Clipmarks | haraya's 'biology' clips

Psychology, Sociology most politically correct fields

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:30:00 GMT

clipped by: jklugman
clipper's remarks:

The first thing that Simmons does in the study with the database — which covers a range of disciplines and institution types — is to identify a politically correct cohort, reflecting largely common views on a set of issues that are seen as defining political correctness. He finds a set of issues that produce this cohort.

The views are the belief that gender gaps in math and science fields are largely due to discrimination; support for affirmative action; and belief that discrimination is a key cause of racial inequities in American society. Generally, members of this cohort see race and gender as fundamental — and share that belief much more than beliefs about the curriculum or scholarship, such that the study says that “multiculturalism trumps postmodernism.”

Via Tyler Cowen

Clip Source: www.insidehighered.com

The new study, which does so, was produced by Solon Simmons, co-author of last year’s report and an assistant professor of conflict analysis and resolution at George Mason.

Discipline

Moderately Correct

Politically Incorrect

Politically Correct

Non-Committal

Psychology

15.2%

21.7%

58.7%

4.3%

Sociology

48.2%

1.8%

44.6%

5.4%

English

30.2%

18.9%

41.5%

9.4%

History

50.0%

16.7%

31.5%

1.9%

Elementary education

40.0%

28.9%

24.4%

6.7%

Communication

35.6%

31.1%

22.2%

11.1%

Nursing

41.8%

25.5%

18.2%

14.5%

Art

46.3%

17.1%

14.6%

22.0%

Business (general)

27.0%

37.8%

13.5%

21.6%

Political science

58.3%

14.6%

10.4%

16.7%

Criminal justice

63.6%

25.5%

9.1%

1.8%

Economics

32.6%

51.2%

4.7%

11.6%

Marketing

31.8%

43.2%

4.5%

20.5%

Accounting

40.0%

4.0%

16.0%

Computer science

42.4%

48.5%

3.0%

6.1%

Biology

62.7%

19.6%

2.0%

15.7%

Finance

34.3%

0.0%

31.4%

Management information

19.4%

72.2%

0.0%

8.3%

Mechanical engineering

17.6%

50.0%

0.0%

32.4%

Electrical engineering

34.1%

19.5%

0.0%

46.3%

Tags: sociology, psychology, academia, academics

Scientists say menstrual blood can repair hearts

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:26:02 GMT

clipped by: haraya

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

TOKYO (AFP) - The monthly discomfort many women see as a curse could pay off someday as Japanese researchers say menstrual blood can be used to repair heart damage.

Scientists obtained menstrual blood from nine women and cultivated it for about a month, focusing on a kind of cell that can act like stem cells.

Some 20 percent of the cells began beating spontaneously about three days after being put together in vitro with cells from the hearts of rats. The cells from menstrual blood eventually formed sheet-like heart-muscle tissue.

The success rate is 100 times higher than the 0.2-0.3 percent for stem cells taken from human bone marrow, according to Shunichiro Miyoshi, a cardiologist at Keio University's school of medicine, who is involved in the research.

Separate in-vivo experiments showed that the condition of rats who had suffered heart attacks improved after they received the cells derived from menstrual blood.

Miyoshi said women may eventually be able to use their own menstrual blood

Tags: blood, women, science, research, health, heart, cells, medicine, biology, body

The Biology of Imagination

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 08:05:08 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.entelechyjournal.com

In what sense might something as intrinsically human as the imagination be biological? How could the products of the imagination – a novel, a painting, a sonata, a theory – be thought of as the result of biological matter? After all, such artefacts are what culture is made of. So why invoke biology? In this essay, I will argue that the content of the imagination is of course determined more by culture than biology. But the capacity to imagine owes more to biology than culture.

by Simon Baron-Cohen

Tags: imagination, brain hardwiring

Face Value

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 14:06:51 GMT

clipped by: haraya
clipper's remarks: More studies at the source.

Clip Source: www.economist.com

The ugly are one of the few groups against whom it is still legal to discriminate. Unfortunately for them, there are good reasons why beauty and success go hand in hand

There is a feedback loop between biology and the social environment that gives to those who have, and takes from those who have not.

That happens because beauty is a real marker for other, underlying characteristics such as health, good genes and intelligence. It is what biologists call an unfakeable signal

That brings the beautiful opportunities denied to the ugly, which allows them to learn things and make connections that increase their value still further. If they are judged on that experience as well as their biological fitness, it makes them even more attractive. Even a small initial difference can thus be amplified into something that just ain't—viewed from the bottom—fair.

