Latest science news in Psychology & Sociology
Well: Dyslexia May Be a Hearing Problem Too
New research suggests dyslexia may be more than just a reading problem, but also an issue of how the brain processes spoken language.
Football Concussion Researcher Captures Real-Time Data Of Player's Broken Neck
For the crowd watching an Illinois high school football game last fall, it was a sickening feeling watching one of their Unity High School cornerbacks collapse to the ground after...
Physicists show that quantum ignorance is hard to expose
No-one likes a know-it-all but we expect to be able to catch them out: someone who acts like they know everything but doesn’t can always be tripped up with a...
Vote Now! Best Space Stories of the Week - July 31, 2011
This week we saw rare volcanoes discovered on the moon and questioned whether we are truly alone in the universe.
Mapping The Brain, With The Help Of Many
The brain is quite complex (talking about an understatement), with its billions of neurons with many connections between them. These neurons and their connections form an intricate three-dimensional structure which...
Peter Lovatt: 'Dancing can change the way you think'
Dancing can help with problem-solving – and researchers are looking at its effects on people with Parkinson's diseaseDr Peter Lovatt has been head of the Dance Psychology Lab at the University of Hertfordshire...
Breast Self Exams: Can they really make a difference?
Medical WatchIn the debate over whether breast self exams work, many women ask, "Can they really make a difference?" One woman felt that statistics aside, she knew her life was...
Should government's 'mystery shoppers' spy on docs?
Government researchers were poised to secretly study doctors in nine states until public outcry scuttled the proposal. But some doctors now are saying the government made a mistake, and that...
Living kidney donors push for risk prevention
Lisa Giles didn't expect anything major to go wrong when she became a living organ donor to help her older brother. Giles said no one told her that surgeons would...
Many too small boxes and Maru [video]
Another amusing Caturday morning video smile: testing the size of a cat's passion for boxes. The finding? The box passion is inversely proportional to the size of the boxWe've met Maru before....
Robert C. W. Ettinger, 92, Dies; Proponent of Life After (Deep-Frozen) Death
Mr. Ettinger’s idea of freezing the dead for future reanimation spawned what some refer to as the cryonics movement.
John H. Marburger, Bush Science Adviser, Dies at 70
Dr. Marburger maintained the respect of most colleagues even as many of them were harshly critical of the Bush White House.
What Is Life - Part 1
Before embarking on this discussion it is important to try and resolve some language and definition issues that will likely occur in this post.One of the main difficulties in addressing...
El Bulli closes: Farewell parmesan frozen air...
Ferran Adrià today closes his award-winning restaurant El Bulli. Are we coming to the end of our love affair with liquid nitrogen and molecular gastronomy?Ferran Adrià is not closing El Bulli, the world's...
REM sleep behavior disorder is a risk factor for Parkinson's disease
Patients suffering REM sleep behaviour disorders dream nightmares in which they are attacked and pursued, with the particularity that they express them by screaming, crying, punching and kicking while sleeping....
Anders Behring Breivik: the truth in delusion | Darian Leader
The case of Anders Breivik in Norway reminds us that the relationship between madness and responsibility is complexThe announcement by his lawyers that the Oslo and Utøya killer Anders Breivik may be deemed...
Drug for hyperactivity may help reverse memory decline in ageing brains
A drug that lowers levels of a chemical called cAMP could improve working memory, a study in monkeys suggestsYou walk into a room, only to forget why you came. It's a classic...
Research seeks to improve Schizophrenia treatment
Everyday tasks such as going to work or connecting with friends require us to have a certain level of motivation to carry out those actions, but people suffering from schizophrenia...
Let The Gifted Fly
One fundamental myth of gifted education is "you can't put all the smart kids together, because the less-smart need the smarties around to challenge the others". You can reword that...
Shadow RBA sheds light on interest rates
The general consensus view of members of a new shadow RBA board is that the current interest rate is at the correct level, however there is some uncertainty.
IOP announces fall fellows
The Institute of Politics, located at the Harvard Kennedy School, announced the selection of an experienced group of individuals for resident and visiting fellowships this fall. Over the course of an academic semester,...
Primate testing – crucial or cruel? | Sebastien Farnaud and Roger Lemon
Sebastien Farnaud of the Dr Hadwen Trust and Professor Roger Lemon of UCL debate the ethics and uses of tests on monkeysDear RogerI thank you very much for giving me the opportunity...
For healthy break-ups, talking, not tweeting
Boston teens got a solid piece of advice for dealing with break-ups last week: Face it, dont Facebook it.
I Let My Computer Use My Brain
The most prestigious journal in the field of microscopy published an article by us this year and the work also already spawned a book chapter. Apart from the work not...
Green: Literacy and the Population Problem
Compared with illiterate young women, educated ones desire smaller families and generally manage to achieve that goal, an article in the journal Science states.
The science and magic of beer
Unlike wine, beer is often gulped down without a moment's thought for the skill of the maltsters and brewers who created itFrom man's sweat and God's love, beer came into the world."...
Censorship And Deleting Comments
I oppose any and all forms of censorship. At least so I thought. (www.web-censorship.org) Now, I’m not so sure anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I still honestly think I do,...
New blog sorts health fact from fiction
McMaster scientists are helping keep tabs on the factuality of public dialogue about health research through a new online publication hosted by Maclean's magazine.