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Bigg Boss 19 - Daily Discussion Topic - 11th Oct 2025 - WKV
THALI KA BAINGAN 11.10
Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai Oct 11, 2025 Episode Discussion Thread
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Masterminds-Pari n RV
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East or West, Farhana is da beshhhttt
✦ Font-astic Voyage Contest Voting Round 2 | Invites ONLY ✦
Happy Birthday Amitabh Bachchan
Out now song - Rahein Na Rahein Hum - Thamma
Deepika appointed as India's first Mental Health Ambassador
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The scientific research on floor food has a clear answer
Leave the meat, keep the legumes: Experts release 2025 dietary recommendations
The explosion of crisp, commercial apple varieties in the last century doomed many other breeds into obscurity. But in a field in Kent in the UK, some of them live on.
The ones who need little sleep
Short sleepers cruise by on four to six hours a night and don’t seem to suffer ill effects. Turns out they’re genetically built to require less sleep than the rest of us.
by Marla Broadfoot
Everyone has heard that it’s vital to get seven to nine hours of sleep a night, a recommendation repeated so often it has become gospel. Get anything less, and you are more likely to suffer from poor health in the short and long term — memory problems, metabolic issues, depression, dementia, heart disease, a weakened immune system.
But in recent years, scientists have discovered a rare breed who consistently get little shut-eye and are no worse for wear.
Natural short sleepers, as they are called, are genetically wired to need only four to six hours of sleep a night. These outliers suggest that quality, not quantity, is what matters. If scientists could figure out what these people do differently it might, they hope, provide insight into sleep’s very nature.
“The bottom line is, we don’t understand what sleep is, let alone what it’s for. That’s pretty incredible, given that the average person sleeps a third of their lives,” says Louis Ptáček, a neurologist at the University of California San Francisco.
Scientists once thought sleep was little more than a period of rest, like powering down a computer in preparation for the next day’s work. Thomas Edison called sleep a waste of time — “a heritage from our cave days” — and claimed to never sleep more than four hours a night. His invention of the incandescent lightbulb encouraged shorter sleep times in others. Today, a historically high number of US adults are sleeping less than five hours a night.
But modern sleep research has shown that sleep is an active, complicated process we don’t necessarily want to cut short. During sleep, scientists suspect that our bodies and brains are replenishing energy stores, flushing waste and toxins, pruning synapses and consolidating memories. As a result, chronic sleep deprivation can have serious health consequences.
Most of what we know about sleep and sleep deprivation stems from a model proposed in the 1970s by a Hungarian-Swiss researcher named Alexander Borbély. His two-process model of sleep describes how separate systems — circadian rhythm and sleep homeostasis — interact to govern when and how long we sleep. The circadian clock dictates the 24-hour cycle of sleep and wakefulness, guided by external cues like light and darkness. Sleep homeostasis, on the other hand, is driven by internal pressure that builds while you’re awake and decreases while you’re asleep, ebbing and flowing like hunger.
There’s variation in these patterns. “We’ve always known that there are morning larks and night owls, but most people fall in between. We’ve always known there are short sleepers and long sleepers, but most people fall in between,” says Ptáček. “They’ve been out there, but the reason that they haven’t been recognized is that these people generally don’t go to doctors.”
That changed when Ptáček and his colleague Ying-Hui Fu, a human geneticist and neuroscientist at UC San Francisco, were introduced to a woman who felt that her early sleep schedule was a curse. The woman naturally woke up in the wee hours of the morning, when it was “cold, dark, and lonely.” Her granddaughters inherited her same sleep habits. The researchers pinpointed the genetic mutation for this rare type of morning lark, and after they published their findings, thousands of extreme early risers came out of the woodwork.
But Fu recalls being intrigued by one family that didn’t fit the pattern. These family members woke up early but didn’t go to bed early, and felt refreshed after only about six hours of sleep. They were the first people identified with familial natural short sleep, a condition that runs in families like other genetic traits. Fu and Ptáček traced their abbreviated slumber to a mutation in a gene called DEC2.
The researchers went on to genetically engineer the DEC2 mutation into mice, showing that the animals need less sleep than their littermates. And they found that one of the gene’s jobs is to help control levels of a brain hormone called orexin, which promotes wakefulness. Interestingly, orexin deficiency is a leading cause of narcolepsy, a sleep disorder marked by episodes of excessive daytime sleepiness. In people with short sleep, however, orexin production appears to be increased.
