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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Anonymous asked: This is really a stupid question, but if there was water in Mars once, where did it go?
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How abuse changes a child's brain →
The brains of children raised in violent families resemble the brains of soldiers exposed to combat, psychologists say.
They’re primed to perceive threat and anticipate pain, adaptations that may be helpful in abusive environments but produce long-term problems with stress and anxiety.
“For them to detect early cues that might signal danger is adaptive. It allows them to react, to try and avoid...
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