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Educational researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have found that schoolchildren can independently develop strategies for solving complex mathematical tasks, with weaker students proving just as capable as their stronger classmates. Researchers in mathematics education worked with approximately 1600 8th grade high-school students in various German states. Following an introduction to the general topic by their teachers, the school children were given a workbook of geometric tasks that they had to solve on paper and using a computer over four school periods. Calculating the surface area of Gran Canaria was one of the real-world, free-form assignments the students had to tackle. The workbook material included explanations and examples of various problem-solving approaches. The teachers took a back seat during the session but were on hand to answer questions from the children, who worked in pairs. After testing the students' skills before and after the session, the researchers recorded a significant improvement in their capabilities. The students learned to apply mathematics more effectively, the researchers said. The students were also able to call on these skills in a further test three months later. "We expected students who were weaker at math to benefit more from a greater degree of guidance through the module," said professor Kristina Reiss.  "But we didn't see a significant difference between these and stronger students." The researchers also found that there were also no differences between boys and girls. "We now know that students - also those who are weaker in math - have the skills to master even very complex subject matters at their own pace," said Reiss. Topics: Cognitive Science/Neuroscience

"I visit a lot of molecular biology labs, and most of them look pretty much identical: lab benches, microscopes, computers, messy break rooms, big filing cabinets crammed into every free corner. When you look closely, though, every lab has its own flavor, its own culture. This is the first post of what I hope will be a fun, photo-heavy series on the culture of different labs. Florian Engert's lab at Harvard is large, colorful, and messy."

IMAGINARY is your place for open and interactive mathematics. You can explore great programs, enjoy beautiful picture galleries and create hands-on math exhibits. Share your own ideas and modules. Stage your own exhibitions.

Tamir DI, Mitchell JP. Disclosing information about the self is intrinsically rewarding. Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA. dtamir@fas.harvard.edu Abstract Humans devote 30-40% of speech output solely to informing others of their own subjective experiences. What drives this propensity for disclosure? Here, we test recent theories that individuals place high subjective value on opportunities to communicate their thoughts and feelings to others and that doing so engages neural and cognitive mechanisms associated with reward. Five studies provided support for this hypothesis. Self-disclosure was strongly associated with increased activation in brain regions that form the mesolimbic dopamine system, including the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area. Moreover, individuals were willing to forgo money to disclose about the self.

Less Wrong is an online community for people who want to apply the discovery of biases like the conjunction fallacy, the affect heuristic, and scope insensitivity in order to fix their own thinking.

"A team of scientists at Oxford University have printed - yes, printed - what could be the predecessors to usable synthetic human tissue. The researchers released a paper called A Tissue-Like Material, announcing that they created their own version of a 3D printer, saying the current ones on the market couldn't print what they were after, according to PhsyOrg. And what were they after? A protein sack of water that can mold itself into different shapes and perform similar functions to human cells. After developing the printer, the team was able to print out a series of droplets that formed a network of human-like cells that could act like nerves and send electrical signals across the network."

"Regardless of the platform, social media interactions require two-way conversations (see Box 2). Joining one of the many preexisting scientific conversations can simultaneously disseminate your own content, expand your online network, and raise your professional visibility. An easy entry point is the ScienceOnline conglomerate (http://scienceonline.com), an enthusiastic group of science communicators ranging from tenured professors to freelance journalists "

"In2Care is a private limited company registered and based in the Netherlands. Founded and privately owned by three leading entomologists, a serial entrepreneur and a chief commercial officer, In2Care has more than 30 years of combined research experience in vector control. Our core expertise lies in the translation of scientific knowledge into novel insect control products. We offer low-cost, proven, primarily biological solutions to combat disease-carrying mosquitoes"

"Explore simultaneously in space and time with Time Machine Each Time Machine on this page captures a process in extreme detail over space and time, with billions of pixels of explorable resolution. Choose a time machine and zoom into the image while traveling backwards or forwards through time. Select a Time Warp and the time machine's authors will take you on a guided space-time tour with text annotations explaining what you are viewing. You can even learn how to create your own Time Machines and Warps."

Current, partner and retired OKFN projects are listed below. These are projects that are actively being managed and fostered by the OKFN's staff and communities. To start a new project of your own, see our project proposal page.

