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Incredible Animation Shows How Surgeons Turn A Penis Into A Vagina

Health and Medicine





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This detailed animation shows exactly how a penis and testicles are transformed into a vagina during sex change operations. Blablo101 /Shutterstock

A sex change is quite a major transformation, so making the necessary alterations requires a fair bit of skill. This eye-opening video, created by the European Society of Urology, provides a detailed look at the key surgical procedures involved in male-to-female gender reassignment, whereby the penis and testicles are used to create a vagina that is not only convincing to the eye, but is also capable of orgasm.

When an Atheist Rapper Takes on Religion

by Jesse Rifkin

Baba Brinkman is a Canadian rapper who writes complex raps about high-brow topics, and now the avowed atheist is taking on religion.
Kanye West is married to Kim Kardashian. Jay-Z is married to Beyoncé. The rapper Baba Brinkman is married to a neuroscientist.

“We met at a conference where I performed a song about evolutionary psychology and she delivered a lecture about cognitive science of the unconscious mind,” Brinkman recalls. You know, the usual.

In a genre consistently topping the charts, owning radio airplay, and a stable of parties and clubs, Brinkman stands out in a subcategory of his own invention: “peer-reviewed rap.” All his records are concept albums with the title The Rap Guide to [Insert Noun] and explore a different intellectual theme: evolution, medicine, human nature, and more. His new release The Rap Guide to Religiondebuted Friday, Oct. 23.

“I feel like a lot of rappers grew up in a church community, since that’s a big part of the African-American culture. But I think there’s a lot of people who don’t relate to being churchy and religious and attributing everything to God,” Brinkman says in an interview, explaining the inspiration for his new work. “There aren’t strong voices in rap that represent the other view, that there’s a rational explanation for all this!”

Brinkman is not the first entertainer to produce intellectual rap, but it’s usually been done at least somewhat humorously or tongue-in-cheek. Think viral hitsWhite and Nerdy by Weird Al Yankovic and New Math by Bo Burnham, or the music videos concluding each episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy. Brinkman, on the other hand, is completely serious—a “real” rapper and not a comedian or satirist. His lyrics often contain Eminem-style multilayered complexity, not only featuring rhymes in concurrent lines like most rappers but sometimes two or even three rhymes contained within a single line.

As a result, Brinkman is able to successfully combine mind-expanding academic knowledge but with beats that make you tap your fingers on the steering wheel and earworms that can stay in your head for days. In this respect, he maintains many core elements of rap at its best with lyrics often representing a 180-degree departure from the genre’s typical fare. An example of this fusion on his upcoming album is his track Give Thanks, which satirizes the practice of thanking God, a common practice for rappers—or indeed, musicians from most genres.

 

Read more by clicking on the name of the source below. 

Marijuana Madness: Hopped-Up Weed May Pose Risks for Users

Feminism is My God Now

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Owning Your Body

Have we radically misunderstood the value of the body? In this issue of IAI News, we interrogate the significance of the human body from a host of different perspectives: feminism, neuroscience, technology and politics.
Professor of neuro-imaging Gina Rippon and feminist activist Finn Mackay both argue that the binary opposition between men and women is cultural, not natural. Mackay outlines the need to move beyond such dualisms to “recognise the unique potential of all human beings”. Similarly, Rippon believes that much modern research is still based on sexist assumptions. It’s time, she says, to rid science of toxic stereotypes.
Meanwhile, four very different thinkers explore what it means to “own your body” today. LSE sociologist Catherine Hakim probes the commercialisation of appearance in online dating; pro-choice advocate Ann Furedi argues that current abortion law threatens women’s sovereignty over their own bodies; John Sauven of Greenpeace cites Gandhi to show how the body can...

Google Makes Massive Renewable Energy Deal To Power Data Centers

Environment





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Google is now one of the biggest private sector investors in green energy. d8nn/Shutterstock

In one of the biggest renewable energy deals made by a non-utility company, your cat videos and Internet searches could soon be carbon neutral as Google has just announced that it has increased the amount of green energy powering its data centers and buildings.

This Week in Science (Nov. 29 – Dec. 6)

This is a collection of the 10 best and most popular stories from science and technology over the past 7 days. Click the individual images below to read the stories and follow the This Week in Science on wakelet (here) to get these weekly updates straight to your inbox every Sunday.

Several new studies, technologies provide insights into epilepsy control, surgical targets

Three studies to be presented at the American Epilepsy Society’s (AES) 69th Annual Meeting describe novel devices and technologies that could reshape current understanding of the complex mechanisms underpinning seizure development in the brain.

Two of the three studies unveil information about the neural networks that produce and propagate seizure activity, providing information that could help refine and target surgical interventions.

In the first study, (abstract 2.076|A.05) researchers from the University of Pennsylvania describe an array of transparent electrodes that can capture high-resolution images of neuronal activity in a live animal brain while simultaneously gathering electrophysiological information about neuron function.

The team previously demonstrated the technology in a single graphene electrode affixed to laboratory samples of brain tissue. According to the authors, graphene is an ideal material because of its flexibility, high electrical conductivity and opportunity to customize features on its surface.

Now, the researchers describe their use of novel nanofabrication techniques to construct graphene-based neural arrays for recording and stimulation. Experiments in live, anesthetized rats revealed that the electrodes are capable of recording epileptiform activity with a high signal-to-noise ratio, high spatial and temporal resolution, and without light-induced artifacts.

To continue reading the entire article and all three studies, click the name of the source below.

New Horizon Spacecraft Sends Back Sharpest Images of Pluto during July Flyby

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has sent back the first in a series of the sharpest views of Pluto it obtained during its July flyby – and the best close-ups of Pluto that humans may see for decades.

Each week the piano-sized New Horizons spacecraft transmits data stored on its digital recorders from its flight through the Pluto system on July 14. These latest pictures are part of a sequence taken near New Horizons’ closest approach to Pluto, with resolutions of about 250-280 feet (77-85 meters) per pixel – revealing features less than half the size of a city block on Pluto’s diverse surface. In these new images, New Horizons captured a wide variety of cratered, mountainous and glacial terrains.

“These close-up images, showing the diversity of terrain on Pluto, demonstrate the power of our robotic planetary explorers to return intriguing data to scientists back here on planet Earth,” said John Grunsfeld, former astronaut and associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “New Horizons thrilled us during the July flyby with the first close images of Pluto, and as the spacecraft transmits the treasure trove of images in its onboard memory back to us, we continue to be amazed by what we see.”

To read more and see more images, click the name of the source below.

The Physical Characteristics That Make Men More Attractive, According To Science

The Brain





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Roman Seliutin/Shutterstock

This video from Tech Insider reveals some of the physical characteristics that scientific studies suggest make men more attractive to women.

Of course, take it with a pinch of salt. Not everybody loves the cliché tall, dark and handsome look – although wearing red clothes probably wouldn’t go amiss. Furthermore, personality goes a long way. Even science has said that, not just your mom.