purepedantry

We have all heard about the runner's high, and a great many of us have felt it. When you are running a marathon, about an hour or two in you feel a feeling of euphoria right like you could run forever. Of course you can't, but you don't feel that way. (In my case the runner's high immediately…

This is just for Kara. A really common textbook for introductory economics classes is Greg Mankiw's. In the first chapter, he lists 10 principles of economics. This guy has translated them into terms lay people can understand. Heads up: people are stupid. Just so you know what to expect... (…

It has been a big month for talking about the demographic transition here at Pure Pedantry. (See here and here.) Ronald Bailey at Reason had this interesting article speculating why people choose to have less children: children don't make you happy. If economic security no longer requires having…

Doctors at the University of Navarra have implanted an auditory brainstem implant (ABI) in the youngest patient ever attempted -- a 13 month-old girl: A team of ear, nose and throat specialists and neurosurgeons at the University Hospital of Navarra, led by doctors Manuel Manrique Rodriguez,…

Well, that's good. The military successfully shot down a satellite whose decaying orbit brought up concerns that it might crash into...you know...something besides water. It had about a half ton of a compound called hydrazine that is explosive and toxic. While it is pretty unlikely that…

Stanley Fish of the NYTimes Think Again blog has some interesting things to say about the appointment of Bruce Benson, oil magnate and Republican activist, to be president of the University of Colorado at Boulder. The appointment raised eyebrows and protests from the faculty and students. Partly…

Over for the last week I have been mulling whether I want to continue doing Friday Rants, and I have come to the conclusion that I think I going to end the whole business. It is not that they aren't really amusing to write and -- I hope -- to read. It is just that I have become concerned that…

I remember when I was studying for Step I of the medical Boards. Step I is the first of three very large tests that you have to take to become a doctor. This first test comprises everything you learn in the first two years of medical school, and it can in theory include the pathology and…

The demographic transition -- the tendency for richer societies to have fewer rather than more children -- is, I think, most often attributed to social causes. For a variety of reasons -- because each child costs more, because they are more likely to survive and take of parents in old age, because…

The reignited Encephalon is up at Sharp Brains. The next Encephalon is being hosted on March 3rd at Mind Hacks. Email encephalon{dot}host{at}gmail{dot}com to submit.

Much is made by politicians about the benefits of preventive medicine. Politicians often treat preventive medicine like it can perform fiscal magic, causing health care expenditure to evaporate. The reality is that some preventive medicine is cost-effective and some of it is not. How effective…

In honor of President's day I have some interesting Presidential pathology to present. I want to talk about Andrew Jackson and his myriad of diseases. To say that Andrew Jackson had medical problems would be the understatement of the century. Starting with a head wound sustained while a prisoner…

Happy President's Day! I've heard about these "holidays." Apparently they are days when people with real jobs don't have to go to work. Fascinating stuff. Someday I hope to have a job like that. A Canadian friend of mine also noted that it is Family Day in Canada: a day intended to be spent…

I haven't been in a large lecture for a while, but this semester I decided to take a course in introductory economics at a local community college for my own enrichment. The experience has reminded me why I was so happy that I didn't have to go to lectures anymore. (Ed. sentence removed. See below…

You have got to see this video. Sakaue-Sawano et al. may have created the coolest molecular biology video I have ever seen. They developed a system of reporters to watch the cells transition between the different stages of the cell cycle. This is cool, but it is going to take a bit of explaining…

I don't know if I mentioned this but I am taking a course in introductory economics in my spare time. (Just because I love econ so much!) Anyway, this is probably a bore for the economists out there (since it is something you learn on the first day), but I just learned what a Production…

You may remember Encephalon, a biweekly neuroscience carnival, that we used to participate in regularly. Well, it kind of lapsed there for a bit because the organizer, Mo, was very understandably busy with other things. Sharp Brains has graciously agreed to reorganize it. The first Encephalon of…

Important Announcement #1: ScienceDebate2008 is actually going to happen. Here is the press release: ScienceDebate2008.com, the citizens initiative calling for a presidential debate on science and technology policy, today announced that it has formally invited the presidential candidates to a…

The NYTimes published two articles about abortion in the last couple days. The first was a review by William Saletan of the book Embryo, A Defense of Human Life by Robert P. George and Christopher Tollefsen. The second was an article about the science of trying to detect pain in infants and…

Economics: is there anything it can't do? Here are some economists speculating about why long distance relationships fail. Their answer: too much money. Instead, says Mr. Cowen, people in long-distance relationships may spend more money than local lovebirds. How is that possible? The answer, says…

In behavioral neuroscience, we use a lot of animal models. We assume that these animal models have features that are the same or similar to features of humans. However, it is always reassuring when someone gets around to proving that this assumption is accurate. Talmi et al., publishing in the…

People, you suck. When I was younger (and less of a calloused bastard), I was willing to believe that human beings' pernicious behavior was restricted to particular unsavory individuals or select groups. Likewise, I would write off unscrupulous behavior as isolated incidents in the lives of…

I completely agree with this public service announcement at MDOD: if you have the flu, do not go to the emergency room. The flu is caused by a virus. There is nothing the doctor in the ER can do to help you. Antibiotics are neither required nor effective at alleviating your symptoms. Further,…

The results from Heath Ledger's autopsy came out today. Though the doses of the drugs have not been released, it appears that he died from combining drugs with similar effects rather than an overdose of a single drug: Among the drugs found in Mr. Ledger's system were two widely prescribed…

My rant last Friday about Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) promoted a vigorous discussion, and I am happy about that. That ambivalence about CAM in even the scientific community is an interesting issue in and of itself. Several commenters criticized my piece on the grounds that I was…

The average age of the world population is getting older, and this is very likely to have serious social and economic consequences in the countries and regions where it is most severe. However, I feel like this is very rarely discussed in politics. Politics seems to be rather specialized at not…

How is tool use encoded in the brain? Most movements involving tools involve the complex manipulation of objects in space, and it is possible that they could represented in the brain in this way -- i.e. as objects in space. On the other hand, the purpose of tools is to extend the range of…

Complementary and alternative medicine has no business participating in mainstream science or medicine. As I understand it, there are five core premises on which complementary and alternative medicine is based. I would like to confront each in turn: 1) The evil, old white men who run the…

Color me unsurprised. You have no doubt seen the commercials for the herbal penis-enlarging supplement Enzyte. They feature a guy with a weird smile and his grinning wife. The pills themselves come in suspiciously medicinal-looking packaging. (With a picture of a race car on the package, you…

If you are in the NY area, you might want to consider coming to this talk that is being organized by Kate. The title is "DISCUSSION ON THE ROLES OF EMERGING MEDIA OUTLETS IN COMMUNICATING SCIENCE." It is taking place tomorrow (Thursday) at 7 pm in the Mt. Sinai East Building Seminar Room. (The…