Results tagged “science” from Uncivil Society
Besides my life, it looks like this, a stellar experiment in information visualization.
Rarely explored in social theory: the olfactory dynamics of human interaction.
LITTLE girls may be made of sugar and spice and all things nice, but their armpits smell of onions. And while free of slug or snail odours, men's armpits pack a powerful cheesy whiff.
That's the conclusion of research in Switzerland that involved taking armpit sweat samples from 24 men and 25 women after they had spent time in a sauna or ridden an exercise bike for 15 minutes.
The researchers found marked differences in the sweat from men and women. "Men smell of cheese, and women of grapefruit or onion," says Christian Starkenmann of Firmenich, a company in Geneva that researches flavours and perfumes for food and cosmetics companies.
The team found that the women's armpit sweat contained relatively high levels of an odourless sulphur-containing compound - 5 milligrams per millilitre of sweat versus 0.5 milligrams in men. When the researchers mixed this compound in the lab with bacteria commonly found in the armpit, the bugs turned it into a thiol - a previously discovered odour from armpits that is akin to onion. . . .
Next, the team hope to develop new ingredients for deodorants that fight the smells. "We could make inhibitors that neutralise the precursors, or block the bacterial enzymes that do the conversion," says Starkenmann.
Some researchers are sceptical that gender is the main deciding factor, arguing that the patterns found in Swiss volunteers might not apply to other populations with different diets and genetic backgrounds. "Other factors include what you eat, what you wash with, what you wear and what genes you inherit," says Tim Jacob of Cardiff University in the UK.
Even if the specific aromas are culturally dependent, the fact that differences emerge raises interesting questions about the relation of our olfactory sense to social connectivity, as does the fact that our first impulse today is to neutralize and replace natural smells.
I'm still busy with things that keep me from sustained writing here or on Blog@ & JustMeans, but over lunch I did get a chance to read highlights from the latest issue of New Scientist. Social enterprise types will love the special feature on renewable energy--I've been wondering about the tech re harvesting tides, so I really liked that part--but my hands-down favorite article is Tools Maketh the Monkey. Not only does it illustrate how scientists have come around to McLuhan's core theory about technology as an extension of the self that alters our perception, but it describes contemporary experiments designed to foster a human sense of self-awareness in other primates. The video above illustrates where ape communication will inevitably lead; below, a key excerpt:
Iriki's unique perspective on the problem is that tool use was the catalyst for a much more important mental breakthrough, albeit one that took 1.8 million years to unfold: the emergence of a sense of self. By this he means the ability to conceptualise one's own existence in time, plan for the future and understand "intentionality" - your capacity to change your environment.
So how did tool use give rise to a sense of self? Iriki believes the starting point is the way tools induce a modification of body image - the basic mental representation of "self" that consists of knowing where the physical body ends and the environment begins. When we use tools such as hammers or tennis rackets, we integrate them into our body image; our brains treat them as a temporary extension of our hand or arm. To turn a stone or a stick into a tool, our ancestors would have to have done the same. This, Iriki argues, led to the gradual dawning of a sense of self more sophisticated than the basic body image, creating a new evolutionary force that rapidly ratcheted up intelligence. "Once you have a sense of self, you can intentionally control the environment, and that modified environment in turn puts selection pressure on your brain," Iriki says. He has dubbed this dynamic, two-way interaction between brain and environment "intentional niche construction", and argues that it is the missing link in the story of human evolution.
Sense of self was crucial for another reason: it allowed our ancestors to conceive of the existence of other selves, each with their own intentions. This is the essence of "theory of mind", which is what underpins our shared understanding and hence communication, language, society and culture.
Or somewhere pretty darn close. At least it was small.
Arse Electronika is a sex & technology conference now underway in San Francisco. This year's theme: "Critical Perspectives on Sexuality and Pornography in Science and Social Fiction."
Here's the streaming live video feed and home page, with includes archived sessions.
TechCrunch has a great intro to the Webkare phenomenon in Japan, the online phenomenon in which girls try to hook up with anime boys. It's a game, and collaboration with other players is key to winning it.
In short, it's a social enterprise, no?
The TC piece goes on to discuss the broader issue of loneliness 2.0--an important subject, since curing loneliness is one of the web's primary social functions.
