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Today, a new cryptocurrency is released into the digital cryptocurrency economy through a process known as mining. However, crypto mining is a deeply energy-intensive process. “Mining” bitcoin involves solving complex mathematical problems in order to create new bitcoins. Bitcoin miners are later rewarded with a fraction of Bitcoin for every problem they solved. According to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, bitcoin mining in 2020 consumes 120 gigawatts (GW) per second. This converts to about 63 terawatt-hours (TWh) per year and thus increases the annual CO2 emissions, which leads to global warming. The CBECI further notes that the amount of...

The new research could help doctors to quickly identify patients who are aware despite appearing unresponsive and unable to communicate. Researchers from University of Cambridge in the UK have identified hidden networks in vegetative patients that could support consciousness, even when a patient appear to be unresponsive. There’s been a lot of interest lately into how much patients in vegetative states, such as comas, are aware of their surroundings. Recently, research involving functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning has shown that even patients who are unable to respond or move are able to carry out mental tasks, such as imagining...

“Fascinating,” says medical resuscitation expert Sam Parnia of a recent PLOS One study finding highly unexpected electrical activity in the hippocampus of one man, and 26 cats, with flat-lined “isoelectric” electroencephalograms (EEGs). The isoelectric flat line—so popular in movies and on TV shows—helps determine if patients are in a brain death they can’t recover from.

Foetuses may develop consciousness long before the legal age limit for abortions, one of Britain's leading brain scientists has said. Baroness Greenfield, a professor of neurology at Oxford University and the director of the Royal Institution, said there was evidence to suggest the conscious mind could develop before 24 weeks, the upper age where terminations are permitted. "Given that we can't prove consciousness or not, we should be very cautious about being too gung ho and assuming something is not conscious. We should err on the side of caution." OMED: Recently Portland was treated to the uninformed bombast of Hanoi...