But can you really fake the unfakeable signal?

research suggests that you can but, sadly, that it is not cost-effective

Tags: perception, research, career, beauty, performance, genetics, assessment, study, society, discrimination

The new age of ignorance

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 11:35:36 GMT

clipped by: wildcat

Clip Source: observer.guardian.co.uk

It is an immutable law of nature that acute embarrassment can make a few short seconds last pretty much for ever. The longest two minutes of my life occurred in the company of James Watson, one half of the famous double act who discovered the double helix. I was interviewing Watson, then in his late seventies, at his lab in Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island. At one point, I referred blithely to the 'perfect simplicity' of his and Francis Crick's findings about the code of life.

What followed - a tangled, stuttering stream of consciousness reflecting distant O-level biology and recent half-understanding of Watson's brilliant books, punctuated with words like 'replication' and 'mutation' and meaning nothing much - gave new resonance to the notion of floundering.

Watson, resisting the temptation to laugh, correct or comment, simply moved on, having categorically established our respective levels of evolution.

Tags: science, culture, ignorance

List of German Expressions in English

Mon, 02 Jul 2007 04:14:44 GMT

clipped by: haraya

Clip Source: en.wikipedia.org

This is a list of German expressions used in English; some relatively common (e.g. hamburger), most comparatively rare. In many cases, the German borrowing in English has assumed a meaning substantially different than its German forebear.

1 German terms commonly used in English

1.1 Food and drink
1.2 Sports and recreation
1.3 Other aspects of everyday life

2 German terms common in English academic context

2.1 Academia
2.2 Architecture
2.3 Arts
- 2.3.1 Theatre
2.4 Biology
2.5 Economics
2.6 Geography
2.7 Geology
2.8 History
2.9 Linguistics
2.10 Literature
2.11 Mathematics and formal logic
2.12 Medicine
2.13 Music
2.14 Philosophy
2.15 Physical sciences
2.16 Politics
2.17 Psychology
2.18 Sociology
2.19 Theology

3 German terms mostly used for literary effect

4 German terms rarely used in English

5 Quotations

6 Music

Tags: language, english, german, list, linguistics, literature, resource, vocabulary

Save the languages, save the world

Fri, 04 May 2007 22:37:56 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: Linguistic integrity is as important to our survival as a species as environmentalism. Check out the source to see why. Many resources and information at www.terralingua.org.

Clip Source: www.terralingua.org

As with biological species, languages and cultures naturally evolve and change over time. But just as with species, the world is now undergoing a massive human-made extinction crisis of languages and cultures.

People who lose their linguistic and cultural identity may lose an essential element in a social process that commonly teaches respect for nature and understanding of the natural environment and its processes. Forcing this cultural and linguistic conversion on indigenous and other traditional peoples not only violates their human rights, but also undermines the health of the world's ecosystems and the goals of nature conservation.

Tags: linguistics, language, science, biodiversity, anthropology, biology, charity

Cats Have No Sweet Tooth

Fri, 04 May 2007 19:29:41 GMT

clipped by: haraya

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Cats are notoriously finicky eaters, as millions of pet owners can attest. Now, there's a scientific theory explaining, at least in part, why cats have such snobby eating habits: genetics.

Researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia and their collaborators said Sunday they found a dysfunctional feline gene that probably prevents cats from tasting sweets, a sensation nearly every other mammal on the planet experiences to varying degrees.

Researchers took saliva and blood samples from six cats, including a tiger and a cheetah and found each had a useless gene that other mammals use to create a �sweet receptor'' on their tongues. The gene in question does not produce one of the two vital proteins needed to form the receptors.

�Because cats can't taste sweets, they're cranky,'' joked Joseph Brand, Monell's associate director

Brand said the discovery could help veterinarians treat ill cats.

Tags: cats, food, pets, animals, genetics, sweets, taste, research, biology

City Life? It's Like Jet Lag

Sat, 03 Feb 2007 00:56:56 GMT

clipped by: haraya

Clip Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

City dwellers suffer a form of chronic jet lag that may make them more vulnerable to health problems, according to research.

The body is ruled by a "clock" that evolved to keep our metabolism in tune with the rising and setting of the sun. But because that clock is inaccurate it needs to be reset regularly to stop it drifting out of synchronisation with the day/night cycle, as occurs with shift work and aeroplane travel across time zones.

Sunlight is a key resetting stimulus to keep the body clock on track and today a major study concludes that it has less effect on city dwellers than those living in the country.

