Food For Thought: Science Edition

[pert -5]

I would like to preface this thread by stating that I don't necessarily agree or disagree with any of the material to come.  This thread is for posting articles that I find interesting and that don't fit into any of the existing categories on this forum.  Feel free to comment.  Also post any interesting articles, so long as they are at least related to science--no witchcraft!    Enjoy.
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Going round in circles
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In contradiction to most cosmologists’ opinions, two scientists have found evidence that the universe may have existed for ever.
http://www.economist.com/node/17626874

[SWM]

good shout,

just one thing.

science is the highest form of withcraft but only those with special powers of observation are aware of this

[pert -5]

good shout,

just one thing.

science is the highest form of withcraft but only those with special powers of observation are aware of this

To study space X within the confines of space X with tools that only exist in space X which derive measurements that only apply to space X.  Yep.
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Remodeling the standard model
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Fermilab findings suggest new elementary particle may soon emerge.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/72095/title/Remodeling_the_standard_model

[pert -5]

I think this is a crock of shit.  Who agrees with me?

Babies may know good from evil: new study
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http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100511/study-infants-morality-100511
/20100511/?hub=EdmontonHome

[SWM]

I have something that troubles me about this thread. if we comment on any of the articles the thread is likely to become a complicated mess of comments about a multitude of loosley science related topics.

what do you think?

[SWM]

When probing the deepest reaches of the Cosmos or magnifying our understanding of the quantum world, a whole host of mysteries present themselves. This is to be expected when pushing our knowledge of the Universe to the limit.

But what if a well-known -- and apparently constant -- characteristic of matter starts behaving mysteriously?

This is exactly what has been noticed in recent years; the decay rates of radioactive elements are changing. This is especially mysterious as we are talking about elements with "constant" decay rates -- these values aren't supposed to change. School textbooks teach us this from an early age.

http://bit.ly/hJbQY5

[SWM]

science now confirming what occultist have been writing for centuries. the early universe was one dimensional.

http://su.pr/2JRuCC

[pert -5]

Great articles SWM!  You keep this up and I might even be able to bestow the title of 'Part Time Contributor To Pert's Thread'!  Good job.  
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Here's an article that even warmblanket couldn't object to:
To Tug Hearts, Music First Must Tickle the Neurons (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/science/19brain.html

Excerpt:
"Research is showing, for example, that our brains understand music not only as emotional diversion, but also as a form of motion and activity. The same areas of the brain that activate when we swing a golf club or sign our name also engage when we hear expressive moments in music."

[pert -5]

A New Gauge to See What’s Beyond Happiness (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/science/17tierney.html

Excerpt:
"Is happiness overrated?

"Martin Seligman now thinks so, which may seem like an odd position for the founder of the positive psychology movement. As president of the American Pyschological Association in the late 1990s, he criticized his colleagues for focusing relentlessly on mental illness and other problems. He prodded them to study life’s joys, and wrote a best seller in 2002 titled 'Authentic Happiness.' "

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Control Desk for the Neural Switchboard (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/science/17optics.html

Excerpt:
"...optogenetics, which can focus on individual circuits with exceptional precision, may hold promise for psychiatric treatment. But Dr. Deisseroth and others caution that it will be years before these tools are used on humans, if ever."

[pert -5]

We have a very special edition of Food For Thought today.  But first, a word from pert's sponsors.



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In Tiny Worm, Unlocking Secrets of the Brain
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/science/21brain.html (NYT)
[Guys, check out that picture of Dr. Bargmann in the article.  I'd like to unlock the secrets of HER brain.  LOL!  ...wait, that's not sexual innuendo.  I'm losing my touch methinks.  Back to studying Groucho.]

Excerpt:
"Caenorhabditis elegans, as the roundworm is properly known, is a tiny, transparent animal just a millimeter long. In nature, it feeds on the bacteria that thrive in rotting plants and animals. It is a favorite laboratory organism for several reasons, including the comparative simplicity of its brain, which has just 302 neurons and 8,000 synapses, or neuron-to-neuron connections. These connections are pretty much the same from one individual to another, meaning that in all worms the brain is wired up in essentially the same way. Such a system should be considerably easier to understand than the human brain, a structure with billions of neurons, 100,000 miles of biological wiring and 100 trillion synapses."

[pert -5]

Thirst for Fairness May Have Helped Us Survive
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/science/05angier.html (NYT)

Excerpt:
"Darwinian-minded analysts argue that Homo sapiens have an innate distaste for hierarchical extremes, the legacy of our long nomadic prehistory as tightly knit bands living by veldt-ready team-building rules: the belief in fairness and reciprocity, a capacity for empathy and impulse control, and a willingness to work cooperatively in ways that even our smartest primate kin cannot match."

