Humans aren't the only animals that feel bad about making poor choices.

Humans aren't the only animals that feel bad about making poor choices.

Image: Shutterstock

This is possibly the cutest research ever. Adam Steiner and David Redish from the University of Minnesota have shown that rats feel regret just like we do!

The scientists used an experiment, which they nicknamed "Restaurant Row", to create choices for rats. The rats would enter the maze and hear a tone that would indicate how long they would have to wait for food. They could then decide to linger at a particular spot or move onto the next position, where food of varying quality was available. Rats who made what they perceived to be the wrong choice wistfully looked back at the food they could have had (adorable, isn't it?).

More conclusively, however, rats experiencing regret were more likely to wait at the second zone to receive a food reward and rushed to eat whatever was provided. Scientists say this is a demonstration of regret. Brain scans taken afterwards showed increased activity in the orbitofrontal cortex, the part of the brain associated with reward calculations and feelings of regret in humans. 

"In humans, a part of the brain called the orbitofrontal cortex is active during regret. We found that in rats recognising that they made a mistake, their orbitofrontal cortex represented the missed opportunity," Prof Redish told BBC reporter, Zoe Gough.

"Interestingly, the rat's orbitofrontal cortex represented what the rat should have done, not the missed reward. This makes sense because you don't regret the thing you didn't get, you regret the thing you didn't do."

New device turns your paper plane into a drone

Clip-on technology allows you to control a paper plane with your smart phone.

Image: The Wall Street Journal & PowerUp 3.0

Thanks to a new device, you can now create a controllable drone in less than one minute. But it doesn’t stop them from nose-diving, unfortunately.

The Kickstarter-funded PowerUp 3.0 is a lightweight guidance and propulsion system power by a tiny battery. All you need to do to use it is fold your own aircraft, clip it on and connect it to your smartphone using bluetooth.

Then you simply throw the paper plane, and if it takes to the skies you can control its flight from your phone, as Jack Nicas reports for The Wall Street Journal.

As anyone who’s played with paper planes know, that’s a big if. The Guinness World Record for flying a paper plane is currently 27.9 seconds, and, let's be fair, most made at home tend to crash within seconds.

But a YouTube user has posted videos of himself flying his PowerUp paper plane for several minutes, showing it's possible. It all depends on your ability to fold a aerodynamically sound aircraft, and that's part of the fun.

Of course, these drones aren’t as impressive or useful as the ones that could one day deliver packages or beam high-speed internet for Google and Facebook, but they’re pretty cool to play around with. And they’re only US$50.

But minidrones such as this one are still stirring up some debate about what should be allowed in our air space, so enjoy playing while you can.

Learning a second language at any age slows down mental decline

A new study shows that studying another language helps keep your brain sharp as you age - no matter when you start.

Image: Kenny Stoltz/Flickr

It’s never too late to pick up a second language and reap the brain benefits, a study spanning seven decades has revealed. 

It’s long been suggested that speaking another language can improve cognitive abilities, and studies have even suggested that people with Alzheimer’s who are fluent in two languagesdevelop symptoms of the condition four or five years later than people who can only speak one language.

But this research hadn’t been able to untangle whether it was learning a language that was providing these benefits, or whether something else was involved - particularly as a lot of studies were on people who grew up bilingual.

This new research, published in Annals of Neurology, changes that. The study tracked around 1,100 people born in Scotland in 1936, and tested their mental abilities both at age 11 and when they were in their early 70s, and offers the best evidence to date that learning another language slows the mental decline that comes with getting older.

When the participants had their first tests at 11, none of the participants spoke another language, as Catherine de Lange reports for New Scientist. But by the age of 70, around one-third or 262 of the participants had learned a second language.

The team from the University of Edinburgh in the UK found that this group got better scores on their 70s tests than their 11-year-old test scores predicted.

Given that individual IQs and starting test scores were all factored into the study, this suggests that it was learning the language that caused the difference.

According to Thomas Bak, leader of the study, the benefits of learning a second language to the ageing brain were comparable to physical activity or not smoking.

So what's causing this slow-down of congitive decline? de Lange explains: “A leading theory is that people who speak several languages constantly activate all the available words in each one before choosing the appropriate expression, giving them a mental workout.”

