Why music?
This article describes several theories which seek to explain why music is a human universal. All of them focus on group cohesion of some sort, and the fact that music seems to foster it, whether it be in work, play, … Continue reading →
Category Archives: Science
A big search…
…for a little particle has culminated with its discovery. Maybe: Signaling a likely end to one of the longest, most expensive searches in the history of science, physicists said Wednesday that they had discovered a new subatomic particle that looks … Continue reading →
Scientists may be a little strange…
…but rats are more like people than you might think: Now may be as good a time as any to say that I am puzzled by people (or rats, for that matter) who like to be tickled. When I was … Continue reading →
Who are you going to believe…
…AGW projections, or your lying instruments? And I love how the seals got into the act of measuring for the scientists. Also, I learned a new word: the Briticism “boffins.”
Continue reading →Religiosity and age
Here’s a study that purports to indicate that people get more religious over time: Belief in God is highest among older people and increases with age, perhaps due to the growing realization that death is coming closer, University of Chicago … Continue reading →
Right brain left brain, right and left
There was a lot of discussion in this thread yesterday about liberals being right-brained and conservatives left-brained, and/or liberals “feeling” and conservatives “thinking.” I think that’s an oversimplification. Sorry, but I know lots of very logical and rational liberals, very … Continue reading →
Hard-wired politics: what about changers?
New York magazine’s Sasha Issenberg has a weak article on a topic that interests me, the difference between liberals and conservatives, and whether it’s hard-wired. In it, he (and some of the researchers he quotes) not only displays the typical … Continue reading →
Autism and…maternal obesity?
This seems an odd and unexpected finding: Children born to obese or very overweight mothers are at higher risk of having autism or developmental delays, new research suggests. The study of more than 1,000 children found that the offspring of … Continue reading →
Those threatened polar bears
Well, maybe not so much.
Continue reading →New evidence that the Medieval Warm Period was world-wide
Interesting. Now let’s see how this gets integrated into the narrative: A team of scientists led by geochemist Zunli Lu from Syracuse University in New York state, has found that contrary to the ”˜consensus’, the ”˜Medieval Warm Period’ approximately 500 … Continue reading →
Real…
or fake? This is why it’s probably fake. More about the controversy here. And here’s a history of humankind’s attempts to build an ornithopter, which is what this purported invention would be called: a man-powered flying machine that is not … Continue reading →
Where’s the beef?
One by one they’re trying to take away our gustatory pleasures. Salt. Sugar. Fat. Red meat—not just a lot of red meat, but any amount of red meat. According to this Harvard study, any red meat at all increases the … Continue reading →