GLP-1 medications used to treat diabetes and obesity were associated with a reduced need for hospital care and sickness absence due to psychiatric reasons, a new study shows. The large register-based study was carried out in collaboration between the University of Eastern Finland, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and Griffith University in Australia.
Diabetes and obesity are associated with an increased risk of mental health symptoms, and similarly, individuals with mental disorders have an elevated risk of metabolic diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Researchers have long been interested in the connections between these conditions and in how pharmacological treatments may affect both metabolic and mental health disorders.
The present study included nearly 100,000 participants, more than 20,000 of whom had used GLP-1 medications. Participants were followed through Swedish national registers between 2009 and 2022. The study’s findings were published in The Lancet Psychiatry.
Cute, green, and sporting two sprigs of hair on his head, a mischievous baby dinosaur named Dooly is one of the most beloved cartoon characters in South Korea. So, when researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and the Korean Dinosaur Research Center discovered a new species of baby dinosaur from Korea’s Aphae Island, they knew exactly what to call it: Doolysaurus.
“Dooly is one of the very famous, iconic dinosaur characters in Korea. Every generation in Korea knows this character,” said Jongyun Jung, a visiting postdoctoral researcher at UT’s Jackson School of Geosciences who led the research. “And our specimen is also a juvenile or ‘baby,’ so it’s perfect for our dinosaur species name to honor Dooly.”
The baby dinosaur is the first new dinosaur species discovered in Korea in 15 years and the first Korean dinosaur fossil found with portions of its skull. The skull bones were revealed when the fossil underwent a scientific micro-CT scan at the University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray Computed Tomography (UTCT) facility.
Slavoj Žižek, Carlo Rovelli, Alenka Zupančič debate subjectivity, and how it relates to the world around it.
What does the hard problem get wrong?
With a free trial, you can watch the full debate NOW at https://iai.tv/video/the-self-and-the… tend to think of ourselves as observers of the world and experience as something different from the material stuff that makes up reality. Yet at the same time as human beings, we are at once part of the universe and part of that reality. And this profoundly puzzling relationship, that we are both part of something and yet separate from it, has been at the centre of Western thought. Materialists claim there is only physical material. But if so, thought, experience, and consciousness become illusory. Idealists argue there is only consciousness, but then it is reality that becomes an illusion. While dualists hold that both the self and the world exist, but that the connection between the two is mysterious. Is the self part of the world or necessarily outside of it? Was Kant right that the distinction between subject and object is necessary for experience to be possible? Or are these deep metaphysical questions beyond us, and our theories and language incapable of uncovering the ultimate state of things? #zizek #philosophy #physics #consciousness #quantum #quantumphysics Slavoj Žižek is one of the most famous philosophers in the world and is the author of more than 50 books, including most recently at the time of the debate Zero Point. Alenka Zupančič is a leading Lacanian philosopher and social theorist. She is a professor at The European Graduate School and at the University of Nova Gorica. Joining from America, Carlo Rovelli is a leading theoretical physicist, the author of several best-selling books, and a founding figure in the field of quantum gravity. His recent book, Reality Is Not What It Seems, has ethical implications for the nature of the self and personal identity. Jack Symes hosts. 00:00 Introduction 00:37 Carlo Rovelli on reality 05:22 Alenka Zupančič: is our knowledge incomplete, or reality itself? 07:55 Slavoj Žižek: how can a stone have freedom? 09:28 Carlo Rovelli on freedom 11:17 Can we ever resolve the relationship between the self and the world around us? 11:35 The problem with David Chalmers The Institute of Art and Ideas features videos and articles from cutting edge thinkers discussing the ideas that are shaping the world, from metaphysics to string theory, technology to democracy, aesthetics to genetics. Subscribe today! https://iai.tv/subscribe?utm_source=Y… For debates and talks: https://iai.tv For articles: https://iai.tv/articles For courses: https://iai.tv/iai-academy/courses.
