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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 14, 2025 at 8:37am

A mix of quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews was used with 666 participants in the United Kingdom. They were distributed across three age groups (17–25, 26–45, 46 and older) and had varying educational backgrounds.

Quantitative data collection involved a 23-item questionnaire measuring AI tool usage, cognitive offloading tendencies, and critical thinking skills, utilizing scales like the Halpern Critical Thinking Assessment (HCTA). ANOVA, correlation, multiple regression, and random forest regression analyses provided statistical insights. Qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 50 participants underwent thematic analysis for contextual depth.

Statistical analyses demonstrated a significant negative correlation between AI tool usage and critical thinking scores (r = -0.68, p < 0.001). Frequent AI users exhibited diminished ability to critically evaluate information and engage in reflective problem-solving.

Cognitive offloading was strongly correlated with AI tool usage (r = +0.72) and inversely related to critical thinking (r = -0.75). Mediation analysis revealed that cognitive offloading partially explains the negative relationship between AI reliance and critical thinking performance.

Younger participants (17–25) showed higher dependence on AI tools and lower critical thinking scores compared to older age groups. Advanced educational attainment correlated positively with critical thinking skills, suggesting that education mitigates some cognitive impacts of AI reliance.

Random forest regression (R² = 0.37) and multiple regression analyses highlighted diminishing returns on critical thinking with increasing AI usage, emphasizing a threshold beyond which cognitive engagement significantly declines.

Three themes emerged from the qualitative interviews. Many participants acknowledged heavy reliance on AI for tasks like memory and decision-making, with younger users particularly affected. Respondents expressed concerns about losing critical thinking skills due to the habitual use of AI tools. Issues such as algorithmic bias and lack of transparency in AI recommendations were frequently mentioned.

The study's findings, if replicated, could have significant implications for educational policy and the integration of AI in professional settings. Schools and universities might want to emphasize critical thinking exercises and metacognitive skill development to counterbalance AI reliance and cognitive effects.

Developers of AI systems might consider cognitive implications, ensuring their tools encourage a level of engagement rather than passive reliance.

 Michael Gerlich, AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking, Societies (2025). DOI: 10.3390/soc15010006

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 14, 2025 at 8:34am

Increased AI use linked to eroding critical thinking skills

As it is most people don't think critically. Now the other small percentage of people who do are also under the danger of losing their skills if they use too much of AI. 

A new study has found that increased reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) tools is linked to diminished critical thinking abilities. It points to cognitive offloading as a primary driver of the decline.

AI's influence is growing fast. A quick search of AI-related science stories reveals how fundamental a tool it has become. Thousands of AI-assisted, AI-supported and AI-driven analyses and decision-making tools help scientists improve their research.

AI has also become more integrated into daily activities, from virtual assistants to complex information and decision support. Increased usage is beginning to influence how people think, especially impactful among younger people, who are avid users of the technology in their personal lives.

An attractive aspect of AI tools is cognitive offloading, where individuals rely on the tools to reduce mental effort. As the technology is both very new and rapidly being adopted in unforeseeable ways, questions arise about its potential long-term impacts on cognitive functions like memory, attention, and problem-solving under prolonged periods or volume of cognitive offloading taking place.

In the study "AI Tools in Society: Impacts on Cognitive Offloading and the Future of Critical Thinking," published in Societies, researchers investigate whether AI tool usage correlates with critical thinking scores and explores how cognitive offloading mediates this relationship.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 13, 2025 at 11:18am

Antarctic ice melt may fuel eruptions of hidden volcanoes

A slow climate feedback loop may be bubbling beneath Antarctica's vast ice sheet. The continent, divided east to west by the Transantarctic Mountains, includes volcanic giants such as Mount Erebus and its iconic lava lake. But at least 100 less conspicuous volcanoes dot Antarctica, with many clustered along its western coast. Some of those volcanoes peak above the surface, but others sit several kilometers beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet.

Climate change is causing the ice sheet to melt, raising global sea levels. The melting is also removing the weight over the rocks below, with more local consequences. Ice sheet melt has been shown to increase volcanic activity in subglacial volcanoes elsewhere on the globe.

Researchers ran 4,000 computer simulations to study how ice sheet loss affects Antarctica's buried volcanoes, and they found that gradual melt could increase the number and size of subglacial eruptions. The findings are published in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems.

The reason is that this unloading of ice sheets reduces pressure on magma chambers below the surface, causing the compressed magma to expand. This expansion increases pressure on magma chamber walls and can lead to eruptions.

Some magma chambers also hold copious amounts of volatile gases, which are normally dissolved into the magma. As the magma cools and when overburden pressure reduces, those gases rush out of solution like carbonation out of a newly opened bottle of soda, increasing the pressure in the magma chamber. This pressure means that melting ice can expedite the onset of an eruption from a subglacial volcano.

Eruptions of subglacial volcanoes may not be visible on the surface, but they can have consequences for the ice sheet. Heat from these eruptions can increase ice melting deep below the surface and weaken the overlying ice sheet—potentially leading to a feedback loop of reduced pressure from the surface and further volcanic eruptions.

