It's a jungle out there

Good morning Staker! Here’s what’s cookin’ today: Grocery sales drop as prices continue to climb;  An electronic nose can now detect spoiled food; and how modern design is stressing our brains…🤯

But first, our weekly poll!

Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a machine that acts as an electronic nose. It contains 16 sensors and can detect scents associated with spoiled food more accurately than humans.

While millions of people deal with moderate to severe food poisoning annually, about 3,000 die from it every year. Avoiding it is a priority, as documented in Science Advances by the UC Berkeley team.

The nose’s 16 sensors are trained to detect the scents emitted by various molecular combinations that spell trouble for the human body, if ingested. The smells of spoiled milk or stale vegetables, for example, are produced by the molecular compounds that form when food goes bad.

“I think ‘smart’ fridges—which come with sensors that you can control on your phone—would be a great application for this kind of technology,” said Carla Bassil, a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering and computer sciences at Berkeley and the study’s lead author.

“How great would it be if your fridge could tell you, ‘Hey, your broccoli’s going to go bad soon, so you should probably eat that’? Or, ‘Your chicken is on its last day’?”

A Chinese company called Neuracle successfully implanted a brain computer interface (BCI) in a patient, which allowed for them to regain the use of their hand after losing mobility due to a spinal cord injury.

The BCI is the size of a coin, and it’s implanted inside a patient’s brain in order for its eight electrodes to pick up on signals being fired between neurons in the sensorimotor cortex.

In the case of the successful implantation in China last week, the electrodes picked up on the signals being fired as the patient imagined moving the hand they’d lost use of. Those signals were sent to a computer, which in turn translated them into motor signals received and acted out by a robotic glove worn by the patient.

This method of regaining lost motor function is the stuff of what was once just high level science fiction, and though it’s somewhat miraculous, it’s also quite invasive and carries considerable risk. Those risks account for several reasons why Neuracle competitor Neuralink hasn’t yet been able to obtain regulatory approval for the implant it’s been testing for several years.

Other companies are attempting to leverage AI to help restore motor function in less invasive ways. For example, Stake reported last week on Meta’s launch of Brain2Qwerty, which is a tool that translates certain brain activity into language using AI, allowing for the restoration of communication abilities in those with neurological conditions like ALS.

A study published in Vision suggests the human brain evolved to efficiently process the natural world visually, causing it to experience sensory overload when processing the artificial designs of modern and urban environments.

Things like fluorescent-lit offices, striped acoustic panels, headlights, and other unnatural stimuli humans are subjected to on a regular basis cause physical detriment at a neurological level, according to the paper.

Its contents were generated by assembling decades of research in architecture, neuroscience, lighting design, and psychology in order for the team of researchers from the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia, and Canada to propose their findings.

They found modern, urban environments bombard the human brain with highly repetitive, flickering, and artificially sharp stimuli that the brain isn’t physically equipped to absorb regularly. It can be particularly stressful for those with neurological conditions like epilepsy, for example.

“We hypothesize that the discomfort is a homeostatic response to the excessive oxygen demands of the visual cortex due to inefficient encoding of the visual stimuli,” the authors wrote, ostensibly proposing that the brain is crying out for help when it’s overstimulated by the features of modern design. 😩

Digitally trendy terms pop up all the time, many of which you’ve probably read about in this very publication. Here are a few more: time confetti, time famine, and time affluence.

The first refers to the way people slice and dice their time in order to not just multi-task, but micro-task. Taking three minutes to read emails, five minutes to scroll social media, and two minutes watching a YouTube video; that’s 16.6% of an hour, and it’s accounted for through time confetti.

That practice is burdensome and will likely lead to an overwhelming amount of stress after a while. In fact, it will probably lead to time famine, which is the feeling that describes never having enough time to accomplish everything in a day. 80% of those polled felt like they’re experiencing a time famine, according to a recent Gallup poll.

Time affluence, however, is feeling like there is always enough time in a day, and it’s always made good use of.

How does one achieve the elusive feeling of actually having enough time? It’s not as simple as getting a head start on the day. It’s just as important to actively use your available leisure time to do things you actually enjoy, such as exercising, spending time outdoors, socializing with friends or family, or going to a concert.

Getting a head start is important, but not making good use of available leisure time makes it seem like the day is wasted, and that there wasn’t ever enough time in the first place.

Quizmaster’s choice

You know the drill Staker. It’s a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, and another round of à la carte for today’s trivia! 😎