Speaking of which, here's useful new look at the science of loneliness, aptly called Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection.
The Ephemerist finds a copy of a 1962 comic adapting the film The Underwater City--with the evolutionary material scratched out & replaced with divine creation:
These commercials for the arts may seem fun, but are they effective and ethical? Framing art as "good for you" only reinforces the image of broccoli for the brain. The ads also invoke questionable scientific claims--Classical music raises test scores? Staring at a Van Gogh is more educational than playing video games, which teach asset management, strategic thinking, graphic design and enhanced attention?
Beyond that, there's the matter of trademark appropriation in the name of doing good, a topic that all too many nonprofits simply ignore. There's also a disturbing race and class issue implicit in the ad below--are African American families truly harming their children if their kids lack a daily diet of 19th century German piano music?
Whatever. I grew up on comics, Devo, Dr. Who and Star Wars, so I'm guess that makes me ignorant.
It's easy to find the problems with the above PSA, but this billboard is also a pretty accurate representation of the conclusion drawn by teen-age me upon seeing a number of my peers drop out of high school or give up college due to unplanned pregnancies. Of course, that was many moons ago, when a drugstore was the place where smitten couples went to get ice-cream sodas.
This evening after work I dropped by Apex Art for a guided tour of its new exhibit, Nessie Does New York: Monetizing Myth, Legend & Culture. The host for the evening: the illustrious and able Dr. Alexis Macnab, who besides being an internationally renowned Scottish cryptozoologist is also a rising star at Tribeca's Bat Theater.
The event was a wonderful display of museum exhibit as performance art, taking us through a mock-serious mash-up of various cryptozoology myths that then sequed into a playful debunking in the presence of various forms of trading on the myth.
Pictured above is a close-up of one of three ceramic dioramas prepared for the exhibit; the scene, you might recognize, is the infamous Patterson Bigfoot film referenced on this very blog a few days ago. The stylized folk-art pop evinces the populism of the myths as cultural elements prior to becoming mass market industries.
From there the exhibit moves to TV documentaries on the featured cryptids, a subtle jab at how commercial and nonprofit educational media perpetuate the myths for their profit (as if to underscore the point, this is where Alexis debunks reported sightings, while four different docs somberly recount the evidence as fact).
The exhibit ends with a couple fun scenes. One is a wall of drawings made by museum visitors, with most of the drawings done by children. Finishing it up is a room of crypto-tchotchkes, many of which come from various tourist sites associated with the creatures. If business is commodifying the lifeworld, this is the lifeworld getting a piece of the action for itself.
All in all a great break; if you're in town by August 2 and interested in the relation between commerce and creativity, it's well worth checking out, even without the talented Dr. M. If not, you can take a video walkthrough & read the explanatory brochure on the Apex site.
Though if you're like one of the people in our group who thought it was straight crypto with a real visiting cryptozoologist, you might want to stick with National Geographic.
A sixty-year-old recreational drug user--and from chocolate to coffee, aren't we all?--catalogs his experience. (Via Jane Sample.) Here's a hit of LSD:
First of all, the “cooks†of the late 60’s and early 70’s were ever so much better than those that came later. Real LSD, not cut with junk or made by some amateur, is in fact a real eye opener like Timmy Leary said in his lectures and books. . . . I do think that it changed my view, perceptions, in that it made me aware of how much of what we see, hear, taste and smell is a function of our brain’s programming. . . . Spinning the dial of a radio and stopping for an instance on some station and the words or tune fitting perfectly into the next spin and stop of the dial as if I had some special magic. Magic. Yes that is word that fits some of my trips. On acid, sometimes, felt that I was in perfect synch with the flow of everything around me. Perfect timing and seeing all the connections between things.
It's a feeling akin to what you get when you study current network theory and stop to work out its deepest implications. Not in a hippy trippy way, but with a bit of rigor and a healthy dose of fun.
Given that the only way I can catch my meal is on a menu, I'd say this rare image provides telling evidence of human devolution.
Or primates' ingrained proclivity for mimesis. Your pick.
Via ScienceFairLeader or not, do-gooders may be more smoke-and-mirrors than the real McCoy.
Research has shown people do the bare minimum in many respects, and so with morality, the appearance of taking the right action could be just as beneficial as actually taking that action.
