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Queen Anne woman finds help after sexual assault, not from police

BERLIN (AP) -- Computers may have us beat at chess and checkers, but new research suggests our brains still have an edge when it comes to solving certain tricky problems thanks to a very human trait: intuition.

Scientists in Denmark have found that people who played a game that simulated a complex calculation in physics sometimes did better than their silicon rivals.

"The big surprise we had was that some of the players actually had solutions that were of high quality and of shorter duration than any computer algorithms could find," said Jacob Friis Sherson, a physicist at Aarhus University who co-wrote the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Experts say the results could advance the quest to develop effective quantum computers, something most major universities and several tech companies are working on as they seek to accelerate processing power. Such computers use individual atoms to store information and it's hoped they could one day outperform even the fastest conventional silicon-based supercomputers.

The problem that Sherson and his colleagues set out to tackle concerns the best way to control the atoms using laser beams before their quantum state is disturbed. Time is limited and the number of possibilities is vast, meaning that even advanced computers struggle to find the perfect solution.

The scientists decided to create a game called Quantum Moves , in which players had to perform essentially the same task by using their mouse to simulate the laser beams that pick up the atoms and move them around.

This approach -- known as gamification -- has been used for several years to solve other scientific problems, such as identifying types of galaxies based on their shape.

"Most of the other efforts deal with pattern recognition whereas our game is very dynamic and intuition-based," said Sherson.

The team found that players were able to outperform computers precisely because they didn't try all possible options one by one.

"One of the most distinctly human abilities is our ability to forget and to filter out information," he said. "And that's very important here because we have a problem that's just so complicated you will never be finished if you attack it systematically."

Frank Wilhelm-Mauch, a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Saarbruecken who wasn't involved in the study, said the Danish scientists had found a way to exploit the way humans intuitively find solutions to fairly complex problems by simplifying them, thereby achieving a solution that might not be as mathematically perfect as that produced by a computer but definitely more practical.

"The work looks extremely solid and the solution is totally plausible," he said.

Wilhelm-Mauch said the results of the study would likely affect the entire field of quantum computing, because similar problems exist "like sand on a beach."

The Danish scientists are hoping to build on their existing work as word of the game and its contribution to quantum physics spreads, drawing in more players.

The effort might also be seen as a response to the setbacks human players have suffered against computers in more traditional games recently. Last month AlphaGo, a program developed by Google to play the ancient strategy game Go, won 4:1 matches against humans, chalking up another major victory for artificial intelligence.

"It's slightly encouraging that there are problems where we humans are still superior to computer algorithms," said Sherson.

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https://www.scienceathome.org


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It was 1 a.m., but Rebecca had walked home alone on lower
Queen Anne many nights after rehearsal.

Suddenly, a strange man ambushed her. He smashed her in
the face, sending her reeling to the ground. Then he
climbed atop her and tried to rape her.

“I remember the sound of feet running. He ran up behind me
and hit me,” she recalls. “He was down at my feet and
trying to get up under my dress and I kept kicking and
screaming and hitting.”

Fortunately, neighbors heard her screaming. When they
called out, the attacker ran off.

Rebecca said she laid there, stunned. Her mouth was
bloodied, her head and neck sore from slamming into the
pavement, but the ordeal was far from over. The police
came and filed a report and an ambulance took her to the
cold and crowded Harborview emergency room.

She waited there for several hours before anyone checked
her out.

Eventually, she got some stitches in her mouth, and was
sent home without any advice or information about what
would or could happen next.

She said she figured the police would follow up with her,
warn the neighborhood, put out a sketch, and let her know
what kind of resources were available for crime victims
like her.

“There was no response, in terms of the police informing
the community that a sexual assault had happened,” Rebecca
said.

The Seattle Police Department wouldn’t comment officially
on the record. But a spokesman did tell me they
investigated her case fully, and while they do the best
they can with every crime, there’s only so much they can
do with a limited description and limited resources.

“I feel lucky that I am comfortable searching the Internet
and I’m comfortable asking for help and asking questions
but for somebody who wasn’t, I don’t know what they would
do,” she said.

Rebecca did find there is plenty of help out there for
crime victims, even if not from police. She said that
since she was comfortable asking for help, and asking
questions, she was able to find the local non-profit group
Families &
Friends of Violent Crime Victims
. The group is a 24-
hour-a-day hotline to connect people with services ranging
from counseling to medical care.

Her injuries are healing, but she said she admits the
attack left some serious scars inside and out – as certain
sounds trigger specific memories.

UPDATE-The Seattle Police Department revisited Rebecca’s
report following our story and has assigned a detective to
the case after determining it warranted further
investigation.

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