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anonymous

Beyond 1-D in Science and Human Spirituality - 0 views

www.npr.org/...ensions-of-science-vs-religion

religion technology science layscience

shared by anonymous on 26 Jul 10 - Cached
  • The extremes of the science and religion debate have had their say. They offer little to us anymore but a tired standard that fails to meet the most important challenge of our moment – the need to create something new.
  • On one side are the religious fundementalists brandishing scripture like bullies and willing to force their particular interpretations of their particular religions into textbooks and courthouses.
  • On the other side are … what? As an atheist myself, finding the right term is difficult but come to rest on strident atheists. 
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The human world we build is established in mind and heart and spirit.  It will come down to what we hold sacred. Yes those words spirit and sacred must be included however you choose to define it.
  • In mathematics orthogonality refers to line elements or vectors which are perpendicular, i.e., forming right angles. To move orthogonally to a line, like the linear spectrum of fundamentalist vs strident atheist, means to move into a new dimension. 
  • anonymous on 26 Jul 10
     
    "If science v. religion has nothing more to offer, we must we must create a new way of thinking about their relationship." By Adam Frank at NPR on July 26, 2010.
anonymous

Psychedelic Drugs Show Promise as Anti-Depressants - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

layscience

shared by anonymous on 19 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Ketamine—a powerful anesthetic for humans and animals that lists hallucinations among its side effects and therefore is often abused under the name Special K—delivers rapid relief to chronically depressed patients, and researchers may now have discovered why. In fact, the latest evidence reinforces the idea that the psychedelic drug could be the first new drug in decades to lift the fog of depression.
  • More specifically, as the researchers report in the August 20 issue of Science, ketamine seems to stimulate a biochemical pathway in the brain (known as mTOR) to strengthen synapses in a rat's prefrontal cortex—the region of the brain associated with thinking and personality in humans.
  • In fact, ketamine has shown promise at reducing the risk of suicide and is currently being tested in humans for effectiveness in treating bipolar disorder and addiction.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Regardless, it is unlikely that ketamine, psilocybin or any of these psychedelics would be used directly, because of their hallucinogenic and other side effects. According to Duman, several pharmaceutical companies have already begun the search for alternative compounds that target the same biochemistry or brain function, including some that his lab is testing.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 19 Aug 10
       
      A commenter wryly points out that it is probably the halluciatory effects that is the *reason* for the decreased depression.
  • anonymous on 19 Aug 10
     
    "Scientists suggest that some psychedelics are remarkably good at treating disorders like depression-and may now have a clue as to why." By David Biello at Scientific American on August 19, 2010.
anonymous

High Fructose Corn Syrup: Tasty Toxin or Slandered Sweetener? - 0 views

www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=6501

nutrition layscience criticalthinking

shared by anonymous on 25 Aug 10 - Cached
  • anonymous on 25 Aug 10
     
    "High fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has, over the past few decades, gradually displaced cane and beet sugar as the sweetener of choice for soft drinks, candy and prepared foods. In recent years, there have been a growing number claims that HFCS is a significant health risk to consumers, responsible for obesity, diabetes, heart disease and a wide variety of other illnesses. " By Jim Laidler at Science-Based Medicine on August 23, 2010.
anonymous

17 Things You Should Know About DNA - 0 views

www.geeksaresexy.net/...uld-know-about-dna-infographic

layscience

shared by anonymous on 22 Jul 10 - Cached
  • Are you a living creature? Then, congratulations! You have DNA! That microscopic little building block of life that makes us all the same, but grants us with distinct differences. But for as common as DNA is, it can be a though subject to understand. Below are some of the facts to help you better understand the little bit of genetic coding that makes you, you!
  • anonymous on 22 Jul 10
     
