Daily consumption of tea protects the elderly from cognitive decline

Date:

March 16, 2017

Source:

National University of Singapore

Summary:

Tea drinking reduces the risk of cognitive impairment in older persons by 50 per cent and as much as 86 per cent for those who are genetically at risk of Alzheimer’s, new research concludes. -link to sciencedaily news article

oled research tech news

Minuscule amounts of impurities in vacuum greatly affecting OLED lifetime

Reproducibility is a necessity for science but has often eluded researchers studying the lifetime of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Recent research from Japan sheds new light on why: impurities present in the vacuum chamber during fabrication but in amounts so small that they are easily overlooked. -sciencedaily source link

Calorie reduction negatively affecting lifespan comment

Famine may have a lasting impact on male descendants of its victims

New research suggests that periods of fasting or starvation may significantly shorten the lifespans of both children and their male descendants. -source link

As I've commented previously elsewhere, real periods of famine should not offer optimal rich micronutrient diets in general, and should thus most probably not see the benefits of calorie restriction on lifespan.   Calorie Restriction requires optimal micronutrient supply for it to actually extend lifespan, in real life situations it is difficult for this to happen, especially at the more extreme levels of calorie restriction.   The more extreme the level the more unlikely it is that in a natural environment optimal nutrient intake will be attainable.

Also there were comments saying that in adulthood there was also a need to gradual transition from regular to calorie restricted diet, in order to see benefits, iirc.  Again not necessarily guaranteed in natural environment famines.

The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, or is it? article link | comments

Five years ago, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three astronomers for their discovery that the universe is expanding at an accelerating pace. This led to the widespread acceptance of the idea that the universe is dominated by a mysterious substance named 'dark energy' that drives this accelerating expansion. Now, a team of scientists has cast doubt on this standard cosmological concept. The evidence for acceleration may be flimsier than previously thought, they say, with the data being consistent with a constant rate of expansion.-source sciencedaily news

Some physicists have speculated that perhaps if the universe can be made to contract infinite computational power could be obtained as well as infinite computational time.   This hypothesized state has been called the omega point, it is a highly controversial idea.   I would say that even if evidence for an omega point possibility mounted somehow, the conclusions derived by some regards the implications do not necessarily follow.

Ideas regarding extremely unusual, miracle like events being the product of such, are not necessarily needed as far as I see.  Though the reasoning behind such attributions need to be checked, to see if there's any valid reason to do so, especially if evidence mounted to suggest such a potential future.   In all likelihood to propagate a religious belief at most only the founder and perhaps a few of the followers need to have certain thoughts or ideas, this can occur via simple natural events without invoking exotic highly unlikely events that would border on physical law violation.

Claims that border on nonsensical have to be regarded as nonsensical, whatever their origin.    The likeliest explanation for nonsensical claims is mere natural events of common nature, not uncommon nature.  At most one might regard as extremely unlikely the inception of  ideas if some form of information could be sent, no extreme uncommon miracle like event need to ever occur.  

future computer tech news

Researchers have developed new, nonlinear, chaos-based integrated circuits that enable computer chips to perform multiple functions with fewer transistors. These integrated circuits can be manufactured with "off the shelf" fabrication processes and could lead to novel computer architectures that do more with less circuitry and fewer transistors.-sciencedaily source