When Dr. Emily Carlson watched 73 people dance across eight genres of music, she didn’t realize she was standing on the cusp of a breakthrough. Her original idea was to use machine learning to identify the genre each dancer got hooked to. It turned out that your dance style is almost always the same, regardless of the type of music, and a computer can identify the dancer with stunning accuracy.
In fact, your dance moves say a lot about you, such as how extroverted or neurotic you are, what mood you happen to be in, and even how much you empathise with other people. It’s as if a person’s dance movements are a kind of fingerprint — a unique movement signature that stays the same no matter what kind of music is being played. However, the computer was less accurate in picking out individuals when they were dancing to Metal music.
Dr. Carlson said: “There is a strong cultural association between Metal and certain types of movement, like headbanging. It’s probable that Metal caused more dancers to move in similar ways, making it harder to tell them apart.”
SNEAK PEEK
1. From water to land
The oldest-known scorpion species (from about 437 million years ago) was able to breathe in ancient ocean waters and on land. It had a mechanism that allowed the critical transition from a marine habitat to a terrestrial habitat. Who identified it in the species’ fossils?
1. Geologist Loren E. Babcock (Ohio State University)
2. Like Batman’s hook
Some species of bacteria display a jerky form of movement (“twitching” motility), by dint of the hairlike structures on their surface called TFP. These can extend and bind to a surface and retract and pull a cell along. Who likened TFP to “Batman’s grappling hooks”?
2. Gerard C. L. Wong, UCLA bioengineering professor
3. In Spiderman Style
Geckos are the largest animals able to scale smooth vertical walls, using sticky footpads. To do it in a convincing Spiderman style, we would need 40% of our total body surface or roughly 80% of our front to be covered in sticky footpads. Who computed the figures?
3. Dr David Labonte (University of Cambridge)
4. One night too many
Tau is a protein that is plentiful in our neurons. Higher levels of tau in the brain are a sure biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease. Who reported that losing just one night of sleep can result in a slight increase in the level of tau, even in individuals who are young and healthy?
4. Dr. Jonathan Cedernaes (Uppsala University)
5. Prenatal exposure
About 80% of children with learning disorders have a reading disorder. Genetics account for many but not all instances of it. Who hypothesised that before-birth exposure to PBDEs (a type of flame retardant) might alter the brain processes related to reading in kids?
5. Dr. Amy Margolis (Columbia University Irving Medical Center)
6. In a game of fetch
Dogs are naturals when it comes to going for a ball and then bringing it back. This is viewed as a unique ability of dogs to pick socially communicative cues from us. Who demonstrated that, if encouraged, even 8-week-old wolf puppies can return a ball to a stranger?
6. Christina Hansen Wheat (Stockholm University)
7. Nocturnal signals
Sounds come as an extra boon during daytime when animals can rely on visual signals alone for most of communication. At night, it’s a totally different world. Who suggested that the origins of communication by sound are strongly associated with a nocturnal lifestyle?
7. John J. Wiens (University of Arizona) with Zhuo Chen
8. It needs cataclysm
One reason why we value gold is that it’s rare. And gold is rare on Earth partly because it is also rare in the universe. It can’t be created within a star, unlike carbon or iron. It must be born in a more cataclysmic event, like the collision of two neutron stars. Who said it?
8. Edo Berger (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
9. Handcrafted shells
Neanderthals went underwater for tools. They collected clam shells and volcanic rock from the beach and coastal waters. Who found an abundance of hand-modified clam shells, dating back to around 100,000 years ago, in one of the two Neanderthal sites in Italy?
9. Paola Villa and colleagues (University of Colorado)
[ANSWERS]
1. Geologist Loren E. Babcock (Ohio State University)
2. Gerard C. L. Wong, UCLA bioengineering professor
3. Dr David Labonte (University of Cambridge)
4. Dr. Jonathan Cedernaes (Uppsala University)
5. Dr. Amy Margolis (Columbia University Irving Medical Center)
6. Christina Hansen Wheat (Stockholm University)
7. John J. Wiens (University of Arizona) with Zhuo Chen
8. Edo Berger (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)
9. Paola Villa and colleagues (University of Colorado)
QUIZ No. 938
1. Who detected a mild asymmetry in spatial attention even in early Neolithic houses?
– Leopoldo Batres
– Richard J. C. Atkinson
– Nils Muller-Scheessel
1. Nils Muller-Scheessel
2. Who proved that rain and all human-made sprinkler systems can disperse bacteria?
– Cullen Buie
– Sir James Whyte Black
– Carolyn W. Greider
2. Cullen Buie
3. Who proposed a way to reap the benefits of a good workout without any exercise?
– Jun Hee Lee
– Timothy David Noakes
– Howard W. Florey
3. Jun Hee Lee
4. Who was a soap actress in a TV series before she became a noted neuroscientist?
– Barbara Sahakian
– Eva-Maria Mandelkow
– Sabina Brennan
4. Sabina Brennan
5. Who spent 500 hours in a submarine under water for a nature documentary series?
– Orla Doherty
– Robert Joseph Flaherty
– Wayne Coles-Janess
5. Orla Doherty