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gregladen | February 12, 2012Charles Darwin's research and writing on Evolution and related topics is still very much alive today, modified and expanded on but only in a few details replaced. Here is a selection of writing about Darwin and his work to be found on this blog:
Darwin and his Formative Fieldwork
2008-02-13 Charles Darwin and Coral Reefs. Darwin's study of coral reefs was a defining project for him; he became the kind of scientist he was because of this study, and this helped define the nature of science itself.
2009-09-06 A conversation with David Dobbs about his book (reviewed here) on Charles Darwin,…
gregladen | February 10, 2012From Kristin Montalbano:
Mark Twain once said, the Mississippi River is a "wonderful book with a new story to tell every day." Well, Nat Geo WILD spent an entire year exploring the length of North America's longest and greatest waterway in Wild Mississippi and we can tell you the man was NOT exaggerating. We gave a few of our favorite science, animal and nature bloggers the chance to check out the miniseries before it airs this Sunday - see what they had to say below:
Check it out!
gregladen | February 10, 2012According to Rick Santorum, it is.
Strange.
Brad Johnson has context and analysis here.
I think Rick Santorum is trying to destroy America.
gregladen | February 10, 2012A team of researchers based in Namibia, South Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom now report fossils from a Namibian deposit that seem to be animals and apparently date to about 760 million years ago. This extends the known time span of animals on the planet by about 17 percent....
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gregladen | February 9, 2012When I was a kid, I saw a photograph in an old Life magazine of a man standing on the ice somewhere in the Arctic, and a killer whale breaking trough the ice, much of the whale's body out of the water, a very short distance from the man. The whale was so close to the man that it was hard to say if the wincing expression on his face was due to being splashed with cold seawater or the thought that he was about to be ruthlessly mauled and eaten by the most vicious and dangerous creature on Earth.
Those were the days...
Go read my latest post at Surprising Science. You might be surprised!
gregladen | February 9, 2012There is a learning technique pioneered in language studies by Pimsleur which makes sense: You learn a word (or some other thing) and over time forget it, and the "forgetting curve" is steep. But, if you re-encounter that same information while the curve is descending you learn it again and the descent into nothingness is shallower. Encounter it again and the line flattens out. This is why if you take a Pimsleur language course, they tell you to NOT study ahead; You are to use each module daily, not skipping a day and not doing two modules in one day. Very nice idea but not mathematically…
gregladen | February 8, 2012The Russian probe destine for the Mars system never made it out of Earth Orbit and recently crashed back into Planet Earth. Why did the rocket ship fail? There has apparently been a lot of obfuscation of what caused this disaster, but now there is some better information. It may have been caused by a computer programming error.
From Irene Klotz at Discovery News:
In a report to be presented to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin on Tuesday, investigators concluded that the primary cause of the failure was "a programming error which led to a simultaneous reboot of two working…
gregladen | February 8, 2012At the moment, the Wandering Albatross of the Southern Ocean is getting a free ride; Changes in wind patterns due to Global Warming seem to enhance the efficiency of foraging of this pelagic bird. However, as Global Warming continues, this rare case of a positive benefit of anthropocentric climate change will probably reverse. Climatic hormesis, as it were.
Read More.
gregladen | February 8, 2012I know some of you are Piercians, and some of you are interested in Neuroscience. So, without comment I give you this abstract of a recent paper:
Past experience provides a rich source of predictive information about the world that could be used to guide and optimize ongoing perception. However, the neural mechanisms that integrate information coded in long-term memory (LTM) with ongoing perceptual processing remain unknown. Here, we explore how the contents of LTM optimize perception by modulating anticipatory brain states. By using a paradigm that integrates LTM and attentional orienting,…
gregladen | February 7, 2012Should we worry about calderas, like Santorini or the Yellowstone Caldera, blowing up with little warning? Sort of, in geological time that is. Turns out that the period of time between not much happening and the buildup of magma prior to a major eruption is startlingly short.
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gregladen | February 5, 2012
It is not a bowl, but rather, a football game.
The 2010 Super Bowl would have been won by the Minnesota Vikings had the New Orleans Saints not cheated.
It is not true that if your city is destroyed by an Act of God that you get to win the Super Bowl for that reason at a later time. Were that true, the Port-au-Prince football team would have won the Super Bowl by now, surely (hat tip: JAF).
New Yorkers do not automatically like New York Teams.
The New England Patriots were disowned by Boston, New Haven and all of the other cities of New England until the year they won their first Super Bowl…
lborkowski | February 3, 2012A few of the recent pieces I've liked:
Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post: Why the poor should concern Romney
Scott Carlson in The Chronicle of Higher Education: America's Health Threat: Poor Urban Design
Maia Szalavitz at Healthland: The Wet House: Homeless People with Alcoholism Drink Less When Booze Is Allowed (Also see Matt Stroud at The Atlantic Cities: Why More Homeless Shelters Should Allow Alcohol)
Matthew Yglesias at Slate: Dirty Money: The astonishing new data showing that simply eliminating inefficient fossil fuel subsidies could achieve half the world's carbon reduction goals…
gregladen | February 2, 2012The first study that looks at telomere length in a large sample of animals from birth to death is out. Check it out.
gregladen | February 2, 2012Climate change denialism has it's Dave Mabus, and his name is Markus Fitzhenry. I just got this note slipped under my eDoor.
You made a big mistake, lying about me.
MEMBERS
There is enlightenment coming, it will be a cleansing wind throughout academia. This is just the tip of an iceberg, that is going to sink, the titanic of AGW, and all those on board. They are of the dark ages.
Ask David Evans, see his expose at Jo Nova science blog (au). Go to Tallbloke (uk). Go to Judith Curry (com).
The greatest fear I have is polluted minds around me. What have we become, men, who give their minds to…
sb admin | February 1, 2012Dear scientists,
Why do you study, the thing that you study? What is it, and why did you choose to study it over all the other possible things you could have studied?
Best
Frank