Two Brain Cells » Science

Floe Chart

Chris — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:21:19 +0000

Bird-fearing bullshit

Chris — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 16:52:18 +0000

This is the best bit of hand-wavy evolutionary nonsense I’ve seen in a while:

But the public’s general dislike of pigeons also comes down to an inherited survival instinct. Our bodies are programmed to play it safe when it comes to some species, says Felix Economakis, psychologist and hypnotherapist in BBC Three’s Panic Room.

“A dislike of any bird is an evolutionary survival instinct that has been passed down through our DNA. Back in cavemen times birds were bigger and posed a real danger.

“Our system still plays it safe, it generalises and paints all possible dangers with the same brush. Our brains are telling us not to take a chance. It’s the same with snakes and spiders.”

Seriously? Those sparrows in the garden? The ducks on the pond? We’re afraid of those?

From “Why do we hate pigeons so much?“.

Calibration

Chris — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 10:06:17 +0000

I need to buy one of those 25 ml spirit measure things, now that I’m calorie-counting everything that goes into my face.

Last night I found myself calibrating a measuring jug below 100 ml using an adjustable steady stream of water and a clock with a second hand.

New Scientist reviews science of Sunshine

Chris — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:31:14 +0000

The New Scientist claims to review the science of the movie Sunshine, and does a poor bloody job of it.

Uh-oh, the bees are disappearing

Chris — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 00:47:43 +0000

Uh-oh, the bees are disappearing.

Supersize, me?

David — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:24:58 +0000

Hah.
I knew that guy was just a pussy.

Free energy in trains?

Chris — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 11:34:19 +0000

Another stunning example of physics understanding:

I have never understood why, in the way bicycles create their own lighting, the wheels on trains that just bogie (ie, those that are not drive wheels) cannot be used to provide power for lighting and air conditioning.

A letter from this week’s Guardian Technology section.

Breastfeeding relieves pain

Chris — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 11:53:44 +0000

For the baby, that is. According to a study conducted in Toronto, babies who received a pin prick blood screening and were then breastfed felt less pain than babies who were ’swaddled, given a pacifier, or a placebo’.

I think the results of this study are pretty shaky to say the least. How do they know the pain-relief effect was caused by breastfeeding specifically? Maybe it was just caused by the baby being busy consuming food (although the ‘pacifier’ option may cover this). Or maybe it was caused by simple physical closeness to the mother.

A decent study would have also done controls with babies who were:

fed breastmilk from a bottle;
fed formula milk from a bottle;
just held by the mother, without actually breastfeeding.

Unfortunately they don’t say what the ‘placebo’ was. I reckon if they’d used formula milk, they would have explicitly said so. As it is, the study can only make some pretty vague conclusions.

Velcro being pulled apart

Chris — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 07:02:57 +0000

A photograph at 94x magnification of velcro being pulled apart

Los Alamos screwdriver criticality experiment

Chris — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 08:51:35 +0000

What happens when you hold apart two halves of a critical mass of plutonium with a screwdriver — and the screwdriver slips? A scary tale from Los Alamos.

Mars robot software upgrade

Chris — Sun, 28 May 2006 18:54:32 +0000

I get edgy enough just upgrading the firmware on my routers and Bluetooth adaptors. Imagine doing a remote upgrade of the Mars rover software.

I call it stupid

Chris — Wed, 24 May 2006 06:46:18 +0000

These two ads from the industry-funded ‘Competitive Enterprise Institute’ in America (where else?) would be hey-laaar-ious if it weren’t for the depressing fact that they’re genuine.

“They call it pollution. We call it life.”

They’re pro-CO₂ ads. Apparently all that stuff about how bad carbon dioxide is, and how it’s causing global warming, is all lies! For instance, did you know that we breathe out CO₂, and plants breathe it in?! How could it possibly be bad?!

I mean, come on. It’s like saying that we shouldn’t try to avoid tsunamis because water is good for us.

Space Colony Art

Chris — Tue, 09 May 2006 18:01:20 +0000

Space Colony Art from the 1970s. “A couple of space colony summer studies were conducted at NASA Ames in the 1970s. Colonies housing about 10,000 people were designed. A number of artistic renderings of the concepts were made.”

Believe it or not: The battle over certainty

Chris — Mon, 01 May 2006 23:49:03 +0000

Believe it or not: The battle over certainty. A nice column by Lisa Jardine, a historian, on how science is not about certainty. She describes how creationists who demand science to ‘prove’ evolution are barking up the wrong tree, and that (more pressingly) we can’t wait for ‘certain proof’ of pending disasters like global warming before taking action. “We are going to have to learn how to participate in debates which are not about certainties.”