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Bridging a Binary Universe
Modern physicists continue to enshrine the split between the heavens and the earth perceived by our ancestors
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Observations
No, Climate Change Will Not End the World in 12 Years
Stoking panic and fear creates a false narrative that can overwhelm readers, leading to inaction and hopelessness
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Is Guilt Good for Your Health?
Negative feedback helps some people make better health choices, but we need a different approach to motivate others
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No rats in Ryder Alley
Last week, in the wake of superstorm Sandy, I saw a number of people asking questions on social media (and some traditional media picking up on it) about a potential for ratpocalypse, i.e,...
Newer Docs Might Be Driving Up Health Care Costs
Health care spending increases have slowed over the past couple years. Still, we are spending some $2.6 trillion—that's trillion with a "T"—a year on health costs, which is a higher percentage of our GDP than any other developed country...
Chimps in Uganda: Lessons from Washoe
October 30th marked the five-year anniversary of the death of my friend Washoe. Washoe was a wonderful friend. She was confident and self-assured. She was a matriarch, a mother figure not only to her adopted son but to others as well...
Taking Einstein's Advice
Einstein once said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. Yet as scientists, we are taught to fundamentally question this assumption...
Friday Weird Science: Are you getting bigger? Or is your tie retracting?
Sci was at Neurotic Physiology for Friday Weird Science yesterday, where Ivan Oransky found me a study that reveals a deep, difficult problem in our society: tie retraction syndrome.
How Computational Models Are Improving Medicine [Video]
The more we learn about cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's, the more vexingly complex they seem—and the more elusive their cures. Even with cutting-edge imaging technology, biomarker tests and genetic data, we are still far from understanding the multifaceted causes and varied developmental stages of these illnesses.With the advent of powerful computing, better modeling programs and a flood of raw biomedical data, researchers have been anticipating a leap forward in their abilities to decipher the intricate dynamics involved human disease...
#SciAmBlogs Friday - patients' stories, Sandy aftermath, memory switch, gifted minorities, and more.
- Shara Yurkiewicz - When patient stories leave the hospital room - John Horgan - Does Sandy Mean We Should Have Fewer Nukes, or More? - Gary Stix - Remember It Well: A New Type of On-Switch for Memory - Frank C...
Sandy Rips through My Street
I am here at home in Maplewood, New Jersey, four days after an angry wind whipped through the trees, sending my entire family downstairs into the living room for the night.
Bora's Picks (November 2nd, 2012)
Q&A: The science of feather forensics by Naveena Sadasivam: Birds have become rather well adjusted to urban settings, which is in itself an evolutionary feat.
Where Are the Gifted Minorities?
Guest blog by Frank C. Worrell, Paula Olszewski-Kubilius and Rena F. SubotnikFor more than a quarter century, critics have faulted gifted education programs for catering to kids from advantaged backgrounds...
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