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Javier the Engineer

April 16, 2008

generaleuphoria's picture

Javier the Engineer takes you on a tour of the Center for Advanced Technology. Learn about the latest developments in carbon fiber toothpick technology and recent advancements in pizza stem-cell research.

The chair vs. stool debate: solved?

April 16, 2008

coglanglab's picture

Two weeks ago I wrote about the problem with definitions. This post got over 11,000 hits and 41 comments, most of which had to do with answering the age-old challenge of defining the word "chair." There were some very good attempts, none of which ultimately work, which isn't surprising since may of the greatest minds in the 20th century have tried and failed to solve this problem.

It happens that this week I am reading from Greg Murphy's Big Book of Concepts, which contains an excellent explanation of the problem, one which I think is probably right.

The Definition of Life; and, Taxonomy as We Know It

April 15, 2008

In order to make sense of our surroundings, we, as humans, constantly group things into discrete catagories--states of matter, times of day, types of clothes, etc.

The Epidemic Sensation: The Need for a DeLorean

April 15, 2008

Renaisauce's picture

Too little is known about the past to make solid science policy judgments. Therefore, we simply can't do without the invention of time travel. I'm talking to you, crack-pot geniuses!

Watch this space for full book reviews

April 15, 2008

Fred Bortz's picture

I tagged this with every category since I review books in all realms of science.

Though I plan to maintain my Science Shelf archive of book reviews, I will now also publish the reviews on Science Blog.

What if we could run history twice? (Would Madonna still be popular?)

April 15, 2008

coglanglab's picture

One difficulty in the study of history is that, although you can make predictions, many are difficult to test. You can argue that the US would have still entered World War II even without Pearl Harbor, but the only way to know for sure is to re-run history without the Japanese sneak attack.

Similarly -- and this is the point of the article -- you can argue that Madonna rose to become perhaps the cultural icon of the 80s because she anticipated the zeitgeist of the times...or because of luck or good marketing or whatever. Who knows? Maybe Duncan Watts...

Globey: The Sickly Planet for Kids!

April 14, 2008

Renaisauce's picture

The glory days of the cartoon environmental spokesperson have diminished since the 90's. Isn't it time for someone to step up in the new millennium?

How blind children learn the verb 'see'

April 14, 2008

coglanglab's picture

The word "see" is one of the most common verbs in the English language. How do blind children learn what it means?

What if you heard your first word at age 6?

April 11, 2008

coglanglab's picture

There seem to be important differences between how children and adults learn language, but of course adults typically are learning 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) languages, while children are learning first languages.

What would happen if you didn't learn a language as an infant?

Ich Bin Ein Plutonian!

April 10, 2008

Renaisauce's picture

The fight to make Pluto a planet again is picking up momentum. Maybe a little presidential politics will be able to resolve the dispute. In unrelated news, cancer still isn't cured.



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