Latest news with #CuriousKids
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Are ghosts real? A social psychologist examines the evidence
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you'd like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@ Is it possible for there to be ghosts? – Madelyn, age 11, Fort Lupton, Colorado Certainly, lots of people believe in ghosts – a spirit left behind after someone who was alive has died. In a 2021 poll of 1,000 American adults, 41% said they believe in ghosts, and 20% said they had personally experienced them. If they're right, that's more than 50 million spirit encounters in the U.S. alone. That includes the owner of a retail shop near my home who believes his place is haunted. When I asked what most convinced him of this, he sent me dozens of eerie security camera video clips. He also brought in ghost hunters who reinforced his suspicions. Some of the videos show small orbs of light gliding around the room. In others, you can hear faint voices and loud bumping sounds when nobody's there. Others show a book flying off a desk and products jumping off a shelf. It's not uncommon for me to hear stories like this. As a sociologist, some of my work looks at beliefs in things like ghosts, aliens, pyramid power and superstitions. Along with others who practice scientific skepticism, I keep an open mind while maintaining that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Tell me you had a burger for lunch, and I'll take your word for it. Tell me you shared your fries with Abraham Lincoln's ghost, and I'll want more evidence. In the 'spirit' of critical thinking, consider the following three questions: People may think they're experiencing ghosts when they hear strange voices, see moving objects, witness balls or wisps of light or even translucent people. Yet no one describes ghosts as aging, eating, breathing or using bathrooms – despite plumbers receiving many calls about toilets 'ghost-flushing.' So could ghosts be made of a special kind of energy that hovers and flies without dissipating? If that's the case, that means when ghosts glow, move objects and make sounds, they are acting like matter – something that takes up space and has mass, like wood, water, plants and people. Conversely, when passing through walls or vanishing, they must not act like matter. But centuries of physics research have found nothing like this exists, which is why physicists say ghosts can't exist. And so far, there is no proof that any part of a person can continue on after death. Never before in history have people recorded so many ghost encounters, thanks in part to mobile phone cameras and microphones. It seems there would be great evidence by now. But scientists don't have it. Instead, there are lots of ambiguous recordings sabotaged by bad lighting and faulty equipment. But popular television shows on ghost hunting convince many viewers that blurry images and emotional reactions are proof enough. As for all the devices ghost hunters use to capture sounds, electrical fields and infrared radiation – they may look scientific, but they're not. Measurements are worthless without some knowledge of the thing you're measuring. When ghost hunters descend on an allegedly haunted location for a night of meandering and measurement, they usually find something they later deem paranormal. It may be a moving door (breeze?), a chill (gap in the floorboards?), a glow (light entering from outside?), electrical fluctuations (old wiring?), or bumps and faint voices (crew in other rooms?). Whatever happens, ghost hunters will draw a bull's-eye around it, interpret that as 'evidence' and investigate no further. Personal experiences with ghosts can be misleading due to the limitations of human senses. That's why anecdotes can't substitute for objective research. Alleged hauntings usually have plenty of non-ghostly explanations. One example is that retail establishment in my neighborhood. I reviewed the security camera clips and gathered information about the store's location and layout, and the exact equipment used in the recordings. First, the 'orbs': Videos captured many small globes of light seemingly moving around the room. In reality, the orbs are tiny particles of dust wafting close to the camera lens, made to 'bloom' by the camera's infrared lights. That they appear to float around the room is an optical illusion. Watch any orb video closely and you'll see they never go behind objects in the room. That's exactly what you'd expect with dust particles close to the camera lens. Next, voices and bumps: The shop is in a busy corner mini-mall. Three walls abut sidewalks, loading zones and parking areas; an adjacent store shares the fourth. The security camera mics probably recorded sounds from outdoors, other rooms and the adjacent unit. The owner never checked for these possibilities. Then, the flying objects: The video shows objects falling off the showroom wall. The shelf rests on adjustable brackets, one of which wasn't fully seated in its slot. The weight of the shelf caused the bracket to settle into place with a visible jerk. This movement sent some items tumbling off the shelf. Then, the flying book: I used a simple trick to recreate the event at home: a hidden string taped inside a book's cover, wrapped around the kitchen island, and tugged by my right hand out of camera range. Now I can't prove there wasn't a ghost in the original video. The point is to provide a more plausible explanation than 'it must have been a ghost.' One final consideration: Virtually all ghostly experiences involve impediments to making accurate perceptions and judgments – bad lighting, emotional arousal, sleep phenomena, social influences, culture, a misunderstanding of how recording devices work, and the prior beliefs and personality traits of those who claim to see ghosts. All of these hold the potential to induce unforgettable ghostly encounters. But all can be explained without ghosts being real. Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you'd like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@ Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live. And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you're wondering, too. We won't be able to answer every question, but we will do our best. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Barry Markovsky, University of South Carolina Read more: Is the Loch Ness monster real? Hearing ghost voices relies on pseudoscience and fallibility of human perception Why magical thinking is so widespread – a look at the psychological roots of common superstitions Barry Markovsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Are ghosts real? A social psychologist examines the evidence
