Social Sciences
mementomori | May 21, 2007Concerned that this country's lackadaisical attention to our environment is a threat to the populace? Interested in forming a new society where human behavior is tightly regulated, so as to not upset the delicate balance of nature on this planet? Looking to grab a few more carbon offsets before jetting off to Venice for the summer?
Hey, that's great - you're a true soldier in this newest global war. Just think twice about relocating certain to socialist countries - if you value your life.
Beijing Blames Pollutants for Rise in Killer Cancers
Foul air, filthy water and contaminated soil have…
razib | May 18, 2007Martin mulls over the question, Are Humans Polygamous? There is lots of interesting discussion, with a FinnXPer & reindeer lover in the fray. I think part of the confusion here is simply semantical. Cultural anthropologists often tend to define an -ogamy based on the preferred ideal within a society. So you have circumstances where the social ideal is polygyny, but for various reasons most males (and even females) aren't in polygynous relationships. In contrast, behavioral ecologists tend to look at it a different way, the extent of polygyny can be thought of as the ratio of the…
developingintelligence | May 18, 2007Recent highlights from the best in brain blogging:
Who knew? These videos will tell you how the mind works (supposedly).
The origins of the old myth that we use only 10% of our "brain power".
A woman awakens from a coma with a reversed sense of directionality.
Restoring sight in the blind with lateral geniculate nucleus implants
"Do you, for some reason, fear the current and/or future increase of artificial intelligence?"
Questions about the utility of computational neuroscience
From Molecule to Mind: The Genetics of Brain Wiring
Dostoyevsky's case of epilepsy: "I gazed at him with fixed…
purepedantry | May 17, 2007The NYTimes has an interesting article on the increasing amount people are willing to pay for donor eggs:
A survey published this month in the journal Fertility and Sterility, "What Is Happening to the Price of Eggs?" found that the national average compensation for donors was $4,217. At least one center told the authors of the paper that it paid $15,000. Many centers did not respond.
Though laws prohibit the sale of transplant organs, sperm donors have always received small payments, and prospective parents in the United States are allowed to compensate women for their far greater…
mikethemadbiologist | May 17, 2007Biologist Lewis Wolpert talks about memes:
What about Daniel Dennett's idea that religion is a kind of "meme" -- an idea that has infected human cultures and keeps on spreading?
If you could tell me what a meme is, and how useful it is, I'd be very grateful. [Laughs] Please don't misunderstand, I'm a great admirer of Richard Dawkins [who developed the concept of memes]. But what are memes? How do you decide whether something is a meme or not? And what you really want to understand is, how is it passed on and why does it persist? This is never discussed. So for Daniel Dennett -- who's a…
cortex | May 15, 2007Here's the Pope, speaking on his recent trip to Brazil:
Where God is absent -- God with the human face of Jesus Christ -- these [moral] values fail to show themselves with their full force: nor does a consensus arise concerning them.
I do not mean that nonbelievers cannot live a lofty and exemplary morality; I am only saying that a society in which God is absent will not find the necessary consensus on moral values or the strength to live according to the model of these values.
I think the Pope gets his causality backwards. Human morality is largely a product of natural selection, not…
purepedantry | May 15, 2007Paul Rubin has an editorial in the Washington Post about how evolution may result in a proclivity towards economic and social conflict:
Conflict was common in the environment in which humans evolved. As primates, which are a very social order, our ancestors lived in relatively small groups in which everyone knew everyone else. Our minds are adapted to deal with populations of that size. Our ancestors made strong distinctions between members of the in-group and outsiders, and we still make such distinctions today -- social psychologists can create in-group and out-group feelings based on…
grrlscientist | May 14, 2007
Rock Wren, Salpinctes obsoletus. (spring song).
The photographer writes; [This bird] was scurrying along a wall covered with petroglyphs on the NE side of Chaco Canyon. Perky and hardy little birds, and definitely emblematic of the desert Southwest.
Image: Dave Rintoul, KSU.
Birds in Science
A study of European robins in Sheffield, England, suggests that it is noise, not light, that drives birds to sing at night. The study, by Richard A. Fuller and colleagues at the University of Sheffield, measured noise levels and singing at 67 sites around the city, where on average ambient noise was an…
aardvarchaeology | May 14, 2007[More blog entries about archaeology, media, journalism, sciencejournalism; arkeologi, media, journalistik, vetenskapsjournalistik]
As mentioned before here on Aard, archaeology is not a single science but innumerable regional disciplines with little relevance to each other. For instance most archaeologists know absolutely nothing about ancient Egypt, simply because most archaeologists do not work in that country. This can make me sad sometimes, when other scientists go off on international post-docs or collaborate with colleagues in far-off countries. Chemistry is the same everywhere, but…
razib | May 13, 2007In my post on religious diversity I received this comment:
And for the record, I don't think anybody's religious sensibilities deserve to be put above the law. You want a driver's license, you show your face for the picture. You want to be pharmacist, you sell anything legal. You want to take government-insured patients, you take all of them.
It's no more ridiculous to worship that bull than a book. No less, either.
