Study: Flamboyant Male Dancing Attracts Women Best	blinded by science
Link #151521 submitted by pneum0nic on Sep 9, 2010 02:29pm.   (+400XP) http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129746212
John Travolta was onto something. Women are most attracted to male dancers who have big, flamboyant moves similar to the actor's trademark style, British scientists say in a new study. Comments: 4   Hits: 27   Points: 234946   Vote Now!   [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

Psychologists unlock the male dance moves	blinded by science
Link #151510 submitted by dorian on Sep 8, 2010 08:47pm.   (+150XP) http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/browse/ne/uninews/maledance
that catch a woman’s eye     The key dance moves that make men attractive to women have been discovered by psychologists at Northumbria University.     Using 3D motion-capture technology to create uniform avatar figures, researchers have identified the key movement areas of the male dancer’s body that influence female perceptions of whether their dance skills are “good” or “bad”.     The study, led by psychologist Dr Nick Neave and researcher Kristofor McCarty, has for the first time identified potential biomechanical differences between “good” and “bad” male dancers. Its findings are published today in the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters. Comments: 0   Hits: 104   Points: 222419   Vote Now!   [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

Stephen Hawking: God did not create Universe	blinded by science
Link #151497 submitted by pneum0nic on Sep 2, 2010 01:10pm.   (+450XP) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11161493
There is no place for God in theories on the creation of the Universe, Professor Stephen Hawking has said.     He had previously argued belief in a creator was not incompatible with science but in a new book, he concludes the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics.     cc: some dude/some chick Comments: 0   Hits: 237   Points: 114773   Rating: 10.0 / 7   [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

Raytheon's 'Silent Guardian'	blinded by science
Link #151486 submitted by spoon on Aug 29, 2010 07:05am.   (+280XP) http://bostonherald.com/business/general/view.bg?articleid=1277664&...
In a letter to Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy D. Baca, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California called the Assault Intervention Device - which focuses a softball-sized beam that makes inmates feel “intolerable heat” - a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s protection against “cruel and unusual punishment.”     The new device, according to Osborne and Raytheon, penetrates only 1/64th of an inch into the skin, causing “controllable pain” but no injury. As soon as the heat beam is switched off, the pain stops, they say, leaving no lasting burns or physical damage. The test device’s range is 85 feet, compared to 800 feet for the truck-mounted Active Denial System developed for the military.     Company link to pdf / short video on Silent Guardian Comments: 0   Hits: 182   Points: 42075   Rating: 9.5 / 4   [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

Laser beam creates microbe shadow play	blinded by science
Link #151485 submitted by kingskyprawn on Aug 29, 2010 04:48am.   (+370XP) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aK_a-jr-tI
[YouTube Link]     Someone took a drop of water that had microbes in it and shot a 250mW green laser beam through it, causing a magnified real-time shadow play of swimming translucent critters. A cat is intrigued.     Originally described here:   teravolt.org/Laser_Microscope.htm     ... but the site crashed from views, so the explanation is mirrored here:   www.redditmirror.cc/cache/websites/teravolt.org_d6g04/teravolt.org/Laser_Microscope.htm     [via Miss Cellania] Comments: 1   Hits: 234   Points: 40510   Rating: 9.4 / 5   [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

Reverse-Engineering of Human Brain Likely by 2020	blinded by science
Link #151445 submitted by dorian on Aug 17, 2010 07:28am.   (+570XP) http://gizmodo.com/5614170/reverse+engineering-of-human-brain-likel...
Reverse-engineering the human brain so we can simulate it using computers may be only a decade away, says Ray Kurzweil, artificial intelligence expert and author of the best-selling book The Singularity is Near.     It would be the first step toward creating machines that are more powerful than the human brain. These supercomputers could be networked into a cloud computing architecture to amplify their processing capabilities. Meanwhile, algorithms that power them could get more intelligent. Together these could create the ultimate machine that can help us handle the challenges of the future, says Kurzweil. Comments: 7   Hits: 120   Points: 147   Rating: 9.0 / 3   [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

1 in 200 men direct descendants of Genghis Khan	blinded by science
Link #151415 submitted by dorian on Aug 9, 2010 08:36am.   (+220XP) http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/08/1-in-200-men-direct-...
In 2003 a groundbreaking historical genetics paper reported results which indicated that a substantial proportion of men in the world are direct line descendants of Genghis Khan. By direct line, I mean that they carry Y chromosomes which seem to have come down from an individual who lived approximately 1,000 years ago. As Y chromosomes are only passed from father to son, that would mean that the Y is a record of one’s patrilineage. Genghis Khan died ~750 years ago, so assuming 25 years per generation, you get about 30 men between the present and that period. In more quantitative terms, ~10% of the men who reside within the borders of the Mongol Empire as it was at the death of Genghis Khan may carry his Y chromosome, and so ~0.5% of men in the world, about 16 million individuals alive today, do so. Since 2003 there have been other cases of “super-Y” lineages. For example the Manchu lineage and the Uí Néill lineage. The existence of these Y chromosomal lineages, which have burst upon the genetic landscape like explosive stars sweeping aside all other variation before them, indicates a periodic it “winner-take-all” dynamic in human genetics more reminiscent of hyper-polygynous mammals such as elephant seals. As we do not exhibit the sexual dimorphism which is the norm in such organisms, it goes to show the plasticity of outcome due to the flexibility of human cultural forms. Comments: 1   Hits: 189   Points: 211   Rating: 7.3 / 3   [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

