purepedantry

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July 5, 2007
Entitled Wikipedian Protestor Priceless...
July 5, 2007
Actually that isn't fair. It isn't wrong. The percentage of difference just depends heavily on what you define as a difference. So argues an editorial by Jon Cohen in the latest issue of Science: Using novel yardsticks and the flood of sequence data now available for several species,…
July 3, 2007
Encephalon 26 is now up at the new and improved Neurophilosophy blog. Happily the Neurophilosopher has now joined Scienceblogs. Welcome!
July 3, 2007
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 in humans. A good example, says Michael Taborsky of…
July 2, 2007
In 2004, the FDA assigned a "black box" warning on prescription of antidepressants to patients under 25. This was because of a flurry of anecdotal evidence linking the beginning of treatment with SSRIs to increases in suicide risk and because of placebo vs. drug trials that showed these increases…
July 2, 2007
Brian Doherty from Reason has an interesting article on NY's place as a libertarian mecca: New York City is the celebrated center for many vital aspects of American culture: publishing, finance, and the arts. It rarely has been credited, however, as a cutting-edge leader in political ideologies.…
June 29, 2007
Matt Nisbet at Framing Science cites an article by DJ Grothe and Austin Dacey arguing the negative: Women, people of color, and GLBTs have consistently faced discrimination that substantially diminishes their basic life prospects-access to housing, health care, education, political participation,…
June 28, 2007
It is so exceedingly rare that I get to say something positive about stars. Usually all I have to say is some crap that Paris Hilton did or that Madonna decided to purchase another child from Africa. So I was pleased to be tipped off by Vaughan at Mind Hacks about this: did you know that Natalie…
June 28, 2007
Madam Fathom has a great piece on the results of fellow Sinai researcher John Morrison's study into cognitive improvement with estrogen treatment. (I would note, however, that hormone replacement therapy is still not recommended for anything other than the acute treatment of menopause because of…
June 27, 2007
I love the comic XKCD. This comic is just exquisite geekiness:
June 27, 2007
The NYTimes has a excellent summary of the progress in the study of evolution of development (evo-devo). Scientists have been surprised to discover over the years that a relatively small number of closely-related genes control the body plan of animal species, even when those species' body plans…
June 26, 2007
C. Ford Runge and Benjamin Senauer, writing in Foriegn Affairs, summarize the likely effects of corn-based biofuels on the world food supply. Take home message: the biofuel craze has led to skyrocketing food prices which -- along with government subsidies and tariff protections to domestic corn…
June 25, 2007
So I don't know if other people were into this show, but since college I have been a big fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was a show on Comedy Central and then on SciFi that made fun of old bad movies. The show itself was hysterical. Anyway, I was watching one of the old episodes (a…
June 25, 2007
Science has a fascinating review about the history of cooking and its relation to human evolution. Richard Wrangham, a Harvard primatologist, has been pushing the idea that the expansion in Homo erectus' skull size was the result of additional energy released by cooking meat: What spurred this…
June 21, 2007
Electric fish, Brienomyrus brachyistius, produce tiny electric signals from an organ in their tails that can be used to communicate and convey social status. They can also be used attract a mate, as reported in a study by Wong and Hopkins in the Journal of Experimental Biology. (The ghetto picture…
June 21, 2007
Two big studies on genetics came out in the past couple weeks, and I want to talk about both. One of them -- the ENCODE study -- was well covered by the media. The other seems to have slipped through. Paper #1: In the ENCODE study, the authors compiled data using a variety of experimental…
June 21, 2007
I always read these statistics comparing Americans' and Europeans' work schedules with a bit of skepticism. Most of them seem framed to suggest that Americans are either incapable of fun or under the Man's thumb -- neither of which I have found true in experience. Maybe it is just because I like…
June 21, 2007
Scientists in Britain have developed a super-efficient light bulb that works without filament -- thus making it likely to last longer than the machine that contains it: Scientists working for Ceravision, a company based in Milton Keynes, in Britain, have designed a lamp that eliminates the need for…
June 20, 2007
I must have it! And it's electric too...energy efficient and cool... Hat-tip: Gizmodo and sent from my dell desktop.
June 20, 2007
Boooo, I say! FOX and CBS have rejected a commercial for Trojan condoms on the grounds that they believed the ads stressed pregnancy prevention over disease prevention. From the NYTimes coverage: Fox and CBS both rejected the commercial. Both had accepted Trojan's previous campaign, which urged…
June 20, 2007
Oh wow: Men are 12 times more likely than women to sustain severe human bite injuries for which surgery may be necessary, according to a study published in the July issue of the Emergency Medicine Journal. Injuries are most likely to occur during brawls at weekends or public holidays and in most…
June 18, 2007
Fundamental to the questions of human evolution is the question: when did human beings start doing human-like things? Human-like things include tool making, having a home base, using language, and possessing an aesthetic sense. Unfortunately, figuring out when humans started using behaviors that…
June 15, 2007
I am leaving for the weekend, so I haven't had much time to blog. In lieu of actual science, I leave you with the following YouTube videos of amateur science rappers. (There are a bagillion of these on YouTube, most of them bad...but these ones are fun.) On Physics: On Mitosis: I have only one…
June 13, 2007
The SLEEP 2007 meeting is going on right now, so I have been trying to keep up with sleep-related news. Here are two important stories: First, college students who pull lots of all-nighters have lower GPAs: A common practice among many college students involves "pulling all-nighters", or a single…
June 12, 2007
The NYTimes has a lovely primer on sperm. Money quote: Sperm do not really hit their stride until they are deposited in the female reproductive tract, at which point chemical signals from the vaginal and cervical mucus seem to spark them to life. Released from the buffering folds of their seminal…
June 12, 2007
The holographic doctor from Star Trek. He never got tired. He never made mistakes. All he would do is get saucy when too many people were bothering him. If only all of us could be like that...(tear) Anyway, unfortunately we aren't all like him, and to address the issue the Accreditation Council…
June 6, 2007
Yes! Dutch students have found a loophole that they argue should allow alcohol to be sold to minors: Dutch students have invented powdered alcohol which they say can be sold legally to minors. The latest innovation in inebriation, called Booz2Go, is available in 20-gram packets that cost â¬1-1.5…
June 6, 2007
You would think that language as a general phenomena in the human species is genetically prescribed, but the peculiarities of individual languages -- such as whether a people uses a particular phoneme or not -- is the result of historical or geographical factors. Dediu and Ladd, publishing in PNAS…
June 6, 2007
Lots of stuff has been written lately over the relative merits of carbon taxes vs. carbon trading markets. Just to summarize the policies, a carbon tax would apply an across the board premium on all users of carbon depending upon the amount they use. A carbon trading market would sell permits for…
June 6, 2007
I wrote about my skepticism about libertarian paternalism before. Here is some more skepticism. Glen Whitman writes about one type of policy advocated by libertarian paternalists -- the opt-out program. In opt-out programs, you are enrolled in what the government says you should do -- such as a…