Scientists have discovered a real-life ‘moral compass’ in the brain that controls how we judge other people’s behaviour. The region, which lies just behind the right ear, becomes more active when we think about other people’s misdemeanours or good works. In an extraordinary experiment, researchers were able to use powerful magnets to disrupt this area [...]
ScienceDaily — Geologists from the University of Leicester are among four scientists- including a Nobel prize-winner — who suggest that Earth has entered a new age of geological time. The Age of Aquarius? Not quite — It’s the Anthropocene Epoch, say the scientists writing in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. And they add that the [...]
“First you trash our balance sheets, then you have the cheek to complain about them”. If Western governments could talk to the international financial markets, this is surely what they would say. Think about it. First, everyone in the financial system – especially the banks and bond traders – made a lot of money using [...]
Bill Gross, the world’s biggest bond investor, has not been in Greece for 15 years. Yet the welfare of millions of Greeks could improve with only a few kind words from him. Even so, he chooses not to. From the LA offices of Pimco, the investment fund he co-founded nearly 40 years ago, Gross is [...]
Free-enterprising, impersonal markets may seem cutthroat and mean-spirited. But a provocative new study says markets have been a force for good over the last 10,000 years, helping to drive the evolution of more trusting and co-operative societies. ”We live in a much kinder, gentler world than most humans have lived in,” says anthropologist Joe Henrich of the [...]
By Dana Blankenhorn- Statins like Zocor, Lipitor and Crestor have been around for decades. They lower your cholesterol level. They have been around long enough that they are in the process of going generic. Zocor is simvastatin. I use it. Lipitor is atorvastatin. It will be a generic next year. The generic name for Crestor is [...]
The BBC reports – The controlled fusion of atoms – creating conditions like those in our Sun – has long been touted as a possible revolutionary energy source. However, there have been doubts about the use of powerful lasers for fusion energy because the “plasma” they create could interrupt the fusion. An article in Science [...]
Training Whales – I found information on training a killer whales some time ago. It’s a popular topic for parenting sites–and with good reason. Some of the ‘lessons’ we learn from training killer whales are very helpful to consider when teaching our kids. Eight Steps for Training a Killer Whale Establish clear cut goal which [...]
Robert Sapolsky studies the universal human ailment of stress, but his main research subjects are the wild baboons of Kenya. We all have some measure of stress, and Robert Sapolsky explores its causes as well as its effects on our bodies (his lab was among the first to document the damage that stress can do [...]
By Isaac Asimov – What is intelligence, anyway? When I was in the army, I received the kind of aptitude test that all soldiers took and, against a normal of 100, scored 160. No one at the base had ever seen a figure like that, and for two hours they made a big fuss over [...]
Once again, The Times Magazine looks back on the past year from our favored perch: ideas. Like a magpie building its nest, we have hunted eclectically, though not without discrimination, for noteworthy notions of 2009 — the twigs and sticks and shiny paper scraps of human ingenuity, which, when collected and woven together, form a [...]
In late October 2007, as the financial markets were starting to come unglued, a Goldman Sachs trader, Jonathan M. Egol, received very good news. At 37, he was named a managing director at the firm. Mr. Egol, a Princeton graduate, had risen to prominence inside the bank by creating mortgage-related securities, named Abacus, that were [...]
Scientists may be a step closer to understanding the origins of human language. Two studies suggest that the ability to combine sounds and words to alter meaning may be rooted in a species of monkey. A team found the Campbell’s monkey can add a simple sound to its alarm calls to create new ones and [...]
By JOHN MARKOFF- Despite a six-year effort to build trusted computer chips for military systems, the Pentagon now manufactures in secure facilities run by American companies only about 2 percent of the more than $3.5 billion of integrated circuits bought annually for use in military gear. That shortfall is viewed with concern by current and former [...]
Why Some of the Smartest People Can’t Read and How They Can Learn! This is an 8 hour video course (on 4 two hour tapes) to assist parents, teachers and volunteers in helping their children or adult loved ones correct dyslexia through symbol mastery. By following the easy, step by step directions on these tapes, [...]
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