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In 1937, Ettore Majorana asked a question nobody else was even thinking about: does a particle have to have a distinct antiparticle? For neutrinos — which carry no charge — the answer might be no. They might be their own antiparticles. Deep underground right now, experiments are watching atoms decay, waiting for the signal that would prove it. So far: nothing. But the case is not closed.

Rovers equipped with Radioisotope Power Systems (RPSs), aka. nuclear reactors, could effectively explore the craters in the Moon's southern polar region.

They are the most abundant particles in the universe, yet we barely know they exist. Neutrinos stream through everything, through walls, through planets and even through you…. in their billions every second, leaving no trace. We've known for decades that they have mass, but pinning down exactly how much has defeated physicists for years. Now, the most sensitive experiment ever built has pushed our knowledge to a new frontier, and what it found raises a profound question about why these ghostly particles are so extraordinarily light.

The lunar south pole is where humanity plans to build its first permanent outpost but we still don't fully understand what lies beneath the surface. A new study has used radar to peer below the ground in one of the Moon's most complex and battered regions and what it's finding raises important questions about the geological minefield that future astronauts will be navigating. Ancient impacts, frozen melt sheets, and billions of years of overlapping debris may complicate our plans more than we thought.

When a massive star explodes on the far side of the universe, the light from that explosion normally fades long before it reaches us. But occasionally, the universe conspires to help. A newly discovered supernova has been caught using the gravity of an entire galaxy as a natural magnifying glass, boosting its light by at least a hundred times and revealing a stellar death that would otherwise have been completely invisible. It is the most magnified supernova ever found, and it opens a remarkable new window onto the distant universe.

A planet-warming El Niño climate phase is now developing, and some models predict it could turn out to be the strongest on record

Around 900,000 years ago, an impactor slammed into modern-day Kazakhstan and excavated a crater about 14 km in diameter. It was the most recent hypervelocity impactor powerful enough to trigger a nuclear winter, but not an exinction. New research suggests the crater is almost twice as large, showing that the energy released by the impact was much greater than thought.

The protein craze is in full swing and beef consumption is on the rise, particularly in the US, where health agencies are promoting red meat as part of an optimum diet. So, how much beef should we really be eating, and how does it impact our well-being?

The gap between genetics and archaeology leaves us with an unclear picture of where the Neanderthals originated. Columnist Michael Marshall details a surprising new hypothesis that suggests they may have come from us

How do you portray momentum in space accurately? Columnist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein takes a look at the origins of our understanding of motion, which runs from Isaac Newton back to the Zhou dynasty a millennia ago

L-ergothioneine, an antioxidant found in certain mushrooms, is thought to neutralise damaging molecules in uterine cells that may contribute to period pain

Antibodies mistakenly attacking the brain are linked with conditions including schizophrenia, dementia and OCD, prompting a revolution in how we think about mental health conditions

A breakthrough experiment has shed new light on one of astrophysics’ biggest mysteries: the origin of rare proton-rich elements. For the first time, scientists directly measured a key reaction that creates selenium-74 using a rare isotope beam. The results sharpen models of how these elements form in supernova explosions, cutting uncertainty in half. But the findings also reveal gaps in current theories, hinting that the story isn’t complete yet.

The day when a quantum computer manages to break common encryption, or Q-Day, is fast approaching, and the world is not close to being ready

Remember The Last Starfighter from 1984? In that movie a trailer-park kid with limited prospects spends his time on an arcade-style video game, Starfighter. He plays the game so much that he beats the final level, and it turns out he is the first person to ever do so. He is heavily criticized for spending so much time playing a game, which is seen as a sign of boredom and lack of ambition – a waste of time. The twist (42 year old spoiler incoming) is that the game was actually a test (the Excalibur test – a deliberate reference to King Arthur) to find a skilled pilot for an actual real-life starfighter. He goes on to save the galaxy from invasion.

The interesting premise of the movie is that playing a video game is not only a test of real-life skill, but can be used to train such skill. In 1984 this was  kind of a new idea, and appealing to a generation of kids newly hooked on video games. Video games have been significantly mainstreamed over the last half century, but there is still a bit of a cultural stigma attached to them – they are seen as the realm of dorks and geeks, with inevitable jokes about how avid video gamers with “never get laid” (or something to that effect). Since the beginning of their popularity parents have worried, with such worry being fed by a sensationalist media, that video games were going to “rot” their kids’ brains, turn them into losers who can never get a skilled job, and might even cause violent behavior. Every mass shooting someone brings up violent video games.

But the evidence simply does not support these concerns. One big problem with the research is that it shows correlation only, not causation. Sure, people who play aggressive video games tend to be more aggressive, but that doesn’t mean the game is the cause. Further, there are many confounding factors, and more recent research shows that violence in the game is not the key feature. It has more to do with the level of difficulty and the resulting frustration that seems to raise aggression, not violence in the game. More competitive and difficult games tend to be more stimulating, regardless of the level of violence. The bottom line – after decades of research, systematic reviews conclude: “There is insufficient scientific evidence to support a causal link between violent video games and violent behavior.”

