the evolving mind

Any idea what the above is? Hint: x60 magnification. Answer below the fold.

If it weren’t for the green coloration, one might suspect it was a satellite image of criss-crossing city roadways. From where comes the similarity? Are the minds of the “designers” of each similar?

I wouldn’t say so. In fact, in the case of the green criss-crossing, my guess is it reflects intrinsic properties and constants of our universe coupled with the selective power of persistence. What persists, exists.

But that’s just me. What do you think?

Continue Reading »

Technorati Links: microscope, puzzle

Did you know that people who don’t drink are less happy than drinkers? Science told me so. Ipso facto, drinking is good for a person’s mental health, right? Maybe not.

The title to news of the research in question reads, Teetotallers more likely to be depressed. See, refrain from drinking and you might get blue.

The lead sentence says all you need to now. Well, maybe not. “Abstaining from alcohol consumption is associated with an increased risk of depression according to a new study published in Addiction journal.”

Okay, there’s the science, so what’s wrong with the claim that, according to the study, people who don’t drink are less happy than people who do? Actually, that wording is okay, but could easily be misconstrued. However, my previous wording, that “drinking is good for a person’s mental health,” based on this finding, is false. Why? Because that’s not what they found. What they did find was an association, a correlation, between those-who-don’t-drink and depression.

Notice I wrote, “those who don’t drink” and not “not drinking.” For there is a huge difference. Huge.

Further down the article you will find this telling paragraph:

The authors conclude that in societies where some use of alcohol is the norm, abstinence may be associated with being socially marginalised or particular personality traits that may also be associated with mental illness.

Aha! So it may not be the non-drinking itself that leads to greater depression rates, but likely other factors: personality, social, what have you.

As has been said many times, and bears repeating, scientific/critical thinkers are cautious not to jump from a discovered correlation to a conclusion of causation.

Technorati Links: addiction, psychology, science

It seems to me that part of the appeal of Jesus is his dual nature: part human, part god. He walked the earth, had a beard, a nose, two eyes, could suffer, and perhaps even farted now and again.

Sacrilege!

But ultimately, he was a true super hero. He healed the sick, walked on water, leapt small buildings in a single bound, etc. He was a spiritually turbo-charged one of us.

Is he popular, in part, for the same reason children prefer their cuddle toys to have two eyes and a nose?

Technorati Links: atheism, belief, photo

Many benefits of bogus treatments can be chalked up the “the” placebo response. Trouble is, we don’t know a whole heck of a lot about placebo responses to treatments. How robust and perhaps even real are they?

In that second sentence I used the plural for placebo response intentionally. For the nature of a placebo response may differ when given as a different treatment for a different illness, etc. When we lump all placebo responses together, we may be combining different types of fruit. So to speak.

A few days ago news of a study into “the” placebo effect for pain control was released. The strongly scientific research looked into the actual brain mechanisms that could be responsible for “placebo analgesia.” The release nicely summarizes the background information -

Placebo analgesia refers to an individual’s relief from pain following administration of a chemically inert substance and is thought to be due to a person’s belief that a potent pain medication was administered. Endogenous opioids, which are naturally produced by the brain in small amounts and play a key role in the relief of pain and anxiety, have been implicated in placebo analgesia. Brain imaging studies have shown that placebo analgesia stimulates release of endogenous opioids from higher brain regions associated with pain modulation and is associated with a decrease in signals from pain-sensitive areas.

In the new study, a drug that blocks opioid signaling, naloxone, was used to determine whether endogenous opioids do indeed play a role.

The researchers found that naloxone reduced behavioral placebo effects as well as placebo-induced decreases in pain-related brain responses. Most importantly, they also observed that, under placebo, cortical areas interacted with brainstem structures implicated in pain control and that these interactions were dependent on endogenous opioids and were related to the strength of experienced placebo effects.

Certainly, the above doesn’t close the book on placebo analgesia. But thanks to the research we can more confidently say that this type of placebo does indeed precipitate real changes in the brain.

Technorati Links: brain, neurology

Evolutionary psychology is a weak science, particularly when applied fully post hoc: as untested explanations of why things are the way the are by way of speculations about what things were like earlier in human evolution or by finding analogous behavior among other modern primates.  (And I am well aware that this applies to my “Almighty Alpha” project).  However, it is possible to practice the field in a more strongly scientific fashion.  Namely, by making predictions of what should be the case today after considering evolutionary elements.  And then putting the prediction to a test.

