February 2012
28 posts
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Summit to Make a Case for Teaching Handwriting →
Handwriting still has a place in the digital age, its proponents say, and they hoped that what they billed as a “summit” on the subject this week would spotlight their case for the enduring value of handwriting in the learning process.
The Washington conference was designed to draw together research from psychology, occupational therapy, education, and neuroscience to demonstrate...
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feminist historian: Christian Privilege Checklist →
sanityscraps:
NB: I did not write this. It just took forever to find because it’s been taken down on the most common resources.
It is likely that state and federal holidays coincide with my religious practices, thereby having little to no impact on my job and/or education.
I can talk…
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Well: Take Blood Pressure in Both Arms, Study Says →
Differences in blood pressure readings between a patient’s right and left arms could be a sign of vascular disease and a greater risk of dying from heart disease.
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Study: 1 in 14 People Has Oral HPV Infection →
Pasieka/Science Photo Library RF via Getty Images
Human papilloma virus as seen through a colored transmission electron micrograph.
So how many people have human papillomavirus in their mouths?
Quite a few, say researchers who got more than 5,000 volunteers across the country to spit into a cup and answer detailed questions about their sex lives.
The bottom line: 6.9 percent of...
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Well: Caffeine Alters Estrogen Levels in Younger... →
Caffeine Alters Estrogen Levels in Younger Women
By ANAHAD O’CONNOR
Tony Cenicola/The New York Times
Your daily dose of caffeine may tinker with more than just your energy levels.
A new study of women ages 18 to 44 found that drinking coffee and other caffeinated beverages can alter levels of estrogen. But the impact varies by race. In white women, for example, coffee appears to lower...
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Secret History: Volcanoes caused a 'little ice... →
From 1550 to 1850, Earth mysteriously got colder. Communities from Greenland to the Alps were swallowed up by glaciers, and bodies of water like the Baltic Sea and Manhattan Harbor froze over.
….
For more on The Little Ice Age, check out Brian Fagan’s The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History. Scientific paper in Geophysical Research Letters.
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Power makes people feel taller →
People who feel powerful tend to overestimate their own height, new research shows.
Photo: ALAMY
The US investigation into whether a physical experience accompanies being powerful was sparked after BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg outraged the victims of the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico by referring to them as the “small people.”
Professor...
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Skin transformed into brain cells →
Skin cells have been converted directly into cells which develop into the main components of the brain, by researchers studying mice in California.
The experiment, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, skipped the middle “stem cell” stage in the process.
The researchers said they were “thrilled” at the potential medical uses.
Far more...
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Project to overhaul maths and science teaching →
A panel of leading science and education experts are spearheading a project aimed at overhauling the way science and maths are taught in schools.
Photo: ALAMY
A panel led by Sir Martin Taylor, Warden of Merton College, Oxford, is conducting a three-year research project setting out a blueprint for world class science and maths teaching in Britain.
The committee,...
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In Search of the Elusive Definition of... →
Science generally succeeds in bringing some order to human existence — except when it does just the reverse, imposing a structure that never quite fits properly no matter how much it is tweaked. Then it just accentuates the underlying chaos.
Patricia Wall/The New York Times
The much-disputed, oft-revised manual of psychiatric diagnosis might serve as one illustration of this...
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Gardening Map Of Warming U.S. Has Plant Zones... →
Enlarge U.S. Department of Agriculture
The new version of the map includes 13 zones, with the addition for the first time of zones 12 (50-60 degrees F) and 13 (60-70 degrees F).
It’s official: Gardeners and farmers can count on warmer weather. If that’s you, it might be a good time to rethink those flower and vegetable beds for this year’s growing season.
That’s...
January 2012
110 posts
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Anti-matter atoms to address anti-gravity question →
The question of whether normal matter’s shadowy counterpart anti-matter exerts a kind of “anti-gravity” is set to be answered, according to a new report.
Normal matter attracts all other matter in the Universe, but it remains unclear if anti-matter attracts or repels it.
A team reporting in Physics Review Letters says it has prepared stable pairs of electrons and their...
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Chilean students 'occupy' school and run it by... →
anticapitalist:
Chilean students question the education system as commercial and elitist because it reproduces existing social inequities and makes them worse. But they are not just asking questions: They are practicing the kind of education they have spent years dreaming about and struggling to obtain.
“If workers can manage a factory, we can manage the school,” says Cristóbal, 17, as he...
Many post NYC posts to come, promise.
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NYC-bound.
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Nanoparticle trick 'boosts body's vaccine... →
Tiny capsules engineered to mimic part of the body’s immune system could strengthen its response to vaccines, say researchers.
The nanoparticles, described in the journal Nature Materials, are a message sent from cells in the skin to warn of a threat.
Scientists from Duke University in the US said mice given them as part of a vaccine coped with otherwise lethal infections.
They could soon be...
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Fuck me sideways!
No, really.
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Male sex drive 'to blame for world's conflicts' →
The male sex drive is to blame for most of the world’s conflicts from football hooliganism to religious disputes and even world wars, according to scientists.
The “male warrior” instinct means that men are programmed to be aggressive towards anyone they view as an outsider, a study claims.
In evolutionary terms an instinct for violence against others helped early...
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Mad Science: This paper on men falling asleep... →
A new study purports to use evolutionary psychology to explain why men fall asleep after sex, and what it actually means. The study is being widely reported as proving that men only fall asleep after sex to avoid giving affection or commitment to their female partners.
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Magnetic soap could help in oil spill clean-ups →
An international team of scientists has demonstrated the first soap that responds to magnets.
This means the soap and the materials that it dissolves can be removed easily by applying a magnetic field.
Experts say that with further development, it could find applications in cleaning up oil spills and waste water.
Details of the new soap, which contains iron atoms, are reported in the chemistry...
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Space: A massive solar eruption may lead to the... →
Last week, a swelling solar storm on the surface of the Sun sent a stream of charged particles hurtling toward Earth, making for beautiful northern lights in the planet’s extreme latitudes.