    A terrific infographic at Geeks are Sexy on July 22, 2010.
anonymous

Gaming the System: Video Gamers Help Researchers Untangle Protein Folding Problem: Scie... - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

layscience gaming

shared by anonymous on 04 Aug 10 - Cached
  • What if the brainpower used playing video games could be channeled toward something more productive, such as helping scientists solve complex biological problems?
  • Their competitive online game "Foldit," released in 2008, enlists the help of online puzzle-solvers to help crack one of science's most intractable mysteries—how proteins fold into their complex three-dimensional forms. The "puzzles" gamers solve are 3-D representations of partially folded proteins, which players manipulate and reshape to achieve the greatest number of points. The scores are based on biochemical measures of how well the players' final structure matches the way the protein appears in nature.
  • The scientists hope to incorporate the newly identified strategies into computer algorithms for improved automated determinations of protein structure. The ultimate hope is to use these techniques to design new proteins to fight diseases such as Alzheimer's and cancer as well as develop vaccines against HIV and malaria.
  • anonymous on 04 Aug 10
     
    "The combined effort of more than 50,000 online video game players may help scientists better understand how proteins fold, solving one of biochemistry's greatest conundrums." By Nicholette Zeliadt at Scientific American on August 4, 2010.
anonymous

Moderate drinking, especially wine, associated with better cognitive function - 0 views

www.labspaces.net/...with_better_cognitive_function

layscience

shared by anonymous on 18 Aug 10 - Cached
  • It has long been known that "moderate people do moderate things." The authors state the same thing: "A positive effect of wine . . . could also be due to confounders such as socio-economic status and more favourable dietary and other lifestyle habits.
  • anonymous on 18 Aug 10
     
    "A large prospective study of 5033 men and women in the Tromsø Study in northern Norway has reported that moderate wine consumption is independently associated with better performance on cognitive tests." By Lab Spaces on August 18, 2010.
anonymous

Nearly 1 million children potentially misdiagnosed with ADHD, study finds - 0 views

www.labspaces.net/...agnosed_with_ADHD__study_finds

layscience

shared by anonymous on 17 Aug 10 - Cached
  • These children are significantly more likely than their older classmates to be prescribed behavior-modifying stimulants such as Ritalin, said Todd Elder, whose study will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Health Economics.
  • Such inappropriate treatment is particularly worrisome because of the unknown impacts of long-term stimulant use on children's health, Elder said.
  • Elder said the "smoking gun" of the study is that ADHD diagnoses depend on a child's age relative to classmates and the teacher's perceptions of whether the child has symptoms.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • The results – both from individual states and when compared across states – were definitive. For instance, in Michigan – where the kindergarten cutoff date is Dec. 1 – students born Dec. 1 had much higher rates of ADHD than children born Dec. 2. (The students born Dec. 1 were the youngest in their grade; the students born Dec. 2 enrolled a year later and were the oldest in their grade.) Thus, even though the students were a single day apart in age, they were assessed differently simply because they were compared against classmates of a different age set, Elder said.
    • anonymous
      anonymous on 17 Aug 10
       
      This is reminicient of Malcolm Gladwell's date-based categorization that create's false results.
  • anonymous on 17 Aug 10
     
    "Nearly 1 million children in the United States are potentially misdiagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder simply because they are the youngest - and most immature - in their kindergarten class, according to new research by a Michigan State University economist." At Lab Spaces on August 17, 2010.
anonymous

In defence of equality - 0 views

www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/...in-defence-of-equality