The authors stress that this process is slow, taking place over hundreds of years. But that means the theorized feedback could continue even if the world curtails anthropogenic warming.

 A. N. Coonin et al, Magma Chamber Response to Ice Unloading: Applications to Volcanism in the West Antarctic Rift System, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (2024). DOI: 10.1029/2024GC011743

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 11, 2025 at 11:39am

From the ocean to our kitchen table: anthropogenic particles in the edible tissue of U.S. West Coast seafood species

Microplastics Are Widespread in Popular Seafoods

In some parts of the world researchers have found particles from our waste and pollution swimming in the edible tissue of just about every fish and shellfish they collected.

Of the 182 individuals caught on the Oregon coast or sold in the state's markets, only two fish, a lingcod and a herring, had zero suspicious particles in their sampled slice of edible tissue.

The rest of the lot, including rockfish, lingcod, Chinook salmon, Pacific herring, Pacific lamprey, and pink shrimp, all contained 'anthropogenic particles', which included what are thought to be fibers of dyed cottons, cellulose from paper and cardboard, and microscopic pieces of plastic.

This has wide implications for other organisms, potentially including humans too.

Scientists have recently noticed that humans who eat more seafood tend to host more microplastics in their own bodies, especially those who consume bivalves like oysters or mussels.

How long those plastics stick around in the body and what they are doing to human health is unknown and demands urgent research.

The researchers are not arguing that people should stop eating seafood altogether, but it's important that consumers and scientists understand the level of exposure.

At this point, human-generated particles of paint, soot, and microplastics are so ubiquitous as to be inescapable. These pollutants now exist in the air, water, and in many meals other than seafood.

If we are disposing of and utilizing products that release microplastics, those microplastics make their way into the environment, and are taken up by things we eat.

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/toxicology/articles/10.3389/ft...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 11, 2025 at 10:32am

Study: 15.4% of 0- to 35-month-olds receive invalid vaccine dose

Overall, 15.4% of children aged 0 to 35 months receive an invalid vaccine dose, receiving a vaccine earlier or later than recommended, according to a study published online Jan. 10 in Pediatrics.

Researchers  analyzed provider-verified vaccination records from the 2011 to 2020 National Immunization Survey-Child to quantify the prevalence of invalid doses among  children aged 0 to 35 months.

Invalid doses are those provided outside the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for minimum and maximum ages of vaccination and minimum intervals between doses.

The researchers found that 22,209 of 161,187 children (weighted percent, 15.4%) had an invalid vaccine dose. Overall, 44.9% of children with a minimum age or minimum interval invalid dose received extra doses and completed the series. The highest prevalence of invalid doses was seen for the three-dose rotavirus (4.4%), with 3.1% having the first dose administered after the maximum age. From 2011 to 2020, there was a decrease seen in the percentage of children with an invalid dose (16.9 to 12.5%). The odds of an invalid dose were higher for children who moved across state lines versus those who did not (adjusted odds ratio, 1.5).

To reduce invalid vaccine administration overall, equity-based national and state investments in immunization information systems and clinical support tools that help providers make accurate recommendations are needed in all settings where children receive vaccinations," the authors write in their papers.

 Alexandria N. Albers et al, Invalid Vaccine Doses Among Children Aged 0 to 35 Months: 2011 to 2020, Pediatrics (2025). DOI: 10.1542/peds.2024-068341

David G Bundy, Vaccination Timing: Threading the Needle Between "Too Early" and "Too Late", Pediatrics (2025). DOI: 10.1542/peds.2024-068972

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 11, 2025 at 9:53am

Global temperatures passed critical 1.5°C milestone for the first time in 2024

The earth's climate experienced its hottest year in 2024. Extreme flooding in April killed hundreds of people in Pakistan and Afghanistan. A year-long drought has left Amazon river levels at an all-time low. And in Athens, Greece, the ancient Acropolis was closed in the afternoons to protect tourists from dangerous heat.

A new report from the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service confirms that 2024 was the first year on record with a global average temperature exceeding 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. All continents except Australasia and Antarctica experienced their hottest year on record, with 11 months of the year exceeding the 1.5°C level.

Global temperatures have been at record levels—and still rising—for several years now. The previous hottest year on record was 2023. All ten of the hottest years on record have fallen within the last decade. But this is the first time a calendar year has exceeded the 1.5°C threshold.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 11, 2025 at 9:50am

Earth breaks yearly heat record and lurches past dangerous warming threshold

Earth recorded its hottest year ever in 2024, with such a big jump that the planet temporarily passed a major climate threshold, weather monitoring agencies announced this week. 

It's the first time in recorded history that the planet was above a hoped-for limit to warming for an entire year, according to measurements from four of the six teams. Scientists say if Earth stays above the threshold long-term, it will mean increased deaths, destruction, species loss and sea level rise from the extreme weather that accompanies warming.

And that would come on top of a year of deadly climate catastrophes— billions of -dollar disasters in 2024—and as 2025 begins with devastating wildfires raging across most parts of the developed world. 

Last year's global average temperature easily passed 2023's record heat and kept going. It surpassed the long-term warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit ) since the late 1800s that was called for by the 2015 Paris climate pact.