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you'd like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@ Is it possible for there to be ghosts? – Madelyn, age 11, Fort Lupton, Colorado Certainly, lots of people believe in ghosts – a spirit left behind after someone who was alive has died. In a 2021 poll of 1,000 American adults, 41% said they believe in ghosts, and 20% said they had personally experienced them. If they're right, that's more than 50 million spirit encounters in the U.S. alone. That includes the owner of a retail shop near my home who believes his place is haunted. When I asked what most convinced him of this, he sent me dozens of eerie security camera video clips. He also brought in ghost hunters who reinforced his suspicions. Some of the videos show small orbs of light gliding around the room. In others, you can hear faint voices and loud bumping sounds when nobody's there. Others show a book flying off a desk and products jumping off a shelf. It's not uncommon for me to hear stories like this. As a sociologist, some of my work looks at beliefs in things like ghosts, aliens, pyramid power and superstitions. Along with others who practice scientific skepticism, I keep an open mind while maintaining that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Tell me you had a burger for lunch, and I'll take your word for it. Tell me you shared your fries with Abraham Lincoln's ghost, and I'll want more evidence. In the 'spirit' of critical thinking, consider the following three questions: People may think they're experiencing ghosts when they hear strange voices, see moving objects, witness balls or wisps of light or even translucent people. Yet no one describes ghosts as aging, eating, breathing or using bathrooms – despite plumbers receiving many calls about toilets 'ghost-flushing.' So could ghosts be made of a special kind of energy that hovers and flies without dissipating? If that's the case, that means when ghosts glow, move objects and make sounds, they are acting like matter – something that takes up space and has mass, like wood, water, plants and people. Conversely, when passing through walls or vanishing, they must not act like matter. But centuries of physics research have found nothing like this exists, which is why physicists say ghosts can't exist. And so far, there is no proof that any part of a person can continue on after death. Never before in history have people recorded so many ghost encounters, thanks in part to mobile phone cameras and microphones. It seems there would be great evidence by now. But scientists don't have it. Instead, there are lots of ambiguous recordings sabotaged by bad lighting and faulty equipment. But popular television shows on ghost hunting convince many viewers that blurry images and emotional reactions are proof enough. As for all the devices ghost hunters use to capture sounds, electrical fields and infrared radiation – they may look scientific, but they're not. Measurements are worthless without some knowledge of the thing you're measuring. When ghost hunters descend on an allegedly haunted location for a night of meandering and measurement, they usually find something they later deem paranormal. It may be a moving door (breeze?), a chill (gap in the floorboards?), a glow (light entering from outside?), electrical fluctuations (old wiring?), or bumps and faint voices (crew in other rooms?). Whatever happens, ghost hunters will draw a bull's-eye around it, interpret that as 'evidence' and investigate no further. Personal experiences with ghosts can be misleading due to the limitations of human senses. That's why anecdotes can't substitute for objective research. Alleged hauntings usually have plenty of non-ghostly explanations. One example is that retail establishment in my neighborhood. I reviewed the security camera clips and gathered information about the store's location and layout, and the exact equipment used in the recordings. First, the 'orbs': Videos captured many small globes of light seemingly moving around the room. In reality, the orbs are tiny particles of dust wafting close to the camera lens, made to 'bloom' by the camera's infrared lights. That they appear to float around the room is an optical illusion. Watch any orb video closely and you'll see they never go behind objects in the room. That's exactly what you'd expect with dust particles close to the camera lens. Next, voices and bumps: The shop is in a busy corner mini-mall. Three walls abut sidewalks, loading zones and parking areas; an adjacent store shares the fourth. The security camera mics probably recorded sounds from outdoors, other rooms and the adjacent unit. The owner never checked for these possibilities. Then, the flying objects: The video shows objects falling off the showroom wall. The shelf rests on adjustable brackets, one of which wasn't fully seated in its slot. The weight of the shelf caused the bracket to settle into place with a visible jerk. This movement sent some items tumbling off the shelf. Then, the flying book: I used a simple trick to recreate the event at home: a hidden string taped inside a book's cover, wrapped around the kitchen island, and tugged by my right hand out of camera range. Now I can't prove there wasn't a ghost in the original video. The point is to provide a more plausible explanation than 'it must have been a ghost.' One final consideration: Virtually all ghostly experiences involve impediments to making accurate perceptions and judgments – bad lighting, emotional arousal, sleep phenomena, social influences, culture, a misunderstanding of how recording devices work, and the prior beliefs and personality traits of those who claim to see ghosts. All of these hold the potential to induce unforgettable ghostly encounters. But all can be explained without ghosts being real. Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you'd like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@ Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live. And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you're wondering, too. We won't be able to answer every question, but we will do our best. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Barry Markovsky, University of South Carolina Read more: Is the Loch Ness monster real? Hearing ghost voices relies on pseudoscience and fallibility of human perception Why magical thinking is so widespread – a look at the psychological roots of common superstitions Barry Markovsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Does outer space end – or go on forever?
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you'd like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@ What is beyond outer space? – Siah, age 11, Fremont, California Right above you is the sky – or as scientists would call it, the atmosphere. It extends about 20 miles (32 kilometers) above the Earth. Floating around the atmosphere is a mixture of molecules – tiny bits of air so small you take in billions of them every time you breathe. Above the atmosphere is space. It's called that because it has far fewer molecules, with lots of empty space between them. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to travel to outer space – and then keep going? What would you find? Scientists like me are able to explain a lot of what you'd see. But there are some things we don't know yet, like whether space just goes on forever. At the beginning of your trip through space, you might recognize some of the sights. The Earth is part of a group of planets that all orbit the Sun – with some orbiting asteroids and comets mixed in, too. You might know that the Sun is actually just an average star, and looks bigger and brighter than the other stars only because it is closer. To get to the next nearest star, you would have to travel through trillions of miles of space. If you could ride on the fastest space probe NASA has ever made, it would still take you thousands of years to get there. If stars are like houses, then galaxies are like cities full of houses. Scientists estimate there are 100 billion stars in Earth's galaxy. If you could zoom out, way beyond Earth's galaxy, those 100 billion stars would blend together – the way lights of city buildings do when viewed from an airplane. Recently astronomers have learned that many or even most stars have their own orbiting planets. Some are even like Earth, so it's possible they might be home to other beings also wondering what's out there. You would have to travel through millions of trillions more miles of space just to reach another galaxy. Most of that space is almost completely empty, with only some stray molecules and tiny mysterious invisible particles scientists call 'dark matter.' Using big telescopes, astronomers see millions of galaxies out there – and they just keep going, in every direction. If you could watch for long enough, over millions of years, it would look like new space is gradually being added between all the galaxies. You can visualize this by imagining tiny dots on a deflated balloon and then thinking about blowing it up. The dots would keep moving farther apart, just like the galaxies are. If you could keep going out, as far as you wanted, would you just keep passing by galaxies forever? Are there an infinite number of galaxies in every direction? Or does the whole thing eventually end? And if it does end, what does it end with? These are questions scientists don't have definite answers to yet. Many think it's likely you would just keep passing galaxies in every direction, forever. In that case, the universe would be infinite, with no end. Some scientists think it's possible the universe might eventually wrap back around on itself – so if you could just keep going out, you would someday come back around to where you started, from the other direction. One way to think about this is to picture a globe, and imagine that you are a creature that can move only on the surface. If you start walking any direction, east for example, and just keep going, eventually you would come back to where you began. If this were the case for the universe, it would mean it is not infinitely big – although it would still be bigger than you can imagine. In either case, you could never get to the end of the universe or space. Scientists now consider it unlikely the universe has an end – a region where the galaxies stop or where there would be a barrier of some kind marking the end of space. But nobody knows for sure. How to answer this question will need to be figured out by a future scientist. Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you'd like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@ Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live. And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you're wondering, too. We won't be able to answer every question, but we will do our best. This article has been updated to correct the distances to the nearest star and galaxy. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Jack Singal, University of Richmond Read more: The art of Aphantasia: how 'mind blind' artists create without being able to visualise Why your zodiac sign is probably wrong Why do people look into space with telescopes but not binoculars? Jack Singal does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Can you upload a human mind into a computer? A neuroscientist ponders what's possible
