the evolving mind

Yesterday I read a fantastic news release about a recent scientific discovery. The piece pleased me in two ways: for the wonder/curiosity it evoked in me, and for the exemplary way it illustrated how science is a cognitively cautious, rational endeavor.

1. The finding -

University of Missouri researchers have developed a pupil response test that is 92.5 percent accurate in separating children with autism from those with typical development. In the study, MU scientists found that children with autism have slower pupil responses to light change. [source]

Is that cool, or what?! People with autism show slower pupil response to light. Wild.

2. The scientific attitude -

Study author Gang Yao says this about the research:

“There are several potential mechanisms currently under study,” Yao said. “If these results are successfully validated in a larger population, PLR response might be developed into a biomarker that could have clinical implications in early screening for risks of autism.

That is science for you. First, the “potential mechanisms” bit. Not only does knowing potential naturalistic mechanisms make a hypothesis/finding more plausible, but it also expresses the necessarily reductionistic attitude of science. Beyond the what of the universe we want to understand the how. What are all the variables (components) involved and how do they interact to cause what we observe?

Second, “If these results are successfully validated.” Bravo! Yes, if. Then we can be much more confident. When you are careful in your data-gathering and thinking, you are less likely to make mistakes and hold mistaken ideas.

Technorati Links: autism, critical thinking

The above photo is of a very important matter. Maybe not to you. Maybe not to you right now. But it is important.

How could you not be concerned about the nature of the “big house” you live in?

—

[photo thanks to NASA]

Technorati Links: cosmos, NASA

How can you not guffaw over this headline from the Onion? – Super Monkey Collider Loses Funding

The collider, which was to be built within a 45-mile-long circular tunnel, would accelerate monkeys to near-light speeds before smashing them together. Scientists insist the collider is an important step toward understanding the universe, because no one can yet say for certain what kind of noises monkeys would make if collided at those high speeds.

Damn. Without the SMC how are we to determine what fundamental elements of monkeys exist within us?

Technorati Links: humor, psychology

Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination, bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with devotion. – Bhagavad Gita (83)

Why do believers praise their god? To please it and assure favorable treatment. And to assure it’s status — by way of their elevating words. (84)

“Bhagavad Gita,” by the way, means Song of the Blessed One. This Vedic book was composed between the 5th – 2nd centuries BCE.

To sing to a blessed one is to praise it. Invisible entities are praised via complimentary words spoken, chanted, and sung in a pleasing manner, or at least non-threateningly. Song in particular highlights the emotional element of language. And that element frequently most directly manifests an attitude of deference. To a greater.

Some songs of praise unambiguously transmit an emotional message that might be worded this way: Have mercy, be good to us. Like a nest full of hungry baby birds, mouths open, humans chirp in unison, Bless us, bless us, please continue to bless us!

Other religious songs can give the impression that the singers view themselves as a pack of individuals readying themselves for a unified offensive against the opposition, like dogs howling in unison as they chase a quarry. Let’s go! Let’s spread the word of your power. Let’s battle the unbelievers.

In either case, Walter Burkert’s inference applies: “Praise serves to stabilize the system of rank and power.” (85) For system read “social group with an overt and/or implicit power structure.”

I have observed, first-hand, religion’s hierarchy-speak numerous times over the years. The most recent occasion was a funeral for one of my wife’s co-workers. The opening hymn was “How Great Though Art.” And no, they people weren’t singing about the recently deceased, but about the invisible entity they believed controlled the fate of the beloved member of their group.

This behavior isn’t new. In fact, it is ancient.

Continue Reading »

Technorati Links: belief, religion, status

The good news: a new clue in the case of the evolution of human language has been discovered. The bad: It’s less like a full-bodied suspect with blood on her hands, more like a solitary fingerprint on a doorknob.

An article published yesterday in the online journal Nature shared findings about this clue: A specific gene that differs in humans and chimpanzees.

The research demonstrates that mutations believed to be important to FOXP2′s evolution in humans change how the gene functions, resulting in different gene targets being switched on or off in human and chimp brains. [source]

Okay, it’s just a clue, and maybe not a sexy one at that. But the bulk of the work scientists do is like this. Laying the groundwork for the big breakthrough.

What lead did the investigators follow? It seems that when mutated, the FOXP2 gene causes disrupted speech in humans.

There are many mysteries about human evolution still to be solved: The why/how of bipedalism, the origin of language (tied to tool use and physical gesturing or a relatively mere elaboration of guttural barks?), etc. For those who love mysteries, who welcome the state of being puzzled but not clue-less, it’s a good thing. I pity the citizens of an imaged far-distance future who know everything. How boring that would be.

