Despite being one of psychology's most memorable concepts and a genuinely good idea, Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, immortalized in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" and later Motivation and Personality, needs a makeover, say some researchers.
Maslow's hierarchy says humans will fulfill basic needs before moving on to higher level ones. If you're unemployed and losing your house because fuzzy 'jobs saved or created' statistics have no real value to you, for example, global warming will not be your biggest concern.
A long time ago (≈1975) I was involved in establishing a world standard for the measurement of the Optical Transfer Function (OTF). It is better known as its modulus, the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF). The OTF combines the MTF with the Phase Transfer Function (PTF). The OTF is a two dimensional Fourier transform of the Point Spread Function (PTF). Thus, it is a two dimensional frequency characteristic used for qualifying imaging devices and chains of imaging devices.
Since the image of a point contains very little energy, the OTF is measured by analyzing the Line Spread Function (LSF).
Education experts are going to have input into a 'classroom of the future' at a forthcoming summit in Bahrain.
Much of the predicted future of neurotechnology is grounded in the continuing success and development of nanotechnology. This field is broad, for sure, and is even a primary target of the US Federal Government (see the NNI).
Researchers at Edinburgh Napier’s Biofuel Research Centre have done something unthinkable - they have used Scotch to fuel cars instead of violence-filled weekends.
Well, not Scotch specifically, rather
whisky manufacturing waste from Glenkinchie Distillery (The Edinburgh Malt). Whew, the culture dodged a bullet there. But it's also a good idea. Scotch is a $5.5 billion industry in Scotland and Edinburgh Napier hit on the idea that whisky by-products could be an excellent resource for developing biobutanol, a next-generation biofuel with 30% more output power than ethanol. To understand how it works, you need a quick primer on whisky.
It may surprise those who know of my Ulster Protestant background that I am something of a fan of Flannery O’Connor. As yet, I have not delved into her novels, but I have read all her stories, and also Mystery and Manners : Occasional Prose, from which I take the following
Semantic: "of, pertaining to, or arising from the different meanings of words or other symbols: semantic change; semantic confusion."
Pedantic: "overly concerned with minute details or formalisms, esp. in teaching."
Being still in the middle of a rather long vacation (now in the Italian eastern alps), my blogging power is limited. So today I will just offer you some thoughts on the recent measurements of a fundamental parameter of the Standard Model called "W boson width".
The W boson, like any unstable subatomic particle, has a very short lifetime, which depends on the strength of its couplings to lighter particles, on its own mass (generally the heavier a particle is, the faster is its disintegration), and on the availability of lighter bodies into which to decay without breaking any fundamental rule.
'Zombies', most famous from Haitian folklore, have actually been witnessed in nature and a new fossil study has them extending back 48 million years.
This sort of zombie control happens when a parasite takes control of its host and many types of animals are susceptible to the often deadly body invasion, but scientists have been trying to track down when and where such parasites evolved. A molecular clock approach can be used to estimate where and when they developed and fossils are an important source of information to calibrate such clocks.
Does money make you happy? Economists think so - the concept of 'utility' assumes that economic activity represents people consuming in ways that best supports their happiness. And yet, high sales of Backstreet Boys CDs prove that this cannot be true. What's going on here?
Happiness is a difficult thing to study scientifically
