September 15, 2023: The brain in the final moments of life, the seven exoplanets of TRAPPIST-1 and Kilauea is erupting again. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Scientists are gaining new understanding of how the brain transitions from life to death. A new study monitored the brains of patients having a cardiac emergency. The brains of some cardiac arrest patients burst into a flurry of activity during CPR, which was conducted for up to an hour after their heart stopped. A subset of the study participants who survived were able to recall the experience.
What's going on: The researchers hypothesize that, in the final moments of life, the brain's normal "braking" system that filters out the full array of data received by a conscious mind stops. The dying person gains access to their entire consciousness and is able to register all aspects of their last moments.
Why this matters: The researchers interpret the brain recordings they made of these patients as markers of "lucid, recalled experiences of death"—an observation that has "never been possible before," says lead author Sam Parnia, an associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health. | | | In the first round of observations by the James Webb Space Telescope, the instruments examined the first two planets that orbit the nearby star TRAPPIST-1 (in astronomy "near" is relative; in this case, 39.46 light years). TRAPPIST-1 is a red dwarf. Such stars make up nearly 73 percent of all stars in the galaxy, and are suspected to harbor at least three planets each. JWST's infrared cameras observed no atmosphere on the nearest planet to the star. The next star in orbit also lacks an atmosphere and had thick clouds of carbon dioxide.
What the experts say: "Fully surveying the TRAPPIST-1 system will take a dedicated, multiyear campaign, but it must be done," writes Kaitlin Rasmussen, a professor at Tacoma Community College, in Washington. | | | This illustration shows the seven Earth-size planets of TRAPPIST-1, an exoplanet system about 40 light-years away, based on data current as of February 2018. The image shows the planets relative sizes but does not represent their orbits to scale. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt, T. Pyle (IPAC) | | | • Japan is building its own version of ChatGPT. Some Japanese researchers say that AI systems trained on foreign languages cannot grasp the intricacies of Japanese language and culture. | 5 min read | | | The Kilauea volcano on the Big Island in Hawaii began erupting again at the start of this week. The lava is bubbling up within Halemaʻumaʻu crater inside Volcanoes National Park. Check out the live feed of the eruption on YouTube. | | | • Only 1.1 percent of autistic adults in the U.S. access key publicly funded employment services. For autistic people, accessing employment in adulthood is as necessary as accessing education in childhood—and arguably more valuable, write Anne Roux and Lindsay Shea at the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute. | 6 min read | | | ICYMI (Our most-read stories of the week) | | | • 'Weird' Dinosaur Prompts Rethink of Bird Evolution | 3 min read | | | • Mathematician Solves 50-Year-Old Möbius Strip Puzzle | 6 min read | | | • Food Can Be Literally Addictive, New Evidence Suggests | 9 min read | | | Another week in the books! If you plan to spend your weekend contemplating the mysteries of consciousness, check out this collection of articles on just that. Some of my favorites from this bunch: Does Consciousness Pervade the Universe? | 3 min read | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
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