In the most recent Scientific American, there’s an article on theories related to cosmic inflation: On March 21, 2013, the European Space Agency held an international press conference to announce new results from a satellite called Planck. The spacecraft had … Continue reading →
The researchers don’t call it that, but that’s what it appears to be. And they found something very interesting: Why do people express moral outrage? While this sentiment often stems from a perceived violation of some moral principle, we test … Continue reading →
Apparently there’s an eighth continent in the southwest Pacific. A huge landmass, mostly submerged beneath the ocean, bears all the hallmarks of a continent, according to a new study published by the Geological Society of America. You may have heard … Continue reading →
Wordsworth wrote: “Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting…” Now researchers indicate that sleep itself is a forgetting: In 2003, Giulio Tononi and Chiara Cirelli, biologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, proposed that synapses grew so exuberantly during … Continue reading →
Anyone who has read Jane Goodall’s books knows that chimpanzees can be very very violent to others of their species. It came as a shock to Goodall, who had lived with the animals for years before she observed the violence: … Continue reading →
I haven’t yet read Heather Mac Donald’s City Journal article on the Chicago torture case and how it relates to the larger culture, but a lot of people have recommended it. I’ve only had time to very briefly skim it, … Continue reading →
There’s a big mystery under the Antarctic ice: Scientists believe a massive object that could change our understanding of history is hidden beneath the Antarctic ice. The huge and mysterious “anomaly” is thought to be lurking beneath the frozen wastes … Continue reading →
Yesterday Ace linked to an article reporting on a study that appears to be saying saturated fat is good for you. The subtitle at the report’s link indicates that the research “overturned previously accepted wisdom.” Actually, not really. First of … Continue reading →
An astounding discovery: A dinosaur tail fragment preserved in amber has been found in northern Myanmar, according to National Geographic. This remarkable, 99-million-year-old specimen was found by a team of researchers led by China University of Geosciences paleontologist Lida Xing, … Continue reading →
An interesting premise: I’ve read the Left’s indictments, including Chris Mooney’s bestseller, The Republican War on Science. I finished it with the same question about this war that I had at the outset: Where are the casualties? Where are the … Continue reading →
No, that’s not a joke title. See this: Between the months of May and September, tens of millions of migratory seabirds converge on the Arctic where they eat, breed and poop. Over time, the nitrogen in seabird droppings breaks down … Continue reading →
…when first we practice to deceive: Here we provide empirical evidence for a gradual escalation of self-serving dishonesty and reveal a neural mechanism supporting it. Behaviorally, we show that the extent to which participants engage in self-serving dishonesty increases with … Continue reading →