Tag: Science

The vast majority of us are not “Homo economicus”.

Often, when I write about moral instincts, people respond with assertions that we're essentially selfish creatures and that nothing about morality is natural.  There's a name for this concept of the solely self serving  human being, "Homo economicus."  The Neuroskeptic discusses a study that looked for them:  Spotted at last: "Homo economicus"? - Neuroskeptic | DiscoverMagazine.com. … Continue reading The vast majority of us are not “Homo economicus”. →

Learning the smell of fear: Mothers teach babies their own fears via odor, animal study shows.

Some of the ways that mothers can teach offspring is pretty primal: Learning the smell of fear: Mothers teach babies their own fears via odor, animal study shows -- ScienceDaily. Babies can learn what to fear in the first days of life just by smelling the odor of their distressed mothers, new research suggests. And not … Continue reading Learning the smell of fear: Mothers teach babies their own fears via odor, animal study shows. →

Does the Higgs boson actually exist?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azTMPl0Qb6o I have to admit to wondering the same thing Nick talks about here.  Do any of these subatomic particles actually exist?  At least in the way we conventionally define "exist"?  We're talking about entities that are sometimes a wave, sometimes a point particle and, as far as we can observe, behave randomly within certain … Continue reading Does the Higgs boson actually exist? →

Voyager spacecraft might not have reached interstellar space

I have to say that I had no idea this was still being debated: Voyager spacecraft might not have reached interstellar space. In 2012, the Voyager mission team announced that the Voyager 1 spacecraft had passed into interstellar space, traveling further from Earth than any other manmade object. But, in the nearly two years since that … Continue reading Voyager spacecraft might not have reached interstellar space →

David Chalmers: How do you explain consciousness?

In this TED talk, David Chalmers gives a summary of the problem whose name he coined, the hard problem of consciousness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhRhtFFhNzQ via David Chalmers: How do you explain consciousness? - YouTube. It seems like people who've contemplated consciousness fall into two groups, those who are bothered by the hard problem, and those who are not. … Continue reading David Chalmers: How do you explain consciousness? →

Science is about both ideas and data gathering.

Stan asked for my thoughts on this article: Science is becoming a cult of hi-tech instruments – Philip Ball – Aeon. The tools of science are so specialised that we accept them as a kind of occult machinery for producing knowledge. We figure that they must know how it all works. Likewise, histories of science focus on ideas rather than … Continue reading Science is about both ideas and data gathering. →

Are you alone? (In the universe)

This a cool video on what we are and where we came from.  We are, each of us, a temporary intersection of matter and energy that is part of the overall whole of the universe, patterns of elementary particles that have, at least for a while, achieved self awareness. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKMQzkIiB0Y via Are You Alone? In The … Continue reading Are you alone? (In the universe) →

Does the mind affect quantum mechanics?

Tom Hartsfield at Real Clear Science has a nice short piece that explains why your mind isn't involved (at least not directly) in what happens in quantum mechanics: Does the Mind Affect Quantum Mechanics? | RealClearScience. Every measurement that you can name boils down to an interaction. You poke the quantum system with something (light, a … Continue reading Does the mind affect quantum mechanics? →