What We Are Reading Today: ‘How to Change a Memory' by Steve Ramirez

As a graduate student at MIT, Steve Ramirez successfully created false memories in the lab. Now, as a neuroscientist working at the frontiers of brain science, he foresees a future where we can replace our negative memories with positive ones.
'In How to Change a Memory,' Ramirez draws on his own memories—of friendship, family, loss, and recovery—to reveal how memory can be turned on and off like a switch, edited, and even constructed from nothing.
A future in which we can change our memories of the past may seem improbable, but in fact, the everyday act of remembering is one of transformation.

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Arab News

2 hours ago

• Arab News

Early humans survived in a range of extreme environments before global migration, study says

WASHINGTON: Humans are the only animal that lives in virtually every possible environment, from rainforests to deserts to tundra. This adaptability is a skill that long predates the modern age. According to a new study published Wednesday in Nature, ancient Homo sapiens developed the flexibility to survive by finding food and other resources in a wide variety of difficult habitats before they dispersed from Africa about 50,000 years ago. 'Our superpower is that we are ecosystem generalists,' said Eleanor Scerri, an evolutionary archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany. Our species first evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago. While prior fossil finds show some groups made early forays outside the continent, lasting human settlements in other parts of the world didn't happen until a series of migrations around 50,000 years ago. 'What was different about the circumstance of the migrations that succeeded — why were humans ready this time?' said study co-author Emily Hallett, an archaeologist at Loyola University Chicago. Earlier theories held that Stone Age humans might have made a single important technological advance or developed a new way of sharing information, but researchers haven't found evidence to back that up. This study took a different approach by looking at the trait of flexibility itself. The scientists assembled a database of archaeological sites showing human presence across Africa from 120,000 to 14,000 years ago. For each site, researchers modeled what the local climate would have been like during the time periods that ancient humans lived there. 'There was a really sharp change in the range of habitats that humans were using starting around 70,000 years ago,' Hallett said. 'We saw a really clear signal that humans were living in more challenging and more extreme environments.' While humans had long survived in savanna and forests, they shifted into everything from from dense rainforests to arid deserts in the period leading up to 50,000 years ago, developing what Hallett called an 'ecological flexibility that let them succeed.' While this leap in abilities is impressive, it's important not to assume that only Homo sapiens did it, said University of Bordeaux archaeologist William Banks, who was not involved in the research. Other groups of early human ancestors also left Africa and established long-term settlements elsewhere, including those that evolved into Europe's Neanderthals, he said. The new research helps explain why humans were ready to expand across the world way back when, he said, but it doesn't answer the lasting question of why only our species remains today.

Al Arabiya

2 days ago

• Al Arabiya

NFL Widows Struggled to Care for Ex-Players With CTE. They Say a New Study Minimizes Their Pain