Astronauts to Watch World Cup football aboard Space Station

                            Astronauts to Watch World Cup aboard Space Station

As fans around the world tune in to World Cup 2014, a few fans out of this world will be watching, too. United States astronauts Reid Wiseman and Steve Swanson and German astronaut Alexander Gerst will be cheering on their teams from some 230 miles above Earth aboard the International Space Station.

› View NASA's World Cup 2014 page

The crew sent down a special message to wish good luck to all the players and teams as they compete in World Cup 2014 in Brazil from June 12 until the final match July 13. The astronauts have trained for years to work together as a unified crew, but the U.S. astronauts and their German crewmate are feeling a little friendly competition: their home countries will play against each other for a chance to advance out of Group G of the World Cup matches. USA and Germany face off on June 26 at Arena Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil.

Reid Wiseman, of NASA, and Alexander Gerst, of the European Space Agency, arrived at the space station on May 28 as part of the Expedition 40/41 crew and are scheduled to spend the next several months living and working in space until they return to Earth in November 2014. Steven Swanson arrived as part of the Expedition 39/40 crew on March 25 and is expected to return home in September 2014.

› Watch the video on YouTube

For more information about the International Space Station and its current crew, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station/

You can Follow Reid Wiseman and Alexander Gerst on Twitter at @Astro_Reidand @Astro_Alex.

A wearable SIM card to rule them all

      A wearable SIM card to rule them all

A new concept design will let you share your data plan with multiple devices. 

Image: Simon Yeon/Flickr

Japanese company DoCoMo announced a concept design that could change the ways in which we access data through our mobile devices. Their Portable SIM device is true out-of-the-box thinking and could solve various connectivity issues. 

This is how it works: instead of placing a SIM card inside your smartphone or tablet, you wear it on a smartwatch-looking bracelet with Bluetooth and NFC (Near Field Communication) capacities. Data is then transferred to your tablet, smartphone, smart TV, or even in-car informatics systems. 

The device itself has an interface that will let users access social networking sites and shop online. Portable SIM will also store your passwords, so you don’t have to type them in when you shop online or access other sites. To tackle security issues, the SIM card’s phone number will be locked once the Bluetooth links to the external device ends. 

Portable SIM is not yet commercialised and more development is needed. The current prototype is roughly the size of a credit card, but DoCoMo is working towards size optimisation. Portable SIM sets a promising precedent for the future of wearable computing. 

6 SHIFTS IN CONSCIOUSNESS WE ARE EXPERIENCING RIGHT NOW

Absolutely everything is a wave of energy and there are many new energies taking place on Earth. We’ve shifted consciousness, but we’re still using old reflections to create our reality.

Abundance in all aspects of life is now much easier to achieve in the new vibration and a confidence in our abilities will soon magnify to great levels in the coming years. There will be some obstacles and challenges ahead, but know that the following shifts in our being are happening right now as all humans are born into spiritual wealth without practice.

Vibrating frequencies build a virtual construct that makes you think you are in a physical world, but you are not. You are in a holographic universe which is an illusion so well designed, that only the highest beings of light can see it for what it is. This is your destiny, but now you will continue to play this game called Earth at a level never played before. You are still playing with three dimensional rules in a fifth dimensional world, but you’re quickly learning how to make the transition by shifting energy.

Think about all the areas of wellness, whether they be physical, mental, social, lifestyle, morals, the spiritual aspects of life (e.g. new age, Western religion, Eastern spirituality)…they are all enveloped and affected by energy. How you think, feel and act is all energetic.

Right or wrong, black and white, good and bad don’t really exist, but we still need the duality to continue the game in its current form. You will soon discover that everything is a shade of grey.

The most important thing you can do right now is little the what is whispering to your heart. It won’t shout to get your attention so you must listen very closely to the messages you are receiving.

6 Shifts in Consciousness We Are Experiencing Right Now

1. THE REALIZATION OF THE ETERNAL NATURE OF YOUR BEING

You are immortal in a physical vessel which you decide is mortal. Your physical vessel does not need to die, but you have come to accept that it will, so it does. There is a balance of well-being that is certain for all of us. You all have a shared pain and part of the process of integration is the understanding of why it exists. Illness is not always a sign that there is something wrong. To acclimate to new energy, many of you have chosen to push through these physical barriers first. You have been conditioned that you must all naturally contract diseases and take drugs to fix them. This is not so.

