ScienceBlogs

Competition May Limit Success

the buzz in the blogosphere

It's common for students to take tests in large groups, but a new study suggests being exposed to greater competition may inhibit individuals from excelling. ScienceBlogger Jonah Lehrer attributed this finding to a common tendency of the brain to shut down when intimidated instead of working harder. "When it knows that it won't win the competition—there are just too many competitors—the mind is less willing to put in the effort," he wrote on The Frontal Cortex.

Golf? Golf, you say? Speak up!

01.06.2009 · revere

... Association, in conjunction with the Royal and Ancient, St Andrews, Scotland, stipulates that the upper limit of COR for a golf club in competition use is 0.83.3 This means that a club head striking a ball at 100...

I'm in OpenLab 2008!

01.06.2009 · Ed Yong

... the extra attention from the piece has drawn the notice of a creationist moron. Huzzah! Incidentally, I also helped to judge the competition (no, not my own piece!) and I want to extend a hearty thanks to Jenny...

How not to do a study on the efficacy of "alternative" medicine

01.06.2009 · Orac

... Medicine." That means it wasn't funded by a grant, either from the government or a private foundation, won through peer review and competition with other applicants. Most likely, some woo-friendly wealthy contributor who had heard of Tong Ren...

Competition

01.06.2009 · Jonah Lehrer

... display, only 3 percent of people bought a product. All the possibilities short-circuited the brain. What does this have to do with competition and the number of competitors? In both instances, the brain is easily overwhelmed and intimidated....

Is cheating the kind of thing we do?

01.06.2009 · Janet D. Stemwedel

... and test that body of knowledge. Scientists are humans, subject to temptations to cut corners or to gain an advantage over the competition, and even people with lots of scientific talent sometimes display bad judgment. But if we're...

The whole [bringing out the chains] ritual is preposterous, and any- body with the slightest scientific inclination has to wonder: 'Isn't there a better way of doing this?'

Uncertain Principles · The Football Positioning System · January 5, 2009

Wordburst - Words appearing with unusual frequency

I'm in good company 01.06.2009 · PZ Myers
I'm not so sure about this pick 01.06.2009 · PZ Myers
Ass Sniffers 01.06.2009 · PhysioProf
Pat Robertson the Prophet 01.06.2009 · Ed Brayton
Drug Addiction Dualism is Harmful, Not Just an Interesting Philosophical Navel-Inspection 01.05.2009 · DrugMonkey

Mathematiker haben die besten Jobs [Astrodicticum Simplex] 12:40 PM, 01.06.2009
Israels Kriegsziele [zoon politikon] 12:30 PM, 01.06.2009
Geologie live: Bilder vom Neujahrsspaziergang zu den Harzer Gips-Quellungshöhlen [Frischer Wind] 12:13 PM, 01.06.2009
Twitter-Netzwerkvisualisierung mit Open Source Software [Zahlenbilder] 10:22 AM, 01.06.2009
Ominöse Gefahren des "Third-Hand-Smoke": Nichts als heiße Luft [Topthema] 12:30 AM, 01.06.2009

Life Science

New and Exciting in PLoS ONE

A Blog Around The Clock

'Tetris' as cure for PTSD? can birds smell? Panda genome and evolution; Sensing the Reproductive Environment; Allele-Specific Gene...

Mendel's Garden is blooming

Discovering Biology in a Digital World

My garden at home is looking a bit bleak after all the snow, Mendel's Garden is blooming wonderfully...

Not A Tiny Tiny Plush Toy

Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

Another cute image and story, courtesy of a long-time pal of mine who is a published author and...

Pink Iguanas and Disappearing Islands

Greg Laden's Blog

It turns out that a recently discovered population of land iguanas on the Galapagos is probably a new...

Physical Science

Milky Way = Faster, Heavier. Like me.

Greg Laden's Blog

When Woody Allen was little, and his mother told him to clean his room, he countered that he...

Puzzling Gallup Poll on Internet Use

Mike the Mad Biologist

Drawing conclusions while ignoring sampling error problems?

Football and Error

Built on Facts

There's this pesky problem of spotting the ball at the end of the play.

Not the Raptor Post I Was Expecting to Write

Science After Sunclipse

Today's xkcd was insufficiently nerdy for me. Yes, that's right. In order to make the comic adequately reflect...

Environment

What we should do

Stoat

Since I seem to be stating my position perhaps its time to clarify my position on CO2 taxes....

Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, and the 50-Year Farm Bill

The World's Fair

To address soil loss and degradation, toxic pollution, fossil-fuel dependency and the destruction of rural communities...two philosophers speak...

Climate science for your iPod - January 6, 2009

A Few Things Ill Considered

Here are this week's climate related podcasts (and some on only tangentially relevant subjects!). NOTE: Presentation of content...

Shiver me timbers! Bush is the marine president

The Island of Doubt

And the fog's liftin' And the sand's shiftin' I'm driftin' on out Ol' Captain Ahab He ain't...

Humanities/Social Science

Will the New York Times still exist on paper?

Neuron Culture

"Of course," says Clay Shirky, "because people will hit the print button."...

More Wallace … this time with added Dembski.

Stranger Fruit

Dembski just announced a forthcoming book for which he is apparently writing a foreword: Michael A. Flannery (ed.)...

Darwin and Wallace … here we go again.

Stranger Fruit

John Wilkins has a nice post up regarding the deification and demonization of Darwin. With regards the latter,...

42nd Street Times Square Subway Mezzanine Art, Left Side

Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

A lovely glass mosaic artwork from NYC's Times Square Subway Station for you to enjoy, courtesy of me!

The Buzz: Culture Dish Moves to ScienceBlogs

Science writer Rebecca Skloot—who contributes to Popular Science, the New York Times, and Discover, among other publications—is also a blogger, and starting this week she'll be moving her blog Culture Dish over to ScienceBlogs. Her blog covers a wide array...

Read More

What do you see as science fiction's role in promoting science, if any?

Submit a Question

Science News From:

Competition May Limit Success

the buzz in the blogosphere