Round Up of the week:brain structure,food and that wretched virus again

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Our weekly round up things we think might still be important five years from now.

Brain architecture. Sometimes small clues lead to mighty discoveries. Secondly, when you discover a small but consistent pattern in everyones’ brain, you’re probably on to something deep in neural architecture, whatever that something is. The way the brain processes words and numbers differently has always fascinated. One for more research-and this time Nature gives us a video! Human brains struggle to subtract

When solving problems, people tend to think about adding something before they think of taking something away — even when subtracting is the better solution. Experiments show that this newly discovered psychological phenomenon applies across a range of situations, from improving a physical design to solving an abstract puzzle.Nature | 6 min video
Reference: Nature paper

When food was politics Even if you can’t get to Spain this year, here’s a story which will resonate. When the Christians conquered Granada in 1492, they tried to ban the locals from eating Muslim food. But locals carried on defiantly in secret, as archaeology now shows. Here’s The Conversation with a a great food story:

https://theconversation.com/new-archaeology-finding-shows-how-muslim-cuisine-endured-in-secret-despite-policing

Coronavirus variants A year of experience shows that letting the coronavirus rip only leads to mutations and more infections. What are variants, and how do they work? Nature tells us below in a video called the Science of Coronavirus Variants

SARS-CoV-2 variants are complicated: each one is made up of a collection of mutations, all of which have the potential to change the virus in unexpected ways. A Nature video explores what they might mean for the future of the pandemic.Nature | 6 min video (on YouTube)

Weaning people off cars How do you get people out of gas-guzzlers and can you make them more healthy as you do it? There are different approaches. Here El Pais contasts the French approach, which is to get us all on bikes, with the Spanish who seem to be staking their all on electric cars. Does this reflect a cultural difference, we wonder?

https://elpais.com/clima-y-medio-ambiente/2021-04-16/francia-propone-ayudas-para-cambiar-coches-viejos-p

_{warning- English followers will need their translation apps for this one}

#brain #thinking #coronavirus #covid-19 #sars-cov-2 #pandemic #herdimmunity #spain #muslim #christian #food #granada #electricbicycles #greentransport