Sundry Science Stories

I'm going to quote the entire article 'cause it was short:

"Is your boss macho enough? Testosterone has long been associated with dominance, especially in males. Of course, just because someone is endowed with greater levels of the hormone doesn’t mean that they will dominate. Many individual and situational variables affect social relations. However, the authors of a new study suggest that groups where status is not positively correlated with (gender-adjusted) testosterone levels will end up having less confidence in themselves. Hundreds of students were randomly divided into small groups that worked together over the course of a semester. In the middle of the semester, the students’ testosterone was measured (via saliva samples), in addition to their ratings of each other’s status in the group. At the end of the semester, people in groups where higher-status members had relatively less testosterone had less confidence in the group. This “mismatch hypothesis” is based on the notion that high-testosterone people chafe in low-status positions, while low-testosterone people are uncomfortable with the responsibility of high-status positions.

Uncommon knowledge had two stories that I thought might be contradictory--though it's hard to base anything on the way the conclusions of these studies are worded.

One study finds that being more attractive is associated with less criminal activity.  (I wanted to know what the "attractive" definition was here.)  But it was this follow up conclusion that I had more questions about:

"Not only does beauty itself improve one's (legitimate) career prospects, but, at least for women, high school is easier on the beautiful, and therefore they tend to be better students, which makes it less likely they will become criminals."

"Easier"--as in socially easier?  Less stressful?  Or what?  Because it seems to me that the definition of "easier" is going to have a lot to do with whether "easy" translates to better students.  Just speaking from my own experience of high school--girls who fit into traditionally acceptable models of attractiveness were generally more socially popular and generally less interested in scholastic performance.

And then the second study also about attractiveness finds this gender difference: that men's vocabulary improves when speaking to someone they are attracted to while women's vocabulary becomes more commonplace.  The researchers conclude that this is because intelligence in men is generally found to be attractive while in women it isn't.  Notice the ageism inherent in the study, though, and again no definition of what "attractive" meant in terms of the study (except that for men "attractive" was coupled with younger women, "non-romantic" with older women).

So in the first study, beauty makes women better students, while in the second women play dumb to enhance their attractiveness?   If the conclusion of the second is true--then wouldn't attractive women pay less attention to their studies rather than study more?  These seem like contradictory conclusions to me.

Uncommon Knowledge in the paper today had stories on 1) the positive effect of taking a break from a problem (letting the subconscious have at it); 2) change in attitudes about foreign policy and war in families with male children, especially changes in attitudes of the fathers, toward more diplomatic and peaceful resolutions; 3) positive effects on cognition of playing video games; 4) negative effects on competition of term limits, and 5) the disadvantage of having more choices.

The effect of taking a break made an interesting pairing with the article about goals and how they might overly narrow our focus.  And the second story--I hope the results broaden as women in the military becomes thought of as more common place.

Uncommon knowledge today--5 stories:

effect of numbers of competitors on level of competition

pay as you go systems

pet interaction and oxytocin

variety of choices and and "virtuous" choices (I had a problem with that adjective)

composition of a group (homogenous/varied) and problem-solving ability (this piece I realize kind of fits with the finding in the other article I was posting today about urbanization--that higher levels of social interaction result in innovation)

Uncommon Knowledge

There were a number of interesting stories in the "Uncommon Knowledge" section of the paper today.  One study shows that the more FEMA money spent in a state, the higher the level of corruption.  As the author points out this is important for President-elect Obama to keep in mind as he plans massive federal spending.  Another connects pilgrimages to holy sites to more open and tolerant religious/political views.  There was one on the influence of the word "conservative" which I didn't quite follow, and the last one was about the kind of study that's being done on eye-witness accounts.  That one was interesting to me because the kind of study (in which a lap-top is "stolen" out of a classroom and then people's eye-witness accounts are studied) was done in my class once.

Uncommon Knowledge

Article in the paper today about recent findings about dark energy.  I didn't know that it was more abundant than atoms, or that it was an antigravity force.  (ooops, sorry, should have said spoilers :-)

Dark Energy

These are from the same kind of article I cited above--a number of short essays about different findings in the Social Sciences.  Here were the findings I found most interesting:

1) A study on the influence of reading the newspaper (the newspaper's identification as conservative or liberal) and people's votes.  Researchers "offered households in a remote suburb of Washington, D.C., free 10-week subscriptions to either the more-liberal Washington Post or the more-conservative Washington Times before the 2005 Virginia gubernatorial election. Receiving either paper did not appear to change knowledge of the news, political opinions, or turnout. However, both the Post and the Times subscriptions induced greater voter support for the Democrat."

2) A study looking into the question of how homosexuality persists in the population if homosexuals are less likely to reproduce found that genetically atypical gender identities which do seem to be a component in (but not determinant of) homosexuality--when those identities are coupled with heterosexual orientation, the person tended to have more opposite sex partners than someone who was genetically typical in their gender identity.  (I guess in this article "typical" means that if one is genetically male one is also socially and self identified as male?  I wish this was clearer.)  For instance--in a comparison of identical twins--one pair having different orientations, the other pair having the same heterosexual orientation--the heterosexual twin whose identical twin was homosexual had more opposite sex partners than a corresponding identical twin where both twins were heterosexual.  This seemed to be especially true for women.

3) A study of online borrowing/lending practices found that a person who was identified as black (from a picture) had a lowered chance of borrowing.  "Some discrimination was also found against the elderly, the overweight, and the unattractive, but members of the military and women (especially single women) were advantaged."  Actually this one doesn't seem very surprising to me.

Surprising Insights Sep. 14

This topic doesn't really have a "place to put it", but.. it got enough of a rise outta me to share it.

Possibly the first computer attack to inflict physical harm.

Point is, deliberately trying to induce a seizure is a criminal act... asses.

This is so cool!

"Using tiny brushes and chisels, workers picking at a big greenish-black rock in the basement of North Dakota's state museum are meticulously uncovering something amazing: a nearly complete dinosaur, skin and all."

An interesting article on tapping the nerve impulses going from the brain to the vocal chords, allowing for "voiceless" phone calls.

Nerve-tapping neckband allows 'telepathic' chat

"With careful training a person can send nerve signals to their vocal cords without making a sound. These signals are picked up by the neckband and relayed wirelessly to a computer that converts them into words spoken by a computerized voice." It's not quite telepathy, but it's pretty close."

"Ultimately this is a very simple solution on how to stop almost any atom.."  

...'cause I'm not claiming I GET IT.  Princeton University music theorist Dmitri Tymoczko has applied some string-theory math to the study of music and found that all possible chordal music can be represented in a higher-dimensional space. The Geometry of Music.

'Darkest ever' material created - a kind of more in-depth look, adding on to the "Nano-laundry" concept in the Reuse/Recycle forum.

SOME POTENTIAL USES OF NANOTECHNOLOGIES 1 - Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) for displays 2 - Photovoltaic film that converts light into electricity 3 - Scratch-proof coated windows that clean themselves with UV 4 - Fabrics coated to resist stains and control temperature 5 - Intelligent clothing measures pulse and respiration 6 - Bucky-tubeframe is light but very strong 7 - Hip-joint made from biocompatible materials 8 - Nano-particle paint to prevent corrosion 9 - Thermo-chromic glass to regulate light 10 - Magnetic layers for compact data memory 11 - Carbon nanotube fuel cells to power electronics and vehicles 12 - Nano-engineered cochlear implant

...and Retrieve Nothing.

Cool little article about "quantum computing".