The days when we could do it all in our heads are over.
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Tag Archives: Memory
Alzheimer’s Drug Poses a Dilemma for the F.D.A.
If the agency approves it, aducanumab would be the first new Alzheimer’s treatment since 2003. Patients are desperate for new options, but some scientists say there isn’t enough evidence it works.
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How to Forget Something
With effort, it’s possible to forget certain memories. Start by identifying what triggers them.
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How Post-Covid Small Talk Could Be Deeper and Better
As we emerge from social isolation, there are ways to make our conversations richer and deeper.
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How Spending Mistakes Can Be Early Signs of Alzheimer’s
Impulsive purchases, out-of-control spending: These behaviors can be early signs of Alzheimer’s disease or other cognitive decline.
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They Have Alzheimer’s. This Clinical Trial May Be a Last Hope.
In the narrow window in which patients are aware of their disease, they have sought help in clinical trials. But enrolling enough participants to make these trials count is not easy.
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Daydreaming Can Be Good for You
Far from a waste of time, daydreaming might be one of the best things you can do with your free time.
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Why We Romanticize the Past
Ah, the good old days. Were they really that good?
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Science Plays the Long Game. But People Have Mental Health Issues Now.
I’ve reported on behavior and mental health for 20 years. As I exit, I can’t help but wonder why researchers have placed so little emphasis on helping people in distress today.
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Walking and Other Aerobic Exercise May Aid the Aging Brain
Older people with mild cognitive impairment showed improvements in brain blood flow and memory after a yearlong aerobic exercise program.
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‘Busy Inside,’ a New Documentary, Explores Dissociative Identity Disorder
The condition, formerly called multiple personality disorder, affects a surprising 1 percent of the population.
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How Exercise Enhances Aging Brains
Sedentary, older adults who took aerobic dance classes twice a week showed improvements in brain areas critical for memory and thinking.
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Why Your Brain Feels Broken
Pandemic stress and multitasking can affect memory in a real way.
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Why Your Brain Feels Broken
Pandemic stress and multitasking can affect memory in a real way.
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Tony Bennett Reveals He Has Alzheimer’s Disease
“He’s not the old Tony anymore,” his wife, Susan, said. “But when he sings, he’s the old Tony.”
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New metamaterial merges magnetic memory and physical changes
For applications like robotics, there’s usually a clear division of labor between the processors that control the robot’s body and the actuators that actually control the physical changes of that body. But a new paper being released today blurs the lines between the two, using a magnetic switch in a way that both stores a bit representing the hardware’s state and alters the physical conformation of the hardware. In essence, it merges memory and physical changes.
This particular implementation doesn’t seem to be especially useful—it’s much too big to be a practical form of memory, and the physical changes are fairly limited. But the concept is intriguing, and it’s possible that someone more adept at creative thinking can find ways of modifying the concept to create a useful device.
A magnetic metamaterial?
A metamaterial is generally defined as a material that is structured so that it has properties that aren’t found in bulk mixes of its raw materials. A broad reading of that definition, however, would mean that a car is a metamaterial, which makes the definition near meaningless. The researchers behind the new device, based at Switzerland’s École Polytechnique Fedeŕale de Lausanne, claim their creation is a metamaterial, but it’s fairly large (roughly a cube three centimeters on a side) and has a number of distinct parts. I’d tend to call that a device rather than a material and will use that terminology here.
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Welcome to Our Museum of Smells
Experience how scent and memory are intimately connected.
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Singing My Dad Back to Me
For a moment, songs let us share the same space in our minds, though it’s only as temporary as the memory occupying his.
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Where’d I Stash That Chocolate? It’s Easy to Remember
People were more likely to remember the locations of high-calorie foods they’d smelled or tasted than the locations of low-calorie foods.
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‘I Feel Like I Have Dementia’: How Brain Fog Plagues Covid-19 Survivors
The condition is affecting thousands of patients, impeding their ability to work and function in daily life.
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Will They See Me as a Son, a Daughter or a Stranger?
Thirteen years ago, my parents tried to wish away my gender transition. Now, Alzheimer’s threatens to erase their memory of me altogether.
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Samsung’s second-quarter profit grew 23% year-over-year, thanks to strong chip demand
Samsung Electronics sounded a cautiously optimistic note in its earnings report today. The company is continuing to deal with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, but its memory business was fortified by demand for DRAM chips as data centers adapted to an increase in remote work and education.
Second-quarter operating profit grew 26% from the previous quarter, and 23% year-over-year to 8.15 trillion won (about $6.84 billion), due largely to more sales of DRAM chips. Revenue fell 4% from the previous quarter, and 6% year-over-year, to 53 trillion won, while net profit rose 7% to 5.6 trillion won. Samsung said revenue was impacted by lower sales of smartphones and other devices, but some of that was offset by reduced marketing spending and other cost-cutting measures.
Samsung Electronics will launch new models of its flagship smartphones, including the Galaxy Note and a foldable device, at its online Galaxy Unpacked event on August 5, but will also focus on increasing sales of low- to mid-priced phones, which it expects to drive revenue during the rest of the year.
The company also acknowledged that it faces intense competition from other smartphone makers. In fact, on the same day that Samsung announced its second-quarter earnings, research firm Canalys released a report that said Huawei shipped more smartphones globally than any other vendor in the second-quarter, despite dealing with American government restrictions, displacing Samsung from the top position for the first time.
On the brighter side, many analysts believe that Samsung, along with TSMC, will benefit from Intel’s recent announcement that it will outsource more semiconductor manufacturing.
Remote services drove demand for DRAM chips
The company’s semiconductor division was helped by demand for DRAM chips from data centers that need to fortify their online infrastructure to support remote workers and online education. PC demand also remained solid because of low-end laptop sales.
But sales of chips for mobile devices remained weak as consumers spent less money because of the pandemic. When they did make purchases, they tended to buy low- to mid-end mobile products, which use less powerful chips.
A “one-off gain” boosted display revenue
Samsung Electronic’s display panel business earnings improved quarter-over-quarter thanks to a “one-off gain” that boosted profits from mobile displays. Samsung did not give details about where the gain came form, but Bloomberg reports it was a compensatory payment of about 1.1 trillion won ($924 million) from Apple after the iPhone maker ordered fewer displays than expected.
But overall demand for displays was lower as COVID-19 hit smartphone sales. Operating losses were offset slightly by purchases of monitors by people working from home.
Samsung Electronics said mobile display demand is expected to recover this year as its biggest clients continue to launch new products, despite continuing uncertainties from the pandemic. It also expects orders for mobile and graphic chips to increase as new smartphones and game consoles are released, and anticipates a “full-fledged rebound in earnings from mobile displays” by the end of the year, due largely to sales of mid- to low-end smartphones.
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How Play Energizes Your Kid’s Brain
Scientists have long studied play to gain insights into the developing human mind.
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Trump Says He ‘Aced’ a Cognitive Test. What Does That Really Mean?
Experts say one popular test that the president might have taken is by no means definitive, or even diagnostic.
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Trump Says He ‘Aced’ a Cognition Test. What Does That Tell Us?
If the president wants to impress us with his intellect, he should take the SAT.
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Photographing the Beauty of My Mother’s Decline
For years, I have been making images of my mother as her dementia progresses. The process brings us closer.
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What Day Is It? You’re Not the Only One Asking
When no one’s leaving the house, what does time even mean?
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Cupid in Quarantine
A global tragedy has forced us into full-time togetherness. Here’s how couples can rekindle romantic love and grow together rather than apart.
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