The Science Word 08_12_20

The Science Word 08_12_18

Cute Robot!

“Living better with robots”

That’s the motto of the Personal Robotics Group at MIT’s Media Lab. I totally agree that robots will make much of our human lives easier and even better. And, if quality of life improvement equals better, then this little cutie is sure to play a crucial role in humanity’s future.

On the Lists

Each year there are several lists compiled of the top this of that’s of the past year. I’m honored to once again be on the Wired Sexiest Geeks list even though there aren’t any pictures of me in a bikini available to the public on the web. It is a testament to the idea that there is more to sexy than being scantily clad.

More exciting, however, is my inclusion as a runner up on Violet Blue’s top 10 sexiest geeks list (Thanks to some comments, I just realized that the site is potentially NSFW. You know, attention is a funny thing. I didn’t even see the sexy pics and ads lining the article on either side.)

Her list is full of sexy, brainy, geeky people who do amazing things in the world. Violet has a method for choosing her annual top 10, which (I have to say) is an improvement over the bashfest that Wired has developed. (I do hope that Wired improves their voting system if they have a sexiest geeks contest next year… please!)

Anyway, thanks for almost putting me in the top 10, Violet! I’m sure that I was number 11… 😉

The Story of the Experiment

This is an excellent TED talk about the human story of science and experimentation. I highly recommend taking half an hour to enjoy and learn from scientist story-teller, Kary Mullis.

Kids These Days…

Finally, scientific proof that what the graying generation has been saying for years is true.

“Researchers compared responses from teens in 1975 and 2006, asking questions about their qualities and abilities. The study, published last month, found that today’s kids consider themselves to be far more intelligent and capable than their 1970s counterparts, and more likely to report being “completely satisfied” with themselves.”

The study also says that 93% of teens feel good about themselves. I want to know how this is possible. It’s amazing, but such an impressively large percentage. I mean, I think it is good for kids to grow up with healthy self-esteem. As someone who has dealt with and still does occasionally deal with self-esteem and body image issues, I know how debilitating a negative self-image can be. But, it seems statistically improbable for so many young Americans to be personally satisfied.

The article suggests that the extreme satisfaction might be too much of a good thing. Over-confidence can lead to attitudes of entitlement and laziness.

What do you think?

The Science Word 08_12_02

Biodynamic Pseudo-science

Oh, please!

As Steiner himself put it, “Spiritual scientific truths are true in and of themselves and do not need to be confirmed by experiments.”

Find me a vomit bin where I can expell the pseudo-scientific quackery that was regurgitated in this article. A great article, by the way, but the subject was rather disturbing to my skeptical and scientific sensibilities. (WARNING: It does contain severed cow heads and astrology masquerading as astronomy!)

“We do astronomy,” says Philippe Armenier, a French-born Biodynamic consultant now living in Santa Rosa. “It is quite complicated. We work with the planets and constellations. Astronomy is for plants. Astrology is for human beings.”

And my favorite quote:

“If you seed three days before a full moon, it’ll germinate faster and stronger and your plants will be more fruitful,” says Sue Porter of Porter-Bass Vineyards. “In the olden days, people used to shut down barber shops before the full moon. No one in his right mind would get a haircut; it’d grow back so fast. People used to know a little bit more.”

All I can say, is don’t buy the biodynamic BS. It will be a waste of your money.

(Thanks for sending me the link, Maura!)

The Science Word 08_11_11

The Curse of the Unhappy

I absolutely love Mark Morford’s writing, and here yet again he drives the point home regarding the recent reports of television and depression coming from the General Social Survey. I hardly think unhappiness is the result of television, although it is still obviously in question, but as Mark so eloquently puts it:

“They don’t say, in this new study from the General Social Survey that found that unhappy people tend to watch lots more TV than “happy” people, even though it’s only about 30 percent more, and by the way who the hell knows how they calculated such a percentage, maybe something to do with retinal tracking and blink rates and blood viscosity, or perhaps just how many times the ghostly image of Tyra Banks or Keifer Sutherland or some hellspawn teen from “My Super Sweet 16” slithered into a study subject’s nightmares later on, after the TV flickered off and the Cuervo ran its course and the Ambien kicked in. Just a guess.

Anyway, they don’t say, in this cute and obvious new study, what everyone already knows: that there’s an entire universe of unhappy things that unhappy people also indulge in besides watching way too much TV, and perhaps those things are all interrelated, and it might be worth exploring those things too, because oh my God don’t you know this here life is a veritable liquid madhouse of unhappiness? A giant smoldering smoothie of misery and angst and vague feelings of inadequacy and spiritual barrenness? It’s the American way.”