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Have you ever wondered how the scientific publishing system works? Have you ever doubted scientific "experts" on TV or a news report telling you of some some amazing new scientific discovery that seemed just too weird to believe? Then this little flyer is for you! It gives you a good description of how scientific quality is assured in the scientific community and how you can use it to judge the validity of scientific claims made in the public. It is published by the non-profit organization "Sense about Science" in the UK. Check it out, it surely is worth it!
Of course, I didn't get to do any blogging during the conference! 
I also didn't get to see the Dalai Lama live. I got there like an hour early and the lines were already so long I gave up immediately. With 34,000 participants and 16,000 posters, there was a lot of other stuff to see and people to do ( 
Neil Gaiman quote).I was very busy at my posters (one on occasion setting and one on order in spontaneous activity) and got very inspiring feedback and discussions. Especially the people from the Dickinson lab were most insightful!
Have a look at the extended news for a list of some of the other posters I found interesting!
[ Read the rest ... ]
I'm sitting here in the Washington, DC conference center waiting for the 2005 SfN meeting to kick off. Most likely, I won't find the time to blog during the meeting, but I'll do my best to at least try 
Now let's go and see if I can get a seat in the auditorium to hear the Dalai Lama speak on "Neuroscience and meditation"...
Via the "Evolutionary Psychology" Yahoogroup, I received an article titled "Does Neuroscience Refute Free Will?" today. I started reading it and realized that it discusses the extent to which neuroscience can establish determinism in the behavioral sciences. This debate reaches beyond general scientific discussion, as determinism in the causation of behavior would, among a host of other things, question any culpability in court. The article discusses (not very favorably) a publication by Princeton Psychologist Joshua Greene.This debate lies at the heart of my latest project "Order in Spontaneous Behavior".
UPDATE: In the meantime, I've read the original article and some related texts. Indeed, it is precisely the "criminal neglect" with which spontaneity is treated in articles like these that concerns me. I do believe our new project will produce some data to make this neglect a little harder to justify.
[ Read the rest ... ]
Nature has the story. Scientists from the MIT have suceeded in building a machine that can make copies of itself from random parts.http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v437/n7059/full/437636a.html
You'll need a subscrition to read the article, but it's well worth it!
This is the first step to self-replicating robots if there ever was one!
I just read an article in the Brittish "Guardian" by Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne. They enumerate a great list of scientific controversies that should be taught alongside established theories in science classes (besides the evident "intelligent falling" of course 
.Among the items in the list are such gems as teaching alchemy in chemistry class, phlogiston in a physics class or the stork theory in a sex education class. A real good one (especially from a German perspective) is the suggestion to demand equal time for the theory that the Holocaust never happened in a class on 20th-century European history
What else can we come up with?
Another good point the article makes is the falsifiability of evolutionary theory:
As the great biologist J B S Haldane growled, when asked what might disprove evolution: "Fossil rabbits in the pre-Cambrian." Evolution, like all good theories, makes itself vulnerable to disproof. Needless to say, it has always come through with flying colours.
In these times, it's hard to distinguish between news and satire. After having had great fun reading the satirical magazine The Onion and their reports on "intelligent falling" and the "entropy controversy", I'm thoroughly perplexed to read what I think is a news-item in the Los Angeles Times. In the article, the LA Times reports that the Assn. of Christian Schools International has files a federal civil rights lawsuit against University of California admissions officials. Among other things, the plaintiffs are apparently upset that "UC admissions authorities have refused to certify high school science courses that use textbooks challenging Darwin's theory of evolution."In other words, they file a religious discrimination suit, because UC requires biology students to have a basic grasp of biology.
Can this actually be a serious lawsuit?
Or will it make it into "America's most frivolous lawsuits"?
I mean, if this is news and not satire (of which I'm still not fully convinced), will the deaf next file for admission to music conservatories? Will the blind file for admission to driving or pilot school? Will the dyslexic file a suit to earn a degree in Literature? Maybe women will start filing suits to become sperm donors? Or men for their right to become pregnant?
Where is Monty Python when you need them?
Got fed up with the BlueSteel looks. It also loaded too slowly. New and slick "steam" theme. Hope you like it Got new emotes, too
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I have received my complimentary copy of the book on the Novartis Foundation symposium I attended as a participant last year. It was held at the Foundation in London in July, 2004 and the topic was "Molecular mechanisms influencing aggressive behaviours". It contains papers of all the talks including all the discussions. A great read, you should go and order a copy right away![ Read the rest ... ]
To round off the picture the religious extremists in the US are painting of themselves, TV preacher Pat Rpbertson preached murder on live TV. The 75 year-old called for the assassination of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. Hmmmm, according to this report he also suggested the US department of state be blown up with a nuclear device and that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians." LOL Reports like these do show rather clearly what sort of brains stand behind the religious extremist movement in the US.
Dementia senilis anyone?
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