Over time, the team has identified seven genes associated with natural short sleep. In one family with three generations of short sleepers, the researchers found a mutation in a gene called ADRB1, which is highly active in a region of the brain stem, the dorsal pons, that’s involved in regulating sleep. When the scientists used a technique to stimulate that brain region in mice, rousing them from their sleep, mice with the ADRB1 mutation woke more easily and stayed awake longer.
In a father-son pair of short sleepers, the researchers identified a mutation in another gene, NPSR1, which is involved in regulating the sleep/wake cycle. When they created mice with the same mutation, they found that the animals spent less time sleeping and, in behavioral tests, lacked the memory problems that typically follow a short night’s sleep.
The team also found two distinct mutations in a gene called GRM1, in two unrelated families with shortened sleep cycles. Again, mice engineered with those mutations slept less, with no obvious health consequences.
Like mice, people who are naturally short sleepers seem to be immune to the ill effects of sleep deprivation. If anything, they do extraordinarily well. Research suggests that such people are ambitious, energetic and optimistic, with remarkable resilience against stress and higher thresholds for pain. They might even live longer.
Based on the findings in short sleepers, some researchers think it may be time to update the old two-process model of sleep, which is how Ptáček developed the idea of a third influence. The updated model might unfold like this: In the morning, the circadian clock indicates it is time to start your day, and sleep homeostasis signals you’ve gotten enough sleep to get out of bed. Then a third factor — behavioral drive — compels you to go out and do your job, or find a mate, or gather sustenance. At night, the process goes in reverse, to calm the body down for sleep.
Perhaps short sleepers are so driven that they are able to overcome the innate processes that keep others in bed. But it may also be that, somehow, the brains of short sleepers are built to sleep so efficiently that they are able to do more with less.
Efficient slumber
“It’s not like there’s something magical about your seven to eight hours,” says Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University, near Chicago. Zee can imagine countless ways that short sleepers’ brains could be more efficient. Do they have more slow-wave sleep, the most restorative sleep stage? Do they generate higher amounts of cerebrospinal fluid, the liquid that bathes the brain and spinal cord, enabling them to get rid of more waste products? Is their metabolic rate different, helping them cycle in and out of sleep more quickly?
“It’s all about efficiency, sleep efficiency — that’s how I feel,” says Fu. “Whatever their body needs to do with sleep, they can get it done in a short time.”
A historic photograph shows a man in white suit sleeping on the lawn while two other men sit in deck chairs behind him reading newspapers.
Recent studies from Fu and Ptáček suggest that naturally short sleepers may be more efficient at removing toxic brain aggregates that contribute to neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers bred mice that had short sleep genes with mice that carried genes predisposing them to Alzheimer’s. The Alzheimer’s mice developed a buildup of abnormal proteins — amyloid plaques and tau tangles — that, in humans, are hallmarks of dementia. But the brains of the hybrid mice developed fewer of these tangles and plaques, as if the sleep mutations were protecting the animals.
Fu believes that if she conducted similar studies in models of heart disease, diabetes or other illnesses associated with sleep deprivation, she would get similar results.
Deeper secrets of sleep
It isn’t yet clear how the short sleeper genes identified thus far shield people from the ill effects of poor sleep, or how the mutations in these genes make sleep more efficient. To get at the answer, Fu and Ptáček started bringing short sleepers to their joint laboratory to measure their brain waves while they slept. Their sleep study was derailed by the pandemic, but they are eager to get it back on track.
The researchers are also interested in understanding other sleep outliers. Sleep duration, like most behaviors, follows a bell curve. Short sleepers sit on one end of the curve, long sleepers on the other. Fu has found one genetic mutation associated with long sleep, but long sleepers are challenging to study because their schedules don’t align with the norms and demands of society. Long sleepers are often forced to get up early to go to school or work, which can result in sleep deprivation and may contribute to depression and other illnesses.
But though sleep has a strong genetic component, it can also be shaped by the environment. Knowing that better sleep is possible, and understanding the basis, could point the way to interventions to optimize sleep, enabling more people to live longer, healthier lives.
Zee’s lab, for example, has tinkered with using acoustic stimulation to boost the slow waves of deep sleep that enhance memory processing and may be one of the secrets to short sleepers’ success. In a study, they played pink noise — a softer, more natural sound than white noise, more akin to rain or the ocean — while study participants slept. The next day those participants remembered more in a test of learning and recalling word pairs. “We can enhance memory, but we’re not making them sleep longer or necessarily shorter,” says Zee. “I think there’s a lot more to learn.”
