When many jackie late they can release from 15000000 to over 200000000 per milliliter. But only a fraction of those reached the womans fallopian tube and usually only one sperm actually manages to get a chasing egg its a difficult journey 3. 100 kumar from new zealand have a question for us about sperm. Is it possible to create sperm artificial limbs of. The male reproductive cells are complicated for one purpose in life is to fertilize an egg cell and father a child but sometimes they fall short of expectations. And in the western world have a sperm. And count just half that of 40 years ago if that trend were to continue by 2050 theyd be sterile. A range of culprits are being blamed for moans and Water Supplies to chemicals in plastic all can disrupt the bodys hormones but is help at hand from the lab. Researchers in china the u. S. And britain have created artificial sperm in mice at least. The technique involves converting embryonic stem cells to emit sure sperm cells. The mice produced using lab grown sperm were later able to produce offspring of their own. But they had a shorter life span than ordinary mice and were also more prone to disease. The root of the problem is and how sperm are created during the Cell Division process called meiosis chromosomes are duplicated and recombined. In this process is reproduced in the lab its more prone to errors. The lab grown sperm also have no motility they cant move some of their only suitable for in vitro fertilization. The technique cant be used to create artificial humans for yet and ethical guidelines would likely ban its use. But scientists hope this research will provide new insights into infertility and new approaches to treatment. A team of researchers led by hardy shafi at have it is currently developing an app that will allow men to test their fertility levels at home. He says the digital device can assess semen quality by measuring total spend count and matelot or the number of nonviable images. Sells. All this technology is pretty impressive but it also has weak points and not just Online Platforms are vulnerable to hatter attacks in 2016 people were able to use Public Transit in San Francisco for a day for free after the ticketing machines were hacked. Particularly worrying Cyber Attacks on hospitals. In germany reportedly some 2 out of 3 have been hacked in some way. Showbiz has also been targeted in 2014 Sony Pictures were subject to a massive attack stuff with forced to resort to pen and paper. And slot appliances are now handing had his the keys to our homes by security loopholes that are frightening easy to exploit. A robot vacuum cleaner moves around the apartment its one of many smart home guards controlled by computer. Normally the controls are set by the person who owns the vacuum cleaner. But on this occasion of taking control. Or dead and norm on or in the office in tel aviv they showed us how easy it is to hack into the device. We took for control thats. What makes it possible is that all small vacuum cleaners made by this manufacturer are accessible by the cloud. So even though oded on his team dont have one of their own they can register as new users and replace another users id code with their own. Time. Then they can access the vacuum cleaner which might be anywhere in the world. So we actually acted here. This applies to all gadgets that are part of the internet of things or i. O. T. It can include everything from smart baby phones to televisions Heating Systems and refrigerators. Users can control the gadgets remotely using their smartphone thats because all these gadgets have an on board computer that can receive commands. But if there are security loopholes criminals anywhere in the world can access these household devices and even gain access to personal computers at the same time. I can start to do commands with it and then i can start look which devices there is in my network and then start to move to just devices and move on so its like its all related to the goals of the. Us or for for the bad guys or what they want to achieve but there is no limit. In 2016 there were 6400000000 i. O. T. Appliances linked to the internet with more going online all the time. Experts estimate that around half are not secure and those are the ones the hackers have set their sights on. Developing malware for these smart Household Appliances has become big business for hackers as the German Authorities have also observed. In 2018 there were some 800000000 our programs in all with 390000 new ones emerging every day thats the best place to earn the most money is the weakest link in the chain and io t. Devices arent a secure as they should be and. This hacker jar from the United States was convicted last year of programming malware to infiltrate Household Appliances. The malware link the appliance used to form a criminal network known as a bot net. Like a remote controlled hostile army the hafele devices were used to carry out a series of Cyber Attacks in 2016. 1 of them knocked out door to telecom routers leaving more than a 1000000 customers in germany without a telephone or Internet Connection the 1st known attack on Critical Infrastructure in germany carried out by Household Appliances. But the European UnionsLaw EnforcementAgency Europol the man in charge of fighting cyber crime told us that io t. Devices are being used for crimes ranging from cyber extortion to the trade in child pornography. Is a convict and were seeing a convergence among the cyber attackers they may have political motives or financial motives or they may be terrorists but they all basically use the same tools to achieve their goals that like the act take it in and only teach. The only way to solve the problem is to close up the security loopholes in io to devices except only the manufacturers can do that everything that we were walking directly with a vendor not if im in a very quietly to fix. But many manufacturers arent interested. But far beyond mr meyer has discovered repeatedly he too demonstrates how easy it is to