{"id":254462,"date":"2023-01-31T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/?p=254462"},"modified":"2023-01-31T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T17:00:00","slug":"popular-theories-about-depression-are-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathewingram.com\/work\/2023\/01\/31\/popular-theories-about-depression-are-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular theories about depression are wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

People often think they know what causes chronic depression. Surveys indicate that more than 80% of the public blames a \u201cchemical imbalance\u201d in the brain. The unbalanced brain chemical in question is serotonin, an important neurotransmitter with fabled \u201cfeel-good\u201d effects. But the causes of depression go far beyond serotonin deficiency<\/a>. Clinical studies have repeatedly concluded that the role of serotonin in depression has been overstated. Indeed, the entire premise of the chemical-imbalance theory may be wrong, despite the relief that Prozac seems to bring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Montreal Mafia murders: Blood, gore, cannolis, and hockey bags<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On the morning they were arrested for allegedly burning bodies as part of a series of Mafia murders, Marie-Jos\u00e9e Viau and Guy Dion had already finished breakfast and packed their daughter off to elementary school. A Mother\u2019s Day card hung on the fridge next to family photographs<\/a>. Viau, 44, didn\u2019t have to go to her shift at the roadside poutine restaurant until later that day, so she tried baking something new: blueberry phyllo puffs. The pastries were still on the stove top when police arrived at 9:56 a.m. on October 16, 2019. \u201cWe\u2019re normal people,\u201d Viau swore to the arresting officers. \u201cWe didn\u2019t kill anyone.\u201d But undercover recordings made by investigators told a different tale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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The search for extraterrestrial life as we don\u2019t know it<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Part of the difficulty in searching for life of any sort is that scientists don\u2019t agree on how life started in the first place\u2014or what life even is<\/em>. One good attempt at a definition came in 2011 from geneticist Edward Trifonov, who collated more than 100 interpretations of the word \u201clife\u201d and distilled them into one overarching idea<\/a>: it\u2019s \u201cself-reproduction with variations.\u201d NASA formulated a similar working definition years earlier, in the mid-1990s, and still uses it to design astrobiology studies. Life, according to this formulation, \u201cis a self-sustaining chemical system capable of Darwinian evolution.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The controversial king of hardcore climbing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Over the past four years, a former Nepalese special forces soldier named Nims Purja has electrified the climbing world. He became mega-famous in 2019 by scaling all 14 of the world\u2019s 8,000-meter peaks<\/a> in just six months and six days. After that feat, his notoriety was multiplied by the releases of his book, Beyond Possible,<\/em> and Netflix movie, 14 Peaks,<\/em> both of which helped confer a level of power on Nims that climbers seldom achieve. Now he\u2019s deciding how to wield that influence, both for himself and his Sherpa compatriots. He\u2019s aimed at nothing less than remaking the Himalayan guiding industry in his image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happened when two nuclear bombs crashed in North Carolina<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On a cold wet day in January 1961, Lt. Jack ReVelle climbed out of a muddy hole in the ground, holding a rough, gray sphere the size of a volleyball against his chest. For the better part of a week, he and his crew had been digging in the swampy ground outside of Goldsboro, North Carolina. It had been raining and snowing, and the hole had grown to be larger than a football field. Jack was just 25 years old, but he was in charge. When he and his men finally found what they were looking for<\/a>, Jack was the one who got to climb up the ladder and bring it out. Lt. Jack ReVelle had just located and defused two nuclear bombs that accidentally fell out of a B-52 bomber over Eastern North Carolina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An ALS patient set a new record for communicating via a brain implant<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Eight years ago, a patient lost her power of speech because of ALS, or Lou Gehrig\u2019s disease, which causes progressive paralysis. She can still make sounds, but her words have become unintelligible, leaving her reliant on a writing board or iPad to communicate. Now, after volunteering to receive a brain implant, the woman has been able to rapidly communicate<\/a> phrases like \u201cI don\u2019t own my home\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s just tough\u201d at a rate approaching normal speech. The scientists say their volunteer, identified only as \u201csubject T12,\u201d smashed previous records by using the brain-reading implant to communicate at a rate of 62 words a minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two 7th-century Buddhist temples on top of a remote mountain in China<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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In the Wuling mountain range in southwestern China,

A rocky spire reaches high into the sky, its highest peak called Mount Fanjing. On its summit sit two temples originally built approximately in the 7th century https:\/\/t.co\/rqgdF2QHU4<\/a><\/p>— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) January 30, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote>