Social Sciences
gregladen | June 23, 2010The podcast for The Cosmetics Cop: Paula Begoun has materialized here.
Paula Begoun is the bestselling author of "The Beauty Bible" and "Don't Go To The Cosmetics Counter Without Me." We'll examine the science behind some popular beauty products, and find out what real research says about makeup myths.
That also includes this segment: The Amazing Meeting with Austin Luton, Jeff Wagg and K.O. Myers
This Friday:'s show is:
Transhumanism
We explore the predictions and the problems in the quest to "enhance" human beings. We're joined by George Dvorsky of Sentient Developments and the Institute…
pharyngula | June 22, 2010Ophelia Benson is having a giggle over the Texas Republican Party Platform, which you can download, too. It's the usual: guns, US out of the UN, immigrants must be controlled, etc. They really don't like homosexuals.
We believe that the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society, contributes to the breakdown of the family unit, and leads to the spread of dangerous, communicable diseases. Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God, recognized by our country's founders, and shared by the majority of Texans. Homosexuality…
laelaps | June 22, 2010
Three-dimensional models of hominoid skulls used in the study - (a) Hylobates lar; (b) Pongo pygmaeus; (c) Pan troglodytes; (d) Gorilla gorilla; (e) Australopithecus africanus; (f ) Paranthropus boisei; (g) Homo sapiens. They have been scaled to the same surface area, and the colors denote areas of stress (blue = minimal stress, pink = high stress). From Wroe et al, 2010.
It is all too easy to think of human evolution in linear terms. From our 21st century vantage point we can look back through Deep Time for the first glimmerings of the traits we see in ourselves, and despite what we have…
tlambert | June 20, 2010Kudos to Simon Lewis for forcing a retraction from the Sunday Times of the bogus Jonathan Leake story:
The Sunday Times and the IPCC: Correction
The article "UN climate panel shamed by bogus rainforest claim" (News, Jan 31) stated that the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report had included an "unsubstantiated claim" that up to 40% of the Amazon rainforest could be sensitive to future changes in rainfall. The IPCC had referenced the claim to a report prepared for WWF by Andrew Rowell and Peter Moore, whom the article described as "green campaigners" with "little…
j7uy5 | June 20, 2010(From five years ago!)
There is a restaurant called Pelagos. The name means "from
the sea," in Greek. It is underground, but has a patio open
to the sky. A staircase leads from the sidewalk to the
subterranean patio. The is a metal fence along the sidewalk.
On the patio, there are tables with umbrellas.
Large windows provide a view of the patio, from inside the
restaurant. Looking out, a person might be fascinated by the
geometrical shapes formed by the window frames, the the tables, the
steps, and the fence; that person might also be happy to glimpse a bit
of sky.
Except now it…
jgoldman | June 19, 2010I've been watching with interest a recent kerfuffle involving a relatively new blog in the sciblogosphere, Academic Jungle, which is written by the pseudonymous blogger GeekMommyProf.
Prof-Like Substance has already written a good summary of recent events, so I won't duplicate his efforts. Instead, I'll duplicate his text! (Bracketed bold text inserted by me):
GeekMommyProf started a blog about a month ago, which burst onto the scene in a hurry. Most blogs (including this one) toil in obscurity for a while, eventually gain some steam and get enough readers coming back to get talked about a…
cortex | June 18, 2010Over at the Barnes and Noble Review, I have a short review of Cognitive Surplus, the new book by Clay Shirky:
Cognitive Surplus, the new book by internet guru Clay Shirky, begins with a brilliant analogy. He starts with a description of London in the 1720s, when the city was in the midst of a gin binge. A flood of new arrivals from the countryside meant the metropolis was crowded, filthy, and violent. As a result, people sought out the anesthesia of alcohol as they tried to collectively forget the early days of the Industrial Revolution.
For Shirky, the gin craze of 18th-century London is an…
jdupuis | June 17, 2010This list is usually the very, very last of the best books lists of the year. It's a good list, but since it's UK-based there are a number of books that we probably won't be seeing on North American shores for another year or so. I'll probably get around to updating my 2009 summary list later this week or next week.
We Need To Talk About Kelvin: What everyday things tell us about the universe by Marcus Chown
Why Does E=mc2? (And Why Should We Care?) By Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw
Why Evolution is True by Jerry A. Coyne
In Search of the Multiverse by John Gribbin
Everyday Practice of Science…
emjohnson | June 16, 2010
When most people think of evolutionary biology the first thing that comes to mind probably isn't lyrical poetry. However one of the earliest proponents of evolution, none other than Charles Darwin's grandfather Erasmus, presented his vision for the origin of life in the form of an epic poem in 1803. In his critically acclaimed work The Temple of Nature Darwin mused on the natural history of human beings:
Imperious man, who rules the bestial crowd,
Of language, reason, and reflection proud,
With brow erect who scorns this earthly sod,
And styles himself the image of his God;
Arose from…
pharyngula | June 12, 2010The ghost of Larry Summers (I know! And he isn't even dead yet!) has risen again, with John Tierney of the NY Times "daring" to consider the notion that maybe women aren't as mathy as men. There's a lot to object to in his story, from the title (Sorry, John, but it isn't daring to promote a stereotype at all) to the feeble caveat at the end, where he says he willing to consider "possible social bias against women" in the sciences. "Possible"? Really? Say it ain't so, John!
But no, let's cut straight to the heart of the issue. The problem here is sneaky sleight of hand.
Here's what everyone in…
jgoldman | June 11, 2010Bonobo Week continues! I'm donating whatever proceeds I receive from my blogging shenanigans for the entire month of June to help the bonobos at Lola Ya Bonobo.
Imagine that you're wandering in the desert and you come across two magic lamps. One lamp grants three wishes. It's your standard sort of magic lamp with a genie in it. (No wishing for extra wishes, of course.) The second magic lamp is, well, a moody magic lamp. It's inconsistent. Sometimes it grants one wish, and sometimes it grants seven wishes. But the thing is, you don't know for sure whether, when you rub the lamp and genie pops…
sastyk | June 10, 2010A newly produced UN Report rightly points out, among other things, that the western model of meat and dairy production simply won't work on a planet of 9 billion people. The report, which quantifies the basic unsustainability of affluent societies and the challenges facing us in satisfying needs we've spent a century creating and can't possibly actually fulfill, is generally a good one. But I do want to take issue with the underlying assumptions in the report, including the ones that lead the UN to the most controversial and media-attention gathering claim - that we need to move towards a…
clock | June 9, 2010There are 16 new articles in PLoS ONE today. As always, you should rate the articles, post notes and comments and send trackbacks when you blog about the papers. You can now also easily place articles on various social services (CiteULike, Mendeley, Connotea, Stumbleupon, Facebook and Digg) with just one click. Here are my own picks for the week - you go and look for your own favourites:
Human's Cognitive Ability to Assess Facial Cues from Photographs: A Study of Sexual Selection in the Bolivian Amazon:
Evolutionary theory suggests that natural selection favors the evolution of cognitive…
mmckenna | June 8, 2010The Subcommittee on Health of the Energy and Commerce Committee of the House of Representatives has announced a hearing for Wednesday: "Promoting the Development of Antibiotics and Ensuring Judicious Use in Humans."
The witness line-up is:
Janet Woodcock, M.D., Director, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Food and Drug Administration
Robin Robinson, Ph.D., Director, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, Department of Health and Human Services
Brad Spellberg, M.D., F.I.D.S.A., Associate Professor of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and Member,…
clock | June 8, 2010These days I am swallowing one good science book after another. 2010 seems to be a great year for science book publishing!
But I have also noticed that almost all of these books are written by science bloggers (or at least active Twitterers)! Some are writers first, and started blogging later. Others started as bloggers, and decided to also write a book.
Some use their blogs as writing labs, putting out ideas, getting feedback, honing the message, then collecting, fine-tuning and editing a couple of years of blog material into a book.
Others keep the two worlds pretty much apart - book…
thusspakezuska | June 6, 2010Because sometimes I need to take a breather, here's this post about fun stuff.
(with apologies to Carl Sandburg...)
Delfest jams on little mud feet.
It dances looking
over mountain and meadow
on singing multitudes
and then moves on.
I can't believe I have to wait a whole nother year for Delfest 2011.
What is Delfest, you ask?
The third annual eponymous bluegrass festival founded by bluegrass legend Del McCoury was held this year, as in the previous two years, at the Allegany County Fairgrounds in Cumberland, MD. But it's more than "just" bluegrass, and more than just a music festival…
oracknows | June 3, 2010It occurs to me that I haven't written about this topic in quite a while, but a recent event makes me think that maybe now's the time to revisit this topic. I'm referring to Holocaust denial. Newer readers may not know that part of what got me involved in online discussions back in the late 1990s was Holocaust denial. Indeed, a lengthy post about how I discovered Holocaust denial was one of the earliest substantive posts on this blog, popping up a mere month after I started blogging, which just so happened to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. That post…
cagapakis | June 1, 2010I'm realizing that perhaps in yesterday's post I took everyone's love and understanding of postmodern feminist theory for granted so I'm going to start a little series of posts that I think will slowly introduce some of the issues that I spend a lot of time thinking about and hope that other people will too. Today I'm going to jump right into it by posting the essay I wrote for a horrible class I took about science and religion called Belief Options for a Practicing Scientist. The assignment was to write a five page essay on what the best belief option for a scientist is and why. I think that…
terrasig | May 31, 2010
In addition to my own photos herein, Tom McLaughlin posted a nice slide show of the day at his South Boston News & Record.
Despite two trees that snapped and fell in my driveway within six feet of my car in an impressive thunderstorm Friday evening, I drove on Saturday morning to Clover, Virginia, for the dedication of a gravestone that finally marks the final resting place of Henrietta Lacks, a concrete honor, if you will, to recognize the source of one of the most valuable medical tools of the 20th century and today.
For those who are not regular readers, Henrietta Lacks was a rural…
lborkowski | May 31, 2010
New Solutions: The Drawing Board is a monthly feature produced by the journal New Solutions. Read more about it here.
Note from the editor of New Solutions: The Drawing Board: In the spirit of international solidarity, The Drawing Board has begun featuring articles from activists, researchers, and workers from around the world. It is our belief that we cannot effectively fight for social, economic and environmental justice in isolation, but instead must learn from and support one another. The parallels between Mexican workers' grievances and environmental catastrophes in Ethiopia are often…