You WILL know the eternal nature of your being and you will enjoy putting down your burdens and stop struggling to defend and guard against things you feel have gone wrong and must be made right. This is where most of your pain resides. You will learn to love knowing that you don’t have to fix your planet or anybody else and that everything is just as it should be. You will come to know that your governments are exactly where they should be as are all your diverse beliefs and desires. Things do not have to change for you to be who and what you came here to be. It is then and only then that all the “fixing” required by your egos will actually occur, but you will also know that in reality, nothing ever needed to be fixed. You will let go of any resistance and hold yourself in steady alignment. Will it not be a magnificent moment when humanity can just be without having to be something else? This is where you are headed because you are divine beings of light and you have become masters at this game you call Earth. You no longer need to allow fear and resistance to subject your life to pain. You are moving away from this and transitioning more to love.

2. SHIFT IN VITAL AND SPIRITUAL ENERGY

Vital energy makes up about 70% of total subtle energy and sustains the physical body, mind, intellect and ego. It is distributed through subtle channels which connect at special points of intensity most popularly known as chakras. This constructs the physical (voluntary and involuntary actions) and the subtle body (conscious/subconscious mind, intellect and ego). It is prevalent throughout the body and supplies energy to the cells, nerves, arteries, lymph etc. Some concepts relating to the subtle body are partially understood by scientists, but the level of understanding has always been rudimentary. That is now changing.

Spiritual or Kundalini energy lies dormant in a person until activated. These concepts cannot be measured with current technology. Those who have practiced meditation and spiritual principles at the qualitative and quantitative level have assisted in the continual grace of principles that leads these Kundalini forces on the right path. However, the shift in global frequencies and fifth dimensional concepts is allowing all of humanity to earn spiritual wealth simultaneously and without the efforts that were once necessary. In the past, people had to work hard to amass spiritual wealth. Now, it will be as if all humans are born into spiritual wealth without practice. You have received a magnificent upgrade that is allowing this energy to be activated by simply embracing the being that you are. It is leading to spiritual growth at an accelerated rate.

3. ENERGETIC HARMONY

Imagine creating a unified harmony through 800 trillion cells and vibrating them into health and well being. Humming itself produces overtones which can heal your mind, body and spirit. You will begin loving your voice and humming or singing from day to day to assist in accelerating your spiritual growth. It will come natural to you. You will begin feeling mystic silent overtones vibrating through your cells and body. This will also awaken your deepest desires to be unified with overtones of love and help breakdown stiffness and pain and facilitate your spirit body to flow.

As you begin to breakdown the veil, you will realize you have a shared pain on this planet and it is not your own. It is connected to everyone and everything. There is beauty in that shared pain and you will learn to see it for what it is through energetic harmony. You will move past specific body pain you thought was your own when it was actually part of the collective. Once embraced, this pain will cease to exist. You will let this pain go because you will understand its origin. Many of you will heal from pain and disease in ways you will think are miracles, but it will be simply the miracle of who you are and nothing more.

4. ENERGETIC CAUSATION

What scientific studies have failed to address on the planet is causation. They have tried through many different methods to obtain conclusive results in their scientific research through a countless number of double blind, placebo controlled and random studies which are considered the highest standards for scientific experiment. We can tell you that there has never been one published scientific study based on this standard that has identified causation beyond sub-atomic levels. Yet it is precisely those levels that cause everything to manifest in the physical body as it does.

Scientific studies can only derive correlations because they do not address energetic causation which is the underlying mechanism behind every single experience and event whether physical or non-physical. 100% of your diseases are based on energetic components within your field. There is NO other cause of disease. Diseases are primarily third dimensional experiences and will cease to exist when you learn to remain at higher dimensions, and you will.

This will be a big one for scientists as many will learn in the coming decade to factor energetic principles as causation before initiating any study. You will all begin to have a better understanding of the effect of energetic resonance and the effects on all physical things. This will revolutionize science and remove many obstacles that have hindered scientific inquiry from progressing on the planet. The physics and the metaphysics will soon combine.

