1. Oppulent homes of the 99. Some of those OWS protesters seem to be pretty well off for people who claim to be protesting against the wealth of the people at the top. 2. The EU has prohibited the use of airport body scanners that use x-rays. In related news, the Transportation Security Administration in the United States has failed to follow through on its promise to conduct safety studies on the x-ray machines currently being used in many US…
1. The hundred year starship project. A new DARPA initiative to explore what it would take to develop interstellar travel over the next hundred years. 2. The genetics of happiness. Recent research suggests that about one-third of the variation in people’s happiness levels is heritable. The gene which seems to account for increased happiness was found least often among those of Asian ancestry and most often among those of African ancestry, with Europeans falling in the middle. 3. More jobs…
1. Are Twin Studies “Pretty Much Useless”? A defense of the value of using twin studies to scientifically examine the effects of heredity and environment. Here is another good defense of twin studies. 2. Limits to growth. We have grown used to continuous economic growth. But such growth cannot continue forever. No matter how much we innovate, the physical laws of the universe impose limits on how much the economy can grow. 3. Juno looks back, photographs earth-moon system A…
1. Gobar gas. Using relatively cheap materials, it is possible to build a “digester” that turns dung into natural gas. Gobar gas has had a lot of success in the Indian subcontinent. It seems like this could be an excellent way to provide safer cooking fuels for rural people in developing countries (as opposed to using wood for cooking fuel, which produces indoor smoke which is often a health hazard and which uses up the trees in forests). 2 Computer…
1. Somatic mutations make twins’ brain less similar. A new study indicates that one of the reasons that even identical twins differ in their development and how they turn out is maybe because of post-conception mutations in their somatic cells. Random mutations happen when your cells divide. A study comparing mutations in identical twins found about 1,000 point mutations (a change in one letter of the DNA code) in one twin not present in the other and two to three…
1. Celts to Anglo-Saxons, in light of updated assumptions. Interesting discussion about the two ways people living in a certain place transform into a new ethnicity — whether by replacement of the population, or through assimilation. 2 The first advertising campaign for non-human primates . Researchers are seeing if using sex in advertising targeted to chimpanzees can get them to start eating a flavor of jello that they otherwise don’t like. 3. Could Legally Getting High Reduce the Deficit?. “Rep….
1. Pigs could grow human organs in stem cell breakthrough. Scientists have been able to use stem cells created from adult rats and then make mouse embryos grow organs that would be compatible with that adult rat. It is hoped that this accomplishment is the first step to being able to grow new human organs in pigs, so that there would never be organ shortages again. 2. The heritability of feminism. New research indicates that political beliefs are heritable —…
1. Q&A: Who is H. sapiens really, and how do we know?. Interesting FAQ explaining the latest state of scientific knowledge about human origins and our ancestors’ admixture with archaic human species such as Neanderthals and Denisovans. 2. ‘Whites suffer more racism than blacks’: Study shows white American people believe they are more discriminated against.”The results showed that while both blacks and whites saw anti-black racism decreasing over the decades, whites saw race relations as a ‘zero sum game’ where…
1. Ancient Female Ancestors Roamed Far and Wide for Mates. Analysis of the 2 million year old bones of human ancestors indicates that males stayed close to their birth place for their entire lives, whereas females who reached maturity would leave their birth area and join a new group to find a mate. 2. Nerds and the supernatural. Radio preacher Harold Camping recently incorrectly predicted that the rapture and the end of the world would happen on May 21, 2011….
1. Getting Smart on Aid. Exciting developments in empirical research about how to improve the lives of the poor in developing countries: Now we reach a central question for our age: How can we most effectively break cycles of poverty? For decades, we had answers that were mostly anecdotal or hot air. But, increasingly, we are now seeing economists provide answers that are rigorously field-tested, akin to the way drugs are tested in randomized controlled trials, yielding results that are…