Humanity – Page 122

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Spleen Scores, Darwin Loses

August 4, 2009

Hold onto your spleen if you can. The lowly organ, “known as much for its metaphoric as its physiological value, plays a more important role in the body’s defense system than anyone suspected.” Natalie Angier reported in the New York Times that Harvard researchers found that the spleen acts like a fort for disease-fighting monocytes, […]

Genetics

Epigenetics Rising in Consciousness of Geneticists, Embryologists

July 27, 2009

The old story of genetics was that all the information is in genes, and when sperm and egg unite, it’s only the combination of genes from parents that affect the offspring. That view has been under challenge for years now as geneticists and embryologists find more and more evidence for additional heritable factors that affect […]

Cell Biology

More Going On in the Brain Than We Realize

July 22, 2009

The news story about a girl who can see in both eyes with half a brain has stunned neurophysiologists (see New Scientist and Live Science). Somehow, the remaining parts of her brain underwent a massive reorganization of the circuits involved in vision. “It was quite a surprise to see that something like this is possible,” […]

Early Man

The Early Man Gets the Big Brain

July 13, 2009

“Why are human brains so big?” asked Live Science. Why are our brains larger relative to body size than almost all other animals? Rachael Rettner reported on various answers. To her credit, she pointed out the fallacies of trying to test hypotheses when there is insufficient evidence. Rettner evaluated three hypotheses about why […]

Dumb Ideas

Paper View: Darwin, of All the Nerve

July 4, 2009

American neurons are due to get a workout this day. The taste buds and olfactory neurons will get their exercise first at Independence Day barbecues across the land, then the visual cortex and auditory neurons will max out as the fireworks start after dark. Escorted by the Editors of Science Magazine, Darwin is here in […]

Amazing Facts

Computer Programmers Borrow Eye Technology

June 28, 2009

Computer processing of video images may become twice as accurate with 10 times the speed of earlier models, thanks to what scientists are imitating in the human eye. “The linear solution to one of the most vexing challenges to advancing computer vision has direct applications in the fields of action and object recognition, surveillance, wide-base […]

Health

For Health, Seek a Purpose-Driven Life

June 21, 2009

Elderly people who have a sense of purpose live longer, reported Science Daily. Scientists at Rush University Medical Center monitored 1,238 community-living seniors for five years in order to test the hypothesis that purpose in life affects mortality. “Purpose in life,” explained research leader Patricia Boyle, “reflects the tendency to derive meaning from […]

Biomimetics

Discovering Health and Technology in the Human Body

June 7, 2009

Why invent technology from scratch, when the body contains substances that point the way to high tech, and can heal almost like magic? Several articles show that harnessing the body’s own resources is the wave of the future. Umbilical cords were usually tossed into the maternity ward biowaste can, but now they are […]

Cell Biology

Who Needs Embryonic Stem Cells?

May 3, 2009

Cells can be “reprogrammed” to act just like embryonic stem cells, a Nature stem cell blog called The Niche reported. This eliminates the need to use viruses or inserted DNA to induce the cells to become pluripotent. The resulting cells are “morphologically indistinguishable” from embryonic stem cells, the article said. The prior week, […]

Birds

Is Darwinism Useful Explaining Cognition?

April 15, 2009

One would think the evolution of mind involves a straightforward account of improving cognition as one progresses up the evolutionary tree. It’s not so simple, said two researchers in a Nature essay:1 Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection is broadly accepted among biologists, but its implications for the study of cognition are far from […]

Health

Stem Cells Polarize Ethics

April 7, 2009

Adult stem cells are continuing to promise revolutionary therapies, while embryonic stem cells remain a political football even after Obama’s loosening of restrictions. Some stories seem to suppress the word “embryonic” and just talk about “stem cells,” but there is a big difference in the ethics of one over the other. Embryonic stem cells require […]

Amazing Facts

Your Eye Works a Precision Jigsaw Puzzle

April 7, 2009

You have twin 125 megapixel video cameras in your eyeballs. Each pixel, a rod or cone connected to a neuron, sees only a small bit of the total image. How do these bits, like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, fit together? Scientists at the Salk Institute have found that they are finely tuned to fit […]

Dumb Ideas

Can Evolution Be Programmed?

April 6, 2009

Some researchers are employing “evolutionary computing” as an algorithm to solve problems. But is it really evolution? Evolved machines: A company called Evolved Machines in Palo Alto announced a 40-teraflop machine that will be used for the “artificial evolution of neural circuitry” (see press release on United Business Media). “It is self-evident that in biological […]

Dumb Ideas

Ye Are the Salt of the Evolution

March 11, 2009

Salt is good, the good book says (Mark 9:50). Another good thing it may do for you, according to Science Daily, is act as “Nature’s Antidepressant.” Presumably it’s hard to have a good mood about a steak with no salt on it. In the midst of this article about the mood-enhancing effects of salt, an […]

Early Man

Gobekli Tepe: What Mean These Ancient Stones?

March 10, 2009

Imagine stone carvings and monuments whose age make the pyramids and Stonehenge look like artifacts of modern history. Such monuments exist on a hill in Turkey at a site called Gobekli Tepe. Squared-off limestone blocks stacked like the letter T, arranged in circles, with ornate animal carvings on them, have been baffling archaeologists for the […]

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