Edheads - Activate Your Mind! Genetically modified mosquitoes may soon be released in Florida (NaturalNews) In an effort to help eradicate dengue fever and the mosquitos that spread it, the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD) is seeking federal and state approval to release hundreds of thousands of genetically-modified (GM) mosquitos designed to kill off the natural Aedes aegypti variety of the fly throughout Key West, Florida. The agency, which already routinely performs aerial sprayings of the area with anti-mosquito chemicals, believes it will save money in the long run by releasing the GM mosquitos. Rather than spend $400,000 or more a year to conduct the aerial sprayings, FKMCD says it would instead only have to spend $200,000 to $300,000 a year on the GM mosquitos. Created by U.K.-based insect eradication company Oxitec, the GM mosquitos have been created with an added gene that, unless they are given the antibiotic tetracycline, will automatically kill them. Sources for this article include:
History of evolutionary thought Evolutionary thought, the conception that species change over time, has roots in antiquity, in the ideas of the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Chinese as well as in medieval Islamic science. With the beginnings of biological taxonomy in the late 17th century, Western biological thinking was influenced by two opposed ideas. One was essentialism, the belief that every species has essential characteristics that are unalterable, a concept which had developed from medieval Aristotelian metaphysics, and that fit well with natural theology. The other one was the development of the new anti-Aristotelian approach to modern science: as the Enlightenment progressed, evolutionary cosmology and the mechanical philosophy spread from the physical sciences to natural history. Following the establishment of evolutionary biology, studies of mutation and variation in natural populations, combined with biogeography and systematics, led to sophisticated mathematical and causal models of evolution.
Shock study, replicates Milgram's findings Nearly 50 years after the controversial Milgram experiments, social psychologist Jerry M. Burger, PhD, has found that people are still just as willing to administer what they believe are painful electric shocks to others when urged on by an authority figure. Burger, a professor at Santa Clara University, replicated one of the famous obedience experiments of the late Stanley Milgram, PhD, and found that compliance rates in the replication were only slightly lower than those found by Milgram. And, like Milgram, he found no difference in the rates of obedience between men and women. "People learning about Milgram's work often wonder whether results would be any different today," Burger says. Milgram found that, after hearing the learner's first cries of pain at 150 volts, 82.5 percent of participants continued administering shocks; of those, 79 percent continued to the shock generator's end, at 450 volts. —K.I.
Anti-Corruption | compliancecampaign On issues ranging from U.S. drone warfare to economic human rights to fair elections, protesters against the Republican National Convention this week and the Democratic National Convention the following week are highlighting a host of U.S. violations of international norms. How the police handle the demonstrations will showcase whether the United States respects another important international obligation of the U.S. government – respecting the right to assembly. Protests related to the RNC in Tampa, Florida, kicked off on Thursday with more than 100 peace activists demonstrating at the local Raytheon plant, stressing the company’s role in manufacturing unmanned aerial drones used by the U.S. to bomb countries such as Pakistan. The demonstration fell on the same day that Pakistan had summoned U.S. embassy officials to the Foreign Office to lodge protest over U.S. drone strikes in North Waziristan. The following day, the U.S. launched another drone attack in North Waziristan, killing 18.
Evolution Here then is the beta version of my strip about evolution. This is a chapter of the book Science Stories which will be out from Myriad Editions next spring. I'm sure there'll be mistakes here, so do feel free to point them out, so that I can make the necessary changes. Note Oct 2013.
Walking Through Doorways Causes Forgetting We’ve all experienced it: The frustration of entering a room and forgetting what we were going to do. Or get. Or find. New research from University of Notre Dame Psychology Professor Gabriel Radvansky suggests that passing through doorways is the cause of these memory lapses. “Entering or exiting through a doorway serves as an ‘event boundary’ in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away,” Radvansky explains. “Recalling the decision or activity that was made in a different room is difficult because it has been compartmentalized.” The study was published recently in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Conducting three experiments in both real and virtual environments, Radvansky’s subjects – all college students – performed memory tasks while crossing a room and while exiting a doorway.
