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A new paper published in Perspectives in Psychological Science (open access) suggests there is “a fundamental design flaw that potentially undermines any causal inference” in much psychology research. Way back in the 1950’s a phenomenon called the Hawthorne effect (AKA the observer effect) was observed, an experiment to discover whether workers in the Hawthorne Works…
Charles Darwin was not yet 30 when he got the basic idea for the theory of evolution. But it wasn’t until he turned 50 that he presented his argument to the world. He spent those two decades methodically compiling evidence for his theory and coming up with responses to every skeptical counterargument he could think…
The Gruber Foundation, a Type 1 supporting organization operated and supervised by Yale University, has announced the recipients of the 2013 Gruber Cosmology Prize, which recognizes theoretical, analytical, conceptual, or observational discoveries leading to fundamental advances in our understanding of the universe.
The $500,000 prize was awarded to Viatcheslav Mukhanov, professor of physics at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, and Alexei Starobinsky of the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics in Moscow for their formative contributions to inflationary theory, an essential component for understanding the evolution and structure of the universe. Mukhanov’s and Starobinsky’s contributions to inflationary cosmology have provided compelling answers to essential cosmological questions and validated a key prediction of Big Bang theory.
As plenty of frustrated middle-aged readers will know, exercise does not always lead to a drop in waist size. But a new paper from a group of researchers at Lund University, in Sweden, offers some grounds for optimism. For even if the flab obstinately stays on, it appears that exercise alters the way in which fat cells work, presumably for the better. Specifically, it does so by altering how those cells express their genes, making it the latest discovery in a rapidly developing and exciting bit of biology known as epigenetics. But what exactly is that?
We see with our ideas. That idea can open our eyes to key questions about modeling human nature. Varying blues and illusions illuminate a weird sampling error at the heart of a heartless economic worldview. And suggest a fix.
To see how deeply ideas influence what we see, consider that: Russians have blues, but no blue. They have no single word for our color blue. Their language makes “an obligatory distinction between” lighter blues (goluboy) and darker blues (siniy). Their idea that these are separate colors means Russians distinguish them faster than English speakers can.
According to reductionism, every system, no matter how complex, can be understood in terms of the behavior of its basic constituents. The focus is on the bottom layer of the material chain: matter is made of molecules; molecules of atoms; atoms of electrons, protons, and neutrons; protons and neutrons of quarks; we don’t know if…
Our paper discusses three very old “cosmologies” in Western thought, how these play out in economic theory, and how evolutionary biology can help evaluate their validity and policy relevance. These cosmologies are: (1) “natural man” as a rational, self-sufficient, egotistical individual, (2) competition among individuals can lead to a well-functioning society, and (3) there exists…
Soccer fans call it brave goalkeeping, the act of springing into a star shape in front of an attacker who is about to kick the ball as hard as possible toward the goal. As I shuffled from the field, bent forward, eyes watering, waiting for the excruciating whack of pain in my crotch to metamorphose…
According to modern quantum theory, energy fields permeate the universe, and flurries of energy in these fields, called “particles” when they are pointlike and “waves” when they are diffuse, serve as the building blocks of matter and forces. But new findings suggest this wave-particle picture offers only a superficial view of nature’s constituents. If each…
When I was growing up in New York City, a high point of my calendar was the annual arrival of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus — ‘the greatest show on earth’. My parents endured the green-haired clowns, sequinned acrobats and festooned elephants as a kind of garish pageantry. For me, though, it…