exploit the security loopholes by hacking the camera of his colleague in another country even hits the cloud id and select the cloud id its an idea thats easy to ascertain so thats done and then we can log into the camera and i just say ok now im connected as it says and its now i just click on monitor and open the camera that weve hacked. And as you can see were now linked directly with the office network. The people there dont notice a thing they have no way of telling what someones watching them. Every camera and every device of this money factory can be hacked in the same way the king of the south advice of. Fabienne me to my says that this security loophole affects 9000000 cameras. And the cameras connect to the internet on their own. Theyve been integrated into many devices including televisions. But the manufacturer appears disinclined to take action. So how can we stop side the criminals from infiltrating out in full force. To prevent attacks from the outside on the smart home device as a user needs and she was an only legitimate uses. Allowed to access this device and there are 2 basic principles to implement this one is to have special passwords so this means that any and through that needs to change the different passwords on the other hand the 2nd approach is that only allow communication forms i would he devised 2 specific points in internet and to implement this is the user needs to configure a specific file of a which changes a password is pretty easy for most of us but is a bit more challenging is to implement so i had to have one of the words because for this is the end users a device needs to know to rich and point to device communicates and this is usually not publicly available some vendor us gives us information but most dont i think the vendor us and also companies should. Do much more about this and present for example an easy to use. Overview about so security. What do you think about smart homes an experience with one we asked you on facebook and i wrote im amazed how advanced technology has become but it also worries me to think wed stop doing such everyday things says switching on and off lights. Miguel has a more positive take he says that Small Technology could help us to use energy more efficiently and optimize electricity production. Marinello says i think that it just encourages laziness. It doesnt cost anything to get up and put off the lights. She has got a point thanks for your posts. Because that is read right but even if you. Do you have a science question that youve always wanted answered were happy to help out and send it to us as a video text ovoid smell if we answer it on the show well send you a little surprise as a thank you cannot just ask. Interested in most stories from the world of science go to our website or find us on twitter or facebook. These speaking doors dont belong to a smart home as such. Simply as you need in this walt disney movie i list doesnt seem too impressed by the animated in animates. I fell in beauty and the beast isnt sure what to make of her singing tableware the owl get a big. But what happens in our brain when too many things vying for our attention. In the past human brains were able to deal. With most stimuli pretty easily. But as time passed we were confronted with more and more challenges we were bombarded with more and more input. And nowadays in the digital age it feels as if we are permanently on call or on line and our brains never get any rest by its far from ideal. In their lives under normal circumstances wed be exposed to a stimulus our brains were process that then we focus on the next one. But this kind of situation is becoming increasingly rare neuroscientists yana from the covert is investigating how our brains cope when theyre forced to continually switch between tasks. Shes conducting experiments in which people have to solve a set of complicated exercises. Theyre asked to distinguish between monsters on the computer screen that entails keeping track of 9 different distinct characteristics and identifying them by clicking on the right keys. Shunk there its hard if they really have to concentrate. The experiment is intended to simulate situations we face at work and in our leisure time but we have to tackle a wide range of tasks in rapid succession. The program 1st tests how quickly the test subjects consult simple tasks. Then theyre asked to focus on more and more features such as color form and pattern under increasing time pressure. Turn the other situations in which our brain has to make a clear distinction between various steps and decisions we do these things more or less automatically the car brain its hard work into. A frantic over also carries out m. R. I. Scans on her test subjects she wants to see exactly which regions of the brain are being activated the frontal lobes are responsible for handling complex tasks. Thats the part of the brain thats located behind our forehead practice allocates how many resources are devoted to each particular task it is it when were dealing with several tasks that once this part of the brain has to work hard to ensure that the various tasks i dont get muddled up thus the question of back up here the test subjects are being asked to keep track of various faces and places and how they are linked in quick succession of course the more complex the tasks the slower the response this process can be observed in the frontal lobe. When the mets lower responses correlate with increased brain activity when the task is very difficult when the test subjects respond more slowly or make mistakes and then we see more activity in this part of the brain. When the brain processes the same information over and over it becomes familiar with it and responds quickly but when its bombarded with a lot of different information in quick succession the brain needs more time to process the various elements the faster the tasks change the more mistakes we make. Different tasks also compete with one another distracting us and lowering attention. Now he cant get