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Intelligence Made Simple

Intelligence Made Simple

Mar 28 2009 | comment(s)

Intelligence Made Simple
Part #1 of 2

What is Intelligence?

I intend to show how intelligence is best understood by getting well away from ideas based on human intelligence. I shall work from humans down to primitive life-forms and then the atom itself.  I hope to demonstrate a useful definition of intelligence, but there are some essential underlying ideas that need to be discussed first.

I shall start by turning the question around. The question to be answered now is:

What is Stupidity?
The Science Of Baseball: Coefficients And Happy Haitians

The Science Of Baseball: Coefficients And Happy Haitians

Mar 28 2009 | comment(s)

Important business has taken me out of sunny California and across the country to the slightly warmer March days of Florida; baseball spring training.

I maintain an affection for spring training even though I no longer live in a winter climate where a few days of sunshine after 5 months of cold can truly be appreciated.    But I spent my childhood in Florida, in a baseball haven aptly called Dodgertown, so cold climate or not baseball in spring is a necessary ritual.   It gives me a reminder I haven't seen my family in a year and spring baseball is somehow both better and worse than regular season baseball, when it becomes more of a business and obviously played by the best of the best.
Pantheon Astronomy II (Sometimes you can be too accurate)

Pantheon Astronomy II (Sometimes you can be too accurate)

Mar 28 2009 | comment(s)

I'm kicking myself for not linking to Judith Weingarten's blog post, Time Gazing at the Pantheon in Rome yesterday. It's good explanation of how the Emperor could have used the Pantheon and it's readably short. The only quibble I have is the use of the word sundial. Sundials come in all sorts of shapes, but some shapes are much better suited to being a sundial than others. In the case of the Pantheon in Rome, it's staggeringly well suited to being a sundial. If you wanted to easily create an accurate timekeeper then the Pantheon is the sort of thing you'd want.
Light In The Pantheon And Ancient Astronomy

Light In The Pantheon And Ancient Astronomy

Mar 28 2009 | comment(s)

A while back there was a news story that the Pantheon may have been constructed to create a special effect in the sunlight at the equinoxes. I'm slow in reacting because I've read the book where the claim appears, and I've been taking time to try and track down one or two other ideas regarding the Pantheon. The story is based on a chapter from a new book Time in Antiquity by Robert Hannah, and it's a great example of how thinking about ancient astronomy has gently expanded over the past decade.
Freakish Find Excites Scientists

Freakish Find Excites Scientists

Mar 27 2009 | comment(s)

Scientists from Sweden’s Uppsala University have pieced together a bizarre marine predator who trolled the seas some 505-million years ago. Hurdia, an extinct species of anomalocaridid, had a giant head, protruding hollow spike-shaped head shield and spiny claws for capturing prey. Bits and pieces of Hurdia have shown up in museums all over the world. Until now, much like their more robust cousin, Anomalocaris, they’ve been left unidentified or wildly mislabeled.
Creationist Code Words Voted Down In Texas

Creationist Code Words Voted Down In Texas

Mar 27 2009 | comment(s)


Creationists have put us into a bizarre, alternate universe, at least when it comes to curriculum design. Their latest attempt to undermine science education involves inserting the code words 'strengths and weaknesses' into the public school science standards. The idea is that, whenever something religious fundamentalists find controversial crops up in science class, teachers have to teach the "strengths and weaknesses" of that particular topic. Fortunately, this creationist code has just been kept out of the Texas state science standards, but you can bet the code is going to crop up again at some point.

It's worth taking a moment to think about how whacked this whole debate over strengths and weaknesses has become.
The Egg: Fountain Of Youth For Sperm

The Egg: Fountain Of Youth For Sperm

Mar 27 2009 | comment(s)

Botox and face lifts only give the appearance that you've turned back the clock, and although expensive procedural looks are deceiving, your telomeres don't lie.  As your cells divide, telomeres become shorter, eventually leading to cell death over time. 

Unfortunately, scientists are far from curing this universal "disease" known as aging.  However, understanding the mechanisms of aging will have a more immediate impact on the development of stem cell therapies, and researchers at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have discovered that the female egg is capable of reversing this telomere molecular clock.
Science Citation Classic: Beadle And Tatum

Science Citation Classic: Beadle And Tatum

Mar 27 2009 | comment(s)

Behind every major scientific effort is a story. Beadle and Tatum's story is one of persistence. They began with a hypothesis: each gene causes the production of a single enzyme, and that enzyme catalyzes a biochemical reaction within an organism.

The seeds of this hypothesis were spawned by Sir Archibald Garrod, who reported in 1909 that alkaptonuria - an inherited condition in which the urine is colored dark red by the chemical alkapton - results from a single recessive gene, which causes a deficiency in the enzyme that normally breaks down alkapton.
Could The Story of Cain & Abel Be The Story of The Genocide of Neanderthals?

Could The Story of Cain & Abel Be The Story of The Genocide of Neanderthals?

Mar 27 2009 | comment(s)

A couple of years back I read a theory in Charles Pellegrino's book "Ghosts of Vesuvius" that has fascinated me since, that the Biblical story of Cain and Abel is an echo of the genocide of Neanderthals by Homo sapiens.