We tend to think of ourselves as observers of the world and experience as something different from the material stuff that makes up reality. Yet at the same time as human beings, we are at once part of the universe and part of that reality. And this profoundly puzzling relationship, that we are both part of something and yet separate from it, has been at the centre of Western thought. Materialists claim there is only physical material. But if so, thought, experience, and consciousness become illusory. Idealists argue there is only consciousness, but then it is reality that becomes an illusion. While dualists hold that both the self and the world exist, but that the connection between the two is mysterious.
Is the self part of the world or necessarily outside of it? Was Kant right that the distinction between subject and object is necessary for experience to be possible? Or are these deep metaphysical questions beyond us, and our theories and language incapable of uncovering the ultimate state of things?
Cells in our bodies produce RNA based on genetic information stored in DNA, and RNA serves as a blueprint for making proteins. Researchers at KAIST have discovered a new phenomenon: Removing “circular RNA” that accumulates in cells as we age can slow down aging and extend lifespan. This study provides crucial clues for uncovering the principles of aging and developing treatment strategies for related diseases.
Professor Seung-Jae V. Lee’s research team (RNA-Mediated Healthspan and Longevity Research Center) from the Department of Biological Sciences, in collaboration with research teams led by Professors Yoon Ki Kim and Gwangrog Lee, discovered the RNASEK protein —an enzyme that degrades circular RNA—plays a vital role in slowing aging and extending lifespan. The findings are published in the journal Molecular Cell.
Until now, circular RNA was primarily known as a “marker of aging” because of its high stability, causing it to accumulate in cells without being degraded as one ages. However, the molecular mechanism for removing this RNA and its direct link to aging had not been clearly identified. The research team conducted this study to determine how the accumulation of circular RNA affects aging and whether an intracellular management system exists to regulate it.
Online now: Wu et al. reveal an inverse relationship between psoriasis severity and postprandial APOB48 levels in humans. Using a newly developed photoconvertible APOB knockin mouse and intestinal organoids, they show that IL-1β-producing macrophages drive APOB degradation and epithelial lipid accumulation, uncovering a novel link between psoriasis and intestinal inflammation comorbidity.
A protein already targeted by FDA-approved cancer drugs may also help the body fight influenza, according to new research from The Jackson Laboratory (JAX). Published in Cell Reports, the study found that Programmed Death-Ligand 1 (PD-L1), a protein best known for helping tumors evade immune attack, instead helped immunocompromised mice clear flu-infected lung cells and survive infection.
The findings challenge long-standing assumptions about PD-L1’s role in the immune system. While cancer therapies work by blocking PD-L1 to boost immune attack on tumors, the new research suggests that enhancing PD-L1 signaling may help the body control severe respiratory viral infections, especially in people with T cell immunodeficiencies such as those with HIV or immunosuppression after chemotherapy.
“This discovery suggests that a pathway targeted in cancer could also be useful in infectious disease, but in the opposite way. Cancer therapies block PD-L1, whereas in flu, enhancing it may strengthen host defense,” said Silke Paust, a JAX professor and immunologist who directed the research.
Despite denying any conscious awareness of the bar, the participant could answer correctly at a level well above chance. The participant even showed evidence of being able to pay attention to the bar – they were faster to respond when an arrow (placed in a healthy area of their visual field) correctly indicated the location of the bar.
The most popular interpretation (though not the only one) is that people with blindsight can see these objects, but not see them consciously. They see what is there, but it all goes on unconsciously, below their awareness.
The phenomenon of inattentional blindness seems to show you can see without the information crossing into your consciousness. Anyone can experience inattentional blindness. The phenomenon has been known about for a long time, but we can most easily get a handle on it by looking at a well-known experiment reported in 1999.
We’ve collected 22 million algebra yes/no questions. Your task is to design a “cheat sheet”—a highly optimized prompt—that can be given to a weak, open-source model to drastically improve its accuracy.
On behalf of the SAIR Foundation, our co-founder Terence Tao is thrilled to announce our inaugural competition: the Mathematics Distillation Challenge.
Mathematics is about more than just finding the right answers; it’s about understanding the process. While frontier AI models can solve complex problems with 95% accuracy, weaker open-source models often perform no better than random chance (50%). We want to bridge that gap.
The Challenge: We’ve collected 22 million algebra yes/no questions. Your task is to design a \.
