January 2012
25 posts
This blog is on a hiatus.
Read more here.
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Text messages lose the emotional impact →
Well, “no duh,” you might say. Still, the study findings are pretty interesting:
Instant messages are ubiquitous and convenient, but something primal may be lost in translation.
When girls stressed by a test talked with their moms, stress hormones dropped and comfort hormones rose. When they used IM, nothing happened. By the study’s neurophysiological measures, IM was barely different...
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Question box is turned off
Apparently the fastest way to fill up your Ask Box is to tell people they can’t ask you questions anymore! I’ll try to get to everyone’s questions tonight, and queue them up for the next few days. If you sent me a note wishing me well in Costa Rica, know that I have saved it and I appreciate your well-wishes, but I likely won’t post it.
bruan asked: thoughts on physics in connection to Buddhist meditation?
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ScienceCenter to go on a hiatus
I’ve got some sad news for you all. This upcoming semester, I’ll be studying abroad in Costa Rica. I’m living on the side of a mountain with a host family, and walking to school in the Cloud Rainforest every day. While I’m looking forward to some awesome tropical biology, I’m also looking forward to unplugging from my cell phone and laptop. For that reason, I likely...
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December 2011
40 posts
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Anonymous asked: Just because someone's a creationist doesn't mean that they are not intelligent or interested in science. I have a degree in Biology and was ridiculed my entire career for holding Christian, creationist beliefs. For me, science affirms my beliefs. I've seen life begin under a microscope and other amazing things, and I've no doubt it was a miracle. I believe that evolution is a...
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Does the calendar really have to be so confusing? →
The dates fall on different days of the week every year. The months all have different numbers of days, with no rhyme or reason. There’s plenty of inefficiency built into the modern calendar. But according to Johns Hopkins astronomer Richard Conn Henry, that doesn’t have to be the case. According to his proposed calendar, eight of the months would have 30 days, with 31 days every third...
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How much does the internet weigh? →
The question seems a bit absurd, since we don’t think of the internet as a physical entity. However, we know that the information that comprises the internet is stored as electrons, and Einstein told us that electrons have mass. Therefore, neglecting the servers that the internet is stored on, the internet has a specific mass. A random email, say, is roughly 50kb, and that amounts to about 8...
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Hey, all. I'm swamped with finals and a million...
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“The first report of a zolpidem awakening came from South Africa, in 1999. A...”
– Is there a spectrum between consciousness and unconsciousness? New research is casting doubt on our binary understanding of consciousness. Stories like the above demonstrate how ambien, a common sleeping pill, can wake the minimally-conscious to incredible effect.
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74% →
jtotheizzoe:
That’s the amount of climate change attributed specifically to man-made activities, according to a new study. More at Nature News.
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