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Quantitative Reasoning In Babies: They Count Long Before They Talk

Quantitative Reasoning In Babies: They Count Long Before They Talk

Jun 15 2010 | comment(s)

Babies can grasp information about numbers, space and time before they can speak, and they do so in more complex ways than previously realized, according to new research.

In 1890 William James wrote in "The Principles of Psychology" that the baby's impression of the world as "one great blooming, buzzing confusion."   But modern evidence indicates otherwise.

Babies understand quantity quite well, say Emory University psychologist Stella Lourenco and University College London neuroscientist Matthew Longo, and so much earlier than thought.
Less Sweet Tooth: Glucagon Hormone Influences Sensitivity To Sweetness

Less Sweet Tooth: Glucagon Hormone Influences Sensitivity To Sweetness

Jun 15 2010 | comment(s)

There are two aspects to food research; an industry one, where food additives that can make food taste more or less sweet without calories have benefits, and a therapeutic one, like treating patients who over eat.
Interested In A Blind Date, Rosetta? We Know This Asteroid Named Lutetia...

Interested In A Blind Date, Rosetta? We Know This Asteroid Named Lutetia...

Jun 15 2010 | comment(s)

Lutetia is a large, primitive asteroid left on the shelf for billions of years, presumably because no planet consumed it as the Solar System formed.  Most measurements affirm this, making the asteroid out to be a 'C-type', which contains primitive compounds of carbon, but some others suggest that Lutetia is an 'M-type', which could mean there are metals in its surface. 

If the second is true, it could be a real find in space science because although metallic asteroids do exist, they are thought to be fragments of the metallic core of larger asteroids that have since been shattered into pieces. If Lutetia is made of metal or even contains large amounts of metal, the traditional asteroid classification scheme may need rethinking. 
Developmental Theories: Bronfenbrenner and Super & Harkness

Developmental Theories: Bronfenbrenner and Super & Harkness

Jun 15 2010 | comment(s)

Gardiner and Kosmitzki (2008) acknowledge their use of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model as the basis for the coverage of human development from a cultural perspective. It is the first theory that I will elaborate on. It seems readily apparent, at least to me, that the relationship between an individual and his or her environment is dynamic and reciprocal in nature. A person reacts to his or her environment and in doing so alters the environment. Bronfenbrenner’s theory, according to Gardiner and Kosmitzki, is at its essence this simple a proposition. Bronfenbrenner expounds this theory further and posits specific levels of the environment such as the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem (Gardiner & Kosmitzki).
Gender Gap Claims In Science Will Go The Way Of The Autism-Vaccine Link

Gender Gap Claims In Science Will Go The Way Of The Autism-Vaccine Link

Jun 15 2010 | comment(s)

Advocates of good science breathed a sigh of relief when Andrew Wakefield was finally lambasted for questionable methods and shoddy science, basically eliminating the validity of the fundamental text of the 'anti-vaccination' movement outside science circles.

What about another fundamental text inside science circles?  Namely Nepotism and sexism in peer-review, by Christine Wennerås&Agnes Wold (Nature 387, 341-343, 22 May 1997,  doi:10.1038/387341a0 ), who claimed they did not receive Swedish postdoctoral fellowships because of male chauvinism.
Understanding Depression

Understanding Depression

Jun 15 2010 | comment(s)

Understanding Depression

I suffer from depression. 

One day I may write more fully about how it affects me, and how I cope.  But not just yet.

If you have never suffered from depression you may be mistaken in your ideas about the problem.  For me, depression is a 'pressing down', an energy-sapping burden.  I have to fight to summon up the mental energy to do anything at all.  Even sitting at my keyboard writing articles is very tiring.

The other side of depression can be a bonus.  I get strong creative urges from time to time which so inspire me to write that I can do little else.  I am an obsessive-compulsive creative writer.
Justin Hutchinson Joins Finesse Solutions As Vice President Of Sales

Justin Hutchinson Joins Finesse Solutions As Vice President Of Sales

Jun 14 2010 | comment(s)

BOVAP - A Stock Market For Political Values

BOVAP - A Stock Market For Political Values

Jun 14 2010 | comment(s)

Getting Avogadro's Digits (and other laughs)

Getting Avogadro's Digits (and other laughs)

Jun 14 2010 | comment(s)

1. It's probably a good thing Avogadro wasn't around after the telephone was invented. I bet he'd get real sick of this...



2. Also see: Josh Witten.



3. Seriously, who f'ing cares??
2010 UNCA Awards For Best Coverage Of The United Nations And Its Agencies - Winners Will Be Honored At Gala Event On Wednesday, December 15 At Cipriani 42nd Street, New York

2010 UNCA Awards For Best Coverage Of The United Nations And Its Agencies - Winners Will Be Honored At Gala Event On Wednesday, December 15 At Cipriani 42nd Street, New York

Jun 14 2010 | comment(s)

Science 2.0 And Deepwater Horizon

Science 2.0 And Deepwater Horizon

Jun 14 2010 | comment(s)

Science 2.0 And Deepwater Horizon

In this age of rapid communication via the internet we have a golden opportunity to engage in synergy on a global scale to solve problems in science and engineering.

Synergy, as I use the term here, is an emergent property of a cooperative human system.  A forum is established in which all legitimate participants have an equal opportunity to submit ideas relating to the solution of a problem.
Oil Refineries Report On Share Purchase

Oil Refineries Report On Share Purchase

Jun 14 2010 | comment(s)

Manifesto For The Simple Scribe - Rules Of Prose, Part II

Manifesto For The Simple Scribe - Rules Of Prose, Part II

Jun 14 2010 | comment(s)

Rules for writing can vary from basic grammar principles to austere proverbs like Hemingway's "Write what you know!" In my previous article, I listed the first 12 rules of prose as delineated by freelance journalist (and science writer) Tim Radford. Here are the remaining 13. Enjoy!

13. Words like shallow, facile, glib and slick are not insults to a journalist. The whole point of paying for a newspaper is that you want information that slides down easily and quickly, without footnotes, serial caveats, obscure references and footnotes to footnotes.1
GFI Software And Sunbelt Announce Strategic Partnership

GFI Software And Sunbelt Announce Strategic Partnership

Jun 14 2010 | comment(s)

Empower's Generating Plant Commences Construction

Empower's Generating Plant Commences Construction

Jun 14 2010 | comment(s)

Online Quant And Qual Research Now Automatically Linked; Hybrid Studies Get Faster And Easier

Online Quant And Qual Research Now Automatically Linked; Hybrid Studies Get Faster And Easier

Jun 14 2010 | comment(s)

Maxatec Launches The New RDT-150 POS Terminal

Maxatec Launches The New RDT-150 POS Terminal

Jun 14 2010 | comment(s)

Accuity Increases Performance Of Compliance Link, Its Leading Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Solution

Accuity Increases Performance Of Compliance Link, Its Leading Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Solution

Jun 14 2010 | comment(s)

GAIN Capital's FOREX.com Introduces Lower Pricing

GAIN Capital's FOREX.com Introduces Lower Pricing

Jun 14 2010 | comment(s)