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you'd like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@ Is it possible to upload the consciousness of your mind into a computer? – Amreen, age 15, New Delhi, India The concept, cool yet maybe a little creepy, is known as mind uploading. Think of it as a way to create a copy of your brain, a transmission of your mind and consciousness into a computer. There you would live digitally, perhaps forever. You'd have an awareness of yourself, you'd retain your memories and still feel like you. But you wouldn't have a body. Within that simulated environment, you could do anything you do in real life – eating, driving a car, playing sports. You could also do things impossible in the real world, like walking through walls, flying like a bird or traveling to other planets. The only limit is what science can realistically simulate. Doable? Theoretically, mind uploading should be possible. Still, you may wonder how it could happen. After all, researchers have barely begun to understand the brain. Yet science has a track record of turning theoretical possibilities into reality. Just because a concept seems terribly, unimaginably difficult doesn't mean it's impossible. Consider that science took humankind to the Moon, sequenced the human genome and eradicated smallpox. Those things too were once considered unlikely. As a brain scientist who studies perception, I fully expect mind uploading to one day be a reality. But as of today, we're nowhere close. The brain is often regarded as the most complex object in the known universe. Replicating all that complexity will be extraordinarily difficult. One requirement: The uploaded brain needs the same inputs it always had. In other words, the external world must be available to it. Even cloistered inside a computer, you would still need a simulation of your senses, a reproduction of the ability to see, hear, smell, touch, feel – as well as move, blink, detect your heart rate, set your circadian rhythm and do thousands of other things. But why is that? Couldn't you just exist in a pure mental bubble, inside the computer without sensory input? Depriving people of their senses, like putting them in total darkness, or in a room without sound, is known as sensory deprivation, and it's regarded as a form of torture. People who have trouble sensing their bodily signals – thirst, hunger, pain, an itch – often have mental health challenges. That's why for mind uploading to work, the simulation of your senses and the digital environment you're in must be exceptionally accurate. Even minor distortions could have serious mental consequences. For now, researchers don't have the computing power, much less the scientific knowledge, to perform such simulations. The first task for a successful mind upload: Scanning, then mapping the complete 3D structure of the human brain. This requires the equivalent of an extraordinarily sophisticated MRI machine that could detail the brain in an advanced way. At the moment, scientists are only at the very early stages of brain mapping – which includes the entire brain of a fly and tiny portions of a mouse brain. In a few decades, a complete map of the human brain may be possible. Yet even capturing the identities of all 86 billion neurons, all smaller than a pinhead, plus their trillions of connections, still isn't enough. Uploading this information by itself into a computer won't accomplish much. That's because each neuron constantly adjusts its functioning, and that has to be modeled, too. It's hard to know how many levels down researchers must go to make the simulated brain work. Is it enough to stop at the molecular level? Right now, no one knows. Knowing how the brain computes things might provide a shortcut. That would let researchers simulate only the essential parts of the brain, and not all biological idiosyncrasies. It's easier to manufacture a new car knowing how a car works, compared to attempting to scan and replicate an existing car without any knowledge of its inner workings. However, this approach requires that scientists figure out how the brain creates thoughts – how collections of thousands to millions of neurons come together to perform the computations that make the human mind come alive. It's hard to express how very far we are from this. Here's another way: Replace the 86 billion real neurons with artificial ones, one at a time. That approach would make mind uploading much easier. Right now, though, scientists can't replace even a single real neuron with an artificial one. But keep in mind the pace of technology is accelerating exponentially. It's reasonable to expect spectacular improvements in computing power and artificial intelligence in the coming decades. One other thing is certain: Mind uploading will certainly have no problem finding funding. Many billionaires appear glad to part with lots of their money for a shot at living forever. Although the challenges are enormous and the path forward uncertain, I believe that one day, mind uploading will be a reality. The most optimistic forecasts pinpoint the year 2045, only 20 years from now. Others say the end of this century. But in my mind, both of these predictions are probably too optimistic. I would be shocked if mind uploading works in the next 100 years. But it might happen in 200 – which means the first person to live forever could be born in your lifetime. Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you'd like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@ Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live. And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you're wondering, too. We won't be able to answer every question, but we will do our best. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Dobromir Rahnev, Georgia Institute of Technology Read more: Neuroscience and artificial intelligence can help improve each other How did humans evolve, and will we evolve more? Your brain thinks – but how? Dobromir Rahnev has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Office of Naval Research.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
In what order did the planets in our solar system form?