Now we seem to be going through the same cycle again, but this time with anxiety and depression. It is also not just video games being criticized, but social media and any screen time. And again there is evidence of some correlation, but without showing causation. It is very likely that people who feel socially isolated or depressed might seek out video games and social media as a distraction or to have some social connection. Taking away those outlets out of fear they are causing the symptoms can easily be counterproductive. A recent systematic review found:

“Scientific research investigating social media’s impact on adolescent mental health has failed to provide clarity. There is converging evidence for a small negative cross-sectional association between time spent on social media and well-being. However, longitudinal studies and those measuring social media use beyond time spent or mental health beyond general well-being show diverging results.”

In short, the evidence is weak and mixed, while better studies designed to control for likely confounding variables do not show any consistent effect. This does not mean there are no potential issues with excessive video-game use or social media use. It is one variable that we need to consider and carefully research, and there are likely some individuals in some contexts where is does exacerbate or cause problems. But are video games and social media the “one true cause” of all adolescent current ills, and basically responsible for the recent increase in mental health diagnoses? Probably not.

The current best inference is that video games and social media are filling a void of social support structures of various kinds, and that the solution is not to simply restrict or take away screens. Rather, we should be filling the void with more diverse support and activities.

On the flip side, there is evidence that video games and other interactions with digital technology increase some skills (just like in Starfighter). What we are seeing is not an atrophy of skills, but a shifting of skills from more analog to more digital activity. Since the industrial revolution it seems that each generation laments the fact that “these kids today” lack the skills that we older folks developed, while missing the fact that they are developing new skills for a new world. We may not get this new world they are creating, but they are not creating it for us. This is part of the reason it is difficult to predict the future use of technology, because we keep trying to imagine ourselves in this future. But we will not be in that future – new generations of people will, and they will be different in ways we cannot predict. To some extent, we have to trust that new generations will find their own way.

Meanwhile, it turns out that video games are a really good way to train certain skills. If anything, the technology is under-leveraged. Video gamers are better at endoscopic surgery, because certain kinds of games develop psychomotor skills like those used in this kind of surgery. Video games can cause more general cognitive skills as well: “Findings indicate that higher levels of videogaming proficiency are linked to improvements in visuospatial short-term and working memory, psychomotor speed, and attention.” Some of this data is correlational, but a lot of it is experimental, showing a causal effect with a dose-response.

But also, video games can train specific skill, not just improve cognitive function. They are great at keeping the level of difficulty just ahead of the user, and advancing them at their own pace. You can also simulate situations that you cannot recreate in the physical world. The FAA is even trying to get in on the “Starfighter effect” – they are specifically recruiting video game players for jobs in air traffic control.

Video games definitely do not have the stigma they did when I was younger, but it is not gone completely, and much of the same instincts have migrated over to screen-time in general and social media specifically. I do think we need to resist the temptation to simplistically blame the latest new technology our kids are using for whatever societal ills we are worried about. This does not mean we should not carefully consider and research the effects of new technology on society, especially to identity vulnerable individuals or potentials for abuse. But don’t panic or overreact. Just taking away screens is likely to be counterproductive. It’s better to fill kids’ lives with diverse experiences and opportunities (which is a lot more work than just demonizing video games and screens). Also we risk losing out on the potential benefits of new technologies. Video games can build cognitive ability and are great at training specific skills, and there are many potential upsides to social media.

The post Do You Have Video Game Skilz? first appeared on NeuroLogica Blog.

A study of more than 10 million siblings suggests that firstborns are more likely to be autistic and have allergies, while conditions like migraine and shingles tend to affect their younger sibling

It turns out there's probably no such thing as an alpha wolf.

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Quantum systems can secretly “remember” their past—even when they appear not to. Scientists found that whether a system shows memory depends on how you look at it: through its evolving state or its measurable properties. Each perspective uncovers different kinds of memory, meaning a system can seem memoryless and memory-filled at the same time. This discovery could change how researchers design and control quantum technologies.

Quantum systems can secretly “remember” their past—even when they appear not to. Scientists found that whether a system shows memory depends on how you look at it: through its evolving state or its measurable properties. Each perspective uncovers different kinds of memory, meaning a system can seem memoryless and memory-filled at the same time. This discovery could change how researchers design and control quantum technologies.

Neutrinos have mass — yet they never flip between left- and right-handed states the way every other massive particle does. The most logical fix is Paul Dirac's: invisible right-handed neutrinos that interact with nothing whatsoever. The math works. It even produces a beautiful explanation for why neutrino masses are so absurdly tiny. But it requires believing in particles that are permanently, in-principle undetectable.