[pert -5]

Evolution Right Under Our Noses
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/science/26evolve.htm (NYT)

Excerpt:
"White-footed mice, stranded on isolated urban islands, are evolving to adapt to urban stress. Fish in the Hudson have evolved to cope with poisons in the water. Native ants find refuge in the median strips on Broadway. And more familiar urban organisms, like bedbugs, rats and bacteria, also mutate and change in response to the pressures of the metropolis. In short, the process of evolution is responding to New York and other cities the way it has responded to countless environmental changes over the past few billion years. Life adapts."

[pert -5]

And yet another joins that auspicious list which includes Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Brian Jones, and Jim Morrison; the infamous 27 club.  Though I'm mostly unfamiliar with Ms. Winehouse's work, mostly because I have good taste in music (ouch, god damn pert, that's harsh), I do want to say that it is a sad thing and hope that the seriousness of substance abuse and addiction continues to snowball in an effort to not put people in jail, but to actually help them, and in doing so help the world.  The War on Drugs is a joke.  All of this money should be spent on research into ways to stymie addiction, rather than punishing it.  I'm only 28 years old, and even I see that this War on Drugs is defunct.  It's putting the money into the hands of the wrong people and it's disguising the real faults of the matter.

Who Falls To Addiction, And Who Is Unscathed
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/health/02abuse.html (NYT)

Excerpt:
"Illicit drug use in the United States, as in Britain, is very common and usually begins in adolescence. According to the 2008 National Survey of Drug Use and Health, 46 percent of Americans have tried an illicit drug at some point in their lives. But only 8 percent have used an illicit drug in the past month. By comparison, 51 percent have used alcohol in the past year. "

[pert -5]

Today's Food For Thought is about the science of giving.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/opinion/rachels-last-fund-raiser.html

Excerpt:  Read the article.

[pert -5]

Cancer's Secrets Come Into Sharper Focus (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/health/16cancer.htm?_r=1

Excerpt: "Most DNA, for example, was long considered junk — a netherworld of detritus that had no important role in cancer or anything else. Only about 2 percent of the human genome carries the code for making enzymes and other proteins, the cogs and scaffolding of the machinery that a cancer cell turns to its own devices.

"These days “junk” DNA is referred to more respectfully as “noncoding” DNA, and researchers are finding clues that “pseudogenes” lurking within this dark region may play a role in cancer. "

[pert -5]

A Conversation With Daniel Lieberman:  Born, and Evolved, to Run (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/science/23conversation.html?_r=1

Excerpt:
"Q. Why heads?

A. Our heads are what make our species interesting. If you were to meet a Neanderthal or a Homo erectus, you’d see that they are the same as us — except from the neck up. We’re different in our noses, ears, teeth, how we swallow and chew. When you think about what makes us human, it’s our big brains, complex thought and language. We speak with our heads, breathe and smell with our heads. So understanding how we got these heads is vital for knowing who we are and what we are doing on this planet. "

[pert -5]

Here's an article from February that I came across a link to on another forum.

Are We Hard-Wired to Doubt Science? (NYT)
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/are-we-hard-wired-to-doubt-science/

Excerpt:
"You and I and everybody (...) will look at 'the facts' — no matter how peer-reviewed and scientifically robust they may be — through the lenses that evolution has given us for our survival.

"First, the way information comes into and is processed by the brain is part of this. It’s processed sooner by the amygdala, where fear starts, than the cortex, the seat of reason. We are hard-wired to respond to external or internal information with emotion and instinct first and cognition second. With emotion and instinct more and reason less."

[pert -5]

Sound, the Way the Brain Prefers to Hear It (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/science/06sound.html

Excerpt:
"For much of the 20th century, engineers devoted themselves to developing acoustical hardware like amplifiers, speakers and recording systems. After World War II, scientists learned how to use mathematical formulas to “subtract” unwanted noise from sound signals. Then they learned how to make sound signals without any unwanted noise. "

[pert -5]

Today is a very special day on Food For Thought, for today we have THREE articles!  (See Reply #17 for the first.)  Hold on to your pants folks!  Oh, and as a friendly reminder, don't look directly into the flame of my awesomeness.

Memory Process Takes Years to Fully Develop (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/science/06memory.html

Excerpt:  The article is very short so just read it.



