Seed Magazine: News http://www.seedmagazine.com/news//news/ en Copyright 2008 Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:29:40 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 7/3/2008
  • Unintelligent Design
    Intelligent design doesn't make sense when you realize that our designer wouldn't be very intelligent.
  • Impossible Experiments
    The experiments we'd run first if ethics were no concern.
  • A Historical Science
    The question of Julius Caesar's arrival date in Britain is seemingly answered once and for all by a dialogue between scientists and historians.
  • The Sex Difference Evangelists
    A closer look at the most recent science of gender and sexuality.
  • Nature Versus Open Access
    Could the most esteemed scientific journal in the land be afraid of the upstart open-source movement?

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    ]]>     http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/07/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_732008.php http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/07/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_732008.php Zeitgeist Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:29:40 -0500     Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 7/2/2008
  • Caution Kills When Fighting Malaria
    A new approach to malaria holds promise, but must we wait until all its drawbacks have been researched to use it?
  • Occupational Arrows of Time
    Time doesn't appear to move in the same direction for everyone.
  • What Good is a Theory?
    Big, new computers may be able to aid experimental research, but they will never replace the role of the hypothesis.
  • NanoSail-D: Solar Sail Deployment Planned
    At long last, solar sail technology is set to depart for space.
  • Train Your Mind, Change Your DNA
    Training changes not only the structure of the brain but also the underlying genome.

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    ]]>     http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/07/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_722008.php http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/07/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_722008.php Zeitgeist Wed, 02 Jul 2008 08:55:18 -0500     Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 7/1/2008
  • 100th Anniversary of a Cosmic Warning
    The Tunguska Impact's centennial gives us reason to pause.
  • Animal-Rights Farm
    How a Spanish ape-rights bill has animal rights activists thinking big.
  • Brain hijinks: out-of-body experiences and other tricks of consciousness
    Scientists are studying the biology of the out-of-body experience and what it means for our notion of self. (via Vaughan)
  • Hydromedusa Mounts Ninja Style Invasion
    The mind-blowing, potentially interminable life cycle of one marine hydroid.
  • The Worms Crawl In
    A scientist infects himself with hookworms to test their allergy-repelling properties.

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    ]]>     http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/07/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_712008.php http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/07/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_712008.php Zeitgeist Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:15:12 -0500     Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 6/30/2008
  • Flooded London by Squint/Opera
    In between now and the post-apocalyptic world of Wall-E, the Earth might look like this. (via boing boing)
  • The House wants to save us from asteroid impacts
    The House is hip to the threat of cosmic collisions.
  • A religious history of American neuroscience
    Just as knowledge about the brain has changed the way scientists think about religion, so too has religion shaped our fundamental image of the brain. (via 3 quarks daily)
  • A Video Game To Teach AP Level Immunology
    High school science education catches up to the times.
  • "Psychological essentialism in selecting the 14th Dalai Lama"
    A psychological concept, practically applied.

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    ]]>     http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6302008.php http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6302008.php Zeitgeist Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:01:03 -0500     Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 6/27/2008
  • Can Apes Really Talk?
    Slate provides a video profile of America's last great ape language lab.
  • Colossal construction: The world's nine largest science projects
    In science, sometimes size does matter.
  • A Genetic Quest for Better Chocolate
    Mars and IBM team up to decode the cocoa genome.
  • The Fight to End Aging Gains Legitimacy, Funding
    The (potentially quite extended) life and time of Aubrey de Grey.
  • Early Birds Shake Up Avian Tree of Life
    A new study shows, among other things, that parrots and songbirds are close relatives.

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    ]]>     http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6272008.php http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6272008.php Zeitgeist Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:56:48 -0500     Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 6/26/2008
  • Microbes Eating Away at Pieces of History
    Cyanobacteria are destroying Angkor Wat, along with hundreds of other heritage sites around the globe.
  • The fMRI smackdown cometh
    Vaughan breaks down the current backlash against fMRI ubiquity.
  • Amazing green moving light thingy. It's chemistry!
    A spellbinding video demonstrates a chemical compound that changes color when light is applied to it.
  • Neurocinematics
    A new data analysis technique reveals the true genius of Alfred Hitchcock.
  • "Untraining" The Brain: Meditation and Executive Function
    Meditation and hypnosis can bring some normally automatic brain functions under your control.

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    ]]>     http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6262008.php http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6262008.php Zeitgeist Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:10:50 -0500     Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 6/25/2008
  • The Itch
    Atul Gawande on the science of the itch.
  • All time classic creationist pwnage
    An evolutionary biologist attempts to explain his recent paper to a critic.
  • Breaking: LHC still will not destroy the Earth
    You'll have to wait for the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 for your next chance at the apocalypse.
  • Gazzaniga on split-brains and bioethics
    One of the founders of cognitive neuroscience explains why left-brain right-brain metaphors are generally misplaced, among other topics.
  • On Your Mark, Get Set . . .
    Do track runners closer to the starting gun have an unfair advantage?