It is known that Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens lived around the same time.  Doesn’t it only seem reasonable that this story may be the story, passed down from fireside to fireside, of the end of neanderthals?
Earth Hour 2009

Earth Hour 2009

Mar 27 2009 | comment(s)

This Saturday night, a global effort is set to take place to promote energy conservation – the 3rd annual Earth Hour. To join in on the effort, simply turn off your lights from 8:30 – 9:30pm in your local time zone. This worldwide effort is designed to demonstrate that each person has a choice in their energy consumption - and at any time can simply choose to use less.

Turning off your lights is an easy way to reduce your energy usage, as well as reduce your energy bill. But as with many things, it’s always more fun to do it with friends. So 8:30-9:30pm on March 28th 2009 has been designated as the specific time when people and cities around the world will dim their lights to show their acknowledgement that sometimes little actions can have big impacts.
Conflicts Over Conflict Of Interest - JAMA Versus Dr. Leo

Conflicts Over Conflict Of Interest - JAMA Versus Dr. Leo

Mar 27 2009 | comment(s)

The Alliance For Human Research Protection, a non-profit advocacy group for responsible and ethical medical research practices, has called for the suspension of JAMA editor-in-chief Catherine DeAngelis and exec deputy editor Phil Fontanarosa, and for an an investigation into allegations that they threatened a researcher who criticized a study published in the journal, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Serendipitous Jupiter

Serendipitous Jupiter

Mar 27 2009 | comment(s)

I'm putting the finishing touches to a GUI when the red light starts flashing. The voice comes over the PA from ops, "Warning, Jupiter hoving to view". We quickly drop our work and run across the metal crosswalk that separates us from the STEREO operations bunker. Inside, against the din of the klaxon, we see the massive bulk of Jupiter crowding the leftmost of the main displays. STEREO B was in danger!


And here is the result from our STEREO website. Jupiter seen by STEREO COR1 Okay, I made up the bit about the red light and the klaxons. And after this brief science break, I'll even bring in some irony.

A Theory of Time - Part Two

A Theory of Time - Part Two

Mar 26 2009 | comment(s)

Part 1, which begins our examination of the question 'what is time?' can be viewed here.
Part 2 Some travels through time.

This is a slightly whimsical interlude, presented as a break from the 'hard' stuff.

The first part of what follows is a speculation about a journey back through time. 
At some point in this fiction-science journey, fact begins to creep in.

"the end of our exploring,
Will be to arrive where we started,
And know the place for the first time."
TS Eliot, 'Little Gidding'

A Brief Journey Through Time
The Secret Life of Brewer's Yeast

The Secret Life of Brewer's Yeast

Mar 26 2009 | comment(s)

Some fun with microscopes and fluorescent proteins: in the image below, you can watch what brewer's yeast does with its DNA as it reproduces itself. This is the microbe that ferments your beer and wine, and makes your bread rise.




Diabetes TV - the new reality show?

Diabetes TV - the new reality show?

Mar 26 2009 | comment(s)

Can a TV show about disease management educate people who don't take their meds? Or does it just help sell expensive gadgets to motivated patients who are already doing better than most?
Exercise Reduces Migraine Suffering - Study

Exercise Reduces Migraine Suffering - Study

Mar 26 2009 | comment(s)

While physical exercise has been shown to trigger migraine headaches among sufferers, a new study describes an exercise program that is well tolerated by patients. The findings show that the program decreased the frequency of headaches and improved quality of life. The study is published in Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain.

The study used a sample of migraine sufferers who were examined before, during and after an aerobic exercise intervention. The program was based on indoor cycling (for continuous aerobic exercise) and was designed to improve maximal oxygen uptake without worsening the patients' migraines.

Eden unearthed?

Eden unearthed?

Mar 26 2009 | comment(s)


May I pass on to you all the following link to an article







Do these mysterious stones mark the site of Garden of Eden?


which refers to archeological disoveries at Göbekli Tepe in Turkey.  Condensed, it says that the religious significance of the place, ca 10,000 BC, caused people to gather there and develop agriculture. Memory of the rigours of agriculture, and the resulting ecological crash, is preserved in the early chapters of Genesis. 
Sea Level Change and Semi-Buoyant Ice.

Sea Level Change and Semi-Buoyant Ice.

Mar 26 2009 | comment(s)

It is commonly held that if floating ice melts, then it makes no difference to sea levels.

This is true only of free-floating ice.

When a sheet of ice is attached to  land, basic principles of mechanics show that the weight is partially supported by that land.  A sheet of ice attached to land is a semi-cantilever. 
A cantilever is a beam supported at one end only.
Life’s Beginnings: Hypotheses And Plausibility

Life’s Beginnings: Hypotheses And Plausibility

Mar 26 2009 | comment(s)

    One of the earliest scientific speculations about the origin of life was Alexander Oparin’s proposal in 1924 that life began as jelly-like blobs he called coacervates. Oparin knew that the unit of life was the cell, but it had not yet been established that cells had membranous boundaries,  so coacervates were thought to be reasonable experimental models of the “protoplasm” that seemed to compose all cells.  Oparin also discussed conditions on the early Earth as part of the story, setting the stage for what would later become astrobiology.

Evolution Is Still Alive And Well

Evolution Is Still Alive And Well

Mar 26 2009 | comment(s)

30 Days of Evolution Blogging - The Finish Line

Show Me The Science Month Day 30 Installment 30