a phone and weve all experienced Something Like this and it often feels quite unpleasant house from our experiments here we found that we indeed do make more mistakes in such situations and our Response Time is slower. When youre in the middle of one task and get distracted by a new one you 1st have to shell the old tosca that gives your brain time to identify what the new one entails and attend to it thats hard work. So how did children and teenagers respond to this challenge they were born into a world where multitasking has become the norm and they tend to be more open to new things do they solve the tasks more quickly than the adults. That. We know that children solve the tasks more slowly than adults do and they make more mistakes or. The frontal lobes take charge when we switch rapidly between tasks on the left as an adult brain on the right a childs. Frontal lobes are not fully developed until were at least 20 so children can switch gears as quickly as adults but it will take at least 10 years before researches know exactly how multitasking affects Brain Development when the children growing up with smartphones and tablets are fully mature. Staying on top of things in the digital era certainly isnt easy. Over the last 10 years access to the internet has risen 30 percent worldwide. Millions of people own smartphones and spend an awful lot of time online time spent an average of 313 minutes over 5 hours a day using mobile Internet Access followed by the philippines and brazil. The Global Digital population is growing and nearly 4000000000 exclusively hughes mobile internet. For many life is a Relentless Digital tyranny an endless onslaught of emails task lists information and Text Messages and work and increasingly at home as well. Day in day out. Its important to understand that weve been in govt biotechnology so quickly that weve had no chance to learn how to deal with it properly and the fleet and we have to constantly keep reminding ourselves of what our brains need to function well. As a psychiatry and psychotherapist foca bush knows how digitalisation is overwhelming people but he says solutions are available for everyone. One thing at a time. Often have to deal with the constant barash of demands especially at work. Puts us in a state of ongoing stress which is both a madly counterproductive. And if we want to perform well in what were doing we have to discipline ourselves a little. Too proud to discipline you stick to one task at a time and nurse ourselves in it even if this doesnt seem rewarding immediately. But it does pay off in the long run with fewer mistakes and greater efficiency or no 1. 00 if it and. 30 even if we do manage to focus on one thing at a time theres still a risk well continue to feel stressed out. Of the work load and digital networking we often forget one simple thing. Take a break. For fewer than 25 percent of people in germany take regular breaks at work these are as i say the majority do without a break at least once in a while because they think theyve got so much to do. But regular breaks are essential. You need to schedule them and then. Take them ideally 10 to 15 minutes every 2 hours 15 percent. Thats because switching off is believed to activate a Neural Network called the default mode network. Its a Brain Network that kicks in when were not engaged in a specific mental task but that doesnt mean our brain is resting its collating and storing the information and data it was processing and forming new connections and insights. Into the real of the brain these arent just the moments when inspiration strikes its also healing if you should give your brain short breaks in the daily routine process what youve seen and learned. The good news is that your brain does this almost automatically you just have to be willing to stop the constant flow of stimuli the photo. Time offline is extremely helpful. Especially after work its good to decompress from the demands of the day for example by setting up times when you go offline to take a break from the constant flow of information. Many people find that surprisingly difficult. Every time we interact with our smart phone it sets off a biochemical process involving the release of dopamine. At all for cuts a hormone thats part of the brains reward system or. We develop habitual behaviors that many people find hard to change even after work for a loss and can buy one out of 20 people today have developed a dependency a kind of addiction. Going offline can help change these habits youll behave years but also cars out time for leisure activities like going on a bike ride or jogging. Exercise helps reduce levels of the bodys stress hormones including courters old which helps us relax. Only works when youre talking about a moderate intensity and your infectious side. High intensity competitive support does create mental strain which isnt restorative for the brain. Going offline also gives us a chance to foster our social connections socializing online can actually lead to greater feelings of stress and inadequacy since we often tend to measure ourselves against the idealized image others project of themselves. With this noida does we now know that theres no substitute for genuine social connections virtual relationships cant replace them in the crowd. And a good nights sleep is also priceless. Squeakers especially important when our brains have to cope with a heavy workload. But thats a lesson we seem to be forgetting. Some studies show that the average sleep duration in the industrialized world has been falling for years its fallen by 30 minutes a night over the last 2 decades. Thats not a Good Development when we sleep our brain is tidying up its stores the important experiences and information we encounter during the day until its useless information like a cerebral spring clean. And in hard to school within our brain our frontal lobe needs a lot of this clearing out its the region that handles the highest order mental activity guys the lies to win the war that includes willpower se