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    ]]>     http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6252008.php http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6252008.php Zeitgeist Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:08:43 -0500     Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 6/24/2008
  • How to stop global warming? CO2 "scrubbers," a new book says
    Are technological advances our last hope?
  • I am curious: Genomics gets personal in Second Life
    Virtual worlds may prove worthy alternatives to expensive conferences.
  • Why Do You Lie? The Perils of Self-Reporting
    For some, lying is less embarrassing than not lying.
  • Secret of the 'lost' tribe that wasn't
    An isolated tribe used as a posterchild for untouched peoples is not so untouched.
  • In a Galaxy Far, Far Away . . . But It Might As Well Be Next Door
    The ratio of the mass of the proton to the mass of the electron appears constant throughout the universe.

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    ]]>     http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6242008.php http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6242008.php Zeitgeist Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:00:13 -0500     Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 6/23/2008
  • Steven Pinker: The evolutionary man
    The life and times of a rock star scientist.
  • The evolution of morality
    Morality without religion is not only possible, it's obvious.
  • Extinctions and Impacts: A New Look
    Sea levels may have had more to do with past extinctions than asteroids or volcanoes.
  • Artist/roboticist teaching neural-net bots to love (and dance to) punk music
    Will a robot trained on classic punk rock recognize the music of today?
  • Years Later, Climatologist Renews His Call for Action
    It's been twenty years since James Hansen spoke out against global warming, and little has changed in the political climate.

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    ]]>     http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6232008.php http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6232008.php Zeitgeist Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:00:52 -0500     Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 6/20/2008
  • How to nap
    The Globe shows you how it's done.
  • But do chimps look forward to sex?
    Can chimps plan for future events?
  • Breaking: House adds $$$ for extra Shuttle flight... FOR SCIENCE
    The House supports research, for once.
  • Wall Love
    Some people hoard things. Other people marry them.
  • Does music help us learn language?
    Researchers provide one potential explanation for why it might be useful to sing to young children.

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    ]]>     http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6202008.php http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6202008.php Zeitgeist Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:05:46 -0500     Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 6/19/2008
  • Oil + Climate + Politics = ?
    Is our moratorium on offshore drilling selfish?
  • Sexual Reorientation
    What the latest neuroscience has to say about the origins of sexual orientation.
  • Why do scientific theories work? The inherent problem
    The impossibility of perfect data makes learning anything new difficult but not impossible.
  • Brain Activity and Meaning
    The only thing cooler than this study's results is the way the scientists designed the experiment.
  • What does N stand for? Nonsense?
    The N Prize rewards anyone who can send a cheap, small object into orbit.

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    ]]>     http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6192008.php http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6192008.php Zeitgeist Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:49:11 -0500     Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 6/18/2008
  • Teach the Controversy tees illustrate other important "scientific controversies"
    A t-shirt for the young-earth creationist in your life.
  • California Pushes Back on DNA Testing
    California attempts to shut down direct-to-consumer genetic testing within the state.
  • Miller on Colbert
    Kenneth Miller defends evolution against satire.
  • Brave New Mind: Smart drugs and the ethics of neuro-enhancement
    Natasha Mitchell discusses the growing trend of cosmetic pharmacology. (via Vaughan)
  • Do all languages have a common ancestor?
    Murray Gell-Mann shares his views on the origin of language...in two minutes.

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    ]]>     http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6182008.php http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6182008.php Zeitgeist Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:15:06 -0500     Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 6/17/2008
  • Why Are You Making That Face?
    Facial expressions may serve to enhance or dampen our sensory perception.
  • Shyamalan and the Placebo Effect
    What does neuroscience have to say about the placebo effect?
  • Gambling with science
    Casinos have begun funding scientific research.
  • Hidden Structures
    Scientists love finding theories—even in pop culture.
  • Planet Tozer: How He Did It
    A photographer experiments with bubbles. (via boing boing)

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    ]]>     http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6172008.php http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6172008.php Zeitgeist Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:34:24 -0500     Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 6/16/2008
  • Cool Visual Illusions
    Check out the winner of the 2008 Best Illusion of the Year.
  • A Path to Fowl-Free Foie Gras?
    Can science make foie gras ethically palatable to all?
  • Are we aliens?
    How much of our genetic material was imported from space?
  • A sound theory?
    Philip Ball breaks down the best and worst elements of a new brand of music theory. (via 3 quarks daily)
  • Culture shock
    Diverse cultures have led to diverse experiences of psychological trauma.

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    ]]>     http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6162008.php http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6162008.php Zeitgeist Sun, 15 Jun 2008 23:42:05 -0500     Seed's Daily Zeitgeist: 6/13/2008
  • McCain's Brain
    The politics of the aging brain.
  • The (Chinese) Emperor's Old Clothes
    China has refused to publish John Brockman's What Is Your Dangerous Idea? because of what it has to say about the human soul. Steven Pinker is displeased. (via 3 quarks daily)
  • but will aliens snack on us?
    Scientists send a Doritos commercial to a nearby star.
  • 2,000 year old "Phoenix" seed rises from the ashes
    An ancient date palm seed, excavated in Masada, Israel in the 1960s, has become the oldest seed ever germinated.
  • New World Disorder
    Could ADHD actually present an evolutionary advantage?

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    ]]>     http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6132008.php http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/06/seeds_daily_zeitgeist_6132008.php Zeitgeist Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:21:05 -0500