Hippie Power, Now With Science

Here's something to ponder: "Listening to Complainers is Bad for Your Brain." The article summarized a book which sites "reasearch" saying that

exposure to 30 minutes or more of negativity--including viewing such material on TV--actually peels away neurons in the brain's hippocampus. 

As a worrier and a misanthrope, negativity is almost my natural state. But my inner hippie wants to change, and now my inner scientist has some proof that

Our actions and states of mind matter...Working on our own consciousness is the most important thing that we are doing at any moment, and being love is the supreme creative act.

(Ram Dass, via Mystic Mamma)

Coming Out Of My Bubble To Point Out This Contrast

I find it unbelievable that the same country that gives us people who can figure out how to land a robot on Mars also gives us people--people in power--who fail to grasp the very nature of biology. 

No, Rep. W. Todd Akin,  it is actually NOT true that women who are victims of "legitimate" rape can avoid pregnancy because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Wasn't true in the 1200s, isn't true now. While we're talking science, I bet I can clear some things up about evolution for you, too. 

Todd Akin is on the House Committee for Science, Space, and Technology. Can we replace him with Bobak, please? 

Friday Unrelated Information

1. I can't believe that people are against space exploration, but in case you're one of the huffy ones saying, "NASA's a waste of money," here's a site telling you what the f*** NASA has done to make your life awesome.

2. The Science Chicks from History blog is a nice way to learn about, well, women in science throughout history. 

Two Videos

Here is a video "trailer" for the Mars Curiosity rover landing on August 5, found via Bad Astronomy. It is worth the five minutes to watch it because in five minutes you can have your mind blown and your faith in humanity reaffirmed:

I usually dislike taglines but "Dare mighty things" at the end kind of made me tear up a little.

And here is a video created by the European Commission as part of the “Science: It’s a Girl Thing!” campaign to encourage girls to study science (it's now been pulled from the campaign).  This also blows the mind and brings you close to tears--but not in a good way:

To quote Elwood Blues, "Jesus H. Tap Dancing Christ." To quote the article in The Atlantic where I found this, "...science sells itself. It needs no polish or varnish or manufactured appeal to be attractive to women. To imply otherwise is an insult. To science and to women."

I Think Of Space

I realize it's only been a week, but just Tuesday I was thinking, "Being kind and non-judgmental and happy is going so well!"

Then, of course, yesterday happened. So today I am re-grouping and thinking about space. This is Dr. Neil Tyson telling us we're all connected, much more eloquently than I did:



"We're all connected--to each other, biologically; to the earth, chemically; and to the rest of the universe, atomically...It's not that we're better than the universe; we're a part of the universe. We're in the universe and the universe is within us."

Let that thought get you through the rest of the week.

Well Done, Science Writers

Last night I was able to catch the second episode of the latest NOVA series, The Fabric of the Cosmos. (Have you figured out by now that if you put "cosmos" in the title of something, there's a 99.9% chance I will like it?)

I am as average a layperson as it gets when it comes to science, so I had to admire how the show's team explained concepts such as the past, present, and future all existing at once, or why time appears to only flow in one direction, in the simplest way possible.

Check it out--the last two epsiodes are on the next two Wednesdays, and you can get caught up on the first two online. (And I dare you not to think of Dr. Who while the show talks about the nature of time. Sorry, physicists.)

"Science: What's It Up To?"

Have you been trying to ignore the gearing up of the presidential race, too? From what I've been unable to ignore, it seems every potential candidate so far is trying to win by being anti-science--anti-vaccine, anti-evolution, anti-global warming, etc. Thank god for satire:

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

"Luxurious palace of science"--I love it. Found via one of my favorite science blogs.

The Brain

As I try to deal with some emotions and make sense of others, I've been thinking about the brain a lot (not The Brain, although I have been enjoying this, too) and about the cerebral cortex, as described by my science boyfriend Carl Sagan:

The cerebral cortex is a liberation. We need no longer be trapped in the genetically inherited patterns of lizards and baboons...No longer at the mercy of the reptile brain, we can change ourselves.

The "reptile brain" is in charge of aggression and territoriality and a host of other things that the cerebral cortex can overcome, a comforting thought.

Naturally, I was delighted by this "Ode to the Brain" from Symphony of Science (the same people who brought you this) which contains that Sagan quote, along with lots more good stuff.


Because the reptile brain isn't in charge!

Get Out Your Druid Robes

Not only is tonight the winter solstice, but there is a full lunar eclipse, too! The last full moon on the solstice was 20 years ago; the last full lunar eclipse on the solstice was December 21, 1638.

Start here on the NASA site to read up about it--they'll even have a live web cam (!). The eclipse should start about 11:30 p.m. tonight, with totality starting Tuesday morning at 12:41 a.m. and ending at 1:53 a.m. The whole thing will be happening in the western sky. I hope it's not cloudy!