Powerful and extensible JS data grid and explorer built on Backbone. Recline combines a data grid, Google Refine-style data transforms and visualizations all in lightweight javascript and html. Designed for standalone use or as a library to integrate into your own app. Recline builds on the powerful but lightweight Backbone framework making it extremely easy to extend and adapt and its modular design means you only have to take what you need.

"I simply cannot believe that John Cook of Skeptical Science and psychologist Stephan Lewandowsky managed, in just 8 pages, to create something as magnificent as their new Debunking Handbook. It is packed not only with wonderful graphics, but also with a clear explanation of why many attempts to defeat misinformation fail, and what steps must be taken to do a better job. The core issue, of course, is one that I've written much about-too many scientists assume that that facts win out on their own, but that isn't actually true"

" Moving Beyond Belly Button Biodiversity…we will study the species living with you on your body but also in the other biomes of YOUR household. If you want to know who is hiding in your refrigerator or mating in the pillow where you rest your head, we can help you. When you look beside you in bed, you notice no more than one animal (alternative lifestyles and cats notwithstanding). For nearly all of our history, our beds and lives were shared by multitudes. Live in a mud-walled hut in the Amazon, and bats will sleep above you, spiders beside you, the dog and cat not far away, and then there are the insects beating themselves stupid against the dwindling animal-fat flame. In addition, your gut would be filled with intestinal worms, your body (and nearly everything else) covered in multitudes of unnamed microbes, and your lungs occupied by a fungus uniquely your own."

OCLC ResearchWorks, OCLC's research laboratory. ResearchWorks demonstrates a few of our ideas for applying new technologies to organize information. In some cases, they serve as examples of things you can develop or incorporate into your own systems.

"But Young's new theory will face scrutiny of its own. Commenting on the theory, Rutgers University anthropologist Fran Mascia-Lees, who has written extensively about the evolutionary role of breasts, said one concern is that not all men are attracted to them. "Always important whenever evolutionary biologists suggest a universal reason for a behavior and emotion: how about the cultural differences?" Mascia-Lees wrote in an email. In some African cultures, for example, women don't cover their breasts, and men don't seem to find them so, shall we say, titillating. Young says that just because breasts aren't covered in these cultures "doesn't mean that massaging them and stimulating them is not part of the foreplay in these cultures. As of yet, there are not very many studies that look at [breast stimulation during foreplay] in an anthropological context," he said. Young elaborates on his theory of breast love, and other neurological aspects of human sexuality, in a new book, "The Chemistry Between Us" (Current Hardcover, 2012), co-authored by Brian Alexander."

"New research from Case Western Reserve University and University of Toronto neuroscientists finds that the brains of autistic children generate more information at rest - a 42% increase on average. The study offers a scientific explanation for the most typical characteristic of autism - withdrawal into one's own inner world. The excess production of information may explain a child's detachment from their environment. "

"It is important to be aware that 20th century media ecosystem is a very unusual aberration in the way people communicated throughout history. Means of production were expensive. Very few people could afford to own printing presses, radio and TV studios, etc. Running all that complicated equipment required technical expertise and professional training. Thus media became locked up in silos, hierarchical, broadcast-only with little-to-none (and then again centrally controlled) means for feedback. There was a wealthy, vocal minority that determined what was news, and how to frame it, and the vast majority was consuming the news in silence"

"So far the treatment, known as faecal transplant, has been tested only on a drug resistant form of the bowel disease caused by the bacterium clostridium difficile. Antibiotics are unreliable against the superbug, but the transplant is 95% successful, saving patients from constant stomach cramps and chronic diarrhoea. "It sounds radical but it makes a lot of sense," said Seppelt on Thursday at a gathering of more than 4,000 Australasian anaesthetists and surgeons. "Usually patients are sufficiently miserable to go ahead, often using a donation from a relative." Healthy humans have about 100 times more bacteria cells in their gut than their own cells."

"100,000 skin samples every year (that's 5 square meters of skin or a full cow's-worth annually) at its lab in Lyon. Currently, the company receives bits of donor skin from plastic surgery procedures. Then L'Oreal breaks the samples down into individual cells, re-cultures and grows them into .5 cm testing squares. The whole process takes about a week to complete but could soon be done much faster thanks to Organovo's NovoGen Bioprinting Platform. ... The bioprinter has already partnered with Merk to create liver and kidney tissues"

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