10 IRREFUTABLE evidence that GMO can harm you Nature is a living organism that functions through every cell and organ that is working together. There is nothing isolated in nature and everything is connected with one another. All these years, science has been trying to discover and explore complexity that exists in nature. However even the most advanced 3D engineering modeling and analysis cannot fully understand all the parameters and complexities that exists within the universe and sometimes the results aren’t even half close to reality. Although technology, industrialization and innovation have been revolutionary in human being’s life, at the same time they have resulted in dysfunction, scarcity and even destruction of our planet. Only 3% of US farm lands are planted with fruits and vegetables while 50% of farms are used for planting soy and corn. Studies and research shows that soil microorganisms are very essential for soil fertility. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Sources:
SVT Glycémie Stanford Prison Exp IT BEGAN WITH AN AD in the classifieds. Male college students needed for psychological study of prison life. $15 per day for 1-2 weeks. More than 70 people volunteered to take part in the study, to be conducted in a fake prison housed inside Jordan Hall, on Stanford's Main Quad. The leader of the study was 38-year-old psychology professor Philip Zimbardo. He and his fellow researchers selected 24 applicants and randomly assigned each to be a prisoner or a guard. Zimbardo encouraged the guards to think of themselves as actual guards in a real prison. The study began on Sunday, August 17, 1971. Forty years later, the Stanford Prison Experiment remains among the most notable—and notorious—research projects ever carried out at the University. The public's fascination with the SPE and its implications—the notion, as Zimbardo says, "that these ordinary college students could do such terrible things when caught in that situation"—brought Zimbardo international renown. The Superintendent Mark.
Monsanto / Topics / Resources Students greet the President of Monsanto Canada testifying at Agriculture Committee hearings in Guelph, Feb 9, day of the vote on Bill C-474. Monsanto Quick Facts Monsanto • is the largest seed company in the world (accounted for 23% of the world’s commercial seed market in 2007). For background and details see Monsanto: A Corporate Profile , Food & Water Watch US, May 2013. Risks of Monsanto's SmartStax Eight-Trait GM Corn Remain Unexamined June 28, 2011 - Press Release: Report Exposes Unstudied Risks of Monsanto's Genetically Modified "SmartStax" Corn: EU Member State critiques and leaked industry documents reveal safety questions Background: Health Effects of Monsanto's Herbicide Roundup From the Greenpeace International Report July 2011: Herbicide tolerance and GM crops Glyphosate is the active ingredient in many herbicides sold across the world, including Monsanto's formulation brand "Roundup" which is twinned with its GM Roundup Ready crops. Lawsuit Filed: Farmers vs. Take Action New!
Improbable research: The Limerick laureate works his magic In 2003, an independent scholar from New Jersey began submitting limericks for a competition in mini-AIR, the monthly online supplement to my magazine, Annals of Improbable Research. The contest challenges readers to read an off-putting scholarly citation, and explain it in limerick form. Martin Eiger so consistently won that we eventually banned him as an unfair competitor, gave him the title Limerick laureate, and now publish him every month. He handles a huge range of subject matter. An early Eiger limerick summarised a Japanese study called Pharmacological Aspects of Ipecac Syrup (TJN-119) - Induced Emesis in Ferrets: If you're hoping to hash out a thesis,And stuck for a topic: emesis,As triggered in ferretsUndoubtedly meritsMuch more than a mere exegesis. Warwick University mathematician Jonathan Warren's 1999 treatise On the Joining of Sticky Brownian Motion includes a three-page proof of the Non-cosiness of Sticky Brownian Motion.
Stability and Change in Children's Intelligence Quotient Scores: A Comparison of Two Socioeconomically Disparate Communities Skip to Main Content Advertisement Journals Books Search Close Advanced Search Search Menu Article Navigation Volume 154 Issue 8 15 October 2001 Article Contents Journal Article Stability and Change in Children's Intelligence Quotient Scores: A Comparison of Two Socioeconomically Disparate Communities Naomi Breslau, Naomi Breslau Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Howard D. Howard D. Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Ezra S. Ezra S. Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Thomas Matte, Thomas Matte Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Kung-Yee Liang, Kung-Yee Liang Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Edward L. Edward L. Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar American Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 154, Issue 8, 15 October 2001, Pages 711–717, Published: Article history Received: 16 November 2000 Accepted: 11 May 2001 Abstract child, family characteristics, intelligence, socioeconomic factors Open in new tab IQ measurement Statistical analysis Am Stat
5 Experts Answer: Can Your IQ Change? | Intelligence Tests & IQ Scores Each week, MyHealthNewsDaily asks the experts to answer questions about your health. This week, we asked psychologists: Can your IQ ever change? Jack Naglieri, research professor at University of Virginia: The answer to this question, like many others, depends on a number of factors. If you look at the research where they've made people smarter (i.e. improved their IQs), what they're really doing is to make people function better. I've been able to teach children to be better in mathematics without teaching them mathematics. Understanding changes in IQ also requires carefully considering how intelligence is being measured. The best way to measure intelligence is to measure those abilities that underlie the acquisition of knowledge, separately from the knowledge we have. Richard Nisbett, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan: Yes, your IQ can change over time. The most volatility in IQ scores is in childhood, mostly in adolescence. Absolutely. Alan S. It depends.