Chernobyl Mutation Experiment Fails to Support Darwinism
February 12, 2011
Under mutational load, you don’t get a choice of “Evolve or Perish”; just the latter.
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This Is Your Brain on Bytes
February 11, 2011
It’s mind-boggling time. Some recent articles have tried to quantify the information capacity of the eye, the brain, and the world. Ready? Think hard. Eye boggle: Your eyes contain about 120 million rods and 6 million cones each. If each receptor represents a pixel, that is 2 x 126 million pixels, or 252 megapixels. And […]
Intelligence as a Cosmic Reality
February 6, 2011
The “I” in SETI takes “Intelligence” seriously. It requires that intelligence is a recognizable, quantifiable property of nature. The origin of intelligence is a question that separates theists from materialists – whether it is a fundamental or emergent property. Before engaging that question, it might be instructive to see how scientists who are not necessarily […]
Hikers Stay Healthy, Happy, Sharp-minded
January 27, 2011
A study at the University of Toronto reinforces the growing body of evidence that being active outdoors is good for you. PhysOrg printed an interview with Guy Faulkner, in the Physical Education faculty at U of Toronto, who shared that exercise not only provides physical benefits; it beats depression and appears to slow the onset […]
Amazing Mammals
January 25, 2011
As the Superbowl approaches, millions of spectators will enjoy the feats of our own sports heroes. But what if animals put on games with their capabilities? Human athletes would find it hard to compete. Swimming: A polar bear performed a phenomenal feat of endurance swimming, reported the BBC News. According to a zoologist who observed […]
Has Biomimetics Surpassed Biology?
January 21, 2011
An article on Science Daily announced an invention that is “Better Than the Human Eye: Tiny Camera With Adjustable Zoom Could Aid Endoscopic Imaging, Robotics, Night Vision.” While true that human eyes do not have zoom lenses, how does the comparison hold up? The invention both imitates and surpasses human vision in some […]
Molecules as Traffic Cops
January 19, 2011
One of the cutting-edge developments in cell biology and genetics is the realization that there are networks of molecules that are regulated by other molecules. Some molecules stimulate growth while others repress it. The dynamic interplay between signals, hormones, repressors and other processes somehow leads to “homeostasis” – a dynamic balance that is responsive to […]
Earthquakes Dont Kill: Corrupt Leaders Do
January 17, 2011
“A new assessment of global earthquake fatalities over the past three decades indicates that 83 percent of all deaths caused by the collapse of buildings during earthquakes occurred in countries considered to be unusually corrupt.” That’s the opening statement of an entry in Science Daily. Of course, no one can predict where a […]
The Brain as the Computer Robots Need
January 15, 2011
A mind is a terrible thing to waste, especially once you realize how incredibly powerful it is. In some ways it’s like a computer that needs maintenance; in other ways, it is too powerful to describe in machine language. Here are a few mind matters to mind because it matters: Reboot to clear the ringing: […]
Embryonic Stem Cell Advocates Push Against Evidence and Ethics
January 2, 2011
An old preacher said, “It’s never right to do wrong to get a chance to do right.” That sums up in simple terms the ethical problems of using embryonic stem cells to cure human diseases, apparent in this quote from PhysOrg: The potent but hotly debated cells can transform into nearly any cell in the […]
Brain Synapse Machinery Is Finely Tuned
December 23, 2010
The New York Times published a brief article on brain facts that is astonishing, when you think about all that goes on in thinking. Nicholas Wade reported on a new inventory of the proteins involved in the synapses, the key junctions between neurons. The research team, led by Seth Grant of the Sanger Institute near […]
Are You Too Clean?
December 8, 2010
You shower, you put on clean clothes, you wash your hands with antibacterial soap, you keep the house spic and span, you work in a clean office – and you set yourself up for disease and depression. That’s what some scientists are proposing with the “hygiene hypothesis.” By depriving yourself of access to your bacterial […]
News on the Mind
December 6, 2010
Here are a dozen recent stories dealing with brains, the mind, perception, motivation and other aspects of psychology and neuroscience. Nature and nurture: PhysOrg claims that scientists at SMU have resolved the nature vs nurture debate with a hybrid approach. Whether it satisfies critics remains to be seen. Perhaps they are still thinking inside the […]
Thank God or Science?
November 25, 2010
Americans are celebrating Thanksgiving today, a long-standing tradition going back to the earliest European settlers in North America, the Pilgrims. Up until recently, the tradition included giving thanks to God. Now, the trend is to thank one another. The NASA Director put out a thanksgiving message Wednesday basically thanking all the NASA employees for their […]
Boggle Your Brain
November 19, 2010
A new animation of a trip through a brain shows mind-boggling complexity in more detail than ever before. The animation, posted by freelance journalist Elizabeth A. Moore on CNET News, represents years of work by Stanford University School of Medicine. Using green fluorescent protein in a mouse brain to light up synapses, and photographing the […]