Psychology Studies Biased Toward Western Undergrads	blinded by science
Link #151410 submitted by spoon on Aug 8, 2010 04:27pm.   (+130XP) http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=psychology...
A group from the University of British Columbia recently published an enormous meta-analysis on the danger of assuming that all of humanity closely matches the behaviors of 20-something college students. They call this the WEIRD population—Western Educated Industrialized Rich Democratic—and say that they are the least representative populations one could find for generalizing about humans. Comments: 0   Hits: 196   Points: 204   Vote Now!   [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

World's most ancient creatures found in Scottish field	blinded by science
Link #151405 submitted by dorian on Aug 7, 2010 02:28pm.   (+340XP) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/29/rare-tadpole-shri...
A field near Gretna in Dumfriesshire might not be an obvious place to find the world's oldest living creatures, but a team of scientists has done just that.     Two colonies of a prehistoric shrimp that evolved when the dinosaurs ruled the Earth have been found alive and well in the Caerlaverock nature reserve on the Solway coast.     The discovery has led experts to think there could be more of the little crustaceans, which are listed as endangered species, elsewhere in the area.     The ancient creatures, known as Triops cancriformis or tadpole shrimps, are thought to have the oldest pedigree of any living animal. Fossil evidence suggests they have hardly changed in the more than 200m years that they have been around. Comments: 0   Hits: 262   Points: 316   Rating: 9.0 / 6   [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

Radioactive Wild Boars Increase in Number	blinded by science
Link #151397 submitted by FoolProof on Aug 6, 2010 01:01pm.   (+280XP) http://news.discovery.com/animals/radioactive-wild-boars-increase-i...
Biding their time, no doubt. Comments: 0   Hits: 239   Points: 282   Rating: 8.6 / 5   [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

Research shows personality can predict fertility	blinded by science
Link #151379 submitted by dorian on Aug 5, 2010 08:35am.   (+110XP) http://scienceblog.com/34904/research-shows-personality-can-predict...
The reproductive success of both men and women is influenced by our personality traits, according to new research from the University of Sheffield.     The study, which was published June 7, 2010 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that women with higher levels of neuroticism and more extravert men, are likely to give birth to a larger number of children in societies with traditionally high birth rates.     The study also found evidence of a link between maternal personality traits and offspring’s physical condition, as women with higher neuroticism levels were more likely to have children with a decreased body mass index (BMI), reflecting malnutrition. Comments: 0   Hits: 99   Points: 105   Vote Now!   [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

Solar Power Is Cheaper Than Nuclear For The First Time	blinded by science
Link #151372 submitted by dorian on Aug 4, 2010 10:16am.   (+310XP) http://inhabitat.com/2010/07/29/solar-power-is-cheaper-than-nuclear...
Here’s bright spot in the news of the day: energy from new solar installations has, for the first time, become cheaper than energy from new nuclear plants, according to a new Duke University study. Thanks to cost-saving technologies and economies of scale, price can no longer be an excuse to invest in nuclear power rather than solar. Comments: 0   Hits: 169   Points: 215   Rating: 9.2 / 5   [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

Lost in Translation	blinded by science
Link #151365 submitted by dorian on Aug 3, 2010 07:52am.   (+210XP) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703467304575383131592...
New cognitive research suggests that language profoundly influences the way people see the world; a different sense of blame in Japanese and Spanish Comments: 0   Hits: 236   Points: 262   Rating: 8.6 / 3   [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

Soft-headed intellectuals	blinded by science
Link #151354 submitted by dorian on Aug 2, 2010 08:12am.   (+260XP) http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2010/07/25/soft_he...
Octopuses “make decisions all the time, complicated decisions,” says Roger Hanlon, a senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. “People don’t expect that from a creature related to an oyster.”     What scientists are discovering about the octopus calls into question many of our assumptions about intelligence. Partly this is because the creatures are so different from the kinds of animals — social vertebrates, especially mammals — that have long been seen as having a monopoly on smarts. Octopuses are members of a class of creatures known as cephalopods, which appeared on the planet even before the first fish, and they are almost as far removed from us primates as another animal can get. And although it has long been theorized that intelligence evolved in social creatures as a way for species that live in groups to navigate the complex social world, the octopus leads a solitary life. Comments: 1   Hits: 163   Points: 199   Rating: 9.0 / 4   [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

Every black hole may hold a hidden universe	blinded by science
Link #151338 submitted by Mac on Jul 29, 2010 12:31am.   (+410XP) http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20727703.000-every-black-hole...
WE COULD be living inside a black hole. This head-spinning idea is one cosmologist's conclusion based on a modification of Einstein's equations of general relativity that changes our picture of what happens at the core of a black hole.     In an analysis of the motion of particles entering a black hole, published in March, Nikodem Poplawski of Indiana University in Bloomington showed that inside each black hole there could exist another universe (Physics Letters B, DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2010.03.029). "Maybe the huge black holes at the centre of the Milky Way and other galaxies are bridges to different universes," Poplawski says. If that is correct - and it's a big "if" - there is nothing to rule out our universe itself being inside a black hole. Comments: 1   Hits: 254   Points: 310   Rating: 9.3 / 6   [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ]

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