Technorati Links: evolution, language

It rained last night. And now it is gray and soggy outside. The temperature is 76 degrees. I know this because I just downloaded software to provide up-to-date weather information. Which is kindof’ weird. It is 76 degrees out. I’m inside and could instantaneously “check the weather” I am looking at were it not for a sheet of glass between me and it. And so the end-around via Internet powered software.

What a strange world. When you think about it, glass itself is pretty strange. It goes from hot liquid into sheets of solid yet see-through substance. I can’t reach through it, but photons can penetrate it unmolested, and thus the clear vision. Weird.

Is glass a liquid that holds a frozen form at room temperature? I’m glad water doesn’t freeze at such high temperatures. I’d hate to have eat ice to quench my thirst. (Wink, wink.)

Technorati Links: photography, physics

Any observer of nature will have noticed that many of the males are so colorfully “dressed” they seem ready to enter a gay pride parade. Or something. It was originally assumed that males do this largely to impress the ladies. And maybe by broadcasting their extreme manliness, to scare off competing males.

Recent research has discovered another reason for the secondary sexual characteristics that result in bright male coloration and exaggerated physical traits. And, surprise, it is not about sexual selection, about signaling health and fertility to the opposite sex. Rather, there is some male-to-male signaling going on. But here’s the wonderfully strange and new element: It seems by being brightly colored, males of one species are sending signals to males of another species.

Huh? But wait, before you conclude something kinky is going on, check out what researchers Gregory Grether and Christopher Anderson concluded from their study:

We found that male Hetaerina damselflies use species differences in wing coloration to distinguish between intruders of their own species and intruders of other damselfly species, but only at sites where the two species naturally occur together,” he said. “This provides one of the clearest demonstrations yet of an evolutionary process that is probably very prevalent in nature but which has largely been overlooked.

Well that make sense. A male wouldn’t want to waste its time and energy fighting off another male of a different species. For that male poses no real threat to its sexual reproduction.

Will their finding hold up for other species? The authors speculate about birds -

The cost of attacking the wrong type of male and of being attacked by the wrong type of male favors the rich diversity of coloration and of birdsong and chemical cues, such as odors, to identify rivals.

Makes sense. But is it true? Stay tuned. Thanks to science, we may soon find out.

Technorati Links: biology, evolution

Hmm. The above image from a digital microscope suggests the flow of a liquid. But those lines are too clean to have occurred naturally. Right?

What is it?

Hints: Magnification is x60 & if you choose to phone a friend for an answer, you just might encounter it. Answer below the fold.

Continue Reading »

Technorati Links: microscope, puzzle

Genetic influences play a mammoth role in human behavior. Put bluntly, no genes, no behavior. In the very least, genes provide the biological foundation for the environment to nurture and shape.

Two studies on social behavior, published earlier this most recent half-year, independently show that while we may come into the world ready to “get along” with others, our social settings and experiences play a role in how well we do.

1. Harriet Over and Malinda Carpenter of the Max Planck Institute found that 18 month-old children could be primed to behave more prosocially (offer help to an adult who dropped an object) simply by first observing a scene in which two dolls sat facing one another, versus facing away. Fascinating. [source]

2. In a statistical study using data on neighboring social groups, researchers at the University of California Davis found that shared culture better accounted for differences in altruistic behavior than did genes. Not surprising, but interesting nonetheless. [source]

As a person with a largely humanistic worldview, my general thoughts on the matter are, “Well, yes, we are all human. We all are born with an interest in and ability for forming harmonious, mutually beneficial, social relationships.” Certainly, there is a significant amount of difference in terms of how interested and able specific individuals may become. But our native propensities can certainly be encouraged or discouraged by our social environment and learning experiences.

Technorati Links: humanism, psychology

To call secular humanism just another religion is akin to calling a bicycle just another automobile. Oh sure, the two may have some common elements. But the most crucial, defining element is missing.

In the case of the bicycle — yes, it, too, has wheels. But without an engine you can’t call it an automobile.

In the case of secular humanism — yes, there are shared beliefs and values among humanists, however loosely so. And they sometimes gather together as a community. But lacking a supernatural element you can’t really call it a religion.

And speaking of humanism, the 45th Edition of the Humanist Symposium has been posted. I wonder — when I read the round-up of posts, will I find evidence of anything more than wheels?

Technorati Links: blogs, humanism