5. ENERGETIC TRANSFER AND REFLECTION

You can only attract what is within your vibrational field. There are no experiences that you can obtain in physical form without attracting them from a vibrational perspective. That includes the most horrific experiences and the most beautiful ones. What you will learn to do is accept relationships and experiences for what they are. People and experiences serve as a reflection to teach you something about yourself. If somebody says something that offends you, it is because your vibrational field contained an element that needed to be addressed. You will see these people differently. You will thank them for being that reflection and the transfer of energy that was necessary for you to recognize your own vibration. You will honor these people for coming into your life and teaching you what would otherwise be quite difficult to learn without their assistance.

You will come to enjoy the effect that all people have on you, even those you now consider to be obnoxious, rude, insensitive, careless, ignorant, etc. These are qualities you have always judged in yourself and the reflection is only there because you attract it. So start thanking your overbearing boss, nosy neighbour or rude coworker for what they bring to your energy field, because you’ve attracted them into your life for a reason and they’re only doing their job…to be the light you want them to be, and most of the time, it was a mutual effort and request.

6. POLARITY CONSCIOUSNESS AND NEUTRALITY

Perhaps one of the biggest victories awaiting humanity is the shift from polarity or duality consciousness and the dichotomous right vs. wrong which has resulted in much of the conflict and suffering that exists between men and women, people of various races, the wealthy and poor, the strong and weak. Hierarchies have also been formed creating further degrees of separation, (good, better, best) where particular persons or events were rigorously judged within this context. This will end.

All of humanity will begin to understand that all experiences and perceptions are neutral in nature and it is only the ego which places an emphasis on good vs. bad, or right vs. wrong. This shift will be part of the grand awakening which is currently well on its way.

You will begin uniting and accepting each other as equals, and this will be passed to your children liberating successive generations from the shackles of duality. Humanity has already begun transcending this pattern.

Life’s experiences which are now viewed in extreme polarity and prejudice will be viewed as the natural order of one’s life. Being present in that observation by loving, allowing and accepting the world will lead to joy, happiness and enlightenment.

The hard part is over. The only thing left to do now is alter your expectations and enjoy the ride. You are a divine being of light and your true nature will soon be all you know. The pace is now accelerating and the coming changes will also be met by shifts in monetary systems, the political landscape and well as modifications in social and economical infrastructures. This will happen sooner than later, but likely before the end of this year. Many of these events will happen simultaneously and when the greater cycles begins, you will know. It will be difficult, but that is the time to be centered and focus on seeing all the good that will come in the age of empowerment. You are a truly empowered human…own your maste

Gene editing could make humans resistant to HIV

A new genetic engineering tool can help give cells a rare mutation that prevents them from being infected with HIV.

Image: CDC

The technique, which is still in experimental stages, takes advantage of a rare mutation that makes one percent of people of European descent resistant to HIV.

Using a new “genome editing” tool, researchers are hoping to be able to insert the mutation into the cells of other people - and they’ve already proved the basic principles work using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), Peter Aldhous reports for New Scientist.

The new genome editing technique is much more precise than tradition forms of genetic engineering, as it places a sequence of gene into a pre-designated area of the genome, rather than at random locations.

By using this technique, researchers led by Yuet Kan from the University of California, San Francico, have managed to alter the genome of iPSCs, which can turn into any cell in the body. As predicted, when the scientists grew these iPSCs into white blood cells, they were resistant to HIV.

Their research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The mutation they’re implanting causes people to carry two copies of a mutated gene for a protein called CCR5, which the HIV virus has to lock onto before it can invade white blood cells. The mutation prevents it from doing that.

The research was inspired by a man called Timothy Ray Brown, who was famously “cured” after receiving a bone marrow transplant from a naturally HIV-resistant person. This new technique would work in a similar way, but without the need for someone else’s bone marrow.

However, although it works in the lab, there is still a long way to go before the treatment could be used in humans. 

The researchers now plan to turn the iPSCs into blood-forming stem cells, which, when transplanted into a patient, would give rise to all the different types of blood cells - including the specific white blood cell attacked by HIV.

It’s a pretty exciting first step, and we can’t wait to see what happens next.