For now, researchers recommend that people focus on getting the amount of sleep they need, recognizing it will be different for different people. Ptáček still bristles when he hears someone preach that everybody has to sleep eight hours a night. “That's like saying everybody in the population has to be 5 foot 10,” he says. “That's not how genetics works.”
Marla Broadfoot is a freelance science writer who lives in Wendell, North Carolina. She has a PhD in genetics and molecular biology. See more of her work at marlabroadfoot.com.
Class: 40 th Std (All students are above 40 years)
Attendance Time.
Anger - Present sir
Anxiety - Present sir
Boredom - Present sir
Desires - Present sir
(in full volume)
Frustration - Present sir
Monthly EMI - Present sir (in full volume)
Tension - Present sir
Sadness - Present sir
Worries - Present sir
Uncertainties - Present sir
Happiness - ???
(no sound)
Happiness - ??? 😳
Happiness - Absent sir
Peace of mind - Absent sir
Contentment - Absent sir
Moral of story:
In life, there is nothing called sadness😪. Either Happiness Present👍or Happiness Absent.👎
Life is very simple to live, but many find it difficult to be simple.😨
https://psyche.co/guides/how-to-think-about-the-sublime-in-the-natural-world
How to think about the sublime
The ‘panzoic effect’: the benefits of thinking about alien life
By Graham Lau
Reflecting on the potential for extraterrestrial life can inspire awe and have a profound effect on your worldview
In 1985, the author Frank White coined the term ‘overview effect’ to describe something striking that happens to people who have been to space. The term would become the title of White’s 1987 book that popularised the concept: after gazing down at Earth, he observed, some astronauts report a change in their worldview. They describe feeling a oneness with humanity and our biosphere, and an awareness of the precarious nature of our existence. Anousheh Ansari, the first female private space explorer, recounted that after returning from space she was never again bothered by rush-hour traffic or being late to a meeting. And after William Shatner, who played Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, returned from his own suborbital space trip in 2021, he wrote in Variety magazine that: ‘It reinforced tenfold my own view on the power of our beautiful, mysterious collective human entanglement, and eventually, it returned a feeling of hope to my heart.’
The overview effect ties into something that is much larger about humanity: we can be roused through experiences of wonder and awe to think in bigger ways about ourselves, and to be more compassionate and understanding.
I have never looked down at the Earth from space myself, but I believe it’s possible to experience a similarly profound perspective shift by looking outward from our planet, too. As an astrobiologist and science communicator, I spend my days thinking about the possibility of alien life, considering what – or who – is out there among the stars. The idea that our seemingly barren Universe might contain an abundance of living creatures fills me with a sense of awe, and it has transformed how I see the world. I call this grand shift in perspective the ‘panzoic effect’.
Looking at the night sky and wondering what those celestial lights might be is something humans have done since before written history. Thousands of years ago, people from Babylonia to China and from the Americas to Aboriginal Australia saw part of themselves reflected in the heavens. In ancient Greece, Anaximander proposed that Earth was a body floating in an infinite void, and Epicurus wrote that: ‘There is an unlimited number of cosmoi [worlds], and some are similar to this one and some are dissimilar.’ Much later, thinkers such as Giordano Bruno would argue not only for a multitude of worlds but also for the potential for multitudes of intelligent beings beyond Earth.
If there are aliens out there, we could be very near to finding some of them
The scientific study of astrobiology, though, is a more recent effort. By investigating the origins, evolution and distribution of life in the Universe, it asks: ‘Where does life come from?’, ‘How does a living world change over time?’ and ‘Might there be other life out there?’ I’ve been fascinated by these questions for much of my own life: at first through science fiction, and then later in my research and science communication. But along the way, I’ve seen significant changes in how we go about seeking answers. Astrobiology was once a speculative discipline – viewed sceptically by many scientists in the 20th century – but it is now mainstream. Today, it is no longer about whether looking for aliens is worthwhile, rather now our focus is on what methods, technologies and space missions will best increase the likelihood of finding them – we’ve gone from ‘So what?’ to ‘Now what?’
Moreover, in recent years the possibility of success has drawn tantalisingly close. Since 2000, we’ve confirmed the existence of more than 5,000 exoplanets – before that, the count was around 30 – with seemingly countless more awaiting discovery. Here in our own solar system, we now know that ancient Mars had liquid surface water and a much different climate, and that ancient Venus may also have been habitable. And icy moons with potential subsurface oceans like Europa and Enceladus – orbiting Jupiter and Saturn, respectively – have tantalised us with the possibility of deep ocean biospheres. Even if there is no other life here around our Sun, the exoplanets we’ve found have intimated a great many worlds that could possibly be home to other biospheres.