When a Chomp or a Slurp Is a Trigger for Outrage (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/health/06annoy.html?_r=1&ref=science

Excerpt:
"Many people can be driven to distraction by certain small sounds that do not seem to bother others — gum chewing, footsteps, humming. But sufferers of misophonia, a newly recognized condition that remains little studied and poorly understood, take the problem to a higher level. "

[pert -5]

A Child’s Nap Is More Complicated Than It Looks (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/health/views/13klass.html?pagewanted=all

Excerpt:  "Today, researchers believe that very young children take naps because so-called sleep pressure builds rapidly in their brains — that is, the need for sleep accumulates so quickly during waking hours that a nap becomes a biological necessity. It is not just a question of how much total sleep that children need in 24 hours. Possibly because of the intense synaptic activity that goes on in their highly active, highly connected brains, young children are less able to tolerate long periods of time awake. "

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An Immune System Trained to Kill Cancer (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/13/health/13gene.html?pagewanted=all

Excerpt:
"There was no trace of it anywhere — no leukemic cells in his blood or bone marrow, no more bulging lymph nodes on his CT scan. His doctors calculated that the treatment had killed off two pounds of cancer cells."

[pert -5]

Scientists Take First Step Towards Creating 'Inorganic Life'  (www.sciencedaily.com)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110915091625.htm

Excerpt:
"What we are trying do is create self-replicating, evolving inorganic cells that would essentially be alive. You could call it inorganic biology."  (Prof. Lee Cronin)

[pert -5]

In today's Food For Thought we have atheism, we have bad memory, we even have little men in green pants dancing through hula hoops!  Stay tuned.


Profiles In Science: Richard Dawkins: A Knack For Bashing Orthodoxy (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/science/20dawkins.html

Excerpt:
"It is in no fashion to diminish Professor Dawkins, a youthful 70, to say that his greatest accomplishment has come as a profoundly original thinker, synthesizer and writer. His epiphanies follow on the heels of long sessions of reading and thought, and a bit of procrastination. He is an elegant stylist with a taste for metaphor. And he has a knack, a predisposition even, for assailing orthodoxy."

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How Far Will Dolphins Go to Relate to Humans? (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/science/20dolphin.html

Excerpt:
"Up to now, dolphins have shown themselves to be adept at responding to human prompts, with food as a reward for performing a task. “It’s rare that we ask dolphins to seek something from us,” Dr. (Denise L.) Herzing said."

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A Few Strokes of the Past in an Artist Who Lost Her Memory (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/health/20amnesia.html

Excerpt:
"...scientists at Johns Hopkins University hope Ms. Johnson can help them answer longstanding questions: What parts of the brain are needed for creativity? With little access to one’s life experience, how does an artist create?"

[pert -5]

Is it science?  Is it psychology?  Is it hubris?  Either way, I'm going to live in the woods when I get older.  Preferably in a cave.

New York 'Urban Lab' Seeks To Solve City-style Problems (BBC News)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15116760

Excerpt:
"With three out of five people across the globe projected to be city dwellers by 2030, transport, liveability and other urban issues are increasingly vital. Tom Brook visits a laboratory and community centre in New York City that encourages urbanites to take on these problems themselves."

[pert -5]

It's been a while for "Food For Thought".  I thought that I would make the transition from atrophy to active less stellar by providing some links to pornographic images.  Enjoy.







Now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business.


New Way to Gain a Clear View of the Brain (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/health/11brain.html

Excerpt:
"A group of Japanese neuroscientists is trying to peer into the mind — literally. They have devised a way to turn the brain’s opaque gray matter into a glassy, see-through substance."

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Envy May Bear Fruit, but It Also Has an Aftertaste (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/science/11tierney.html?_r=1

Excerpt:
"If past envy sharpened the mind, what would be the effect of brand-new envy? That was the next experiment for the researchers, Sarah E. Hill and Danielle J. DelPriore of Texas Christian, and Phillip W. Vaughan of the University of Texas."

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Two Cancer Studies Find Bacterial Clue in Colon (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/health/18cancer.html

Excerpt:
"Cancers of the liver, stomach and cervix have all been linked to microbes, he knew. And if there is one place in the body with a lot of microbes, it is the colon — microbial cells outnumber human cells there by a ratio of at least nine to one."

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Chimp to Man to History Books: The Path of AIDS (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/health/18aids.html

Excerpt:
"Most books about AIDS begin in 1981, when gay American men began dying of a rare pneumonia. In “The Origins of AIDS,” published last week by Cambridge University Press, Dr. Jacques Pépin, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, performs a remarkable feat."

[S. Earl Martin]

Dang man that puppy is hot!!! I think she's got a sister in the basket with her? LOL!

Thanks for posting this information. I find it very usefull. Earl!

[pert -5]

Dang man that puppy is hot!!! I think she's got a sister in the basket with her? LOL!

Oh yes, that is her sister in there.  But unfortunately, the sister is already engaged in a prearranged marriage to a Raja from India.  I suppose though, however....


It's not everyday that I will admit to the possibility of time travel.  The Ego is a thing of many splendors.  Have fun with it!

