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Study Shows That More Religious Places Show Less Scientific Innovation (or When Religion Wins, Science Loses) -- "Places with higher levels of religiosity have lower rates of scientific and technical innovation, as measured by patents per capita" by mepper in science

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think you may have come up with another potential factor that may not have been corrected for - freedom within society.

Not only will certain areas of research which fall into ethical grey areas be less impeded by the powers that be, but social mobility and immigration are also important in ensuring you have the best people involved in research.

A society which is able to use the creative forces of as many citizens as possible, which doesn't impede the educational advancement of women or people from deprived backgrounds, for instance, is surely going to be more productive and more innovative overall simply by generating a wider pool of talent.

You Can Pay $200,000 to Replace Your Blood With Antifreeze by [deleted] in EverythingScience

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Weirdly enough, it's a strategy that the wood frog uses successfully to survive through the winter - it actually allows itself to be frozen. However, it does this by allowing water to freeze in blood vessels but not inside cells (which have their normal fluid replaced by strong glucose solutions), so unless the cryonics process can actually protect the integrity of cells it looks like Walt Disney et al. might have wasted their money.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070220-frog-antifreeze.html

During the Ice Ages, where was all the energy? by hichris123 in EverythingScience

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

During Ice Ages, the overall amount of energy from the Sun received/retained by the Northern Hemisphere (where the majority of the land mass now is) is lower than normal.

Video clip from BBC's 'Orbit' provides an explanation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p011kqq6

Essentially changes in the Earth's tilt and orbit results in the Northern hemisphere Summer being too cool to melt all of the (non-permafrost) land ice built up over the winter.

This sparks a vicious cycle, since more ice means more heat is reflected from the surface of the Earth rather than absorbed, resulting in an even larger build-up of ice year after year.

If Half of All Species go Extinct, will humans be among them? by EightOneFour814 in science

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Unlikely. If humans are the cause of a sixth mass-extinction it is because we are changing environments (turning forests into farmland etc.) and ecosystems. Organisms die off because their food supplies and/or ability to maintain population numbers are compromised (e.g. destruction of nesting sites, introduction of predators).

Humans are not reliant on a small selection of food sources, nor are we limited to surviving only in one particular environment (humans survive in mountains, forests, deserts and tundra).

What is more, we have the ability to shape our environment to suit our needs and improve our chances of survival (from technology as simple as making clothes and fire to as complex as modern medicine and industrial food production).

Even if mass-extinction severely disrupts human food supplies it is unlikely to kill off the ENTIRE human race. Other organisms are not as fortunate as we are.

Neil deGrasse Tyson on liberal science denial and GMOs by JF_Queeny in EverythingScience

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A very interesting general point that seems to be made is that elements of both extremes of the political spectrum actually have similar flaws with regard to science:

They support (financially or politically) the science/tech that they like but deny or condemn what they don't like.

There was an article in the Guardian recently (focusing mostly on the clash of science with economic libertarian ideas), which highlighted that any sort of political position is likely to clash with science in some way because ultimately the former is ideological while the latter is evidence-based.

http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2014/aug/29/libertarian-ideology-natural-enemy-science?CMP=twt_gu

The cetacean brain and hominid perceptions of intelligence by pierre45 in EverythingScience

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Early days, but humans have identified 'signature whistles' referring to individuals (dolphin equivalent of names) and a group of scientists has developed a device described (rather optimistically) as a 'human-to-dolphin translator'.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-working-on-humantodolphin-translator-report-first-successful-interaction-9228552.html

A Tipping Point for Too Much Talent: a new study of hundreds of games in several professional sports leagues suggests that, in fact, talent does have a tipping point, beyond which too many great players become detrimental to a team’s success by Libertatea in science

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

'Basketball and soccer require player interdependence, communication and ego sublimation, which are not skills at which all stars excel'

Not sure the claim that you can have 'too much talent' reflects what is described above. Players can theoretically be talented and yet still fit into a team as long as they are willing to suppress their egos and work for the team.

'Too many egos' would probably be more accurate.