With this post I invite you to make a prediction about gender differences in sexual tastes based on your thoughts of evolutionary mechanisms “handed down” to modern human beings.  Here’s the question: Do you predict that males or females show greater consensus on the attractiveness of members of the opposite sex? A recent study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology examined just that.

So which is it — males or females?  Make a prediction and see if this one batch of data backs you up.

Answer below the fold.

Continue Reading »

Technorati Links: evolutionary psychology, gender

I recall a cartoon by B. Kliban from decades ago that bore the caption: John the Baptist with a Side of Fries. I couldn’t help but think of it upon viewing this religious artifact in a small church in the hillsides of rural Sicily (summer 2008).

In case you are unfamiliar with the story, it can be found in Mark 6 — these verses from the New International Version:

Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests.

The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”

She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”
“The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.

At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother.

A head on a platter . . . kindof’ an odd thing to hang on the wall of a “holy place,” wouldn’t you say?

Technorati Links: photograph, religion

Personally, I applaud the scientific study of religious phenomena and claims. If something occurs in the real world, I want to understand it. But the science should be . . . scientific.

News of research on weight loss I encountered the other day falls short on two fronts. I’m sure the title itself will raise alarm bells in skeptical readers: Why Weight Watchers succeeds: Meetings provide a blend of spirituality and therapy

But before we get to the “spirituality” issue, let’s consider another important issue. How good was the quality of the data the researchers generated and based there conclusions upon? You tell me -

Authors Risto Moisio (California State University, Long Beach) and Mariam Beruchashvili (California State University, Northridge) undertook observations of weekly Weight Watchers meetings and conducted interviews with female members and group leaders. They conclude that Weight Watchers provides a powerful service to its clientele.

(Hint: Saying the data is “not terribly strong” would be generous.)

Second comes the use of the term “spiritual/spirituality.” Authors Moisio and Beruchashvili write,

The presence of fellow Weight Watchers is equally therapeutic as it is spiritual: it transforms the support group into a greater, spiritual power that engenders therapeutic aid to members struggling with their diets.

This is science?!

The choice of words in this research brings up the general problem of introducing spirituality or other religious terms as variables. The problem? For a term to be scientific it must be defined according to real-world attributes that can be measured. Far too often religious terms are used as a short-cut, or even a gloss-over, the mundane reality lurking beneath. So “religiosity” can simply mean “attending church every week and socializing with like-minded others” or “answering a questionnaire a particular way.” As for the real-world meaning of “spirituality,” what is it? Warm feelings? Thoughts of being connected to others, of having purpose in one’s life? Spirituality is a vague term with a huge potential to mislead and thus should be better pinned down. At least if a person wants to call what they do science.

Technorati Links: critical thinking, religion, semantics

Over the centuries our understanding of the universe has progressed thanks to looking more closely at the objects and events around us.  Both literally and figuratively.

On the literal side, looking more closely has been aided by the development of lenses and other devices that allow the user to clearly see the very small things right under their nose, or things so distant they are no bigger than a speck in the night sky – at least to the naked eye.

Figuratively speaking, to look more closely means to improve your understanding by spending time and energy examining events and claims.  Coupled with that is the use of cognitive tools refined through the ages.  Much of the refinement has involved the abandoning of  ineffective and counter-productive thought-processes.  (No, it is not helpful to conclude, “a spirit or ghost must have done it,” or to shrug your shoulders and mutter something about a god working in mysterious ways.)

In this 118th edition of the Skeptics’s Circle I will be alternately sharing items from both categories.  On the literal level: historical advances in technology that have extended the human ability to see.  On the figurative: blog posts that closely examine events or ideas.  Enjoy!

3500 BCE

By cooking on sand with high heat, Phoenicians “discover” glass.  It would be a number of millennia before glass would be shaped into lens for the purpose of looking more closely at very small and very distant objects.

August 12, 2009

Will feeding your kitty the “Evolution Diet” help it live up to 3o% longer?  Is the kibble manufactured by the pet food industry toxic?  In his post, Evolution Diet – Selling Food with Fear and Lies, SkeptVet closely examines the claims of the “Evolution Diet” for pets.  Other recent topics include orthomolecular medicine and the health benefits of organically grown foods.