All this is culminating in a profound idea – if there are aliens out there, we could be very near to finding some of them. Of course, there is a possibility that life may have arisen only once, here on Earth. Until we find definitive evidence – be it a Martian microbe, signs of life on an icy moon or in an exoplanet’s atmosphere, or some signal of alien technology – we cannot claim any certainty. However, in light of recent discoveries, I’ve met many astrobiologists who will adamantly state that alien life has to be out there. A visit to an astrobiology conference these days will reveal a number of optimistic scholars who think it’s not a matter of ‘if’ but a matter of ‘when’ at this point. (White, incidentally, shares this view. ‘Given what we know, it seems really likely that some form of life has arisen elsewhere,’ he told me recently.)
What if alien life is not just present, but abundant? What if there are myriad worlds afar where life has happened, perhaps even with some similarities to our own? There may even be other civilisations out there that have developed their own art, philosophy and science. Convergent evolution suggests that some alien forms may resemble Earth life in some ways while others could be utterly unrecognisable.
Thinking about alien life is not just a scientific endeavour; it’s a call to be better stewards of our world
It’s by reflecting on these ideas that you can take the first steps to experiencing what I call the panzoic effect. Like the overview effect, thinking about a possible abundance of life in the Universe can lead you to look with fresh eyes at humanity and life on Earth.
For example, the search for alien life drives us to consider the range of possible settings for life to emerge and to evolve, and to consider how different the story could have been for our own world. We know that Earth life has faced many threats through the past – impacts from space, largescale volcanism, rapid changes in climate, and so on. And yet, as the character Ian Malcolm states in Jurassic Park (1990), life truly has found a way. Extinctions for some have led to opening of ecosystems for others. Life has had a long, complex history on our planet.
And when we contemplate the vastness of space and the possibilities for extraterrestrial life, we’re often reminded of our shared humanity and responsibilities to life on our planet. In this way, thinking about alien life is not just a scientific endeavour or a means to frame our considerations of the future; it’s a call to be better stewards of our world and more compassionate members of the cosmos.
Most of all, though, when I reflect on the possible abundance of alien life, it fills me with wonder and awe. In recent years, psychologists have shown that these are powerful, perspective-changing emotions. Wonderment at the nature of the world – from being curious about the workings of everyday things to wandering in the world around us – inspires us and helps us to develop new ideas and perspectives. Awe, meanwhile, is the feeling of being in the presence of something that transcends your current understanding of yourself and your place in the cosmos.
When I feel the panzoic effect, it encourages me to envision a hopeful future
The psychologist Dacher Keltner writes in his book Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life (2023) that:
From our first breath to our last, awe moves us to deepen our relations with the wonders of life and to marvel at the vast mysteries that are part of our fleeting time here, guided by this most human of emotions.
As Keltner suggests, there are many forms through which awe can come into our lives: from experiencing depth in music and art to feeling the grandness of nature or seeing people act in morally impactful ways.
Indeed, this is what may be going on when astronauts change their perspective following spaceflight. In the journal article ‘The Overview Effect: Awe and Self-Transcendent Experience in Space Flight’ (2016), David B Yaden and his colleagues conclude: ‘Awe and self-transcendence are among the deepest and most powerful aspects of the human experience; it should come as no surprise that they emerge as we gaze upon our home planet and our whole world comes into view.’
When I feel the panzoic effect, it encourages me to envision a hopeful future, one where our explorations inspire unity, and our shared wonder leads to greater care for one another and the planet we call home. Whether we ever encounter extraterrestrial life or not, I believe that the journey of seeking it can help us rediscover and improve ourselves. Much like the overview effect, the panzoic effect suggests that the wonder and awe we experience in this cosmic mirror – by looking out and, in turn, looking back in – has the potential to alter how we view ourselves and our place in the cosmos. And as White himself told me: ‘I think that’s the big question.’
Are we alone? We don’t yet know, but asking the question forces us to appreciate our existence here on Earth, while offering us a glimpse into our possible cosmic futures. Considering alien life is a means for considering ourselves.
BY Graham Lau who is an astrobiologist and communicator of science. He is a senior research investigator with the Blue Marble Space Institute of Science, and director of communications and marketing for Blue Marble Space in Seattle.
