Hypnosis has long intrigued and debated. The phenomena, typically portrayed in popular culture as mind control where patients blindly follow the hypnotist's directions, is controversial in science. Is it a scientifically proven psychological tool or pseudoscience? This article reviews hypnosis research and its scientific credibility. Hypnosis: A Change in Consciousness? The American Psychological Association defines hypnosis as “a state of consciousness involving focused attention and reduced peripheral awareness characterized by an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion”. Using guided imagery or suggestion, a hypnotist induces profound relaxation. Modern psychology advanced hypnosis research in the 20th century. Hypnosis can modify brain activity, according to brain...

Three Northern Irish space companies received STEP financing. ADS Group and the UK Space Agency received £300,000 today to strengthen their supply chain and space economy involvement. STEP was one of eighteen UK Space Agency initiatives established in February 2023 to promote the space sector. As stated by the National Space Strategy, ADS will manage the pilot program allowing supply chains SMEs in Northern Ireland to collaborate with major enterprises and employ innovative, new solutions to tackle technological obstacles, opening new markets and boosting UK space capabilities. The program's first three funded initiatives are: ANGOKA Ltd.’s quantum resilient technology safeguards space-based optical communications. IceMOS Technology Ltd. employs a sophisticated engi...

Music, with its diverse sounds and genres, has always shaped human society. Classical symphonies to heavy metal riffs move people. However, attempts to categorize music by genre often fail. Favouritism shapes identities and relationships. Tastes affect our judgment and behavior. Because music is continuously changing, representing musical taste is difficult. It's hard to categorize music tastes because of its intricacy. Melody, rhythm, harmony, instrumentation, and lyrics influence a song's aesthetic. Even within a genre, these elements might vary, making song categorization difficult. German researchers polled almost 2,000 people about their musical interests, including subgenres. Metal, pop, rock, EDM, and European classical music enthusiasts were prioritized. Music, wit...

Aliens in the Milky Way? A new quest for alien life uses radio waves from the core of our galaxy. Pulsars generate narrow-frequency pulses, which humans employ in radar. These pulses stand out against space's radio noise, making them an excellent tool to communicate over large distances and an attractive target for extraterrestrial civilization hunters. In a May 30 Astronomical Journal paper, scientists outlined the alien-hunting approach. The program was tested on known pulsars by Cornell University graduate student Akshay Suresh. These frequency ranges are roughly a tenth of an FM radio station's. The approach was used to search Green Bank Telescope data in West Virginia. Alien existence? "Until now, radio SETI has primarily dedicated its efforts to the search fo...

Astronomers found that the strongest gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever had a unique jet shape and was pulling an exceptionally high amount of star debris. This may explain the extreme properties of the burst, which was launched when a massive star 2.4 billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagitta collapsed to form a black hole, and why its afterglow lasted so long. On October 9, 2023, the brightest GRB ever, GRB 221009A, was seen. A powerful burst of high-energy gamma-rays was followed by a low-fading afterglow spanning multiple wavelengths. "GRB 221009A represents a massive step forward in our understanding of gamma-ray bursts and demonstrates that the most extreme explosions do not obey the standard physics assumed for garden variety bursts," said George Washington Unive...

A new coastal rescue facility has opened in Corpus Christi, Texas, and it is providing safe haven for endangered sea turtles and other forms of marine animals. Sea turtles, manatees, dolphins, birds, and other creatures who are in danger as a result of abnormal weather patterns are brought to the Port of Corpus Christi Center at the Texas State Aquarium, where they are treated for their injuries and then returned to the wild after undergoing rehabilitation. The 26,000-square-foot hospital, which opened in March, is the largest sea turtle rescue center in the United States. It employs a unique CT scanner that is devoted just to wildlife in order to take photographs of the creatures that have been saved. It has already responded to many instances of cold-stunning, which is a sudde...

50 top scientists cautioned Thursday that record-high greenhouse gas emissions and decreasing air pollution have accelerated global warming. "Human-induced warming has been increasing at an unprecedented rate of over 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade," they said in a peer-reviewed policymaker research from 2013 to 2022. Over the same period, average yearly emissions reached an all-time high of 54 billion tonnes of CO2 or comparable gases, or 1,700 tonnes per second. Top scientists warn of record 0.2C per decade warming. At the crucial COP28 climate meeting in Dubai later this year, a "Global Stocktake" at the UN talks will review progress toward the 2015 Paris Agreement's temperature objectives. World leaders will be presented with the fresh statistics. The findings appear...

On the fringes of the Milky Way Galaxy, astronomers have discovered a star with a chemical composition unlike anything they have ever seen. It corresponds to the chemical traces left behind by very massive, very early stars, as predicted by theory. This is the most convincing evidence to date that the first stars were colossal stars. Models indicate that such stars would not have left any other traces, so this is the best evidence that can be hoped for. It is believed that the first generation of stars in the universe included stars hundreds of times more massive than the Sun. A star of this size would have exploded after a brief existence, leaving no remnants for astronomers to investigate. Scientists Use Chemical Signatures to Pinpoint Massive Stars That Have Disappeared Th...

A scientist in the U.K. photographed a sequence of dazzling arcs and halos of light encircling the sun, including a remarkable ring of light that circled the sky. Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, recorded the amazing light show over Belfast's Botanic Gardens on May 28. Fitzsimmons told Live Science the show lasted 30 minutes. Spaceweather.com reported seeing strange lighting beams in various regions of Northern Ireland, northern England, and Scotland. Fitzsimmons said millions of small, precisely positioned ice crystals in the high sky, which commonly accompany thin cirrus clouds, generate the arcs and halos. "If the winds are very uniform up there, the hexagonal-shaped crystals align," he said. "This allows sunlight refractin...