Memory Eraser: This Trick Helps You Forget

Whether it's an embarrassing situation at work or a bad date, everyone has memories they'd rather forget, and now new research suggests a way to do just that.

In the study, researchers found that trying to push away your thoughts about the less obvious, background aspects of such memories was key to intentionally forgetting something. Those background aspects may include the smells and sounds related to the actual events you'd rather not remember.

For example, if you wanted to forget the details of a conversation you just had,  "you could push out of your mind a song playing in the background, or thoughts related to a scene happening outside your window or something like that," said study co-author Jeremy Manning, an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

Although the researchers did not examine the details of the strategies people in the study employed to mentally push out certain thoughts, researchers have previously suggested two main strategies that might help in this process, Manning said

One strategy is to clear one's mind and deliberately try to think of nothing, and the other involves trying fill one's mind with thoughts about something very different than whatever a person is trying to forget. "If you don't want to think of the color blue, you think of green things instead, or red," Manning told Live Science. "Or, ifyou don't want to think of one song, you try to distract yourself with another song."

In the new study, the researchers looked at 25 people ages 19 to 34. The researchers gave the participants lists of words to study while showing them images of outdoor scenes, such as forests, mountains and beaches. The researchers then asked the people to try to either remember the words on the list or forget them. Meanwhile, the researchers scanned the people's brains to look at their brain activity throughout the experiment.

Results showed that when the people were asked to forget the words, they tried to push out of their minds thoughts related to the images they had been shown while studying the words. "It's like intentionally pushing thoughts of your grandmother's cooking out of your mind if you don't want to think about your grandmother at that moment," Manning said in a statement.

However, this pushing out of the images did not occur when the people were asked to remember the words, according to the study, published May 5 in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review.

It also turned out that that when the people were told to forget the words, the more they pushed away their thoughts about the images, the fewer words they were actually able to recall later on. This finding shows that the process is effective at facilitating forgetting, the researchers said.

Though studies of memory often focus on how people remember things, forgetting can sometimes be beneficial, too, Manning said. For example, some people, such as soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), may want to forget traumatic events, he said. "Or we might want to get outdated information 'out of our head,' so we can focus on learning new material," he said. "Our study identified one mechanism that supports these processes."

- See more at: http://www.livescience.com/54717-how-to-forget-a-memory.html#sthash.I47HdM72.dpuf

Big Test Pushes Elon Musk's Futuristic 'Hyperloop' Closer to Reality

A futuristic transportation concept known as the "Hyperloop" is undergoing the first public test today of one of its key components — an important milestone for the pioneering system first envisioned by SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk.

A startup known as Hyperloop One (formerly known as Hyperloop Technologies) is conducting a test of the Hyperloop system's electric motor in the Nevada desert, running it at speeds of up to 300 mph (483 km/h), the company said.

The test is meant to signal the start of work on an actual Hyperloop transportation system, which was proposed by Musk in 2013. The concept would see people zoom between Los Angeles and San Francisco in only 30 minutes, sitting inside pods that speed through low-pressure tubes at roughly 760 mph (1,220 km/h)

Hyperloop One is performing the propulsion open-air test on a 0.62-mile (1 km) track at the Apex Industrial Park in north Las Vegas. The test comes days after a competing company, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, announced that it will license a technology dubbed passive magnetic levitation for use in transportation systems. (There are several companies working on Hyperloop concepts, but none of them are affiliated with Musk or his companies.)

In 2013, the co-inventor of the Superconducting Maglev transportation system (which propels trains at high speeds using magnets to create lift and propulsion) told Live Science that there are limitations to the Hyperloop concept.

Hyperloop One is developing a futuristic transportation concept known as the "Hyperloop," which was first proposed by SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk in 2013.

Credit: Hyperloop One

"It's doable, but you have to build a track or tunnel that's very straight," American physicist James Powell told Live Science at the time. "At that speed, the track has to be straight and flat, to avoid bumpiness. When you're going 600 miles per hour, you can't really go around curves, and you'd have to be very flat, because without causing excessive g-forces, you probably wouldn't be able to adjust to changing elevations rapidly."

Yesterday, Hyperloop One also announced that it had received $80 million in financing, from current and new investors, to develop the transportation system.