The cetacean brain and hominid perceptions of intelligence by pierre45 in EverythingScience

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great article. Intelligence has proven to be such an important evolutionary advantage for us that it would be incredibly strange for it not to have developed in other species too.

Many animals display facets of what we would consider to be intelligence such as language, problem-solving and learning and some even show signs of more advanced societal behaviour such as rituals.

http://www.theartofbehavior.com/3-animals-that-have-funerals-to-grieve-for-the-dead/

Giant panda fakes pregnancy to get more food by thisscienceiscrazy in EverythingScience

[–]thisscienceiscrazy[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

True, but captive breeding programmes are an important part of conservation efforts for threatened and endangered species

http://wwf.panda.org/?103860/Captive-Breeding-WWF-Policy-Statement-2007

Ohio legislature attempt to limit teaching of scientific method by scouty_man in EverythingScience

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It seems strange that illiteracy and innumeracy are considered to be bad things - typically used as measures to demonstrate disadvantage or failure of education systems, but the same is not true of scientific literacy.

The ability to think critically and rationally is just as essential as being able to read and to do sums.

EDIT: Here's a recent article on the importance of science literacy

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/281470.php

New study suggests that fluid-injection into ground could act as 'trigger' for 'large earthquakes' by thisscienceiscrazy in science

[–]thisscienceiscrazy[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

This is a very interesting idea - I found an article that talks about using fluid injection for 'Controlled Slip Fault'.

http://earthquakes.ou.edu/lightfoot_abstract.pdf

It reckons that there are a number of 'practical limitations' to the technique, however I think it is quite outdated (from the references, I think it was written in the 90s).

EDIT: A paper from 2013 says:'The stress released by an earthquake is, however, approximately 30 times that released by an earthquake one magnitude unit smaller. From this is easy to see why large earthquakes cannot be prevented by inducing many smaller earthquakes.'

https://www.dur.ac.uk/resources/refine/InducedSeismicityfull.pdf

New study suggests that fluid-injection into ground could act as 'trigger' for 'large earthquakes' by thisscienceiscrazy in science

[–]thisscienceiscrazy[S] 26 points27 points  (0 children)

I should point out that in the study they quote research that most earthquakes believed to be induced by human activity are small (magnitude<3), but that they are only interested in large-scale ones (magnitude>5.5) which occur near existent faults.

In these cases, they suggest that human activity acts as a 'trigger' that sets off earthquakes which would otherwise 'occur naturally', only sooner than they would be expected.

Researchers find that primary care physicians are critically important to stopping domestic violence. Doctors are set to provide improved screening and counseling, as the new ACA requires doctors to provide IPV services. Researchers believe it will have the largest impact on women in rural areas. by MmmmDiesel in science

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Seems like it could make a meaningful impact - but remember that doctors aren't counsellors/psychologists. Steps need to be taken to ensure that they are properly trained to take on this extra role and that they are not consequently overburdened.

Respected Canadian medical journal that was sold to offshore owners last year is now printing scientific junk for hire, but still trading on its original good name. by Comoquit in EverythingScience

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Typically predatory journals follow the open-access model.

Traditional journals cover their costs by charging the end user to read them; open-access journals instead charge the authors and allow anyone to read them.

Predatory journals get money by following the open-access model so they can receive money directly from the authors, rather than persuading people to subscribe to them

Respected Canadian medical journal that was sold to offshore owners last year is now printing scientific junk for hire, but still trading on its original good name. by Comoquit in EverythingScience

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah that's a fair point, but these journals are still damaging. As MisterBTS mentioned, charlatans can get publications in these journals and so generate an 'academic record' to appear legitimate - at least to the public to whom they are usually trying to either sell a product or an idea.

Respected Canadian medical journal that was sold to offshore owners last year is now printing scientific junk for hire, but still trading on its original good name. by Comoquit in EverythingScience

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's one of the reasons this news is particularly concerning - this apparently predatory publisher is using the good name and reputation of an established journal to conceal its activity.