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you'd like an expert to answer, send it to CuriousKidsUS@ Are planets in the solar system that are closer to the Sun older than the ones further away? – Gavriel, age 10, Paducah, Kentucky A cloud of collapsing gas created our Sun, the first thing to form in our solar system. This happened about 4½ billion years ago. Then the planets began to emerge, as the billions of particles of gas and dust left over from the Sun's formation became a flattened disk. Known as a protoplanetary disk, it was enormous and surrounded the Sun for billions of miles. Within the disk, the gas and dust particles started to collide, solidify and stick together, like snowflakes clumping together to form snowballs. As the particles clung together, the microscopic grains became pebble-size objects and then grew and grew. Some became rocks the size of baseballs, others the size of a house, and a few as big as a planet. This process, called accretion, is how everything in the solar system – planets, moons, comets and asteroids – came into being. By studying computer models and observing the creation of other star systems, astronomers like us have learned a lot about the early days of our solar system. When the Sun was still forming and the protoplanetary disk was making planets, there was a distance from the Sun where it was cold enough for ice to gather. That place, the ice line – sometimes called the snow line – was in what's now the asteroid belt, which is between Mars and Jupiter. Today, of course, ice is found on almost every planet, even on Mercury. But back then, only the young protoplanets beyond the ice line were cold enough to have it. The ice, gas and dust, slamming into each other for millions of years, accumulated into enormous bodies that ultimately became giant planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. While all this was happening, the smaller planets inside the ice line were forming too. But with less raw material to work with, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars took much longer. Today, it's believed that Jupiter and Saturn, the largest planets, were the first to fully form, both within a few million years. Uranus and Neptune were next, within 10 million years. The inner planets, including Earth, took at least 100 million years, maybe more. To put it another way, the four planets closest to the Sun are the youngest; the two planets farthest out, the next youngest; and the two in between, the oldest. The difference in age between the youngest and oldest planets is perhaps 90 million years. That sounds like an enormous age difference, but in space, 90 million years isn't really that long – less than 1% of the total time the universe has been around. One way to consider it: Think of Earth as a little sister with a big brother, Jupiter, who's 2 or 3 years older. Soon after formation the giant worlds began to migrate, moving inward toward the Sun or outward away from the Sun, before finally settling into their final orbits. For instance, Neptune migrated outward, switching places with Uranus, and pushed a lot of the small, icy bodies into the Kuiper Belt, a place in the outer solar system that's home to dwarf planets Pluto, Eris and Makemake and millions of comets. Meanwhile, Jupiter moved inward, and its massive gravity forced some forming planets into the Sun, where they disintegrated. Along the way, Jupiter flung some smaller rocks out of the solar system altogether; the rest went to the asteroid belt. But most critically, as Jupiter settled into its own orbit, it moved all of the forming objects and likely finalized the location of the remaining inner planets, including Earth. All of Jupiter's tugging helped put our planet in the so-called 'Goldilocks zone,' a place just the right distance from the Sun, where Earth could have liquid water on its surface and the right temperature for life to evolve. If Jupiter hadn't formed the way it did, it's entirely possible life would not have ignited on Earth – and we would not be here today. Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you'd like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to CuriousKidsUS@ Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live. And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you're wondering, too. We won't be able to answer every question, but we will do our best. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Christopher Palma, Penn State and Lucas Brefka, Penn State Read more: What is space made of? An astrophysics expert explains all the components – from radiation to dark matter – found in the vacuum of space How many stars are there in space? Are there any planets outside of our solar system? Lucas Brefka receives funding from a NASA Exoplanet Research Program grant. Christopher Palma does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