society layscience

shared by anonymous on 17 Aug 10 - Cached
  • In our book The Spirit Level, Kate Pickett and I demonstrated that, first, many problems which are more prevalent lower down the social ladder are worse in societies with bigger income differences, and second, that almost everyone would benefit from reduced inequality.
  • Writing in the August 2010 edition of Prospect, Matthew Sinclair from the Taxpayers Alliance claimed our research was “simply untrue.”
  • While Snowdon is described as a “public health researcher,” in actual fact he has no public health qualifications and appears never to have published research in a peer-reviewed journal. Instead, his main contribution to public health is a diatribe against tobacco control and a denial of the ill effects of second-hand smoke.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • What The Spirit Level shows is that more equal societies enjoy better physical and mental health, lower homicide rates, fewer drug problems, fewer teenage births, higher maths and literacy scores, higher standards of child wellbeing, less bullying in schools, lower obesity rates, and fewer people in prison.
  • This left us with 23 rich market societies. We took our data from the best sources, such as the World Health Organisation, the United Nations and the World Bank. To double-check our findings, we then repeated our analyses for the 50 US states, to see if more unequal states showed the same consistent tendency to have more of these health and social problems. In almost 30 different cross-national analyses, we show the same tendency for one problem after another to be significantly worse in societies with bigger income differences.
  • Our critics also ignore the fact that these relationships have been widely demonstrated by other researchers. For example, as early as 1993 in the Criminal Justice Review, Hsieh and Pugh reviewed 34 studies of income inequality and violent crime and found a consistent correlation between the two—the authors estimated that it would need 58 new studies which found no effect in order to overturn this result. But studies since then have continued to confirm the link.
  • Similarly, our review of research papers published in peer-reviewed journals found that the tendency for health to be worse in more unequal societies has been demonstrated well over 100 times (see Social Science and Medicine, 2006).
  • anonymous on 17 Aug 10
     
    "In response to recent criticism, the authors of The Spirit Level defends its claim that there is always a link between social problems and inequality." By Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett at Prospect Magazine on August 10, 2010.
anonymous

People Initially Overestimate Then Later Underestimate Their Abilities - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/...episode.cfm

layscience criticalthinking

shared by anonymous on 27 Jul 10 - Cached
  • Researchers performed six experiments that involved subjects trying out new tasks—including drawing an image from looking at its reflection in a mirror, and learning to type on a new kind of keyboard. The participants were asked how long it would take them to learn the task. They tended to be overconfident and thought they’d do better on the first try than they actually did.
  • anonymous on 27 Jul 10
     
    "People initially expect to learn a new skill easily, then become overly pessimistic when reality sets in." By Cynthia Graber at Scientific American Podcast on July 27, 2010.
anonymous

New study clinches it: the Earth is warming up | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine - 0 views

blogs.discovermagazine.com/...hes-it-the-earth-is-warming-up

layscience

shared by anonymous on 03 Aug 10 - Cached
  • The 2009 State of the Climate report released today draws on data for 10 key climate indicators that all point to the same finding: the scientific evidence that our world is warming is unmistakable. More than 300 scientists from 160 research groups in 48 countries contributed to the report, which confirms that the past decade was the warmest on record and that the Earth has been growing warmer over the last 50 years.
  • That’s not correct. Of course this report is deniable. That’s what deniers do: deny. And we’ll be hearing from them in the comments below, have no doubts.
  • Mind you, I am distinguishing, as I always do, between deniers and skeptics. Those are two very different things. I am, quite literally, a skeptic of global warming. I do think it’s happening, but that’s because that’s what the evidence is telling me.
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  • If good, solid evidence came along that contradicted that, I would a) look at it, and b) assess it, and c) if it’s incontrovertible then I would change my mind.
  • But to deny means to ignore the evidence, or twist it, spin it, cherry-pick it, distort it.
  • anonymous on 03 Aug 10
     
    "For quite some time now, the evidence that the Earth is warming up has been piling up. Study after study has shown this, and that's why the vast majority of scientists agree on it. And now, to pile on even more, a large NOAA study has been released." By Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy (Discover Magazine) on August 3, 2010.
anonymous

The illustrated guide to a Ph.D. - 0 views

matt.might.net/...phd-school-in-pictures

visualization phd layscience

shared by anonymous on 09 Aug 10 - Cached
  • anonymous on 09 Aug 10
     
    "Every fall, I explain to a fresh batch of Ph.D. students what a Ph.D. is. It's hard to describe it in words. So, I use pictures. Read below for the illustrated guide to a Ph.D." By Matthew Might
anonymous

Geoengineering: The Most Important Technology Nobody's Heard Of - 0 views

blogs.discovermagazine.com/...nt-technology-nobodys-heard-of

longnow layscience

shared by anonymous on 05 Aug 10 - Cached
  • As Leinen put it, even if the proposals on the table at Copenhagen had been adopted, we’d still end the century with an atmospheric carbon dioxide of 700 parts per million–more than enough to cause climate upheaval, raise seas dramatically, and so forth.
  • anonymous on 05 Aug 10
     
