Ingrid Wickelgren – Quanta Magazine https://www.quantamagazine.org Illuminating science Fri, 21 Feb 2025 21:18:44 -0500 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 How ‘Event Scripts’ Structure Our Personal Memories https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-event-scripts-structure-our-personal-memories-20250221/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-event-scripts-structure-our-personal-memories-20250221/#respond Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:18:14 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=146781 The post How ‘Event Scripts’ Structure Our Personal Memories first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> After shuffling the cards in a standard 52-card deck, Alex Mullen, a three-time world memory champion, can memorize their order in under 20 seconds. As he flips though the cards, he takes a mental walk through a house. At each point in his journey — the mailbox, front door, staircase and so on — he attaches a card. To recall the cards, he relives the trip. This technique, called “method of loci”…

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-event-scripts-structure-our-personal-memories-20250221/feed/ 0 The Poetry Fan Who Taught an LLM to Read and Write DNA https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-poetry-fan-who-taught-an-llm-to-read-and-write-dna-20250205/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-poetry-fan-who-taught-an-llm-to-read-and-write-dna-20250205/#respond Wed, 05 Feb 2025 15:58:11 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=146267 The post The Poetry Fan Who Taught an LLM to Read and Write DNA first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> DNA is often compared to a written language. The metaphor leaps out: Like letters of the alphabet, molecules (the nucleotide bases A, T, C and G, for adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine) are arranged into sequences — words, paragraphs, chapters, perhaps — in every organism, from bacteria to humans. Like a language, they encode information. But humans can’t easily read or interpret these…

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-poetry-fan-who-taught-an-llm-to-read-and-write-dna-20250205/feed/ 0 Pleasure or Pain? He Maps the Neural Circuits That Decide. https://www.quantamagazine.org/pleasure-or-pain-he-maps-the-neural-circuits-that-decide-20240416/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/pleasure-or-pain-he-maps-the-neural-circuits-that-decide-20240416/#respond Tue, 16 Apr 2024 13:50:36 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=137164 The post Pleasure or Pain? He Maps the Neural Circuits That Decide. first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> Ishmail Abdus-Saboor has been fascinated by the variety of the natural world since he was a boy growing up in Philadelphia. The nature walks he took under the tutelage of his third grade teacher, Mr. Moore, entranced him. “We got to interact and engage with wildlife and see animals in their native environment,” he recalled. Abdus-Saboor also brought a menagerie of creatures — cats, dogs, lizards…

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]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/pleasure-or-pain-he-maps-the-neural-circuits-that-decide-20240416/feed/ 0 Epigenetic ‘Clocks’ Predict Animals’ True Biological Age https://www.quantamagazine.org/epigenetic-clocks-predict-animals-true-biological-age-20220817/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/epigenetic-clocks-predict-animals-true-biological-age-20220817/#respond Wed, 17 Aug 2022 14:06:38 +0000 https://www.quantamagazine.org/?p=117982 The post Epigenetic ‘Clocks’ Predict Animals’ True Biological Age first appeared on Quanta Magazine

]]> This time a year ago, Steve Horvath was looking for pangolin DNA. The ancient scaly anteater would be a first for his collection, which was then about 200 mammals strong. “I didn’t have any of that order, which is why I desperately wanted them,” he recalled. Since the summer of 2017, Horvath, who until recently was an anti-aging researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles…

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