Richard Taylor alerts us to a blog post by an American physics student in England last year at http://fliptomato.wordpress.com about a 1994 paper by M. M. Tai entitled: "A mathematical model for the determination of total area under glucose tolerance and other metabolic curves" (Diabetes Care, vol 17, p 152).
Just what is it about Tai's finding that has made it worth a mention after all this time? As Flip Tomato suggests, let's substitute a variable in the title: "A mathematical model for the determination of total area under x curves". Now, anyone who persisted with mathematics into their late teens may recognise that Tai has reinvented integration. That would be the mathematics of finding areas under curves, as originally devised by Isaac Newton and/or Gottfried Leibnitz - in the 1670s.
To be fair to Diabetes Care's readers, some of those commenting on the article noted this. Even so, Flip Tomato found 75 papers citing what Tai calls "the Tai method", and when Feedback looked there appeared be up to 90 that reference it.
That so many still cite a paper that "discovers" something mathematicians have known for three centuries makes the case, as Flip Tomato notes, for "the importance of interdisciplinary communication".
Here's one outraged reader's reaction to the latest Slate philanthropy roundup:
How does one make a decision to give to an art museum when there are homeless in every community?
It's actually not so heartless a decision as jenb5336 imagines. The existence of tax-funded social services; sensitivity to the drive for higher meaning; an awareness of the importance of memory to human identity; even a nod to the substantial economic benefits accruing from nonprofit institutions--these are just a few of the factors that lead people toward making the choice.
I remember when a similar argument led the U.S. to spike moon exploration in the 1970s, and if I recall correctly, poverty didn't disappear. Yet the nation lost not only a potent symbol of unity and achievement, but it also dismantled an infrastructure that would have been really useful now that we realize that the moon's abundant supply of helium 3 could end our reliance on fossil fuel.
Time travel, dinosaur erotica and penile phylogeny--truly the Platonic ideal of a scientific blog post!
Expelled is a new movie promoting intelligent design. Besides its controversial subject, the film is drawing attention for its blatant attempt to bribe Christian schools into goosing the box office. Here's the scheme:
Generous donations can be awarded to schools according to the number of movie ticket stubs they turn in. By accepting this challenge, your school could be awarded a donation up to $10,000, just for bringing your kids to see this film!
Your school will be awarded a donation based upon the number of ticket stubs you turn in (see submission instructions in FAQ section). That structure is as follows:
- 0-99 ticket stubs submitted = $5 per ticket stub
- 100-299 ticket stubs submitted = $1,000 donated to your school
- 300-499 ticket stubs submitted = $2,500 donated to your school
- 500 ticket stubs submitted = $5,000 donated to your school
Each school across the nation will be competing for the top honor of submitting the most ticket stubs with that school having their $5,000 donation matched for a total donation of $10,000!
According to me, anyway. The last couple issues of New Scientist have been publishing the results of their "Flirt with Science" contest. I didn't enter, alas, but I'm going to be on the lookout for next year's contest. That I differ from the magazine's chosen winners and runners-up is probably a reflection of my own scientific interests, but what a fun mix of education and entertainment!
Why am I posting my own favorite top ten here? Because . . .
Well, um . . .
Because it's my site, dammit, and I'll post what I want to, even if it's not about social enterprise.
So here they are, my top ten. Your mileage will no doubt differ.
"Looking at you, the creationists may have a point after all."
"How can I know a hundred digits of pi, but not the 11 digits of your phone number?"
"Forget what they say about butterflies, I think that you could whip up a storm just by fluttering your eyelashes."
"As a quantum physicist, the moment I observed you I determined that we were heading to your place or mine."
"What's a nice girl like you doing in a superposition like this?"
"You have a hyperfine structure."
"Baby, you must be a start codon because you are turnin' me on."
"Meiosis?"
"You're so sweet I am developing insulin resistance."
And for the sentimental favorite, here's one that actually worked for Michael Boddy of New South Wales, Australia:
"Did you know that if oysters had no natural enemies, in 10 years the world would be 28 miles deep in oysters?"
(Boddy: "We married in 1968 and are still going strong.")
Makes me wonder what the Boddy count is now in New South Wales!