As a result, urbanites may suffer a kind of jet lag linked with decreased mental dexterity, worse memory, diminished immunity and health, as well as being placed at greater risk of accidents.

The findings appear in the journal Current Biology.

The research team concludes that changes in daylight saving time could be more disruptive than thought and that the human clock appears not to be adjustable to so-called social cues such as wristwatches. Instead, the clock is highly responsive – like that of all other animals – to natural daylight.

Tags: life, health, research, body, city, living, environment, sun, science, urban, accident, biology, travel, memory

How Sunshine Triggers Skin Repair

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 22:47:57 GMT

clipped by: haraya

Clip Source: www.newscientist.com

A blast of sunshine could help fight skin diseases and cancer by attracting immune cells to the skin surface, according to a new study.

Eugene Butcher at Stanford University in California, US, and colleagues discovered an interesting immune process in human skin. Immune cells in the skin, called dendritic cells, convert vitamin D3 (produced in exposed skin in response to sunlight) into its active form.

This “active” vitamin D3 then causes T-cells to make surface changes that allow them to migrate to the uppermost layer of the skin, Butcher’s team found. T-cells are the immune cells that destroy damaged and infected cells, and they also regulate other immune cells.

The findings explain how T-cells “know” to go to the skin's surface once the skin has suffered some sun-induced DNA-damage, the researchers say.

“Sunshine is good for you, as long as it’s not too much,” says team member Hekla Sigmundsdottir. She points out that the skin disorder psoriasis is sometimes treated with vitamin D3 creams – it may work by moving T-cells into the skin, she speculates.

The finding adds to a growing body of evidence that dendritic cells, which live in tissues that are exposed to the outside environment, such as the skin and nose, run “traffic control” for the immune system, interpreting local conditions and directing T-cells to where they are needed.

Journal reference: Nature Immunology (DOI: 10.1038/ni1433)

Tags: science, sun, biology, medicine, skin, body, cancer, sunshine, research, disease, vitamin, immune system, study, man, health, life

What is the purpose of the hymen?

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 07:57:40 GMT

clipped by: haraya

Clip Source: blog.wired.com

In a classic The Straight Dope that's being highlighted on the feature's website this month, answer man Cecil Adams claims that nobody knows. Other than making first-time sex painful, the hymen doesn't appear to have an obvious function in humans or other animals:

It occurs in horses, whales, moles, mole-rats, hyenas, and perhaps other animals. (In the great fin whale, in fact, the hymen is not completely destroyed until childbirth.) Why? We haven't got a clue. "Such adaptations [i.e., retention of the hymen] are explicable only if the male of the species finds it to his advantage to seek a virgin," Bettyann Kevles observes in Female of the Species (1986). "But there is no evidence that mammal males seek inexperienced females, and no evidence that females with this peculiar anatomical feature remain monogamous.... In whales, one can explain the resealing of the vagina as a means of keeping water out of the reproductive organs."

The Straight Dope column is from way back in 1992. Anyone know if medical science has shed any more light on the hymen since then?

Tags: science, biology, humans, hymen, sex, animals, body, organs, questions, women

Chewing Gum Drug Could Help Curb Obesity

Mon, 15 Jan 2007 14:44:06 GMT

clipped by: haraya

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

An appetite-suppressing chewing gum or injection could be used to tackle Britain's obesity epidemic. Scientists are developing a way to emulate the body's natural signals for feeling full using a drug based on a natural gut hormone produced after every meal.

It is likely to be developed as as an injectable drug, but the scientists also believe it could eventually be taken orally and incorporated into a gum, or used in a nasal spray.

"We weren't looking at a toxic drug, which has all sorts of side effects; we were looking at the body's own way of switching off appetite after a meal," said Steve Bloom, of Imperial College, who is leading work on the new treatment, based on a hormone produced by the body called pancreatic polypeptide (PP).

In Britain, more than a fifth of adults are obese and of the remaining population half of men and a third of women are classified as overweight. In early trials, volunteers' appetites were reduced by a fifth after being injected with the experimental new drug.

Drugs to tackle obesity often have unpleasant side effects. Orlastat prevents the absorption of fat but can cause vitamin deficiencies and has to be carefully administered; Sibutramine, originally developed as an antidepressant, can drive up heart rate and blood pressure; and Rimonobant, which reverses the "munchies" associated with cannabis use, can cause nausea.

Prof Bloom tested the hormone in 35 overweight volunteers who were otherwise healthy. Participants were split into two groups - one was given the hormonal jabs, the other a placebo injection. They were then asked to eat as much as they liked from a buffet meal and asked questions about how hungry they felt.

