Tag

Causality

All articles tagged with #causality

science16 days ago•6 min saved

New Study Questions Whether 'Mind Control' Parasite Actually Causes Risky Behavior

A new commentary in Animal Behaviour challenges the popular narrative that Toxoplasma gondii manipulates host behavior to facilitate transmission. While the parasite is known to infect warm-blooded vertebrates and requires cats for reproduction, zoologist Andrew Davinack argues that many observed behavioral changes may be the result of 'ecological sorting' rather than direct manipulation. Davinack suggests that animals with naturally risky traits are more likely to encounter the parasite, creating a correlation that mimics causation. However, controlled lab studies still show specific behavioral shifts, such as reduced fear of cat odors in rodents, suggesting the parasite does have some influence, but the evidence in wild populations remains ambiguous due to methodological limitations.

via ScienceAlert|

#animal-behavior #behavioral-ecology #causality

physics3 months ago•82 min saved

Cutting a Photon Unveils a Cloud of Zero-to-Infinity States

Physicists simulated slicing a single photon with a shutter and found that the global quantum state becomes a complex mixture spanning zero to infinitely many photons. Locally, measurements on one side can reveal a single-photon state while the other side appears as vacuum, illustrating a paradoxical, nonlocal distribution and raising questions about the nature of particles and causality. The work, reported in Physical Review Letters, could lead to a clearer way to describe particle interactions and extend to other quantum particles like electrons; in realistic setups the infinite case requires an idealized infinitely fast shutter.

via Live Science|

#causality #measurement #photon

space4 months ago•40 min saved

A Fresh Tachyon Theory Reframes Time, Causality, and Relativity

Physicists from the University of Warsaw and Oxford propose a revised tachyon quantum field theory that doubles the Hilbert space into a twin-space framework, restoring covariance and a stable vacuum while allowing faster-than-light particles to fit within relativity without paradoxes. The work is theoretical and conceptual, not experimental, and could reshape how time symmetry, causality, and quantum fields are understood, though it does not claim tachyons exist.

via The Brighter Side of News|

#causality #faster-than-light-particles #lorentz-invariance

space4 months ago•57 min saved

Three Time Dimensions? New Relativity Theory Bridges Space-Time and Quantum Behavior

Physicists propose extending special relativity to include observers moving faster than light, suggesting that keeping the superluminal branch yields a many-path, probabilistic view of particles that aligns relativity with quantum behavior. In a 1+3 spacetime this implies three time dimensions and one spatial dimension, offering a conceptual path to connect causality, quantum indeterminacy, and the Higgs mechanism—though the work is purely theoretical and lacks experimental proof.

via The Brighter Side of News|

#causality #faster-than-light-observers #higgs-mechanism

science5 months ago•7 min saved

Quantum Jamming Tests the Limits of Entanglement and Causality

Researchers are exploring quantum jamming—a hypothetical way to alter entanglement without breaking causality—to probe whether deeper principles than quantum mechanics (like no-signaling) govern reality. This work challenges the foundations of device-independent quantum key distribution, which relies on monogamy of entanglement, by asking whether such jamming could undermine security or reveal new physics. Scientists including Ramanathan, Weilenmann, Popescu, Grunhaus, Eckstein, and others are collaborating to identify fundamental rules that constrain or permit these phenomena and to understand what a more complete theory of nature might look like.

via Quanta Magazine|

#causality #device-independent #entanglement

science6 months ago•6 min saved

Quantum Time Chaos: New Test Supports Indefinite Causal Order

A Vienna team extends Bell-test ideas to indefinite causal order, using entangled photons arranged so that the sequence A→B or B→A depends on polarization. The observed correlations differ from local-hidden-variable predictions by 18 standard deviations, suggesting quantum processes can exist in a superposition of temporal orders. However, notable loopholes remain (photon loss, limited separation) and further experiments are needed to close them, though the work points toward broader applications of time-uncertain quantum processes.

via Ars Technica|

#bell-inequalities #causality #indefinite-causal-order

psychology9 months ago•8 min saved

Psychology research challenges traditional views on happiness and self-control

A new study challenges the traditional view that self-control leads to happiness, instead finding that higher well-being predicts better self-control over time across different cultures, suggesting that prioritizing emotional health may be more effective for personal growth than relying solely on willpower.

via PsyPost|

#causality #happiness #longitudinal-study

health1 year ago•3 min saved

New research links gut bacteria to insomnia causes

A recent Chinese study suggests a causal link between gut bacteria and insomnia, indicating that gut health may influence sleep and vice versa, potentially leading to microbiome-based treatments for sleep issues in the future.

via BBC Science Focus Magazine|

#causality #gut-microbiome #health

gaming2 years ago•1 min saved

"Exploring Middle Child Syndrome in Pacific Drive: A Unique Survival Game Experience"

Eurogamer's Game of the Week, Pacific Drive, challenges causality in a demo build where the past, present, and future don't follow in order, while also delving into Carlo Rovelli's book, White Holes, which beautifully addresses the universe and our shared identity with things.

via Eurogamer.net|

#carlo-rovelli #causality #game-of-the-week

scientific-research3 years ago•7 min saved

"Harmonizing Scientific Methods to Understand Complex Systems: A Unified Framework for Interaction Dynamics"

This article discusses the unification of pairwise interactions in complex dynamics, focusing on the field of network neuroscience. It highlights the importance of understanding causality in complex systems and references various methods such as Granger causality, transfer entropy, and directed information. The article also mentions the significance of information integration and provides references to related studies and mathematical frameworks.

via Nature.com|

#causality #complex-dynamics #information-integration

physics3 years ago•6 min saved

Causal Inequalities Challenged by Time-Delocalized Variables.

Researchers have shown that certain processes violating causal inequalities can be realized in the regimes of standard quantum physics, on so-called time-delocalized subsystems. These are physical systems defined by observables that are delocalized over different instants of time, much in the same way as quantum information can be delocalized in space, for instance in quantum error correcting codes. The finding may have far-reaching implications for our understanding of causality in physics.

via Phys.org|

#causal-inequalities #causality #physics

health3 years ago•16 min saved

The evolving truth about Long COVID and its impact on patients.

Long COVID is not as common or severe as initially feared, with most patients experiencing symptoms that resolve in less than a year. Retrospective cohort studies have shown that it's not easy to prove causality between a particular infection and a symptom. While long COVID is a real illness that has dramatically affected many people's lives, its prevalence does seem significantly less worrisome than originally thought.

via Slate|

#causality #health #long-covid