The primary reason for these record temperatures is the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from the burning of coal, oil and gas.

As greenhouse gases continue to accumulate in the atmosphere, temperatures continue to increase, including in the ocean, sea levels continue to rise, and glaciers and ice sheets continue to melt.

And there's nothing to indicate that it won't continue unless the world realizes its mistakes.

By far the biggest contributor to record warming is the burning of fossil fuels, several scientists say. 

Climate-change-related alarm bells have been ringing almost constantly, which may be causing the public to become numb to the urgency, like police sirens in the cities. In the case of the climate, though, the alarms are getting louder, and the emergencies are now way beyond just temperature.

Source: News Agencies

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 11, 2025 at 9:40am

Ocean temperatures hit record highs in 2024, study finds

A study published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences has found that ocean warming in 2024 has led to new record high temperatures. The ocean is the hottest it has ever been recorded by humans, not only at the surface temperature but also for the upper 2000 meters.

A team of 54 scientists from seven countries had discussed in the paper how a hotter ocean affects our lives on land and what this means for our future.

The ocean is a critical part of the Earth's climate—most of the excess heat from global warming is stored in the ocean (90%) and the ocean covers 70% of the Earth's surface. Because of this, the ocean dictates our weather patterns by transferring heat and moisture into the atmosphere. The ocean also controls how fast climate change happens.

To know what is happening to the climate, the answer is in the ocean.

Results from three international teams who collaborated on this project were consistent—the ocean is warming, and 2024 was a record.

From 2023 to 2024, the global upper 2000 m ocean heat content increase is 16 zettajoules (10²¹ Joules), ~140 times the world's total electricity generation in 2023.

OHC has increased steadily by 15–20 ZJ over the past five years despite the La Niña and El Niño cycles.

The ocean surface temperature is also setting records. The surface temperature refers to temperatures just at the surface, where the ocean waters and atmosphere commute. Surface temperatures are important because they dictate how fast heat and moisture (humidity) can transfer from the ocean to the air and thus affect weather. The rise in surface temperatures since the late 1950s has been staggering.

The changes are not uniform; regional variations can be substantial. The Atlantic is warming along with the Mediterranean Sea, and across the mid-latitude Southern Ocean. While parts of the Northern Pacific Ocean have warmed very rapidly, other areas (the tropical region) have not, mostly due to the La Niña/El Niño cycle in that area. The heat has even accumulated near both the North and South Poles.

A warmer ocean affects marine life and results in huge damage in many ways. The main way the ocean continues to influence the climate is through accompanying increases in water vapor in the atmosphere that leads to the damaging increases in extremes in the hydrological cycle.

Water vapor is also a powerful greenhouse gas and increased heating leads to drying and risk of drought and wildfire. But it also fuels storms of all sorts and leads to risk of flooding. That includes hurricanes and typhoons.

The heat in the ocean is the best measurement for monitoring the changing climate. The ocean is our sentinel for planetary warming, acting as the major sink of surplus heat accumulating in the Earth's climate system as a result of anthropogenic emissions.

If there continues to be a failure to take action to slow climate change, the disruption, unprecedented change and its implications, costs and loss and damage will continue to increase, the scientists warn.

Sea Surface Temperatures and Deeper Water Temperatures Reached a New Record High in 2024, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (2025). DOI: 10.1007/s00376-025-4541-3

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 10, 2025 at 11:50am

For exercise to have a meaningful contribution, pain would need to improve by 12 points, physical function by 13 points, and quality of life by 15 points.

"The benefits were of uncertain clinical importance, meaning that they may not result in a change in symptoms that makes a noticeable difference to patients," the research team wrote.

The review team also noted that many of the studies in their review included small groups or were not well-designed.

"Many studies are of poor quality with small sample sizes," the researchers wrote. "Therefore, some studies may have made the benefits of exercise seem greater than they are."

What?!

Belinda J Lawford et al. Exercise for osteoarthritis of the knee, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (2024). DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD004376.pub4

Part 2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on January 10, 2025 at 11:49am

Can exercise really ease knee pain?

Movement is medicine, or so they tell people with knee osteoarthritis—but are they right?

A recent evidence review calls into question just how helpful exercise can be for easing the pain of knee arthritis.

"Exercise probably results in an improvement in pain, physical function, and quality of life in the short‐term," concluded the research team who tested this theory.

"However, based on the thresholds for minimal important differences that we used, these benefits were of uncertain clinical importance," the team added in its report published previously in the Cochrane Library.

The review casts a slight shadow on what has been considered an integral part of therapy for knee pain.

Movement is an essential part of an osteoarthritis treatment plan," the Arthritis Foundation says on its website, recommending that people take part in  strength training, stretching, aerobics, and balance exercises.

For the new review, the team evaluated data from 139 prior clinical trials involving nearly 12,500 participants that occurred up through early Jan. 2024.

On a 100-point scale, exercise for knee arthritis improved:

• Pain by 8.7 to 13.1 points
• Physical function by 9.7 to 12.5 points
• Quality of life by 4.2 to 6.1 points

But while those were significant improvements, they did not always meet established scores for making a minimal important difference in a patient's life, researchers noted.

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