Dozens of widows and other caregivers for former NFL players diagnosed with CTE say a published study is insulting and dismissive of their experience living with the degenerative brain disease that has been linked to concussions and other repeated head trauma common in contact sports like football. An open letter signed by the players' wives, siblings, and children says the study, published in the May 6 issue of Frontiers in Psychology, suggests their struggles caring for loved ones was due to media hype about chronic traumatic encephalopathy rather than the disease itself. 'The implication that caregiver concerns are inevitable due to publicity is callous, patronizing, and offensive,' they said. 'The burden we experienced did not happen because we are women unable to differentiate between our lived experience and stories from TV or newspaper reports,' they wrote in the letter. 'Our loved ones were giants in life. CTE robbed them of their futures and robbed us of our futures with them. Please don't also rob us of our dignity.' The pushback was led by Dr. Eleanor Perfetto, herself a medical researcher and the widow of former Steelers and Chargers end Ralph Wenzel, who developed dementia and paranoia and lost his ability to speak, walk, and eat. He was first diagnosed with cognitive impairment in 1999 – six years before Pittsburgh center Mike Webster's CTE diagnosis brought the disease into the mainstream media. 'My own experience… it just gave a name to what I witnessed every day. It didn't put it in my head,' Perfetto said in an interview with The Associated Press. 'It gave it a name. It didn't change the symptoms.' The study published last month asked 172 caregivers for current and former professional football players whether they believed their partner had CTE. Noting that all of the respondents were women, Perfetto questioned why their experiences would be minimized. 'Women run into that every day,' she said. 'I don't think that's the only factor. I think the motivation is to make it seem like this isn't a real issue. It's not a real disease. It's something that people glommed on to because they heard about it in the media.' The letter was posted online on Monday under the headline 'NFL Caregivers to Harvard Football Player Health Study: Stop Insulting Us!' It had more than 30 signatures, including family of Hall of Famers Nick Buoniconti and Louis Creekmur. It praises the study for examining the fallout on loved ones who weathered the violent mood swings, dementia, and depression that can come with the disease. The letter says the study gets it wrong by including what it considers unsupported speculation, such as: 'Despite being an autopsy-based diagnosis, mainstream media presentations and high-profile cases related to those diagnosed postmortem with CTE may have raised concerns among living players about CTE.' The letter said these are insulting conclusions that were not backed by study evidence. 'Rather than exploring the lived experiences of partners of former athletes, they instead implied the partners' anxiety was caused by watching the news … as if the media is to blame for the severe brain atrophy caused by CTE in our loved ones,' they wrote. Study authors Rachel Grashow and Alicia Whittington said in a statement provided to the AP that the goal of their research is to support NFL families, especially those caring for affected players or grieving for lost loved ones. 'We regret if any of our work suggested otherwise,' they said. 'Our intent was not to minimize CTE – a disease that is far too real – but to point out that heightened attention to this condition can intensify existing concerns and that symptoms attributed to CTE may in some cases stem from other treatable conditions that also deserve recognition and care.' But Perfetto feared the study was part of a trend to downplay or even deny the risks of playing football. After years of denials, the NFL acknowledged in 2016 a link between football and CTE and eventually agreed to a settlement covering 20,000 retired players that provided up to $4 million for those who died with the disease. (Because it requires an examination of the brain tissue, CTE currently can only be diagnosed posthumously.) 'Why would a researcher jump to the media when trying to draw conclusions out of their data when they didn't collect any information about the media?' Perfetto told the AP. 'To me, as a researcher, you draw the implications from the results and you try to think of practically, 'Why you come to these conclusions? Why would you find these results?' Well, how convenient is it to say that it was the media and it takes the NFL off the hook?' The caregivers study is under the umbrella of the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University, a multifaceted effort working on prevention, diagnostics, and treatment strategies for the most common and severe conditions affecting professional football players. Although it is funded by the NFL Players Association, neither the union nor the league has any influence on the results or conclusions, the website says. 'The Football Players Health Study does not receive funding from the NFL and does not share any data with the NFL,' a spokesperson said. Previous research – involving a total of more than 4,700 ex-players – is on topics ranging from sleep problems to arthritis. But much of it has focused on brain injuries and CTE, which has been linked to contact sports, military combat, and other activities that can involve repetitive head trauma. When he died with advanced CTE in 2012 at age 69, Wenzel could no longer recognize Perfetto and needed help with everyday tasks like getting dressed or getting out of bed – an added problem because he was a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier than she is. When he died, his brain had atrophied to 910 grams, about the size of the brain of a 1-year-old child, the letter said. Former Auburn and San Diego Chargers running back Lionel 'Little Train' James, who set the NFL record for all-purpose yards in 1985, was diagnosed with dementia at 55 and CTE after he died at 59. 'Treatable conditions were not the reason Lionel went from being a loving husband and father to someone so easily agitated that his wife and children had to regularly restrain him from becoming violent after dodging thrown objects,' the letter said. 'They were not likely to be the driving force behind his treatment-resistant depression, which contributed to alcoholism, multiple stays in alcohol rehabilitation treatment centers, arrests, suicidal ideation, and ultimately his commitment to a mental institution.' Kesha James told the AP that she would disable the car to keep her husband from driving drunk. She said she had never spoken of her struggles but chose to tell her story now to remove the stigma associated with the players' late-in-life behavior – and the real-life struggles of their caregivers. 'I have videos that people probably would not believe,' James said. 'And I'll be honest with you: It is nothing that I'm proud of. For the last three years I've been embarrassed. I'm just going public now because I do want to help bring awareness to this – without bringing any shame to me and my kids – but just raise the awareness so that no other family can experience what I did.'

Al Arabiya

3 days ago

• Al Arabiya

SpaceX Rocket Being Tested in Texas Explodes, But No Injuries Reported

A SpaceX rocket being tested in Texas exploded Wednesday night, sending a dramatic fireball high into the sky. The company said the Starship experienced a major anomaly at about 11 p.m. while on the test stand preparing for the tenth flight test at Starbase, SpaceX's launch site at the southern tip of Texas. A safety clear area around the site was maintained throughout the operation, and all personnel are safe and accounted for, SpaceX said in a statement on the social platform X. It marked the latest in a series of incidents involving Starship rockets. On January 16, one of the massive rockets broke apart in what the company called a 'rapid unscheduled disassembly,' sending trails of flaming debris near the Caribbean. Two months later, SpaceX lost contact with another Starship during a March 6 test flight as the spacecraft broke apart, with wreckage seen streaming over Florida. Following the back-to-back explosions, one of the 403-foot (123-meter) Starship rockets launched from the southern tip of Texas tumbled out of control and broke apart on March 27. SpaceX had hoped to release a series of mock satellites following liftoff, but that got nixed because the door failed to open all the way. Then the spacecraft began spinning and made an uncontrolled landing in the Indian Ocean. At the time, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk called the launch a 'big improvement' from the two previous demos and promised a much faster launch pace moving forward, with a Starship soaring every three to four weeks for the next three flights. SpaceX said Wednesday night's explosion posed no hazards to nearby communities. It asked people not to try to approach the site. The company said it is working with local officials to respond to the explosion.