Those given the treatment felt less hungry and ate less than those who received the placebo. The effect was statistically significant, reducing the amount of food eaten by 15% to 25%.

Tags: science, medicine, drug, obesity, research, britain, body, biology, weight, health, life, food

No One Dies of Old Age

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 18:43:17 GMT

clipped by: haraya

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

There are various ways of shuffling off this mortal coil, but people actually die from injury (such as a fall or car accident) or disease (such as cancer). No one dies of old age. Usually when a person is said to have died "of old age," it means that he or she succumbed to one of the diseases common in our later years.

While many older people do suffer from health problems, disease does not automatically accompany aging, and seniors are living longer and healthier than ever. Just as youth does not guarantee good health, old age does not guarantee poor health.

It is true that living cells have a finite life span, but that doesn't mean that the organism simply dies because the cells are old. Instead, genetic mutations, diseases, and damaging effects of the environment can foster a specific disorder or disease. As people get older, their cells simply don't work as well, and can't stave off disease as easily or heal as well as they once could. As a result, older people may die from injuries or diseases that a younger person would easily survive. But nothing dies from simply being old.

Tags: science, biology, man, environment, medicine, life, health, death, age, body, life span

20 Most Popular Myths in Science

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 18:30:05 GMT

clipped by: haraya

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

1. Chickens can live without a head

Average Rating: 3.6

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2. Water drains backwards in the Southern Hemisphere due to the Earth's rotation

Average Rating: 3.5

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3. There is no gravity in space

Average Rating: 3.5

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4. Humans use only 10 percent of their brains

Average Rating: 3.5

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5. Eating a poppy seed bagel mimics opium use

Average Rating: 3.5

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6. A penny dropped from the top of a tall building could kill a pedestrian

Average Rating: 3.5

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7. Adults don't grow new brain cells

Average Rating: 3.4

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8. Chicken soup can cure the common cold

Average Rating: 3.4

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9. Yawning is "contagious"

Average Rating: 3.4

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10. Lightning never strikes the same place twice

Average Rating: 3.4

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11. A dog's mouth is cleaner than a human's

Average Rating: 3.3

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12. Hair and fingernails continue growing after death

Average Rating: 3.3

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13. A falling cat will always land on its feet

Average Rating: 3.3

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14. Men think about sex every seven seconds

Average Rating: 3.3

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15. You get less wet by running in the rain

Average Rating: 3.3

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16. The five second rule

Average Rating: 3.2

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17. Animals can predict natural disasters

Average Rating: 3.2

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18. Seasons are caused by the Earth's proximity to the sun

Average Rating: 3.2

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19. The Great Wall of China is the only manmade structure visible from space

Average Rating: 3.1

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20. It takes seven years to digest gum

Average Rating: 2.9

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Tags: science, myths, truth, biology, astronomy, health, physics, perception, knowledge, list, lists

Why Are Women Less Resistant to Alcohol?

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 15:23:50 GMT

clipped by: haraya

Clip Source: news.softpedia.com

Hey man, is your soul mate already in an alcoholic comma after drinking two beers?

There's no wonder: many studies point to the fact that women are more vulnerable to the harmful effects of alcohol. It is estimated that of the 15.1 million alcohol-abusing or alcohol-dependent individuals in the United States, approximately 4.6 million (nearly one-third) are women.

On the whole, women who drink consume less alcohol and have fewer alcohol-related problems and dependence symptoms than men, yet among the heaviest drinkers, women equal or surpass men in the number of problems

that result from their drinking.

That's because alcohol attacks more easily female liver, heart, brain and other organs. For example, the minimum alcohol level needed to trigger cirrhosis in a woman's liver is two-three times smaller than for a man.

There are many hypotheses trying to explain this disadvantage. One says that this is due to the smaller size of the female body and, moreover, to the fact that they have a tendency to store more fat tissue. Alcohol is dispersed in the water from the body. The more water available, the more diluted the alcohol.

Pound for pound, women have less water in their bodies than men, so a woman’s organs are exposed to more alcohol before it is broken down. The fat tissue complicates the converting of alcohol in fats (lipids) and, this way, dilutes the ingested booze.

A third factor was found in the woman's stomach. Researchers at Bronx VA Medical Center, New York, found that the enzymes that attack the alcohol - before this passes into the bloodstream - have a lower performance in women.

In case of alcoholic drinks abuse, the alcohol level in their bloodstream is higher and, as a result, the risk of suffering its toxic effects increases.

Tags: science, health, alcohol, women, drinking, research, biology, medicine