    "The reason scientists and policymakers are increasingly thinking about geoengineering is clear: Major climate change now looks increasingly unstoppable." By Chris Mooney at The Intersection (Discover Magazine) on August 5, 2010.
anonymous

MIT's Food Printer: The Greenest Way To Cook? - 0 views

www.treehugger.com/...mits-food-printer.php

layscience technology sustainability food

shared by anonymous on 13 Aug 10 - Cached
  • Cornucopia is a concept design for a personal food factory that brings the versatility of the digital world to the realm of cooking. In essence, it is a three dimensional printer for food, which works by storing, precisely mixing, depositing and cooking layers of ingredients.
  • Just imagine the impact this would have. Real food rots. It has peels. Half of it is wasted. The whole infrastructure of food stores with their refrigerated cases becomes unnecessary. And imagine, no more pesky farmers markets occupying valuable parking lots. This is truly green.
  • anonymous on 13 Aug 10
     
    "Everyone is talking about local food, farmers markets and like, cooking? Who has time for that? And really, is Michael Pollan serious with his Rule #2- 'Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.' Why bother even having an MIT if you are going to think that way?" By Lloyd Alter at Treehugger on January 15, 2010.
anonymous

Is organic farming good for wildlife? It depends on the alternative - 0 views

www.labspaces.net/..._It_depends_on_the_alternative

sustainability nutrition layscience

shared by anonymous on 08 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Even though organic methods may increase farm biodiversity, a combination of conventional farming and protected areas could sometimes be a better way to maintain food production and protect wildlife.
  • The study is the first to seek to establish the trade-off between the most efficient use of farmland and the most effective way to conserve wildlife in our countryside and has important implications for how agricultural land in the UK should be managed
  • Lead author, Dr Jenny Hodgson, of the Department of Biology at York, said: "This research raises questions about how agri-environment schemes and incentives could be improved. There could be much more scope for restoring and maintaining permanent, high-quality wildlife habitat. This might involve neighbouring farmers clubbing together to achieve a larger area of restored habitat, or setting up a partnership with a conservation organisation."
  • anonymous on 08 Sep 10
     
    "Even though organic methods may increase farm biodiversity, a combination of conventional farming and protected areas could sometimes be a better way to maintain food production and protect wildlife." At Lab Spaces on September 7, 2010.
anonymous

We Only Trust Experts If They Agree with Us - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/...episode.cfm

criticalthinking layscience

shared by anonymous on 21 Sep 10 - Cached
  • The investigators found similar results for various other issues, from nuclear waste disposal to gun control. Said one of the authors, “People tend to keep a biased score of what experts believe, counting a scientist as an 'expert' only when that scientist agrees with the position they find culturally congenial."
  • anonymous on 21 Sep 10
     
    We only consider scientists to be experts when their argument is in line with our own previously held beliefs." By Christie Nicholson at Scientific American Podcast on September 18, 2010.
anonymous

Many say the peer review system is broken. Here's how some journals are trying to fix it. - 0 views

www.the-scientist.com/...1

layscience publications manuscripts

shared by anonymous on 01 Sep 10 - Cached
  • But several journals, including Biology Direct, where Kaplan is an editor, have decided to eliminate anonymity from the peer review process altogether. “Under the Biology Direct model, everything is transparent, and everything is in the open,” says Eugene Koonin, one of the journal’s editors-in-chief.
  • anonymous on 01 Sep 10
     
    "It's become adversarial," agrees molecular biologist Keith Yamamoto of the University of California, San Francisco, who co-chaired the National Institutes of Health 2008 working group to revamp peer review at the agency. With the competition for shrinking funds and the ever-pervasive "publish or perish" mindset of science, "peer review has slipped into a situation in which reviewers seem to take the attitude that they are police, and if they find [a flaw in the paper], they can reject it from publication." By Jef Akst at I Hate Your Paper on August 1, 2010.
anonymous