Blog: The SkeptVet Blog

1021 CE

The first evidence of a magnifying device — a convex lens — is found in the Book of Optics published in 1021. During the 13th century Roger Bacon described the properties of the magnifying glass.   Also in the 13th-century, eyeglasses were developed in Italy.

August 13th, 2009

Can drinking coconut water help prevent contracting the swine flu?  What about refraining from masturbation?  It seems that when fear and uncertainty enter the front door, religion and pseudoscience muscle their way in behind.  In his post When Pigs Fly, The Chemist shares some of the crazy ways people have been addressing and inflaming the fears of the H1N1 influenza.  Other recent topics include healthcare reform and summer movies.

Blog: My Chemical Journey

1595

Roughly one hundred years after Christopher Columbus beached his ships upon a new world, the first microscope was constructed.  Who designed and created it?  Actually, three different eyeglass-makers have each been credited with the advance, including Hans Lippershey, the developer of the first true telescope.

August 17, 2009

Are the science standards for education in the U.S. going completely down the hopper?  Or is there some hope for them yet?  Wouldn’t you know it, the answer to the question of the progress or decline of state science standards isn’t a simple one.  (Damn you, precise thinkers, always making things complicated!) In Evolution in U.S. Public Schools: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back, Mattusmaximus (Matt) has provided both reason to frown and to smile.  Other recent topics include the lies and nonsense of Sarah Palin and the ways in which God — He whom Florida Governor Crist has the ear of — protected Florida from hurricanes.  Or not.

Blog: The Skeptical Teacher

1608

The previously mentioned spectacle-maker,  Hans Lippershey, assembled the first telescope. Although Lippershey of Holland is frequently given credit, there were likely others before him.  But history highlights the best known.  The first telescopes were of the “refracting” variety.  Via clear lenses,  they bent incoming light to enlarge the image.  Galileo greatly improved upon this design.

August 18th, 2009

If there is such a thing as alternative medicine, does this mean there are other alternative fields?  Is there such a thing as alternative zoology, which might teach that ducks are actually a species of moss?  (Among my own alternatives, I follow alternative Buddhism, which teaches that if you meet a porcine Buddha in the road, eat him!)  Cubiksrube enters the bizarro world of alternative medicine.  Rather than beating them, he joins them.  Sort of.  Read Alternative medicine to find out.  Other recent topics include the incompatibility of science and religion and reaction to Obama’s allegedly Nazi-based healthcare plan.

Blog: Cubik’s Rube

1668

The second generation of telescopes, and later “field glasses” or binoculars, employed both refraction and reflection in their design.  A mirror (or prism) could be fashioned to reflect and redirect light to an eyepiece, magnifying the image in the process.  Any telescope that you don’t look straight through to view cosmic objects is a reflecting telescope.   In the 16oos none other than Isaac Newton built reflecting telescopes.  Parabolic mirrors would later play a great role in the construction of astronomical observatories.

August 20, 2009

If sex toys and role playing fails to spice up your mattress-based recreation, why not try a big dose of woo?  Spirituality and orgasm go together like vibrational energy and OH GOD! Right? Maybe not. Blogger Zawtowers might be a missionary of sober thought.  His position: keep New Age bologna out of the bedroom.  (It’s just recycled Old Age, really).  In, Get Your Woo-woo Out of My Bedroom!, he takes a hard look at an article about spiritual sex and the pursuit of multi-dimensional orgasms.  (Are three not sufficient?!).  Other recent topics include reporting on a mass baptism event held on public property and a mission from god involving marijuana.

Blog: The Mad Skeptic

1854

The first binoculars were basically sets of dual telescopes.  The modern design, in which light takes a few right-angle turns, relies upon prism technology, accredited to Ignatio Porro of Italy.  He was granted a patent for it.  The prisms in a set of binoculars will magnify and reflect the light, changing its path and resulting in an “upright image” vs. the inverted one in conventional telescopes.

August 21, 2009

How gullible are fans of the paranormal?  The Skepbitch (a.k.a. Karen Stollznow) performed a stunt to find out.  In Paranormal Punk’d she explains how she wrote and submitted a bogus article on “supernatural sex” to Haunted American Tours.  Her piece reminded me of an episode of the Skeptoid podcast, in which Brian Dunning argues that scientists have a disadvantage when debating pseudoscientists, for they are limited to the facts.  Karen hilariously ventures far from anything one could call a fact.  And the ghost-loving crowd eats it up.