(Bonus activity: sing "Total Eclipse of the Moon" to the Bonnie Tyler tune. You're welcome.)

We Interrupt This Tuesday Project Roundup

Because it's Carl Sagan's birthday!

Check out carlsagan.com, read up on the SETI Institute, or just watch Cosmos again. Here's a clip from the opening:



The cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths, of exquisite interrelationships, of the awesome machinery of nature.

I know you wouldn't approve of this, Carl, but I hope that somewhere, you've found out everything you still wanted to know.

Those ARE The Best Words, Apparently

I swear a lot. I try to keep a lid on it in public, but in private--and in my head--there's a lot of profanity. Sometimes I think that, as someone who deals with words all day, I should have a better substitute for all these curse words, something more creative and less swear-y. But it seems that's not the case:

This "How Stuff Works" article about swearing brings in the science behind swearing, saying that "many researchers believe that it helps relieve stress and blow off steam, like crying does for small children." The coolest thing, though, is what happens to our brains when we swear:
Language processing is a "higher" brain function and takes place in the cerebral cortex [while] emotion and instinct are "lower" brain functions and take place deep inside the brain...Many studies suggest that the brain processes swearing in the lower regions, along with emotion and instinct..

So they're words that aren't even processed as language, but instead tied to our basic brain functions? No wonder there aren't any satisfying substitutes. I love it when science backs me up.

Speaking Of Alcohol...

A few weeks ago I found a news article about new research that makes the claim that early humans developed agriculture not for a steady supply of food, but a steady supply of booze. As the article tells us,

[Archaeologist Patrick McGovern's]bold thesis, which he lays out in his book, Uncorking the Past. The Quest for Wine, Beer and Other Alcoholic Beverage, states that agriculture--and with it the entire Neolithic Revolution, which began about 11,000 years ago--are ultimately results of the irrepressible impulse toward drinking and intoxication.

"Available evidence suggests that our ancestors in Asia, Mexico, and Africa cultivated wheat, rice, corn, barley, and millet primarily for the purpose of producing alcoholic beverages," McGovern explains. While they were at it, he believes, drink-loving early civilizations managed to ensure their basic survival.

Hey, I think it sounds plausible. If I had to struggle to survive every day, I'd want a drink, too.

Advent Calendar

The Big Picture blog has started their photo-a-day countdown to Christmas this year, again using images from the Hubble Space Telescope. A new photo is added every day here.

I think Carl Sagan would approve. My dad loaned me the book Cosmos to go along with my watching of the show, and here's my holiday thought for this season:

The Cosmos may be densely populated with intelligent beings. But the Darwinian lesson is clear: There will be no humans elsewhere. Only here. Only this small planet. We are a rare as well as an endangered species. Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.

WWCSD?

The more I watch Cosmos, the more I like Carl Sagan. Here's the opening voiceover from Episode 8:

The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars. There was a time when the stars seemed an impenetrable mystery, but today we have begun to understand them. In our personal lives, also, we journey from ignorance to knowledge. Our individual growth reflects the advancement of the species. The exploration of the cosmos is a voyage of self-discovery.

Science Or Science Fiction?

On BLDGBLOG, I read a long and fascinating interview yesterday with one of the engineers on the Yucca Mountain project. The interview is matter-of-fact, not political, but it's really interesting. I learned that Yucca Mountain is being built to a standard of a MILLION YEARS, which brings up all sorts of issues: How do you even label something for that kind of future? As the interviewee says,

We have looked very closely at what WIPP is doing—the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico. They did a study with futurists and other people—sociologists and language specialists. They decided to come up with markers in seven languages, basically like a Rosetta Stone, with the idea that there will always be someone in the world who studies ancient languages, even 10,000 years from now, someone who will be able to resurrect what the meanings of these stelae are. They will basically say, “This is not a place of honor, don’t dig here, this is not good material,” etc.

[...] Of course, there’s also a little bit of fun involved here: what is the dominant species going to be in 10,000 years? And can you really mark something for a million years? What we have looked at, basically, is marking things for at least 10,000 years—and hopefully it will last even longer. And if this information is important to whatever societies are around at that time, if they have any intelligence at all, they will renew these monuments.

I love it when science seems more like science fiction, like the Large Hadron Collider going back in time to prevent itself from ever being made. Doesn't the modern-day Rosetta Stone sound a good construct for a sci-fi story?

(I was also struck by this engineer's optimism--because I have my doubts about whether anything will be around in 10,000 years.)

I Love Stories About The Large Hadron Collider

From a NYTimes article about the latest escapades at CERN (other than terrorist physicists):

A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.

Really, what commentary do I need to add to that? Read it all here.