Particles Faster Than the Speed of Light? Not So Fast, Some Say (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/science/25neutrinos.html

Excerpt:
"Physicists, who are quite sure that in fact E does still equal MC squared — whatever may come of this experiment — have expressed skepticism. But that has not stopped the ghostly neutrinos, which can sail through miles of solid lead with impunity, from achieving a sort of pop culture fame not seen since 1960, when John Updike published a poem about them in The New Yorker:

'The Earth is just a silly ball
To them through which they pass
Like dustmaids down a drafty hall
Or photons through a sheet of glass.'"

[S. Earl Martin]

The speed of light is constant in a static enviornment, but if you add other factors? It can influence it. Adding energy or removing it could in theory alter the speed of light. Or adding other kinds of energy.

[pert -5]

Food For Thought has taken some interesting twists and turns in previous episodes, but never have the stakes been any higher.  For today we are talking about the brain.  Or wait, the topic of the brain has been brought up many times before on FFT (that's "Food For Thought," not "Final Fantasy Tactics").  I'm converting to Judaism!!  Stay tuned!

Decoding the Brain’s Cacophony (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/science/telling-the-story-of-the-brains-cacophony-of-competing-voices.html?pagewanted=all

Excerpt:
"The scientists exchanged one last look and held their breath.

"Everything was ready. The electrode was in place, threaded between the two hemispheres of a living cat’s brain; the instruments were tuned to pick up the chatter passing from one half to the other. The only thing left was to listen for that electronic whisper, the brain’s own internal code."
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Snakes’ Feat May Inspire Heart Drugs (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/health/python-digestion-study-holds-promise-for-human-heart-health.html?pagewanted=all

Excerpt:
"Pythons are known for their enormous appetites. In a single meal they can devour animals at least as big as they are — deer, alligators, pigs, household pets. [Just like me!  -pert]

"Equally remarkable is what happens inside the python as it digests its prey. Within a day, its internal organs can double in size. Metabolic rate and production of insulin and lipids soar."
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‘A Toad-Eat-Toad World,’ and Other Tales of Animal Cannibals (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/science/animal-cannibalism-may-make-good-evolutionary-sense.html?_r=1&ref=science
[This article is only included because it has a picture of a monkey in it.  Monkeys are funny.  I wish I had a monkey.  And it wouldn't even have to be domesticated, it could be a wild one out in the back yard.  I love monkeys.]

Excerpt:
"When Richard Shine, a biologist at the University of Sydney in Australia, first heard the mystery of the missing eggs, he feared it was another case of what might be called invasive toadkill. He and his colleagues were studying the cane toad, Rhinella marina, a big, warty, sludge-colored Latin American amphibian that was brought to the continent years ago in an ill-fated effort at beetle control."

[pert -5]

‘A Toad-Eat-Toad World,’ and Other Tales of Animal Cannibals (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/science/animal-cannibalism-may-make-good-evolutionary-sense.html?_r=1&ref=science
[This article is only included because it has a picture of a monkey in it.  Monkeys are funny.  I wish I had a monkey.  And it wouldn't even have to be domesticated, it could be a wild one out in the back yard.  I love monkeys.]

I couldn't resist this one guys.  Sorry.



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A Tumor Is No Clearer in Hindsight (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/health/hindsight-is-kind-to-steve-jobss-decision-to-delay-surgery.html

Excerpt:
"Was Steve Jobs a smart guy who made a stupid decision when it came to his health?

"It might seem so, from the broad outlines of what he did in 2003 when a CT scan and other tests found a cancerous tumor in his pancreas. Doctors urged him to have an operation to remove the tumor, but Mr. Jobs put it off and instead tried a vegan diet, juices, herbs, acupuncture and other alternative remedies."

[pert -5]

It's Wednesday, and you all know what that means!  I'm going to glue brightly colored balloons to my body and run around town naked while screaming, "they're trying to eat me!"  Or it's time for another Food For Thought.  Stay tuned.


It Started Digital Wheels Turning (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/science/computer-experts-building-1830s-babbage-analytical-engine.html

Excerpt:
"Did an eccentric mathematician named Charles Babbage conceive of the first programmable computer in the 1830s, a hundred years before the idea was put forth in its modern form by Alan Turing?"
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Intern Gap Frustrates Clinicians in Training (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/health/views/internship-shortage-frustrates-psychology-students.html

Excerpt:
"They call it “the match.” Every year, thousands of graduate students in clinical psychology pick the hospitals and clinics where they would like to do yearlong internships. They rank their choices. The internship programs also rank the applicants.

"A computer algorithm then digests the lists in an attempt to link mutually desired applicants and programs. But in recent years the process has broken down: In psychology, there are simply not enough internships to go around."
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Restored: Fading Account From the Heart of Africa (NYT)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/science/restored-livingstones-fading-notes-from-africa.html

Excerpt:
"'Dr. Livingstone, I presume?'"