Why All Indiscretions Appear Youthful - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...05mind.html

psychology morality layscience

shared by anonymous on 05 Oct 10 - Cached
  • In recent years psychologists have exposed the many ways that people subconsciously maintain and massage their moral self-image. They rate themselves as morally superior to the next person; overestimate the likelihood that they will act virtuously in the future; see their own good intentions as praiseworthy while dismissing others’ as inconsequential. And they soften their moral principles when doing a truly dirty job, like carrying out orders to exploit uninformed customers.
  • In piecing together a life story, the mind nudges moral lapses back in time and shunts good deeds forward, these new studies suggest — creating, in effect, a doctored autobiography.
  • “We can’t make up the past, but the brain has difficulty placing events in time, and we’re able to shift elements around,” said Anne E. Wilson, a social psychologist at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario. “The result is that we can create a personal history that, if not perfect, makes us feel we’re getting better and better.”
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • “People honestly view their past in a morally critical light, but at the same time they tend to emphasize that they have been improving,” the authors concluded.
  • But the mind seems particularly prone to backdating when it comes to cruel, greedy or cowardly acts — the physical evidence people weigh against stand-up deeds to judge whether they are as good as their parents told them they were. In a 2001 paper titled “From Chump to Champ,” Dr. Wilson and Michael Ross of the University of Waterloo demonstrated in a series of experiments that young adults described their teenage selves in far more negative terms than they did their current selves, often skewering their past judgment.
  • “The weirdest thing about reading about all these bad moral choices,” Dr. Escobedo said, “is that it makes you kind of feel good about yourself. Just seeing how everyone makes mistakes and regrets not doing what was morally right: It makes you feel more attached to humanity.”
  • anonymous on 05 Oct 10
     
    "In recent years psychologists have exposed the many ways that people subconsciously maintain and massage their moral self-image. They rate themselves as morally superior to the next person; overestimate the likelihood that they will act virtuously in the future; see their own good intentions as praiseworthy while dismissing others' as inconsequential. And they soften their moral principles when doing a truly dirty job, like carrying out orders to exploit uninformed customers. " By Benedict Carey at The New York Times on October 4, 2010. Thanks to Shannon Turlington for the pointer.
anonymous

Divided Minds, Specious Souls - 0 views

seedmagazine.com/..._divided_minds_a_specious_soul

layscience

shared by anonymous on 28 Sep 10 - Cached
  • The evidence supports another view: Our brains create an illusion of unity and control where there really isn’t any. Within the wide range of works arranged along the axis of soulism, from Life After Death: The Evidence, by Dinesh D’Souza, to Absence of Mind, by Marilynne Robinson, it is clear there is very little understanding of the brain. In fact, to advance their ideas, these authors have to be almost completely unaware of neurology and neuroscience.  For example, Robinson tells us, “Our religious traditions give us as the name of God two deeply mysterious words, one deeply mysterious utterance: I AM.” The translation might be, “indoctrination tells us we have a soul, it feels like we are a unified little god in control of our bodies, so we are.” 
  • anonymous on 28 Sep 10
     
    "The experience of a unified mind and the possibility of an everlasting soul are connected. And there is scant evidence to support the existence of either." "For the believers in the soul, let's call them soulists, the soul assumption appears to be only the smallest of steps from the existence of a unified mind. Yet the soul is a claim for which there isn't any evidence. Today, there isn't even evidence for that place soulists step off from, the unified mind. Neurology and neuroscience, working unseen over the past century, have eroded these ideas, the soul and the unified mind, down to nothing. Experiences certainly do feel unified, but to accept these feelings as reality is a mistake. Often, the way things feel has nothing to do with how they are." By David Weisman at Seed on September 21, 2010.
anonymous

This is a news website article about a scientific finding - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...1

whimsy layscience

shared by anonymous on 29 Sep 10 - Cached
  • anonymous on 29 Sep 10
     
    "In the standfirst I will make a fairly obvious pun about the subject matter before posing an inane question I have no intention of really answering: is this an important scientific finding?" By Martin Robbins at The Guardian on September 27, 2010.
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