Other recent work by Karen includes an episode of the podcast Monstertalk, which covers the “mystery carcass” recovered by a Japanese fishing vessel and believed by some to be that of a plesiosaur.  Is it more likely a large shark?

Blog: The Skepbitch

1931

Visible light is but a single section of the electromagnetic spectrum.  Radio telescopes, also called a radio antennae, are able to collect and magnify lighwaves outside the visible range.  The first of these was built in the early 1900s.  Later versions became steerable and hence more functional.  One was developed here in the U.S. by Karl Jansky.  He built a radio telescope in Illinois with a 30+ foot metal dish (collecting reflector), mounted on a moving cradle.

August 22, 2009

Is it advisable to debate frothing lunatics?  What about the beloved-by-followers, well-scrubbed subset of advocates for supernatural magic and paranormal forces?  On the topic of debating pseudoscientists, Martin R. covers a case of just that.  The University of Lund is organizing a panel debate on . . . not plesiosaurs but something more ghostly: creationism.  In his brief post, Swedish University Lends Creationist Credibility he laments the legitimizing of illegitimate ideas.  Other recent topics include a blogmeet in Stockholm and demonic possession.

Blog: Ardvarchaeology

1941

Grote Reber made the first radio map of the sky, detecting electromagnetic waves in the radio  portion of the spectrum.  With his radio telescope, he detected incoming, invisible energy from the Sun, the Milky Way, and other “bright” sources.

August 22, 2009

Is quantum physics the new astrology — something for sloppy thinkers to project their own hopes and beliefs onto?  While pseudoscience is not limited by facts, it is also not limited by the appropriate domain of facts.  In, Woo Enthymemes #4: The Myth of Passive Observation, Bronze Dog takes a scalpel to quantum woo in the “middle world,” the scale of the supra-atomic.  Other recent topics: where science comes from and the future of human evolution.

Blog: The Bronze Blog

1975

Built nearly 35 years ago, the Very Large Array telescope in New Mexico consists of not one massive radar dish, but of 27 independently movable antennas, each with a dish 80+ feet across.  The dishes are mounted and arrayed along a number of railroad tracks.  The data from the individual dishes is combined, in effect creating a single radio telescope as large as 22 miles across.

August 24, 2009

Can bacteria learn and plan ahead?  My own contribution, The Problem of Loose-Fitting Words, criticizes the spurious use of language in the case of a science news release.  While I don’t segue into the social lives of fungi, perhaps I could have. Other recent topics addressed by me (Andrew Bernardin) include how the confirmation bias influences political opinions and the failure of prayer.

Blog: The Evolving Mind

1990

The Hubble Space Telescope is not land-based, but orbits the Earth.  It is an optical telescope (vs. radio), and has two hyperbolic mirrors, making it a reflector telescope.  With optical telescopes, the accuracy of the polishing determines the clarity of the image/data.  While good optical telescopes have mirrors polished to about a tenth of the wavelength of visible light; the Hubble’s accuracy is more in the range of about 1/65th of the wavelength.

August 26, 2009

Finally, I love philosophical questions such as this one: is math a tool used to discover and describe reality, or reality itself?  One Brow ventures into this territory.  His post, The foundations of non-skeptical thinking, is a response to a blog post on the reality of mathematics and the belief of mathematicians.  Other recent topics include discussions of evolution and how worldviews obscure reality.

Blog: Life, the Universe, and One Brow

September 10, 2009

The 119th Skeptics’ Circle, to be hosted by Cubik’s Rube.

—

Sources for historical content:

http://wikipedia.org

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/

http://edmall.gsfc.nasa.gov/aacps/news/Radio_Telescope.html

and others

Technorati Links: blog carnival, skepticism

Are those leaves? Petals? Between the vegetative lobes there are buds of small Jade blossoms. This is certainly a plant of the succulent variety, “leaves” designed to swell during times of abundant water.

Did I write designed? I meant that word in terms of the function behind the form. Plants of course evolved, none perfect in form or function for all niches. And so we’ve got species galore. What wealth for the eyes!

Technorati Links: flora

What can I say about the above photo?

I’ll leave it at awesome.

[pic thanks to NASA]

Technorati Links: cosmos