"The brightest minds are coming together at the right time to eliminate the distances and borders that separate economies and cultures," Shervin Pishevar, Hyperloop One co-founder and executive chairman, said in a statement.

Hyperloop One further announced several privately funded feasibility studies. One will be for container shipments between the California ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles; another is within Switzerland; and the third will investigate possible routing between Stockholm, Sweden, and Helsinki, Finland, the company said. Hyperloop One will accept competitive proposals up to Sept. 15, and the winning proposals will be selected in March 2017, company officials said.

In 2015, Musk signed a deal with central California landowners to build a 5-mile (8 km) test track along California Interstate 5. This summer, SpaceX plans to test some of the most promising Hyperloop prototypes at its own track in Hawthorne, California.

10 Best Fruits For Fast Weight Loss

Fruits are not only a great source of vitamins, nutrients and fiber for us, they are actually a great food source for people looking to lose weight as well. This is because fruits contain natural sugars which are low in calories but are large in volume.

If you are embarking on a weight loss journey, fruits have the potential to keep you from getting hunger pangs. Don’t be frustrated by diets that require a daily count of your calorie intake anymore. We show you 10 fruits that promote faster weight loss, in a healthy way.

1.     Avocados

Avocados are rich in healthy fats. They also have a high content of monounsaturated oleic acid and water. This ‘good fat’ found in avocados increase metabolism and increase the production of testosterone, a hormone which aids in fat loss.

2.     Apples

An apple a day not only keeps the doctor away, apply also helps supercharge your fat metabolism. It is full of soluble fiber called pectin which keeps you feeling full and your appetite in check. Pectin also has the ability to limit the fat absorbed by body cells. Therefore, an apple eaten before a meal is likely to limit the amount of fat absorbed into your body.Apples also contain polyphenols and fiber which cannot be digested. In the colon, they ferment and are the nutrients for good bacteria in the body. A balance in the microbial environment in the body boosts the feeling of fullness and reduces the risk of obesity.

3.     Watermelon

Watermelon helps reduce fluid retention, constipation, skin disorders and promotes weight loss. The fruit is also high in water content to make you feel full while it is naturally low in calories. Consuming water melon at least once per day lowers fat accumulation, increases absorption of healthy lipids and reduces the occurrence of muscle soreness.

4.     Pears

Pears are packed with high fiber content to prevent constipation and keep your appetite in check. By ensuring that your digestive system is functioning optimally, waste in your body can be cleared efficiently and promote overall better digestion.

5.     Peaches

These fruits function in cleansing the intestines. Peaches contain ‘phenolic’, a compound that prevents accumulation of belly fat.

6.     Strawberries

Strawberries stimulate the production of leptin and adiponectin hormones. These two hormones function by increasing metabolism and burn fat efficiently, making for great fruits to aid in your weight loss program.

Strawberries also have anti-inflammatory enzymes that aid in the healing of tissue damage which may occur when you exercise extensively in your quest to lose weight.

7.     Lemon

Lemons are high in vitamin C and citric acid. They are also rich in fiber which helps reduce constipation, indigestion and obesity.

8.     Apricots

Fresh apricots are an excellent choice for weight watchers, or those wishing to shed a few extra pounds. Apricots is full of insoluble fiber that absorbs water and contributes to a feeling of fullness in your stomach

Apricots also promote quicker movement of food through your digestive channel and help maintain a healthy immune system. They contain an abundance of beta carotene which is an antioxidant and beneficial for your body.

9.     Coconut

Coconut fruit contains oil that has a thermogenic effect, which means it has the ability to raise body temperature. This means metabolic rate and overall energy consumption which enables a person to lose weight more easily.

The fruit also has enzymes that increase the metabolism of the liver. The liver is then able to regulate sugar more efficiently, preventing increase in blood sugar levels which is associated with obesity.

Coconut is also full of medium chain fatty acids that cannot be stored in the body as fat. Eating coconut also makes one feel full easily to prevent over eating.

10.     Pomegranate

Pomegranate packs antioxidants which help in eliminating toxins in the body. Pomegranate also reduces storage of bad cholesterol otherwise known as Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL). Some studies have shown that pomegranate cause a person’s appetite to shrink and thus consume less food.