Social Sciences
grrlscientist | July 5, 2006An issue of the Food Insects Newsletter reports that 80 percent of the world's population eats insects intentionally and 100 percent eat insects unintentionally. In fact, if Americans tolerated more insects (you know, like, BUGS) in their food, farmers could significantly reduce the amount of pesticides applied to their crops each year. Additionally, by weight, termites, grasshoppers, caterpillars, weevils, house flies and spiders are better sources of protein than beef, chicken, pork or lamb according to the Entomological Society of America. Also, insects are low in cholesterol and low in…
pharyngula | July 4, 2006Since it is the Fourth of July, it seems only right to post something from the Revolution. Our reading for the day is the Age of Reason, by that fierce freethinking firebrand, Thomas Paine.
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to…
clock | July 4, 2006This was one of my first posts about blogging, and THE first about the impact of blogging technolgoy on science. A lot of time has passed since then. There are several science-related carnivals now, not just Tangled Bank. There are SEED scienceblogs. It is fun to look back at my first raw thoughts and see if, or how much, I was right or wrong on specifics. Under the fold....
I have done meta-blogging, i.e., written about the phenomenon of blogs, very, very little. Actually, I found only five posts in the archives that are specifically about blogging. The first three are very early and are…
pharyngula | June 29, 2006In a thread that will not die at the Panda's Thumb, the argument has settled into a more reasonable back-and-forth on the issue of the entanglement of atheism and science. There are a number of people, including many of the contributors to the Panda's Thumb, who are adamant that evolution must maintain a plausible deniability from atheism—that atheism is not a necessary consequence of accepting good science (a point with which I agree), and that atheism is basically a scary thing that will alienate many potential supporters (a point with which I strongly disagree). One comment, though,…
oracknows | June 29, 2006Earlier this week, I was in Washington to attend my first ever NIH study section as an actual reviewer. It was definitely an illuminating experience, and overall I left with, believe it or not, more faith in the system the NIH uses to determine how grant money is doled out. Maybe I'll become more cynical after I've attended a few, but this session was full of very fair but tough-minded reviewers who really wanted to score everything high but couldn't. Perhaps I'll write in more detail about it after I've had a chance to absorb the experience; given the confidentiality of the meeting (we had…
jstemwedel | June 28, 2006Following up from yesterday's post about how knowledge about the biological basis for X doesn't tell us whether X is to be valued or pathologized, I need to put a few more points (including some questions) on the table.
First, in the comments thread to the Feministing post that prompted my post, a common (and frustrating) misunderstanding of claims from evolutionary biology has reared its head:
I wouldn't put the clitoris in the same catagory as the male nipple by any means. The clitoris is not a by-product, and by the way neither is sex. And "liking sex that does not result in reproduction…
razib | June 27, 2006Janet points me to this post which points to this research which reinforces the theory that placental environment might have a strong effect on the phenotype of the fetus. Since I've expressed an interest in genomic imprinting let me respond to Jill at Feministing's query, "why do we have to know?", she doesn't have to, but some of us certainly follow this research closely. The reason isn't because we are obsessed with the biology of homosexuality, as that is the phenotype in question, but rather it elucidates questions and dynamics in evolutionary biology that we find interesting.
As to…
terrasig | June 26, 2006Well, you know my answer when you see that I am more than a week late with this post on the 15 June question.
How is it that all the PIs (Tara, PZ, Orac et al.), various grad students, post-docs, etc. find time to fulfill their primary objectives (day jobs) and blog so prolifically?
Priorities shuffle in relation to time demands, so the last two weeks of grant review have taken priority over substantive blogging, including answering the last two AASB questions.
However, this question really gets to the reason that one blogs, given that there are so many interests competing for the time of all…
retrospectacle | June 22, 2006What if we lived in a world with no secrets? As the field of neuroscience matures, the need for a new brand of ethics--"neuroethics"--is becoming clear, as highlighted in this month's Nature. .
Society would be a different place if all our lies, however trivial, were abandoned in favour of blunt honesty. In some areas, such as criminal prosecution, this might be advantageous. In others, where little white lies help life run smoothly, knowing all the facts might be uncomfortable. These thoughts are brought to the fore by the arrival of two US start-up companies, No Lie MRI and Cephos, which…
evolvingthoughts | June 21, 2006The Interacademy Panel on International Issues has issued a statement on evolution:
IAP STATEMENT ON THE TEACHING OF EVOLUTION
We, the undersigned Academies of Sciences, have learned that in various parts of the world, within science courses taught in certain public systems of education, scientific evidence, data, and testable theories about the origins and evolution of life on Earth are being concealed, denied, or confused with theories not testable by science. We urge decision makers, teachers, and parents to educate all children about the methods and discoveries of science and to foster…
stcynic | June 21, 2006In the incredible flood of comments on yesterday's gay marriage post (they were coming at a rate of one every few seconds for a while there), I missed completely Blake's response to the post. I saw several of his later responses to others, but missed the main one to me. I'm moving it up here so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle. He writes:
Ed: Your response is exactly what I expected -- lots of self-superior ad hominems and avoiding the real issues. First, you break your own rules of civil discussion that I had to certify I would obey before signing onto this blog: "let's recognize that even…
jstemwedel | June 20, 2006I think after this one, we'll be ready to move on to cow (or soy) milk and solids!
