Now on ScienceBlogs: Neck-breaking, disembowelling, constricting and fishing - the violent world of raptors
Jake Young is a MD/PhD student at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in NYC getting a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience. He holds a BS and MS in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. If a volcano were to erupt Pompei-style in Central Park, his body would be preserved in a scoliotic posture over his lab desk. Archeaologists would later conclude that he spent most of his day training rats to perform tricks, until he went blind building electrical equipment by hand using a dissecting microscope. But, still, he died happy...because science is cool.
Pure Pedantry is a blog about science -- social sciences and otherwise -- as well as academic and scientific culture. No one can live on science alone, so I also like to dwell on pop culture, periodically explore the humanities, and indulge in other types of geeky goodness.
DISCLAIMERS: 1) Jake Young is not a licensed physician (yet). He is merely a medical student. The information published on this site is not intended for use in medical decision-making. Please seek advice from a licensed, medical professional before making any health decisions. 2) The opinions expressed are my own. They do not represent the views of SEED magazine or the educational establishments I currently attend or attended in the past.
Category: Movies
I suspect that many of you got a chance to see The Dark Knight movie this weekend. Just as an aside, I will say that I thought that the movie was sweet. Definitely the best Batman movie, maybe one of...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 4:02 PM • 87 Comments •
Category: Game Theory
Jay Cost at RCP uses a prisoner's dilemma game to show why the absense of institutional structures is likely to yield a socially inefficient result in the Democratic primaries. He looks at the super delegates' behavior in terms of what...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 10:01 AM • 0 Comments •
Category: Game Theory
One of the ways that scientists study human decision making is through the study of behavior in simple games -- loosely lumped into a field called game theory. Some of the most interesting and revealing findings involving such games is...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 11:14 AM • 2 Comments •
Category: Game Theory
Rats show a type of "generalized" altruism: Rats that benefit from the charity of others are more likely to help strangers get a free meal, researchers have found. This phenomenon, known as 'generalized reciprocity', has only ever been seen before...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 9:47 AM • 4 Comments •
Category: Evolution
Paul 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,...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 9:45 AM • 3 Comments •
Category: Game Theory
A favorite professor of mine once told me that it's always impressive to start with an example from the 18th century. So in deference to him and with a nod to Jonah Lehrer's forthcoming book, I'd like to mention Goethe's...
Posted by Kara Contreary at 3:27 PM • 3 Comments •
Category: Game Theory
How does cooperation evolve? It is in an organism's best interest to screw its competitors in order to best convey its genes to the next generation, yet we see a variety of human and animals examples of cooperation. The answer...
Posted by NotoriousLTP at 8:48 PM • 4 Comments •
