team used data from <strong>1,300</strong> supernovae in their latest study and came up with clear-cut support for the acceleration's existence. Furthermore, <a href="https://physicsworld.com/a/dark-energy-debate-reignited-by-controversial-analysis-of-supernovae-data/" target="_blank">he stated, </a>"The evidence for cosmic acceleration and dark energy are much broader than only the supernovae Ia sample."</p><p>Who would argue with a Nobel Prize-winner? Subir Sarkar, who believes that "The CMB does not directly measure dark energy," adding "That is a widely propagated myth." </p><p>You can check out his new paper for yourself at <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1808.04597" target="_blank">arXiv</a>.</p>
Lisa Randall: Dark Energy Will Take Over
<div class="rm-shortcode" data-media_id="oDcTSObk" data-player_id="FvQKszTI" data-rm-shortcode-id="01b8205e912851fbc31a81335b0b463b"> <div id="botr_oDcTSObk_FvQKszTI_div" class="jwplayer-media" data-jwplayer-video-src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/oDcTSObk-FvQKszTI.js"> <img src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/thumbs/oDcTSObk-1920.jpg" class="jwplayer-media-preview" /> </div> <script src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/oDcTSObk-FvQKszTI.js"></script> </div> <p><em>Physicist Lisa Randall on why dark energy doesn't dilute as the universe expands.</em></p>
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Why the US must break the grip of huge monopolies
Monopolies wield an immense amount of economic and political power and influence. So what can we do to make the economy more equitable?
30 October, 2020
Videos
- According to Vanderbilt law professor and author Ganesh Sitaraman, America has a monopoly problem—a problem that is almost universally acknowledged as such, yet little is done about it.
- Sitaraman explains how monopolies of today share DNA with trusts of the 19th century, and how the increased concentration and consolidation of these corporations translates to increased power both economically and politically.
- "We need to think about reinvigorating our anti-trust laws and the principles of anti-monopoly that gave spirit to those laws and to lots of other regulations," he argues. Restoring faith in government and the economy starts with dismantling the things that make people question its allegiances and priorities.
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<div class="amazon-assets-widget__title" style="display: block;">The Great Democracy: How to Fix Our Politics, Unrig the Economy, and Unite America</div>
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Average human body temperature mysteriously declined, finds study
A new study seeks to understand why the average body temperature is no longer 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
30 October, 2020
Man swims in icy water in the Moskva river in Moscow.
Credit: MAXIM MARMUR/AFP via Getty Images
Surprising Science
- Average human body temperatures have declined, show several studies.
- A new paper looked at an indigenous population in the Amazon over 16 years.
- They found the new body temperature of the observed people to be 97.7°F, not the standard 98.6°F.
<p>Temperature checks have become part of the new normal in the world under Covid, but the average body temperature may not be what the thermometers say. A series of studies, including a new paper, propose that the average human body temperature has been dropping for decades and is currently much lower than the accepted 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, in fact, closer to <span style="background-color: initial;">97.5°F.</span></p><p>The established standard for how warm your body should be came from the 19th century German physician Carl Wunderlich, whose 1851 measurement of 98.6°F set the bar for a long time. A <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/359/bmj.j5468" target="_blank">2017 study</a>, however, that looked at 35,000 UK adults, found 97.9°F to be the average. A 2019 study measured 97.5°F as the normal temperature for Americans in Palo Alto, California, where it took place.</p><p>Now, a team of physicians looked at the temperatures of the Tsimane, an indigenous people of the Bolivian Amazon, and discovered a comparable decrease. Observations over a 16-year-period revealed that the temperatures of the Tsimane went down about 0.09°F per year. Today they are at about 97.7°F. </p>
<p>Michael Gurven, professor of anthropology from UC Santa Barbara, who led the research, <a href="https://www.news.ucsb.edu/2020/020081/drop-temperature" target="_blank">commented</a> that "in less than two decades we're seeing about the same level of decline as that observed in the U.S. over approximately two centuries."</p><p>The large study involved 18,000 observations of 5,500 adults and adjusted for factors that could have affected the body heat like outside temperature or body mass. They also used the same type of thermometer throughout, to make sure the instrument wasn't the issue. </p><p>Adjusting for various factors, they sought to figure out the reason for the decrease which was consistently noticed. They conjectured that fewer infections as a result of better hygiene, cleaner conditions, vaccinations and improved medical treatments were possibly responsible for their find. </p>
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<p><span style="background-color: initial;">While such possibilities are there, they did not account fully for the observations. Chances are, a combination of influences is responsible for the lower temps. </span><span style="background-color: initial;">"Declines might be due to the rise of modern health care and lower rates of lingering mild infections now as compared to the past," Gurven <a href="https://www.news.ucsb.edu/2020/020081/drop-temperature" target="_blank">shared</a>. "But while health has generally improved over the past two decades, infections are still widespread in rural Bolivia. Our results suggest that reduced infection alone can't explain the observed body temperature declines."</span></p><p>Some additional explanations offered by Gurven include the fact that we now have better anti-inflammatory drugs and even the advancements in air conditioning. </p><p>"While Tsimane body temperatures do change with time of year and weather patterns, the Tsimane still do not use any advanced technology for helping to regulate their body temperature," Gurven explained. "They do, however, have more access to clothes and blankets."</p>
<p>It should be noted that the study looked at average temperatures, and physicians do not think there is truly one temperature that everyone should have. What's considered "normal" is really a range of temperatures that depends on the individual. Still, the information is valuable in pointing to the population's overall health.<br></p><p>Check out the new paper in <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/44/eabc6599" target="_blank">Sciences Advances.</a></p>
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Mind & Brain
One is the loneliest number: the history of a Western problem
The negative associations of introversion help to explain why loneliness now carries such social stigma.
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