My last post on the breastfeeding issue pointed you to an academic examination of some of the claims being advanced in support of the superiority of breastfeeding. Joseph from Corpus Callosum left a detailed comment expressing some dissatisfaction with that examination. You really should read the whole comment, but his main points are roughly:
You can find evidence that supporters of breastfeeding are biased, but that doesn't mean you aren't also biased.
In a body of scientific literature, we ought to weigh…
purepedantry | June 19, 2006
A study by researcher David Holben in the latest Preventing Chronic Disease (never heard of it) shows that so-called "food insecure" Appalachians are more likely to be obese and have obesity-related disease.
This puzzling statement can be clarified somewhat by changing the phrase "food insecure" to "poor," in which case these results are not particularly surprising.
A total of 2,580 people participated in the Ohio University project, with 72.8 percent from food secure households and 27.2 percent from food insecure households that may or may not be experiencing hunger. That's higher than the…
purepedantry | June 18, 2006There are Nerd Gods in the movie Word Play. I am not talking about rock gods or leaders of men or even Adonises of the human form. I am talking about Nerd Gods. Nerds of such startling nerditry that when they go up on stage women in thick glasses throw their underwired bras at them.
Would you like to be a Nerd God? Well, then you have to see the movie Word Play.
I am not kidding when I tell you that this is perhaps the funniest movie that I have seen in several years.
Partially, it is the variety of characters. For example, we learn that Daniel Okrent, former New York Times Ombudsman,…
razib | June 18, 2006This hilarious article about "confirming" your descent from Confucius is making the rounds.
Now, my understanding is that the patrilineage of Confucius remains to this day. So the people who would seek confirmation would often have a tradition of descent from the great sage himself. But, I note tradition. We all know that "ancestors" can be concocted, and, we also know that sometimes patrilineages can be "interrupted." When English geneticist Bryan Sykes tested individuals with his surname across the British Isles he found that ~50% of individuals were of the same Y chromosomal lineage.…
cortex | June 16, 2006The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating article on Bruce Lahn today. Last September, Lahn announced in Science that he had isolated two brain genes in humans which had undergone recent evolution, but only in certain populations. His paper contained maps which showed that the genetic changes had taken hold and spread widely in Europe, Asia and the Americas, but weren't common in sub-Saharan Africa. Needless to say, the data sparked an uproar. Now, nine months later, Lahn is leaving the field. "It's getting too controversial," he told the Journal.
This is a tough issue. On the one hand,…
razib | June 15, 2006Dave and Jonah have both commented on this piece in The New York Times which is something of a mismash of recent studies coming out of the field of behavior genetics. The best thing about the piece, from my selfish angle, is that it references Contingency Table, now absorbed into my other weblog, who was riffing off one of my older posts here at Science Blogs.
The biggest problem with pieces like this isn't the genetics or psychology, it is the utter lack of focus on the importantce of probability distributions and the concept of expectation. There are several types of genetic traits. Some…
purepedantry | June 15, 2006I love science. New Scientist reports a study looking at brain activation during the female orgasm. The results are let us say interesting.
His team recruited 13 healthy heterosexual women and their partners. The women were asked to lie with their heads in a PET scanner while the team compared their brain activity in four states: simply resting, faking an orgasm, having their clitoris stimulated by their partner's fingers, and clitoral stimulation to the point of orgasm.
The results of the study are striking. As the women were stimulated, activity rose in one sensory part of the brain,…
pharyngula | June 14, 2006That Stephen Hawking guy is saying that we need to get colonies out there in space to preserve the human race. I'm a space opera fan, I think space exploration is a worthy endeavor, but I have to admit that watching Chris Clarke whomp on Hawking is very entertaining, and I agree. Hawking has it all wrong.
When fans of technology start preaching about escaping disaster on earth by setting up space stations and moon colonies and terraforming Mars, an image comes to mind: a dying hanged man, kicking and squirming, ejaculating reflexively and dribbling a few pitiful drops of semen into the dirt.…
scientificactivist | June 14, 2006Here's another post from the old site. Since I've been writing quite a bit lately about Pro-Test and the response of Oxford scientists to animal rights extremism, it's important to understand why the current movement is significant, in light of what scientists in Oxford have been facing over the last few years. This post, which takes the reader into the heart of an animal rights protest, attempts to do just that. I think it's also interesting because it offers a unique explanation of the forces motivating the animal rights activists in Oxford.
This post is the same as when it originally…