Observations
Masks and Emasculation: Why Some Men Refuse to Take Safety Precautions
They think it makes them look weak, and avoiding that is evidently more important to them than demonstrating responsible behavior
Blogs
Observations
How a Landmark Physics Paper from the 1970s Uncannily Describes the COVID-19 Pandemic
Phil Anderson’s article “More Is Different” describes how different levels of complexity require new ways of thinking. And as the virus multiplies and spreads, that’s just what the human race desperately needs...
Observations
The Fight against COVID-19 Threatens to Cause Collateral Health Damage
The pandemic is no excuse to abandon chronic disease management and prevention
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Why Are People So Interested in the DSM-5?
There is a lot of internet buzz about the approval by the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) board of trustees of its fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5.) The APA press release notes "the trustees’ action marks the end of the manual’s comprehensive revision process, which has spanned over a decade and included contributions from more than 1,500 experts in psychiatry, psychology, social work, psychiatric nursing, pediatrics, neurology, and other related fields from 39 countries."The approval was announced on Saturday, December 1 (was the APA trying to keep it quiet?) with publication of the DSM-5 scheduled spring 2013...
Koalas and Bison Use the Same Rules for Choosing Mates
While natural selection works operates over an individual's ability to survive, sexual selection operates over an individual's ability to mate and successfully sire offspring.
#SciAmBlogs Wednesday - prenatal tests, patent trolls, data in cars, helmet efficiency, Nassim Taleb, and more.
- Ricki Lewis - The Battle of the Prenatal Tests - Neuro Bonkers - The meteoric ascent of the patent troll and the devastating consequences for innovation - Melissa C.
ScienceSeeker Editor's Selections: Dogs, Money, Sensation & Perception, NeuroNewtons, and DSM-5
Here are my Science Seeker Editor's Selections for the past week:Can Dogs Use Human Emotional Expressions to Identify Which Box Contains Food? New research from the Tomasello lab, ably covered at the Companion Animal Psychology blog.Can having more money make you a worse parent?...
Why Don't Helmets Prevent Concussions?
Helmets protect your head—but they can't fully protect your brain. This helps to explain why football players continue to incur brain trauma that may lead to debilitating brain disease.Recently, a team of researchers presented more evidence of the devastating progression of a brain disease caused by repeated brain trauma...
The Battle of the Prenatal Tests
The young couple looked at me expectantly as I re-read the amnio report and tried to decide what to tell them.“The ultrasound from 15 weeks looks fine,” I stalled, trying to present the good news first.“What about the amnio?”“Well, there is something unusual...
Nassim Taleb Is Annoying, but "Antifragile" Is Still Worth Reading
Nassim Nicholas Taleb can be a pain in the ass. After I invited him to speak at Stevens Institute of Technology a year ago, he made all kinds of demands about where, when and how the event should take place and be publicized—or rather, not publicized...
Stressed out and not thinking straight
In times of acute stress, we really DON'T think straight. In fact, we suffer deficits in working memory. And we do this in spite of an increase in dopamine release from the neuron terminals there, which we usually think of as being associated with important stimuli (like food or drugs) in the prefrontal cortex...
The Meteoric Ascent of the Patent Troll and the Devastating Consequences for Innovation
Today it is perfectly legal for companies to buy and sell the rights to unlimited numbers of ideas, a company is not required to have any interest in making these ideas a reality...
#SciAmBlogs Tuesday - Bruised Batman, gender bias in science, cigarettes as parasite deterrents, Ethiopian Lions, Voyager 1, and more.
Plus, we have the new Image of the Week...- E. Paul Zehr - Bumps and Bruises from Bruce to Batman, and Beyond - James M. Gentile - Gender Bias And The Sciences: Facing Reality - Hannah Waters - Cigarette Butts in Nests Deter Bird Parasites - John R...
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A Blog About the Weird Wonderfulness of Life on Earth
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Exploring and celebrating diversity in science.
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