your science briefing for 01.22.2015

Computing the light fantastic, the woman who couldn't laugh, who's ready to order a McCricket, and more...

Engineers have been slamming into the limit of silicon chips again and again over the past decade, and newly widespread forms of computing for security, gaming, AI, and image processing are bumping up against the limitations of their design. Which is why there’s now a lot of appetite for a new generation of computer chips, ones using light for faster, more energy efficient calculations… (MIT News)

“They’ll have you eating bugs” is a constant right wing scaremongering tactic against efforts to save the environment or fight climate change and global warming. But here is the interesting thing. A lot of places around the world regularly incorporate insects in their cuisines, and industrial farming of bugs for protein is a lot easier and way more efficient. So, is there any room for insects in the American diet… (Grist)

In a twist on the joke about the great clown Pagliacci, a woman whose name we don’t know thanks to bad record keeping, amazed and unnerved the crowds at the start of the 1900s by refusing to laugh at even the funniest jokes and routines which had the rest of the crowds in stitches. But the twist is that her mirthlessness wasn’t an act. It seemed that she really was medically incapable of laughter… (Mental Floss)

Many furious screeds have been written about the supposedly debilitating effects of TikTok and short form video. But the actual science so far has been very vague and focused on correlations instead of causation. Now, a study looking at genetics, brain structure, and mental processing hints that some of us are just wired for compulsive short form video binging by being more easily stimulated and impulsive… (PsyPost)

Based on health records of 15,000 patients collected over 25 years, researchers are sounding the alarm that based on demographics and risk profiles, cases of dementia in the U.S. look almost certain to double to one million per year by 2060. This means research into staving off neurodegenerative conditions has to become one of the top health priorities for the nation’s medical community… (CNN)