the evolving mind

I think we can all agree that this headline is a joke, if not a double joke:

Head And Neck Injury Risks In Heavy Metal: Head Bangers Stuck Between Rock And A Hard Bass

I don’t get it: stuck between a rock and a fish? Was it a largemouth or a smallmouth bass?

Sometimes going obtuse is the best response to a bad pun. And thus the double joke. The title wording contains a joke of sorts, and the joke is so bad it is a joke.

But is the entire article itself a joke? And if so, in what sense of the word? You decide.

Here’s a paragraph describing the science:

The average head banging song has a tempo of about 146 beats per minute. The authors suggest that at this tempo head banging may cause headaches and dizziness if the range of movement of the head and neck is more than 75º. They report that at higher tempos and greater ranges of motion there is an additional risk of neck injury.

This research “news release” appeared on the ScienceDaily website, along with countless other sites.

Check out the final paragraph:

Luckily, there are a number of possible ways to protect against these injuries, write the authors. These include calling for bands such as AC/DC to play songs such as “Moon River” instead of “Highway to Hell”, public awareness campaigns headed by musicians such as Cliff Richard and the labeling of music packaging with anti-head banging warnings.

In what sense(s) of the word was this article a joke?

Technorati Links: critical thinking, humor

dawn alarm –
into the silhouettes of birds
a treetop explodes

Technorati Links: nature, poetry

Why the search for water on Mars? Because, so far as we know, water is essential to life. Why? Its a wonderful medium for chemical interactions. And you might say that’s what life boils down to — chemical interactions: the building of molecules, the breaking of bonds for energy, etc.

At what point is the “magic” of biological life “breathed” into inanimate rock and dust? I don’t think that’s a helpful way to look at things. The line between what we perceive as life and what we perceive as non-life is no doubt a fuzzy one. Although we prefer black-and-white designations, where our knowledge is incomplete we must be careful not to inject meaning into the fuzziness. And we probably ought to remember that “designations” such as living and human life and even origin/beginning are the work of minds. Minds with limited abilities and innate tendencies that may lead us astray.

But what do I know — I’ve got rocks in my head. Or at least minerals. And water.

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[The above photo is of a mountain stream in northern New Mexico.]

Technorati Links: biology, evolution

The over-used stereotype notwithstanding, it seems that  human ancestors did live in caves.  At least some of them.  As much as 2 million years ago.  How do we know?  Researchers have found stone tools roughly 2 million years old in the Wonderwerk Cave located in South Africa [source].  

It has long been a curious fact that for a species with such a large amount of gray matter, the sophistication of “our” tools didn’t advance all that dramatically for hundreds of thousands of years.  Then what was the advantage of the expensive expanse of energy-hungry brain tissue between our ears?  Good question.

One possible answer is communication in general and language use in particular.  Words are exceptionally powerful tools: with them we can fashion relationships and chip off bits of behavior.

It is a true puzzle.  A puzzle human beings are attempting to solve at this very moment with tools.  Including words.

Technorati Links: critical thinking, language

still living
riddled with bugs and fungus
the massive oak

Technorati Links: nature, poetry

That chimpanzees and humans kill members of neighboring groups of their own species is, we have seen, a startling exception to the normal rule for animals.
- Wrangham & Peterson (56)

Nevertheless, it cannot be coincidental that the only animals in which gangs of males expand their territory by deliberately exterminating neighboring males happen to be humans and chimpanzees.
- de Waal (57)

What do you call a two group of individuals fighting violently over a resource? One of the first times the word “warfare” was used to describe non-human behavior was in Africa at a chimpanzee observation station. To lure the chimps to the station for observation a bonanza of bananas was provided. To the primatologists’ surprise, an organized fight over rights to this magic “fruit tree” erupted (the primates likely had never encountered a 4-season source of bountiful fruit before). In the end, one troop of chimpanzees completely destroyed the other. Such a thing had never been observed before. Some speculated that the unnatural introduction of bananas was the cause.(58) In subsequent years came the observation of organized chimpanzee violence in the wild. Chimpanzees, like human beings, will band together to procure and defend resources.

And why wouldn’t an intelligent, hyper-social species do that? In personal skirmishes one individual can gain a great advantage over another by finding an ally to stand beside him/her. With an alliance, the numbers and hence balance of power shifts. This strength-in-numbers mathematical verity has undoubtedly played a role in evolutionary development countless times. Human beings, as a hyper-social, intelligent primate, are aware of the value of alliances, even if benignly labeled as “friendship.” 

Continue Reading »

Technorati Links: evolution, primates, religion

Admittedly, I watch my share of television.  If I lived on river, I’d spend more time on our small boat.  But not at night.  So I guess I’d still watch television.  Damn darkness.

Technorati Links: culture, nature

Earlier this month I read about a new form of psychotherapy.  The news release claimed 

This new “enhanced” form of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT-E) builds on and improves the current leading treatment for bulimia nervosa as recommended by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). CBT-E is the first treatment to be shown to be suitable for the majority of cases of eating disorders.

Actually, in my reading I didn’t learn anything about the psychotherapy itself and how it was new and improved: how CBT deserved its “E.”  I re-read the article and then did a web search.  Nothing.  Just new and improved, no details.  Hmm.  Are the researchers wary that someone is going to steal their recipe for success?  Odd.

“This new psychotherapy is an effective and relatively straightforward intervention for treating most clinical disorders seen in adults,” says Professor Fairburn. “It is increasingly being used across the NHS and has the potential to improve the lives of the hundreds of thousands of people living with eating disorders.”

This “news” has the feel of supposed fresh Bigfoot evidence that will rock the world.  But the details aren’t released.  Until I read more than hype, I’m skeptical.

Technorati Links: critical thinking, mental health

[a thought]

cleared sky at night –
busy inside lit rooms
grounded astronauts

Technorati Links: poetry

According to the home site, Improbable Research,

The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.  

The Ig Nobel award is considered somewhat of a parody of the better know Nobel Prizes.  Two articles I encountered this week point to research that could be Ig-Noble nomination bound.

1. Honey Bees On Cocaine Dance More, Changing Ideas About The Insect Brain

Is that perfect, or what?  The title alone made me want to snort (as in laugh) and then ask questions.  I love this ‘graph:

Foraging honey bees on cocaine are more likely to dance, regardless of the quality of the food they’ve found or the status of the hive, the authors of the study report.

The above is what you call pure research.  Research for the pure sake of learning.  Unfortunately, studies such as this one are often carted out by senators and others as examples of wasteful government spending.  Science is of no use to these folk unless it removes a thorn from their own ass or adds high-tech revenues to their state’s bottom line.

2. Remarkably Bright White Light Given Off When Diaper Rash Cream Concoction Is Heated To High Temperature

Okay, sometimes it really seems like scientists get paid for playing around in a lab.  Exactly, what, pray tell, did the authors of this study discover?

Duke adjunct physics professor Henry Everitt, chemistry professor Jie Liu and their graduate student John Foreman have discovered that adding sulfur to ultra-fine powders of commonplace zinc oxide at about 1,000 degrees centigrade allows the preparation to convert invisible ultraviolet light into a remarkably bright and natural form of white light.

Hey, what happened to the diaper rash cream?  That was the punchline to this “silly” research.

When is research frivolous and silly?  Hard to tell.  So many human advances have come when individuals were NOT in the act of putting meat on the table or a roof over someone’s head.  Rather than wasteful spending, I think of research like the above as investments in the future.  While many investments fail to pan out, others pay off in spades.

Technorati Links: humor, skepticism