This is the first Science and Technology News post. Hope you enjoy!
· A new energy source prototype could possibly be finished as soon as 2025. Superconducting magnets that can facilitate nuclear fusion have the potential to be able to create more electricity than it consumes. A company named CFS believes that it is possible to create such a powerful source of energy in a relatively small package.
· A team of investigators has succeeded in restoring brain trauma through hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). Research from Tel Aviv University holds promise for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease through this method. The HBOT therapy works by placing a patient into a chamber with pressures much higher than at sea level and the patient breathes air composed of only oxygen. The procedure has proven to be safe and has shown to cue a vast variety of aging-related conditions.
· Outrage surrounding crowded Florida Beaches during the Spring of 2020 a survey was conducted at the University of California. 841 people were surveyed to judge how moral a person’s action was on a scale of 1-7 and how risky that action was on a scale of 1-10. The survey found that increasing moral judgment scores by two points (becoming more immoral) increased people’s perception of risk by nearly a tenth of a point. The study’s co-author says that the effects seem small, but if allowed to fester may cloud people’s risk judgment over time.
In a similar study surveying 800 people online participants were asked to rate medicinal risk or mental health risk from low to high. The study found that perceived risk of infection decreased four points on a 50-point sliding scale when judging medical risk compared to mental health risk. This information further supports the affect heuristic, which states that people may rely on their feeling to guide their actions more than objective reasoning.
Sources:
Oxygen Therapy May Slow the Hallmarks of Alzheimer’s According to New Study (goodnewsnetwork.org)
Moral judgments about an activity's COVID-19 risk can lead people astray | Science News