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Jan 10, 2012
By David Brown | Posted at 14:45:30
Animal Studies Cross Campus to Lecture Hall (NY Times 1-2-12)
This spring, freshmen at Harvard can take “Human, Animals and Cyborgs.” Last year Dartmouth offered “Animals and Women in Western Literature: Nags, Bitches and Shrews.” New York University offers “Animals, People and Those in Between.”
The courses are part of the growing, but still undefined, field of animal studies. So far, according to Marc Bekoff, an emeritus professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, the field includes “anything that has to do with the way humans and animals interact.” Art, literature, sociology, anthropology, film, theater, philosophy, religion—there are animals in all of them.
Jan 4, 2012
By David Brown | Posted at 10:51:6
Scientists List 2011's Most Fascinating Discoveries (Live Science 12-28-11)
Sometimes the science news that grabs headlines isn't the same news that piques the interest of working scientists. As part of our year-end round-up, LiveScience asked researchers to tell us what they considered the most interesting science stories of 2011 and why. Here's what they wrote back
By David Brown | Posted at 10:22:28
The lost city of Cahokia: Archaeologists uncover Native Americans' sprawling metropolis under St Louis (UK Daily Mail 1-4-12)
Mr Lawler wrote: 'A millennium ago, this strategic spot along the Mississippi River was an affluent neighbourhood of Native Americans, set amid the largest concentration of people and monumental architecture north of what is now Mexico.
'Back then, hundreds of well-thatched rectangular houses, carefully aligned along the cardinal directions, stood here, overshadowed by dozens of enormous earthen mounds flanked by large ceremonial plazas.
'Cahokia proper was the only pre-Columbian city north of the Rio Grande, and it was large even by European and Mesoamerican standards of the day, drawing immigrants from hundreds of kilometres around to live, work, and participate in mass ceremonies.'
By David Brown | Posted at 10:7:44
Patients at risk after scientists withhold test results from clinical trials of new medicines (UK Daily Mail 1-4-12)
Missing data from clinical trials could endanger patients, health experts have warned.
The British Medical Journal has raised concern that some test results go unreported and are deliberately hidden, enabling pharmaceutical firms to make unfounded claims.
Dec 12, 2011
By David Brown | Posted at 10:7:16
How to Dispel Your Illusions—Freeman Dyson reviews Thinkink, Fast and Slow (NY Review of Books 12-22-11)
Cognitive illusions are the main theme of his book. A cognitive illusion is a false belief that we intuitively accept as true. The illusion of validity is a false belief in the reliability of our own judgment. The interviewers sincerely believed that they could predict the performance of recruits after talking with them for fifteen minutes. Even after the interviewers had seen the statistical evidence that their belief was an illusion, they still could not help believing it. Kahneman confesses that he himself still experiences the illusion of validity, after fifty years of warning other people against it. He cannot escape the illusion that his own intuitive judgments are trustworthy.
Dec 9, 2011
By David Brown | Posted at 11:48:17
Acquired Traits Can Be Inherited via Small RNAs (Columbia University Medical Center 12-5-11)
Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have found the first direct evidence that an acquired trait can be inherited without any DNA involvement. The findings suggest that Lamarck, whose theory of evolution was eclipsed by Darwin's, may not have been entirely wrong. The study is slated to appear in the December 9 issue of Cell.
“In our study, roundworms that developed resistance to a virus were able to pass along that immunity to their progeny for many consecutive generations,” reported lead author Oded Rechavi, PhD, associate research scientist in biochemistry and molecular biophysics at CUMC. “The immunity was transferred in the form of small viral-silencing agents called viRNAs, working independently of the organism's genome.”
Dec 8, 2011
By David Brown | Posted at 8:35:45
Despite Occasional Scandals, Science Can Police Itself (The Chronicle of Higher Education 12-3-11)
Science is not immune to lying and cheating, any more than are banking, medicine, or the law. It is also worth noting that Stapel was caught. True, he did get away with his intellectual crimes for far too long, embarrassingly so, but in the end it was the suspicions of his colleagues and students that exposed him. Scientific inquiry is guided by laboratory conventions and publishing rules that promote integrity and minimize the publication of false conclusions. This is equally true of all the sciences, just as it is true that all the sciences have been vexed by scoundrels.
Dec 7, 2011
By David Brown | Posted at 14:38:53
Islam, Charles Darwin and the denial of science (UK Telegraph 12-3-11)
A growing number of biology and medical students are rejecting the very basis of their chosen subject in favour of creationism.
Dec 5, 2011
By David Brown | Posted at 14:51:24
Muslim medical students boycotting lectures on evolution… because it 'clashes with the Koran' (UK Daily Mail 11-28-11)
Muslim students, including trainee doctors on one of Britain's leading medical courses, are walking out of lectures on evolution claiming it conflicts with creationist ideas established in the Koran.
Professors at University College London have expressed concern over the increasing number of biology students boycotting lectures on Darwinist theory, which form an important part of the syllabus, citing their religion.
Similar to the beliefs expressed by fundamentalist Christians, Muslim opponents to Darwinism maintain that Allah created the world, mankind and all known species in a single act.
Dec 2, 2011
By David Brown | Posted at 9:24:0
Reading Shakespeare helps doctors understand patients' mental state (UK Daily Mail 11-24-11)
Doctors should brush up on their Shakespeare to help improve their understanding of how the mind can affect the body, according to an unusual study.
Dr Kenneth Heaton said many doctors don't realise how many physical symptoms can be caused solely by psychological problems.
But the Bard's works help illustrate this link because he had such an 'exceptional awareness of bodily sensations'.
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