I agree with the ultimate sentiment in my heart. That being said, proximate judgments and assessments are made with the head. The fool hath said in his heart, "Religion is just…
drorzel | May 12, 2007Mark Trodden gave a nice outline of the tenure process over at Cosmic Variance, laying out the general criteria used by most colleges and universities:
The typical criteria in physics are:
Excellence in research, as demonstrated through peer-reviewed publications and (by far the most important thing) letters of recommendation solicited from a selection of external referees, a few chosen by the candidate and many others not.
Funding of one's research at some level.
Competence in teaching, as demonstrated through peer review, innovations in teaching and, to a lesser extent, student evaluations…
purepedantry | May 10, 2007The NYTimes ran an excerpt of a book called Rethinking Thin: The New Science of Weight Loss -- and the Myths and Realities of Dieting by Gina Kolata. Having read the excerpt -- I haven't read the whole book -- I take issue with how Kolata frames the issue of the genetics of obesity.
My problem with most articles and books discussing genetics -- particularly with respect to behavior -- is that they don't emphasize the concept of an environmental X genetic interaction in determining outcome. It's either all genetics or all environment.
Before, I talk about the genetics of obesity and the…
jrosenhouse | May 9, 2007If you have any interest, clips from the big Nightline God debate are now online at the ABC News website. Mostly what you'd expect, though I think things went a bit better for the atheists than I had anticipated.
Representing the forces of darkness and ignorance were Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. Having seen their staggeringly dopey infomercials on television, I was not optimistic that they would have anything intelligent to say here. They are, however, very polished in their presentation, which made me worry they might come off as persuasive. As it happens I needn't have worried.
The…
razib | May 9, 2007Via William Saletan, Prenatal Test Puts Down Syndrome in Hard Focus. Being an numbers man, I found this interesting:
Until this year, only pregnant women 35 and older were routinely tested to see if their fetuses had the extra chromosome that causes Down syndrome. As a result many couples were given the diagnosis only at birth. But under a new recommendation from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, doctors have begun to offer a new, safer screening procedure to all pregnant women, regardless of age.
About 90 percent of pregnant women who are given a Down syndrome…
dmunger | May 9, 2007In Star Wars, the real hero might be R2D2 -- the only character who makes it through all six episodes without falling to the "dark side" of the force. R2D2 is a robot, but everyone in the film treats "him" like a person, even commending him for "bravery." As viewers, we don't have a problem with that. R2D2 was Jim's favorite character -- he even had a stuffed animal version of the robot to sleep with.
But as real robots become more a part of society, will we form human bonds with them? It's already happening; the Washington Post has the details. U.S. soldiers who regularly use robots as…
pharyngula | May 8, 2007I was sent a link to this editorial by the science-fiction writer, Ben Bova. I like part of the sentiment, where he's arguing that it's worth the effort to try and change the world, but a substantial part of it bugs me.
The most prescient — and chilling — of all the science fiction stories ever written, though, is "The Marching Morons," by Cyril M. Kornbluth, first published in 1951. It should be required reading in every school on Earth.
The point that Kornbluth makes is simple, and scary: dumbbells have more children than geniuses. In "The Marching Morons" he carries that idea to its…
stoat | May 4, 2007More framing stuff... oh dear. From Dave Roberts. Found whilst trying to establish whether "world climate report" is notable by wiki standards (Got an opinion on that? Feel free to comment here or on wiki...). Anyway, DR says:
Consider RealClimate. Did the scientists involved in the site really start it purely to raise the level of public knowledge about climate change? I think not. They wanted to raise the public level of knowledge about climate change because they thought by doing so they would make it more likely that society would address the problem. In other words: they want society to…
hrynyshyn | May 4, 2007I didn't watch the Republican debate last night, so I can't be sure that climate change got short shift, but seeing as I couldn't find more than a hint of the subject in this morning's coverage on the net -- and heard only a passing reference in a NPR report listing the "other" subjects addressed -- I feel pretty safe concluding that the candidates assume the planet's future, and that of civilization, isn't of particularly interest to GOP voters. No surprise there. The question is, is this a bad thing, or good?
I used to bemoan the right-wing's antipathy to global warming in particular, and…
voltagegate | May 4, 2007The Ecological Society of America published a special open access issue of Frontiers in Ecology on Wednesday, focusing on sustainability in light of unprecedented human mobility, aka globalization.
All of the articles agree on one thing: Ecology itself needs to be more effectively globalized, placing sound science in the hands of effective communicators and policy makers.
Two articles discuss this in greater detail, both worth a look: the introduction and a short paper reviewing applied ecological knowledge.
jrosenhouse | May 3, 2007Writing in PLoS Biology, Catriona MacCallum offers these wise words on the subject of evolution and medicine. The article describes a conference MacCallum attended on the subject. MacCallum writes:
One reason that evolution doesn't figure prominently in the medical community is that although it makes sense to have evolution taught as part of medicine, that doesn't make it essential. As explained at a meeting on evolution and medicine I recently attended in York, United Kingdom (the Society for the Study of Human Biology and the Biosocial Society's 2006 symposium, “Medicine and Evolution…