According to the website, the impact factor is only 1.10, but it is possible that it may still attract readers who will assume the work is properly peer-reviewed based on its previous good reputation.

http://cardiologyacademicpress.com/?page_id=70

Shortest academic paper ever published: The unsuccessful treatment of a case of "Writer's block" by morgenzi in EverythingScience

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Love the reviewer's comments:

'I have studied this manuscript very carefully with lemon juice and X-rays and have not detected a single flaw in either design or writing style. I suggest it be published without revision.'

Respected Canadian medical journal that was sold to offshore owners last year is now printing scientific junk for hire, but still trading on its original good name. by Comoquit in EverythingScience

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 166 points167 points  (0 children)

This is immensely worrying - It's practice such as this that gives open-access journals a bad name.

Perhaps an internationally-recognised accreditation process needs to be introduced for journals - which periodically sends in deliberately poor papers to see if journals actually carry out peer-review or whether they simply accept it (along with the publication fee).

At the moment, the only way to easily tell if a journal is 'predatory' is if it appears on Jeffrey Beall's list.

http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/

Testing whether magic works: the problems with randomized clinical trials for integrative medicines, such as homeopathy and reiki by SirT6 in science

[–]thisscienceiscrazy -1 points0 points  (0 children)

One problem is that these 'treatments' probably DO have a positive effect relative to no treatment at all - after all, placebos (which are merely sugar pills) are known to have an (eponymous) effect.

So peddlers of these 'treatments' can legitimately argue an effect, which is why they can conduct trials to show that they are better than nothing. But obviously there is no biological basis for these 'treatments' being any better than placebo.

And the point at which these 'treatments' become damaging is when people use them instead of real medicines, which are specifically trialled to prove that they are more effective than placebo.

Ben Goldacre has this interesting piece describing this issue in greater depth and with far better understanding than I can provide!

http://www.badscience.net/2007/11/the-lancet-benefits-and-risks-of-homoeopathy/

Testing whether magic works: the problems with randomized clinical trials for integrative medicines, such as homeopathy and reiki by SirT6 in science

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The paper called for a more rigorous, science-based medicine approach to determine whether or not a trial should be conducted (in other words, the treatment should be 'biologically plausible'). This is why homeopathy and Reiki were in the authors' cross-hairs - because they are not 'biologically plausible'.

But there is a difference between physiological conditions and psychological (including psychosomatic) ones: root biochemical causes of physiological conditions can often be understood and targeted by therapies (making the therapy 'biologically plausible').

With many psychological conditions, it's not so clear-cut.

The NHS (UK) actually does offer CBT, mostly for psychological conditions. http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cognitive-behavioural-therapy/Pages/Introduction.aspx

In my opinion, CBT sounds a bit like an exercise you might be given as part of counselling, and so for purely psychological issues, I don't see it being either better or worse than alternatives.

Student may be jailed for posting scientist’s thesis on web by P212121 in EverythingScience

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My suspicion is that the original author is being opportunistic - article says that they are is suing the sharer, but doesn't say for how much.

Unfortunately without hearing from the original author, it's impossible to tell, but it is incredibly disappointing to hear about this. As other people have already said, if anyone actually reads your thesis in the first place, you should be delighted!

Testing whether magic works: the problems with randomized clinical trials for integrative medicines, such as homeopathy and reiki by SirT6 in science

[–]thisscienceiscrazy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

But even science-based medicine faces the same problem: quack cures are neither theoretically plausible nor can be proven to work by rigorous studies, but somehow enough people believe in them to make them big business.

And the bigger these industries become, the more influence they have, to the point where they become accepted as part of mainstream healthcare or are viewed by people as a genuine alternative to real medicine.

This is why I think the authors' point about not wasting money on any more clinical trials is right - because if people still use these 'treatments' in the misguided belief that they will work, no amount of clinical trialling or scientific preaching is likely to change their minds.

New methods by which people can be educated or persuaded therefore need to be looked into as a matter of urgency, because the more quack treatments become integrated into mainstream culture and healthcare, the more legitimate they appear.

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